The Alloy of Law

Brandon Sanderson is doing something special with his Mistborn universe. Something I didn't really grasp until I dove into this book and started looking at some of the reviews and supplemental material on line.

There's this tendency in high fantasy to force the world into a medieval setting and then keep it there for thousands of years. One of my friends complained about this back in high school when we were all really in to the Sword of Truth series. Humanity just isn't that stagnant. We innovate. We revolt. We change the world. And we do it on increasingly shorter time scales, because we're able to stand on the shoulders of the people who came before.

Sanderson wanted to do something different. He wanted to create a world with a unique magic system and then track that magic through the evolution of the society. Mistborn was conceived as a trilogy of trilogies, with one taking place in the medieval feudal society fantasy lovers all recognize, one taking place in something approaching our own modern day, and one set in a far-flung sci-fi future.

But along the way he got distracted by an idea for a Western. And so we get a book (which will ultimately be part of another trilogy) set during an industrial revolution, with all the western trappings coming out to play in a fantasy world.

This book embraces its tropes, from the stoic lawman and his faithful sidekick, to the daring rescue of a young woman that involves swinging from a chandelier, to a gun fight that takes place on top of a moving train. Alloy of Law isn't looking to reinvent the western genre, but the injection of magic makes it so much fun.

Even the language is perfect, reflecting the metal-based magic system at the foundation of this society. The banter is spot-on, especially in any conversation between Wax and Wayne. And the characters who saved the world in the previous trilogy are effortlessly woven into a new religion here that has several different sects.

Ultimately, this book was just a lot of fun. I was really excited to discover that Sanderson has plans for a sequel this year. Everything about his plans for the Mistborn universe has me excited, and I'll be eagerly awaiting each new book. I may even have to go back through his other work, though Sanderson's prolificity is a tad daunting.

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