In this third installment of this particular set of books in this multi-series sequence (ha!), our hero (Wax) is attempting to rescue his sister, deal with personal loss, and find a mythological magical item that may or may not exist. That will make no sense whatsoever to those who have not read the five books that come before Bands of Mourning. Because of that, I will keep this review short, and avoid series spoilers.

Basically, I had two reactions to this book. The first is in comparison to the two previous installments of this particular set of books in this multi-series sequence. The first book, Alloy of Law, was definitely not my favorite, especially after how much I adored the first set of books (the Mistborn trilogy). While it took place in the same world as Mistborn, there has been 300 years of progress and change, and this read a lot like Mistborn-Meets-John-Wayne. I’m not a huge fan of westerns, and didn’t particularly like Wax or his sidekick, Wayne. Not having characters to really sympathize with, or a world to enjoy, didn’t help! However, I read on to the second book, Shadows of Self, which turned out to feel quite different from Alloy. I loved it, especially the ways that it harked back to the original Mistborn trilogy. Afterwards, I was quite looking forward to Bands of Mourning…which turned out to be somewhere halfway between the two, in terms of liking. Once again, this read as very Western, but it did have some interesting sections, with new information and new plot developments that I can see leading to some great places. So it was okay, but not wonderful.

My second reaction has to do with the postscript of the book. I’d thought this was the last book of the second Mistborn-world trilogy, but it turns out that it’s not. There will be a fourth Wax and Wayne book, to be released in a couple years. I meet this information with the same mixed reactions I’ve had toward the second-series in general, and hope that my experience with it will be more like that of Shadows of Self. In addition, Sanderson noted that in the meantime, a new companion novella to the original Mistborn series has been digitally released, and OH MAN that totally made my day. I had to go grab it up immediately! That, of course, will get its own little mini-review…