The Hero of Ages
Brandon Sanderson, 2008
A world buried in ash, a town bracing for monsters, and an emperor who takes command before anyone can object. Ash-choked and tense, with a patient build, flashes of awe, and a voice that stays warm even when dread gathers.
Feels like awe, dread and hope. About love.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy epic fantasy with dire stakes, military maneuvering, and a world whose ash and monsters feel lived in. As the closing volume of a trilogy, it assumes you already know the previous books’ factions and magic, so starting here may leave you scrambling.
Why read it
Pick it up to see a besieged world answered with strategy and resolve, and to watch a large cast strain under choices that matter.
A page from the book
The most unsettling thing about power is when it is polite.
The sword jerked from Druffel’s hand, yanked into the air by an unseen force. The stranger snatched the weapon as it passed his head. He flipped the sword around, inspecting it. “Good steel,” he said, nodding. “I’m impressed. How many of your soldiers are this well equipped?” He flipped the weapon in his hand, handing it back toward Druffel hilt-first. Brandon Sanderson.Sanderson was chosen by Robert Jordan’s widow, Harriet, to finish The Wheel of Time—a series he had loved since he was a teenage reader.
Books that feel like this
More by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson, 2006
A street thief who burns metals for luck is pulled into a heist against a god-emperor—and a world buried in ash.
The Well of Ascension
Brandon Sanderson, 2007
A young Mistborn and a scholar-king try to hold a freed city together while an army gathers outside and old prophecy starts to look like a trap.
The Way of Kings
Brandon Sanderson, 2015
When a young scholar challenges ancient religious doctrine, they force a confrontation between faith, logic, and the true nature of divinity. A sweeping epic of idealism and intellectual defiance.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is The Hero of Ages for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy epic fantasy with dire stakes, military maneuvering, and a world whose ash and monsters feel lived in. As the closing volume of a trilogy, it assumes you already know the previous books’ factions and magic, so starting here may leave you scrambling.
- What is The Hero of Ages like?
- Ash-choked and tense, with a patient build, flashes of awe, and a voice that stays warm even when dread gathers. Feels like awe, dread and hope. About love.
- What should I read after The Hero of Ages?
- If you liked The Hero of Ages, try The Assassin's Blade (Sarah J. Maas), Beartown (Fredrik Backman) and It Starts with Us (Colleen Hoover).
A taste of the feed
What people do with pain when they cannot put it down.
If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it- to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger.
The Assassin's Blade · Sarah J. Maas
How to hold a love that ended without filing it under failure.
Maybe the idea of love ending being a negative thing is simply a matter of perspective. Because to me, the idea that a love came to an end means that, at some point, there was love that existed. And there was a time in my life, before you, when I was completely untouched by it.
It Starts with Us · Colleen Hoover
A blessing for love that doubles as a warning.
I hope you find someone you can’t live without.I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have to try and live without them.
The Selection · Kiera Cass
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed