audio cd
Published Feb. 8, 2008 by GraphicAudio.
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler -- the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years -- has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.
As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.
Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city …
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler -- the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years -- has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.
As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.
Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn't run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier's crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won't get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler's hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.
As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.
4.5 - A very good middle book that picks up right where the first left off, shows the struggle and changes and growth in all our favor characters, bringing in multiple new threats that are juggled quite well, and continues the mystery of the past and what role everyone truly plays excellently!
I feel like I have to justify to myself/explain why I gave this novel 5/5 stars because I only gave the previous book 4/5 stars, and it's not something that I will obviously remember for it's hard hitting thematic or philosophical content or ideas like a 1984 or Dune.
So, the main reason for the 5/5 is that the climax is utterly perfect. Literally everything after the ball starts rolling with the Zane vs Vin fight is just... so good. And that's literally the thing that bumped it up to a 5/5. Just... everything after that point is so good.
The zane fight itself with it's characterization of zane and vin is good. The fight itself was so thoroughly entertaining, and seeing Vin overcome Atium through reflexes (which I expected way earlier in the book tbh) was so satisfying. Seeing the bond Vin formed with tensoon mean something in the …
I feel like I have to justify to myself/explain why I gave this novel 5/5 stars because I only gave the previous book 4/5 stars, and it's not something that I will obviously remember for it's hard hitting thematic or philosophical content or ideas like a 1984 or Dune.
So, the main reason for the 5/5 is that the climax is utterly perfect. Literally everything after the ball starts rolling with the Zane vs Vin fight is just... so good. And that's literally the thing that bumped it up to a 5/5. Just... everything after that point is so good.
The zane fight itself with it's characterization of zane and vin is good. The fight itself was so thoroughly entertaining, and seeing Vin overcome Atium through reflexes (which I expected way earlier in the book tbh) was so satisfying. Seeing the bond Vin formed with tensoon mean something in the fight. Seeing "God" tell Zane "You were never insane." IT WAS ALL SO GOOD.
Speaking of the tensoon reveal, the fact that literally ALL those meaningful conversations between him and vin were literally him going against his contract AND his master is absolutely mindblowing and makes those sections all the more tragic and beautiful... in a way. That's how you do a freaking twist.
Although I could've done without Sanderson outright telling the audience "Zane represents who I think I am, Elend represents happiness." That felt like a shockingly forward and... bland way of stating that concept, but I guess he also does that with the trust theme, but that's built up better, BUT I also watch anime so I can't really complain.
Then right after that we get the sweetest, shortest, and most nonchalant marriage where one person is bleeding out that I have ever seen. Vin x Elend is cute. (This was the moment when I realized this was going to be a 5/5 btw).
Then we get... everything else with the climax. Seeing all the politics just come together was so good and satisfying.
Elend cutting off his friends head immediately shows such wonderful characterization for him.
The sequence of Vin using the horseshoe juggling to travel was so cool. I can just picture that being an absolutely stunning movie shot.
The image of vin picking up a huge koloss sword and walking off in command of the koloss is so fucking badass. I'm just imagining her with her short stature, her badass mistborn cloak around her, half of her face covered in koloss blood, her hair all disheveled, and she picks up this big ass sword, swings it over her shoulder, than walks commanding all these monsters. Absolute queen.
Then she pulls another absolute queen picture perfect movie money shot moment when she kills straff in the most badass anime way possible. Shooting at him at the speed of sound, cutting through him and his horse, then standing up as their bodies fall in half.
AND ITS NOT OVER! The final section was just... wow. I mean. The twist was kind of obvious for a while before it ACTUALLY happened, but it was still executed extremely well. They un-equivacally lost, unleashing the true dark lord this time. But elend is apparently a mistborn now! So yay!
Oh yeah it's also revealed that the world of mistborn is only livable on the poles? So that's extremely interesting.
Sazed character development was absolutely phenomal. The moment when his girlfriend dies and he loses faith has some absolutely gut wrenching quotes about his loss of faith and his useless beliefs.
TBH I didn't feel too bad for Clubs and Docks deaths. They were well done death scenes, but I guess I just hadn't connected enough with them. Breeze's statements on his fear and uselessness though... that hit.
But it's not like the first half isn't great. It really is, especially since everything works to set up the climax. In fact, it might even be better than the first book in terms of hard hitting and character diving conversations there are. But it would be unfair to give too much create to this one because it doesn't have to act as a character introduction like Final empire did. And final empire did a fantastic job at giving everyone character. The thing that sticks on in my mind is the scene where breeze is soothing the people who are trying to be recruited for the group.
