Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning Book Review
Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.
Brandon Sanderson succeeded in this third book, albeit with a few minor flaws that will likely get addressed in the fourth and final book in the Wax and Wayne series. Although so many questions were answered in this book, a lot more questions were brought up. I will dive into those later into the book review, but let’s focus on the positive first.
Wax, Wayne, and Marasi have powerful character stories in this novel. Six months have passed since the previous novel, but these characters are still reeling. Wax is distraught and lost faith in Harmony, Marasi is trying to find herself and keep the city alive, Wayne has demons to confront but prioritizes helping Wax.
Wax and Marasi found closure to their problems from The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self. I wish I could talk about them without spoiling what happens, but their characterization brings them back into the light after the hopelessness they experienced towards the end of Shadows of Self. Wayne had his moments throughout this novel, and hopefully, he gets to shine in the fourth book. Also, Wayne’s POV parts in this novel seems… Wayne dumber compared to the previous novels.
Steris also had amazing character development that was touched upon in Shadows of Self, but this novel really went all out for her. I think she became one of my favorite characters in the entire Mistborn series. Her performance really sold it for me. My only issue was the lack of use towards the end of the novel. Leaving her with the horses or out of harm’s way didn’t serve her character justice, but Sanderson was self-aware on some level about this. Steris acknowledged her uselessness, but still… she could’ve proved herself more instead of regressing.
Overall, I’d recommend this book and the Mistborn series to anybody into the fantasy genre. I did find the unanswered questions involving the masked people, medallions, this Trell God especially, and that ending made sense, but… that ending is intentional cryptic as I begin Mistborn: Secret History. I’m excited to see what happens next in Wax and Wayne’s final adventure. They should get more books, but oh well.