The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

The Mistborn trilogy has become a firm favourite with fantasy fans the world over. The imagination that Sanderson brought to the series and his skill at marshalling epic storylines and dramatic action, his ability to create vivid characters made him a natural choice to complete Robert Jordan's epic wheel of time sequence. But with Mistborn, Sanderson has shown his bountiful talents in his own fiction. Now he returns to the series that made his name with a new story, building on the incredible success of THE ALLOY OF LAW. The new Mistborn books move the series into a richly imagined 19th century analogue world with elements of the wild west mixed with magic and science. It's a wonderful concoction from a master storyteller. Sanderson has the knack of giving the epic fantasy reader exactly what they want. This ability has thrown him to the forefront of the genre and this novel will take him to the next level.

Damn that epilogue! The only good thing to come out of this book was Wax and Steris

I could say many good things about this book, but I'm online going to say the necessary: WE NEED THE NEXT BOOK!

In a bit of a left-turn, W&W takes a dive into adventure movie material and becomes a bit like Indiana Jones, with the Macguffin being the Lord Ruler's feruchemical bands and the return of the (honestly weakest part of the book) Nazi-like villains the Set. Whilst this direction initially interested me, there was more explanation about Cosmere mechanics than the actual logic of what had led to these events, and I found myself having more questions than answers at the end of the book. The action was fluid, despite arguably slowing the story down at times in spectacle-filled, film-like sequences, and the characters have all developed considerably - Wax wrestles with some internal conflict, Wayne showcases more of himself and society, Marasi has become tougher and situationally-smarter and Steris goes through some really sweet growth. There was an exciting second-half revelation, and I loved the emotion of the ending. I can sense where Sanderson wants to take Era 3, but before that there's definitely a lot of room left to explore in Scadrial's near-future, and a secret history to fulfil in it's recent past... Looking forward to the Lost Metal (aka Mistborn 7)!