***SPOILERS Official Hero of Ages Spoilers Thread. Includes Q&A w/Brandon****

[Blue Rose]

Hi Brandon
I'm terribly disappointed I didn't know about Mistborn before Worldcon, or I would have gotten to meet you.  Mistborn is fantastic, I burst into tears in the lunch room at work then I finished HOA today. (I had someone get it from another town for me since there are STILL no copies in my city).

Here is my question:
Sazed mentions that Preservation got Vin to mostly stop wearing her earing before she met Kelsier, but she then kept it in because he suggested it.  Was this influenced by Ruin, or did Kell really just think it was a good idea?

[Brienen]

First time poster,

I've been wondering something from the First book that I've been looking at over and over in my head.

In the First book, Misborn, Vin takes a piece of pewter from Sazed (Mistborn page 407 HC page 489 $4.99 SC rebate edition) she notices the shadow of Sazed's Power stored in the Metal, can all Mistborn do this or is this because Vin also has Feruchemical abilities that lie undiscovered?

On a note that was made in earlier pages (though I didn't read all the way through so this might have been stated already) Kelsier Spoke to Spook twice in Hero of Ages first when he was in the burning building (CH 19 pg, 141) when he told spook to "Get up!", it could have been a reinforcment of Ruin however Ruin was already enforcing himself in a visual aspect to Spook so this seems unlikely.  The First "Get up!" was Ruin however the second Command was italizied implying it was in spooks mind purely as Kelsier spoke to him the second time.  The second notable quote is when Kelsier also said to Spook, "I named you, Spook.  You were my friend.  Isn't that enough" (Ch 58, Pg. 408)

I must say I enjoyed the books quite a bit, and you left a lot of questions on where the books could lead.  One Corolation I like that you brought into this world like Elantris is that there is no ONE way to access the powers of the divine, which has me wondering that there might be a way to directly use Allomancy without the Metals, that possibly with Profiency (maybe servant of the metals and recovering allow for use) you could learn to directly tap the power of the Divine in the way you were with say Tin or Pewter?

[fbd]

I have one question, and it NEEDS to be answered.  When did they discover the game of cricket?

Page 192 "Plus. you've managed --in our short three years together-- to kill not only my god, but my father, my brother, and my fiancee.  That's kind of like a homicidal hat trick"  (Bolding is mine)

The term hat trick was invented for cricket, and adapted to other sports (notably hockey), first used in the 1880s. That one line took me out-of-world for a good five minutes.

Also, Elend can't count, because hat trick is 3, and she killed 4.

The characters don't speak English, so what we read is a translation into our language. Elend in his native language actually used an in-world equivalent metaphor, possibly one which involved a set of four rather than three.

I do think it's a good idea to pay attention to anachronism when using metaphors and idoms, but that's also something that can be taken too far—for example, trying not to use any words with latinate roots because there was never a former empire of that type in the universe you're writing in. That would probably be impossible because English is what English is, and the book is written in English.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the old "they aren't speaking English so the author is translating" idea, and of course you don't want to take it too far.  Ignoring Latin roots is definitely not a good idea, but it was just such a blatant anachronism (to me, a sports fan) when the books don't mention any type of sport at all.  If they had even in passing mentioned some sort of popular game where people score some sort of goal, I might have been able to go by it, but to me it was just as out of character as referencing a movie or real-world popular song.

Now, this is my largest criticism in the whole book, mind you, so obviously it isn't a major issue.  Just something that distracted and somewhat bothered me.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

It could have been a sport that hadn't been played in the last 1000 years, but the idiom remained. Language does funny things like that.

But it's good to avoid things that will take the reader out of the book.

[Elmandr]

It could have been a sport that hadn't been played in the last 1000 years, but the idiom remained. Language does funny things like that.

But it's good to avoid things that will take the reader out of the book.

yes baggage is never good. Only mention what is necessary. Oh and repeat whats important.

[Inkthinker]

I think Brandon just couldn't resist the way the alliteration in "homicidal hat trick" rolls off the tongue.

I always took "hat trick" to be a reference to stage magicians pulling rabbits and such out of their hats.

