Escaping into My Books

I read the original Mistborn Trilogy, so long ago that all I remember are the bare basics. But I remembered enough to be interested in reading Alloy of Law which is set in the same world...but 300 years or so into the future. And like the first three Mistborn books....this one left me with the same feeling: so unique.

I don't know how Brandon Sanderson comes up with these interesting magical systems, I mean it's always so weird and different than anything anyone has thought of before. He thinks so far outside the box. I love it, because when you read as much fantasy book as I do...it becomes repetitive: wizards and elves and a Dark Lord, etc., etc. It's the same story told over and over again, with a few tweaks. But then every book is that....it's the tweaks that make the book. And Sanderson know how to tweak.

This book is best described as a Steampunk, Western, and crime/mystery drama. The world from the original 3 books has moved on and is developing, it would be comparable to like late 18th century, early 19th century in our world. Development of electricity and the steam engine...and on top of that some people have the ability to pull power from various elements and do amazing things like stop time and heal instantly from gunshot wounds to the head. So it's an amazing combination of old and new fantasy tropes. 

The hero in the book has come to the city to take over his family estate...he is from an ancient high born family linked to the previous 3 installments...after the death of the last remaining family. He was a lawman in the Bad Lands...or the Wild West...to find an equivalent in our world and decides he is going to give up the law and that violent life, and settle into his heritage and do his duty and get married to some high born lady. But of course, fate has other plans, when a serious of high profile train robberies and kidnappings come to his attention and those robbers next target his soon to be fiancé as their next kidnap victim. Then he is forced to act and pretty much realizes that he can't leave his fighting days or his past behind him.

This book was action packed from start to finish. There were pages long fight scenes, with amazing feats of skills and power...and mixed in there pieces of the mythology from the previous books are sprinkled in that gives us a clue that whatever is going on is more than just robberies for money. Towards the end of the book...the mythology becomes more literal and hints that the next books will involve more of it were strong. But this was a fun ride. Action, adventure, humor, the male and female don't automatically fall into each other arms, mystery, mythology and a little bit of some practical romance...I really enjoyed it...even with it being so dense with STUFF. 

My review without giving everything away. Read these new installments. They are worth it.