Another, even better trilogy?
I don’t remember who got me onto Brandon Sanderson books in the first place, but from the moment I read the first book in the Mistborn series, The Final Empire I was hooked. I followed up with Skyward, got all the four books in his super successful secret kickstarter, and have since read the whole Mistborn trilogy, including The Well of Ascension, The Hero Ages and the additional 3.5 book in the series, Secret History.
And when I realized that the Mistborn series carries on with a whole other quadrilogy (cue amazement) I just knew I was going to read that one as well.
I had my hopes up, of course I did. Sanderson is a fantastic author and I never doubted that The Alloy of Law was going to deliver the goods. At the same time, I figured it would be difficult to live up to expectations, when the original trilogy is as good as it is. But I was right to have my hopes up – because this book is almost better than the original trilogy, right off the bat!
The book follows Waxilium Ladrian – former lawman of The Roughs, who comes home to civilized society to take over his late uncle’s estate. He’s not a fan of high society, with all it’s fancy dinners and expensive trinkets, but he does what is expected of him to try and save his family’s fortune, reputation, and company. That’s until he’s old friend and master of disguise, Wayne shows up unexpectedly, needing help with a mystery.
The whole book, and I assume the series, seems to be set in a Western, gun-slinging kind of era, which I honestly thought wasn’t going to work with me. I’ve never been much of fan when it comes to using that as a backdrop for science-fiction and fantasy, and I didn’t know what to expect. Turns out, it works really, really well. Not only is it an cool and exciting vibe to build up a future world in, following what happened in the first trilogy – this second series does that really well, because it uses the people and story we’ve already come to love from the first series as the myths and histories for this new world, but it also pairs really well with how allemancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy works. (If you don’t know what any of that means, don’t worry, you’ll get it as soon as you pick up the Mistborn books).
It also works really well as a place to build on those things, to make new, exciting magics, that works in ways you wouldn’t believe.
But what really sold this book for me is the mystery Wayne comes to drag Wax into. This book reads more like a steampunk murder-mystery/thriller than a fantasy or science-fiction, and I’m totally fine with that. There’s a lot of investigation, following clues and trying to figure out what’s what, and it kept me hooked from page one, not going to lie. There’s also a lot of history, and digging into the past, which like I mentioned, since we have three and a half books to build on from before, makes for a lot of very cool world building. I love stuff like that, just diving into the way things works, trying to make all the little connection and piecing it all together, trying to predict where it’s all leading.
I’m happy to say that though I thought I managed to foresee the big reveal, I was side-lined at the very end and swept off my feet by the time the book was coming to an end. Well done to you, Sanderson. I never thought I would see the day, but I honestly think this might be better than the original trilogy.
I haven’t started the second book in this series just yet, but I’m about to. I have it downloaded and ready to go on my phone – I’m 50/50 on ebooks and audio books these days – and I just can’t wait to get stuck in. I seen a lot of news recently about the third Mistborn trilogy, Ghostbloods, and if I time this right, I might just be done with all the current Mistborn books and the Way of Kings by the time it’s out.
What about you? Are you a Mistborn fan? Prefer any other of Sanderson’s books to this? Do you have recommendations for other sci-fi or fantasy authors I just have to read? Let me know in the comments! I love it when people leave comments.
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Trey Stone, Author 
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