The Alloy of Law (Mistborn: Wax and Wayne, #1) (Cosmere Universe) (Mistborn, #4)

by Brandon Sanderson

The Mistborn trilogy has become a firm favourite with fantasy fans the world over. The imagination that Sanderson brought to the series and his skill at marshalling epic storylines and dramatic action, his ability to create vivid characters made him a natural choice to complete Robert Jordan's epic wheel of time sequence. But with Mistborn, his standalone fantasies and his new series, The Stormlight Archive, Sanderson has shown his bountiful talents in his own fiction. Now he returns to the series that made his name with a new story set years after the events of Hero of Ages. In a world recovering only slowly from evil, a world where allomancers wield immense power through their ability to unleash the magic bound up in common metals someone who can burn metals that no-one has burned before can tip the balance...Sanderson has the knack of giving the epic fantasy reader exactly what they want. This ability has thrown him to the forefront of the genre and the dramatic story within The Alloy of Law shows off this skill to its very best.

• ISBN10: 1429994894
• ISBN13: 9781429994897
• Publish Date: 8 November 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

It's a book. There's not much to it tbh.

[ladygrey]

Quick read, fast paced, well crafted characters in a deeply developed, intriguing world. It’s like, how can you go wrong?  The banter between Wax and Wayne really made the book fun. And though there’s a play on their names, having them both start with W tripped me up once or twice. And I would have liked a bit more of Marasi and Steris or ladies in general. But it was a small cast so there’s only so much room to work with. I’m impressed with how well Sanderson moves his stories along and the balance between action and reflection. You’d think character development would suffer, but it doesn’t which is perhaps the most impressive. It could be a touch more emotional, but I don’t expect that. Overall, well written, enjoyable book. 

[Mercy]

3.5/5

No está al nivel de la primera era de Nacidos de la bruma pero no niego que Sanderson me sigue sorprendiendo con cada libro. The alloy of Law tiene lugar 341 años después de los acontecimientos de El héroe de las eras, el mundo ha cambiado mucho y está a las puertas de la industrialización, la electricidad y los autos que usan gasolina están empezando a reemplazar a las velas y coches tirados por caballos. Para hacerse una idea, imaginen la historia en el siglo 19 de nuestro mundo en un ambiente del viejo oeste pero con alománticos.

Me han gustado mucho sus personajes, Wax y Wayne son un dúo muy especial y Marasi también destaca aunque creo que Sanderson lo pudo haber hecho mejor con ella. El humor también le agrega un punto genial a la historia. Me hubiese gustado ver más uso de la alomancia, si se usa, pero no de forma tan épica como en la Era I. Espero que en los siguientes libros esto cambie.

Brandon siempre sorprende y no sé si es que yo soy muy tonta, pero hubo muchos giros que me sorprendieron especialmente ese del final, aunque ahora que lo pienso, creo que debí haberlo adivinado, no sé, me hace falta leer más historias de este tipo xD

Por ahora, ya estoy con Shadows of self y creo que será mucho mejor.

P.D. Mi corazón se detiene cada vez que se mencionan personajes de los libros anteriores ♥.
P.D. 2: Les recomiendo no leer este inmediatamente después de EL héroe de las eras porque seguro los decepciona.

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Initial thoughts: Rust and ruins, this book was good! I adored the wit of Wayne. Wax was a great frontman but Wayne stole the show for me. The Alloy of Law deflected from the original Mistborn trilogy in that it read like a (fantasy) crime novel. Coupled with technological advancement, this paved new grounds to further explore the potential of allomancy and feruchemy. It was a lot of fun, to say the least. I wasn't as wowed as by the previous three books, and I didn't think The Alloy of Law was nearly as brilliant but it did retain the spark of the Mistborn series.

[KitsuneBae]

Not as good as the first three books but still, it's good.

[adamfortuna]

If Mistborn is Avatar, then The Allow of Law is Korra. Taking place many years after the events of the first trilogy, Alloy starts a new series more focused on allomancer/pharochemist characters, which opens up an entirely new world of skills not previously explored. Being able to slow down time + heal? Yeah, that sounds useful. The story itself is more of a detective story, with some likable characters. I worried it would be too much driven by the period it was set in, but the characters were the main focus.

