The Hero of Ages

Mistborn Book 3

Rating

5/5

Date Started

1/30/2024

Date Completed

2/6/2024

Five Powerful Quotes from the Book

Quote 1

“‘The world appears to be ending. That is an indisputably depressing event.’ Elend shook his head. ‘We can survive this, but the only way that will happen is if our people don’t give up. They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel that this fight can be won. So this is what I ask of you – I don’t care if you’re an optimist or a pessimist, I don’t care if secretly you think we’ll all be dead before the month ends. On the outside, I want to see you smiling. Do it in defiance if you have to. If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling as the Survivor taught us.'”

Quote 2

“‘I’ve been thinking about that ever since,’ Spook said. ‘And, I think I might have an answer.’

“‘Please.’

“‘Faith,’ Spook said, ‘means that it doesn’t matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that somebody will make it alright.’

“Sazed frowned.

“‘It means that there will always be a way,’ Spook whispered. Staring forward, eyes glazed, as if seeing things that Sazed could not.

“‘Yes,’ Sazed thought, ‘that is what I have lost. And it’s what I need to get back.’ …

“‘Belief.’ He remembered a voice from the past, his own voice, speaking to Vin on that terrible day after Kelsier’s death. ‘Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief, what is faith, if you don’t continue in it after failure?’ How innocent he had been. ‘Better to trust and be betrayed,’ Kelsier seemed to whisper. It had been one of the Survivor’s mottos. ‘Better to love and be hurt.'”

Quote 3

“It wasn’t the grand doctrines or the sweeping ideals that seemed to make believers out of men, it was the simple magic in the world around them. ‘What was it Spook said?’ Sazed thought, sitting in the shadowy kandra cavern. ‘That faith was about trust – trusting that somebody was watching. That somebody would make it alright in the end. Even though things looked terrible at the moment.’

“To believe, it seemed, one had to want to believe. It was a conundrum, one Sazed had wrestled with. He wanted someone, something, to force him to have faith. He wanted to have to believe because of the proof shown to him. Yet the believers whose words now filled his mind would have said he already had proof. Had he not, in his moment of despair, received an answer. As he had been about to give up, TenSoon had answered. Sazed had begged for a sign and received it. Was it chance, was it providence? In the end, apparently, it was up to him to decide.”

Quote 4

“‘I was not meant to be an atheist.’ The thought seemed a little too flippant for what had just happened to him. As he picked up his metal sheets and prepared to go meet with the First Generation, he realized that kandra passed outside his humble little cavern completely oblivious to the important decision he’d just made. But that was how things often went, it seemed. Some important decisions were made on a battlefield or in a conference room, but others happened quietly, unseen by others. That didn’t make the decision any less important to Sazed. He would believe. Not because something had been proven to him beyond his ability to deny, but because he chose to.”

Quote 5

“It wasn’t until that moment that Sazed understood the term ‘Hero of Ages.’ Not a hero that came once in the ages, but a hero who would span the ages. A hero who would preserve mankind throughout all its lives and times. Neither preservation nor ruin, but both. God.”

About the Book

Original Date Published

10/14/2008

The Hero of Ages: Mistborn Book 3 – Audiobook | Ebook | Hardcover – “Who is the Hero of Ages?

“To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness – the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists – is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

“Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. She can’t even discuss it with Elend, lest Ruin learn their plans!

“The conclusion of the Mistborn trilogy fulfills all the promise of the first two books. Revelations abound, connections rooted in early chapters of the series click into place, and surprises, as satisfying as they are stunning, blossom like fireworks to dazzle and delight. It all leads up to a finale unmatched for originality and audacity that will leave listeners shaking their heads in wonder, as if awaking from an amazing dream.”

About the Author

Brandon Sanderson – “Brandon Sanderson was born in December 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a child Brandon enjoyed reading, but he lost interest in the types of titles often suggested for him, and by junior high he never cracked a book if he could help it. This all changed in eighth grade when an astute teacher, Mrs. Reeder, gave Brandon Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. Brandon thoroughly enjoyed this book, and went in search of anything similar. He discovered such authors as Robert Jordan, Melanie Rawn, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, and Orson Scott Card. Brandon continued to be an avid reader through junior high and high school. He liked epic fantasy so much that he even tried his hand at writing some. His first attempts, he says, were dreadful.

“In 1994 Brandon enrolled at Brigham Young University as a biochemistry major. From 1995 to 1997 he took time away from his studies to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brandon often says that it was during this time in Seoul, Korea that he realized that he didn’t miss chemistry one bit, but he did miss writing. Upon his return to BYU, Brandon became an English major, much to the dismay of his mother, who had always hoped he would become a doctor.

“Brandon began writing in earnest, taking a job as the night desk clerk at a hotel because they allowed him to write while at work. During this era he went to school full time during the day, worked nights to pay for his schooling, and wrote as much as he could. He says it made for a rather dismal social life, but he finished seven novels during his undergraduate years. Brandon submitted many manuscripts for publication . . . and accumulated quite a pile of rejection letters. In spite of this he continued to be a dedicated writer. …

“It was in 2003, while Brandon was in the middle of a graduate program at BYU, that he got a call from editor Moshe Feder at Tor, who wanted to buy one of Brandon’s books. Brandon had submitted the manuscript a year and a half earlier, and had almost given up on hearing anything, so he was surprised and delighted to receive the offer. In May 2005 Brandon held his first published novel, Elantris, in his hands. Over the next few years, Tor also published Brandon’s Mistborn trilogy, its followup The Alloy of Law, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings, the first in a projected ten-volume series called The Stormlight Archive. The second book in the series, Words of Radiance, was released on March 4th, 2014. Other projects continue to be in the works.”