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A review by vorpalblad
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
While Sanderson was up to his usual excellent standards, I felt a little thrown off by this book, simply because I was used to a certain style with the Mistborn trilogy, and here he went and changed up the world! I've never been a big fan of westerns, and had never even heard of "gunpowder fantasy" before this outing. But while it wasn't quite the novel that the Mistborn novels were, I still enjoyed it.
So this review will be more about why this Sanderson novel isn't another five star for me. Let's take it as a given that he has the characters, led by Wax and Wayne (lol, I see what you did there Brando!), the plot, the action. If there was one drawback, I had to wonder why Sanderson decided to set another series in the same world. Yes, it's interesting to see how technology can advance under the right conditions, and how real events can become the stuff of myth, legend and religion, but it felt like a cop out for fresh world building. The system of allomancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy took three bookstops-of-novels to explain the first time around; maybe he didn't want to have to repeat all that, I thought.
So spoiler: I felt that way up until nearly the end, and then.... and then.... there was a cameo from the Mistborn novels that threw me for a loop! And then I immediately read the next book in this series and it all made sense! So, I'm not adding a star just because I was wrong about the author's motives or because Wayne is one of the best characters I've read this year. I will leave it at four stars, because, mostly, that's the feeling I get when I think back on the book as a whole. It was enjoyable, but maybe not his best.
So this review will be more about why this Sanderson novel isn't another five star for me. Let's take it as a given that he has the characters, led by Wax and Wayne (lol, I see what you did there Brando!), the plot, the action. If there was one drawback, I had to wonder why Sanderson decided to set another series in the same world. Yes, it's interesting to see how technology can advance under the right conditions, and how real events can become the stuff of myth, legend and religion, but it felt like a cop out for fresh world building. The system of allomancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy took three bookstops-of-novels to explain the first time around; maybe he didn't want to have to repeat all that, I thought.
So spoiler: I felt that way up until nearly the end, and then.... and then.... there was a cameo from the Mistborn novels that threw me for a loop! And then I immediately read the next book in this series and it all made sense! So, I'm not adding a star just because I was wrong about the author's motives or because Wayne is one of the best characters I've read this year. I will leave it at four stars, because, mostly, that's the feeling I get when I think back on the book as a whole. It was enjoyable, but maybe not his best.