Audiobook Review: Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

*** This is a sequel to a larger series so if you haven't read the Mistborn trilogy or The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self you should probably do that first. Read those reviews if you need encouragement. ***

Title: The Bands of Mourning Series: Mistborn #6 (Wax and Wayne #3) Written by: Brandon Sanderson Published: January 26, 2016 by Tor (Macmillan) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: The #1 New York Times bestselling author returns to the world of Mistborn with the follow-up to Shadows of Self.  With The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self, Brandon Sanderson surprised readers with a New York Times bestselling spinoff of his Mistborn books, set after the action of the trilogy, in a period corresponding to late 19th-century America.  Now, with The Bands of Mourning, Sanderson continues the story. The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.

*incoherant babbling* Boom. Review done. You're welcome. Just kidding. Obviously you can see that I actually did babble by the length of this review. But honestly that's kind of all I should say to you about this book. Well that and it's the next book in the Mistborn series. That should be enough encouragement. But I will attempt to write a normal review so bear with me.

In Shadows of Self, Brandon Sanderson takes us deeper into the world of Mistborn. And you probably already know how much I love this world. In this one he once again builds out the magical system with more explanations of Allomancy, Feruchemy, and even a little Hemalurgy. I love seeing these systems at work and learning about them because they are so unique and complex. I love that it combines an innate ability to do the thing along with the need for the metals to burn. It's probably no surprise that there was a lot of talk about Feruchemy with the title and synopsis being what it is but there was just general explanations of all different kinds of metallurgy which is always cool. There was also more exploration of the larger planet of Scadrial in this book. We are taken even further out of Elendel with this book which was awesome and we even get to learn about some of the other countries within this world which was incredibly fascinating and brought up all kinds of crazy implications for future books within this series and with future series.

But that's what is so cool about this book as well. The incredible amount of foresight and plotting that Sanderson does within these books. I have always been blown away with the way that these Mistborn books are plotted. Each book has it's own individual plot development but there is also a larger plot for the series and even now larger plot from the original trilogy and future trilogies. The cool thing about this series is that it is going to be a quadrilogy of trilogies. We are constantly taken into the future. This is kind of a transitional series between the medieval original trilogy and a more modern era trilogy. It's kind of got this Western/steampunk vibe which I love. But the even cooler thing here is that you can see how or why the technology would develop in the future at the same time there are references and implications that directly relate to characters and moments from the original trilogy. There's a lot of references to characters in the original trilogy here and their exploits are part of the mythology of the world which I love.

Speaking of characters though, wow do I love the characters in this book. It's got serious squad goals you guys. There are some that I instantly fell in love with from their first appearance like Wayne whose effervescent humor and scrappy fighting make him so fun or Wax whose resourcefulness and mystery solving skills make him a great hero. Then there are other characters who have really grown on me, like Steris who was much more involved in this book and despite what she might think made a great addition to the team. She's surprisingly snarky and her compulsive desire to plan and prepare makes her so fun and interesting. She's a great foil for some of the other characters. As a whole this crew works so well together. I love seeing them attempt to solve the mysteries and get themselves out of these impossible situations. And of course the audiobook narrator did a fantastic job creating these characters. He perfectly captures Wayne's humor and scheming, MeLaan's haughty yet vulgar attitude, Steris's indignance and preparedness, Marasi's yearning and intelligence, and Wax's serious and toughness. The characters definitely come to life and the audio helped make that happen.

This series is just so addicting and fast-paced. I'm not the kind of reader who wants to savor a book or series that they love. I'm voracious about my reading. If I love something I want to read it as quickly as possible and that was definitely the case here. I just powered through it, taking less than two days to read it. And yes, the fact that I listened to the audio while at work helped with that but seriously, it was just so engaging. There is so much action and adventure here as well as so much mystery. I wanted to uncover the next secret, to find out what was going to happen next, to see how the characters were going to get out of this dilemma. And Sanderson delivered with the twists and turns. There were tons of surprises as usual and hugely climactic ending that had me on the edge of my seat. Plus that prologue. *inaudibly screams*

I give The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson 10 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: BUY! Is there any doubt of that? I am such a huge fan of this series, as I am sure you know. If you enjoy the Mistborn books then you will love this one as well. It's a great further development of the series and I cannot wait to read The Lost Metal. And if you haven't read the Mistborn series, you need to sort out your priorities. It's one of my all-time favorite fantasy series. It's amazing!

Have you read The Bands of Mourning? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!