Mistborn: The Alloy of Law

Conception

The work that eventually turned into Mistborn: The Alloy of Law was originally a creative writing exercise, not necessarily intended for publication, to help clear Sanderson's head before continuing work on A Memory of Light from The Wheel of Time and the next book in The Stormlight Archive. It turned out better than expected and was released for publication.

Plot summary

Alloy of Law is set approximately 300 years after the conclusion of the original trilogy. It also introduces the concept of Twinborn for the first time in the series.

The book opens with Waxillium and his partner Lessie, who are investigating a serial killer in a small city 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 as hostage by the serial killer. While trying to free her, something goes awry, and Wax accidentally kills Lessie.

The story then shifts five months forward, and it is explained that after the death of Lessie, Wax had given up the role as peacekeeper, and returned to Elendel, where after the death of his uncle and sister (who were involved in an 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 Lady Steris and her father, Wax is unexpectedly visited by his best friend and deputy Wayne (who is also a Twinborn with the abilities to create Time Spheres, outside of which time is slowed down, 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 to acquire Wax's help to solve the case, but Wax is reluctant to do any peace-keeping, due to Lessie's unfortunate death. During the meeting with Lady Steris, her father, and her half-sister Marasi (who is posing as a distant cousin to Lady Steris, due to the fact that she is illegitimately born), Wayne is pretending to be Wax's distant uncle from his mother's side. Wax and Lady Steris come to an agreement to marry after several months of courting, and introducing 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 band members, after their leader shoots a renowned peacekeeper. It is then that Wax decides to solve the case and rescue his wife-to-be.

After a careful recollection of the events on the wedding, Wax comes to the conclusion that the band is led by his previous colleague, the former lawman 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, who is held 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 his master, by first poisoning him, and then detonating a bomb, but the trio manages to escape.

Wax and Wayne, accompanied by Marasi, go to the bandits' hideout, and find it deserted. After a careful search they discover an empty cigar box with numbers written on it. Because they have nowhere else to go, they decide to visit an old acquaintance - the gunsmith Ranette. There they form a plan to capture the bandits during one of their robberies.

Wax deduces that the Vanishers will try to rob a train, which transports large amounts of aluminium (which is really expensive both because it's rare and cannot be affected by allomancy). He manages to slip into the cargo hold of the train. Meanwhile, Wayne and Marasi watch as the bandits switch the train's wagons, and manage to follow them to their new hideout.

There after a long battle, in which all the bandits are killed except Miles, Wax and Marasi manage to distract Miles long enough (with Marasi's allomantic ability to speed up time around her), so that Wayne can come back with 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.

It is then revealed that the person who had recruited Miles in the first place is the presumed dead Lord Ladrian, Wax's uncle, who is still keeping the kidnapped women.

Wax and Wayne decide that they will stay in Elendel and try to stop Lord Ladrian and his organization from fulfilling their plans.

Characters

Series

Alloy of Law was originally released as a standalone, transitional sequel to the original Mistborn trilogy. In December 2014, Sanderson stated he would write a follow-up trilogy to The Alloy of Law, and it later became the first of four books in the Wax and Wayne series. It was followed by Shadows of Self in 2015, The Bands of Mourning in 2016, and a fourth book, The Lost Metal, scheduled for 2018.