From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action. 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 … 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.
Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson
The Cosmere
The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer
The Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn: The Final Empire
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages
Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning
Collection
Arcanum Unbounded
Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker
The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener’s Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent
The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist
Other books by Brandon Sanderson
The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
more
There were a couple hundred too many pages of humdrum politicking, but, as with all Sanderson books, no matter what the first 80% is like, the final 20% is always, always worth it. This book was like a rollercoaster with an agonizingly slow climb, but a thrilling and satisfying plummet.
If you’re into weird magic systems, a wholesome band of protagonists, and endless political scheming, you shouldn’t think twice about jumping into this trilogy.
This book was insane, in a good way. While it felt seer long on audio I still enjoyed every minute of it.
After the events if last book we have a lot of political stuff and planning, which normally bores me a little. But not this time, it was done well with not too much of this or that. Actually I can’t say I was ever bored during this book, it just keeps you on your toes, the entire time.
The group is stronger than ever or at least it feel like it, the way they stick together and work together. I loved the friendship and relationships, sometimes unlikely friendships that were being built.
Of course we see everyone, who survived last book, we also meet some new people. But be careful as the book had it, we never know who to trust.
We meet Zayne early on but he is a big mystery most of the time.
We also meet Tindle, and I’m not going to lie but I didn’t trust or like her, but in the end I liked her. She became somewhat the voice of reason for everyone and enjoyed that. Also heart warming was her friendship with Sazed even though they both so much different.
Vin had a hard time adjusting to the new life and was still struggling … again. And often I felt bad for her that she couldn’t find a happy medium for her in some things. But as she does, she found what worked for her and in the end she worked through it. In many ways.
Elend, I loved him in this book and I think he made the most progress….. But maybe that just felt like it because we get to know him better.
I was also not a fan of Breeze before but that also changed, I enjoyed him a lot more. The same for OreSeur, we learn a lot more about him and his kind.
Overall I loved this book, we get so much action and heartbreak and twist and turn on every corner. Up to the very last second didn’t know who to trust and one betrayal after the next. But we also get some tender and heartwarming moments and I loved the friendship between them all.
The ending was crazy and I’m still not over it…. I’m very much looking forward to book three.
I rate it 5
If The Final Empire was essentially Middle Earth if Sauron won, then The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson’s second entry in the Mistborn series, is Middle Earth if Sauron was defeated… and things still sucked.
Or, in some ways, got worse: ash continues to fall from the sky, and strange mists keep descending at night, but now the mists are killing people. And with the Lord Ruler—Sanderson’s Sauron—dead, his once cohesive empire has splintered into factions warring to carve out new kingdoms.
In Luthadel, the Lord Ruler’s former capital, Vin and the other surviving characters of the first book struggle to keep the city from falling to the three armies converging on it. Much of The Well of Ascension deals with the resulting politicking and fighting. This part of the story didn’t blow me away. Vin remained a somewhat thin character, and Sanderson’s prose, while almost always clear, is rarely inspiring. But there’s plenty of action, and everything worked well enough that I enjoyed myself.
More interesting was what The Well of Ascension does with one of the tiredest tropes in fantasy: prophecy. The Final Empire hinted at how the foretellings of old had been betrayed two thousand years earlier by the Lord Ruler, when he killed the Hero of Ages and usurped the legendary figure’s rightful power. In the second book, Sazed, one of Vin’s companions, investigates the prophecies and discovers how they’ve been altered to suit various purposes. It’s a nice repackaging of the “Chosen One” motif: we’re not sure what’s already been fulfilled, what’s still to come, and what’s even real.
So, while The Well of Ascension isn’t Tolkien (and what is?), it—and the rest of the Mistborn series—stands as a creative fantasy in its own right. Worth a look.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
A sequel that feels pedestrian and somewhat underwhelming until the grand reveal and the twist ending. An ending that saves the book. A fascinating continuation and evolution of the characters from book one. The second book of a trilogy, as this initially was, before the series began to build larger, can often be something of a problem child for authors but Sanderson’s narrative moves the story along without any of the usual signs of trouble even though the pace and focus are both vastly different. Eschewing the great caper storyline of the first novel, Sanderson instead focuses more on the political turmoil created by the death of the Lord Ruler and the subsequent collapse of the empire he had ruled and controlled with ruthless efficiency.
