Why Sanderson? Why?

[IEarthan]

I just finished book 2 & I am so pissed. Why did Sanderson have to drag this story like this? Why make Book 3 when story could have been ended wonderful in Book 2 itself? Also the ending was lame. So many armies & its leaders just cowed down when Vin came. I thought that there was lot of potential in Book 2. Especially the way it started with 2 armies arriving to take the city. Story could have gone like some clever scheming which lead the 3 armies to fight amongst themselves thus Luthadel preserving.

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Forums. I'm guessing you mean Well of Ascension (Mistborn book 2) even though this is in the Cosmere Discussion area (which allows spoilers). If possible, would you please share what books you have read so that we can avoid spoilers for things you have not yet read? Mistborn: The Final Empire, and Well of Ascension seem to be confirmed - but what about Warbreaker, Elantris, Stormlight Archive, Short stories and Novellas?

You can find some reading order advice in this thread if you have not yet read anything else.

Also, that yellow font is nearly illegible (I'm guessing it would show better in Dark Mode), so you may want to change that  or avoid it in the future. If you are not familiar with the tools available to you on this style of forum, this may help:

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On 5/13/2023 at 8:31 AM, IEarthan said:

Why did Sanderson have to drag this story like this? Why make Book 3 when story could have been ended wonderful in Book 2 itself?

Hero of Ages is a great book, and I hope you continue on to read it (even if you want to slap some characters now-and-again). The events of Hero of Ages will have impact far beyond just that story though, which is probably why Sanderson wrote the endings he did.

Quote

 Also the ending was lame. So many armies & its leaders just cowed down when Vin came.

Well, when you watch a Mistborn fly an incomprehensible distance (remember the kings don't know of Duralumin yet - what she did should have been impossible for anybody but the Lord Ruler (aka TLR)) and cut both a horse and rider (Straff and his mount) front-to back (not across the waist - which is much smaller cross-section, and therefore easier) and she tells you "submit or die" (while controlling the army of Koloss you saw rampaging yesterday, another feat of which only TLR should be capable); then I would guess bending the knee becomes an easy decision.

Edited January 23 by Treamayne
SPAG

[alder24]

37 minutes ago, IEarthan said:

I just finished book 2 & I am so pissed. Why did Sanderson have to drag this story like this? Why make Book 3 when story could have been ended wonderful in Book 2 itself? Also the ending was lame. So many armies & its leaders just cowed down when Vin came. I thought that there was lot of potential in Book 2. Especially the way it started with 2 armies arriving to take the city. Story could have gone like some clever scheming which lead the 3 armies to fight amongst themselves thus Luthadel preserving.

Because books are about people and their struggle, not just action. Because what's important is character arcs, not mindless killing. Because it's far better to read about Elend changing from an idealistic bookworm, who believed everyone will do what's right to do, into a charismatic leader who's among his people when they're needing him, who takes responsibility for his citizens and their well being. Vin changing and accepting herself for who she is, realizing that she can love Elend and be loved despite her flaws and their differences, opening herself to him. Sazed's arc finding his long lost love and losing it almost at the same time, realizing that despite carrying hundreds of religions in his copperminds, none of them have any value to him in this moment of grief - he's broken now. Those steps are necessary for characters to move forward, towards the final book. Without them book 3 wouldn't work at all - you need to read it to see it.

WoA also covers an important story - what happens after a successful revolution? In fantasy this topic is not covered that often. Here it is portrayed in a realistic way - killing an all-powerful tyrant leaves a power vacuum that everyone wants to fill in. It wasn't supposed to be easy. They should struggle to withstand their moral high ground against new tyrants arising left and right. And they needed to face the consequences of their actions.

The clever scheming that you're mentioned is what they tried to do. But their enemies were doing the same thing - both Straff and Cett were also scheming and planning how to win and both of them outsmarted Elend and almost took over.

And why did armies and their leaders like Cett bow before Vin? She is the last Mistborn still living, Cett lost his last one months ago, before the siege started, Straff lost Zane just days ago failing to kill Vin, and has no replacement (and he died). Straff's army lost most of their officers when the battle began, killed by Vin. And Vin had an army of Koloss. The choice is simply - die or kneel.

