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The Bands of Mourning: A Mistborn Novel (The Mistborn Saga Book 6)
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…
- Release Date
- 2017
- Length
- 447 pages
- Publisher
- Tor Fantasy
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Our Review
About the book
The third Wax and Wayne novel sends Waxillium, Wayne and Marasi, along with a bold kandra named MeLaan and others, on a mission to find a legendary artifact believed to have belonged to the Lord Ruler. Their search leads them far from Elendel and into the plans of a mysterious organization with designs on the world.
Our review
The Wax and Wayne series hits its stride with an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt that also deepens the Mistborn mythology.
This is the most purely entertaining of the Era Two books. The adventure structure, a train ride, a remote city, a quest for a mythical relic, gives the story momentum, and Sanderson’s action set pieces have never been more inventive. Wax’s grief and guilt are handled with welcome maturity, Wayne gets surprising emotional depth, and Steris quietly becomes one of the series’ most endearing characters. Hints about the wider Cosmere will thrill longtime fans.
The book does serve partly as setup for later installments, so some threads end on open questions rather than closure. A few secondary characters, including the antagonists, remain sketchy, and the jokes occasionally land with more volume than wit. Readers who skipped the earlier Wax and Wayne books will feel lost. But for those invested, this is a joyous, propulsive adventure that shows Sanderson’s world expanding in thrilling ways.
What we loved
- An exciting treasure-hunt structure
- Inventive, kinetic action sequences
- Steris’s lovely character development
Keep in mind
- Ends with several setup-driven loose ends
- Requires familiarity with the earlier books
Read it if you like
Fans of The Alloy of Law, Indiana Jones films, or Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series.
The verdict
For us, the high point of Wax and Wayne: a smart, funny adventure that expands Sanderson’s universe in exciting directions.
