Mistborn Diary — Book Three: The Hero of Ages

Note: This post contains spoilers for the entire Mistborn trilogy.

This is Part 3 of a four-part Mistborn diary. If you’re arriving here first, you may want to start with Book One: The Final Empire and Book Two: The Well of Ascension.

What follows is a lightly edited record of the messages I sent my friend Ruta while reading The Hero of Ages.

A beginning without hope

25 June 2026, 12:06:44 PM

I started the third book. But I am bored and distracted. I see no hope in the story—no hope that makes me want to keep reading. There is absolutely nothing to look forward to.

I am 10% into the book, but I am not able to read it nonstop. It is difficult to keep on reading. I don’t feel like reading it.

Halfway through, and I have stopped guessing

9 July 2026, 9:53:56 PM — 50% into the book

The fantasy of the Mistborn world is crazy amazing.

While reading the first book, I could think of many, many plausible endings. I had so many theories, but the twists were nowhere near what I had imagined.

In Book Two, I thought I now knew Sanderson’s way of thinking and could guess what the ending might be. But I was left super-shocked by a twist that took us straight back to square one.

Going into the third book, I have absolutely no guesses about the possible ending. I am 50% into it and it has so, so many unfinished, loose ends.

That is the only thing that has remained the same throughout the trilogy: multiple stories run in parallel. Until the very end, you have absolutely no idea how everything will come together and then it just does.

Oh man, how beautifully Sanderson creates a world, an unimaginable but very, very real world. It offers a glimpse of how things might have evolved for us humans on Earth, while weaving in philosophy and the coming of age of the characters.

I am simply loving the series.

But I am now glad I am reading it at this age, when I think I am mature enough to understand the depth and breadth the books have to offer.

9 July 2026, 9:53:56 PM

I only wish I had read a hard copy instead of reading it on Kindle. I don’t like that I can have only ten pins. I have so many highlights.

I would have loved for Ira to someday read the same copy that I read, loved, underlined and basically had fun with.

9 July 2026, 10:11:54 PM

I went into the series with a blank slate, knowing absolutely nothing about what to expect. I had not read or heard anything about the books.

Maybe that made me love them even more.

Done with the series

12 July 2026, 12:17:39 AM

Done with the series. Loved it.

I loved the storytelling, the writing, author’s grasp on his readers, and the subtly deep philosophy. 😄

All the clues are right there in the open. It is not as if the clues are left subtly, mentioned once somewhere random. No—the clues are out there in the open, mentioned and explained multiple times. But I had still not thought in that direction: the direction of the overall story and the final reveals.

And it is not as if reading Sanderson’s third book means you now know how he writes. That is not enough of a clue either.

The series has ended, but it has left an amazing opening—an epilogue with open ends for the next series.

One day, rereading it with Ira

13 July 2026, 7:53:29 PM

I still can’t rank fantasy series. Each holds a special place for me. I loved each one when I read it.

I loved Harry Potter when I read it in college. I am so, so looking forward to rereading it with Ira. Maybe I will appreciate the depth of the Harry Potter story more when I read it now.

And perhaps one day I will reread Mistborn with her too.

This is Part 3 of a four-part Mistborn series.

• Book One: The Final Empire — Diary
• Book Two: The Well of Ascension — Diary
• Book Three: The Hero of Ages — Diary (you are here)
• Mistborn Kept Proving Me Wrong — A Retrospective