rikuson1's reviews
78 reviews

It Really Like It 😍
-★★★★✭- (4.75/5.00)
My Grading Score = 95% (A+)

Mistborn: The Hero of Ages, I am so glad it won me over by the very end. Coming off of The Well of Ascension and The Final Empire, I struggled a lot in regard to which one I liked more favorably and critically. With both of them settling within me, I came to the conclusion on accounts of favorability and criticality that I'm putting The Well of Ascension over The Final Empire. Now, when it came to The Hero of Ages, I'm going, to be honest, that I was not feeling it from the start. The tone was extremely melodramatic and overwhelmingly depressing because, for the most part, we are following the depressed and broken state of Sazed. And mind, this is just the feeling of depression, hopelessness, and dread that Sazed was giving off and it latched onto me making me feel his dread to some degree which probably was tough to read for me. As someone going through something similar (losing someone you invested and cared about), I guess it hit really close to home for me. Nonetheless, critically speaking, the portrayal of it all was extremely accurate and well done and has my highest praise. Brando said that writing Sazed in this book was one of the hardest things he's done in his writing career, and it shows. 

Another thing that I wasn't fond of during the time of my reading this was that the second portion of the majority of this book was mainly focused on, and that was Spook. A character that in both The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension I did not care for to any degree. I did not like him as a character, I did not like his annoying accent and he just felt like a waste of space anytime he was present, additionally, he had this snarky attitude in book 2 that only made me dislike him more. So when I come to find out that he is one of the main focuses in this book, I was not ready and very reluctant to get through the "spook-focused" portions. I can tell that Brando probably knew that the readers did not care for Spook so he really really had to try and make us understand where Spook is coming from and try to make us like him and make him more important in the overall story. Now I feel it did accomplish making me understand where he is coming from and additionally the message he sends off which Marsch finds did make him extremely important to the overall story but he did not sell me on liking him by the end, but at the very least I can say I don't hate or dislike Spook anymore so that counts for something. 

The other points of view it focused on were Vin, Ellend, and TenSoon. I felt all of these points of view were great or, at the very least, satisfactory. I was entertained and engaged for the most part on all of them. I have no complaints or critiques on any of them. 

The action in The Hero of Ages really held off longer than any of the three books. And that's something I love, action. The build-up in this book was also something that was a lot more than in any of the previous books. It was to the point where I was almost afraid that it could not deliver on all of its build-up and additionally the surplus of the build-up of being the final book in this trilogy. But man, basically every chapter after chapter 71 really paid off on everything this trilogy was building up to in all categories, action, character development, plot reveal after plot reveals, after plot reveals, it was a great sanderlanche that I will never forget. 


Verdict
The Hero of Ages and by proxy the Mistborn Era 1 has lived up to its hype. This is now my favorite fantasy trilogy, and I'm glad I went through it. 

I Really Liked it.

I Really Liked It 😄
-★★★★☆- (4.00/5.00)
My Grading Score = 80% (B+)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a franchise I surprisingly actually never heard of until I started to read books more recently and heard that it's basically up there in popularity right behind Harry Potter. I guess it never reached the popularity closer to Harry Potter because of the movies that bombed back in the 2010s. Either way, I heard heavy praise for this middle grade series and, over time, gained more and more interest.

The Lightning Thief I'll say did live up to the praise that I heard people throw around. I haven't read Harry Potter, but I did watch it, and I'll at least say that I prefer this to that. Nonetheless, The Lighting Thief, from jump, is very fast paced and throws you into the mix and intrigue of it's main character Percy Jackson and its plot at breakneck speed but it never felt like it was being rushed surprisingly and impressively enough. The other characters were all introduced fairly clearly and quickly as well, and the trio meshed pretty well as they went out on their quest, I liked them all.

The middle portion did almost lose me with them stopping to a location, a person tries to pull lure them in, they get tricked and barely get out of the situation. It was falling into a formulaic loop that was getting a bit stale for me, but as soon as I started to feel that way the climax of the book was here and the best chapters of the book which were the last 5 or so brought it back up very well. Also, the final chapter ended with a very good cliffhanger that entices me to read book 2 sooner rather than later. 

Verdict
The Lighting Thief is a very good short and sweet book with a strong start, the bulk in the middle was alright but as soon as you may get an inkling of the feeling that it's overstaying it's welcome the climax of the book pulls you back in more engaged that the start of the book. Even with me not being its targeted audience, I would still say this book holds up for an older age reader like myself, and I'd recommend it. 

I Really Liked It

I Really Liked It 😊
-★★★★✮- (4.50/5.00)
My Grading Letter Score = 90% (A)

When I finished The Well of Ascension, the first words that came out of my mouth were "simply incredible." But at first the pacing of this book at the start, I completely understand why some people would consider this weaker than The Final Empire if we are discussing overall pacing because The Well of Ascension was constantly going from slow to fast to slower to faster. For me, I'm not really someone who heavily focuses on pacing if what is being provided to me is engaging and if it's building up to something that is paid off when it's due, which this book mostly everyone agrees it does just that. So, regarding pacing consistency, sure, you can go ahead and give The Final Empire the upper hand when it comes to that. But honestly, outside of that, I most definitely feel like The Well of Ascension is tied with The Final Empire in almost every other criteria, and/or The Well of Ascension did it better.