Oh yeah, well of ascension... there were great moments pre climax as well.
Good book. Solid read. Can't wait to read hero of ages.
Time to read: 12 hours 39 minutes
Most of this book takes place during a siege, so it feels like a very long bottle episode. It also functions as a deconstruction of the chosen one monomyth, which relies on the author being an unreliable narrator and a big reveal at the end. There seems to be a moral tale around the responsibility of those with power, the general implication being that it should be wielded and used by those who have it instead of given up to undefined others in the name of the greater good. One marked improvement is the inclusion of more women with complex personalities, a step in the right direction compared to TFE.
Overall a bit of a downer but a solid middle act and I still want to know how this story resolves.
Well written; kept me captivated throughout. Nothing super deep; it's high fantasy. The main characters do develop, however. And just like the previous volume this one too has a surprising plot twist at the end.
The characters spend the first third of the book agonizing over strategy and their own insecurities while weeks pass in the story with no meaningful narrative development. There are a lot of tired tropes at play here, including the suggestion of a love triangle that seems totally unconvincing and contrived. Some of the action occasionally comes across as indulgent. Despite its warts, this is an effective page-turner, and the taut final act includes some truly weird twists that make the whole journey worthwhile.
A very entertaining read that is only 3 stars in comparison to everything else I've read from him. Also the dramatic ending is spoiled by how hard he had to stretch to contrive the last-minute drama, which kinda sums up this series.
Sanderson really got out all his cliche-demons in the Mistborn series before figuring out his own style in Stormlight.
So things went great in the first book, but turns out there are consequences for eliminating the sole source of true power in the world for the last millennium. I didn't really expect this sort of sequel, but it was an interesting look at what comes after "victory", and I can't turn down more Mistborn.
I hate how much I was disappointed with this one! I enjoyed the first one, but this one felt REALLY needlessly long to me :/ In classic Sanderson fashion, a lot of time and pages were devoted to hammering in allusion and cultivating relationships, espionage, tensions, but it was done over and over again for the same tensions and relationships, I found myself just quickly skimming and tuning out and not missing anything. I don't mind long books, but I think this could have used some editing down. Aside from that, everything was classic Sanderson. Great characters, straightforward writing, good story beats and twists... I wasn't quite as engaged in this story as the first one, but it certainly positioned it for an interesting finale.
I think... I may be wrong but I think.... I could have just skipped this book and jumped straight to the third one.
Comme le premier, ce deuxième roman de la série joue avec les stéréotypes de la fantasy pour nous balader, nous enfumer, et nous surprendre à la fin. C’est parfois long, mais c’est très bien fait. Un mot m’est venu en tête en lisant les dernières pages : brillant !
Vivement la suite, avec le troisième tome que je vais entamer dès aujourd’hui.
Well, I have my son over my shoulder – my son absolutely loved it – trying to influence me :-). My major comment is that it's TOO LONG! There was definitely too much time waffling over the relationship between Elend and Vin at least! The author did good and interesting things with the characteristics of what could otherwise be minor characters, and he kept us guessing a lot. Tindwyl was a character whom I never knew whether to trust, and Breeze I never liked, but mostly because I had trouble placing him in the entire story. I liked the dog, and it was interesting to see how the character grew and changed.
I will probably eventually listen to the third book in the trilogy if for no other reason than I actually have become interested in what goes on in the world (and my son will probably insist on it …
Well, I have my son over my shoulder – my son absolutely loved it – trying to influence me :-). My major comment is that it's TOO LONG! There was definitely too much time waffling over the relationship between Elend and Vin at least! The author did good and interesting things with the characteristics of what could otherwise be minor characters, and he kept us guessing a lot. Tindwyl was a character whom I never knew whether to trust, and Breeze I never liked, but mostly because I had trouble placing him in the entire story. I liked the dog, and it was interesting to see how the character grew and changed.
I will probably eventually listen to the third book in the trilogy if for no other reason than I actually have become interested in what goes on in the world (and my son will probably insist on it :-) ). This book does end on somewhat of a cliffhanger, and that encourages me to continue.a
Not as good as the first, which I thought was excellent. A lot of the book was about the characters worthiness, a bit to much of it. There was a ton of back and forth, am I good enough or not. Past that it was, again, a great read and good story. If you liked the first there is no reason not to continue the series and I myself am off to book 3. Enjoy!
3.5
Meh. Took forever to get enough interest to finish it.
Slow until the last 25% but then it really picked up.
