The Well of Ascension

Loved this book, carried on from the last really well. Started slow but damn was it awesome.

WOW

DNF 13%

Update 09/11/2016

Hell. It's so hard to put my feeling about this book into words. I just can't. So much happened. So much death and heartbreak. And so much humour and happiness. Too much emotions. And yet never enough of them.

I'm so glad that I didn't give up on that series. I wouldn't want to miss out this story.

A solid second book for a trilogy - certainly no sophomore slump. Though I tend to not be a fan of political/war-type drama, the strategical bantering of Elend and the crew doesn't inhibit the fast-pace of the book and is easy to follow. Sanderson is incredibly tactful not only in the way he meticulously unfolds the plot in such a way that you just can't stop reading, but also in the ways of subtle characterization - in watching the characters change is a terrifyingly unstable, Post-Lord Ruler world, allows insight into the deeper philosophical questions that face us all.

This book has rioted my emotions to a point I am unable to write properly about it. I loved it. I hated it at times too, with a passion, just because it has made me feel SO MUCH. I can't say more. It was beyond what I expected, in all senses.

İlk kitabı çok beğenmiştim, bu ondan daha iyiydi. Okumam biraz daha uzun sürdü ama olaylar açıldıktan sonra bırakamadım. Çok iyi kitap. Gerisi gelsin.

Bastante más lento que Imperio Final. Bastante más romántico, y bastante más religioso.

A pesar de su falta de ritmo, el último 20% es trepidante y subsana la lentitud del resto del libro.

Segundo tomo, claramente de transición, de una trilogía. Esto no es algo malo, es lo que es.

A pesar de darle dos estrellas lo recomiendo, una cosa no quita la otra, el entretenimiento, aunque lento, está garantizado en este libro.

Tengo ganas de leer El Héroe de las Eras para saber cómo sigue la historia.

Sanderson creates amazing worlds. His inner dialogues and the humanity of the characters is almost unmatched. You can really believe they're real. The uncertainties, decisions, failures, feelings, successes... All of it is believable and compelling.

However, here's the catch with this series. It's a young adult fantasy. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the trilogy. All I knew was that it's an awesome series set in a huge universe of so called Cosmere with a unique magical system. I was intrigued. I believed Sanderson to be one of the greatest fantasy authors of this era. I still believe it, I'm just a bit disappointed.

Luckily, it's not like Hunger Games. The YA aspects are very carefully laid through the book and they more than less don't stand in the way of the real story. But that's probably part of the problem. They don't even feel necessary here!

The Final Empire had only Elend and the love plot was... alright. But here we have annoying love triangle that actually isn't even a triangle. It is stretched throughout half of the book, not all of it, which is good, but I still feel like the story would have been better without it.

The main plot is about a siege of Luthadel. Some may not like it because it's kind of dragging but I enjoyed it. It's not as compelling as the plot of Final Empire but it has its moments. However, some aspects don't feel thought through and seem a bit naive. Maybe I'm being too harsh with it. I don't know. Maybe it was really aimed for younger audience and I, as a more experienced reader, am giving it a hard time.
Nevertheless, I think Sanderson polished his craft and wrote the characters even better than in its prequel and that's why this book gets 4 stars instead of three. The YA aspect could've been way worse than it was.

By the Lord Ruler!! Brandon Sanderson, delivers a smack of the wrist to people like me, people, who think they have the whole story all figured out and think they know the characters and their motivations.
I don't think any book has hurt me as much as this one, leaving me with a wounded pride.
Damn, it is unbelievable that books such as these remain unknown to the masses while disturbing pieces of literature(You-Know-Which(No, not Harry Potter, the other ones)) can be found in abundance everywhere. Sigh!

If you want to read something good.YOU MUST READ THIS.
The writing is so simplistic that people can misjudge it to be juvenile, and this is exactly what the author uses to lure you into his simple yet complex universe.

There are some books that I totally love them when I read them but after a week or two after finishing them I think to myself that they weren't that good. This book is one of them. It has been two years since I first read this book. Now after reading it for the second time I realize how wrong I was. This book is awesome. It has everything. It may not be better than the other two books in trilogy but still it is very good. You get everything from it. Action, twist, mystery, love, etc. I particularity like the transition of Elend to king in the hand of tindail. It was so didactic. And if I have to mention one thing that I didn't like about the book is this: Elend Venture is too good to true. I mean even when he makes mistakes it is to show how good and noble he is. I found this bothering since I don't like perfect characters.

