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Mistborn is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson and published by Tor Books. The first trilogy, published between 2006 and 2008, consists of The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. A second series was released between 2011 and 2022, and consists of the quartet The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal. Sanderson also released a novella in 2016, Mistborn: Secret History. Sanderson plans to write a third and fourth series.
| Era One: | Era Two: |
| The Final Empire (2006) The Well of Ascension (2007) The Hero of Ages (2008) |
The Alloy of Law (2011) Shadows of Self (2015) The Bands of Mourning (2016) The Lost Metal (2022) |
The first Mistborn trilogy chronicles the efforts of a secret group of Allomancers who attempt to overthrow a dystopian empire and establish themselves in a world covered by ash. The first trilogy was a huge success. This success pushed Sanderson to further develop his fictional universe, the Cosmere, which also includes The Stormlight Archive. Set about 300 years after the ending of the first trilogy, the second series is about the exploits of a character forced to move into the big city, and starts investigating kidnappings and robberies. The third series will be set in the early computer age with 1980s technology. The fourth series is planned to be a space-opera.
Development history
Sanderson’s first idea for Mistborn came while reading the Harry Potter series: He thought it would be interesting to set a story in a world where the “dark lord” triumphed and the “prophesied hero” failed. His second idea, originally unrelated, was to tell a heist story in a fantasy setting, an idea inspired by the Ocean’s series. The idea for the titular mist came while he was driving through mist in Idaho, which he combined with his memories of having once seen Washington National Cathedral lit from the inside. He originally developed feruchemy and allomancy for separate stories before deciding to bring them together in one story.
Sanderson began work on Mistborn: The Final Empire while trying to get his earlier novel Elantris published. After writing two early iterations of Mistborn, he shifted his focus to his Stormlight Archive series. However, Sanderson chose to delay its publication in favor of completing the Mistborn series, which he thought would serve as a better follow-up to Elantris.
About Mistborn Series
1. Mistborn: The Final Empire
Mistborn: The Final Empire, also known simply as Mistborn or The Final Empire, is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on July 17, 2006, by Tor Books and is the first novel in the Mistborn trilogy, followed by The Well of Ascension in 2007 and The Hero of Ages in 2008.
Now with over 10 million copies sold, The Mistborn Series has the thrills of a heist story, the twistiness of political intrigue, and the epic scale of a landmark fantasy saga.
Once, a hero arose to save the world. He failed.
Ever since, the world has been a wasteland of ash and mist controlled by the immortal emperor known as the Lord Ruler.
But hope survives. A new uprising is forming, one built around the ultimate caper, the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind, and the determination of an unlikely heroine: a street urchin who must learn to master the power of a Mistborn.
Plot
Three years prior to the start of the novel, a half-skaa thief named Kelsier discovered that he was Mistborn and escapes the Pits of Hathsin, a brutal prison camp of the Lord Ruler. He returned to Luthadel, the capital city of the Final Empire, where he rounded up his old thieving crew for a new job: to overthrow the Final Empire by stealing its treasury and collapsing its economy.
At the beginning of the novel, Vin, a wary and abused street urchin, is recruited by Kelsier’s crew after Kelsier is notified by his brother, Marsh, that she is a Mistborn. Vin is trained by Kelsier’s crew to develop her Allomantic powers, which include burning pewter to strengthen the body, burning tin to enhance the senses, and burning steel and iron to gain a limited form of telekinesis over metal. She is also given the duty of spying on the nobility by attending opulent balls in Luthadel (the capital and center of the final empire), where she poses as Valette Renoux, niece to Lord Renoux, a nobleman working with Kelsier’s crew. During these balls, she meets and falls in love with Elend Venture, heir to House Venture, the most powerful of the Luthadel noble houses. Elend flouts the rules of nobility culture and secretly plans to build a better society with his noble friends when they ascend to their respective house titles.
Kelsier hopes to conquer the city by destabilizing it with a house war between the nobility and then invading with a skaa army. Once in control, he hopes to overthrow the Final Empire by stealing the Lord Ruler’s hoard of atium, a precious metal which is the cornerstone of the Final Empire’s economy. The crew succeeds in starting a house war by assassinating several powerful nobles and recruiting about seven thousand soldiers to join their cause. However, about three quarters of the soldiers are slaughtered when they foolishly attack an unimportant Final Empire garrison with the hopes of divine protection from Kelsier, who has spread rumors of his “supernatural” powers. The remaining soldiers are smuggled into Luthadel by Kelsier, who intends to continue the plan. However, Marsh is discovered and seemingly killed, and Lord Renoux and his estate are seized and he is brought to be executed by the Canton of Inquisition, the police arm of the Final Empire. This Canton is made up of Steel Inquisitors, seemingly indestructible Allomancers with steel spikes driven through their eyes. Though Kelsier’s crew manage to free most of Renoux’s group and kill an Inquisitor, Kelsier is killed by the Lord Ruler himself in a dramatic confrontation in Luthadel’s city square. Though these events appear to leave Kelsier’s plan in shambles, it is revealed that his real plan was to become a martyred symbol of hope for Luthadel’s superstitious skaa population. The skaa population reacts to his death by rising up and overthrowing the city with the help of Kelsier’s army.
