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A review by isabellarobinson7
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
Rating: 5 stars
I'm calling it now: The Well of Ascension is my favourite book in the Mistborn trilogy.
I finished The Well of Ascension a few days ago and my love for the story has just grown and grown. It took me a bit to get into the the book (perhaps because I was stilling reeling from what happened in The Final Empire) but once I did, man, I literally did nothing but. I read the better part of this 800 page book in one sitting! Truthfully, I couldn't keep my mind off it. I tried (and failed) to find an audiobook version so I could read it all the time because I just never wanted to be without it. I can distinctly remember doing a puzzle and thinking about The Well of Ascension before realizing that I hadn't actually done anything on the puzzle in front of me and had been staring into space for the last five or so minutes just contemplating the character arcs and ways Elend could solve this political crisis.
Speaking of politics, I loved the politics! People say that The Well of Ascension was really boring for them and slow moving, but I honestly never found that. I have recently discovered that I love political fantasy books (and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that it was the adult fantasy books that contained this; I used to think books were labeled adult only because they had more sex and violence in them) and while people are guaranteed to find them boring I love them!
The Well of Ascension was the book where Vin really started to rub off on me. In The Final Empire, I was kind of meh with her character (as I said in the review for The Final Empire), but in The Well of Ascension, Vin quickly shot up my favourite characters list. Not only is she written beautifully, but she also feels so incredibly genuine and authentic, almost like a real person. I loved how she still has her issues from being brought up the way she was, the treatment from her mother and all, her brother Reen's brutal love for her, and her horrific experiences in Camon's crew. Vin isn't magically healed from her past and the repercussions that came with it just because she needs to save the world or she found the right guy. She is still tremendously flawed, and I loved that about her.
Something I expected going into The Well of Ascension was that the pacing was going to slow right down and there would be not as much action as there was in The Final Empire. I had seen reviews, so I knew that this was perhaps the least like book in the trilogy, and I was bracing myself. But then wooosh! I read it and, like I said, it didn't feel slow at all! This was probably because I read big chunks of it in single sittings, but even then, I never got bored, never felt like I was pushing myself through long winding sections of nothing happening.
So the fight scenes in The Well of Ascension were definitely more few and far between than The Final Empire, but wow, does Brandon Sanderson know how to choreograph a fight scene! The one that really stands out to me is only 107 pages in of my copy, in part one, when Vin splits an arrow mid-flight:
"The archer released his arrow. Even as Vin rebounded, dirt spraying around her, she reached out and Pushed herself back into the air straight at the arrow. Then she Pushed against it. The arrowhead ripped backward - throwing out shards of wood as it split its own shaft in midair - then smacked directly into the forehead of the archer who had released it."
It was so awesome I was grinning in my seat, probably looking like a mad person.
Spoilers for The Final Empire:
As the book went on, I found myself thinking something I never would have guessed: I didn't really miss Kelsier anymore. I know! Blasphemy! Brandon Sanderson does an amazing job at making Kell seem like a mythological, religious figure; a deiety or god. He makes Kelsier seem so distant from the other characters, like the gods of our world's religions can sometimes look like (I am speaking from an outsider's perspective, mind you) and yet Vin still has this personal relationship with him which is completely authentic and genuine. Somehow, these two utterly opposing views of this one man fit together perfectly. On one hand, you feel like Kelsier is a close friend you have lost, while on the other, it feels as though he was more of an idol than anything and was therefore never that close in the first place.
And another thing I liked: NO GIANT ROMANTIC DRAMA! There were little bits now and then, sure, but they didn't overtake the plot and become the central focus of the story. It wasn't like "oh no I need to save the world but I can't because I love you and I also love this other person and I have my priorities completely mixed up!" which so many books seem to sway towards nowadays. If I want to read solely about romance, then I will read a book in the romance genre.
Oh, and also TenSoon! Ahhh he was amazing! I have had a dog for the majority of my life and I honestly feel they are so underrepresented in books. There are books dedicated to dogs and whatnot, but they are always really childish, and if a dog does feature in another genre, they are usually not very central and are just chucked in there because they are a dog and everyone loves dogs. But TenSoon was a fundamental part of the plot of The Well of Ascension (won't say how because spoilers) and I really enjoyed it.
Oh wow. I could go on and on about The Well of Ascension and Sanderson and Mistborn. I need to stop it somewhere though. So, final comments: The Well of Ascension was amazing and it might just be my favourite book ever.
