“It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's faith.”

The last 100 pages were a wild ride. Two years have passed since Vin defeated the Lord Ruler, and now Elend is trying to rule Luthanel the best way he can. But neither he, nor Vin, nor the others know how to achieve it. Not without Kelsier. Things start to go wrong when Straff's army besieges Luthadel demanding his surrender.

“Good men don't become legends," he said quietly.
"Good men don't need to become legends." She opened her eyes, looking up at him. "They just do what's right anyway.”

I was a little hesitant to read this book. Because I was still processing Kelsier's death. After finishing the first book, I felt that his death was really premature and that neither Vin nor we were ready to be without him.

“It was his ability to trust," she said. "It was the way that he made good people into better people, the way that he inspired them. His crew worked because he had confidence in them - because he respected them. And, in return, they respected each other. Men like Breeze and Clubs became heroes because Kelsier had faith in them.”

Sanderson definitely knows what he's doing. The pace was a bit slow, but it turned into something great. The last 100 pages were incredible! I like the political intrigue that went into the story, and I love seeing this group of people working hard to preserve Kelsier's legacy. The book gives us a lot of information about the magical, social, religious, and political system of this world which can be exhausting and challenging to read at times. But it was worth it.

“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different," Sazed said. "Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet, upon closer examination he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then sees that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”

Vin is an unstoppable force and watching her progress and how she learned to trust others is beautiful. His relationship with OreSeur is one of the precious gems of this book. She and Elend are so cute together. It's amazing how they have grown into a better version of themselves.

“You must love him enough to trust his wishes, even if you disagree with them. You must respect him - no matter how wrong you think he may be, no matter how poor you think his decisions, you must respect his desire to make them. Even if one of them includes loving you.”

I'm going to take a few weeks to process everything this story has given me, so I'll be ready to jump into the last book of the trilogy.

Good follow up to The Final Empire, although I feel like this book is leading the story down a path similar to his Reckoners series, where the main villain is defeated in the first book and the next two books set up a much bigger adversary. 

While I do agree that the book can get tedious in the first part, especially with the politics, I did enjoy the story. The italicized bits above each chapter really help to keep my interest; primarily because I really want to know who is speaking in those sections. 

This review can also be found on my blog!

CW: character deaths and violence

Damn. The enjoyment continues with this series! And, there will be spoilers for the first book in here! That’s your spoiler warning because I’m not going to go through and mark each one.

This picks up after Vin defeats the Lord Ruler. Elend is king. Vin is still protecting everyone. And now armies are coming to retake the city and to put someone else as king and to take power away from the new regime.

While this book was just as tightly plotted as the first book, I just didn’t enjoy it as much. As I said, it was good. Damn, it was good. However, I felt like there were two different stories in this book that didn’t exactly meld together well.

First, there’s the defense of the city with Vin and Elend and the rest of the crew who are trying to keep power in memory of all that Kelsier did. That involves the armies coming, the deception, and the tricks that come into it.

Then, there’s another story, one that’s harder to wrap your head around (at least, it was for me) that involves the Well of Ascension and the mist. That mainly involves Sazed, honestly. This was the part that didn’t work as well for me. Sure, it was interesting. I love mythology and it was very interesting to see the progression of it, however it just didn’t make me go wow about anything. In fact, towards the end, it felt very convenient.

There were also new characters introduced in this book and some old ones get expanded on! I really enjoyed that because Sanderson is amazing at character development. Even though some of them don’t matter as much by the end of the story.

And, adding onto that, there were quite a few character deaths or very near misses that nearly killed me. These characters are amazing and I’m here for them (especially my favorite one, who nearly died). I’m definitely excited to read the next and final book in this series, even though I’m incredibly nervous about who will make it out alive.