About 10 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 22 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
On Scadrial, frontier lawman turned senator Waxillium Ladrian is still hunting the Set, an organization that kidnaps people with inherited magical abilities. Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne uncover weapons bound for Bilming, opening a lead into the conspiracy while Wax's experiments with an unfamiliar metal suggest the Set could possess an explosive capable of unprecedented destruction. Marasi also encounters visitors whose interests reach beyond her world.
Reader notes
The fourth Wax and Wayne novel assumes familiarity with the earlier books, and its connections to the wider Cosmere add another layer of background to absorb. The fantasy investigation involves strong violence and the threat of mass destruction.
How it reads
Writing style
Dialogue-driven · Direct · Witty
Tone
Earnest · Humorous · Suspenseful · Tense
Structure
Braided
Driven by
Mystery · Plot · Worldbuilding
Point of view
Multiple viewpoints
Setting
Elendel (invented world) · Scadrial · Bilming
Reading complexity
Writing
2 / 5
Ideas
4 / 5
Structure
4 / 5
Background knowledge
4 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Writing
How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas
How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure
How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge
Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity
Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Yes, the fourth Wax and Wayne novel assumes familiarity with the earlier books. Connections to the wider Cosmere add another layer of background to absorb.
Is it hard to read?
The prose is direct, witty and driven by dialogue. The greater challenge is following the braided investigation across multiple viewpoints while keeping the earlier novels and wider Cosmere background in mind.
What does the mix of fantasy and mystery feel like?
A fast, tense investigation combines inherited magical abilities, weapons bound for Bilming and a conspiracy involving the Set. Humour and witty dialogue sit alongside the threat of mass destruction.
How violent is it?
Strong violence and the threat of mass destruction are central to the fantasy investigation. The conspiracy involves kidnapping people with inherited magical abilities and a potentially devastating explosive.
How long is it?
528 pages in the Tor Books 2023 paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Tor Books · 2023 · paperback. ISBN 9781250757319.
How long does it take to read The Lost Metal?
About 10 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 528-page Tor Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is an American writer of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult fiction whose largest series share the Cosmere universe. His novels favor direct, descriptive prose, dialogue-driven scenes, elaborate settings, and plots built around supernatural systems with intelligible rules. Mistborn makes that method literal: its Allomancers ingest and burn metals for distinct powers, while a rebellion against an immortal ruler proceeds through the mechanics of a confidence game and heist. Sanderson often enlarges private tests of trust into questions of government, religion, and historical memory. The later struggle to govern the Final Empire’s remains turns magical combat into part of a siege and a dispute over political legitimacy. In The Stormlight Archive, he works on a broader scale, rotating among soldiers, scholars, rulers, and assassins whose separate plots gradually converge. The Way of Kings sets apprenticeship, enslavement, and moral conflict against war and recurring highstorms, while subsequent volumes widen the field to contested histories and alliances among kingdoms.
