shadows of self (book)

rating

starstarstarstar_halfstar

date

09 february 2026

genre

fantasy

author

brandon sanderson

cover artwork for shadows of self. it is heavily edited to be colorized purple and dithered so that it's barely recognizable as anything.

there were some days now between me finishing shadows of self and writing this review, on top of that the deeper i'm into a specific series, the more difficult it gets for me to not repeat myself, so this will be a short one.

i had a better time with this book compared to the alloy of law. the new cast had some time to settle in and these characters have more personality than any in the first era of mistborn had. i've even come around on wayne, who's more than just an abrasive mischievous annoyance and gained some depth. this story is also intertwining more directly with the larger mytholygy and doesn't feel as much like a side story that happens to be set in the mistborn universe. sanderson is still great at writing well-earned plot twists and, as it turns out, comfortable enough to make - mediocre - dick jokes now. it's like he's slowly learning to loosen up but not quite there yet. i still miss the more epic high fantasy of the first era, but together with the interweaving of kandra lore and harmony directly communicating with characters, the crime thriller setting of this era does mostly work for me. had a good time and i'm interested to see what this era builds up to.