Now I have to compliment the good job of graphic audio. I personally love what they do. Especially that they try to make one for every Brandon Sanderson's books. I totally prefer listening to a graphic audio version than suffer watching a ruined version of the book that has turned to a movie. I hope they start working on Stormlight Archive as soon as possible. I can't wait for graphic audio version of those books. I know they will be perfect.

Shares effectively all the strengths and relative weaknesses of the first book; if you liked The Final Empire, you'll like The Well of Ascension.


Spoilers for this book and the full trilogy:

Pros:
I didn't really notice this on the first read through, but I respect how he handles major character deaths. He manages to avoid the two bad ends of the spectrum: the “plot armor” trope, where major characters are immune to threats no matter how fatal (a la late Game of Thrones), or the “look at how edgy I am by killing characters” (a la the third Hunger Games book). The death of Kelsier was completely unexpected last book, and Dickson and Clubs felt the same way. You don't see it coming, and it heightens the stakes because it feels like anyone can actually die (a la early Game of Thrones). You feel actually nervous when Marsh tries to kill Sazed, because other main characters weren't spared. For book 3, this is heightened all the way with Vin and Elend. What other series kills it's big hero and big bad villain a third of the way through the plot, then it's two protagonists at the climax? Props to Sanderson for pulling it off.

The premise - what happens after the good guys win - is still intriguing and lives up to its promise. Both of the twists felt clever without falling into deus ex machina territory. The first twist, how Vin's kandra was replaced by another one, was a good use of supplied information: the audience assumed the spy couldn't be him, but we had no real reason to believe that. In fact, there are hints throughout the dialogue that it's him: constantly warning her that she's underestimating the cleverness and skill of kandras, lines about the Contract being ironclad but also surprising, and a bit where Vin is surprised that he doesn't know a detail about her past. That last one was really subtle writing by Sanderson. Vin is currently investigating people by posing details about their past conversations to check their identity, and what does she do when OreSeur doesn't know she grew up on the streets? She assumes that it's because he was excluded from the group, and it causes her to take pity on him. That's really good plot writing.

The second twist, the big one with Ruin at the end, is a great one. It manages to up the ante without feeling like “Mario, your princess is in another castle.” Such a clever technique by Ruin, to flip the cause-effect chain of morals. By setting up the message to be “only the best of us will be able to resist keeping the power,” it's such a clever tweak. Lots of villains have to get protagonists to help them by provoking characters into doing bad things; Ruin gets Vin and Elend to help him by provoking them to do good things. I thought it was great storytelling without being gimmicky.

A few other tidbits I liked: In the world of Twilight and the Hunger Games, I think he deserves a bit of credit for making a non-traditional love triangle that felt authentic to who Vin was.

Knowing the ending of book 3, I really liked the foreshadowing over the prophecies of the Hero of Ages. It's become a bit of a trope to have some character say, “actually, that word isn't gendered in the original language, so it really should be translated as ‘he OR she'” (see Game of Thrones S7E2). I liked that this is twisted to refer to Sazed, the eunuch, who by all accounts has earned it.

Duralumin is a good addition. It tweaks the realm of possibility enough to be exciting to the audience, but always lives within the current rule structure so it doesn't feel gimmicky.

Cons:
I did feel like it was just a little slow in the first half. It's the same length as the first book, but not quite as much happens. I liked watching Elend grow into his role, but all the city politics sapped a little of the relentless motion of the first book's storyline.

His prose is still very much functional over fashionable. He's an outline writer, which is fine, and it's what makes his foreshadowing thoughtful and his plot arcs tidy. But I just think some of his prose is melodramatic and a bit cliche, like this sentence: “He could easily imagine the disaster that would befall the land should the mists persist all day.” Not that big of a critique, in the larger scope of the book, but something that bugged me a bit.

Brandon Sanderson managed to hook me once again. The Well of Ascension has the perk of being the second book in a trilogy. Which means that we're already introduced to the characters, the state of the world, the magic system and everything else we need to know. So instead of using the pages to introduce us to those things, the 2nd book can jump straight into the action. And Sanderson doesn't use this perk very well.

Yes, this one has way more action than the 1st and there is even a huge battle for the city, but it could've been so much more. Sanderson likes to fill pages after pages with conversations, when you just want action.

I also thought that there was way too much hand holding. Often there are hints about interesting things lore wise, and just as you finished to piece together the pieces and getting that nice AHA! effect, Sanderson destroys it by explaining every little detail. I think he fears we will miss something, or thinks we cannot form thoughts on our own.

