Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
After reading the first books in Mistborn, I knew I would read Alloy of Law eventually, but I wanted to take a break. The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages are all outstanding books, but they felt complete. The characters had done what they needed to do, and the story had run its course, and I worried that jumping to quickly into the next part of the series would diminish both halves. I also like to save things I know I’m going to enjoy. Now that I have Read The Alloy of Law I’m glad both that I waited, and that I read the book. I won’t hold anyone in suspense, it is like all of Brandon Sanderson’s writing excellent.
As a series, it is strange because it has very little to do with the previous books in the series. It is technically the same world and there are mentions of characters from the previous books, but those feel more like Easter eggs than they do real connections in most ways and you could easily pick up this book and read it without trouble though it might spoil some previous books. The world itself has been healed as those who read the previous books will know. It has also advanced considerably, moving from an age of swords and armor to an age of guns, though pre-industrial as the guns at least are handmade.
The magic system of Mistborn continues to grow as both Allomancy and Feruchemy are fairly important in this book, with the protagonist and most of the side characters having both. The way they interact with each other, and the change in setting, makes it feel fresh while those people who have read Mistborn will still understand the rules even with the minor changes such as there are evidently no more Mistborn as it is said early in the book that you can have one Allomantic ability and one feruchemic ability or one of each but that is it. A good balance since the combination of them makes for people with powerful abilities while keeping everyone’s abilities unique.
He also introduced a new ability that I know from having spoiled myself a bit is fairly important. A fair of opposite abilities which allows someone to create a bubble in which time is sped up or slowed down depending on your ability. The first is useful, though not as useful as one might hope since you can’t really effect anything outside. The other is largely useless as it makes the world outside of the bubble pass extraordinarily quickly for the user, not exactly what most people would want.
One thing that Brandon Sanderson does better than almost anyone is creating friendships. The characters he creates are excellent, but it is the interplay between people where he really shines. It’s probably best shown in Bridge Four, but he does something similar here between Wax and Wayne. (I just got that pun and I feel stupid for missing it.) They feel as if they have been friends for years from the first page where you see them together.
Since this book is a mystery, I won’t spoil it by even beginning to really explain what happened except to say that it is a lot of fun. It feels a fair amount like a western with magic in which the sherif from one of the dusty old towns has arrived in the big city. Yet it also keeps many of the themes of Mistborn. I especially like that the villain is very similar to Kelsier and even has some similar goals. A brilliant subversion of the series, and it makes the entire thing feel far more nuanced.
I always feel silly recommending books written by authors like Brandon Sanderson, especially books deep in a series but I can’t recommend them and they are a pleasure to talk about both because the books are excellent to read but also because they are connected to other books and while I’m not an expert on the cosmere, I enjoy the idea.