I will admit this to you, there are some weak parts of this book. Some sections drag a bit too long, and the whole love triangle is just bad. However even if I personally don't like the Vin-Elend-Zane triangle, it leads to some of the best moments in the book - Elend finding Vin after her attack on Cett, and their marriage later on. But it's still a fantastic sequel that sets the stage for an amazing ending in the Hero of Ages, one of the most satisfying conclusions I've read. HoA is a true great ending, that wouldn’t be possible without WoA. You simply must read it, it’s far better than WoA.

Here are words of Brandon about the ending of this book:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Epilogue

And so, the circle is complete. Sazed returns to the south and visits the Conventical again, Elend returns to the city wall.

Hopefully, I revealed this well enough for you to understand what you need to in order to make this book work. There are a lot of holes, I know. I've already apologized for that–we'll answer all of them in book three.

For now, understand that something was imprisoned, and it hijacked the Terris religion–the prophesies–and used the Well of Ascension to get free.

Book three is about the real theme of these books. Survival. It's going to be a tough road.

As a wrap up, I guess I'll say that for me, this book was about Vin and Elend testing and proving their standards. In the beginning, they both made certain determinations about themselves and what they wanted to accomplish. Elend intended to make a good government and not be an exception to his own rules.

Vin intended to love the good, kind man of Elend rather than the man of the street–the hard, strict man that was Kelsier. (See Chapter Ten, where Vin snuggles in the chair with Elend, for an in-dialogue outline of her belief system for this book. This is the offering of the challenge. The trial comes later.) They are both tested, then, in these assertions–Elend by losing his throne, Vin by being forced to take a long hard look at her own heart and what she really wanted. To her, Zane represented the past. Did she return to that, or did she look forward to the hope–and the future–that Elend represented?

They both hold strong. That's the true victory of this book. The release of the thing disregarded, this book marks great success for the characters. They were tested in their absolute most vital of personal convictions, and they passed. This prepared them for the final book. Now that they'd proven their ideals, they could bear the weights and griefs of the empire.

Of course, there is also Sazed. One of my goals in writing this book was to fix Elend and Vin. But another big one was to break Sazed. While they held firm to who they were, he has been forced to reassess his convictions, and he finds them wanting. Chapter fifty-four was one of the saddest chapters for me, personally, to write. In many ways, Elend and Vin have nearly completed their arcs as characters. But Sazed and Spook have just begun. And that is what leads us into Book Three.

The Well of Ascension Annotations (April 10, 2009)

 

[IEarthan]

Thanks for replying Treamayne & alder24. alder24 sir your comment so large. I liked it a lot. Thanks for taking the time to write your replies both you. I appreciate it. I am pissed though. Why did Elend suddenly have power? I know he ate something but that felt wrong to make a guy suddenly mistborn. Defeats the whole purpose of being gifted & pure blood to become Mistborn. Also Elend was no at all suited to become MB. His character was much better as it was. I am unable to continue with MB 3 Hero ... book anymore. I tried. Kindly suggest me your best fantasy recommendation based on your most favourite. Suggest a book which is like MB Book 1 FE but not like MB 2 & MB3.

[alder24]

Just now, IEarthan said:

Thanks for replying Treamayne & alder24. alder24 sir your comment so large. I liked it a lot. Thanks for taking the time to write your replies both you.

No problem, I enjoyed writing it

1 minute ago, IEarthan said:

Why did Elend suddenly have power? I know he ate something but that felt wrong to make a guy suddenly mistborn.

This is very important and it will be explained in HoA. The bead that Elend swallowed at the Well is something different. 

Elend as a Mistborn won't change that much in book 3. He won't replace Vin, he won't change the story, won't change his role or Vin's role in that story, but it will change the way he develops as a character - for better. Here are words of Brandon addressing your concerns:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Nothing is worse than trying so hard to do the right thing, then discovering that it was the worst thing you could have done.

I wrote this final chapter to be a slight upswing in the plot so that we wouldn't end on such a sour note. No, I didn't kill Elend. I sure wanted you to think that I would, but I never planned to. I had always intended them to discover where the first Mistborn had come from when they reached the Well of Ascension, and this bead of metal is very important to the cosmology of Scadrial and, indeed, the entire overarching story of my books as a whole .

