Since last I read this book, I’d forgotten just how much happens in this book.

Since the Lord Ruler was killed in The Final Empire, some things have gotten better… some have gotten much much worse.

The plot basically follows the (surviving) previous main characters + Elend as they try to bring order to an empire that had been under a single man’s rule for a thousand years. Not exactly a short order, particularly given the armies (yes, plural) marching in to fill the vacuum.

It all goes relatively straight forward, that part at least ending more or less as you’d expect, but there are still twists and turns along the way. After the twist in the climax of The Final Empire, I didn’t think Sanderson could do anything crazier. Given this book’s epilogue… He most definitely did. I remain impressed at how willing Sanderson is to completely change the world in the course of a book. It makes writing sequels more interesting, but I think he does a good job pulling it off.

Speaking of world building, we do learn more about both the Kandra and the Koloss. Crazy weird beasties with some interesting powers. And there are hints about even more secrets there ( Which, having already read the third book: there most definitely are ).

Overall, it’s interesting to see how everyone is growing and changing from thieves to rulers. Vin and Elend have by far the most interesting arcs and it looks like that will continue into the third book. Sazed also has some growth to do, showing just how well he can fight when he needs to and finally losing what odd universal sort of faith he had.

One of the best things in this series (continuing in this book) is the Allomancy. In particular, it makes for some crazy fight scenes. I have to slow down each time I read one of them to really try to follow it all in my mind. If properly done, they could be amazing if Mistborn were ever made into a movie, although I’m honestly not sure how they’d do it.

Another in a line of great books.