Is "Rhythm of War" the Best Stormlight Archive Book?

Not counting the last three books of “The Wheel of Time” the first Brandon Sanderson books I read were the Stormlight Archive books. This gives me a distinct feeling towards Mistborn as those who have been Brandon Sanderson fans for a longer time. More than that, for the first two books in the second trilogy of Mistborn, I felt more connected to the first part of Mistborn and missed it. What is funny is that “Bands of Mourning” has bore connections to the first Mistborn books and the cosemere, and yet for the first time I really enjoyed it more than the first era of Mistborn. And while I still prefer the Stormlight Archive, they have drawn much closer together with Mistborn no longer being an afterthought but a story I am eagerly waiting for in its own right rather than something to tide me over until the next book I really care about comes out. That’s a good thing I suppose since the more different series I am waiting for, the more often it is that a book I’m excitedly waiting for will come out.

What Happens in “The Bands of Mourning”

The previous two books in the second age of Mistborn had Waxillium Ladriam and Wayne trying to solve a mystery while also looking to understand what is happening with Wax’s family. In this the third book Wax’s family becomes the focal point while we are shown there is something even bigger going on. Though it begins with Waxillium trying to move on from the events of the last book.

It begins with Wax on his wedding day. He and Steris are about to give their vows when a nearby water tower collapses, flooding the church and postponing the wedding. It turns out that Steris had expected something to go wrong and planned for it and that the water tower’s collapse was because of Wayne, who knew that Wax wasn’t ready to get married yet.

At the same time a kandra arrives to recruit Wax for a mission from the god Harmony, but Wax who is still angry at Harmony refuses so she goes to Marasi who agrees wanting to prove that she can do it though even then it’s clear that she was chosen to push Wax into doing it. And the kandra isn’t done showing them a picture that proves that Wax’s sister may be in the city they need to investigate.

And what their investigating is no minor thing. It is an artifact from before the world was remade. The Bands of Mourning, which the Lord ruler from the previous age used. Magical items that give the wearer all the alchemical and feruchemical powers and making them as powerful as the lord ruler had once been. Something that’s even more impressive since the strength of both powers has been reduced in this age so that even the average user of those is weaker than they used to be.

Things continue to go wrong as they try to make their way to New Seren where they will start the investigation as their train is attacked by robbers who have a powerful device that lets you store alchemical abilities for a short while using it as a sort of grenade for their powers. This makes Marasi’s power to create a bubble of slow time far more useful as she can use it on other people rather than herself.

Continuing to investigate his uncle’s plot, the group of them discover an airship that has crashed and been captured by his uncle, who is using the more advanced science of those on the ship to increase his own power. This makes the organized and clear use of magic in Sanderson’s stories useful, as he can treat the magic systems as a sort of science since we know the rules, but there is still room to expand them.

Among the tortured bodies of the people who were flying the airship, they find a survivor while fighting an overwhelming force and rescuing Wax’s sister. The man who they rescue leads them to a smaller flying ship that Wax can move using his powers and they just barely escape. They want to simply return home but they realize they have no actual choice but to go to the temple where the Bands of Mourning are trying to beat his uncle who can’t be trusted with the massive power that the bands would give him.

The kandra who is still with them sets off the many traps that are guarding the room and as they are trying to figure out how to open the door that will lead to the room where the bands are, Wax’s uncle approaches. He has enough men to trap them, but will make a deal. He wants to go in with them. Everyone is naturally skeptical, but they have no other way in so agree.

They carefully make their way into the room where they find that the Bands of Mourning are already gone. Someone it seems has already gotten into the room and stolen them then reset the traps so that no one knows they have it. Realizing that he has gotten what he wants, Wax’s uncle, along with his sister, turn on them. Both of them have been given powers by using hemelurgical spikes and with the surprise get the jump on them and while Wayne escapes the rest are shot.

Things seem lost, as they should at the end of an excellent book, until Marasi realizes that they actually have found the bands. They were simply hidden by having them melted down into a spear tip that Wayne had taken, assuming it was important. While bleeding out, she grabs the piece of metal and gains all the abilities of the Lord Ruler, including the strength to heal.

She fights for a moment with it, but realizes that she isn’t the one who should use it and finds Wax, who has actually died and is having a conversation with Harmony in which it is revealed that Wax has been blaming the god for a decision that he made and wanted to forget. In the previous book he had killed a kandra who was also the woman he loved, and he blamed Harmony for letting it happen. But Harmony explains that Wax wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to kill her and he wouldn’t have wanted her to go on because with her spikes damaged she was insane. And that in another timeline he asked Harmony to allow him to kill her.

While this is happening, Marasi puts the bands of mourning into Wax’s hand and he heals from his wounds. Then using the massive power of the band’s Wax can easily overcome the odds that were previously overwhelming. He then captures his uncle while his sister, who it turns out was the real mastermind escapes. Wax then only has to deal with the previous hostages from the other kingdom. His first reaction is to tell them that everything is his, but he makes a better deal. In exchange for a trade agreement that will include airships Wax will give them the airship so they can return home and give the bands of mourning to the kandra so he is no longer so overwhelmingly powerful that the rest of the series would be less interesting.

The story ends with Wax finding a coppermind he can use which holds memories that tell him that the person who he assumed was the Lord Ruler was actually Kelsier, the Survivor which puts the entire story of what is happening into question.

Conclusion

Having read this just after “Rhythm of War” was interesting, as I could make a few connections to the cosmere on my own rather than having to wait for someone more versed in it to tell me. The most important naturally being that Kelsier is important. But even without the bigger implications, this is a wonderful book. I still found Wayne to be the standout character as he is funny, useful and deeper than he appears all at the same time. But Steris really got to become more interesting in this book as a person who is simply trapped in the insanity of all of this but enjoying it in some perverse way. The most entertaining part were the lists of things that might go wrong that she kept not because she could do anything about it, but because knowing she had planned for it made her feel better. This included giving a seventeen page list of things that might happen to the innkeeper they were staying in.

With a reasonably good mystery, plenty of action and characters that I am growing to like more in every book this is worth reading and if you’ve been lukewarm on the previous books, I think this one changing things up enough that it’s still worth reading. My only real problem with it is that the next book in the series isn’t coming out for at least another year.