Here’s how you know you’ve read a really, really good book: you don’t want to read anything else. It’s sort of like that scene you see occasionally in the movies…a girl gets her hand or cheek kissed by someone famous, and she’s so overcome that she says “I’ll never wash my hand/cheek again!”.
Well, I’ve been kissed by a really good book – it’s the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, and I just want him to hurry up and write another book already! I go through my bookshelf (which is overflowing with books I formerly wanted to read) and I don’t want to read any of them. I pick them up, glance at the back, flip through the pages, sigh over them, then go sew or watch Torchwood episodes. I think Brandon Sanderson may have ruined me. I’d be genuinely concerned, if I hadn’t had this exact reaction to Harry Potter. Or more recently, “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell”. Or C.S. Lewis. Or Scott Lynch. Or… Okay, I think I’ve made my point; don’t get me started listing my literary loves or this post will be five blocks long.
Here’s my review of Hero of Ages, as posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com:
The first two books in the Mistborn trilogy were excellent, but it is only in the last one that Sanderson twists everything you know, and everything you *think* you know in such an unexpected, completely original direction that you’re left breathless. All the little clues were there, but he planted them so artfully that they aren’t even noticed until suddenly you realize the meaning *behind* what you’ve been reading! I’ve rarely read such a masterful plot.
I discovered this author by hearing that he had been chosen to finish Robert Jordan’s last Wheel of Time novel. I started reading Sanderson’s books because I wanted to assure myself that Jordan’s family had chosen a writer who could finish the saga successfully. Now I realize that writing Jordan’s last book is a waste of Sanderson’s talents; he should be writing his *own* books. I positively cannot wait to see what Sanderson’s next book, or series of books, will be. I also want to sit down and re-read the Mistborn trilogy over again from the beginning; the first two books will be an entirely different reading experience, now that I understand the truth.
Now go get yourself kissed by Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy!
Out of Eden 