tombs were mentioned, agh how can they be dead I AM STILL NOT OVER THE END OF HERO OF AGES GODDAMMIT. And the Lord Mistborn - I see what you did there - and Wax is descended from Breeze - and Harmony aaaaaaaaaaah best deity ever I love him so much I can't even-) [(The Ascendant Warrior and the Last Emperor - I I I kind of almost cried when theirwere mentioned, agh how can they be dead I AM STILL NOT OVER THE END OF HERO OF AGES GODDAMMIT. And the Lord Mistborn - I see what you did there - and Wax is descended from Breeze - andaaaaaaaaaaah best deity ever I love him so much I can't even-) (hide spoiler)

will come to you. And you will be ruled by them." I am really inclined to plant a flag in this and declare it OBVIOUS COSMERE STUFF but maybe I'm wrong? Maybe it has to do with the people on the other side of the planet, whose existence Sanderson has previously confirmed - though I think he also said that they didn't have any of the Metallic Arts so maybe not. The mention of red kind of makes me wonder if they're the Voidbrngers from The Way of Kings, but their color scheme was red and black, wasn't it? And what is this 'final metal' business? Could it be another God Metal, like atium and larasium, made presumably by another Shard? Could it, in fact, be the substance that the shards are shards OF?





I kind of want the bad guys to get away with their breeding program so that maybe there will be Mistborn in the next trilogy. I am well aware of how horrible I am for wanting this. It does not change the fact that I will be very sad to read another Mistborn book without any actual Mistborn.



Marsh describes Wax as "doing my brother's work" near the end - which makes me wonder how much Kel can communicate with Sazed and thus Marsh. I think there are dimensions or planes involved or something like that and they confuse me. I like the idea of Kelsier and Sazed being co-gods, though. That would be neat.



The mention of Hemalurgy being the art of greatest interest to the Cosmere has me really really worried.



ALLOYS OF THE GOD METALS. Sixteen new alloys per metal. Oh my goodness. I want to see it, I really really do.



Some of the Ferring abilities - storing determination or storing Investiture itself - simply incredible. I cannot wait to see this all explored more.



What is a Spiritweb? [Before he dies, Miles says "One day, the men of gold and red, bearers of the final metal,come to you. And yoube ruled by them." I am really inclined to plant a flag in this and declare it OBVIOUS COSMERE STUFF but maybe I'm wrong? Maybe it has to do with the people on the other side of the planet, whose existence Sanderson has previously confirmed - though I think he also said that they didn't have any of the Metallic Arts so maybe not. The mention of red kind of makes me wonder if they're the Voidbrngers from The Way of Kings, but their color scheme was red and black, wasn't it? And what is this 'final metal' business? Could it be another God Metal, like atium and larasium, made presumably by another Shard? Could it, in fact, be the substance that the shards are shards OF?I kind of want the bad guys to get away with their breeding program so that maybe there will be Mistborn in the next trilogy. I am well aware of how horrible I am for wanting this. It does not change the fact that I will be very sad to read another Mistborn book without any actual Mistborn.Marsh describes Wax as "doing my brother's work" near the end - which makes me wonder how much Kel can communicate with Sazed and thus Marsh. I think there are dimensions or planes involved or something like that and they confuse me. I like the idea of Kelsier and Sazed being co-gods, though. That would be neat.The mention of Hemalurgy being the art of greatest interest to the Cosmere has me really really worried.ALLOYS OF THE GOD METALS. Sixteen new alloys per metal. Oh my goodness. I want to see it, I really really do.Some of the Ferring abilities - storing determination or storing Investiture itself - simply incredible. I cannot wait to see this all explored more.What is a Spiritweb? (hide spoiler)

