Hundreds of years have passed since the events of The Hero of Ages; the world is no longer choked with ash or oppressed by brutal rulers--indeed, it has begun to move into its own industrial era, with railroads and skyscrapers bringing civilization to the wild lands beyond the city. Lord Waxilium Ladrian has been exiled to the Roughs by his family, and has made a life for himself as a lawkeeper; when a sudden death draws him back to the city, he thinks his days of investigation are over. But soon a band of criminals begins to terrorize the city, kidnapping women from noble houses and stealing small fortunes in metals from railcars. When the woman he's engaged to marry is stolen, Wax starts to investigate on his own.
A lot of reviews I've read refer to this book as Mistborn-lite. I can see why: the plot here is much simpler and less introspective than those of previous Mistborn books, and new setting is so radically different from the ash-covered world of before that it does feel like a different series. Allomancy and Feruchemy (two of the major abilities available to mankind) are still around, but in radically different forms as well. In fact, one of the most interesting parts of this book was seeing how those powers have changed with the advent of industrialization (steel-pushing and guns? I'm there).
Despite all the changes, I had a lot of fun with this book. It was fun to see how the legends of Vin, Eland, Sazed, and all the rest have been interpreted and changed over the years. It was also kind of nice to have a little more action and a little less philosophy in this volume. The ending was a little predictable, but Sanderson throws in a great twist in the epilogue that makes me see a series in this book's future. Mistborn meets steampunk: it totally works, and I will happily read more of these.
