This did not read like the last book of an era.[Discuss]

[Karger]

18 hours ago, Frustration said:

How Kelsier spoke to Sazed, what Adonalsium was, how Ruin and Presentation had been separated, who this Hoid fellow was, what the last two metals were etc.

Saze was a god and secret history revealed everything else anyway.  The last two metals weren't important and, so far as we knew, neither was Hoid.  We still had questions sure but all the major ones specific to the trilogy had been answered.

[Frustration]

32 minutes ago, Karger said:

Saze was a god and secret history revealed everything else anyway.  The last two metals weren't important and, so far as we knew, neither was Hoid.  We still had questions sure but all the major ones specific to the trilogy had been answered.

Hey, that sounds just like what I said.

On 11/21/2022 at 6:23 PM, Frustration said:

No narrative focus is put on this in TLM, so I wouldn't say that makes it worse as the end of an era.

You mean other than the Malwish trying to get the bands? Either way no narrative focus was put on that, so I fail to see how that makes TLM weaker. 

 

[Karger]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Hey, that sounds just like what I said.

The bands were a major plot point in the last book as was the southern continent.

[Frustration]

1 minute ago, Karger said:

The bands were a major plot point in the last book as was the southern continent.

But there was never any narrative weight to "let's find out how bands work" or "what does the south scadrian government work?"

[Karger]

Just now, Frustration said:

But there was never any narrative weight to "let's find out how bands work" or "what does the south scadrian government work?"

We thought we knew how they worked.  How the southern tec worked had huge weight behind it as well.  Neither question has really been answered now.  Instead we just have more questions.

[Returned]

On 11/23/2022 at 0:31 PM, Frustration said:

But there was never any narrative weight to "let's find out how bands work" or "what does the south scadrian government work?"

Most of the plot of Bands of Mourning was focused around the idea of unsealed, unkeyed metalminds, and most of the Set's acute operations were based around commoditized Metallic Arts. There was a strong element of "everything is going to change" surrounding the introduction of the Southerners, the Bands, and Southern medallion technology. To have those not develop at all across a six-year time skip is odd in that light. I certainly expected Southern medallions to be much more widespread over that time, given their incredible possible applications, or at least a solid explanation of why they aren't; they seem like an incredibly revolutionary technology. What we got on that score was, more or less, "btw, nope".

It's a perfectly valid writing choice (whatever the reasons) to not follow up on these things immediately in the next book, but the lack of narrative weight resulting from that choice is the piece that's odd. We'll get all of the answers in time, so I'm not too fussed about it. But when the things that were teased were not delivered it's understandable for some people to feel disoriented.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Returned