Mate, it ain’t violence if it’s religion.

And so it ends. The second era of one of the more ambitious ideas in fantasy: take a fantasy world with a hard/scientific magic system (or three), tell a crazy story in that world, and then advance a few hundred years so that the first story becomes the myths and religions of the world. Not only that, but (specifically in the Lost Metal), take that same idea and expand it across a shared universe of fantasy worlds, each with their own feel and magic and start really bringing things in from other worlds, mashing them together and seeing just what sort of madness pops out.

If you’re a big fan of the Cosmere (I fall into this bucket), this is a rather solid book. We get probably the most blatant crossovers we’ve seen so far (I’d argue more even than Rhythm of War), as escalation of stakes (what’s it like to be the newest god on the block), and a final send off for some of my favorite characters so far.

On the other hand, if you’ve somehow only read Mistborn or even only Mistborn Era 2–or you just don’t want the Cosmere interactions to be quite so obvious… well, this is probably not the book for you. And I expect (hope, sorry) that you’re only going to grow more frustrated.

Characterwise, it’s fascinating to see Wax a few years later. He’s finally realizing who he is meant to be (at some level), reluctantly accepting it, and once again saving the day. Solid.

I also love the idea of him and Steris starting a family . And I do greatly enjoy seeing Steris’ strengths. Having a main character on the autism spectrum that certainly has her issues with that (especially in the early book) but also learns how to use the strengths she has… it’s great.

“Everyone shut up and listen!” Steris snapped. “Or I will barf on the table to get your attention!”

The entire room stared at her.

“I’ll do it,” she warned. “I keep medication in my handbag to produce the effect.”

I love seeing more of Marisi in her element as a constable. She turned them down once, but I hope at some point we see perhaps more of her with the Ghostbloods.

And finally, Wayne. Oh Wayne. He’s got comedic sidekick down to an art… but man does this book drag him kicking and screaming into some self realizations. Oy. They say comedy is tragedy plus time. Perhaps in Wayne’s case, it’s comedy is tragedy, just wearing a different hat?

He sat staring at the door for a long time. He wasn’t wearing a hat, which meant he had to just be himself. The true him, the one that knew this pain. They’d ridden together on many a dusty path. This pain had been his invisible friend since childhood.

Plotwise, it’s a fairly typical adventure story, even framed as such, riding alongside a story that Wayne’s mother to him as a child. The end of the world is coming–on several levels–and it’s up to the characters to be the Big Damn Heroes and save the day. Perhaps it doesn’t quite get to the ‘fundamentally altering the very stakes of the Cosmere’ as it could have been, but given that it was the Era that was never originally planned to happen, I think it still did a pretty dang good job.

Overall, I think you know what I’m going to say. I loved it and am only sad that it’ll probably be a couple years now until we see where the world of Mistborn goes next…

I do look forward to seeing people reading 1980s style comic books about Wax and Wayne though. And especially how in the world they manage to take an already larger than life story and somehow make it even bigger…