The Lost Metal

What an end to Mistborn Era 2. I'm glad I was there the whole way and I think this actually be one of my favourite series of the Cosmere so far, Stormlight Archives notwithstanding since I haven't finished or caught up with that one yet. Naturally, this review would spoil all the books of Era 2 up to Book 3 before this one.

There's a more sober feel to this one, taking place several years after the events of Bands of Mourning and seeing Wax as happily married and a father of two. There're several mentions between Wax and Wayne about how they're “too old” for certain things (like getting exploded), so I assume they're in their 40s or so by this time. Wayne meanwhile is broken up with MeLaan and feeling desolate, worthless, and positively existential, pondering on the role he is playing and needs to play in the bigger scheme of things.

I didn't get why Marasi needed to have a relationship with Allik at all. I could understand why she perhaps needed a failed crush on Wax in the very beginning but I thought she was pretty happy going along by herself. Her relationship with Allik seemed a bit tacked on at best, since we barely see him anyway in this book. It just seemed to be there to tick a checkbox for Marasi's character development, which I didn't think was necessary at all.

The characters in this one are still a blast to read, with all the familiar brands of humour out in full force. Wayne proves himself to be a treasure as always with his wildly inappropriate and untimely interjections to the consternation of Wax and Marasi, Steris is still being Steris and writing out disaster preparation plans when she's bored, but I also missed MeLaan in this book since she strikes out early to go on another mission and doesn't return. That bit also felt a bit too obvious a device for conveniently removing MeLaan from the plot without actually having to kill her off or anything drastic like that, and again I didn't understand why that was needed given that MeLaan has been with them since Book 2. Luckily though, we still have some kandra humour from VenDell, although he's not an integral part of their operations as MeLaan was.

This book is one that really opens up a lot of questions about the Cosmere. I might even say that it ends with more questions asked than answered, at least regarding the Cosmere. With our characters on Scadriel, the plot has pretty much wound to a close. There are some little references to the world of Stormlight Archives in here, but it probably wouldn't spoil readers who haven't read or are halfway through reading that series (like me having only finished 2 books from SA). Or at least, if there were spoilers, I don't understand them and that's the same as no spoilers to me. I look forward to revisiting the Cosmere bits of this book in the future when I have caught up with Stormlight Archives so I can fully appreciate which bits are easter eggs and callbacks to other books, and which bits are new information entirely.

About the ending: I was really, really agitated when I read the ending. Here is the barrage of my emotional response: “this is some Sam and Frodo bullshit!! the sidekick is actually the real hero in the end!? i had a bad feeling when the book's prologue was a scene from Wayne's childhood, it just didn't bode well, y'know? but i'm mostly kinda pissed at Harmony for literally ignoring the hell out of Wayne for the entire series and then just swooping in to give him that final nudge to sacrifice himself at the end. that was such a bullshit move!!! and i'm also kinda pissed that it wasn't Wax, mainly cos i'm the least attached to Wax of all of them, but also cos like, it was always *building* up to him being the sacrificial lamb but for one reason or other, either cos Sanderson is attached to Wax or he has other purposes to fulfill in presumably Era 4, we just kinda shift the burden of sacrifice off of him and give it to Wayne instead, who had never asked for this and was never developed to be the end-game until this book.”Yeah, I really didn't like that Wayne was the one who had to sacrifice himself in the end. I didn't think it gelled well at all with what it was all building up. I definitely felt like it should've been Wax, if anybody. I know this book was dwelling a lot on who and what makes a hero, with Wayne always feeling like it should be Wax. Personally, this cliched but all-too-true quote sums heroism up to me: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Wax enjoyed great power, being almost a Chosen One when he was literally pulled back from the cusp of death by Harmony himself to take up the Bands of Mourning and enjoy unlimited Mistborn powers to reverse the situation and win the day. He continues to enjoy all the plot armour of a hero, but when I feel like the situation is called upon for him to pay his debts and to shoulder that responsibility of being a hero, that is suddenly shifted to Wayne in the end? I just can't stomach it! It's framed as Wayne stepping up and being a hero in his own right in the end, but it just doesn't feel right - it just feels like Sanderson couldn't bear to kill off Wax for whatever reason and decided to just shift it to Wayne instead.

Overall, I really enjoyed this whole series and it has some of my favourite characters in the whole Cosmere so far, hands down. There's a high possibility of me revisiting this one in the future.