The Well of Ascension

A little slow to start, but a great read. ( )

Mistborn ends in a good place, but hints at some of the larger problems facing the world as a whole. Book 2 starts down that path letting a little bit more light into the world. The story was slower than part 1, but had good build up. ( )

Either this has middle-of-a-trilogy-itis, or this series works better in audio (how I did volume 1) than on paper (this volume). ( )

The second Mistborn picks up a year after the first, and clearly the conceit is to consider the question of once you defeat the evil overlord.... how do you create an effective government to rule in his place? The book follows Elend and Vin's attempts to transition from well-intentioned renegades into viable government. It doesn't go well. I enjoyed this aspect of the book.

The problem, I think, is that it's also a book about someone who is embracing a magical destiny. This ultimately turns out to be a subversion, too, but I feel like the book's two purposes pull against each other rather than work together. Vin thinks she's supposed to go on a quest... but she spends month not going on the quest because to do so would disrupt the political plot line.

Like last time, I think Sanderson does a good job with the slow unspooling of character. The changes Elend and Vin go through are handled well; I continue to like Sazed, and this book gives Breeze some great scenes as well. I think Sanderson balances the cast better than in book one. That one had too many crew members who did too little; here, the ones who aren't interesting just aren't there very much, instead of constantly turning up in scenes to "humorously" quip at each other. My favorite, though, was OreSeur, Vin's kandra who is legally loyal but perhaps not always emotionally loyal. His conversations with Vin and eventually transformation were a real highlight of the book.

In my edition, the story runs over 700 pages; I do kind of feel like it could have been at least 100 pages shorter... but that's easy for me to say. And the putting of pieces into position is effective, because once the enormous climax came, I was totally invested; the defense of the city is great stuff with lots of great moments for all the key characters. The revelation of what's really been going on is well handled, and makes a great cliffhanger ending. So getting to the conclusion is a little rough at times, but once Sanderson reveals how the political plotline and quest plotline actually do coincide, the book pulls it off.

It has been over a year since I read the first book in the series, The Final Empire, so it took me a while to get back into the story. This book picks up a year later when Luthadel is in political turmoil. The city is also under siege by three armies. There is a lot of political posturing going on while the author does further character development and the characters consider their options. This is short for not a lot of action.

I didn’t mind that the pace was slow in the first half or so of the book. There was some plot reveals and a lot of character development to sustain me until things started to pick up. Once the action got moving I was drawn in and could not put the book down. I was surprised by some of the turn of events and I am looking forward to reading book three. ( )