Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Well of Ascension

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

82 reviews

jackiepreston's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

vereadsbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“It's easy to believe in something when you win all the time...The losses are what define a man's faith.”

The last 100 pages were a wild ride. Two years have passed since Vin defeated the Lord Ruler, and now Elend is trying to rule Luthanel the best way he can. But neither he, nor Vin, nor the others know how to achieve it. Not without Kelsier. Things start to go wrong when Straff's army besieges Luthadel demanding his surrender.

“Good men don't become legends," he said quietly.
"Good men don't need to become legends." She opened her eyes, looking up at him. "They just do what's right anyway.”

I was a little hesitant to read this book. Because I was still processing Kelsier's death. After finishing the first book, I felt that his death was really premature and that neither Vin nor we were ready to be without him.

“It was his ability to trust," she said. "It was the way that he made good people into better people, the way that he inspired them. His crew worked because he had confidence in them - because he respected them. And, in return, they respected each other. Men like Breeze and Clubs became heroes because Kelsier had faith in them.”

Sanderson definitely knows what he's doing. The pace was a bit slow, but it turned into something great. The last 100 pages were incredible! I like the political intrigue that went into the story, and I love seeing this group of people working hard to preserve Kelsier's legacy. The book gives us a lot of information about the magical, social, religious, and political system of this world which can be exhausting and challenging to read at times. But it was worth it.

“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different," Sazed said. "Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet, upon closer examination he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then sees that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”

Vin is an unstoppable force and watching her progress and how she learned to trust others is beautiful. His relationship with OreSeur is one of the precious gems of this book. She and Elend are so cute together. It's amazing how they have grown into a better version of themselves.

“You must love him enough to trust his wishes, even if you disagree with them. You must respect him - no matter how wrong you think he may be, no matter how poor you think his decisions, you must respect his desire to make them. Even if one of them includes loving you.”

I'm going to take a few weeks to process everything this story has given me, so I'll be ready to jump into the last book of the trilogy.

Content Warnings

l_sa's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Content Warnings

kashby's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

kthedestroyer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This review will just be me rambling about feelings towards this book which means that there is some MAJOR SPOILERS ahead (I warned you).

It’s usually easier to write a review for a book you hate than for the books that you like but somehow I feel like I have so much to say about The Well of Ascension. It was a great journey from start to finish and so many things happened that I almost can’t believe that all the stuff with Elend trying to be a king, TenSoon’s reveal and the battle for Luthadel happened in the span of one book.

I was terrified of reading this book – afraid I wasn’t going to like it now that Kell, noble balls and the heist are gone – but boy was I wrong. Even though the story was focused more on politics, I was never bored with it. I loved exploring the abilities of kandra and all the new characters were interesting. Seeing the core crew still together was amazing and Sanderson did a great job with struggles in Vin and Elend’s relationship.

It was a great idea that the whole story mostly centers around a woman since she is surrounded by men.

Now the real reasons why I loved this book so much:

(the real SPOILERS begin now… go away if you haven’t read the book)

1. It makes you miss the first book but makes up for it

Kelsier’s death hit harder for me now than when it actually happened. Constant references to him just make his loss more heart breaking. The crew misses him a lot (especially Vin) and it just warms my heart (and makes me feeeel…).

I figured that a big part of me liked The Final Empire, because it had all the scenes with Vin learning to be noble and going to balls. That’s obviously gone, but now we have Elend learning how to be a king which is just as good.

2. OreSeur (TenSoon) and Vin

Seeing Vin warming up to a kandra was absolutely amazing. Their conversations were just so wholesome and that made the revelation that it was TenSoon all along all the more heartbreaking (it also made me realize that I love the betrayal trope in fiction) and him helping her to defeat Zane was unexpected but it just made me feel like a proud mother.

3. Zane

I don’t think that comments are necessary to explain that but I’ll do it anyway.

No, Zane is not a good person, but he is a great character and the book needed him very much. I’m not sure if Sanderson could give us a better person than him to mix some shit up. I was genuinely shocked to figure out that he was Elend’s brother and I loved to hate him throughout the book.

And his name suits him very much… why?

Because the name Zane is like German. If you say it normally it sounds fine, but change the tone just a little bit and it becomes extremely annoying or it just sounds angry.

4. Stakes

The fact that they were constantly losing and their situation was getting more and more desperate just made this book better. I usually don’t like stories too dark and this aspect of the book is just that but Sanderson makes sure that we get enough of our favorite characters to never feel too anxious or depressed. The stakes are high all the time but sometimes the casual conversations of the characters make you forget that for a chapter or two.

5. The final battle

It was great. Why? Because people died. And it hurt.

I wanted to know Dox a bit better, I felt like so much more could be done with Clubs but no. Sanderson throws that away and kills them off. I feel like their death will hit harder in the next book (as it happened with Kell) but it still hurts.

Yet, there is one of the characters whose death actually brought me to tears… Tindwyl. She was amazing for the whole book and her relationship with Sazed was just starting to get interesting. But she is gone. And seeing Sazed so broken… it broke me too. We didn’t need to see her death. Sazed finding her body and losing his faith was too much already.

And we also have Breeze. I wasn’t a fond of him in the first book, but that guy just somehow made his way into my heart. I didn’t see him as a coward when he hid… I only felt pity and I really hope that he gets himself back together.

I’s also like to say that I missed Marsh for the majority of the book. Then he came and… well, let’s just forget what I said. We’re okay without Marsh.

One of very few things that bothered me was the “miscommunication” with Vin and Elend. If they had one conversation it would be fine but nope… they had to doubt each other.

Another was that ending. On one hand, it felt a bit cheap that Elend just became Mistborn, but on the other, I’d kill Sanderson if he left him to die there (I know the 3rd book will break me but I need him to live a bit longer).

Also… What happened to Allrianne? We never got to see that.

Though I can overlook these flaws because I very much enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading the next one.

Content Warnings