This week I’m covering the rather excellent sequel to the original Mistborn Trilogy, it serves as the in between the first and second trilogy.  I’m talking about The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Explanation of Brandon Sanderson’s work: First and foremost, if you’ve never heard of the Cosmere universe of works let me sum it up for you in a few sentences. Every single one of Brandon Sanderson’s Adult Fantasy novels is set in the same universe (not the same planet necessarily), and there are certain characters you will see in every book. There is an over arching story to the Cosmere, which we don’t know the specifics of except a few scant details, but if you pay attention to certain words that pop up in each series it’ll make sense. If you have read all his books and are still looking for the rest of the little information we do know go to the 17thshard.com and look up their Cosmere posts on the forums it’s a mind-boggling read in and of itself, but there are plenty of spoilers for various books so only do that after you’ve read all his stuff that’s been released.

Plot Synopsis: Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.

Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history, or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.

One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will.

Plot: This book is much shorter than the previous Mistborn books, and while I’m always starving for more of Brandon Sanderson’s work to devour this book wasn’t supposed to actually happen. It was a creative writing exercise to give Brandon a break in between writing The Towers of Midnight, Book 13 of the Wheel of Time, and A Memory of Light, Book 14 of the Wheel of Time, and Words of Radiance, Book 2 of the Stormlight Archive.  As such it is much shorter, and while I say that it still ends well, I was psyched to see the few remainders of the time of Vin and Co. I even like how Spook made his old Eastern Street Slang into a new form of regal speech patterns. Wax is descended from Breeze as well so not everything is lost. As for the plot, it’s pretty standard if you aren’t Cosmere aware. If you are it starts to raise all sorts of interesting questions regarding certain things and persons, “Cough” Hoid “Cough”, that show up.

Characters:I enjoyed Wayne quite a bit, as he reminds me of Lightsong from Warbreaker, and Marasi’s growth over the book is nothing short of magic worked by Brandon’s hand.  Oh and if you pay attention you’ll notice that the Hero of Ages is still around watching over Scadrial and it’s growth. A certain steely eyed grouch even shows up at the end, although it is hard to tell if he is completely sane now after what he did during the events of The Hero of Ages and Well of Ascension.

Like I said above the characters in this book are amazingly well done for the short size compared to the rest of Brandon’s works, although he did do something similar with another short book I’ll be covering next week.  I enjoy Wayne and Wax’s bickering and Marasi takes up the role left by Vin for having badassery done by the hands of women.

Overall: If you are needing more Brandon Sanderson in your life, you need to read this book to help tide you over.

For those who like: Steampunk, Magic Systems that kick ass, Mystery and intrigue, Lots of great action scenes, Badass characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but how can you hate that you monster!