Vin and Elend must find a way to fix the world they broke and the overwhelming influence of Ruin makes it very difficult to do so. They find out it can alter any written text and influence people through psychic manipulation. This overbearing power causes the entire quest to find the caches a dire situation; not to mention the insidious apocalyptic happenings with lava eruptions and ash clouding the sky.

The sense of urgency in this book allows for the plot to constantly be moving forward. Many characters have great moments of awareness and contribute to the “save the world” scenario in their own ways. All of the actions taken by characters in this book feel genuine and though some struggle, they all contribute to the cause.

Sazed and Spook are the stars in my opinion. They both go through so much. Sazed has to deal with the death of a woman he loves and losing his faith. Spook couples with his feelings of inadequacy and sense of purpose. While going through these struggles, they still help to save the world.

Vin and Elend do some truly heroic things and the choreography of the battles is still top notch. They however do not have much to do in the way of development, until the end, so their parts are more to advance the plot. I still enjoyed their interactions as the new dynamic of king and “queen” provided a fresh perspective.

As a Sanderson stan this book was a crazy end to a fantastic series. He has a crazy way of tying everything together nicely and I love how things he mentioned in the first book are still relevant. He does this in The Stormlight Archives as well. Everything was so well thought out and it seems like he knew what he was doing from the start, which is insane to think one can plan that far ahead when writing an epic fantasy, but it all made sense and came together perfectly in the end.

I am despaired that it’s over but thoroughly enjoyed the experience. If you are thinking about getting into his works I’d say this is the series to start with.