Rust and Ruin! Final Book of Mistborn Era 2 So Soon?
November 3, 2022
The long-awaited final book in the Wax and Wayne series, the sister series to the original of the Mistborn trilogy, has been nearly seven years in the making and is now only a few weeks away from publication! The Lost Metal is planned to release online, on Audible, and to stores on Nov. 15.
Mistborn is a modern fantasy, and I feel is best described as a heist story. The magic in the world, named Allomancy, being based on the consumption and use of metals for power. The original series could be said to be in a medieval type era, mirroring the lords and ladies, valiant knight, archetypes we have grown to expect. However, when the series ended and people were clambering for more, the author decided to jump the shark as it were, dropping the old characters and plot out a third-story window by making it old history. It’s the industrial age now! Hundreds of years have passed, and where once the story was always described as some sort of epic fantasy, it is now very much a detective story with gunslingers, train heists, and secret organizations.
The change in tone brought with it many people with interests outside of ye old swords and sorcery fantasy into the world of Mistborn. Now, with the final book so soon and plot lines coming to a close, honestly, it is the earlier the merrier for picking up the series while the interest and hype for the series build. Especially with show and movie adaptations of Brandon Sanderson’s works on the horizon.
The book’s release party will also coincide with the 2022 Dragonsteel Convention in Salt Lake City from Nov. 14-15, (which I will be attending so expect a possible update on that),
With all that, what else is there to know?
Well, we know that The Lost Metal will be substantially longer than previous entries. In one of Brandon’s updates, he told us of the first draft coming out to be nearly 600 pages, over 150k words! This is in contrast to previous entries, with the first book of the second series, The Alloy of Law, coming out to a mere 95k words or 332 pages.
Realistically, this series has been standalone up until now, and you could read Wax and Wayne by itself and get the same enjoyment. However, the author did note that The Lost Metal has been planned to have more connections to the other series he has written than usual, those a part of his universe commonly referred to as the Cosmere. So if you are not already in the know about some of those books, you might be missing out on the context in a couple of scenes.
We know that there will be a six-year time jump between the events of the fourth book The Bands of Mourning, and The Lost Metal.
Otherwise, we do have lots more information on things like plot and story, as Tor, the publisher, has been releasing preview chapters of the book early for free. The first 13 chapters and prologue have been revealed over the months, and are linked at the bottom of the article.
Tor also released free digital downloads for the first three books in the series for those new people to get caught up, though as it was only up for a few days, those of us who did not pick them up have to either buy new copies or head over to the Oshkosh Public Library, which currently has 5 copies of each book in the series.
With that being said, make sure to get your Mistcloaks and metal vials ready for Mistborn, The Lost Metal on November 15th! Good reading, everyone.