Before his death, Kelsier had attempted to unlock the potential of the “Eleventh Metal” that he had acquired, which was rumored to be the Lord Ruler’s weakness. He was unable to do so before his death, and left it to Vin to finish the job. With the Eleventh Metal, Vin goes to the imperial palace to kill the Lord Ruler. She is captured by the Canton of Inquisition and left in a cell to be tortured, but Sazed, her faithful Terrisman servant, comes to her rescue. Using a magical discipline called Feruchemy, he helps Vin escape and recover her possessions. Marsh is revealed to be alive, having actually been made into a Steel Inquisitor; he betrays his fellow Inquisitors and slays them before being overpowered by the Lord Ruler. Vin fights the Lord Ruler, whom she recognizes as not the Hero of Ages, but his Terrisman advisor Rashek, who had killed the Hero and taken his place as an incredibly powerful Allomancer and a Feruchemist, the combination of which grants him incredible healing powers and eternal youth. Vin is almost destroyed by the Lord Ruler, but with hints from the Eleventh Metal and the unexpected magical aid of the mists, she manages to separate the Lord Ruler from his Feruchemical bracelets that provide him with constant youth, causing him to age rapidly. Vin uses a spear to execute the Lord Ruler, who with his last words ominously warns her of a great doom. The Final Empire collapses, though Elend is able to avoid total societal collapse by uniting Luthadel under a new system of democratic government.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
2. The Well of Ascension (Book Two of Mistborn)
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on August 21, 2007, by Tor Books and is the second novel in the Mistborn trilogy. It is preceded by The Final Empire in 2006 and followed by The Hero of Ages in 2008.
Now with over 10 million copies sold, The Mistborn Series has the thrills of a heist story, the twistiness of political intrigue, and the epic scale of a landmark fantasy saga.
They did the impossible, ending the thousand-year reign of the godlike Lord Ruler. Now Vin, the former street urchin turned powerful Mistborn, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire.
As tensions grow in the wake of the uprising, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.
It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge.
Plot
A year after the events of the first novel, the Final Empire is in turmoil as various regions descend into anarchy following the Lord Ruler’s death and the disappearance of the Steel Ministry. Elend Venture has claimed the crown of the capital city, Luthadel, and attempts to restore order, but various hostile forces converge on the city. Three armies lay siege to Luthadel because of its rumored wealth of atium and political influence. The first army is led by Straff Venture – head of House Venture, and Elend’s father. The second army is led by Ashweather Cett, self-declared king of the Western Dominance. The third army consists of Koloss, massive, brutish blue creatures once controlled by the Lord Ruler, and is led by Elend’s former friend Jastes, who is buying the Koloss’ obedience with counterfeit coins.
Vin and Elend discover a set of discarded bones in their keep, and with help from Vin’s shapeshifting Kandra, OreSeur, realize that another Kandra has taken the form and identity of one of Kelsier’s crew to spy on them. Vin becomes increasingly suspicious of everyone around her. At night, she begins sparring with Zane, Straff’s Mistborn son and Elend’s half brother. In the South, Sazed has come across suspicious deaths that appear to be caused by the mists. Marsh – Kelsier’s brother and a Steel Inquisitor – leads Sazed to a Ministry stronghold called “The Conventical of Seran,” the former base of the Inquisitors. They discover an engraving that was authored by the Terrisman who once claimed to have found the Hero of Ages, which begins “I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted.” They leave quickly, Sazed taking a charcoal rubbing. On their way back to Luthadel, Marsh disappears.
The Terris keeper Tindwyl arrives at Luthadel to train Elend to be a better king. Despite his personal improvements, the Assembly votes to depose Elend, using the very laws written by Elend, and elect Lord Penrod as their new king. Zane pressures Vin to kill her enemies and flee with him, abandoning the city. Misting assassins attack Elend at an Assembly meeting, and when Vin brutally kills them in front of Elend, their relationship deteriorates. At Zane’s urging, Vin lashes out, slaughtering hundreds of Cett’s soldiers at his temporary Luthadel mansion. She becomes disturbed by her actions and flees without killing Cett, who decides to leave the city and abandon his siege. Vin decides to choose Elend over Zane and refuses him. He tries to kill her, and reveals that the real OreSeur is dead, having been replaced by Zane’s kandra, TenSoon. TenSoon has grown to like Vin, however, and he helps her kill Zane before returning to the kandra homeland. Feeling liberated, Vin accepts Elend’s longstanding marriage proposal. Sazed and the rest of the crew scheme to get Elend and Vin out of the city before it falls, and Sazed creates a false map to the Well of Ascension, which Vin is convinced may be able to save them.
