Shadows of Self

by Brandon Sanderson
376 pgs  (Mistborn: Era 2 #2)

Shadows of Self continues Brandon Sanderson's story of Wax and Wayne, frontier lawmen now in Elendel--a city on Scadrial. Scadrial is the world Sanderson originally introduced in his Mistborn trilogy. It's a world that is transitioning. It's moved on from the world as it existed when Kelsier and Vin inhabited it 300 years earlier, with technological advances like the combustible engine and electricity ushering it into a sort of steampunk era.

Wax is doing his best to move on with his life. He's returned to Elendel to put his family's house in order and he's engaged to be married. But the pull of his old lifestyle is just too great--even in Elendel, where Corruption abounds, and dead bodies keep turning up.

Sanderson is a master world builder. In every book and series he writes he creates a world that has a deep and detailed history. There are legends, myths, and religions--to say nothing about the one-of-a-kind system of magic that he creates each and every time. With the first three books in the Mistborn series taking place so many years before the events of Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self, the events and characters of those earlier books now provide the history, the myths, and the legends for these later books.

Shadows of Self adds some significant depth to the Wax and Wayne books. When I read Alloy of Law I thought it was a good book and I really enjoyed the new lighthearted tone the books brought to the series, but I finished with the impression that these later books were not going to be as good as the earlier ones. But now that Shadows is here, I'm very excited to see what comes next. Fortunately I don't have to wait long. The next book, The Bands of Mourning, comes out in January.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