The Lost Metal

<The Lost Metal
Mistborn Era 2 Follows The Bands of Mourning
Setting	Scadrial, Cosmere
Released	November 15, 2022
Publisher	Tor Books

The Lost Metal is the title of the fourth and final Mistborn Era 2 book. It will be released on November 15, 2022.

Cover Synopsis

“

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set—with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders—since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate—whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose—and Bilming is even more entangled.

After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial's god reveals that Harmony's power is blocked in Bilming. That means the city has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn't the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere—Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial... at any cost.

Harmony's vision of future possibilities comes to an abrupt halt tomorrow night, with only blackness after that. It's a race against time, and Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.

”

—Tor book announcement

Development

Following completion of The Alloy of Law Brandon plotted out three more books, following the same characters, to finish the story. Brandon began writing The Lost Metal in April 2021, after he finished Cytonic, and completed the first draft on August 4, 2021. The second draft was completed on September 20, 2021, and went to beta readers and Brandon's editor shortly thereafter; the beta read then finished some time in November. Brandon plans to do one more substantive edit based on their feedback, likely when he needs a break from Stormlight 5; after some work on polish, continuity, and proofreading, the book should be turned in to Tor in summer 2022 for a November 15, 2022 release, around when the first two Era 2 books are released in leatherbound. The post-beta read edit was done by March 7, 2022; it took more time to complete than Brandon had expected and resulted in the book growing longer than he had initially anticipated.

The book will include some information relevant to the broader cosmere, including the identity of Trell, the nature of trellium, and some clues about Kelsier's plans. Most of those elements are more foreshadowing for Mistborn Era 3 and the book will mostly focus on the characters of Wax, Wayne, Steris, and Marasi, though Brandon also considers the book to be slightly more cosmere-aware than any other book he has written. The book will likely begin with a Wayne flashback, rather than one of Wax. At least very early in the development process, Brandon envisioned Wax having basically retired and the book opening with Wayne as Marasi's deputy. It will almost certainly include a broadsheet, like the other books in Mistborn Era 2.

The first draft of the book is about 149,000 words total. Part One is about 30,000 words and has two separate narratives, each with two of the main characters, and alternates viewpoints between all four main characters. Part Two is about 45,000 words and brings all four of the main characters together, continuing to alternate viewpoints. In Part Three, the characters split again, with one on their own arc of about 30,000 words; two of them together for an arc of about 40,000 words; and Steris on her own for a short arc of about 10,000 words. Brandon wrote each of the arcs of Part Three separately from each other, which he found was a good approach as it essentially let him write the ending three times and he likes writing endings. In total, Steris will have around seven or eight viewpoints. The epilogue is a bit longer than normal, as it is the last book of Era 2 and Brandon wanted to linger with the characters and setting a little more. The book later grew longer than Brandon expected in the third draft.

Pre-Publication Content

• At JordanCon in 2021, Brandon did a reading of the first draft of the prologue, a flashback to Wayne as a young child. It can be listened to and read here and was also sent out in Brandon's July 2021 newsletter.
• At Dragonsteel Mini-Con in 2021, Brandon did a reading of the second draft of chapter one and part of chapter two, which can be listened to and read here.
• Brandon considers the book to be slightly more cosmere-aware than any other book he has written; the primary cosmere connection in the book relates to one of the stories from Arcanum Unbounded.
• Brandon mentioned at JordanCon that he thinks there is a mention of the Shard Whimsy in the book.
• At least in the first draft, there is a "very minor" plot point that involves a desiccated frog.
• At Dragonsteel Mini-Con, Brandon mentioned that there is a worldhopper from a planet with a culture inspired by the Indian subcontinent in the book.
• Marsh also makes an appearance in the book.

Notes

This meta article is complete, but has yet to be reviewed.