 Last year I read the Mistborn trilogy, the original Mistborn trilogy, and it was amazing. It was one of the best book series I've ever read. And people ever since then have been harping on me to read the sequel series, read Mistborn Era 2, read Wax and Wayne, like they're all different names for the same thing, but whatever. And I finally got around to reading the first book, The Alloy of Law, and I can confidently say that, yeah, it's really great. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. Let me be clear before I get into everything else. If you are going into reading this, expecting it to be just like the original Mistborn trilogy, where it's this huge, expansive, epic story with the fate of the world at stake and everything, you're probably going to be disappointed. This book, at least this first one, is much, much smaller scale. The later ones might be bigger, I don't know, but this one is... Well, it's not even really about the fate of a city. It's just about the fate of a couple of people, and it's much more character-driven. Now, that being said, I still think it's great. I don't think it's as good as the original Mistborn series, but, you know, it's doing a different thing. So this story takes place on the planet Skadriel, which is where the original Mistborn series took place, but it's about 340 years later. And the main character is this guy named Waxillium, or just Wax, and he is a lawman out in the roughs, like what they call the roughs that's like the outskirts of civilization. You know, most people live in this giant city called Elendil, which is named after Elin from Mistborn. It was created by Harmony, and, you know, the roughs are just kind of... Well, the name says it all, they're rough, and so he was a lawman out there for many, many years, but at the very beginning, something goes wrong, and his girlfriend is killed, and so he decides, you know what, to just leave the roughs and go back home, and when he's there, he turns out nobility, so he's running a noble house. And while he's there, he's trying to put his old ways behind him, but one of his old friends from the rough, a guy named Wayne, comes back and starts asking him for help with this series of crimes that's been going on, where stuff has just been vanishing and they don't know who's behind it or how they've been doing it, and at first, Wax is very hesitant to do so, he really doesn't want to get involved, but then someone close to him gets in trouble, and so he's forced to become a lawman again. The mystery is really at the core of this story, like finding out exactly what's going on, how it's being done, and who's behind it is something that you don't really figure out until the epilogue, and even in the epilogue, it's still pretty open that, I guess there will be more to come and we don't know exactly why they're doing this or even what's going on totally. But throughout this whole story, watching Wax and Wayne investigate stuff and follow clues and all that, that's a lot different from what you would normally expect from Sanderson. Which I liked, actually. I liked that it was a change of pace. I liked that the stakes were a bit lower and that even if they fail, it would be awful for them and for a lot of the people around them, but the world would go on. And for that matter, I liked that this was a much shorter book, because this is several hundred pages shorter than the original Mistborn. But that's good because, one, it makes it a quicker, easier read, I got through it in only a couple of days, and two, that I don't know if this mystery would have worked if you stretched it out to be twice as long, because, well, one, mysteries can get frustrating when they go on that long, at least for me. And two, well, no, that's it. It's just nice for it to be something a little bit different from what he normally writes. I absolutely loved how we see the world change, because at the end of Mistborn, it's still more or less a medieval level of technology with Allomancy and Fierrochemie and all that being able to, I guess, compensate for some of their technological shortcomings. But then in this, several hundred years later, they have trains, they have guns, they have a lot of other stuff. And not only that, but because Allomancers and Fierrochemists have been interbreeding for several hundred years, you now have people that have the powers of both. They're apparently no more true Mistborn anymore, which is actually a little bit sad. Like, when I saw that, I was genuinely a little hurt. But they have people called Twinborn, which are someone who has one Fierrochemical ability and one Allomantical ability. Allomantic, Allomantical, whatever. And Wax, Wayne, and the villain of the story are all guys like that. Wax in particular, he has the Fierrochemical ability to store his weight so he can make himself lighter or heavier, and he can do steel pushing. So like, he can anchor himself and push way harder. I like that. It's being creative with the way that these powers are used. And that's something that I think the original Mistborn did great, and I think Sanderson does great in general, but seeing the advancement of magic and seeing how it plays a role in society is cool. That being said, I also liked just seeing all the technology. I liked seeing how society has changed. I'm a little confused about their governments. I would have liked a little bit more info on that just because it sounds like it's a combination of nobles and noble houses that have their own legislature but also there are elected representatives in there as well. And I'd just be interested to see exactly how that works. Maybe the later books do it, I don't know. But it just feels a little weird at the end of the original Mistborn trilogy that really weren't any nobility or anything anymore. Everything was destroyed, so I don't know. It just threw me off a little bit, but it's still neat to see that that's how things have changed. It's cool that the majority of the story takes place in this gigantic city. The only thing is that it never felt that different from any other fantasy city. I mean, Luthadel in the original Mistborn had a lot of atmosphere to it. Even if the city itself wasn't particularly uniquely set up or anything, it was the home of an immortal demigod and home to his inquisitors and his enforcers. And seeing the relationships between people like the inquisitors, people like the nobility and the ska and the underground, seeing all of that the way it worked off one another and everything, that was really cool. Elendell doesn't really have that, so it doesn't have quite the same personality. Even though it's still neat, it just doesn't really do anything to stand out that much to