Sazed and Tindwyl have been studying the mysterious text left by the Terrisman Kwaan, which explains the events of the Lord Ruler’s ascent. Kwaan had believed he had discovered the Hero of Ages in the person of Alendi, who rose to become a feared general and ruler known as the “Conqueror”. However, Kwaan had become fearful for an unknown reason, believing that Alendi was not actually the Hero of Ages and became afraid of what would happen when he reached the Well of Ascension and tried to use the power within. To prevent this, Kwaan had instructed his nephew Rashek to mislead Alendi or kill him if he needed to. Rashek obeyed his uncle’s command, but instead claimed the power for himself and became the Lord Ruler. Sazed and Tindwyl’s research is complicated by their disagreements over the nature of the Hero of Ages prophecy, and Sazed becomes convinced that Vin herself is actually the Hero of Ages. At some point, one fragment of the text Sazed has transcribed from his metalminds is mysteriously ripped off.
Straff withdraws his forces, allowing the koloss army to attack Luthadel, planning to rescue the city after the koloss have destroyed most of it and suffered casualties. Jastes loses control of his army; he flees and is killed by Elend. Vin returns to Luthadel just in time to save Sazed and most of the city’s civilians, though Dockson, Tindwyl, and Clubs are killed. She discovers that she can control the koloss using her Allomancy; she stops their slaughtering and turns them and Luthadel’s army against Straff’s army. Vin kills Straff and his generals as Cett decides to ally himself with Luthadel. Vin forces Cett, Penrod, and Straff’s last general to swear allegiance as kings under Elend, whom she names emperor.
Vin realizes that the Well of Ascension is in Luthadel itself; Rashek had transferred it from Terris to his stronghold when he had remade the world after claiming the Well’s power, ensuring that he could keep it close and hide it from others. Vin, Elend and Spook find a hidden doorway in the Lord Ruler’s castle that leads down to the underground Well of Ascension, where a man made of mist stabs Elend. Meanwhile, a similar spirit approaches Sazed, revealing the fragment of text which had disappeared from his and Tindwyl’s transcription: Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, for he must not be allowed to release the thing that is imprisoned there. Sazed attempts to stop Vin but is attacked by Marsh, who appears to struggle with his quest to kill Sazed. Sazed is saved by Ham, and Marsh escapes. Meanwhile, Vin is tempted to use the power in the Well to heal Elend, but ultimately follows the instruction of Sazed’s rubbing, releasing the power for the good of the world rather than seizing it for herself. The moment she releases it, a powerful entity escapes, shouting out that it is now free. The Mist figure encourages Vin to feed Elend a bead of metal she finds in the room, which makes him a Mistborn; his life is saved through Allomancy by burning Pewter.
Two months later, Sazed returns to The Conventical of Seran and inspects the engraving. He discovers that the words of the rubbing have been changed, finally explaining why Kwaan had inscribed it in metal where it could not be altered. Even the text in Sazed’s metalminds had been manipulated, presumably by the mysterious entity working to secure its own release. Realizing that he had been manipulated and the entire Hero of Ages prophecy had been a lie designed to release the power hidden in the Well of Ascension, Sazed loses his faith.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
3. The Hero of Ages (Book Three of Mistborn)
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages is an epic fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on October 14, 2008, by Tor Books and is the third and final novel in the Mistborn trilogy. It is preceded by The Well of Ascension in 2007 and followed by The Alloy of Law in the Mistborn: Era 2 series, Wax and Wayne in 2011.
Now with over 10 million copies sold, The Mistborn Series has the thrills of a heist story, the twistiness of political intrigue, and the epic scale of a landmark fantasy saga.
Vin fulfilled the prophecy and released the power gathered in the Well of Ascension. But it was all a trick, and now the godlike being Ruin has been unleashed on the world, bent on its destruction by earthquake and Fire.
Having escaped death only through becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture now hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will help them fight back. Legends speak of a hero, but were any prophecies not corrupted? To make up for being duped, Vin must unravel the truth so she can become the Hero of Ages before Ruin can wipe out all life on the planet.
