April 9, 2021
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
The basics
Title: The Bands of Mourning
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Mistborn #6
- The Final Empire (July 2006) - The Well of Ascension (August 2007) - The Hero of Ages (October 2008) - The Alloy of Law (November 2011) - Shadows of Self (October 2015) - The Bands of Mourning (January 2016) - The Lost Metal
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metal minds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.
Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel.
What happened in The Bands of Mourning?
- In the prologue, Wax sneaks around with his sister Telsin. He listens in on his grandmother as she’s talking to a constable about arson. The constable wants to help her but Wax’s grandmother refuses the help.
- Wax and Tellingdwar talk about a murder that happened 15 years ago.
- Forch attacks Wax, and Wax shoots Forch and then decides it’s best if he leaves the village.
Present Day - Steris and Wax talk about their wedding. Wax refuses to meet Harmony because he’s mad at him.
- The water tower near the church collapses but thankfully no one is hurt. Unfortunately Steris and Wax didn’t have time to get married so Steris has to rebook the ceremony.
- Marasi goes looking for Wayne, and tells him that the bolts on the water tower were loosened. Wayne admits to being the one behind it.
- VenDell and MeLaan ask Marasi for help. He says Harmony knows something is coming. ReLuur came back from an expedition with a missing spike so something went on there. Wax and co agree to help the Kandra find the missing spike and also the Bands of Mourning.
- Wax’s sister is being held hostage.
- Wax and co head to New Seran. They spot a protest happening and this leads to a discussion about politics.
- Marasi is looking at VenDell’s notes, which describe a beast with red skin. She hands Wax his pouch with the earring, and then someone shoots at her. Rude.
- Someone has detached the group’s train carriage from the others. Wax fights off the bandits. Steris is thrown off the train during the fight.
- Wax follows Steris and they land in a river. Wax gets them back on the train.
- Marasi finds a cube that a man with a cane has dropped.
- At the next train station, Wax is bandaged up by a doctor. The captain tells Wax that the bandits were part of a gang called the Nightstreet Gang.
- Wayne and MeLaan get together and Marasi comes across them.
- Marasi shows them the cube she found, which seems to have Leecher-like powers.
- They arrive at New Seran and hed to a hotel. Half the group plans to go to a party, the other half will search for the missing spike in some graveyards nearby.
- Wax gives a beggar some money, who gives Wax a coin in return.
- Marasi gets hold of the ledgers, and she plans to check the grave workers’ deposits against their wages. It turns out most of them were stealing money from corpses.
- Wax inspects the coin he received and it looks like it’s made from two different metals and shows a man with one spiked eye. The beggar is no longer around so they don’t bother looking too hard for him.
- Wayne talks to a grave keeper called Dechamp and asks him to find something on one of the corpses for him.
- Devlin tells Wax a civil war is coming.
- Wax finds Kelesina and he asks her about the weird coin. She becoes nervous and wants to leave.
- Wayne and Marasi hide in a grave when someone starts firing. They assume it’s people from the Set.
- Wayne, disguised as Death, asks Templeton Fig for the spike back. Fig says the spike is in Dulsing because “they” wanted it back.
- Wax overhears his uncle Edwarn talking to Kelesina about distracting Wax.
- Edwarn’s voice starts coming out of the box and Wax demands his sister back. Wax runs when the steward tries to shoot him. MeLaan arrives and helps Wax out.
- The group head to Dulsing to find the spike. They head into a building and split up.
- Marasi and MeLaan head into a ship that they find inside the building, while Wax and Wayne head up into the catwalks.
- Marasi watches Irich, who’s coming out of the ship and heading into a room with a cube. Marasi and MeLaan pretend they’re staff members. They try to enter the room but it’s locked so they have to break in. There’s a safe, and MeLaan has to try to open it.
- There’s something in the cages, which looks like the red monsters from ReLuur’s drawings.
- The safe is opened and they find the spike and the cube. They let the monster thing out of the cage., which seems to be a masked man.
- Wax finds Telsin and takes her back with him. There’s another shootout. Marasi is captured but Wax soon sees she’s with the masked man. The man puts on a medallion that allows him to speak their language.
- The man, whose name is Allik, puts the cube on Wax’s skin which activates it.
- Telsin wants to get to the weapon before Edwarn.
- MeLaan heals Marasi. It’s legit.
- After speaking to Allik, Wax decides to head to the temple.
- Allik tells Marasi about his ship and the ettmetal that supports it.
- The ship lands and Wayne finds another ship nearby which has dead bodies in it. It seems to be Allik’s people who have come to destroy the temple.
- Inside the temple, the group spots a statue which is of a man with a spike through his eye. It’s assumed it’s of the Lord Ruler. Bit weird.
- MeLaan gets them through the temple and the boobytraps that were inside.
- Steris is writing about how useless she is.
- Edwarn arrives at the temple with his crew. Edwarn says he knows how to open the locked door. Edwarn tells Wax how to do it and the door opens.
- They only find broken glass on the floor. It seems to have happened recently because there’s very little dust.
- It turns out that Telsin was working with Edwarn all along. She injects MeLaan with something that makes her go all wobbly.
- Marasi notices that Edwarn has a spike in his chest.
- Telsin tells Edwarn to go after Wax, who has escaped through one of the traps.
- Wax is now in another room and is wounded. Edwarn shows up and tells Wax that Telsin recruited him into the Set.
- Wax is crushed by the ceiling falling on top of him and he dies. He enters the spirit world and is greeted by Harmony. They chat a bit, and Harmony says he’s protecting them all from an outside threat. It’s some kind of red haze.
- Marasi spots a spearhead that’s not made of aluminium. She taps into its powers and she starts glowing.
- Wax chooses to go back to his people. He uses the spearhead to heal himself.
- Suit boards the Hunters’ ship. Allik shows up and gives everyone medallions. Steris is also there, with guns.
- Wax boards the ship too, and Suit tells Wax that he’s armed the bomb. Wax and Suit fight, and Suit gets tied up.
- Wayne shoots Telsin but she’s able to heal so he doesn’t kill her.
- The group heads back to Elendel. Allik give sMarasi his mask.
- Marasi is now working with Reddi and they want to get info out of Suit.
- The thing with red eyes visits Suit in his cell. He tells Suit that the Set no longer needs him and so he sets off a bomb, killing them both.
- Wax inspects the coin again and is drawn into it, seeing a village through the eye of the spiked one. He sees himself as a traveler who is visiting people who are dying. The traveler tells a woman to Survive. Wax sees scars on the traveler’s arm. I wonder who that could be.
That’s what happened in The Bands of Mourning! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!
