Review: The Well of Ascension

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn #2
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: August 21st, 2007
Source: Library
Date Read: 1/30/15 to 2/21/15
590 pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler – the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years – has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier’s protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin’s Mistborn skills sharp, but it’s the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn’t run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier’s crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won’t get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler’s hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

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Ahhh Well of Ascension. I'm just going to come out right now and say that I thought it wasn't as good as The Final Empire, the first book in the trilogy. Readers looking for another replica of The Final Empire, you won't find that here. There's a different sort of setting, situation, more politics.

Looking for my review of the first book in the trilogy? Here it is!

Here are a couple of reasons why you should start Mistborn, or anything by Brandon Sanderson because come on now, get on it!

• It's an awesome world, EPIC and FULL OF ACTION. 
• There is a whole crew of amazing characters that you will fall in love with, I guarantee it
• Kelsier 
• You will not regret getting into this fantasy, I swear to you. There isn't much I can do other than what I have been saying all this time. But I will say it again: go go go go read it.

I completely failed at pitching Mistborn, because I cannot even begin to describe how good it is. I just hope that I managed to at least convince you to think about it.

Watch out! Spoilers ahead!

As I said before, The Well of Ascension is different from it's prequel. It's a different pace, less action, and just more political. It's not only about the skaa uprising anymore, because the rebellion already happened and succeeded. The problem now, is maintaining that stability.

Due to the nature of this book, a lot more emphasis is placed on what happens afterwards a revolution. A revolution that was only performed by a small thieving crew. Sure, the skaa want to be free, but they also crave stability. What happens when you take that away? What happens when the people would rather have a dictator that enslaves them, instead of being invaded by three other armies? 

Also, the lack of Kelsier still kills me a little. But I knew why Sanderson did that. Ugh.

While I was reading this, more and more complications kept arising. It kind of frustrated me since nothing was being solved. And then that ending made everything EVEN WORSE. I thought nothing was solvable in this book, I can't even imagine what it will be like in the last book of the trilogy. 

In conclusion, I'm still in love with the Mistborn trilogy. Even though The Well of Ascension dragged on a bit, it was still an amazing fantasy read. I'm expecting a lot from the last book, The Hero of Ages, SO IT BETTER BE GOOD.