A review by toggle_fow
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Ahh, refreshing.

The first book in this series was fine, but annoying. I really only read it for the Mistborn throwbacks. Wax, Wayne, and Marasi were all irritating for different reasons. Too many oh-so-funny attempts at humor every other second by Wayne. Too much mooning about by everyone else.

This second installment was MUCH more enjoyable. Nice, because how many times does a second book outshine the first in a trilogy?

Here, Wax and Marasi seem to have settled in a little. Marasi has her own job with the police, so she has more of a mission and her POV is much less awkward and cringey. Wax is the same, much more focused and less whiny. Wayne is pretty much as he ever was, but the others improving means I can cut him some slack.

The other major reason I liked this book better was that we actually get into some real legacy Mistborn stuff. We get to hear directly from Sazed! We meet TenSoon and some other kandra! And it seems like, given what happened at the end, that we might even be diving deeper into the fundamental worldbuilding. Now have high hopes for the third one to be the best in the trilogy.