The two categories I feel The Well of Ascension did better were characterization and character development. Every single character that was focused on in The Well of Ascension, for the most part, felt like they were given the time they needed to be fleshed out enough to be commended at least above what the characterization execution was provided to us in The Final Empire and goes for the development they went through in this book. World-building, Lore, Action, and Prose are all categories that can be debated which one did it better. I don't really care since I enjoyed all of these things in both of these books. 


Verdict
At first, I was Team Final Empire, until around Chapter 47 when my favorite fight scene in the series so far occurred did I start to lean over to Team Well of Ascension, after that the pacing slowed back down and then I started to lean back over to The Final Empire and then the last fifty pages of this book leveled me out. It brought me to the conclusion of thinking that I like both of these books equally critically, to be honest. If I was held at gunpoint and forced to choose one over the other, I might say The Well of Ascension, since the hype of just finishing it is still on me and I love great characterization which this book gave me a whole lot of. But I love both of these books equally and I'm glad I did not come out of it thinking less of it in comparison to its predecessor, a successor should be as good or better than what came before it and I feel The Well of Ascension accomplished just that. So regardless of what the majority of people state or what the rating score in comparison says about this book. 

I Really Liked It.

I Really Liked It 😄
-★★★★☆- (4.00/5.00)
My Grading Score = 80% (B+)

The Shadow Rising I had a lot of hype going into this one because I had been told that this is either the best entry in the entire series or at least a top-tier one. And when I first started it, the first 15% or so I was really enjoying. I would go as far as to say that it's probably my favorite starting to any of the books so far. I was really engaged with the random turmoil that was going on with each of the male leads. Matt's cards attacking him, Perrin's Axe attacking him and Rand's reflection attacking him. It can be seen as the things that have been heavily connecting to each of the characters up to this point. I also really enjoyed the Rand vs. Lanfear fight, it's one of my new favorites. So, at this point, I was really feeling it and could get behind the hype that it was having. Then, the next part started up, and the pacing went into the super slow burn that I felt all of the books (except for the Great Hunt for me) entered.


Perrin's Portion

This portion felt like the Shire from The Lord of the Rings, but better to me, let me elaborate.
If there's one thing that I was constantly told about The Shadow Rising is that this is the entry that really different than the series it's heavily inspired from TLOTR, with most also saying it's really it's own away from it. And to that, I agree to a degree. I honestly think all of the books up to this point aren't clones of TLOTR, but simply, they have their fair share of homages to it. And I feel like the Shadow Rising is not an exception to that statement. This brings me to this comparison. Perrin going back to Emend's Field to me definitely felt like a homage to the Shire Arc in TLOTR, but instead of everyone going back, it's just Perrin. Now I have my issues with this portion because this is where the slowburn of this book begins as when we arrive here RJ spends a lot of time trying to remind us on basically every single member of Emend's Field and I just didn't care for most of that. Now, I did enjoy the back and fourth between Perrin and Faile. I was not sold on them being a couple in The Dragon Reborn since they butted heads, and then something happens to Faile at the end, and Perrin basically breaks down and loves her, then they are together. But I feel in this book their back and fourth—although annoying which was obviously intentional—, especially since we spend so much time doing it made them as a couple grow onto me and it helped with the slow burn of this portion setting up everything that ends up occurring eventually. I also think Perrin (like the Hobbits) showcased that he can be a leader to the people that needed it, I personally liked that execution of it here more than the Hobbits did in the Shire since there it honestly that arc felt tacked on at the end while here it did not, just another character development moment for Perrin for more to come. One irk I had was Loial and another character who's name I'm forgetting right now, going off to close the way-gates without Perrin and coming back successful happened off page and it felt like if they jumped between their POV and Perrin's would have made the setup to this portions conclusion a bit more engaging to me.


The Girls Portion

Min didn't get a lot of showcase in this entry, but the little we got of her, the fall of the White Tower and them taking Logain was interesting and engaging enough. Another character I felt didn't get too much this entry was Egwene as she went off with Rand and sort of took mostly a backseat learning more in the background same thing with Lan, Moraine and Elyane, they all had very small moments though. 

