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The Official Alloy of Law Discussion Thread (spoilers)


KChan

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Yeeah, Amazon.co.uk already posted the Ars Arcanum on their website, and we've already spent a while talking about it. >_>

Haha Yeah :P I realised that after I posted it :/ I must have sounded like a fool! xD hahaha Nevertheless... The book is really good! :D Brandon Sanderson doesnt fail to impress me! :D

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I'm hoping my copies arrive tomorrow. I bought two, since I knew my mom wouldn't want to wait for me to finish before starting. (Plus I've got NaNoWriMo taking up some of my free time, as well as working on chapter summaries of MB1, so I know AoL is going to take me a while to finish.)

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Dammit, I read way, way too fast.. :( I just got it about three hours ago on kindle and I've already finished it!

Aggh - to be as spoiler-free as possible, he's left the ending just dying for another book, or possibly series! It feels like he's just popped the lid on an almost entirely new world and that even after all that's happened, you've only barely scratched the surface of what's REALLY going on in the world. Now I've got to wait however many years for the next books to come out! :blink: And with WoT to finish up, and Stormlight, and any other side projects too! He writes so many series so quickly compared to most authors, and yet.. it's never enough.

Edited by Wolpertinger
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He says that there's a pretty good chance that he'll write other of these Mistborn Adventure books, but don't expect them to be so Trilogy and Foreshadowy as the Mistborn Trilogy was- he says that he doesn't dare do two (well three with WoT right now) Series at a time.

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He says that there's a pretty good chance that he'll write other of these Mistborn Adventure books, but don't expect them to be so Trilogy and Foreshadowy as the Mistborn Trilogy was- he says that he doesn't dare do two (well three with WoT right now) Series at a time.

The end of AoL was pretty darn "Foreshadowy," if you ask me. :huh:

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Dammit, I read way, way too fast.. :( I just got it about three hours ago on kindle and I've already finished it!

Aggh - to be as spoiler-free as possible, he's left the ending just dying for another book, or possibly series! It feels like he's just popped the lid on an almost entirely new world and that even after all that's happened, you've only barely scratched the surface of what's REALLY going on in the world. Now I've got to wait however many years for the next books to come out! :blink: And with WoT to finish up, and Stormlight, and any other side projects too! He writes so many series so quickly compared to most authors, and yet.. it's never enough.

Oh, I agree. I just finished the book, and WOW!!!! Yea, it's awesome and frustrating at the same time. I want to read more. And I am SOOO happy that he answered a lot fo my questions, even if indirectly. Though, I'm not trying to complain, I'm extreamly happy about the book. =D Brandon, You rock! Thank you!

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Guest Jacob Santos

It was a great book and I find it fascinating that Brandon continues to improve with the characters, the story, and the depths of the plot. I'm almost glad that there is a wait between series, because I know as good as his other books are, the future ones will just be so much more so. It is interesting, I see a pattern with his work and what defines his "best" books. Another writer could possibly use some of the writing elements in a different world and setting.

What I've found:

  1. The plot should include at least 3 layers to keep the reader guessing.
  2. Reveal only what you must (given the perspective of the main character finding out the events this is entirely possible), but keep the story moving as quickly as possible.
  3. The characters must "fail".
  4. All potential villains must be referenced before they are seen, giving the reader the ability to "solve" the mystery themselves.
  5. Don't jerk the reader around.
  6. All character solutions must be plausible, given the rules of the world.
  7. Clues should be subtle.

As for #1, I liked that basically, each character had their own substory taking place at the same time. As such, you are touching upon elements of the story for around 8 or 9 characters. I would hate to map that out, but I think that is how it should be done while writing. Just because you aren't going to write that character doesn't mean that character shouldn't have story elements going on in the background.

For a mystery, I count it by far the best. Too often, the mystery writers jerk the reader around and only reveal the villain at the end while giving hints that it is someone already referenced in the story. That is a hackish way to "solve" a mystery and akin to poking the reader in the eye, pointing and laughing, and then running away while jump clicking their heels.

The magic certain wasn't used as often as I would have hoped, but I think this book has a greater chance of being made into a movie. What I mean is that it has all the elements to be a great movie. The plot isn't as complex as the first Mistborn Trilogy, so not a lot would need to be cut and what would eventually be cut wouldn't infuriate the fans as much.

As for the ending:

The open ended nature of the story, I think leaves you filling in your own ending.

For me, I think that eventually, the evidence that Marsh gives coupled with other information that Wax will inevitably find and uncover, will lead to Wax's uncle being captured. Whether this means the women will be recovered, I doubt it. I also doubt that the other members of the "Set" will be found and brought to justice.

