Year of Cosmere discussion

This is the discussion thread for chapter 3 and chapter 4 of The Alloy of Law.

I'm up to the end of chapter 14 now and it seems that the book is heading towards the climax now.

Overall, I'm very pleased with it. I had difficulties imagining how Sanderson would take an established fantasy world and transport it into a steampunk era.
It works quite well with relating everything from the first trilogy to myth and religion.
That way the "new world" can stand on its own. I like a lot of the little things. Like gold being important for Miles. Gold and the craving for it is often a theme in wild west stories, so I liked how Sanderson incorporated that theme and made it entirely his own with the allomancy spin.
There are many such little details and connections between steampunk/weird west themes and Sanderson's Mistborn world.

I also really enjoy our main trio of characters. Sanderson's humor, like in Steelheart, doesn't always works for me, but the banter between Wax and Wayne is really great. I also liked how he slowly added more and more depth for Marasi as her origin and later her motivation is revealed.

I'm really looking forward to the final part of the read.

Mpauli wrote: "I'm up to the end of chapter 14 now and it seems that the book is heading towards the climax now.

Overall, I'm very pleased with it. I had difficulties imagining how Sanderson would take an establ..."

I absolutely agree that it's an interesting paralell with steampunk and western stories, and I do appreciate it. But the thing is: is it more than that? I don't know yet. I do love the banter, and I do think this story is tons of fun, but I'm still not quite fully engaged in it. I still don't quite understand Wax's motivations (other than not hurting people, which I'll assume he will learn is a pointless thing to worry about eventually, because poeple will get hurt. Period).
So, I'm enjoying it, but I expected more from a Mistborn story for some reason.

Raquel wrote: "Mpauli wrote: "I'm up to the end of chapter 14 now and it seems that the book is heading towards the climax now.

Overall, I'm very pleased with it. I had difficulties imagining how Sanderson would..."

I personally enjoyed the lightheartedness of the book, but I'd certainly agree that it lacks in depth, if you're looking for more.
Having read Shadows of Self, I now understand why Sanderson always says AoL is a prologue for the actual Wax and Wayne trilogy.
As for Wax's motivation, I have a very, very crazy crackpot theory that I can back up only with wild speculation.^^
I'm a huge believer in authors choosing names on purpose and not randomly. When I think "Wax", the first thing on my mind are wax figures -yes, not candles weirdly- and so I ask myself, if Wax might be no real human at all. Thematically that kind of twist would fit into the whole steampunk setting, cause artificial life and automatons are often discussed in steampunk.
So at least a part of me always looks at Wax as a possible artificial being that is self-aware, but not aware of being artificial. That might not be plausible, cause Wax gets stabbed and shot and I think he bleeds, but still I'm fascinated by the idea of a being that is trying to act human, but fails at last.
At least in my novel, Wax would be totally non-human.
On the other hand "Wax" could just be a hint on him still being shapeable and not set in stone.

I'm really enjoying this book which I actually wasn't expecting. When I first found out about Sanderson bringing out more books set in the same world as the Mistborn trilogy I was very hesitant. The ending of Mistborn was perfection and I didn't see the need to explore this world anymore. Now I understand what he's planning to do with this series as a whole and I'm really excited to see the world devolop and change.

This book itself is definitely not the most detailed of Brandon Sanderson's works but I still love it for what it is.

Are we supposed to know who the 'Lord Mistborn' is because I'm a little confused if we are. Is it Kelsier or Elend or someone else?

I love your theory about Wax, not sure what the chances of it actually coming true are (like you said he can bleed) but that would be interesting!

Sophie wrote: "Are we supposed to know who the 'Lord Mistborn' is because I'm a little confused if we are. Is it Kelsier or Elend or someone else?"

Yes, we should know him at the end of The Hero of Ages. :)

TS wrote: Yes, we should know him at the end of The Hero of Ages. :)"

I've read The Hero of Ages, I just have a terrible memory! ;)

Haha! Of course, thank you.

Also I'm not sure about this if your accessing Goodreads via the app but if you're on the computer and you look to the bottom right hand corner of your comment there are a couple of buttons 'reply | edit | delete | flag'. This looks like a good time to utilise the delete function Zachary. lol