I am having a very hard time beginning this book, largely because I hate Vin as a character and I could not care less about Elend, yet those two are apparently the focus of this entry in the series. Felicia Day's review of this book leads me to believe that things do not improve. *sigh*

UPDATE: Sazed has his own chapters! This is a very good thing as he was my favorite character in the first novel, and the only one to whom I could fully relate (three guesses as to why). I hope it doesn't turn out to be the tale of his misery and disillusionment...

UPDATE 2: The breakdown of the book so far appears to be as follows - the Sazed/Marsh chapters are fascinating and satisfying, the Vin chapters are usually dull and frustrating but occasionally interesting (thanks in large part to the mists and OreSeur, though her treatment of the kandra just feels IDIOTIC), and the chapters/portions of chapters focused on Elend are just tedious. Somehow the chapters with the Crew, which were my favorite in the previous novel, have become the parts I want to skip over because they feel flat and directionless. Sazed and Marsh have become the only characters who really seem to do anything, and the only characters who seem...developed. The rest all just feel like blank slates whom we're TOLD feel things, do things, are charming, are intelligent, etc. but for whom we feel nothing. Vin and Elend in particular. And, like many reviewers, I have to wonder why Sanderson chose to call this novel "The Well of Ascension" when the Well remains unmentioned 100 pages in and apparently doesn't come up until the final 150 pages out of this 600 page book!

UPDATE 3: At last! I'm FINALLY done! Time to unload everything I've been thinking/feeling about this novel. A quote from the first 1/3 of the book sums up my impression of "The Well of Ascension" beautifully: "It had a tendency to ramble, and the Hero had been fond of droning on about his insecurities." It really did just seem to plod on and on and on and on, tedium of the highest order, right up until the last 100 pages, at which point it seemed to move at break-neck speed (with a few memorable lapses). I absolutely did not care one whit about Vin or Elend at any point in the novel. The love-triangle aspect felt forced the whole way through, another of those elements that's TOLD rather than SHOWN (see my review of Lev Grossman's "The Magicians"); Zane seemed like a frustratingly generic bad-boy; and the final resolution of the love triangle only felt gratifying because i didn't have to read about it anymore. I actually wound up skipping over most of the action sequences, as they felt both repetitive and unnecessary. The revelation of the enemy kandra's true identity was a legitimate surprise, and I think Sanderson really did handle it very well. Sazed's storyline was great and very relatable right up until the end, at which point the reader is hit over and over with how depressed and disillusioned he has become though without any emotional resonance. I understand that loss and exhaustion can leave people thinking irrationally, but the revelation at the end which makes him feel as though his whole life has been a lie seems far more like the CONFIRMATION of his life's work; his emotional responses to it felt inexplicable and unfounded, almost like something the author felt needed to happen rather than something grounded in Sazed's character or the events around him. Marsh's character development and the revelation of what he'd been doing since the first book both really worked well; he remains one of the most interesting characters in the series. The final revelation about the Well of Ascension itself was great, and I think Sanderson did an excellent job of handling it in such a way that you couldn't be sure what was coming. The deaths of certain major characters felt needless in a way, though the mental breakdown of another was handled masterfully. The end of the book itself actually felt abrupt and lacked any real impact, and I got the impression that Sanderson was actually tired of this volume once he'd revealed everything he'd planned to reveal. All in all, this may be one of the weaker middle installments in a trilogy -- not as bad as "Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom" but not as good as "The Empire Strikes Back". I'll still read the third one because it seems like Sanderson has set up a lot of interesting things for the conclusion, but it also feels like more of those interesting things should have happened in THIS book.

UPDATE 4: A few final thoughts. Normally I love books about politicking and philosophical debates, about sieges and internal power struggles. What astonished me about this book was that Sanderson focused on elements I normally ADORE in other novels, but managed to make me hate them. I'm not sure exactly how he did this, but it's quite an accomplishment. Also, the final revelation of this volume (involving the nature of the Well and prophecies) reminded me a lot of the final revelation in Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow & Thorn" trilogy. A LOT. It almost felt lifted, but was somehow more satisfying than Williams' twist.