Mistborn Liveblog 29

Chapter 28

Point of view is a vital part of any story. It fuels the emotion of the scene and can add insights to help the reader. The trouble with point of view is that it needs to be honest-- to have a character lie to the reader from their own view is tantamount to having the character lie to themselves. Now, there are times when this may be valuable-- if the character has a mental issue, for example-- but most of the time, I think the character who's holding the viewpoint needs to be honest with the reader.

When a story has only a couple of points of view (or less), this doesn't present much of an issue for keeping secrets from the reader-- you just have to make sure the few characters whose views are in play do not know it. As soon as you start expanding the list of viewpoint characters, it becomes a more difficult matter. Of course, this can also serve to dispel suspicion of a character, by showing their viewpoint the readers will stop thinking of them as hiding something with respect to the scene.

On to the spoilers:

Vin was charged with spreading some false stories about some of the noble houses and to learn what she could about the weaknesses of Venture house from Elend. I'm going to gloss over her talking to the gossip, that was fairly predictable, and I'm going to just brush right past the point where Elend nearly kisses Vin. I'm not even going to spend much time regarding Venture running the atium mines. The most interesting part of this chapter is where we get to see things from Elend's view.

I was a bit thrown when it switched to Elend, particularly so late in the story. I don't think I was really growing suspicious of Elend at all, but the few scenes from his view really served to solidify the beliefs and views he held-- that they were not just a cover. Up until now, we've really only had Vin and Kelsier to rely on for points of view, but suddenly getting Elend's view elevates him as a character, making him pehaps the third most important character in the story. Whether that proves for anything remains to be seen, but having him suddenly rise up this late in the story is an interesting decision. Of course, we needed to know that he's grown suspicious of Vin and that will heighten the risks in coming scenes, something I feel is needed about now.

More tomorrow. Happy reading.

Jameson