A review by cavalary
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s clear from the prologue that The Lost Metal is Wayne’s book, but even so it may be hard to believe just how much, the impact and the extent of his development, or more exactly of what is revealed about his character. And that’s far from the only aspect, the other characters also developing, revealing further complexity and allowing the reader to understand more, about them, about people and society in general, maybe even about themselves. And that’s because Sanderson yet again proves and imparts at least some of his deep understanding of people and society, the hows and the whys, in particular when it comes to being broken, pushing through and sometimes, with the right conditions and support, maybe even recovering, at least to some extent. There are some memorable action scenes as well, at least one making me emotional in the way that epic battles with the fate of the world on the table tend to do despite the lack of an army, at least on one side, plus revelations that expand on Scadrial and the Cosmere as a whole, but it was the characters that made the profound impact.

So this isn’t “light” Sanderson anymore… Yet plenty of times it’s held back by still trying all too hard to be. And I’m not just referring to the fact that it remains far from The Stormlight Archive in terms of worldbuilding and depth, that new information mostly being in the form snippets and hints of what’s to come, but mainly to all the attempts at humor and shallowness, once again from Wayne in particular, which do make sense up to a point, but eventually feel increasingly forced and out of place. And then there’s this advancement to a modern setting that so far made me say that I don’t intend to read the next cycle of the series… But at this point I’m thinking that, despite fearing that I’ll regret changing my mind, considering how much I can’t stand modern settings, it’ll be rather hard to stick to that decision.