Story: 3/5 
 I am sitting here sipping coffee trying to work out how to rate this book. I have to say, when I get to this stage, I really wish we had half stars for ratings, I just don't see why they haven't been implemented yet. Books are rated to two decimal places overall yet, we are stuck with the dilema of saying three of four stars. It is clearly a 3.5 star read for me. Way to good for three stars, yet, not quite a good as books I recently gave four stars to. 
 This book is a follow on to the Mistborn trilogy, it certainly is not book four. 300 years have passed since the Trilogy ended and the world has moved on, the excellent magic system introduced to us in the original series is still there, albiet with some new twists as the magics become distilled and form new kinds of powers. This is the mainstay of the book, a fundamental piece of the story that makes this book (and series) something more than just a run of the mill fantasy story. 
 In a interesting twist, Sanderson has moved from a typical fantasy world, with no mod cons, so an emerging culture with electricity, skyscrapers and underground railways. The western feel was very much there in this, with the rough out of towners finding the big smoke more than a handful with its city laws, organised murder and general mayhem. 
 The main story line follows our hero trying to rescue his girl from the bad guys, against the odds battles, whilst keeping on the right side (or out of sight) of the local law. Where the magic shines is in the battle scenes. Sanderson's use of base metals as his magic system is clever and allows for a variety of different skills that keeps the inventiveness constant in trying to deal with those with powers. 
 The story is well paced and takes place over a short period of time, a day or so, there is not a great deal of slow time, the world building is ok, nothing great, as the main focus is the magic and developing a some interesting character interaction. 
 Towards the end, the pace picked up and there was a couple of nice twists that I didn't see coming. It has certainly ended with a setting for the next book in the series, it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see a couple more in this time, kind of Steampunk Fantasy. Sanderson, might then move the story into Sci Fi/Fantasy, there is plenty he can do with this. 
 Characters 4/5 
 For me, Sanderson has stepped up his character building. I have always found most of the players in Mistborn to be pretty flat, with the exception of a couple of side characters like Cett and Breeze. But in this story, there is an emphasis on character interaction. Particularly between Wax and Wayne, Gods that sounds like some really bad Australian TV Soapy. This interaction is new for me with Sanderson, as I have not seen it in his other books. There is a lot of banter and humour and makes the read more enjoyable, it was kind of in an Ambercrombie way, where I began to feel more comfortable with the characters as they took the mickey out of each other and general gave each other a bit of stick. 
 Engagement: 3.5/5 
 I was pretty engaged in the story, from about halfway through I was keen to do a couple of big long reading sessions to finish it and find out how it was all going to end. 
 Recommendation 3.5/5 
 I would recommend Sanderson to readers who havent tried him before. His books are easy to read and you wouldn't call them heavy in nature of the read type. I'd also tell people that they could read this without reading Mistborn, because the history is nice, but not essential.