Plot
The Hero of Ages is the prophesied savior of the Terris people, foretold to find and give up the power at the Well of Ascension, in a selfless act to save the world from the Deepness. A thousand years before the fall of the Final Empire, the Terrisman Worldbringer Kwaan believed that he had found the Hero of Ages in Alendi, a blacksmith’s son who rose to become the last ruler of Khlennium. However, as Alendi’s quest for the Well continued, Kwaan discovered that the Terris prophecies had been altered by a mysterious force called Ruin, whose power was contained within the Well. If the Hero of Ages released the power as the prophecies claimed needed to be done, Ruin would be free to destroy the world. Kwaan betrayed Alendi, instructing his nephew Rashek to kill him. Rashek then claimed the power for himself, remaking the world and forming the Final Empire which he ruled as the immortal Lord Ruler. A thousand years later, the Mistborn Vin defeated the Lord Ruler and, tricked by the same prophecies, released the power from the Well of Ascension, freeing Ruin.
Ruin wanted to destroy the world instantaneously but his power was too weak, as part of it had been taken and hidden by the opposing force, Preservation, long ago. Freedom from the Well of Ascension enabled Ruin to directly affect the world more, increasing ashfall from the ashmounts and summoning earthquakes to break the world apart; he could also influence people and control entire koloss armies. He used his thousand years of imprisonment to plot his escape and the subsequent destruction he would reap.
The Lord Ruler, in preparation of such an event, created storage caches containing resources such as food and water in cave complexes beneath certain cities, each one providing directions to the next. As Vin and Elend struggle to consolidate the remaining outposts of humanity, they hunt the storage caches, seeking hints left by the Lord Ruler and the missing atium stash. As they journey from cache to cache, the world itself begins to crumble, ash spewing forth in greater quantities, while the mists claim more people. The last two major unconquered cities are Fadrex City, which has reverted to the Lord Ruler’s old structure of mass oppression under the obligator Yomen, and Urteau, a rebel city where the Skaa are free, the nobility overpowered, and a former commoner titled the Citizen rules with increasing violence.
Sazed tries to establish diplomatic relations with the people of Urteau, while continuing to struggle with trauma from the recent death of his beloved, the Terriswoman Keeper Tindwyl. He studies religions, but has lost his own faith and yearns to find a religion that makes sense to him. He and Breeze work with Spook (who has developed strange abilities) to try and help Elend secretly take over Urteau. Meanwhile, TenSoon the kandra is imprisoned and sentenced to death by the kandra elders, while still trying to convince them that the kandra prophecies of the world ending are now happening, and that they must work together with the humans to save the world.
Vin and Elend try to conquer the city of Fadrex and discover more about how their world works; they discover strange patterns in the numbers of people dying after being exposed to the mists, as well as secrets regarding the art of Hemalurgy, which is used to create the koloss, the kandra, and the Inquisitors. Fearing that Ruin will discover their plans, they are unable to discuss their plans with each other. Yomen, the King of Fadrex City, captures Vin on an infiltration mission gone wrong. Elend, left without any choice, takes another koloss army under his control, but the last remnants of Preservation appear to him, warning him to not attack the city. Shortly later, Preservation finally dies. On the verge of the attack, Vin escapes, and Ruin reveals his ability to seize ultimate control over the koloss. Ruin turns the koloss against Elend and Yomen’s human armies, but before he can destroy them, Vin leads Ruin’s attention and armies away to Luthadel. There, Marsh and the remaining Steel Inquisitors (who are under Ruin’s control) battle Vin. On the verge of her death, Marsh briefly reasserts control and removes Vin’s earring (which is actually a Hemalurgic spike), allowing Vin to draw upon the true power of the mists, Preservation’s power. Vin ascends to become Preservation, trapped with Ruin upon another plane of existence, watching the world.
The kandra finally accept their doom, and Sazed finds his faith in the ancient Terris religion and the Hero of Ages. Urteau is saved, at a great physical cost to Spook, who has discovered that Ruin was influencing him with Hemalurgy. Elend leads the last of humanity to the Kandra homeland, the Pits of Hathsin, where Ruin’s power, or body, has been stored. Ruin has been fooling Vin and Elend into leading him to his body, which turns out to be the atium stash, hidden in the Kandra homeland all along. Surrounded and outnumbered, Elend realizes that the Mists have been snapping mistings, and that he has been provided with an army of atium mistings. He leads a desperate battle against the koloss, in vain. Marsh appears again and faces down Elend. Though Elend receives mystical aid from Vin, giving him unlimited metallic power, Marsh strikes Elend in the chest with an axe, which proves fatal. As he is dying, Elend reveals that his soldiers have burnt away all of Ruin’s body, the atium, in battle, so now Ruin can never recover his missing power. Vin realizes that Preservation gave of himself to create mankind so that mankind would be able to manifest both Preservation’s ability to create and Ruin’s ability to destroy. Having both abilities within her, Vin attacks Ruin directly, killing herself/Preservation, but also destroying Ruin.
