The Alloy of Law

Hardcover, 332 pages

English language

Published April 16, 2011

ISBN:
978-0-7653-3042-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
707969381

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (172 reviews)

"Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history--or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice. One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with hisAllomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the …

20 editions

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Time to read: 5 hours 14 min

Solid 7/10, fun read. I like the main characters, Wax, Wayne, and Marasi and their banter is fun. Main villain is kind of a weak and really one note villain that feels like more setup for the villain of future books. The callbacks to era 1 are fun and seeing the world evolve from era 1 and the hints at what changed like talk of "the founding" and the different religions based on era 1 stuff is so satisfying. The new power system stuff is awesome. Allomancy and mistborn's magic system in general is probably my favorite magic system ever. Surge binding being a close second.

In comparison to other 4/5 cosmere books, I probably enjoyed warbreaker more because it had more interesting/developed characters and themes. I definitely enjoyed final empire more.

Ever wanted western fantasy?

5 stars

The original Mistborn trilogy has a traditional fantasy setting, maybe as late as Victorian, but this one is a bit more modern than that. Alloy of Law is set a couple hundred years later when they've discovered things like electricity and trains. Sort of a western vibe, though most of the story takes place in the city. This was actually only supposed to be a one-off story to showcase how things have progressed on Scadrial, the Mistborn planet, but people loved reading it, and Sanderson loved writing it, so this accidentally became the first in a series of four books.

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I found it more fun than the first three, but there were instances where I went "did the author of this one even read the first threee Mistborn books? That's not how the magic works!" Still, the adventure-movie like style the author seems to be striving for works better in this setting than the one in the first three books.

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

2022 Re-read:
For my third re-read I remembered very little about this book! I agree with my 4/5 star rating and once the Second Era has been completed I may appreciate this book more, but I will save that for my fourth read through.

The measure of a person is not how much they have lived. It is not how easily they jump at a noise or how quick they are to show emotion. It's in how they make use of what life has shown them.

A nice continuation of what life has been like after the first Mistborn trilogy. Times have changed, metallic powers have evolved, but the story and characters did not feel as refined as the previous books. If I hadn't read the first trilogy I don't know if this book would have been as enjoyable, but because of Sanderson's ability to craft the world in …

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Despite the (very) hammy dialogue, this is exactly the cowboy mistborn book I didn't know I needed.

The pacing is much better than Hero of Ages, but the book is so short! And there are so many new mysteries in the epilogue. Dammit Sanderson, why?! The best way I could see improving AoL would be making it twice as long.

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Another fine addition to the Mistborn universe.
Good characters and lots (and lots) of action. The world building is mostly set already from the prior Mistborn books, though it takes it in a new direction and hints at things to come. [a:Brandon Sanderson|38550|Brandon Sanderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1201547425p2/38550.jpg] is planning 2 additional trilogies in the Mistborn universe and this novel feels like a stepping stone between the first and second trilogy.
You won't get the deep sense of satisfaction from the original trilogy: there isn't a lot of new world building, the list of characters is small and only a few develop meaningfully, and the plot, while fast-paced, ends with a few things unfinished. It left me wondering if the next trilogy will be set a few years from this event or will be decades later and incorporate what the 'bad guys' were trying to accomplish. I'm hoping for the later.

If you care …

Review of 'The Alloy of Law' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Much like the original Mistborn trilogy, this book was hard to put down. Though set several hundred years after the end of the original Mistborn trilogy, it still had all the appeal. The two main characters, Wax and his partner/deputy Wayne, were great: well-written and quirky, especially Wayne. The dialog between the two was perfect. The pacing of the story was well done, making it hard to find a good place to stop for silly things like sleep. :) The only thing that made me sad a bit was the introduction of technology: they've discovered electricity and locomotion, for example (were trains in the original series?). It didn't factor in TOO heavily (trains did, I guess, but none of the rest), so it's not a big deal. There's just a small part of me that hates seeing these magical worlds rendered so dull and realistic by the introduction of light …

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