Elend was intended to become Mistborn from the very early stages of this book's development. So, I figured I ought to do something to him that would make him NEED to be Mistborn. Why did I want to make Elend Mistborn? I know it bothered some readers. I felt I'd explored his character as well I could in this book, and I needed something to upset the balance–tenuous as it is–that he'd arrived at here. He's not going to replace Vin–you'll see in the next book that Elend as a Mistborn doesn't change as much as you might think. But it does put him in new situations, and those situations allow him to progress as a character in the way I felt he needed to.

Anyway, this will make for a very interesting book three. Also, the mist spirit–now, maybe, you can see a little of what it was trying to do. It was struggling to find a way to get Vin to NOT go to the Well of Ascension. Giving hints to Sazed, scaring her, threatening Elend, pointing in the opposite direction. However, it is rather hampered in what it can do, as we'll find in the next book.

The Well of Ascension Annotations (April 9, 2009)

 

2 minutes ago, IEarthan said:

Defeats the whole purpose of being gifted & pure blood to become Mistborn.

This is again a great observation and is a very important piece of puzzle explained in HoA. Note that Elend ate the last bead of this metal that was in the Well.

3 minutes ago, IEarthan said:

Also Elend was no at all suited to become MB. His character was much better as it was. I am unable to continue with MB 3 Hero ... book anymore. I tried. Kindly suggest me your best fantasy recommendation based on your most favourite. Suggest a book which is like MB Book 1 FE but not like MB 2 & MB3.

Mistborn book 3 is more like book 1, not book 2. Give it a try, read it. Many questions that you have right now will be answered and many confusing parts will be cleared out. I really recommend it to you, to finish HoA, it is truly a fantastic end to the trilogy, one of the best there is, dealing with all the questions that are still left unanswered, concluding the arcs of all characters, exploring the lore of book 1 in great details, and addressing the very issues that you have right now - like Elend not being suited to be a Mistborn.

[Treamayne]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:50 AM, IEarthan said:

Why did Elend suddenly have power? I know he ate something but that felt wrong to make a guy suddenly mistborn. Defeats the whole purpose of being gifted & pure blood to become Mistborn.

I can understand how this feels a bit like Dues Ex Machinae when you don't understand (slight spoilers):

Spoiler

The bead that Vin fed to Eland is Lerasium - the metal that the Lord Ruler used to give his "friends" the powers of a Mistborn 1000ys ago (they weren't friends - when he was conquering Scadrial he used it to bribe rival kingdoms "Join me and you can have this nifty power that will then pass down through the generations in your family line - oppose me and we will crush you and you gain nothing") .

You learn much more about this as the series continues.

On 5/13/2023 at 10:50 AM, IEarthan said:

Kindly suggest me your best fantasy recommendation based on your most favourite. Suggest a book which is like MB Book 1 FE but not like MB 2 & MB3.

Well, I posted a Cosmere reading list before in this post, If you are looking for something that is not by Sanderson, then may I suggest:

Spoiler

Fantasy:

• Complete Series
  •  Codex Alera (6 Books - Complete)
    • Author: Jim Butcher
    • Book one: Furies of Calderon
    • Lost Roman Legion didn't disappear on Earth, they were somehow transported to the world of Carna where all "lost travellers of the universe" end up. Beset by enemies on all sides, they eventually developed the capacity for a symbiotic bond with the local "furies" (elementals) which gives them access to "Furycrafting" (possibly the best expression of elemental magic in SF - IMO). After over 1000 yrs of development, the former Romans have created the Aleran Kingdom spanning nearly the entire continent. As of book one, the Heir is dead and Alera begins it's steady march toward civil war as the High Lords begin to vie for power once the aging First Lord should retire or die (or be killed). Into this is born Tavi, a shepherd's apprentice who is the first known Alrean to possess no furycraft in centuries. (Note: Book titles are spoilers so beware of checking them out early)
  • Seven Kennings (Trilogy)
    • Author: Kevin Hearne
    • Book One: A Plague of Giants
    • The Gods grant elemental powers to people who brave the sites of the Kennings. The catch: you are either blessed with a Kenning or you die. Each site has a different "survival" rate and there are five known Kennings (Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, Plants) and rumors say a Sixth kenning may have been discovered in Ghurana Nent. But when a volcanic eruption sends Giant refugees to invading the western continental coast at the same time that a race of previously unknown giants from across the eastern ocean invade the East coast the continental countries must band together for survival or be crushed.
  • Lightbringer Series (5 books - Complete)
    • Author: Brent Weeks
    • Book One: The Black Prism
    • Guile is the Prism. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live. When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart. Draftng is the powere to create mass from light - however every color of light creates a mass that has different properties (from the slickness of Orange to the rigid sharpness of Blue to the easily flammable Red)

Hero of Ages is till worth a try. It would be like not seeing Return of the Jedi because you didn't like the end of Empire Strikes Back.

