BreakRaven

A few random notes:

1) I think it was pretty obvious that Spook's parents meant to kill him before Clubs came to get him, since, you know, his father was crushing his boot down on the kid's windpipe and all. But then just a few pages later, Spook said that if Clubs hadn't come to get him, Spook probably would have lived his life in the mines somewhere.

.....So, I guess little tiny baby Spook was planning to break free, kill off his own family and escape into the mines? Or what? Because as I saw it in the flashback, there was no way he'd get out of that room alive, which makes a life in the mines an impossibility, Clubs or no.

2) How many times can Sanderson remind us of what all the different metals do? It's like, since there's no more Mistborn stuff in this book, he feels the need to repeat what a metal does every single time somebody burns it. I mean, come on! Even assuming that I haven't read the first 1,200 pages of the first two books in the series, I'm already a hundred and fifty pages into this one. Spook has burned tin at least twenty times so far. Okay, thanks, Sanderson, I think I can probably remember what it does, so stop telling me already. (And the same goes for every other metal that people have used so far - especially pewter. Good grief, if I have to hear one more time that pewter strengthens the body, makes wounds seem lesser, makes one practically immune to cold, or any of the other stuff it does one more time, I'll start ripping out my hair.)

3) What I actually miss the most about this series is the Mistborn stuff. Next to, you know,

anyway. Seriously, there's so much talk about Elend this, Elend that, Elend here, Elend there, war this, end of the world that, Elend, Elend, Elend, that I never get to see Vin just flying around being a Mistborn anymore. And

are gone, and Elend is completely useless and never uses his oh-so-special powers. I miss the Mistborn stuff so badly. I can seriously pick up almost any book in the fantasy section for the political stuff and the end of the world stuff and the sieges and armies and whatnot - it was the Mistborn stuff that made the first book so unique, and I feel like it's getting more and more ignored as the series goes on. Such a disappointment.

4) This one's a bit spoilery, but seriously. First Elend, and now Spook, and who even knows who else.....GRRRR. Can't we just have a couple of useless, weak, likable characters around anymore?! I like the weaker characters, I feel like they give the book a nice change of pace from all the gods running around beating each other up. That's why I liked Elend in the first book. But nooooooo.

Sanderson, I've got something to tell you.

SO CUT IT OUT ALREADY.

5) Why the heck is Elend not listening to Cett's perfectly good advice? I mean, he wants to capture the entire land for his own, right? And he wants to gather all the people in one place to protect them, right? Or so he preaches every time he opens his mouth.

So when Cett suggests that he should go out and do exactly what Elend has repeatedly said he plans to do, why does stupid Elend turn him down? I mean, it wouldn't cost them anything to go take those smaller cities. It wouldn't even cost them any more time, because they'd leave a garrison here to keep up the siege and wear down the main city. They literally wouldn't lose anything by going out and taking the lesser cities, and Elend does plan to take them eventually, right? So all this nonsense about "not wanting to pillage the countryside" is a complete lie anyway! He plans to go after them in time - just not right now, for some unexplained reason.

Gah. Elend. If he doesn't die at the end of this book I might never read another Sanderson book again. I enjoy Sanderson's stuff too much for that to be a happy decision, so please, book, work with me a little. Please.