Review: Shadows of Self

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Still enjoying these quite a lot. There's sort of an odd mix of tone though: the books have a touch of silly humour to them. Little things like "Wax and Wane" as the main characters, but also over-the-top oddball Wayne and the gently mocking "romance" of Wax and ridiculously uptight Steris. And the thing is, I like those elements of the books, and I think they are done well. But Wayne feels like he belongs in a Douglas Adams book, not a grim steampunk western, and his slapstick humour - much though I like it - feels at odds with a story in which literally dozens of people are brutally killed. The comedy feels a bit misplaced, and at the same time detracts a bit from the impact of our hero wading through knee-deep corpses to an ambiguous soul-destroying victory.

I did like the overall arc of the book, and it was fun to get some of Wax's backstory filled in and resolved.

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