The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Feb 15, 2010 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, xcharity-2012

Finished at last! I am going to give The Well of Ascension 4 stars because Vin is the best fantasy heroine you will find. That girl can kick ass. I absolutely love her-and would be on my best behavior around Vin! Without her, this book would be forgettable. This book covers the siege of Luthadel by 3 armies about a year after the Lord Ruler met Vin and was dealt with severely. But fer cryin’ out loud, almost 800 pages? Really? You get unending political hijinx and negotiations for the first 650 Finished at last! I am going to give The Well of Ascension 4 stars because Vin is the best fantasy heroine you will find. That girl can kick ass. I absolutely love her-and would be on my best behavior around Vin! Without her, this book would be forgettable. This book covers the siege of Luthadel by 3 armies about a year after the Lord Ruler met Vin and was dealt with severely. But fer cryin’ out loud, almost 800 pages? Really? You get unending political hijinx and negotiations for the first 650 pages before the action starts. A lot of repetition from the first book clogs up the start. Look, you can’t read this as a standalone so why waste time covering all that went before. And, if you are going to write this much, at least get some action in every once in awhile. When the battle begins, it is short and compact, although his battles are vivid. At the end of the book, you find out that there was something big going on elsewhere in the Final Empire during the same period. But there is no hint of this until the end. Why not have multiple story lines going on? A number of times I was just frustrated that it was taking so long to get through the setup. The last 150 pages are packed with action.

My complaints from the first book continue here. Serious word bloat yet he does write well and it is not hard to read, just long. Also, the main justification of the protagonists’ actions is “to free the skaa”, the underclass, virtually slaves, of the old empire. But I never felt sympathetic to this group, they are simply there and seldom become part of the action (except to be slaughtered in various attacks). They are just passive as compared to the “nobility” which used to exploit them and continue to be the main actors. Vin came from the skaa but she feels so much brighter when she is masquerading as a noblewoman.

There are elements of Terry Goodkind’s hero, Richard, present in Vin. She is a throwback to the power of the old “Mistborn”, so much more powerful than any contemporary one, just as Richard is a throwback to the old wizards. The misunderstandings between Vin and her kingly lover Elend reminded me of the Richard/Kahlan relationship. Also, the gang in the Mistborn series is much like Locke Lamora’s Gentlemen Bastards gang of thieves with good hearts. And, just like Scott Lynch, Mr. Sanderson is more than willing to kill off a main character or two. Don’t get too attached to some of the characters in this book, they may not last.

I am glad to be on to the next and final book of the trilogy at last. Mr Sanderson certainly has not found a way to make the 2nd book in a trilogy stand on it’s own merits. A good, not great, book. ...more

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Jan 14, 2016 Tess rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, series, audiobook

The story is pretty good. It has some very exciting parts and a lot of changes to the world introduced in The Final Empire. It had some key problems though that I have trouble getting past.

Vin, while being a Strong Female Character, can be incredibly annoying and act like a little adolescent girl. I don't like that she doesn't have anyone really to talk to, but I guess that's part of her character trait.

The book lost some points because I still really have no idea what this world is like. How is ...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Dave Johnson rated it liked it

There are a number of things that can go wrong with sequels. often, i think that authors get too caught up in writing trilogies just for the sake of trilogies or they get pressured into writing another book in the series when it was fine where it left off. well, if you read Mistborn, the first book in this series, you know that even though it finishes one tale, it leaves it open enough to expand into other sequels. but the biggest problems with this book is that it suffers from a big case of seq There are a number of things that can go wrong with sequels. often, i think that authors get too caught up in writing trilogies just for the sake of trilogies or they get pressured into writing another book in the series when it was fine where it left off. well, if you read Mistborn, the first book in this series, you know that even though it finishes one tale, it leaves it open enough to expand into other sequels. but the biggest problems with this book is that it suffers from a big case of sequelitis, and does a lot of wrong things typical in sequels.

before i go into the things that went wrong, let me start by saying that im sure that this was a tough book to write. because of how tight the plot was in the first book, really this second book becomes the first half of two books instead of a tale in its own right. that one fact alone weakens a sequel. so i cant blame him for writing a book that isnt quite as good as the original. i'll also say that there are things in here that i enjoyed. the ending was interesting, and the last hundred pages of the book is the meat of the tale. to me, that was the best part. i enjoyed some of the new characters like Zane that were added. i liked the development of Sazed in this book and the explanation of Fereuchemy. and although i didnt love everything in this book about the main character Vin, i at least like the direction that her Allomancy takes her. and i will say this, it took a while for me to realize that i didnt love this book. i think that's a good thing. im more critical of books, so i think that some people would like this book and wouldnt see the flaws that i see. but others will see them.

