My reread of The Hero of Ages solidified this book as my favorite in the trilogy (and the whole series if we’re being honest). I absolutely love this book, and I’m surprised I forgot so much of what happened in the story. Seriously, all I really remembered was the ending, but wow this book is a ride.
Following pattern with The Final Empire, and The Well of Ascension, I have noted some instances of foreshadowing that I noticed while reading. This list is so much shorter than the other two, and that’s probably because this is the last book in the trilogy, but it’s also probably because I listened to this one on audio whereas I read the other two with my eyes. Regardless, here is what I noticed:
**The remainder of this review contains SPOILERS for The Hero of Ages.**
—Vin tells Sazed, “I held that power [at the Well] . . . power you’ll never be able to imagine.”
—“A small pin could, in many instances, be just as effective as a massive spike” in Hemalurgy. This again foreshadows Vin’s earring being the cause of her hearing Ruin’s voice. I can’t believe I missed this on my first read-through because it seems so obvious now, and it has been foreshadowed in every book.
—Spook’s letter: “Don’t trust anyone pierced by metal. Even the smallest bit can taint a man.” More foreshadowing that Vin’s earring was a Hemalurgic spike that allowed her to see and hear Ruin.
Because I forgot so much of this book after my first read-through, I have compiled a list of plot points in this book if I ever need a quick refresher of how The Hero of Ages or the Mistborn trilogy ends. So these are simply things that happen in this book:
—We learn how kandra are formed. (They are the Lord Ruler’s spies.)
—We learn how koloss are formed. (They are the Lord Ruler’s soldiers)
—We learn how Inquisitors are formed. (They are the Lord Ruler’s priests.)
—We learn about Hemalurgy, finally by name.
—Spook becomes a tin savant. He’s a beggar in Urteau where he becomes interested in the Citizen’s sister. He gets captured and survives the burning building because “Kelsier” gave him the power of pewter. He is dubbed “survivor of the flames.”
—Sazed studies all the religions in his coppermind to learn which one is true and ends up discovering contradictions in every one of them. He goes through a huge trial of faith.
—Vin and Elend try to find the storage caverns in the five cities.
—Marsh is being controlled by Ruin in his mind and can barely think for himself anymore.
—The mists kill. Elend discovers that exactly 16% of people fall ill to the mists. We later learn that the mists were creating mistings.
—Vin and Elend go to a party at Yomen’s palace and Vin gets trapped underground there. She sees “Reen,” who is actually Ruin. She escapes and is captured by Yomen.
—TenSoon is put on trial for his betrayal to the kandra species in The Well of Ascension and escapes the kandra homeland and runs to find Vin.
—Sazed learns that Rashek’s Feruchemist packmen became the first generation of kandra.
—Sazed travels to the kandra homeland and finds the enormous cache of atium there. He learns that the Lord Ruler ordered the kandra to remove their spikes eventually, which would essentially kill all the kandra, and that the mists are the body of Preservation.
—Vin dies and ascends to godhood.
—TenSoon returns to the homeland and rescues Sazed and they save the first generation.
—Elend and his misting soldiers burn up all the atium, and then Elend gets killed.
—Sazed discovers he is the Hero of Ages. He ascends to Harmony and restores the world. He offers to bring Vin and Elend back but they are happy where they are.
—Sazed makes Spook a Mistborn and leaves him all the information that was in his copperminds.
I love that at the end, Sazed uses parts of each religion to restore the world, that there is truth in every religion even if it doesn’t fully make sense. “They weren’t all true, but they all had truth.” His religious journey in this book is one of the best character arcs I’ve ever seen in a book.
The epigraph to chapter 39 says, “I have only been able to come up with a single name: Adonalsium.” This name has to be important to the grand scheme of the cosmere. We never hear more about it in this series but who or what is it?
So I have thought that after what happened with Spook in the burning building, how he gained the ability of pewter, regular people could essentially become mistborns by killing different mistings with all the abilities and hemalurgically granting those abilities to themselves. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to do this, but I hope this concept comes up in one of the future Mistborn books because I think that would be awesome (and gruesome) to explore.
This book was wonderous and mind-blowing. I will always regard this series as one of my favorite series of all time. It was the gateway series to get me into epic fantasy and it has expanded my mind in so many ways, plus it was the series that helped me to discover one of my favorite authors of all time. I love Vin and Elend so much and the journey they go on. I love this world and its magic. Everything about the Mistborn books is amazing and I can’t recommend it enough.
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