me. So I feel like that was something, somewhat of a missed opportunity, but again, maybe the later books fix that. I really liked all of the characters in this, too. I don't think there was a single one in here that I found annoying or where I dreaded following them around. Wax is a phenomenal main character, although I'm not quite sure what message the book was trying to send with him. I'll get to that in a little bit. But basically, he's a guy who has spent many, many years doing what he perceives as good, and then he screws up and feels just such tremendous guilt over it and starts feeling like, okay, maybe I haven't been helping, so maybe I gotta try and help people a different way. And then he goes into this different mindset, and he's so set there for the longest time, and then he has to try and change that again. And so seeing him go back and forth and not really be sure what the right thing to do is, or who he even really is as a person, is, I mean, it is really fascinating, and it helps that he is genuinely a good person and genuinely a very likable dude. You know, you're never questioning if he's doing the right thing. He's always helping those in need. So yeah, he's a fantastic character to follow around. I also like how he was just an older dude, like it says he's 42 near the beginning of the book, and I just like that because it means that he's an adult, he has confidence in himself, he has a life experience that makes him different from someone like Vin, who was still basically just a kid when all this was thrust upon them, and they had to grow up over the course of the series. And even though Wax is changing over the course of the series, you can tell that he has already grown up. So it was just nice to have that contrast there. And his friend Wayne, his partner Wayne, is also great. Like, for starters, he's just really funny. And actually, that's the main thing I liked about him, was that he's not just a funny sidekick, but he is genuinely a really funny dude. And it's not because he's constantly cracking one-liners or anything, he's just kind of a weirdo, and you never really know exactly what he's talking about, or not never, but a lot of the times you don't know exactly what he's talking about, and so it's just genuinely funny. And admittedly, I think that's one of Brandon Sanderson's weaker areas as a writer, is just that a lot of the characters have a similar sense of humor, and Wayne is different. So I liked that. And they try and give him some depth. I don't know how well it worked, but it was nice that they did it. He's just a funny dude. He's not a totally useless sidekick. He actually does help. His powers are cool. Yeah, I just liked Wayne. And the villain who I won't give away is legitimately a good villain, too. I was about to say great, but he's not really great. They try and go into some detail about why he's doing the things he's doing, like how he feels that society and the government is super corrupt, and how he needs to reform it. And that's interesting, but they didn't go deep enough with it. They just sort of had this shallow surface-level commentary on it, so... You know, there's so much more they could have done, and I don't know, it didn't work that well. But you know, it's there. There's some there. And that being said, he's just a very powerful force that they have to use their heads to overcome. They can't just bludgeon him to death. So, okay, yeah, he's a good villain. He's just not amazing. Okay, so about the message that Wax's character is trying to send here, and some minor spoilers, but nothing huge. I just... So, Wax starts off as like a lawman who goes out and directly catches criminals and stuff, and by doing that, he's supposedly making society safer. And, okay, that makes sense. But then later, he realizes, or he decides that to help people, he should just focus on being the head of his noble house and being the best that he can so he can take care of the people underneath him and make society better that way. And I think, okay, yeah, that makes sense. And it seems to be saying that he's going way too extreme with it and that he could still be doing good as a lawman. But, you know, it makes sense that it's talking about societal reform being the best solution. And later on in the story, they do have conversations about how, yes, if you fix the economy and you help just fix... I keep saying fix society, but really that is what they're saying. Like, okay, you fix the environment around people, they generally commit less crime and things are safer. Well, which is true, by the way. They've done studies on that sort of thing. And it seems like it's saying there that, yeah, Wax would be better off being a noble who tries to fix things that way. But then the whole rest of the story is all about him fixing things by just being a badass. And I don't know, maybe it's saying that you need both in order to fix things properly or maybe it's saying that neither is really the right answer. I don't know, it was just a little confusing. And I admit that this is pedantic, but that's just who I am. It threw me for a little bit of a loop, but I'm sure the later books will go more into that. So I've rambled on a bit and really just at the end of the day The Alloy of Law is a really, really great book. It's not as amazing as Mistborn, but it still has the great characters, it still has the really fantastic setting, it still has great action scenes, it still has really cool magic. It still has most of the stuff that you loved about Mistborn. It's just wrapped up in a little bit of a different type of story. But it's still a very good story. So that being said, if you haven't read the original Mistborn trilogy, first off do that, but don't read this one first because one, it just has major, major spoilers for all that shit. And two, it kind of takes it for granted that you have a pretty good idea of how stuff like Allomancy works. And so it doesn't waste all that much time on worldbuilding. So yeah, I definitely read that one before you read this. But what I recommend this to people who enjoyed Mistborn, absolutely. Like, it's a different type of story, but it still has all the same stuff you loved, so check it out. Thanks for watching, and a super, super, super huge thanks to Christopher Hawkins, Joseph Pendergraf, and Melanie Austin, and all these other fine folks whose names you see on the screen here. These are my patrons by the way, and if you want to get some neat rewards, why don't you check out my page and consider donating. And if you can't do that, or just won't for whatever reason, then liking and commenting on this video and all that, that does help me a lot. So yeah, do that, and I'll see you later. Bye.