Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

So, of course, I couldn't resist the title of this book,obviously. It's a young adult novel, which is not my usual fare, but it wasn't bad. In a comic book inspired version of the future, random people have turned into Epics, beings with super powers, such as being bulletproof, having precognition, pirokinetics, flying or casting illusions, and so forth. As a Calvinist might suspect, with great powers come great corruption, and the Epics rapidly rule the cities of Earth with an iron fist. Every Epic, however, has one mortal flaw, a certain way they can be killed.

When the Epic named Steelheart rises to power, he eliminates everyone who may have any knowledge of his weakness, but he misses one small boy, David (something David and Goliath-ish here?), who watches his father and many others destroyed by the Epic, and devotes the rest of his life to discovering Steelheart's flaw, and investigating and recording the flaws of all of the other Epics he is aware of.

Eventually, David joins forces with the Reckoners, a group of ordinary humans who have begun a Quixotic quest to eliminate the Epics and return Earth to humans once again.If you accept the premise of corrupt superheroes appearing to rule the planet, the book is an entertaining, fast moving read.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

The Hero of Ages really wraps up this trilogy quite nicely. The books begins with Vin and Elend attempting to track down a series of caches that the Lord Ruler left behind, containing supplies to help the people survive through the cataclysmic events that were triggered when Vin killed him. The power that she released at the Well of Ascension is growing stronger, and is able to control the Inquisitors and vast armies of koloss, as well as whisper influences into the brains of others, under certain circumstances. In order to use some of these storage caverns, they need to conquer the cities that contain them, and add them to Elend's empire.

Spook is in one such city, spying for Elend. In Urteau, the revolutionaries who took over after the fall of the Lord Ruler have created a very egalitarian society. They still resent how the nobels oppressed them, so their leader, The Citizen, has started a hunt for all those with a trace of noble blood. When they are found, they are burned to death.

In another city, a former Obligator has taken over, and seems to have created a society based on "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die". Yomen doesn't believe that the Lord Ruler is actually dead, and expects him to return any day. The skaa here continue to serve, as is traditional.

Across the world, the ash is falling heavily, ruining crops, and the mists come out during the day, killing many people, and leaving others sickened for a time. Sazed has been sent out as Elend's ambassador to try to gather as many into the empire as he can, so that if Elend and Vin are successful in capturing the caches, more may survive the coming winter.

The other thing that's in each of the caches is a clue to the location of the next cache, and a message from the Lord Ruler which explains a bit more of what's really happening. Add these little revelations to the extras at the beginning of each chapter, and the complete picture of what's been happening and what is to come emerges slowly, step by step, as the novel goes along.

The revelations that come by the end of the book, in my opinion, are absolutely incredible. Questions are answered, mysteries solved, motivations explained. In most cases, I thought, "I never saw that coming, but it makes perfect sense!" This book completes things very well, and really makes the series.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

This book is the second in his Mistborn trilogy, and remains a bit dark and, well, misty. Elend has been elected as king of Luthandel, and has been trying to restore order while ensuring that the skaa now have the same rights as all others. He and Vin are still not quite sure where they're going in their relationship, so their discoveries and growth in that area make a nice counterpoint to the suspense of the main plot.

As the novel begins, Elend's father's army has arrived at the city, demanding his surrender. Elend's half-brother Zane, whom he has never heard of, is a Mistborn, like Vin. He is also quite mad, and begins to play cat-and-mouse games with Vin in and around the city, sparring with her with their allomantic talents, and playing games of betrayal with his father, Straff, as well.

A second army also arrives to besiege the city, which belongs to Lord Cett. Lord Cett's daughter, Allriane, appears in the city, appearing to be a young woman infatuated with former Crew member, Breeze, but perhaps she's more devious and intelligent than she lets on, and she could be a spy for her father.

Finally, a third army arrives, composed of ruthless and barbaric koloss, loosely controlled by Elend's old friend, Jastes. With all three of these armies in place, Elend and his advisors attempt to play them off against each other and delay the inevitable invasion and sacking of the city. When the Assembly decides to depose Elend in the middle of the crisis, things get really complicated.

So, there's plenty of interesting things going on in this novel. One of the minor plot lines which actually may be more important than it first appears is that of Sazed, the Terrisman ferruchemist and his countrywoman, Tindwyl's search for answers as to the true location of the Well of Ascension and the origin and nature of The Deepness which threatened the land before the Lord Ruler's rise to power. They fear that killing the Lord Ruler has released this menace once again.

Vin, throughout the novel, learns more about allomancy, and picks up some skills, quite by accident, that she hadn't possessed before, and starts to understand quite a bit more about the miscellaneous powers the Lord Ruler held before she killed him. Tindwyl takes charge of Elend's kingly education, and he learns how to be more assertive, more confident and more the type of king that he believes that Luthandel needs in these perilous times.

There's a writing technicque I don't know the name of, where each chapter or section in a book is headed with an aphorism, or contains a snippet of a diary, or a bit of fictional history. Sanderson has used this tactic in both of the Mistborn novels so far, and I'm sad to say I just blew past those tidbits in the first novel. In this one, I noticed fairly rapidly that they contained "clues" to some of the mysteries that Sazed, Tindwyl, and Vin are trying to unravel throughout the book, and actually paid attention this time.

I noticed another interesting bit in the book. Sanderson comes up with a very nice way to describe a scene, untraditionally, when he has Sazed exploring a building where the Steel Inquisitors gathered. Instead of using the third person, he has Sazed narrating his discoveries as he goes along, dictating them to be recorded by one of his metalminds, for posterity. A nice little twist.

There was a point early in the book when Vin was thinking about members of Kelsier's crew, and she muses, "People were just too complex to reduce to single personality traits." I think Sanderson takes this dictum to heart, or begins to, in this novel, as he works to create more depth for the characters he created in Mistborn. Very nice.

One interesting political statement from Tindwyl, "...I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to lead as best you can, following the dictates of your conscience." At first, it would appear to be a warning against mob rule and unfettered democracy, but it also might encourage, in the wrong sort of leader, a dangerous arrogance. Talk amongst yourselves.

This trilogy is definitely growing more interesting, and I look forward to digging into the final volume. However, I'm holding off for a bit. This one was a bit like a really good meal, it takes a bit of time to digest before you're hungry for another.

Short Takes

7/15/07 Reading Mistborn, by someone or other (Brandon Sanderson). It's semi-amusing.

7/26/07 Finished reading the new Harry Potter novel, Deathly Hallows. Yes, it was well-written, though I got a little tired of Harry's internal anguish over everything. Get over it and grow up.

8/16/07 Finished Territory, by Emma Bull, which was strangely fascinating, yet ultimately disappointing.

Short Takes

2/21/07 Finished reading Crichton's Next - interesting stuff.

3/14/07 Just finished reading Elantris, by Brian Sanderson - entertaining, but not engrossing. He's got another novel out I'll have to pick up. Also reading The Pentagon's New Map,  by Thomas P.M. Barnett, which is quite interesting.