Books I like—or rather, all books I have finished since making this website :3

This book's existence is fascinating. It tells the story of what a certain character was up to during the events of The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages. It's a relatively light read, with less than a quarter of the word count of book 1 (I was able to finish the second half of Secret History in a single sitting). I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as the previous three books—it's more of a side story, with less narrative depth and fewer interesting threads to follow than the main books. It's worth reading, and fills in a few gaps, but I'm more excited for the Wax & Wayne tetralogy.

A review of this book said that Sanderson is an evil genius—I couldn't agree more. This book recontextualizes everything that happened before, even seemingly insignificant things. There were so many points while reading where I audibly went "No way, what?!". There were also a few big twists I was able to predict, and it made me feel so smart. I will forever be ridiculously proud that I correctly predicted the big twist at the end of the book—the clues were set up so perfectly, and I picked up on them. If I had any critique, it would be that for most of the book, the two plotlines just feel too separate, and so the reading experience could be a bit jarring chapter to chapter. Still, though, reading this was just an incredible experience. The Hero of Ages is a phenomenal finale to the incredible Mistborn trilogy. Absolutely crazy final chapter, too.

The Well of Ascension is a phenomenal Mistborn sequel. It follows a very different plot chapter-to-chapter, yet it does an incredible job at expanding upon previously-established characters. There are huge twists in this book, ones I didn't see from a mile away, and they put so many previous moments into a different context. The primary magic system—Allomancy—is expanded upon, albeit less than I was hoping for. I believe that this book is essentially as good of a sequel to Mistborn as could reasonably exist, and what it has set up for book 3 is super exciting. I also find it interesting that this book puts much more emphasis on different viewpoints—maybe half of book 2 is from the main protagonist's perspective, if even that, and it's done beautifully. The ending of the book is wild, but no spoilers here :3

This is a contender for my new favorite book. It's the first part of the Mistborn fantasy trilogy, and is generally self-contained while still doing a great job of setting up a sequel. It has an incredible cast of complex characters and takes place in a well-thought-out world. Everything is tied together with perhaps the best (and coolest) magic system I've ever seen. It's about a girl named Vin who discovers she has the power of a Mistborn, and must use her newfound abilities to help overthrow an immortal tyrant ruler. For any fan of the fantasy genre, I cannot recommend this book enough. Once I got hooked (after 3 chapters or so) I couldn't put it down.