The Well of Ascension
Fantasy, High Fantasy
Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn, The Cosmere, Book # 2
Tor Teen
August 21st 2007
Paperback
748
English
October 17, 2019 October 25, 2019
The impossible has happened. The Lord Ruler is dead. But so too is Kelsier the man who masterminded the triumph. The awesome task of rebuilding the world has been left to his protege Vin; a one-time street urchin, now the most powerful Mistborn in the land.
Worryingly for her Vin has become the focus of a new religion, a development that leaves her intensely uneasy. More worryingly still the mists have become unpredictable since the Lord Ruler died and a strage vaprous entity is stalking Vin.
As the siege of Luthadel intensifies the ancient legend of the Well of Ascension offers the only glimmer of hope. But no-one knows where it is or what it can do...
About the book
Second book in Brandon Sanderson’s epic series, Mistborn. Please if you haven’t read the first book stop here. I have to say some things that happened in the first book.
It’s been a year since the death of the Lord Ruler and the empire is divided in many dominances. The central dominance, with capital Luthadel, is ruled by King Elend Venture, but it is undermined by enemy armies that press the city walls to conquer the atium, the precious metal which makes a Mistborn invincible. In the mean time in the southern dominance, heavy mists start to kill. Vin feels that the Well of Ascension calls her, but what has really happened with the Lord Ruler many years ago?
The book is divided in six parts. In the first, we find out what happened during the previous year, so we find out who remain in the city, which member of our favourite band stayed to help the capital and which “job” he/she gained in Elend’s court, or who left. Then we find out what’s happening at the moment, the city is under siege because of Elend’s father (and another lord named Cett). In the middle part, we are always in Luthadel, but the narration is centred on Vin and her powers and on Elend and his politics. In the last part the “problem” of the Well is solved, even if the thought of the Well is always present in the narration.
I need to say that I liked the beginning so much, but a little bit less the middle, because I was afraid about the mini-triangle among Eland-Vin-and someone else (I won’t tell who it is). The narration is long, the fourth part ends like it is the end of the book, but there are still two parts to read and I read the last scene (or the last two scenes) of this part all in one place at 1 a.m. because I didn’t want to go to bed without knowing the ending… I know, I’m crazy… Anyway, from here, I stated to like it more and more, even if I repeat, my dislike wasn’t about the book or the style or the plot, it was because I didn’t know how a certain relationship was going. Unfortunately I had too many negative experiences with TV shows and therefore I can’t savour a story with ups and downs but that is linear, without betrayals or whatever. If I had to reread the third and fourth parts, now that I know how it ends, I think I would appreciate it better.
Brandon is good with twists, in the previous book I was about to throw the tablet against the wall for the outrage of that death (then I said, no, it breaks and you won’t know how the book ends), but this time I wasn’t so outraged because the twists aren’t so “twisted”, for example where the Well of Ascension is located, it is easy to understand its location by the whole narration, but despite this, I believe he is a wizard in misdirection. Also, it seems that the book should deal with the well, given the title, but so many things happen that you forget about it. The story is long, but not heavy. For example the siege. It lasts from start to finish (or almost), but its explanation, what happens, what the enemy does, it’s not boring despite the length of the book.
And Vin, I love her. I like the stories where the characters think they don’t deserve a person’s love, or the luck they have or any other topic, and that they have to be convinced that this isn’t true, they, too, deserve all the good in the world, so I love Vin for this very reason (although this aspect of her, leads her to get closer to “that person”, but whoever has read the book knows how it ends – and I cheered in the fourth part).
Also I continue to love the gang, Sazed is another wonderful character and so is Breeze (I don’t know, it reminds me of Santa Claus, but I don’t know why).
«Sazed is my second. You will obey him as you would with Elend or me.» Everyone nodded in turn. «But where will you be?» Penrod asked, looking up. Vin sighed, suddenly looking terribly weak. «To sleep» she answered.
I translated from Italian, I don’t have the English version so I don’t know if they are the correct words, but anyway I liked this scene so much!
I read this book, and the first, thanks to a promotion from my telephone operator, 3 months free with Kindle Unlimited. On Kindle Unlimited, there are only these two books so I had already thought of buying the third on Kobo (because I have a Kobo, not Kindle). And what does Fanucci (the Italian publisher) do? Discounts on the same day I finish the second book. It is obvious that I will buy it immediately given the 80% discount. But since I still have 2 months free of Kindle Unlimited, I prefer to take advantage of the opportunity and therefore I will read the third volume in January (obviously I am writing this review as soon as I’ve finished the book in October, then it will be published in January) when my subscription expires with the Kindle. (But not because I don’t want to read it, in fact it’s just a practical matter).
I read that this book is the slowest of the three, now I really want to see what the third will look like. If this is slow (and I have not found it slow) who knows what will happen in the next. I still wonder how I did all these years not reading books like this…