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

Since The Alloy of Law is sigificantly smaller that Sanderson's other books, it's understandable that it feltlacking in some places. There wasn't as much going on, which meant there wasn't enough build up or development for me, which meant I didn't spend enough time with the characters to really fall in love with them. That said, I still really enjoyed the book, and I'm so happy that Sanderson is continuing to write in the Mistborn world.

I love how everything has progressed since The Hero of Ages. Vin and Kelsier have become legends, and *grumbles* so has that other guy. I missed them all so much, but I loved how often they were mentioned in such a short book.

I missed the original characters almost too much, though. I liked Wax and Wayne, and I totally ship them, but I miss Vin. A lot. And Marasi wasn't enough to make up for it.

I also loved how the Allomantic powers have progressed and evolved over the past 300 years or so. I'm not going to go into detail but that was something that I loved discovering, and I can't wait to see more of that in the sequels.

Basically, I really enjoyed The Alloy of Law because I love the Mistborn world and I can't get enough of it. I just need to learn to let go of the past because I am still unable to completely forget (or, rather, move on from) Vin, Kelsier, and the others.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Whether or not it is fair, it is difficult to read The Alloy of Law without comparing it to the Mistborn trilogy. So while I think The Alloy of Law is quite a fine fantasy novel, and I would probably be quite pleased with it if I had never read any of Brandon Sanderson’s other works, I am mainly left thinking that the book is simply not as good, not as ambitious, and not as surprising as the trilogy that came before.

Nonetheless, The Alloy of Law does have one wildly imaginative thing going for it: the book attempts to imagine what would happen to a fantasy world that actually progressed. Novel, right? It jumps from the pre-technology world of Mistborn to a version three hundred years later that has railroads, electricity, and—most importantly—new rules of magic. Strangely, I was unable to get as good of a grasp on these rules as I was on the old ones. Sanderson does spend a decent amount of time going over them, and describing how they work in numerous battle scenes, but for some reason they just come across as more nebulous—at least to me. The appendix might help clarify for some readers.

As far as characters go, Sanderson draws them as complex and life-like as ever. I worried at the beginning of the book that I wouldn’t particularly enjoy Wax as a protagonist. The story opens with his experiencing a devastating event, and for awhile it seemed as if that event were going to haunt him just a little too much. There’s a difference between having a psychological block one has to overcome and constantly brooding/harping on that block. However, as the book progresses, Wax develops a few more personality quirks that help round him out. And it is impressive to see that Sanderson can write both a middle-aged male and a sixteen –year-old female character with equal ease.

Wayne is a fantastic sidekick. (It took me a decent way through the book to realize that together, they are Wax and Wayne…like the stages of the moon.) He is both abrasive and charming, both brave and child-like. Perhaps occasionally annoying to hang out with in person, but definitely a pleasure to read about. The female member of the group/potential love interest has me slightly more torn. Marasi is talented, brave, and clever—basically the embodiment of the strong female character, balanced by the tendency to turn pale at the sight of blood. However, her tendency to spout crime/law statistics when nervous is irritating and seems unrealistic, and she has a penchant for suddenly possessing whatever skill is needed for her role in the plot. As an explanation: she learned it all at university.

The plot is generally past-faced, but, again, just not as wild as in Mistborn. Readers get a lot of stunningly visual fight scenes; Sanderson always writes as if he expects his novels to be made into movies. However, the motive behind everything just isn’t particularly…big. Just enough “revelations” are eventually made to justify the fact that this will also be made into a trilogy (next two books coming out 2015!), but I just don’t know if I care enough to keep reading. I probably will, because it’s Brandon Sanderson, and that means things do have a chance to get even crazier than I am currently envisioning, but the conclusion of The Alloy of Law just does not captivate me.

I did enjoy The Alloy of Law. It’s tightly written, has some great characters, and brilliantly imagine what the world would look like after Mistborn (including some great hints as to the religions and legends that have sprung up around the original characters). On a technical level, I think it’s a great fantasy novel. However, if I compare it to Mistborn, I’m slightly disappointed.

Really great book and I'm looking forward to reading the next one. I thought it was a bit short but that's probably because I read the original Mistborn trilogy back to back to back. I'm very glad Sanderson has taken us back to the world but this time with a twist. I'd recommend to original Mistborn fans looking to revisit the world (they even have great references to the original story), people who enjoy Sanderson's writing, those interested in general fantasy or getting into the Mistborn world (I'd recommend reading those first), or people interested in steampunk-y-esque novels.

[dokie80]

Cowboy, Mistborn style :)