"Shadows of Self" review & reactions
Review
A whole which is not greater than the sum of its parts, Shadows of Self is at once a return to the urban fantasy setting of The Alloy of Law and also an expansion to the greater mythos of Scadrial. Each of these halves on its own works and is engaging, thrilling, enjoyable, all of the things you want out of a Mistborn novel, but put them together the way they are here, and you get an unsatisfying explanation for events that falls flat.
Still, the ending sets up the overall series to go interesting places, especially in the greater Cosmere, so I’m overall happy with where it’s going. And on a micro level, individual scenes were packed with the same hilarious quips, anecdotes, and interactions between Wax and Wayne that made me fall in love with them in Alloy of Law - so despite all my criticisms, I enjoyed myself immensely reading Shadows of Self. But this novel tried to do too many things at once, and as a result characters and motivations suffered.
Spoiler review
Favorite moments
“I need you to stay behind as we go into those slums,” Wayne said, determined to impress solemnity into his voice. “It’s not that I don’t want your help. I do. It’s just going to be too dangerous for you. You need to stay where I know you’re safe. No arguments. I’m sorry.” “Wayne,” Wax said, walking past. “Stop talking to your hat and get over here.”
And of course:
“You didn’t promise to kill me,” Wayne said, pulling on his socks. “You promised to have killed me. That there be the present perfect tense.”
I liked the Remmingtel-Tarcsel-Nikolai-Tesla mini plot, especially having it tie into Wayne’s guilt over his past. Witnessing Wayne’s trip to the university was brutal, and handled really well.
Steris is super growing on me. I’m enjoying her more and more (tbh I never really disliked her), and I hope she gets more screen time. Her ability to prepare for the unexpected is a nice foil for Wax’s reactionary investigation after-the-fact mindset.
And on the other side, of course I loved seeing the Kandra again! (omg the Kandra survived! Yay!) Having MeLaan get screen time finally was awesome (I love her, she’s great)! And TenSoon is back! It’s pretty great that Wayne can tell a Kandra impersonator based on their accents.
What I didn’t like
It just felt…so bullshit…that the entire workers' revolution plot turned out to be “oh there was an insane kandra orchestrating the entire thing lol haha.” Oh yeah, and the relationship & later tragedy that defines Wax’s entire life was…orchestrated by Sazed/Harmony.
I wish these plots had been kept separate. Let the urban fantasy/steampunk/industrial revolution plot stand on its own, make the governor actually corrupt, or at least played by a kandra sent by a human rival or something, make these events all have human/mundane motivations. Then introduce the divine through another vehicle, separately, in parallel. Making them the same plot cheapens the effects so much. I really did not appreciate that at all.
So yeah, two great parts individually, and each scene on its own is fantastic, and I really enjoyed the book, but put it all together, and…ugh. Not what I want. But I’m hopeful for a setup to a much cleaner rest of the series!
