The Hero of Ages

Wow wow wow wow wow. I realised that Sanderson for fantasy novels is like Nolan for films in his passion, plotting, satisfying conclusions to setups and moderate theme exploration. I also understood a different reviewer's comment that he writes his characters like super heroes, albeit in this dying and destructive world. Man, this was epic from start to finish - I loved that we were introduced to every character with a small time jump, with Elend and Spook in particular being really well-represented. In these desperate times, the remaining members of the original crew are split between two cities with very different problems, and the story juggles these alongside the tales of kandra-on-trial Tensoon and puppet-victim-to-Ruin Marsh. Like previous entries, chapters open with intriguing epigraphs that smack you in the face with clarity towards the book's conclusion. And while some twists were obvious, the logic, planning and execution behind every single turn in this story just left me shaking my head in amazement. And then there was the emotionally powerful conclusion - this book was the closest thing to LOTR: Return of the King I've felt in a long time in its epic scope and powerful character-focused perspective. Hats off to Sanderson, I've been obsessing over the dude since and will be reading many more of his books in the near-future.