But all this is bitching on a high standard, because despite of those small things that bugged me, The Well of Ascension -just like The Final Empire- is one hell of a ride. Most of the long conversations are adding depth to the characters, the magic system is still fresh and fast paced and the world with it's lore is full of interesting cultures and species.

The ending sure is twisted and open enough, to have peaked my interest to read the 3rd and last installment. But I guess I would have done it either way, just to see where those likable characters end up.

Well, if that wasn't depressing.

At the risk of getting rotten tomatoes thrown at me by the readers of fantasy books, I have to say it.

I really didn't like this book. It was boring. It was painful. No, not the good kind of painful either. Just painful.

I didn't love the first one in this series - that should have been the red flag for me even continuing it. But, you see, I was in this bookstore and had a moment of weakness where I bought the book. I kind of wish I hadn't of.

I liked Vin in the first book - she was half of this and half of that and rather interesting. I hate her in this book. (No, that is not being too harsh.) She's a tough, kick butt girl - but she's also a needy, clingy child with abandonment issues. It's possible, but it left me cold to her character and all her issues. And she has many issues. (Yes Vin, no one will ever love you; you'll always be alone. We understood you fine the first time, no need to let it be your only thought when you're alone.) I'll give you that she does improve - albeit very briefly - but it was too little, much too late.

The plot: This book was six hundred pages of absolutely nothing. The other hundred and fifty actually had things happening - but most of the interesting stuff was shunted into the past (the original ‘hero' and his entourage) just like the first book. And the absolutely gloriousness that was pages 611-712 - also known as Part Five: Snow and Ash. The whole second star is added because of that awesome section of the book.

And Breeze, too. I almost think he needs a star all to himself. At least that's one character that I liked in the first book who I still like. (Adored Sazed in the first book but do not like his character development in this one. At all.) Other characters I liked are Clubs (who I actually don't recall being that attached to in the first book) and new additions Allrianne and Tindwyl. I also find myself very fascinated by Zane. However, I feel that all three new additions were terribly underutilized. I get that Vin and Elend (the latter of which I also really liked in the first book but am now left feeling disdain for) are the main characters, but I don't think we could be following two people that I like less in this series.

And then there was the fact that the fate of two of my favorite characters was left ambiguous. The last time you see one of them, the character is a quivering mess and just had some sort of mental break. The last time you see the other one, the character is just riding into the final battle. Both these scenes happen over fifty pages away from the end and the characters are hardly mentioned after that.

Also, I really, really don't like books that end with the characters in a worse situation than when they started. Heck, I kind of think that the ending situation was the worst situation in the entire book.

Now I'm left not knowing if I'll even bother with any more books by Mr. Sanderson because, barring one, I've not had good luck with his stories. (I am still looking forward to the second in the Rithmatist series...)

Worse than the first one, especially the first half is just a boring drag that it felt like I read an even worse book. Lucky that it picked up a bit in the second part and got quite good at the end. Still too little to give this a solid four star rating.

Brandon Sanderson continues to amaze me with his ability to create unique fantasy worlds and magic systems that you rarely find anywhere else in the genre and not only that, but populate it with amazing characters that you care about and want to follow - it's not just about the world-building. The second book in the Mistborn trilogy starts out really well with some interesting directions and ramifications from the previous book - not all of them good things. Then I found the story kind of stalls in the middle for a while. I really struggled in the middle of the book to see where it was going. There is no travel and no sense of moving forward, just a lot of internal monologues, and I had a tough time wading my way through it. BUT, and there is a big BUT, it is worth getting through that stall in the middle to get to the end where some action finally kicks in, some revelations you've been waiting to find out about are revealed and a huge unexpected revelation takes place that propels the story in a heart-breaking and yet interesting direction. If I'm honest, it surprised me and made me think back on a lot of stuff I'd read earlier in the book.The clues are there and when put together you wonder how you didn't pick up on them, but it is a fun twist that had me thinking on it long after I closed the book. I'm really excited to see where this takes the characters in book three and how it will effect them and the world they live in. I'm sure it will be epic and unexpectedly surprising, as both books have been able to pull off so far. As always, top marks to a top notch fantasy that goes against expectation, while remaining true to what fantasy fans love about the genre - a hard balance to accomplish, and one I'm glad Brandon Sanderson has been able to give us.

Great ending.

800 pagine di pura fuffa. Nel primo libro mi crei un mondo gigantesco e nel secondo mi spieghi poco o niente? AAAAAhhhhhh! No! io devo sapere..spero che almeno nel terzo tutto riceva una adeguata spiegazione sennò vengo fino a casa tua, Sandy!

