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A Quest for the Holy MacGuffin
Jan. 30th, 2023 04:15 pmI have been working my way through Brandon Sanderson’s Wax and Wayne quartet, his series of moderate-length steampunk novels set 300 years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy. Most recently I finished The Bands of Mourning, a fun caper that revolves around a mythical artifact in which the Lord Ruler supposedly stored all his magical energy.
Wax is still big mad at God when this book kicks off. This is unsurprising and, frankly, justified. He is also trying to not feel bad about his impending marriage with Steris, given that Steris is actually very cool, and they are starting to form a kind of functional working relationship, but unfortunately that’s not really the same thing as wanting to marry somebody. The internal politics in the Elendel Basin are also getting worse due in part to an outdated political structure that assumes Elendel is not just the capital city but is in fact the only city. The Set, a shadowy cabal of extra-shitty capitalist noblemen, is happy to capitalize on the righteous unrest to try to tip the Basin toward outright civil war. Some shenanigans with an insane kandra–yes, another one–indicate that someone has found the possibly mythical Bands of Mourning, and the Set is is involved somehow, and this sends Wax and his little gang of misfits on a wild goose chase through the Outer Cities, where they cause a great deal of ruckus and meet up with some people from a whole other continent.
My favorite thing about this book is that it was Steris’ time to shine. I liked her even in Book 1 when she was presented as an overly organized weirdo who keeps saying things outright that nobles are supposed to dance around (like the mercenary nature of noble marriages), but this is the book where our list-making queen really gets to do shenanigans–in an incredibly overplanned way, of course. It’s great. A lot of the characters here are fun–the relationship between Wayne and MeLaan was excellent, it’s alway a good time when two chaotic characters get together–but I just really appreciated the extra Steris.
Wax is still big mad at God when this book kicks off. This is unsurprising and, frankly, justified. He is also trying to not feel bad about his impending marriage with Steris, given that Steris is actually very cool, and they are starting to form a kind of functional working relationship, but unfortunately that’s not really the same thing as wanting to marry somebody. The internal politics in the Elendel Basin are also getting worse due in part to an outdated political structure that assumes Elendel is not just the capital city but is in fact the only city. The Set, a shadowy cabal of extra-shitty capitalist noblemen, is happy to capitalize on the righteous unrest to try to tip the Basin toward outright civil war. Some shenanigans with an insane kandra–yes, another one–indicate that someone has found the possibly mythical Bands of Mourning, and the Set is is involved somehow, and this sends Wax and his little gang of misfits on a wild goose chase through the Outer Cities, where they cause a great deal of ruckus and meet up with some people from a whole other continent.
My favorite thing about this book is that it was Steris’ time to shine. I liked her even in Book 1 when she was presented as an overly organized weirdo who keeps saying things outright that nobles are supposed to dance around (like the mercenary nature of noble marriages), but this is the book where our list-making queen really gets to do shenanigans–in an incredibly overplanned way, of course. It’s great. A lot of the characters here are fun–the relationship between Wayne and MeLaan was excellent, it’s alway a good time when two chaotic characters get together–but I just really appreciated the extra Steris.