Therefore for me, the story is finished and we'll have to wait until the next Mistborn Trilogy to find out the results of this book. Unless of course, Brandon revisits and writes a sequel. I think he set it up for either a sequel or for leading up to the events in the second trilogy.

If Wax "fails", then you might have your mistborns for the second trilogy. However, I think that Wax is going to create another secret society for tracking down and capturing the members of the "Set". It has been alluded that there are more females they want to capture.

I also see that one of Wax's mistresses will be the cousin. Nah, I kid, but it would be neat if that were to be the case.

One more thing about evidence from the book:

Who else thinks that Miles planted the Cigar box for Wax to find? It makes sense, given that both Miles and Wax usually have two or three alternative plans going at the same time. My thought is that Miles planted that there in case he was captured or killed by The Suit before his plans were done. It seems unlikely given how much potential evidence was cleaned up that a lone cigar box with just the information that Wax needs would be left.

Of course, that and Miles might have wanted to be caught.

Edited by Jacob Santos
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The characters must "fail".

Repeatedly.

I really respect the fact that Brandon Sanderson never uses Deux ex Machina to solve plot issues. I have never hit a point in his novels where I put the book down and say 'That doesn't make sense' Though I do often think 'I never would have seen that coming.' The levels of detail he puts into the minutia is amazing, and having read most of his books at least twice, I continue to find things I had overlooked on previous readthroughs. I have already read AoL twice and I have seen so many things that I had overlooked on first read through.

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Repeatedly.

I really respect the fact that Brandon Sanderson never uses Deux ex Machina to solve plot issues. I have never hit a point in his novels where I put the book down and say 'That doesn't make sense' Though I do often think 'I never would have seen that coming.' The levels of detail he puts into the minutia is amazing, and having read most of his books at least twice, I continue to find things I had overlooked on previous readthroughs. I have already read AoL twice and I have seen so many things that I had overlooked on first read through.

The lack of a Deus ex Machina was quite impressive, especially given that we have a confirmed benevolent deity in the neighborhood. I was quite satisfied with the way that Sazed became involved in the end.

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The use of the earring was quite fascinating as well. It's nice to see hemalurgy portrayed in a positive light (Anyone else think Vin gave him the earring?)

No, I think it was a Faceless Immortal (which are fairly clearly Kandra, given interviews and context) who gave it to him.

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Anyone think that they are capturing the woman, for their children, but not for creating Mistborn but for possible Mistings to be hemalurgically spiked?

Makes sense, given that Marsh gave Marasi to give him a book of information pertaining a relevant subject. Who else better to give information about Hemalurgy then the only Inquisitor left alive?

Also anyone see the Pits of Eltania on the first newspaper? With "precious, and unknown metals can be found?", it seems like an interesting place, possibly the re-emergence of Atium? Unfortunately before the Newspaper elaborates, it does the cliffhanger cliche ending with asking you pay attention next week, but is still a very interesting easter egg.

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Anyone think that they are capturing the woman, for their children, but not for creating Mistborn but for possible Mistings to be hemalurgically spiked?

Makes sense, given that Marsh gave Marasi to give him a book of information pertaining a relevant subject. Who else better to give information about Hemalurgy then the only Inquisitor left alive?

Also anyone see the Pits of Eltania on the first newspaper? With "precious, and unknown metals can be found?", it seems like an interesting place, possibly the re-emergence of Atium? Unfortunately before the Newspaper elaborates, it does the cliffhanger cliche ending with asking you pay attention next week, but is still a very interesting easter egg.

I was actually thinking the same thing that they might be plotting hemalurgic shenanigans. Breeding an army of allomancers seems like it would take too long, but if you use hemalurgy to transfer a bunch of powers into one person........

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At the end of HoA Sazed did compile the contents into a book. I believe the title was "Words of Founding" which is referenced a few times in AoL

there were a number of books, one which basically contained the HoA epigraphs and other stuff related to them, and the rest that contained all the stuff the Keepers had been storing for a thousand years. I reckon the first one was carefully screened through and stuff relating to hemalury taken out before the general public got to read any of it.

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I have a feeling that if Hoid were to be in Alloy of Law, I don't think he would be mentioned by name. We're on to him, so he'll probably be extra sneaky.

I am rather sad about there not being epigraphs. I really enjoyed them because we got to see a good chunk of Scadrial's history. I hope we get some good info on the intervening 300 years.

Ahum:"The bride and groom arrived, and people rose to clap. Lord Joshin and Lady Mi’chelle; Waxillium didn’t know them, though he did wonder why they were speaking with a scruffy man who looked like a beggar, dressed all in black."

this cetainly sounds like hoid.

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