lirae
Written on Dec 29, 2021
THE INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON BEHIND THE COSMERE
300 YEARS AFTER THE EVENTS OF THE MISTBORN TRILOGY
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A reborn world...
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...
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FANTASY DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN SANDERSON:
'Highly recommend to anyone hungry for a good read'
ROBIN HOBB
'Epic in every sense'
GUARDIAN
'Sanderson is the most immersive fantasy writer I've ever encountered'
BEN AARONOVITCH
'All the explosive action any adventure fan could want'
LOCUS
- ISBN10 0575105836
- ISBN13 9780575105836
- Publish Date 1 November 2012 (first published 8 November 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Gollancz
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
ladygrey
Written on Dec 28, 2020
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
Written on Jun 22, 2017
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
Written on Feb 5, 2017
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
Written on Feb 1, 2016
adamfortuna
Written on Apr 23, 2015
Metaphorosis Reviews
Written on Apr 22, 2015
reviews.metaphorosis.com
3 stars
Wax' life as a lawkeeper is done with when he returns to Elendel to resume his status as Waxillium, Lord Ladrian. With the occasional lapse, he turns dutifully to rebuilding House Ladrian's finances, and to marrying well. But a visit from his ex-deputy, the wisecracking Wayne, draws them both deep into a complex criminal plot.
"I'd like to write a western." That's what I imagine going through Brandon Sanderson's mind. "With a nod to superheroes. And what the hell, let's make it Hollywood-friendly. A superhero Hollywood western, that's what we need." If that was his plan, he succeeded. Unfortunately, the pyrotechnic chase leaves credibility and story gasping by the way.
I first encountered Sanderson via Mistborn, and I looked forward to returning to that world. Unfortunately, the years I've been gone seem to have blurred the crucial last pages of The Hero of Ages, the prequel to Alloy. Even going back to check them, I didn't find the language Sanderson relies on so heavily here. References to Harmony and the Words of Founding left me floundering, rather than grounded, since it seemed I should know them. References to various Allomantic powers tended to be awkward little information dumps - more mechanical than interesting.
Background is a minor issue, however. Sanderson notes that he wanted to work with a world that evolved. What bothered me is what this evolved into. From the interesting, original world of the Final Empire, emerges a world that could largely be drawn from a generic Hollywood western. The marshal who tries to retire, but returns to fight one last bad guy, the trusty sidekick who makes jokes but is steadfastly subordinate to his hallowed boss. Plus one plucky damsel and one distressed. Bad guys just need to shoot things up from time to time. Good guys take responsibility for everything, even when it's not conceivably their fault. It's fine as a western, but it's so determined to be a western that it forgets its SFF side. (Though it does throw in a nod to New York policing.)
Even more troubling is how much this seems to be pre-scripted for a movie option. There are all sorts of sequences that sound like they'd make great visual special effects. As prose, though, they fall flat. Worse, they take precedence over the story. It's not a huge obstacle, but when I want Hollywood, I go to the movies. I read books for narrative, not flash. I don't know whether Sanderson was consciously aiming at producers, or has simply seen too many films. Either way, it didn't work for me.
Some of the characters' quirks seem similarly contrived. Wayne works to hard to be interesting that he's just not believable. Rushing to catch the bad guys and save the good ones, Wax takes time for apparently talented sketches. Initially, I assumed the references would be the foundation of internal illustrations, but those never turned up, which left the sketches hanging as a weird distraction. They'd look great on screen, I'm sure.
Sanderson's built his reputation on logical magic systems pursued to their logical extremes. Here, however, he throws in some loopholes of the comic book variety. Some Allomancers can slow time. But a gun fired from a slow-time bubble deflects unpredictably. There's a good narrative reason for this - otherwise those folks could just shoot everybody and be done with it - but there's no good in-story reason for it, and it breaks from the relative logic of the magic system. A portion of the finale is similarly based on an ex machina solution.
Because this is so strongly a comic book western, there's relatively little surprise in it. You can predict from early on what the broad strokes of the story will be, and you'll be right, even down to some of the comic flourishes.
People like to say that space opera is descended from westerns. There's a way to bring them together while keeping the spirit of each (e.g., some of Bob Shaw's stories). Unfortunately, this is largely a standard western inhabited by comic book superheroes and begging to be adapted to the screen. Maybe it's all in support of what appears to be a Mistborn game.
This is not to say that Alloy is a bad book; it's quite readable. However, it's a pretty substantial disappointment from Sanderson - enough of one that while I'll read his other work, I'll think twice about dipping back into this era of the projected-to-be-long Mistborn sequence.
Amber
Written on Jan 29, 2015
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
Written on Dec 22, 2014
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.
bettyehollands
Written on Jul 27, 2013