[Plasman]

alright, i've only taken the time to read the first 10 of this thread so far, but i decided i would share what i've learned and take the punishment if i happen to repeat stuff.

first off i'm going to gloat. as far as i know i was the first one on this forum to suggest that Vin's earring was a hemalurgic spike. http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=5697.0     there is my evidence.

second i have to say that Hero of Ages was completely awesome. it was incredibly complex and fulfilling, and even though i saw some elements coming there were still enough moments of sheer awesomeness that i'm still very happy about it.

third. this last wednesday i was able to attend the signing in huntington beach and was able to gather some interesting pieces of information from brandon. he revealed that the names of Preservation and Ruin were Ati and Leras and hinted that they were once just people who came to hold and were transformed by the respective powers. From their names we get the names of the two godly metals: ATIum and LERASium (the metal elend ate).
He also at one point made a comment something like "i've had many people tell me that i need to write a sequel to elantris, and then i hear this voice in my head saying 'maybe i already have...'" i'll let u speculate on that, cuz i really don't know what that means.
I got a chance to talk a little about Hoid with him as well, and we started talking about all the places he shows up, and then i said "yeah, but then he died in the beginning of Liar of Partinel"  to which he replied "well at least someone they called Hoid died..."  from that i kinda thought that maybe Hoid is a title rather than an actual name and that there are many Hoid's spread out across the cosmos performing some incredible duty...
he also mention the future book The Silence Divine and gave us a short explanation. Apparently in this story the magic system is based on diseases. what that means is that when you get sick the virus also imparts a special power, having evolved to do this in order to stay alive. the example brandon gave was that u catch a cold and then have the ability to fly for that time. the books working title comes from the highest class in this society in which a disease has made its people go deaf, but grants them some great power. i think this a very interesting concept as you could randomly gain and lose powers at anytime and in order to gain a power your body is weekend and your life essentially put at risk.

[firstRainbowRose]

Woah, that's so cool to hear about!!!  There was a writing prompt a while ago that had to do with a magic system where people go deaf.  It's so cool to hear the way he might take it.

[Chaos]

The Silence Divine sounds cool

Also, I pieced it together from Brandon's posts in this thread the Ati and Leras thing, but that was around page 10, I believe. But that earring Hemalurgy thing, yes, we shall gladly concede the point to you for coming up with it first

He also at one point made a comment something like "i've had many people tell me that i need to write a sequel to elantris, and then i hear this voice in my head saying 'maybe i already have...'"

Maybe that means one of his books is like a spiritual successor to Elantris, or something.

[Xandeis]

Hey got a quick question, and I am not sure the relevance, but atium let's one see the possible futures, correct? Wouldn't that be the same as see the complete future? If only for a brief time frame, but when El burned it with duralumin in the end-game against Marsh, he must have seen even further, of course he would have seen his death, then Vin's sacrifice, possibly Sazed's ascension, and maybe even the completion of the new world. That's probably why he said "It's up to you now, Vin. I've done what I can"...pg.546,HoA.

I was thinking that Ati or Atium sounded a little like Atum...which is the Eygptian god known as the complete one, or the creator...the underlying force behind life, and at the end of the creative cycle, his body turns in to...get this....watery chaos...sound familar?

[Elmandr]

Brandon savors stretching the concept of fantasy--he is a rebel, refusing to take up what other authors have subconsciously considered a standard in fantasy....Im talking about his magic systems.

Anyway, The Silence Divine. Seriously, i could just die with speculation's and wonder. Really, im glad to have Sanderson, he brings adventure and wonder to a world that i thought was completely figured out. Maybe we haven't reached a climax in creative literature--there is hope for us yet.

[nonrevlb]

I LOVED the book.  I actually really liked the ending because of the values it represented of selfless sacrifice.  That being said I have one question about the Announcer.  How can the Announcer be something ruin made up if the Kandra(who knew the original prophecies) believed Sazed was the Announcer?

[Dalenthas]

The Kandra knew what the prophecies were at the time of Alendi and Rashek, not the original prophecy.

[Brienen]

remember nonrevlb that the Kandra are the decendants of Ferchemicalists...that means the originals were Rasheks original crew...Yes they did know the Prophecies...that had already been corrupted by Ruin to get Alendi to release him rather than use the power for the good of his people.

[urbmd]

I  just finished Hero of Ages and I loved the book, and loved the Trilogy!  Brandon's plot twists and surprise endings are fantastic, better than any author I've read (and I'm so glad he was chosen to finish AMOL).  

I would love to see this trilogy as a set of movies, and  think they would translate well to the screen, because movies with unexpected, climactic endings I think do well and are reviewed well.  The only downside would be that movies with strong religious themes will apt to be controversial.

In the ending of HOA, though, I would have liked better closure.  Though it was great to see all the loose ends tied, Sazed take over for Preservation/Ruin and finally remake the world, I disliked seeing Vin and Elend die ( how old was Vin? 20?) never having experienced the world they sacrificed to build, not even leaving children or any part of themselves to see those flowers they so hoped for.  The ending was very  moving, but I needed at least  a funeral where words were shared to honor and announce Vin's sacrifice (which no one would know except Sazed) or maybe a scene when Sazed says farewell to Elend and Vin in the afterlife, as he apparently did contact them in some way (per the letter to Spook).  The funeral  and afterlife scenes in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows/ Half blood prince worked well to bring closure, even if their endings were not nearly as interesting, complete or satisfying.