Well I can see why some of the reviews on this book were not as effusive as for [b:Mistborn: The Final Empire 12968705 Mistborn The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1) Brandon Sanderson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400264919s/12968705.jpg 66322]. Despite some siege warfare and a little bit of politicking, nothing really happened. A desperate attempt at a YA love-triangle was quickly dealt with, thank goodness.But the parts that happened in between that, the history and lore and religion and scholars doing their scholarly thing and the what-happens-after-the-happily-ever-after was, for me, fantastic. My kind of story.And the end, spoiler-free, frankly scared the crap out me as a historian relying entirely on written material. LOVE.

I love this series. This one was more philosophical until the end, but THE END was FANTASTIC. A definite unexpected twist that definitely makes me want to jump into the next book of the series.

Review to come.

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.

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.

It's not often that a book is capable of reducing me into a screaming, howling mess of emotions. I'm simply not the type to react violently to whatever I'm reading. Perhaps I was, when I was a teenager, but those days are well behind me and even then I wasn't the most reactionary of readers. The only book that could do that was Lord of the Rings. But then, just last year, I read the first book in Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series, titled The Lies of Locke Lamora, and it left me swinging between laughing out loud and brief bursts of screaming in protest, depending on what was happening. The experience has left me a devoted reader of Lynch's series: after all, any book that makes me want to simultaneously hurl the book across the room and cradle it close to my chest at the same time, is a good book.

I did not, however, expect to react the same way to another series - or if I did, it wouldn't come so soon after discovering Lynch's series. Except that's precisely what happened when I started reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy, which was recommended to me by my friend Hope, and who in turn was recommended the book by Matthew, the DM for our weekend D&D games. The result has been heartbreak all around - the good kind, I hasten to add. But if I thought the first book, titled Mistborn: The Final Empire, was very emotional on its own, I was not prepared at all for the effect the second book, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, would have on me. And again, I mean this in a very good way.

The Well of Ascension continues almost right where The Final Empire left off. With Kelsier dead after the events in the first book, it's up to his crew to pick up the pieces and figure out a way to keep the Central Dominance stable from the city of Luthadel, once the home of the Lord Ruler, whom Kelsier's apprentice, a street urchin-turned-Mistborn named Vin, killed in the climax of The Final Empire. As it turns out, starting a revolution and killing a despotic ruler is one thing; dealing with the fallout from that event is another thing entirely. With the Lord Ruler gone, his realm has began to crumble, with powerful nobles breaking away and setting themselves up as kings in their own right. The few nobles who remained in Luthadel after the fall of the Lord Ruler have sworn nominal fealty to Elend Venture, whose idealistic perspective on politics might just mean he's the wrong kind of man for this situation. And with armies headed towards Luthadel, intent on taking the city - and the stash of atium the Lord Ruler has hidden somewhere in it - Vin, Elend, and the rest of Kelsier's crew will have to make some difficult decisions that will directly affect the direction their lives take hereon out.

One of the most important story lines in this series is the one I mentioned earlier: the fact that a revolution has just occurred, and a despot has been overthrown. This event is everything that the first book was leading up to, with the Lord Ruler's downfall forming the climax of that novel. The series could have ended there, or the second book could have picked up some years after when the dust had settled, but what I appreciated most about Sanderson's series is that he's sensible enough of history to know that revolutions don't just end there, with everyone tired but happy and ready to rebuild. No: revolutions are messy things, both before, during, and after, and I really like the fact that Sanderson tackles the “after” part. Regime changes are part and parcel of so much of fantasy these days, but not a lot of them deal with the messy bit that comes immediately after.

That period is a rich mine for drama and story, and Sanderson does a good job pulling up as much compelling story as he can, both as a plot and as a means of developing characters - in this case, Elend Venture and the original members of Kelsier's crew. It's clear that the situation, as it stands at the beginning of the novel, is tenuous, mostly because Luthadel's new leaders aren't exactly sure how to go about running a country now that they have control of it. It's a problem that's plagued every revolutionary government in history, so it makes sense that Elend and Kelsier's crew now have to find ways of making sure that the Kelsier's sacrifice is not in vain - Elend, especially, since he's the king.

Such conflict, though, helps characters grow, and Elend definitely does that (with a little help from a new character who is introduced in this novel). He's not a flake, necessarily, but he's certainly not strong-willed enough to make a proper ruler in a time of crisis - ideals can only go so far, after all, in holding a kingdom together. Fortunately, Elend does grow, and while it's not a completely dramatic and sudden change in character, I really like the fact that it isn't. There's still one more book after all, which means there's still enough time for Elend to change and grow, depending on what happens further down the line.