Vin and many others thought that she was the Hero of Ages, but it is revealed to actually be the Terris Keeper Sazed. One major prophecy, “The Hero will bear the future of the world on his arms”, referred to Sazed’s Feruchemical copperminds on his arms. He uses the knowledge in these copperminds, along with the combined power of Preservation and Ruin, claimed from the fallen bodies of Vin and Ruin, to help reshape the world, re-aligning the sun and planets to stabilize the world, changing the red, volcanic ecology into a new paradise of blue skies, green foliage, gentle warming sun and rainbow flowers. Spook, Ham, Breeze, and the other survivors emerge to this newly reformed world, finding Vin and Elend’s reformed but still lifeless bodies in a field of flowers. A thick tome is found, written by Sazed, explaining his role as the Hero of Ages, the history of Ruin and Preservation’s conflict, and extensive knowledge about the Three Metallic Arts. A note is also left for Spook, revealing that Sazed had made him a Mistborn and healed the damages he had done to his own body over the course of the book, as well as the revelation that there are two metals which have yet to be discovered. Under Spook’s leadership, they begin their mission of rebuilding society.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Alloy of Law (The Mistborn Saga Book 4)
Mistborn: The Alloy of Law is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on November 8, 2011, by Tor Books and is the first book in the Wax and Wayne series and fourth in the Mistborn series. It is preceded by The Hero of Ages from the Mistborn Original Trilogy in 2008 and followed by Shadows of Self in 2015.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law continues the Mistborn series, a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.
Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Kelsier and Vin have passed into the realm of history and myth, and the world of Scadrial is on the verge of modernity. In the frontier lands known as the Roughs, the old magics are a crucial tool for those who establish order and justice.
One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn, who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, tragedy has driven Wax back to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties of the head of a noble house. But when a gang of Allomancers turn to train robbery and kidnapping, Wax will soon learn that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.
Plot
The Alloy of Law is set in an analog to the early 20th century, on Scadrial, approximately 300 years after the conclusion of the original trilogy. It also introduces the concept of Twinborn, beings naturally born with one allomantic and one feruchemical ability, for the first time in the series.
Lawman Waxillium Ladrian and his partner Lessie are investigating a serial killer in Feltrel, a small town in the Roughs. They decide to split up and Wax follows the murderer’s tracks, leading him into a small church, where he finds that Lessie had been captured and held hostage by the serial killer. While trying to free her, Wax accidentally kills Lessie.
Five months after the death of Lessie, Wax has given up the role as peacekeeper, and returned to Elendel, where after the death of his uncle and sister who were involved in a carriage accident, he has become the head of his house. Due to his uncle’s inadequate financial operations, Wax is trying to save House Ladrian from bankruptcy. The only way to do it is to find a suitable high-born lady from a financially stable house to marry.
Just before meeting with promising prospect Lady Steris and her father, Wax is unexpectedly visited by his friend, deputy, and master of disguise Wayne who is also a Twinborn with the abilities to create speed bubbles, and store health in his goldminds, who has come to Elendel to investigate a series of robberies and kidnappings for which a rogue band called “the Vanishers” is responsible. He wants Wax’s help to solve the case. Although still torn between his previous life as a lawman and his obligations to House Ladrian, Wax declines to join him. During the meeting with Lady Steris, her father, and her half-sister Marasi who is posing as a distant cousin to Lady Steris, for she is illegitimately born, Wayne pretends to be Wax’s distant uncle. Wax and Lady Steris come to an agreement to marry after several months of courting, and to introduce themselves as a couple to the elite society.
At a wedding party held by House Tekiel, the Vanishers show up and try to kidnap Steris and Marasi. Wax and Wayne, working as a team, manage to save Marasi, and kill most of the Vanishers when the event becomes violent. However, their leader and a few others slip away with Steris. Wax decides to solve the case and rescue his wife-to-be. After a careful recollection of the events at the wedding, Wax comes to the conclusion that the band is led by a former lawman named Miles, who is a Twinborn with the ability to cure any injury almost immediately.
Wayne discovers the bandits’ hideout after interrogating one of the captives in police custody, and meets with Wax and Marasi in House Ladrian’s mansion to share his findings. There Wax’s butler tries to kill him, but the trio manage to escape.
Wax and Wayne, accompanied by Marasi, go to the bandits’ hideout, and find it deserted, with minimal remaining evidence. They visit an old acquaintance – a gunsmith named Ranette – and form a plan to capture the bandits during their next robbery.
