Hello Fellow Journeyers,
Next up is Brandon Sanderson's second book in the Mistborn series, The Well of Ascension. Let's dive in.
What's the story about: The Well of Ascension picks up the pieces from Mistborn: The Final Empire in that the crew has to figure out how to run a kingdom after the ruler and god has been killed. Vin and Elend must also contend with conflicting groups that want to take over and rule themselves.
The Well of Ascension had a unique dilemma in being the second book of a nearly perfect first book and because the story wraps up fairly nicely, there is a lot of plot and development that has to take place in order for a new story to be told. Because of this, it's almost like this second book was a run on of Sanderson not knowing where to go to make it exciting, so much of it is a stalemate that stalls for hundreds of pages.
That being said, this is Sanderson we're talking about, so he's more than up for the task. His magic system continues to develop with Vin becoming a full fledged badass who's always looking for a fight. And the best new touch is Elend's focus that makes him one of my favorite characters in any series. The character development for Vin and Elend are still top notch, and with a somewhat boring plot, it's the character arcs that pull us thru, which is a mean feat.
Finally, what can't be forgotten about this second outing is the final twists at the end. Not only does Sanderson pull all the punches in terms of Zaine's character, but the switches and backstabbing and plot twists that are implemented are grand and raise up the entire book in the process that grants it a worthy successor of Mistborn.
★★★★ 4 Stars - The Well of Ascension is not the heavyweight that Mistborn: The Final Empire was, but it had more work to do than the first outing. Even though Sanderson might have lost his way a little while in the beginning of writing this one, he hones it in perfectly at the end for an astonishing, satisfying, and ultimately awesome ending that leads to the trilogy's conclusion in The Hero of Ages.