While still the central character, Vin is no longer the sole focus of the story and shares narrative space with Elend and the Terrisman Sazed, as well as my favourite, the Kandra shape-shifter. This shift in focus leads to Vin developing as a character, rather than pushing the overarching plot along, and may make her sections seem less essential than before, although no less action packed. While there were sections of Final Empire devoted to the slightly tedious and repetitive ballroom sequences in which Vin dabbles in ham fisted court intrigue and gossip, in this one, she devotes her time to being Mistborn and embracing her more destructive skill set. One of the most surprising developments in this novel is how the character of Elend evolves. While somewhat nondescript in the first novel and fairly unconvincing as a potential love interest for Vin, his character arc here is pleasantly welcome. The amateurish, armchair revolutionary dilettante of book one is slowly replaced over the course of the novel by a leader, a man of character.
However, I think that one of my problems with this novel is the undercutting of each storyline in a way that negates its relevance. If Sanderson’s characters had cause to question their becoming the very thing they rebelled against, instead of paying lip service to the idea but dismissing it because the narrative and reader accept them as heroes, would’ve been very clever. Sanderson goes to great pains to outline Elend’s benevolent desire to create a just and representative government and then by the end of the novel, has him along with his powerful friends, ovethrow it and seize power. So the novel reads as fairly anti democracy as it will always be corrupted by cronyism, avarice, ambition and is actually pretty pro tyranny. The political storyline completely disappears in the dying pages of the book to be replaced by the overarching mystical storyline that, until the end, has been fairly sketchy at best. Hence, the ramifications of the politics are actually inconsequential, and so are the character actions and plot points.
Because of all this, I’m left wondering at what the moral centre of this book is supposed to be. What Sanderson leaves us with is closer to high school politics and juvenile intrigue rather than imperial statesmanship as each maneuvore has ultimately no real bearing on the narrative.
But it is here that Sanderson saves the book. The reveal. The twist. Were it not for this, I would have been extremely disappointed in the ending as it panned out. While I might call shenanigans on the use of deux ex machina and immaculate timing yet again, it is no doubt an intriguing end.
But ultimately, I thought that this was a fairly uneven book. The early storylines that held my interest turned out to be fairly meaningless for this story. The hook and twist ending, while vital for the series as a whole, made the majority of the book’s action seem irrelevant filler, even if it did ensure that I immediately queued up the next installment to read.
As the final book of the original Mistborn trilogy, it solidified for me a desire to read everything he writes; unlike George E. E. Martin he publishes an accurate forecast of future projects.
The saga continues and Wells of Ascension has more drama, action, and suspense than the first book. Sanderson has a LOT to chew on in this series. Not just the unique formulas of magic, but political and spiritual truths woven subtly into a page turning fantasy drama. Good books!
I loved the action and the world of this Trilogy.
One of the great works by Brandon Sanderson
I enjoyed this book. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Mistborn. The pacing dragged a little for me, and there was a lot of time spent on things I cared less about or that felt less important to the story. A lot of things were set up and then not really followed through with or answered. And I know, I know…book 3. But 700+ pages is a lot for me and I feel like I’m being asked to be patient for a long time. And I’m not a patient person. So I guess I’m just hoping the payoff is worth it.
I did love all the growth and character development we got to see, especially for Vin, Sazed, the kandra, and some of Kelsier’s original crew members. And even Elend. He’s still not my favorite, but I like him a little more than I did before. It was also really interesting to see feruchemy play a bigger role in this story and to understand all of it’s different uses and how that compares to allomancy. I said this about Mistborn, but the magic system really is very interesting and very well developed.
After reading this, I’m just really looking forward to getting to the end of the story in the Hero of Ages and seeing how it all plays out. Is it wrong of me to hope that we can move past all of the political drama and actually get to the interesting stuff about the mists and Vin’s larger role in all of this?
loved this series. you will too.
This series continues on in a fantastic fashion. It’s hard to say much more than that, but I love this series. It is one of my favorite fantasy series and though I loved Brandon Sanderson’s “Elantris”, I think this series is much better. I can’t wait to see how the next one goes.
This was just such a drag after the excitement of the first one, and it took a lot to get me to finish. I did not need the pages and pages of characters debating and moaning about the same political issues with no change. That said, the ending was great, and I have the benefit of writing this after I finished the next book in the series and can confirm it’s worth barreling through this.
What a great series!
I loved the twist at the end of this book! It was so unexpected but well played. But, then again, that is a specialty of Sanderson’s. Loved the progression of the characters and the world too!