Wax deduces that the Vanishers will try to rob a train transporting large amounts of aluminium which is extremely valuable due to its immunity to allomancy. He manages to slip into the cargo hold of the train. Meanwhile, Wayne and Marasi watch as the bandits switch the train’s carts, and manage to follow them to their new hideout. There, after a long battle, in which all the bandits except Miles are killed, Wax and Marasi manage to distract Miles long enough with Marasi’s Allomantic ability to slow down time inside a speed bubble for Wayne to fetch enough law officers to subdue and capture Miles. Lady Steris is saved, and although Wax feels attraction to Marasi, he decides to continue with the planned marriage.
Wax discovers that the person who had recruited Miles in the first place is the presumed dead Lord Edwarn Ladrian, Wax’s uncle, who still holds the other kidnapped women. Edwarn is connected to a shadowy organization known as the Set, and has used the robberies to commit profitable insurance fraud. Wax and Wayne decide that they will stay in Elendel and try to stop Lord Edwarn and his organization from fulfilling their plans. Miles is stripped of his metalminds and publicly executed. Marasi is approached by Ironeyes, Marsh, now revered as Death himself and given a mysterious book.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
5. Shadows of Self (The Mistborn Saga Book 5)
Mistborn: Shadows of Self is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on October 6, 2015, by Tor Books and is the second book in the Wax and Wayne series and fifth in the Mistborn series. It is preceded by The Alloy of Law in 2011 and followed by The Bands of Mourning in 2016.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.
Waxillium Ladrian was a lawman in Scadrial’s ungoverned frontier region, known as the Roughs, where he worked with his eccentric but effective buddy, Wayne. They are “twinborn,” meaning they are able to use both Allomantic and Feruchemical magic. In their world, technology and magic mix, democracy contends with corruption, and religion becomes a growing cultural force, with four faiths competing for converts.
This bustling, optimistic, but still shaky society now faces its first instance of terrorism, crimes intended to stir up strife. Wax and Wayne, assisted by the brilliant Marasi, must unravel the conspiracy before it stops Scadrial’s progress in its tracks.
Plot
In a flashback, Waxillium Ladrian first meets his future wife Lessie on a bounty hunt, where they work together to bag a powerful crime boss. In the present, it is one year since the defeat of the Vanishers. Wax and Marasi have learned of the art of Hemalurgy from the book given to them by Ironeyes. Wax has now been deputized by the city’s constabulary.
While hunting down a criminal called the Marksman with his partner Wayne, Wax sees the face of Bloody Tan (the man responsible for Lessie’s death) in a crowd, but is unable to find him when he searches. Wax is called off the job and summoned by the constables to aid in a major investigation: the brother of Elendel’s governor has been murdered at a meeting with a number of powerful crime bosses, who have all also been killed. This incident further stokes unrest over corruption and bad working conditions in the city. Wax finds evidence that only a Steelrunner (a Feruchemist who can store and utilize speed) could have committed the murders, but when he tracks down the only Steelrunner in the city, he finds her dead, murdered with a Hemalurgic spike.
Wax is approached by Harmony himself, who informs him that a rogue kandra named Paalm, now known as Bleeder, is responsible for the killings. She has gone mad, and ripped out one of her spikes to hide from Harmony. She has also found a way to grant herself metallic powers using Hemalurgy, though she can only hold one ability at a time. She now seeks unrest and destruction in the city, and is convinced that Harmony is a terrible, cruel god. Harmony promises to send supernatural help to Wax in order to foil her plots.
Wax and Marasi become convinced that governor Innate (whom Marasi has discovered is corrupt) will be the next target of Bleeder’s attacks, and Wax finds evidence that Bleeder may have a personal vendetta against him. Bleeder finds a way to mentally communicate with Wax and draws him away from a noble party and into a trap laid by Set enforcers. Wax is saved by MeLaan, a kandra sent by Harmony to help him. Wax contacts his uncle Edwarn and attempts to strike a truce with the Set, but learns that the Set is backing Bleeder with both manpower and money. Bleeder kills a Survivorist priest while posing as a Pathian, which spurs riots in the city. Constable-general Aradel seeks permission to institute martial law.
Bleeder launches an attack on the governor’s mansion, using her speed to slip by Wax and Wayne’s defenses and to break into the governor’s safe room; she only kills Innate’s bodyguard before fleeing, however, and Wax guesses that she will not kill Innate until she can further destabilize the city. Innate gives permission for martial law, and insists on making a speech to quell the population. Bleeder leads Wax on another false chase alongside the famed kandra TenSoon, where they discover that she has made other Hemalurgic creations. Wax returns to the governor’s mansion, and realizes that Bleeder has had time to prepare for many months, leading him to correctly guess that she has already killed and taken the place of the governor. Found out, she is forced to switch bodies and flee, Wax giving chase.