I mentioned in my review for The Final Empire that the magic system was the second major plot line in the series, and that prediction bore fruit in this one, in the form of a prophecy about the Hero of Ages. In the first novel, everyone assumed that the Hero of Ages was the Lord Ruler, but it turns out that this might not be the case. The story about the Hero of Ages, the Well of Ascension, and mysterious entity called the Deepness are further explored in The Well of Ascension, with Vin at the heart of it all.

Just like Elend's having a hard time being king, Vin has a hard time trying to adjust to her new roles: Elend's beloved, Elend's personal Mistborn (and therefore assassin), Luthadel's resident Mistborn (and therefore to be treated in the same way a tactical nuke is treated), and Kelsier's Heir, a quasi-religious figure to the followers of the Church of the Survivor. While the first two roles she has to fulfill are interesting for the way they help in her character development (especially her relationship with Elend), it's her status as the Heir of the Survivor that I find most interesting. That Kelsier was deified after the Collapse is unsurprising, but watching how Vin deals with her new status is interesting to read about - as is the development of the Church of the Survivor into a perhaps-legitimate faith. Will it replace the religion of the Lord Ruler? That remains to be seen.

And then there's Vin's link to the prophecy of the Hero of Ages. That entire storyline is a lesson in how prophecies are so often shaped by those who believe them, and the tragedies that can result - both in the Lord Ruler's case, and in Vin's. I really liked this take on the concept of prophecies, because so often in fantasy novels, prophecies are taken as absolute truth, and, often, turn out to be absolute truth. But what if they were subject to human fallacy - as anything humanity has ever tried to understand is subject to? What if in the reading of a prophecy, someone or a group of people made a mistake in the interpretation? This was a nice place to go with the concept of prophecies, and I'm glad Sanderson went there.

As for personal relationships, they are front-and-center more in this novel than in the last one - and the primary reason for the emotional roller-coaster my heart went through while reading this. I won't say anything further in case I give away too much on that score (and I mean this: part of the pleasure of reading about how these relationships develop is to know as little about them as possible), but suffice to say that Sanderson certainly knows what he's doing when he writes about interpersonal relationships, romantic or otherwise, and I'm still metaphorically picking up the pieces of my broken heart even now, some days after I finished reading the book.

Overall, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension is a novel that does more than just continue the story that began in Mistborn: The Final Empire: it stands on its own as a tale to match the first novel, and carries the plot forward in a manner that makes the reader excited to read the third novel. Unlike so very many other second books in trilogies, it does not suffer from middle-book syndrome, serving as more than just a bridge between the events of the first and third novels and standing on its own as an important moment in this trilogy's development. And, as a part of that development - and part of what makes this book so good - this novel feels more emotionally-charged than the last one, with lots of time and opportunity for the reader to get more invested in the established characters, and to develop a fondness for newly-introduced ones. But it is, as I mentioned, only the second book in a trilogy, and while it might be hard to imagine that there could be more after what happens in this novel, there is definitely more, in the novel Mistborn: Hero of Ages. Whether or not that book lives up to the setup done in the first two remains to be seen, but I definitely look forward to finding out - and I cross my fingers that the payoff is as grand and magnificent as I hope it to be.

A million 4 and 5 star reviews here on goodreads aren't wrong. This book is great! I want to read the 3rd so BADLY but no, I have to read some others first.

The first two books of this series are better than GRRM's Game of Thrones series, which used to be my favorite. No longer.

The thrill of discovering a new franchise is supremely satisfying. If Brandon was a bit rough on the edges with the first one he tightens the plot with this one. Thus have rated it one better than the first book. Its a real task to be able to establish so many characters with depth in such a short space but he does it with aplomb. Just when you feel you are reaching the end of the road, the floor drops away to leave the story open like a chasm.

I just wish he would not be so repetitive with the text being quoted from past records!

Highly recommended read back to back series

Frankly I felt that much of the book dragged, and I kept reading because I was already invested in the characters after the first book. Things did pick up in the last fourth or so of the book, there was an excitement and urgency that had been missing until then. Even so, it wasn't as exciting as The Final Empire. Part of it may be that The Final Empire was ultimate a heist story, and that shifting gears to long, drawn out politics in this one was perhaps too abrupt a change (not that I have a problem with with books about political machinations, I just think in this particular book this dragged down the narrative).

I also felt that the loss of Kelsier, who was an extremely engaging character, left a voice that The Well of Ascension never quite managed to fill with any of the other characters.