The Lost Metal

The Lost Metal is the title of the fourth and final Mistborn Era 2 book. It was released on November 15, 2022.
== Synopsis ==
== Summary ==
== 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 reads concluded some time in November. 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. After that, Brandon did one final edit, which was done by May 24, 2022, before turning the book in to Tor for a November 15, 2022 release, around when the first two Era 2 books were released in leatherbound.
The book includes 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 mostly focuses 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 begins with a Wayne flashback, rather than one of Wax. Early in the development process, Brandon envisioned Wax having essentially retired and the book opening with Wayne as Marasi's deputy. The book includes a broadsheet, like the other books in Mistborn Era 2.
The first draft of the book was about 149,000 words total; in the third draft, it grew by about 25,000 words. In the first draft, Part One was about 30,000 words and had two separate narratives, each with two of the main characters, and alternated viewpoints between all four main characters; Part Two was about 45,000 words and brought all four of the main characters together, continuing to alternate viewpoints; and in Part Three, the characters split again, with Marasi on her own arc of about 30,000 words, Wax and Wayne 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, Brandon predicted that Steris would 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.
=== 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 on Arcanum 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 on Arcanum.
* On September 19, 2022, Tor began releasing sample chapters from the book every Monday, which can be read starting here on their website.
* 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.
* Investiture without Connection appears in the book.
* 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.
== Cover Gallery ==
== Interior Art ==
== Statistical Analysis ==
The Lost Metal consists of seventy-four chapters, one prologue, and seven epilogues, reaching a total 156,381 word count. There are eleven different unique point-of-view characters in a total of 94 POVs.
Word Count 	156,381	
Page Count 	507 	Tor hardback
Chapter Count 	82 	Including prologue and epilogues.
PoV Characters	11 	
PoV Count 	94 	
== Notes ==
 e2.4
 4
es:El metal perdido (libro)