Monday, January 27, 2020

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn: The Alloy Era #1) by Brandon Sanderson


A beginning of a new series which continues the Mistborn series a few centuries later. Untypically for a fantasy book, there have been radical changes in the world. Technology and society have advanced: there are guns and railroads, and the first cars have been invented. The magic which uses metals still works, but there apparently are no longer people who can use all the metals, but that doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be some very powerful allomatics and furumantics still around. The world where the story happens is a mix of Wild West and the beginning of 20th century.

A former law keeper, Waxillium Ladrian, who had worked for a while at “the Roughs” (kind of Wild West territory), has returned to his home after a personal tragedy. He is Lord of a House, and his uncle, who was the former ruler of the House, has died. There have been clever robberies that have involved taking hostages. The robbers attack a fancy ball which Wax is taking part and kidnaps his possible bride-to-be. He is forced to return to law-keeping. And his methods are slightly less orthodox than those of the real police. It is refreshing to read fantasy which isn’t happening at the faux middle time. And it is even more interesting to see what has happened in the fantasy world when the original “quest” has been resolved and “normal life” has resumed its course. The heroes of the first series are now mythical creatures of religion – but there still is a strange mist, which cannot be explained by weather phenomena, floating around sometimes, so all mystical things might not have disappeared. After a slightly slow start (seems to be common for this author) the writing was riveting and left one wanting more.

332 pp.


No comments: