Read this one immediately after finishing the Final Empire - he keeps the pace up so well! 
 I think the themes of this book nicely complement the initial ones raised in the series opener - trust, selflessness, love, the infallibility of man, the purpose of war - while developing them in a real and tangible way through the various character arcs. I like that we saw a lot more perspectives in this novel than the first. In other books I have seen this kind of repeated perspective shift fall flat, but Sanderson is always very clear when he changes character perspective and I never have that awkward moment of "forgetting" which character I'm reading, even if it switches between two characters /in the same scene/. As much as I enjoyed focusing on Kelsier and Vin in the last novel, I love love LOVE that we got to hear from the many other fascinating characters that populate this world in this one. 
 The world building also really stepped it up in this novel - the history of the world, going into more detail about the creatures of the world (e.g. kandra, koloss), another cool source text to study (a great feature from the first novel which I am glad was resurrected in an equally fascinating form), learning more about Allomancy... it just didn't stop! It all seemed consistent with the initial worldbuilding as well, so overall it felt really satisfying and has left me really eager to learn more about this world (and the Deepness!!). 
 Last thing to fangirl about: politics! Scheming! War strategy! Intrigue! Checked all my boxes on this front. 
 The main issue I had with this book is the treatment of one character, Zane, and the appearance of a hated romance trope. Spoilers ahead. (view spoiler)[WHY ARE THERE ALWAYS LOVE TRIANGLES ALWAYS, WHY, THERE WASN'T EVEN CHEMISTRY WHAT. I can deal with the cute little Elend/Vin shenanigans on the side if you want some romance woven through, and their relationship ended up ok here though I was getting tired of it a little in the middle there, but throwing in A BAD ASS SUPERVILLAIN as mere love triangle fodder when he would have been way more fascinating without the romance... I just can't handle it. What a waste of a great character concept - the madness, the skaa background (which is woefully underrepresented in this second installment, given Vin appears the only skaa left), his life under Straff would have all been fascinating. I wanted back story, not fodder for an already overly angsty teen relationship! I probably would have even allowed the love triangle if he had more back story/personality, but since he had neither, it becomes irredeemable. Whyyyyy. (hide spoiler)] 
 The book would have been a five star for me without the angsty romance drama. Otherwise, it was a fantastic fantasy novel - and I'll still read the next one, though I pray to the Lord Ruler that we have seen the last of the angsty romance.