the first thing i dont like is the politics. i hate politics in fantasy books. unless you are George R R Martin, please dont even try to write politics into your book. i can stomach it in small doses, but when a good third of this book (at least!) is just political jargon, it gets tedious quick. my next fault with this is the title. now, this book IS about the Well of Ascension...at the end. this book doesnt even mention the Well until about halfway into the book. the title should be more "Luthadel Politics" than what it is currently. contrast this with the first book entitled "Mistborn" which is exactly about two mistborn characters (and yes i know the title is technically "the final empire"). the reason i find fault with this, is that you go into the book with a preconceived idea, and you are slowly let down chapter after chapter. you would think that the story would be far better to skip forward even more (it's 2 years after the first book) and skip the boring bits that dont add anything and make the book more about the struggle to find the well. that would be infinitely more enjoyable. it seemed more likely that Sanderson knew bits about the end of this book--about the Well--and wrote a book starting from the last 50 pages and stretched it out as far as could to make a whole book. it may not be what he did, but it SEEMS like that when you read it. my next contention is the first person omniscient, or the writing of people's thoughts. of course, this is something that Frank Herbert was a master at, and Herbert new when to put it in when it spiced up the intrigue and tension between two people. with this book, all--ALL!--of the thought processes can be skipped without missing anything. they add absolutely nothing of value to the story except for added frustration of the author explaining things that the reader would understand naturally had he not told the reader. which brings me to my next point, he breaks an understood rule of good writing: show and dont tell. namely, when you want to write about a character, dont tell the reader how they are, show it to the reader by something done to them or having them do something. by telling the reader how a character is, you are patronizing the reader, for one, because you think that they wont get it, and two weakening your story by not having the reader SEE FOR THEMSELVES the cause and effect of the character's behavior. so i frequently rolled my eyes when i saw long paragraphs on something that could shown. now, granted, im a guy, so im not one to want to read about people's feelings, but barring my gender, i think that the book couldve used some better writing here, and i think that this is the absolute weakest part of this book. and no, putting your characters in dialogues with other characters is not showing the reader (which Sanderson did a lot), that's telling as well. a good portion of dialogue seemed a little awkward, making me say, "no one would say that in real life." many of the characters dont go far enough with good or evil, and in a couple of cases where they do, it seems out of character and impromptu. jarring even. it doesnt leave me with my jaw agape, but leaves me with a perplexed scowl. a couple of the characters seemed a little too different than they did in the first book, which is a small quibble, and can be explained away reasonably, but its just an observation. the prophecies in the book seemed hacked to pieces and didnt make sense, and at the end of the book, that became an important part of the story. the author did explain some of it, but the way he handled it all seemed bad. there are WAY too many deus ex machinas in the book. it's literally like watching a Dragonball Z episode, when someone's in trouble and then someone else comes in at exactly the right time and saves the day. give me one of those in a book and i wont make a peep, but repeat it over and over and it deflates any tension in the scenes. it makes it predictable. which, this book is predictable. there are a couple of twists here and there, but they're kind of cheesy, a bit like "Luke i am your father" kinda things.

i wish that this were better, because the previous book gave me higher hopes for Sanderson. unfortunately, this book had me often comparing and contrasting him to George R R Martin, which isnt exactly fair. but when you write about politics and then write characters that dont go far enough, Martin is the first person i think of that gets those two things right.

i have the third book and will read it right away. hopefully it ends on a high note and corrects the wrongs of the second book, leaving the thrills of the first. ...more

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Jul 12, 2009 J.C. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2009-reads, fantasy

Sanderson is a Master of his Craft in this Second Volume

With The Final Empire (Mistborn book one) being one of the best fantasy novels I have read in the past five years, my hopes were high for the continued success of this fantasy world. Needless to say, I was not disappointed, and if Sanderson continues to pump out books at this pace (almost one a year) and this quality (magnificent) he could be hailed in the upper echelons of greats fantasy writers of the decade.

In The Well of Ascension, Bran ...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Cassandra rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Hmmm... I did like this book. But not as much as the first one. There was just too much death and sadness. Too much disappointment. I know you need to give the viewer a roller coaster but I never really got up. More of a level or plummet down. Should I read the third?? Anyone?

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