Review: The Lost Metal

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, Sanderson has completed Era 2 of the Mistborn series. Originally intended to just be a bridge novella, Sanderson expanded it to 4 books. (Not surprising since he wrote 4 books during COVID out of boredom)

If you’ve been reading the books from Mistborn Era 2, you know that Sanderson has used it to bring the series more into the cosmic war between gods that appears to be the full Cosmere story. Previous entries were mostly confined to easter eggs and the mention of a rival god known as Trell. This book takes things up to 11 and, if you haven’t read other parts of the Cosmere before this, you will be partly lost and partly truly missing out on the consequences of what’s going on as part of the mystery Wax and friends are solving.

While I was reading, I was wondering if the book would work as a cop procedural/mystery or if it would be too caught up in the Cosmere to succeed. I think, in the end, it worked very well in its genre and was a satisfactory story. Again, if you’re not immersed in the Cosmere a lot will go way over your head. But, in the end, I think the story was still functional as a standalone. This will certainly not be the case with Era 3, but I think by that time anyone who’s still reading Mistborn is probably all-in on the Cosmere.

Awesome character growth for all the characters we’ve been following in the series. I also loved that Sanderson had the characters not enjoy wanton death and destruction. Particularly in the scene in which one character is ascending a tower and causing mayhem, death, and destruction. Sanderson doesn’t allow the reader to take the wrong message - this isn’t awesome - it’s merely something that has to be done as an act of war.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and now I’m sad it’s going to be quite a few years before we return to Scadrial. Well, at least now I can jump into the /r/Cosmere subreddit and read all the spoilers! Huzzah!

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