Good book. Good series. Five stars.
My brain when trying to get up the willpower to review this book beyond those first three sentences:
I just, when I have feelings about a book and I turn my thinky brain off a little bit while reading, it’s then hard for me to articulate all the big emotions with my tiny words because the wrong part of my brain was in charge for that. I am always putting this part of my brain in charge, and let’s just say it’s not great at executive functioning.
Okay, so I have seen some people saying that The Lost Metal, the ending to this era of Mistborn, is even better than Hero of Ages was for era one, but I don’t think that’s the case. That said—even though I think Hero of Ages was a masterful ending, still one of the best I’ve ever read in any series—I was more emotionally attached to the characters in this era, and so, there were tears. Also, this was a really good ending! It just didn’t make my brain make that WHOA feeling. But not every book needs to do that! The stakes are high here, but they don’t feel as high as in the first Mistborn trilogy, maybe because our main players are just everyday people, not emperors and Mistborn, and people who make themselves into legend.
Sanderson also seems to finally be pulling off his gloves in terms of the Cosmere. There is a TON of crossover from other Cosmere books in this one. I highly recommend reading The Emperor’s Soul if you haven’t, and brushing up on the worldbuilding from Sel (Elantris) if it’s been a while. You’d be fine without it, but a lot of the intended effect would also be lost on you.
I need to re-read this already, basically, to feel like I caught everything. But what’s important is that the overall arc of Era Two feels complete. Wax, Wayne, Marasi, and Steris got complete arcs individually and as a group, and Sanderson’s experiment to develop a single fantasy world across long stretches of time I would say is a raging success. I’m so, so curious to see what Era Three will bring (that’s the 80s inspired one).