On 5/13/2023 at 10:50 AM, IEarthan said:

Thanks for replying Treamayne & alder24

If you use the "@" sign, you can "mention" a person and they will get a notification. Example @IEarthan (just start spelling their name and a list will pop up showing you options).

Edited February 29 by Treamayne
Update to Seven Kennings

[IEarthan]

12 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

I can understand how this feels a bit like Dues Ex Machinae when you don't understand (slight spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

The bead that Vin fed to Eland is Lerasium - the metal that the Lord Ruler used to give his "friends" the powers of a Mistborn 1000ys ago (they weren't friends - when he was conquering Scadrial he used it to bribe rival kingdoms "Join me and you can have this nifty power that will then pass down through the generations in your family line - oppose me and we will crush you and you gain nothing") .

You learn much more about this as the series continues.

Well, I posted a Cosmere reading list before in this post, If you are looking for something that is not by Sanderson, then may I suggest:

  Reveal hidden contents

Fantasy:

• Guile is the Prism. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

  When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

  Complete Series
  •  Codex Alera (6 Books - Complete)
    • Author: Jim Butcher
    • Book one: Furies of Calderon
    • Lost Roman Legion didn't disappear on Earth, they were somehow transported to the world of Carna where all "lost travellers of the universe" end up. Beset by enemies on all sides, they eventually developed the capacity for a symbiotic bond with the local "furies" (elementals) which gives them access to "Furycrafting" (possibly the best expression of elemental magic in SF - IMO). After over 1000 yrs of development, the former Romans have created the Aleran Kingdom spanning nearly the entire continent. As of book one, the Heir is dead and Alera begins it's steady march toward civil war as the High Lords begin to vie for power once the aging First Lord should retire or die (or be killed). Into this is born Tavi, a shepherd's apprentice who is the first known Alrean to possess no furycraft in centuries. (Note: Book titles are spoilers so beware of checking them out early)
  • Seven Kennings (Trilogy - book three est release Fall 2023)
    • Author: Kevin Hearne
    • Book One: A Plague of Giants
    • The Gods grant elemental powers to people who brave the sites of the Kennings. The catch: you are either blessed with a Kenning or you die. Each site has a different "survival" rate and there are five known Kennings (Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, Plants) and rumors say a Sixth kenning may have been discovered in Ghurana Nent. But when a volcanic eruption sends Giant refugees to invading the western continental coast at the same time that a race of previously unknown giants from across the eastern ocean invade the East coast the continental countries must band together for survival or be crushed.
  • Lightbringer Series (5 books - Complete)
    • Author: Brent Weeks
    • Book One: The Black Prism
    • Guile is the Prism. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live. When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart. Draftng is the powere to create mass from light - however every color of light creates a mass that has different properties (from the slickness of Orange to the rigid sharpness of Blue to the easily flammable Red)

Hero of Ages is till worth a try. It would be like not seeing Return of the Jedi because you didn't like the end of Empire Strikes Back.

If you use the "@" sign, you can "mention" a person and they will get a notification. Example @IEarthan (just start spelling their name and a list will pop up showing you options).

Sir where? I can't find your reading list. I have only read MistBorn Book 1 Final.. & Book 2 Well... Kindly recommend your most favorite fantasy book please. 

[Treamayne]

32 minutes ago, IEarthan said:

Sir where? I can't find your reading list. I have only read MistBorn Book 1 Final.. & Book 2 Well... Kindly recommend your most favorite fantasy book please. 

My first response to your original post:

2 hours ago, Treamayne said:

You can find some reading order advice in this thread if you have not yet read anything else.

If you click the link, it takes you to a thread where another person asked about the reading order for Sanderson's Cosmere. You will find my personal recommendations there along with a number of other (sometimes conflicting) viewpoints.

There's no wrong way to enjoy the Cosmere, but there are a number of right ways. . . and we all love the share our personal preferences! RIght @alder24?