Fair warning: I am a massive Sanderson fangirl. This is a fair approximation of my behavior whenever I read one of his books:I babble at people who have no idea what I'm talking about, I trip over my own feet and nearly down the stairs, I fling my arms around as if they are not attached to my body and can actually be thrown; I am loud and exuberant and wholly consumed by excitement and while I'm sure the extremely out-of-character nature of this behavior terrifies some people around me no end, I can't help but think of it as really quite an ideal state.Thankfully I read most of this book alone (between the hours of 11pm and 1am the night before my noon flight back to college, in a frenetic attempt to finish the library copy I'd checked out which eventually ended in exhausted admission of defeat) or with another fangirl (who I introduced to the Mistborn trilogy this past semester and who is now most of the way finished with Hero of Ages). We spent hours sitting across from each other listening to movie soundtracks and occasionally speaking to quote funny bits of dialogue or to bemoan the choices made by favorite characters. It is an excellent way to pass the time on a Friday night and anyone who says otherwise can FIGHT ME.Anyhow, the book. Riiiiight. The only honest evaluation of my response to it is really one long squee - from the maps to the Ars Arcanum I was just freaking out the whole time. It's hard to review (ye gods, aren't they all?) because a lot of my FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS are tied up in callbacks to the original trilogy. (view spoiler) I can't pry off that lens even if I wanted to - and I don't because this just felt like a love letter to the characters I adore - and tell you what this book's empirical merits are, not really. I will try. I will probably fail, but I will try.So first of all, there's Wax. Waxillium Ladrian, I suppose, but I like Wax better.My thoughts on Wax:Okay, yeah, but not really, I guess. I totally understand how Marasi was so taken with him, though - he's capable, witty, honest, loyal, noble, courageous, skilled, and I will bet you anything he cuts a fiiiiiine figure in a mistcoat. He also has some lovely internal conflict, courtesy of the tragic loss he suffers in the prologue, and I liked seeing the battle between fear and sense of duty raging in his head. Now, I'll be honest: there is a possibility that Wax is something of a Gary-Stu. Other characters describe him reverentially in a way that made me roll my eyes; most notably, as like "a one-of-a-kind painting, a masterpiece". But I really cannot be arsed to care about his possible Stuishness. The sheer fun of reading about a character like him, combined with the incredibly badass fight scenes (which I want to see on a screen so. badly.) really quite overwhelm any objections I could otherwise be inclined to raise.And then there's Wayne, Wax's best friend and deputy in the Roughs.He's no Wax, stealing my heart (Wayne would say 'trading for it', I suppose) but he's a pretty wonderful character in and of himself - his childish enthusiasm, his brilliant insight into people, his humor (albeit occasionally unintentional, as in the case of the 'broad education' pun which I think was my favorite), and most of all for his past and what he's done about it. Not to spoil anything, but he is a poor sweet darling and I just want to give him lots of hugs and tell him he's doing the right thing.Finally, last but certainly not least, is Marasi.I read something lately where someone was talking about the fact that the feminist movement asked Hollywood for 'strong female characters' and Hollywood gave them 'STRONG female characters' with lots of swords and general ass-kicking, when actually what they wanted was 'strong characters, female' depicted in the many varieties of imperfect strength that men are shown in. Well, here's one - a woman who is a dab hand with a rifle but would rather enjoy the comforts of a city and pursue justice through legal work than go out and be a hero; a young woman, with the kind of vulnerable sad crush that young women get on someone they admire, who nonetheless gets shit done before she worries about romance. She's awesome and I really, really, really enjoyed her.On a broader note, the worldbuilding. There is, I am sad to say, insufficient Vin worship for my tastes. If you ask me, that woman should be the grand high goddess of Scadrial - yes, the entire planet, even the people on the other side of the world who haven't heard of her - forever and ever. Buuut they didn't ask me, so I have to be content with a town, a month, and a really epic gun named after her. (The gun is called 'Vindication' and is super awesome.)Instead of omnipresent Vin worship, there are three main religions - Survivorism, Pathism, and Splinterism. If you've read the first three books, identifying their major figures should be a piece of cake; if not, just enjoy them as backdrop. Unlike a lot of Sanderson's books, religion does not actually play a huge role here; it's more casually nodded to than anything else.Scadrial's advancements in 300 years are really fun, though there are some things I find disappointing. Due to dilution of the gene pool, there are no more Mistborn, which is tragic; there are, however, Twinborn instead - people with both allomantic and feruchemical powers. And there are a lot of new metals with cool new uses. (Temporal metals. TEMPORAL METALS.) Technology has also changed and while this book is not quiiiiite as steampunk as its cover makes it look, it is still loads of fun to see all of this marvelous magic interacting with growing skyscrapers and trains.Aaaand that's really all I feel about saying about that. Wild blatherings and possible theorizing below in the spoilers; tread with care.In conclusion: SANDERSON WRITE MORE BOOKS MORE FASTER.please.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>