The Bands of Mourning

Time to read: 7 hours 43 minutes

Rating: 8/10

Feeling a Strong 7 to a light 8 on this one. My favorite Wax and Wayne book so far. Though thinking back on Shadows of Self that book also has some great character work for Wax and Wayne and the final twist is so emotionally great. It's good that this book then builds off of that twist and develops a character arc for Wax that emotionally comes together beautifully in the finale, bookending the book quite nicely as it opens up with Wax's... basically childhood rummaging as a future lawman, as well as setting up the choice Wax has to make at the ending of the novel.

Minor thing: The villains are kind of weak. Looking back on it, Lord Ruler kind of hard to top as a villain and Sanderson has never quite been able to match his presence as a character. Ruin is also great but they're more of an entity than a tangible person. Miles is the closest Sanderson has probably gotten to having a villain with presence like Lord Ruler did so far in Era 2.

Suit is cool for the times he does show up, but his screen time is underutilized for the type of character he is. I guess my main problem is that he's not fleshed out enough to care about his ideology, though it is cool to see his internal thoughts and how he says he's committed to the cause for ideological reasons but he does want to rule in his lifetime so there is that element of selfish desire for power in his actions. And now he's dead so no of him I guess lol. ONTO TRELL WHICH IS HYPE.

It's behind both Warbreaker and Final Empire for me pretty clearly (maybe that makes it more of a 7 IDK). But it's still solid. I really liked it. The ending was cool. More worldbuilding is always welcome. I love seeing that. The mistborn series world, seeing it and technology evolve with the power system along with my boy ~~Sazed~~ I mean Harmony, It's probably my favorite thing about Era 2. The characters are also great, but the worldbuilding and power system is my favorite thing, so seeing stuff like the machines made to use allomancy as literal power for machines is jsut great. Finally seeing humans/cultures outside of the "mistborn core city" is also exciting. I also fucking love the wider cosmere hints and teases and the whole "Trell"/other god attacking Harmony/the Planet. It's so great.

ALSO THAT FUCKING ENDING! HOLY FUCKING SHIT! IS KELSIER ALIVE?? WHAT???????

If a sound could be made as I finished this book it would be:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Holy cosmere batman, Sanderson's ability to slowly pull the threads together of this universe is growing tighter and tighter and I for one shiver in anticipation.

I'm glad Steris was given her due. She's bright, intelligent, and has come out of her shell in great glory and that made me smile.

Wayne, oh Wayne. I memorize some of your lines because they are so damn funny. I often think Wayne is the real center of the characters. It makes Wax seem like a child even more than he might really be. Lovable Wayne. Please don't die on me. ;) heheh.

Everyone else, has their pitch and timber reverberated well through the chorus of what is a very well done continuation of a series I really do adore. I hungrily look forward to the next Stormlight series then back for Oathbringer. It's going to be a helluva wait, but well worth it--and beyond--wow--I have no idea, but Sanderson has yet to let me down.

I am having a hard time reviewing Sanderson's books. I am clearly prejudiced: I love his books, and have a hard time finding fault with his writing. Don't trust my opinion: just go read the book yourself :)

Just a few short notes on this one: I do not find the humor heavy-handed (read this in a comment somewhere). I love Wayne. He's my favorite character. His perspective is very unique and shows incredible attention to the details of his character. Wonderful. And Steris and her lists. "This one didn't even make the appendix." ... "it's on page seventeen of the list I gave you." She really comes into her own in this and just like Wax gets to know her better, so does the reader. I love the spontaneous wedding at the end just as much as the spoiled-by-Wayne waterlogged one at the beginning.

I really wasn't sure that Wax would survive. I didn't know there would be a fourth book. And there is precedent for Sanderson killing off major characters. But I am very glad he did. I did suspect his sister from the beginning but by the time she did finally start her back-stabbing I had completely forgotten about it.

So I predict, that if you enjoyed any of the Mistborn books, you'll enjoy this one as well. It's another worthy entry in the series, and I am looking for part #4 of this (I thought this was going to be the last, I was wrong) trilogy.

2022 Re-read:
Has it really been six and a half years since my last read? Not surprising as Bands of Mourning feels completely new and fresh to me. The 4 star rating still seems fair and I won't change it.

I hope I am not getting burnout on Mistborn but I felt the book to be a little slow. The wonders of Era 1 don't seem to be achieved here, and maybe that's because the limitation on Metallurgy the characters can access, or there is no "the world is ending" urgency, but it reads as a Wild West story with some Allomancy added in.

I do like the evolution of Era 2 and how we can see this world evolve and achieve new advancements with their metal properties. The Southern characters that appear at the end of the book are such a wonderful peek behind the Scadrial world.

Whatever my reasons for not being completely in love with this book I am still excited for the Era 2 conclusion and can't believe I went this long between re-reads of a Sanderson book.

Original read in 2016
"Go", Marasi said. "Do what you do best, Waxillium Ladrian."
"Which is what? Break things?"
"Break things," Marasi said, "with style."

I love the Mistborn world and am really enjoying how the story is evolving after the original trilogy. Shadows of Self was a game changer and now Bands of Mourning picks up where it lefts off and breaks the story wide open.

The Metallurgy properties remain the same but how they are used, and where they are used makes this great. What we understood of Metallurgy is evolving and I really appreciate that Sanderson looks for ways to operate within the magic system he created.

Our favorite characters are back and there is depth added to Wax, Wayne, Marasi and even Steris. Wayne is still brilliant with his one liners and metaphors but there is an emotion to his character now, he appreciates the decision Wax made with him years ago in The Roughs and is using that himself. MeLaan is a brilliant supporting character and is another reason why I want to re-read the original trilogy because I would enjoy TenSoon and the Kandra's more on a second read.

I wished this book was longer so we could learn more about the new characters. There was time spent on constructing the world but new characters showed up and left me with more questions than answers. However, if our heroes hardly had time with them so why should the reader? There is so much opportunity for the story to grow in the next installment I'm looking forward to it, even if the wait could be years from now.