Whew! Getting tense now. I love endings—they’re my favorite parts of books to write. Once, I wrote 16,000 words in one day to finish up a book. (That was my record until I finished Scribbler a few weeks back. I think I did 23k on that book in one day to finish it off.)
We start this chapter off with our only Dockson viewpoint. You’ll notice that it’s a hallmark of my style to start multiplying viewpoint characters as books draw to their climaxes. I like the feeling of chaos it creates, and I like the way it lets me show a lot of sides of what is happening. In addition, it just makes the endings feel more special, since you get to see from eyes you haven’t before.
Elend stays true to character in this scene, coming in with his idealism and his talk of theory and politics. He really did turn out to be a good character, which is why you’re going to see plenty of him later.
Captain Goradel, by the way, is named after my friend Richard Gordon.
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