Mistborn II: The Fountain of Exaltation

Killing a god was the easy part... A year had passed since the death of the Lord Ruler, to whom everyone ascribed divine essence. But the tyrant's fall did not bring peace or prosperity to his subjects. In all parts of the former Final Empire, local rulers are struggling for power, and the city of Luthadel, home to the new king of the Central Dominance, Elend Venture, a young man with a head full of ideals, is besieged by several armies, one of which is commanded by his own father! Fortunately, the inexperienced monarch has the fearless Vin by his side, who would sacrifice her own life for him - and has almost done so on more than one occasion. The short and thin girl is the most powerful Mistborn far and wide and with the help of her chosen metals she can do real wonders, so she decided to protect her beloved day and night. But the rarest of metals, atium, is running out, and she searches in vain for its reserves, which the deposed despot is said to have hidden in the metropolis and for which Luthadel is now surrounded by enemies. The second part of an epic fantasy series, set along with the author's other stories in an original world he created - the cosmere. "Sanderson proves that he is not only a master of action, but also a great strategist. The source of the promotion is essentially one big political chessboard, where the survival of an entire nation in a besieged city is at stake." - Fantasyplanet.cz "While the first episode was about fighting the system, the second is about trying to maintain the system. The author masterfully shows that it is much harder to rule than to overthrow an empire." - Sarden.cz "Vin is no longer just a scared girl off the street, but a being with the power of a demigod who struggles with his own humanity and loyalty. In this work, her relationship with Elend is put to its most difficult test - political reality and uncertainty." - from reader feedback on Databazeknih.cz "The ending. Sanderson just takes your breath away. All the subtle hints he scatters throughout the book suddenly fall into place and you realize you've been looking in the wrong direction all along." - from reader reviews on Goodreads.com Vin slid silently forward, eyes on the stopwatch. As usual, she was burning pure tin and tin with lead. The tin sharpened her senses, so she could better orient herself in the dark. And the tin and lead gave strength to her legs and to her whole body. She felt lighter. These metals, plus copper - which had the ability to hide its allomantic activity from others who burned bronze - burned almost continuously. Some thought her a fool. But she felt ever alert. Anyway, it's saved her life several times. She approached the corner and stopped there, looking around the corner. She never really understood how the metals burned. She remembered that she had been doing it since she was a child, and that even before Kelsier trained her as Mistborn, she had done it instinctively. But it didn't really matter. She was different from Elend. She didn't need a logical justification for everything. All she had to do was swallow small particles of metal and she would get new strength and abilities after them. She valued her power because she knew what it was like not to have it. Even now she didn't feel like much of a fighter. She was petite and barely five feet tall. She had dark hair and fair skin and looked rather like a fragile creature. She didn't look as thin as she did years ago when she lived on the streets, but she was definitely not someone an opponent would be scared of at first sight. She liked it. It was an advantage to her and she needed those. - excerpt from the book