TBOM: Part 3 (Chapter 17-End)

[Scott]

Final thread of the book, full spoilers expected.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your good read friends.

Please do not discuss events from later chapters/books. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

[Sky]

Finished it up on the plane home from PAX South.

I liked this one better than the previous Wax and Wayne book, although there was a little too much character chattiness for my taste. Also, I got a serious City of Stairs vibe from it, but that's probably just because of the airships and the fact that I literally finished City of Blades the day before I started this one.

Seeing how people from other parts of the planet have evolved was pretty interesting (maybe Sazed/Harmony just didn't know about them or something, so they got screwed over?), although I am a little sad that apparently they are what I mistook for Parshendii from the previous book. I guess Hoid is up to something too, and that's always nice to hear.

Over all, still not quite up to The Final Empire or The Hero of Ages, but probably about on par with The Alloy of Law. 4 Stars from me. Looking forward to the next one.

[Geoff]

Sky wrote: "Seeing how people from other parts of the planet have evolved was pretty interesting (maybe Sazed/Harmony just didn't know about them or something, so they got screwed over?), although I am a little sad that apparently they are what I mistook for Parshendii from the previous book. I guess Hoid is up to something too, and that's always nice to hear.
"

I think that Sazed just probably had no idea the affect he'd have on the south. He needed to cool the world to counteract all the volcanic activity in the original trilogy but, in the south where it was normal, it just got super cold.

I was also a little disappointed that the Parshendi sighting from the broadsheet in the last book ended up being a person from the south. But it was still very interesting to see the South finally being revealed (if only just a little bit).

[Scott]

I liked this one better than the previous W/W books as well. Thought it was a better story, and I enjoyed the evolution of the characters, especially Sterris.

I feel like as long as he keeps writing books in this world, I'll keep reading them. I really enjoy the magic and mythology and world; it's fun getting inside looks into how Scadrial is evolving

And, so, according to that end Kelsier is still around?! That was kind of out of nowhere for me and pretty damn cool!

[Slick]

There have been signs that Kelsier has been up to stuff since Hero of Ages, I highly recommend the Novella Mistborn secret history. Has loads of Cosmere stuff in and more details...

I liked this one. Especially Sterris, I have always liked Mistborn but to me it's never compared to Stormlight.

I think Scadrial is the most similar Planet to earth and the masked people were near the South Pole, when Sazed saved the Planet I think he new but had to proceed anyway to level out the Planet.

[Dustin]

I should have expected the betrayal, it was so Sanderson, but I still fail to see them coming until the last moment.

I like how he advanced the magic in this one. The airship/allomantic grenade/ the necklaces/etc.

I was surprised that the kandra spike was just sitting in a drawer... or was it a safe? I assumed we find them using it to make their own kandra, but apparently they already had some. Or the kandra already have them, I suppose is more accurate.

I really had no idea where this story was going at times. I also thought the foreigners were Parshendi and thought the airship was a world hopping ship.

[Scott]

I never see the betrayals coming either lol. Almost always surprised

[Dustin]

Scott wrote: "I never see the betrayals coming either lol. Almost always surprised"

But this one seemed so obvious once you got around Wax's certainty that she was the victim. Even in the prologue his sister was the mastermind of their group.

The reason I often miss the betrayals is because I often see the clues as authorial devices and not character actions despite being proven wrong over and over.

When the bag got kicked out, I saw it as Sanderson knocking the bag out to raise the tension and not a character decision. Like in the last book. I figured Wax never got shot by Lexie? because he was the main character and not because of any story reason. It made far more sense once I stopped thinking about it as writer interference.

I snickered a little when Wax gives his 'What did you do to my sister' line and his uncle replies that she not only recruited him but outranks him. It was a nice touch.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I totally saw his sister's betrayal coming. I also saw Wax using the Bands of Morning to recover from being shot coming too.

I found the scene with Harmony a bit heavy handed again.

The humor grew on me a bit, though I was more amused by some of Sterris's comments far more than any of Wayne's jokes.

I'm not big on Romance usually, but I loved the moment where Wax proposes and Sterris didn't have that on her list.

Overall I thought this book was far better than the last one. My faith in Sanderson has been restored a little. I wonder if him getting stuck on Shadow of Self and writing this one first is why I enjoyed this one better.

[Dustin]

Rob wrote: "I found the scene with Harmony a bit heavy handed again...."

Not sure you can have a scene with a GOD-like character that isn't either heavy handed or too vague to have a point.

Ruin was no less heavy handed. He was quite happy to lay it all out to who ever was around to listen. But being the bad guy, no one really cared what his opinion was on divinity.

Or are you referring to something else?

[Slick]

I totally called the sister thing and the Lord Ruler not being the Sovereign. For once i guessed right ahaha :D

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Dustin wrote: "Rob wrote: "I found the scene with Harmony a bit heavy handed again...."

Not sure you can have a scene with a GOD-like character that isn't either heavy handed or too vague to have a point.

Ruin ..."

I meant the allegory for Sanderson's own beliefs.

[Slick]

I rather liked the Sazed scenes. It's a different take on Godhood... well he's not really a God anyway.. He's just a force/Power with intent who people call a god.

If their was a real Cosmere God it would have been Adonalsium,
Speaking of i always assumed the force that killed/Splintered Adonalsium was an opposing force of equal power and the 16 took up the Shards to stop it's power running wild and spread themselves out to equally distribute it's power over the Cosmere but no it turns out they were all greedy bastards who wanted to be gods...Thoughts on this tidbit?

[Suzanne]

Slick wrote: "I rather liked the Sazed scenes. It's a different take on Godhood... well he's not really a God anyway.. He's just a force/Power with intent who people call a god.

If their was a real Cosmere God ..."

That had never crossed my mind, but it makes sense. Even giving up the temporary power of the bands was hard.

[Mahesh]

Anyway else recognized who the "Lord Ruler" apparently is in Bands of Mourning? Was anyone expecting it? or is it a surprise for everyone?

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Mahesh wrote: "Anyway else recognized who the "Lord Ruler" apparently is in Bands of Mourning? Was anyone expecting it? or is it a surprise for everyone?"

I certainly didn't see that coming.

[Suzanne]

I didn't see it coming either.