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Brandon Sanderson / Re: ***SPOILERS Official Hero of Ages Spoilers Thread. Includes Q&A w/Brandon****
« on: December 17, 2008, 05:05:58 AM »
I know that Brandon hasn't commented in here for ages (understandably, he is writing a book and all that), but I wanted to put my question and two cents in. (Sorry I didn't have time to read all of the pages, just twenty or so, so this doesn't interact with any recent flows in comments).
First off, question. What happened to the Terris people? Sazed thinks to himself that he's probably the last Feruchemist they have. So when he heals the world, does he give this gift back to his people? Was this question answered in the book and was I reading too fast because it was the end and I had to know what happened to everyone so I missed that small detail?
Then, as someone who lived in Provo for six years, and attended BYU at the same time that Brandon was getting his Master's, and was in the Medieval club (which has nothing to do with anything except we put on feasts for LTUE), and I never knew who he was until I moved across the country really frustrates me. I've never been to an author signing, and they occur all the time all over my old stomping grounds. No fair!
As far as the Mormon/LDS influence, I thought I saw some, but that may be my own reading lens coming through. I did almost fall off the couch laughing when it turned out the Lord Ruler had, essentially, food storage, and when I came to the line where it mentioned that he had to rotate it regularly, I about died of laughter. I just kept imagining him with his year's supply all labeled and ready, including buckets of wheat.
More importantly, I liked how Brandon included religion and questions of faith and belief and their importance/non importance on people and cultures. I feel all too often in fantasy religion is either ignored completely or ridiculed, and in the Mistborn trilogy the deeper questions of what is right and good, what is trust and why is trust so important, as well as the religious searching of Sazed to be the most compelling part of it all to me.
Also, although the ending was neither what I was expecting nor hoping for, I feel that it was truly the best ending for the book. Like in Casablanca, which has a bittersweet ending - of course part of me wants the saccharine sweetness. But a (larger) part of me recognizes that life is more complex then that, and Mistborn has been nothing if not close to real life feelings. I think that's why I found the series so compelling as a whole - there were no all good or all bad. Even Ruin and Preservation (which reminded me a lot of the skeksies (sp?) and the mystics in The Dark Crystal) have their appropriate places. And death has its' appropriate place. I don't think the ending was sad at all - just bittersweet. Of course, I do believe heartily in an afterlife, so to me as long as they're together, Vin and Elend haven't ended at all. - Just left the center stage of the storytelling narrative.
First off, question. What happened to the Terris people? Sazed thinks to himself that he's probably the last Feruchemist they have. So when he heals the world, does he give this gift back to his people? Was this question answered in the book and was I reading too fast because it was the end and I had to know what happened to everyone so I missed that small detail?
Then, as someone who lived in Provo for six years, and attended BYU at the same time that Brandon was getting his Master's, and was in the Medieval club (which has nothing to do with anything except we put on feasts for LTUE), and I never knew who he was until I moved across the country really frustrates me. I've never been to an author signing, and they occur all the time all over my old stomping grounds. No fair!
As far as the Mormon/LDS influence, I thought I saw some, but that may be my own reading lens coming through. I did almost fall off the couch laughing when it turned out the Lord Ruler had, essentially, food storage, and when I came to the line where it mentioned that he had to rotate it regularly, I about died of laughter. I just kept imagining him with his year's supply all labeled and ready, including buckets of wheat.
More importantly, I liked how Brandon included religion and questions of faith and belief and their importance/non importance on people and cultures. I feel all too often in fantasy religion is either ignored completely or ridiculed, and in the Mistborn trilogy the deeper questions of what is right and good, what is trust and why is trust so important, as well as the religious searching of Sazed to be the most compelling part of it all to me.
Also, although the ending was neither what I was expecting nor hoping for, I feel that it was truly the best ending for the book. Like in Casablanca, which has a bittersweet ending - of course part of me wants the saccharine sweetness. But a (larger) part of me recognizes that life is more complex then that, and Mistborn has been nothing if not close to real life feelings. I think that's why I found the series so compelling as a whole - there were no all good or all bad. Even Ruin and Preservation (which reminded me a lot of the skeksies (sp?) and the mystics in The Dark Crystal) have their appropriate places. And death has its' appropriate place. I don't think the ending was sad at all - just bittersweet. Of course, I do believe heartily in an afterlife, so to me as long as they're together, Vin and Elend haven't ended at all. - Just left the center stage of the storytelling narrative.