Wayne and Marasi have MeLaan impersonate the governor and give a speech to appease the populace. When even this does not seem to head off the rioters, Aradel publicly arrests the governor (MeLaan) on charges of corruption and installs himself as city leader. Wax pursues Bleeder to a bridge, where he discovers she is impersonating Lessie. He fires a specially crafted bullet with his hemalurgic earring forged inside it into her, allowing Harmony to assert his control. Rather than be controlled, she commits suicide, and as she dies, she says things which only the real Lessie could know. Wax, anguished, realizes that she is the real Lessie, and TenSoon arrives to explain that she had been sent to watch over Wax in the Roughs. Wax is horrified that he has now killed her a second time.
Aradel is officially named governor, the first ever without noble blood; he begins immediate work exposing corruption. MeLaan fakes the suicide of Innate, and warns Marasi that a spike recovered from Bleeder is made of a metal that even Harmony has never seen. MeLaan’s warnings prompt Marasi to research Trell, an ancient god whom Miles Hundredlives referenced with his final words. Meanwhile, Wax slips into a deeply melancholic and isolationist depression.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
6. The Bands of Mourning (The Mistborn Saga Book 6)
Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning is a steampunk fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on January 26, 2016, by Tor Books and is the third book in the Wax and Wayne series and sixth in the Mistborn series. It is preceded by Shadows of Self in 2015 and followed by The Lost Metal in 2022.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action.
Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds.
The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metal minds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.
Plot summary
In a flashback, Waxillium Ladrian is spending a year in the Terris Village while he is a teenager. Unlike his sister Telsin, he struggles to adapt to their ways, and when he discovers and kills a Terris murderer whom the Terris failed to apprehend, he decides to depart the village. Years later, Wax has mostly emotionally recovered from Lessie’s death, and is about to marry Steris. However, Wayne secretly sabotages the wedding so that it is unfinished.
A kandra named VenDell makes contact with Wax, seeking help on a mission, but when Wax refuses, VenDell recruits Marasi instead. Wax listens in as VenDell explains how another kandra, ReLuur, found evidence of the existence of the Bands of Mourning: the Lord Ruler’s arm braces, which may be able to grant anyone the powers of an allomancer and a feruchemist. However, ReLuur was attacked by the Set and lost one of his spikes. Marasi agrees to hunt the spike, and Wax agrees to tag along when a picture reveals that his sister may be in New Seran, where ReLuur was ambushed. VenDell also says that Harmony has been preoccupied with something big lately.
Wax, Marasi, Wayne, Steris, and MeLaan make their way to New Seran under the guise of a diplomatic mission. Tensions have grown between Elendel and the outer cities, with a war possibly imminent. Marasi acquires a strange cubic device from bandits after she and Wax foil a train robbery. At New Seran, Wax attends a party held by prominent noblewoman Lady Kelesina Shores, after acquiring a strange coin and partially uncovering a conspiracy Kelesina is involved in. Kelesina contacts Wax’s uncle Edwarn, who has Kelesina killed and frames Wax. Steris proves useful at the party, both for the infiltration and the subsequent escape. Meanwhile, Wayne and Marasi raid a graveyard where they believe the spike to be, but cannot find it. They do learn, however, that there is a strange project going on in the nearby town of Dulsing, connected to the Set.
The group flees the city and heads for Dulsing. Marasi discovers that her cube can absorb and replicate Allomantic powers when thrown. At Dulsing, the group infiltrates a Set warehouse and discovers a massive, damaged warship, which the Set is both repairing and researching. Marasi recovers the spike and rescues a strange, imprisoned man who wears a wooden mask; she also finds evidence that other mask-wearing people have been tortured and murdered there. Wax rescues Telsin, but a shootout ensues. The masked man leads Marasi, Wax, and the others into a hidden compartment aboard the ship, which is actually a smaller ship hidden inside. The man reveals the ships are flying vehicles powered by Allomancy, and with Wax’s power they use the vehicle to escape.
The man, Allik, uses a strange medallion to communicate with them; he reveals many of the medallions, which have the ability to grant a variety of Allomantic and Feruchemical abilities to anyone who wears them. He comes from a region beyond the Roughs that froze when Harmony remade the world, and claims that his people were then saved by the Lord Ruler, who reappeared with a spike through his right eye after Harmony’s ascension. Allik and his people were also seeking the Bands of Mourning, which are hidden at a temple in a nearby mountain range, when they crashed and were taken by the Set. The group sets course for the temple, hoping they can reach it before Edwarn Ladrian and his expedition team do.
Wax’s group find the temple and disable its traps, but cannot get through the final door. The Set expedition arrives, and Edwarn, under a banner of truce, opens the final door so that they may all enter. They find the temple empty, the Bands seemingly already taken. Telsin is revealed as a traitor and leader of the Set (even higher ranked than Edwarn), and she shoots Wax repeatedly; he falls into a pit trap. MeLaan is incapacitated, Wayne is forced to flee, and Steris, Allik, and Marasi are taken captive.
