Book Review: Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Cover art by Chris McGrath, property of Tor Fantasy.

This one isn't part of my 2015 Reading Challenge because I'd already read it before. I just picked it up at the library in December and was already in the middle of it when I started the Reading Challenge, so I finished it this week and want to review it because it's one of my favorites.

If you've never read the Mistborn series what is wrong with you??? then I think you'd be a tiny bit lost reading Alloy of Law. Or, you'd at least not get all the little allusions and inside jokes that come from the original trilogy.

Regardless, this is a great read. I'll try to forget about the original trilogy when saying why I like it so much.

Here's the synopsis:

In the three hundred years since the events of the Mistborn trilogy, science and technology have marched on. Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads, electric lighting, and even the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. 

Yet even with these advances, the 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 those attempting to establish order and justice. 

One is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax must now put away his guns and assume the duties incumbent upon the head of a noble house—until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

It's essentially a Western mixed with steampunk mixed with fantasy. And it's as cool as it sounds.

Without giving away the plot, let me just say that the fight scenes are heart-pounding, the characters highly amusing and admirable, the world so fun, and the plot never providing a dull moment.

Two things I want to touch on a little more:

First, the characters are so well-rounded. I sometimes find it hard to give my characters even one memorable trait that will get them to stand out in the minds of the readers. Wax and Wayne have like twenty each, and even the minor characters have something that makes you remember them easily when they show up again.

Second, Brandon Sanderson is a master at establishing setting and character in such a way that even though you've only known them for a few pages, you feel like you've known them for years.

The prologue, for example, is only around 10 pages long, and yet (SPOILERS!!!) we meet Lessie, see her and Wax interact, and we instantly love them both. Then Lessie dies, and we feel Wax's anguish! We mourn a woman we just barely met!

We also get a really good idea of what the Roughs are like, even though they never show up again for the rest of the book. And we can see how much Wax changes between that short prologue and the rest of the book.

That is skill.

I highly recommend that you read the original Mistborn trilogy first, so that you can understand the history/mythology that is referenced so often in Alloy of Law. And so that you can get how funny it is that Spook's low-born street dialect is now considered "high speak."

But this novel does stand well on its own and makes a very fun read even if you don't know much about the background. I give it a ten.