Book Review: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After Scadrial’s brush with extinction three centuries before, the survivors rebuilt civilization with help but as life and society recovered and brought about good times a shadow slowly developed. The Alloy of Law is Brandon Sanderson’s return to the world of the Mistborn as a lawman returns to high society to take up his family’s position only to find crime and his former partner barging back into his life.

This story is a mishmash of fantasy and western genres with a dash of mystery and hint of conspiracy thriller thrown in as well. The main character of Waxillium Ladrian, better known as Wax, as a lawman-turned-money aristocrat who can’t stand seeing crime happen in front of him is an engaging individual that drives the narrative. The secondary characters of Wax’s partner Wayne and aspiring prosecutor Marasi Colms add a nice change of pace to the narrative and add to the worldbuilding as well. As there is a 300 year gap between this book and the original trilogy, Sanderson evolves the magic system of Scadrial by having individuals with mixed abilities but has made “Mistborn” now legendary which in fact is hinted at to be the subtle reason behind the main arc of this new set of books. Overall Sanderson reminds the reader of what has gone before without diminishing those characters while establishing a “new” present-day with new characters and situations that result in a fun narrative.

The Alloy of Law is a fun, quick read within the Cosmere as Brandon Sanderson shows what happened after the original Mistborn trilogy in an engaging way.

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Book Review: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The year of 1689 saw two publications that would make John Locke influential force in political discussions for the next four plus centuries, but a third publication would set the stage for a new school of modern philosophy. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in which Locke argues against that the mind is born with innate ideas and is instead a blank slate that knowledge is gained through experience.

The work is divided into four books: Book I focuses on Locke’s main thesis in opposing the principle of innate ideas, Book II presents Locke’s argument that every idea is derived from experience either by sensation or reflection, Book III focuses on words and how man uses unique sounds to signify ideas then relate them to others, and Book IV focuses on knowledge in general—that it can be thought of as the sum of ideas and perceptions—and if there can be a limit to human knowledge. Over the 635 pages, Locke’s reasoning while thorough also verged on bloated arguments that would have diluted the overall piece. Of the entire essay, Book IV had the most interesting material as Locke focused on various issues but the one that stood out the most was his look into the existence of God and of Faith and Reason.

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a thoughtful yet nearly bloated piece in which John Locke puts forth his thoughts on how we gain knowledge and how we should use it.

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