Wax crawls through the pit, but is confronted by his uncle. Edwarn reveals he gained Allomancy through Hemalurgy, and tries to kill Wax, but is stopped by Wayne. Dying from his wounds, Wax loses consciousness. He appears in a world beyond death and meets Harmony, who forces Wax to confront his own hatred and self-loathing surrounding the death of Lessie. Harmony also shows Wax a vision of his planet, Scadrial, surrounded by red mist, hinting that he has been holding off a far greater threat than Wax knew. Marasi realizes that the temple is a decoy, and the real bands have been reforged into a metal spearhead on a statue outside the temple. She seizes the Bands, and uses their incredible power to find Wax. Harmony offers Wax the chance to continue his life and fulfil his duty; he takes it, taking the Bands from Marasi and healing his wounds. As Wax uses his newfound power to quickly disable Set forces and capture Edwarn, Steris and Allik liberate his remaining captive crew members. Wayne hunts down and seemingly kills Telsin as she tries to slip away, but later Wax discovers her body is missing and that she has escaped.
Allik’s crew uses a newly recovered airship to transport Wax’s team and their prisoners back to Elendel. They open potential future trade deals for their peoples before the airship returns to its homeland. However, the governor informs Wax that the murder of Lady Kelesina may spark a war. The Bands are given to the kandra for safekeeping. Wax admits his love for Steris, and they marry in private. A strange, red-eyed servant of Trell visits Edwarn in prison, and detonates a bomb killing itself and Edwarn. Wax discovers that the strange coin from New Seran is a Coppermind, and investigation of the memory inside reveals that the man with the spike in his eye was not the Lord Ruler, but actually Kelsier, the Survivor.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
7. The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga Book 7)
Mistborn: The Lost Metal is an urban fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on November 15, 2022, by Tor Books. It is the fourth and final book in the Wax and Wayne series and seventh in the Mistborn series. It is preceded by The Bands of Mourning in 2016 and is to be followed by a new trilogy, written after release of fifth Stormlight Archive book and a novelization of the Cosmere graphic novel White Sand.
Return to #1 New York Times bestseller Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era, which began with The Alloy of Law, comes to its earth-shattering conclusion in The Lost Metal.
For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set―with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders―since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate―whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose―and Bilming is even more entangled.
After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial’s god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn’t the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere―Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial…at any cost.
Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.
Plot summary
Six years following The Bands of Mourning, Waxillium Ladrian has retired from his lawman career, and Wayne has become a full constable in Elendel law enforcement, serving under Marasi who has been promoted to detective. Wax, aided by his wife Steris (with whom he has two young children, Maxillium and Tindwyl), has become a prominent figure in Elendel politics, known as the ‘Lawman Senator of the Roughs’. Since the discovery of the Southern Scadrials during the quest for the Bands of Mourning, diplomatic relations have been established with its most prominent nation, the Malwish Consortium. However, relations between the north and south remain tense, as do those between Elendel and its neighboring cities in the Basin. Despite Wax’s and Steris’ efforts, conflict escalates.
Wax’s sister Telsin, the leader of the Set, a terrorist group working for Trell (actually a Shard of Adonalsium called Autonomy), plots to smuggle a magical equivalent of an atomic bomb into Elendel. Marasi goes on a mission with a mysterious group known as the Ghostbloods, led by Kelsier, to stop Autonomy’s forces from invading the world. Meanwhile, Wax and Wayne go to confront Telsin at the Set’s base, killing several Set members, but discover that the bomb is not there, and instead is on a ship headed for the city. Marasi stops enemies in time and disables their portal, preventing the invasion, while Wax reaches the boat with Wayne. The duo discover that the bomb can be defused, but the defuser will die in the process. Wayne sacrifices himself to both defuse the bomb and save Wax. Telsin’s overloaded body dies upon Autonomy removing her influence.
In the aftermath, Kelsier and Harmony debate about whether Harmony should introduce technology to the people or not, and Wax lives happily with Steris and his children. The city honors Wayne by putting up a statue of him.
Read More: [Reviews & Quotes] The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
About the Author (Brandon Sanderson)
Brandon Sanderson (Brandon Winn Sanderson, born December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan’s high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created two graphic novels, including White Sand and Dark One.
A New York Times best-selling author, Sanderson created Sanderson’s Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of “hard magic” and “soft magic” systems. In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics. In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson’s entire Cosmere universe, but the rights have since reverted back to Sanderson. Sanderson’s March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history, finishing with 185,341 backers pledging $41,754,153.
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