Going back to Egwene, her and Rand's relationship seemingly coming to a close was a bit surprising to me seeing as though usually in these types of stories—especially classic fantasy—the childhood friend is usually the one to get to the main character by the end. So them seemingly mutually coming to the conclusion to not be together was different. And also Elyane wanting to be the rebound, I'm here for that since I like Elyane the most out of all of the young female characters, probably because she not bitchy or annoying as Nynaeve, Egwene and Faile can get (Min's alright too but she had here moments of bitchiness in previous books). Speaking of Nynaeve and Elyane, they go off to continue hunting down the Black Ajah, and similar to the Perrin portion, them arriving to Tanchico create a slow burn that I had to struggle through. Thom and Gawyn were there, and they somewhat helped with the slow burn, but not enough for me. The ending to this portion though was great with Nynaeve going up against a new Dark One, holding her and winning, it's probably my new favorite moment for her, even though the Dark One got away (because of course they did). There was another character that this book (or maybe the last one I can't remember) introduced and we followed her POV, her name was Egeanin since I didn't really know much about her, her chapters wasn't really something I was invested in since it was just her. Then she gets pulled into the POV with Nynaeve's crew, they have their little time together and then she gets exposed for being apart of the Seanchan, they have they hatred for her but by the end, end up settling in with her. I felt the amount of time they spent with her wasn't convincing enough for me to feel anything when she is somewhat accepted into their crew, so that fell kind of flat for me.


Rand's Portion

Rand, Matt, Moraine, Lan, and Egwene had a portion, and it also had its chunk of slow burn at the start as well. One detail that was a double-edged sword aspect in regards to this part came in the form of the location they were in. Being the location of the Aiel, RJ decided this is the moment in the series where he's going to absolutely lore dump you into oblivion on their location, culture, lore, and characters. Although this aspect significantly makes the lore and world-building that much stronger, this was done in a very slow, burned way. Which is understandable. There's a lot to unpack with them, but it doesn't mean I was super engaged when it occurred. I respect the ridiculous amount of effort put into it all but it was extremely overwhelming at first to consume it all regardless of how slow he took with his time to present it all on top of the large amount of Aiel character names that were introduced and tossed my way during this portion, I feel it reached a point of overkill and resulted in me resenting the consumption of it all to a degree which I've come to find out I'm not the only one who felt that way about this regardless to how interesting it all was. Rand going into that realm to his culture's history was interesting nonetheless even though it's presentation probably could have been easier to digest in it's revelation about his people's history and do like the role it played in the conclusion of this portion though so I guess it was worth it. Matt played a smaller role in this entry especially in comparison to how much time he had in The Dragon Reborn, he essentially tagged along with Rand and went into his own realm and basically got a power up which I guess is good for him since compared to Rand and Perrin it was definitely falling behind in terms of power, now having this new spear is cool. He did say the phrase "Burn me" a bit too much, though, that got a tad annoying. The Climax I'm glad was not a Ba'alzamon fight again, that was getting repetitive. Rand's final clash was with another Dark One that has been hiding amongst his company. That fight was entertaining enough and probably my favorite final clash fight of any of the books thus far. I also liked the way Lanfear orchestrated the whole thing to get that Dark One to be with Rand to teach him more. It was clever on her part, and I liked it.


Verdict
There was a LOT that happened in this book, which I think is the largest one thus far, so it makes sense. At first, I thought a lot of fat could have been cut to help the pacing, but with the amount that apparently needed to be covered, it's hard to debate certain parts weren't necessary. It probably could have been presented in a more shorter and concise way as RJ does have his long winded style of prose that make it drag more than it probably should have, that mixed in with how much needed to be covered I think why some people who don't see the hype in this book left feeling disappointed because I was definitely feeling that way myself for a large portion of the slow burn start up parts of each of the POVs which is a large amount of the middle of this book. Even with all of that being said though, the starting and the ending of this book to me are the strongest beginnings and endings of the books so far and sleeping on this book and letting everything process and digest in me, left me feeling like this to me didn't live up to every single bit of it's hype (at least not right now maybe with more time away, reading the other books and comparing it to this one and in hindsight will I think otherwise), but I do agree that—so far to me—this is the strongest entry thus far and I know when I look back on this book I will confidently be able to use the phrase... 

I Really Liked It

I Really Liked It 😃
-★★★★✬- (4.25/5.00)
My Grading Letter Score = 85% (A-)

Shadows of Self, for the most part, felt like a comfort read to me. I was very glad to be back into the world of Mistborn. Wax and Wayne still remain a very good duo, and the new characters added fit right in. It can be seen here that a new plot that is to last future books is heavily being set up in this entry unlike The Alloy of Law which felt far more self contained which as far as I know that was intentional and well executed. This entry felt like more serious stakes were at risk than Alloy of Law. And we got further strengthening of the characterization of both Wax and Wayne, which I appreciated, if felt similar to what The Well of Ascension did for The Final Empire. 

The plot reveals at the end definitely was one of my favorites in the series thus far. With it being an entry that required a lot of set up though it did require me to allow the book to lay the foundation for it and it did feel like that was majority of the book, although never a bore it didn't keep me super engrossed most of the time which I guess can not be helped.

Verdict 
The Alloy of Law I actually felt was more engrossing in the area of the new characters and details of Era 2 and Shadows of Self didn't have that luxury since from a worldbuiling and introducing characters aspect it was more of the same, but it did further strengthen on those aspects which is what i expect from a sequel. Shadows of Self's story seems far more ambitious as it is setting up to be Part 1 of the trilogy that is Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal. And once again, that plot revealed at the end left me floored more than anything in Alloy of Law. So, for me, Shadows of Self is definitely better than Alloy of Law, but I still like all of Era 1 books more. 

I Really Liked It.