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Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson |
by Ashley Crosby
I took five months to read Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn: The Hero of Ages. I'm a multi-reader and tend to keep a bookmark in ten books at once. This book in particular is 560 pages, which means it required effort. Why bother, right? Because it is a book worth the effort.
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages is the final book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, and only his fifth print-published novel. Still fairly green on the writing market, his first novel, Elantris, was only published in 2005. However, for a new face to the writing community, he stays plenty busy. This coming June, Warbreaker will be released in print form, a novel first published chapter by chapter on the internet. He broke into the YA market with his Alcatraz series and continues to work on those books. Finally, as requested by Robert Jordan's widow, he is compiling and completing the final book in the Wheel of Time series. Not a bad track record with less than five years out of the gate.
Were you to sit Brandon down and ask him what he considers most important in building a fantasy story, I can't say what his exact response would be. However, having taken a workshopping class from him and listened to him on panels and podcasts, I can at least make some educated guesses. Perhaps not most important, but certainly of importance, is the presence of a strong and believable magic systems, demonstrated by the essays on his personal website. Allomancy -- the system he created for the Mistborn trilogy -- qualifies as both strong and believable.
So what is is that made it take me five months to get through? I am very much a fantasy reader, and the genre lends itself to a longer narrative, but sometimes that becomes a somewhat long-winded narrative. By personal tastes, every book in the trilogy is too long; Hero of Ages, like Well of Ascension, meanders until it finds its way. However, I find this forgivable; the book and the rest of the trilogy are too interesting of a read to put it down simply for a minor flaw like length.
When we catch up with our main characters at the beginning of the book, they have spread themselves out over the Final Empire since the end of Well of Ascension. Elend Venture, our former king, has named himself emperor, marching from village to village hunting for clues with Vin to save the world from destruction. That is only one of the five main stages of play at the beginning of the book. We also have Spook trying to bring order in the city Urteau, Breeze and Sazed acting as ambassadors while Sazed searches for truth in religious belief, TenSoon facing trial from his own people, and Marsh wanting to (and not wanting to) destroy everything. Have you got that? Smile and nod, it's okay.
Picture for a moment a young woman -- early twenties -- with dark hair and a slim figure, dressed in simple clothing with a cloak thrown about her shoulders. She's a fighter, though if you put her in a ball gown and give her a dance floor she turns into the Empress that she is. Born and raised on the streets, this young woman is Vin, Heir to the Survivor, wife of Elend Venture, and the woman who is expected to save the world.
Put this petite young woman in front of creature -- for lack of a better word -- with metal spikes for eyes and a great many more of those spikes protruding from carefully placed locations on its body. It was human once, corrupted by the metals penetrating its body. Each Hemalurgic spike represents the death of a Misting, a person who has the ability to "burn" a single metal and use the abilities given by that metal. This terrible creature is called an Inquisitor.
How could Vin be expected to beat one of these super-powered creatures, let alone a group of them (which she does on more than occasion)? Simple: she is a Mistborn. Unlike Mistings, Mistborns burn all the Allomantic metals and as long as enough metal is present in her body, Vin can move quickly by pushing and pulling against metal objects, fight with enhanced strength, see others Allomancers nearby, or even detect her enemy's next move. Without those metals in her system, however, she is completely vulnerable, just as no Hemalurgic creature can exist without their metal spikes and Feruchemists are powerless without their metalminds.
But this is what makes the book. No one is all powerful, no one has supremely greater abilities than another. Everyone has weaknesses. When the novel crescendos into a struggle of the gods -- Ruin and Preservation -- the reader realizes everything the heroes fight becomes truly hopeless. The world is destined to be destroyed, and there is no stopping it.
In the end, you stick through the whole thing for a flower. Yes, I do believe it is all for the flower. The picture -- passed from Mare to Kelsier to Vin to Sazed -- is a simple little flower, something that no longer exists. You want to know if the Hero of Ages can fix the planet. You want to see a flower. Simple as that sounds, even sappy, it's a profound motif throughout all three books.
Did I know who the Hero of Ages was at the beginning of the book? No. Did I know by the halfway point? Yes. Did it bother me that I figured it out? No, and the end of the book still surprised me. Each book builds so delicately on the foundation of its predecessor, creating a rich story that twists enough to be interesting while staying familiar enough to not alienate. If you love a good magic system, this trilogy is going to strike your fancy.
I strongly recommend this book, particularly to those who love the fantasy genre. If you love a book that gives you satisfaction in the end, this is it. If you love a book that so completely attaches you to the characters that you wind up hating the moment you finish because you just lost some of your best friends, this book will grasp your imagination and beg you hold on for the ride.
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Release Date: October 2008
Publisher: Tor
ISBN: 978-0765316897
Ashley Crosby is a Creative Writing MFA student at Chapman University. In her spare time she house hunts, job hunts, works on independent study classes, and manages a magazine website.
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