Reviews

Whew. It's the end of an era, literally, and per Sanderson "the gloves are off" re: Cosmere interconnectivity. I delayed reading this because it'd been years since I'd done a proper Mistborn reread, and because I'm terrible at avoiding spoilers (self-inflicted but I don't mind!), I also reread

Spoiler

though I'm realizing now that I'm long overdue for an [b:Elantris|68427|Elantris (Elantris, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475740953l/68427._SY75_.jpg|2908871] reread as well, thinking about early!Brandon books. (I have not done that since my initial read in high school, so it'll be my first time with the expanded scenes in the 10th anniversary edition- fortunately, the Nerdy Wordy Book Club on the Nerdy Nightly channel is doing a first read so that'll be fun!)

But you're not here for my thoughts on rereads, you're here for my Lost Metal thoughts. That's three nights staying up way too late this week after the toddler fell asleep, making me feel like my younger self (if not for the toddler, I very likely would've inhaled this in one sitting I think).

The Lost Metal is very much Wayne's book, from the prologue with his mother to his big damn hero moment in the Sanderlanche. The 10th anniversary edition of Elantris has a foreward by [a:Dan Wells|2740668|Dan Wells|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1269559505p2/2740668.jpg] where he says it's the human elements that draw us to Brandon's work, whether it's Vin's insecurity or the various mental health struggles Stormlight Archive characters face (depression, anxiety), and here we're met with Wayne's sense of inadequacy and self-loathing. But, he's determined to make things better and that drives our heroes forward.

Era 2 is marked by technological progress- I think it's fair to categorize [b:The Alloy of Law|10803121|The Alloy of Law (Mistborn, #4)|Brandon Sanderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442889632l/10803121._SY75_.jpg|15035863] as "Mistborn with guns and trains", and books went on we added more electrical lights and cars. Here, it feels like we enter the atomic age as weapons of mass destruction are conceived (

Spoiler

and we even get a vault full of people who assume the apocalypse has already arrived

) and moving pictures. We have obvious off-worlders, showing that there's means and methods to space and dimensional travel. This feels like the right destination twenty years after the start of Cosmere stories.

Additional thoughts (safe if you've read this and/or only Mistborn)

Spoiler

I do wish we got more of the southern continent; the map at the front led me to believe we'd be spending more time there. Steris continues to be wonderful and I'm glad she got points of view!

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It's not a total goodbye to these characters as I'll have the Graphic Audio version of this playing in my car for the next month. :p

tsuharesu's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

What an ending! Incredible finish for this Era, with loveable characters, more diverse cast and return of some of favourites from Era 1.

I seriously can't wait for Era 3 to arrive and know what else happens in Scadrial.