You’d think after reading Mistborn that I would have assumed this book’s title was a metal pun… but even after seeing it on my son’s shelf for a year, I still thought it was called what I mis-read the first time “The Allure of Law” (like law is so inviting?) until I was well underway, reading it myself, and closed it and re-looked at the cover. “Yeah, that says alloy.”
Oh well. I enjoyed The Alloy of Law, although I have to admit that I did not connect with the Wax and Wayne books quite as strongly as I did with the original Mistborn trilogy.
There is plenty to like. The book is funny, the characters are entertaining, and the story introduces a very different society within the same larger world.
I do really like the way Sanderson takes the magic system established in the original trilogy and asks what would happen if you placed those same rules into a completely different technological environment. Suddenly there are projectile weapons, trains, cities and a much more steampunk-influenced setting, and people have learned how to use metal-based magic in entirely different ways.
Because I like systems and order, I particularly enjoyed seeing that the fundamental rules hadn't changed. The world had changed, and the way people applied the magic had changed, but the underlying logic remained intact.
I also liked the direction Sanderson took Wax's relationship with Steris and Marisi. I was very pleased with the way that storyline developed and appreciated that he didn't take it in the most (irritatingly) predictable direction. However, the most irritating direction is what he did with Lessie — more on that later.
Wax and Wayne are entertaining, although they don't have quite the same emotional pull for me that Vin and the original crew did. Wayne, especially, provides a lot of humor, which is redeeming.
