What would a fantasy world look like if time fast-forwarded to the equivalent of the late 19th to early 20th century?
That is the world of Brandon Sanderson’s Alloy of Law. It was published in 2011 and began the second era of Sanderson’s Mistborn series, also known as the “Wax and Wayne” books. Enjoyment of the book does not require you to have read the original trilogy, but there are little references to those books sprinkled throughout in the form of place names and religions.
Summary
Waxillium Ladran, or Wax, is a lawman, a sort of sheriff, in the part of Scadriel known as the roughs. But he is called back to the city of Elendel when his uncle dies and he needs to take over the family business and estate.
Wax struggles to fit in with Elendel high society and itches to get back to what he does best. When a group of criminals begin stealing entire train cars and kidnapping women, will he get the chance he’s been looking for?
Thoughts
This was a reread for me. I grabbed the original Mistborn trilogy on a whim in college for books to read on the commute to school. I got hooked on them right away and Alloy of Law is one that I preordered as soon as the link was available.
As a writer, Sanderson is not one you’ll read for an excellence of prose. You won’t find a specific sentence that you say “Oh that’s a good one.” What Sanderson does well is storytelling. Wax’s adventures move with a great pace, building toward a cascade of revelations and twists in the climax that Sanderson fans refer to as a “Sanderlanche.” And Sanderson’s no-nonsense, or “window-pane”, prose lends itself to just getting out of the way of letting the story and its pacing do all the work.
What you end up with is a reverse heist, with the protagonists trying to stop the series of thefts and figure out who’s behind them.
I personally really enjoyed this one. The characters have a nice bit of life to them, especially Wayne who is a former thief who now just doesn’t quite get the hang of trading needing agreement.
Recommendation
I’d recommend this book to someone who likes the tropes and trappings of fantasy books but is looking for something a little different than standard generic European Medieval Fantasy. The western-esque setting and the technology that go with it play in a really fun way with the magic system Sanderson designed for these books. For example, there is a magic fight on top of a moving train in one scene. There’s no word I can think of to better describe that combination than “fun.”
Score
When I originally rated this book on Goodreads, I rated it as a 5/5. And I do really enjoy it and it is exactly in my wheelhouse as a reader.
But I probably tend to rate things a little high when they fit that bill. With a bit of time since my original read, I’d probably adjust that to a 4/5. Still very solid, I still absolutely love the plotting and pacing of the story. I just find myself looking for a bit more in the prose the story is told with, which in this case more just does the job and gets out of the way.
I would still absolutely recommend this book to someone looking for a fun read or fantasy that’s just a little different from the standard.
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