Shadows of Self

The Alloy of Law was romping, fun story that only lightly touched on the mythological side of the Mistborn universe, but Shadows of Self plunges you head first into the mythology that we had all fallen in love with in the original trilogy. Yes there is still a fun, mysterious story all its own, but it weaves, much more profoundly, the original trilogy's depth and world altering magic and creatures. Happily there are some familiar faces from the original trilogy in this one as well as some answers on what happened to certain factions that we knew from the original. Where Alloy of Law was much lighter, this second instalment brings on some heavy subjects and much more world wide implications.
Wax's story this time around is somewhat tragic and you must read all the way to the last pages to really realize how emotionally tied you feel to this character, as a reveal brings out a realization that is both heartbreaking and also raises tons of questions about what kind of story you've been reading all along. I really liked Wax as a character from the start, but it wasn't until that moment, when I shed tears and my heart ached for him that I truly realized how much.
Wayne, as in the first book, is easily labelled as the comic relief character, but he still has depth to him that slowly gets revealed more and more in this volume, even through his crazy hat exploits and strange way of dealing with other characters. He certainly is responsible for most of the laugh out loud moments and when one character calls him ‘cute', I couldn't help but nod my head in agreement.
A lot of comments I read said that readers didn't really care for Marasi's story in this volume, but I really enjoyed it. Her struggle to have Wax approve of her and say so, but also wanting to distance herself from him in order to be appreciated on her own merits was something I really understood. Seeing her grapple with this conflict inside of her may not have been the centre of action and mythology heavy, but it seemed very genuine.
Overall I found this to be an excellent followup to Alloy of Law and a leap ahead for the series as a whole. There is SO much to chew on in this volume, that I'm sure I'll be mulling it over for days to come. I can't wait for Bands of Mourning in January now to see how it all pans out. If you were a little underwhelmed by Alloy of Law, I encourage you to give it another look and continue by reading this volume, which I believe is a very positive step towards the height that was the original Mistborn trilogy.