by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★☆
Writing a review of a book that is the 4th in a tetralogy and 7th overall in the series that put Brandon Sanderson on the fantasy map is challenging! If you're six books into the world of Mistborn, you're probably picking this up regardless of what I say. If you have never heard of any of this, you're not going to start with this one (also regardless of what I say). But, I'll do my best to summarize what to expect, whether you are trying to decide when to read The Lost Metal or contemplating picking up Mistborn for the first time.
The Lost Metal picks up six years after the previous book in "The Wax and Wayne Series", what Sanderson refers to as "Era Two of Mistborn". After the initial Mistborn trilogy put Sanderson on the fantasy map, he continued with a separate quartet of novels set hundreds of years in the future. While the underlying magic system is the same (or at least similar), technology has evolved and the setting is almost an intermediary "Wild West" type vibe. To avoid giving away any spoilers for this or previous books in the series, I'll simply say that the lives of the main characters have changed significantly since the end of Book 6 (The Bands of Mourning), and a threat to the entire existence of Elendel looms that, of course, requires them to spring into action to once again try to save the day.
To quote a co-worker of mine who is also a big Sanderson fan, "so much happens in this book". It's daunting to try to wrap up a series, and while other fantasy authors seem to really struggle with this (i'm looking at you, George R. R. Martin and you, Patrick Rothfuss!), Sanderson has somehow found a way to avoid the writers block that seems to strike so many of his peers. While Sanderson is notorious for his prolific writing as well as the length of some of his books, he manages to wrap up Era Two in a tidy 500 pages. It doesn't feel rushed, and it appropriately puts a bow on this second generation of Mistborn novels.
If you're a fan of fantasy and haven't yet read Mistborn, do yourself a favor and get it on your to-read list ASAP. The original novel is still one of my favorite books of all time, regardless of genre. While The Lost Metal (or any of the other subsequent 6 novels in the series) never quite hit that lofty mark, this one left me fully satisfied, and it was a fitting conclusion to the series.