Don’t you just love when you find a story that clicks with you on every level? And it’s not like it’s a perfect story, or even all that objectively amazing, but it’s the perfect story for you? That’s totally this series for me. I loved the Mistborn books, and I SUPER LOVE the Stormlight Archive books (still my favorite thing Sanderson has written, and I’ve now read nearly all of his massive and steadily growing output), but these Mistborn Alloy Era/Wax and Wayne books have been such a treat from beginning to end. Just endless adventures and zingers and romance and fun.
I’m not going to bother talking about the plot at all. If you’ve read one or both of the first two books, you’re not going to want to be spoiled, and if you haven’t, you won’t understand what I’m talking about anyway.
What I do want to talk about is the characters. Sanderson has always been good at characters, especially when he allows himself room for them to grow*, but it’s never been his main draw as an author. That honor has always gone to his insanely detailed and pleasurable world-building, which always contains thorough and exciting magic systems that put most magic systems to shame in almost every regard, and then to his plotting, which is nearly always focused on doing new and fun things with common fantasy archetypes and storytelling structures. But there’s something about this series that allowed him the mental freedom to create a set of characters who are exceptionally vivid and easy to love. Maybe it’s because this series just sort of jumped out of his brain accidentally and demanded to be told, or maybe it’s because it’s so much of a laid back series compared to the original Mistborn or the Stormlight books. Whatever the reason, the characters are the draw here. The stuff surrounding them is wonderful and provides the hook, but all that is not not the reason you stay.
*This is the main reason I love the Stormlight Archive books so much, aside from the beyond epic storytelling, because there is just so much of those books in terms of length, width and breadth, there is also a lot of accompanying room and time for character evolution.
All of the main characters have a satisfying and surprising arc (meaning, I didn’t see where it was going at all, which is rare for me!). Wax, Wayne, Marasi, MeLaan. And Steris. Ohhhh, Steris. I love her so much. The less said about why the better. I did actually call a plot twist later in the book, but it was followed by something so mind-numbingly cool that I didn’t see coming that I instantly forgave it.
Look, guys. Just read Mistborn. Read all the Brandon Sanderson. I don’t know how else to tell you, but if you’re not, you’re missing something awesome.
With that said, TWO YEARS UNTIL THE LAST BOOK NOOOOO.