I'm calling it now: The Well of Ascension is my favourite book in the Mistborn trilogy.
I finished The Well of Ascension a few days ago and my love for the story has just grown and grown. It took me a bit to get into the the book (perhaps because I was stilling reeling from what happened in The Final Empire) but once I did, man, I literally did nothing but. I read the better part of this 800 page book in one sitting! Truthfully, I couldn't keep my mind off it. I tried (and failed) to find an audiobook version so I could read it all the time because I just never wanted to be without it. I can distinctly remember doing a puzzle and thinking about The Well of Ascension before realizing that I hadn't actually done anything on the puzzle in front of me and had been staring into space for the last five or so minutes just contemplating the character arcs and ways Elend could solve this political crisis.
Speaking of politics, I loved the politics! People say that The Well of Ascension was really boring for them and slow moving, but I honestly never found that. I have recently discovered that I love political fantasy books (and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that it was the adult fantasy books that contained this; I used to think books were labeled adult only because they had more sex and violence in them) and while people are guaranteed to find them boring I love them!
The Well of Ascension was the book where Vin really started to rub off on me. In The Final Empire, I was kind of meh with her character (as I said in the review for The Final Empire), but in The Well of Ascension, Vin quickly shot up my favourite characters list. Not only is she written beautifully, but she also feels so incredibly genuine and authentic, almost like a real person. I loved how she still has her issues from being brought up the way she was, the treatment from her mother and all, her brother Reen's brutal love for her, and her horrific experiences in Camon's crew. Vin isn't magically healed from her past and the repercussions that came with it just because she needs to save the world or she found the right guy. She is still tremendously flawed, and I loved that about her.
Something I expected going into The Well of Ascension was that the pacing was going to slow right down and there would be not as much action as there was in The Final Empire. I had seen reviews, so I knew that this was perhaps the least like book in the trilogy, and I was bracing myself. But then wooosh! I read it and, like I said, it didn't feel slow at all! This was probably because I read big chunks of it in single sittings, but even then, I never got bored, never felt like I was pushing myself through long winding sections of nothing happening.
So the fight scenes in The Well of Ascension were definitely more few and far between than The Final Empire, but wow, does Brandon Sanderson know how to choreograph a fight scene! The one that really stands out to me is only 107 pages in of my copy, in part one, when Vin splits an arrow mid-flight:
"The archer released his arrow. Even as Vin rebounded, dirt spraying around her, she reached out and Pushed herself back into the air straight at the arrow. Then she Pushed against it. The arrowhead ripped backward - throwing out shards of wood as it split its own shaft in midair - then smacked directly into the forehead of the archer who had released it."
It was so awesome I was grinning in my seat, probably looking like a mad person.
Spoilers for The Final Empire:
As the book went on, I found myself thinking something I never would have guessed: I didn't really miss Kelsier anymore. I know! Blasphemy! Brandon Sanderson does an amazing job at making Kell seem like a mythological, religious figure; a deiety or god. He makes Kelsier seem so distant from the other characters, like the gods of our world's religions can sometimes look like (I am speaking from an outsider's perspective, mind you) and yet Vin still has this personal relationship with him which is completely authentic and genuine. Somehow, these two utterly opposing views of this one man fit together perfectly. On one hand, you feel like Kelsier is a close friend you have lost, while on the other, it feels as though he was more of an idol than anything and was therefore never that close in the first place.
And another thing I liked: NO GIANT ROMANTIC DRAMA! There were little bits now and then, sure, but they didn't overtake the plot and become the central focus of the story. It wasn't like "oh no I need to save the world but I can't because I love you and I also love this other person and I have my priorities completely mixed up!" which so many books seem to sway towards nowadays. If I want to read solely about romance, then I will read a book in the romance genre.
Oh, and also TenSoon! Ahhh he was amazing! I have had a dog for the majority of my life and I honestly feel they are so underrepresented in books. There are books dedicated to dogs and whatnot, but they are always really childish, and if a dog does feature in another genre, they are usually not very central and are just chucked in there because they are a dog and everyone loves dogs. But TenSoon was a fundamental part of the plot of The Well of Ascension (won't say how because spoilers) and I really enjoyed it.
Oh wow. I could go on and on about The Well of Ascension and Sanderson and Mistborn. I need to stop it somewhere though. So, final comments: The Well of Ascension was amazing and it might just be my favourite book ever.