** spoiler alert ** Wow! What a great series! Sanderson has created one of the most intriguing and creative literary realms that I have ever entered! His masterfully crafted story lines, characters, conflicts, setting, and themes completely transport readers to a hauntingly magnificent world! Sanderson is a brilliant author who has created a unique philosophical fantasy. The violence, themes, and length gear these books to an older, committed reader. Be patient at first because each book starts out a bit slow but by the half way mark, it picks up, and then gets to a point where you don't want to put it down.

I especially loved the first book, "Mistborn", because of the Christ allegory embodied in the Kelsier character. Kelsier transforms a hopeless society to a hopeful one. This transformation is most apparent with the main character, Vin. When Vin questions her trust in him, the wise and faithful Sazed teaches, "Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days. What is belief - what is faith- if you don't continue in it after failure? Anyone can believe in someone, or something, that always succeeds. But failure . . . ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value." (p 485). " Sometimes we just have to wait long enough. Then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing." (p 490).

While "Mistborn" stresses the importance of faith and ends on a hopeful note, "The Well of Ascension" pushes that faith to the limits. The main characters experience intense inner conflicts as they struggle to trust each other, their assumptions, and themselves. The second book is more philosophical thus introspection and inner conflicts overpower action and external conflicts. "Ascension" ends on a helpless note, so have the third book on hand.

"The Hero of Ages" was the most difficult because it was too intense to read, but too intense not to read! I just wanted to finish it so I could enjoy my mundane and blissfully boring life! One of the most painful components was that the qualities we most loved about the characters are lost. This new world is so harsh, that Eland loses his idealism. "There has to be a balance, Vin. Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are." (p 189) Breeze and Ham lose their sense of humor, and Spook loses his mind.

Most distressingly, Sazed, the paradigm of wisdom and faith, becomes faithless and despondent. "How did men believe in something that preached love on one hand, yet taught destruction of unbelievers on the other? How did one rationalize belief with no proof? How could they honestly expect him to have faith in something that taught of miracles and wonders in the far past, but carefully gave excuses for why such things didn't occur in the present day?" (p 558) Sazed's loss of faith leaves him virtually useless. "It was pain. That's what the loss felt like. Pain and numbness at the same time; a barb-covered wire twisting around his chest combined with an absolute inability to do anything about it. He felt like huddling in a corner, crying, and just letting himself die." (p 558). Even though Sazed remembers the strengthening words he offered Vin after Kelsier's death, nothing seems to be able to console Saze and give him hope. "He couldn't believe. If he believed, it meant that God - or the universe, or whatever it was that watched over man - had failed. Better to believe that there was nothing at all. Then, all of the worlds' inadequacies were simply mere chance. Not caused by a god who had failed them." (p 559)

When Vin loses her ability to fight, the sheer exhaustion of continual setbacks, loss, and failure became too much for me. I had to stop reading for a awhile and watch a week's worth of mindless sitcoms. Finally, when all of the characters as well as the reader are ready to jump off a cliff, a few key plot twists begin to turn the tides. If the book belonged to me, I would have highlighted many sections from page 622 on because of the numerous epiphanies. Elend reconciles his idealism and pragmatism. Goodness and love are able to save Breeze and Spook. Vin comprehends how there needs to be an opposition in all things and how to find balance. When Vin figures out that she can overcome Ruin, she quickly acts and has some unexpected but satisfying results. When Sazed meets with the kandra, he is able to start resolving his philosophical and spiritual dilemmas. Sazed better understands faith and is therefore able to embrace it. The resolution was neither trite nor expected. I couldn't see the end from the beginning, so even though I am done reading, I can't stop thinking about it.