sahawkfire
2/22/2016
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
I guess I'll start off by saying that I really enjoyed this book, maybe even more than Alloy of Law (AoL). What I find most impressive about this book is the fact that it exists, really. When I picked up AoL in 2011, I was under the impression that it would be simply be a standalone book, and I wasn't really expecting anything epic out of it. All I wanted was another fun jaunt in the Mistborn universe, and that's pretty much what I got.
What I find so amazing about Shadows of Self is that Sanderson manage to take very small threads and characters and ideas from AoL and spin them into an even more epic tale that makes me feel like I'm truly in the Mistborn universe again and not just peeking in through the window that was AoL.
The best (and most heartbreaking) part, in my opinion, comes from a twist that I'm sure Sanderson did not have in mind when he was writing the first book. But the twist itself is a stroke of genius. The revelation of Lessie as a kandra and Wax having to deal with all those emotions all over again... I can't even describe how much my heart hurt for him. Plus it serves the purpose of making Wax even more deeply involved in the greater conflict involving Harmony and the kandra and the mysterious Trell.
Shadows of Self on the whole seemed darker and more twisted than the cartoony AoL (with the exception of AoL's prologue, which I thought was amazing). A kandra going mad, the priest hung up with spikes in his eyes, the way Paalm appears to the cabdriver-- it's gruesome and I was a lot more afraid of the forces at work.
Other random thoughts:
In conclusion, Shadows of Self made me way more excited for this trilogy and its implications for the Mistborn mythology as a whole. I've already started on Bands of Mourning!