Hey Robert,
So I have read all the books prior to this in the series but I didn’t have the time to re-read all of them before this one called to me from the audiobook library and made me listen.
Title: Bands of Mourning
Series: Wax and Wayne Series; Book 3
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: Cosmere, Magic
Synopsis: It’s six months after the end of Shadows of Self and Wax is getting married.
Recommendation: Good book for adults or late teens. Not my favorite Mistborn novel but talked more about the Cosmere which is slowly fascinating me more and more while also driving me insane.
Waxillium Ladrian is a nice simple character. He has simple motives and simple feelings that for the most part make sense. When he sees something that needs doing he just does it. Compared to the soft city folk that he travels with he seems hard and unreadable. He contrasts very well to Wayne who is much more interesting to me. He has a way he needs to think to justify his actions. He seems like me might has some kind of special needs sometimes while at other times he is clearly a genius. A more complex character than his friend Wax.
Ladies of Mistborn vol. 2
Steris: super cool lady who is willing to do anything to become useful to Wax, Marasi: pushed into Wax’s shadow seeks to prove herself though she is super clever. MeLaan: the somewhat overly sexual kandra. Telsin: Wax’s sister.
It is so interesting to see how the world changes with magic into the industrial age. Even from the last two books to this one oil and gas lamps have been changes to electric. Cars are replacing horses and so on. Also how cool is it as a reader to know the facts of Vin, Elend, Kelsier, and Sazed with all their adventures. While Wax and the other protagonists of this trilogy are trying to decipher the myths. Like we know all about the Kandra, Hemalurgy and those things from the original Mistborn. But to Wax, the things are totally unknown, myth and legend.
Because we see the world from Wax’s pov most of the time we are left with the same confusion that he feels basically the entire book. Never knowing who the real villains are, who is pulling the strings. Wax is a relic from a bygone age where one man can make a difference with powers and a gun. But Bands of Mourning takes place in a more information-centric age. So he is out of place. And as the reader so are we.
I now understand why this is book 2 of the trilogy because book three is opening a whole new can of worms. I hope you read this one soon.
Jared
<< Review of Shadows of Self; Book 2
Coming Eventually – The Lost Metal; Book 4 >>
Reading Over The Shoulder 
So I was doing some behind the scenes work and I just wanted to remind you that this is #3 in the Wax and Wayne Series and could be loosely considered #2 in the Wax and Wayne Trilogy due to plotting.
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I had heard some conflicting information. That Alloy of Law was an in between book and Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning where both part of the Wax ans Wayne trilogy. I thought the distinction was kinda weird but what ever.
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But chronology doesn’t determine book number……..for example; Ranger’s Apprentice. Also how could it not be first if Marasi is introduced in Alloy of Law, plus the marriage negotiations, and him earning a special investigator allowance with the constabulary. All of those are established in Alloy of Law and not even touched in Shadows of Self. At the very least AofL is a prequel……that was published first.
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I wasn’t arguing with you.
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But SofS, BofM, and Lost Metal were plotted to function like a trilogy.
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