Scan barcode
A review by caidyn
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This review can also be found on my blog!
CW: character deaths and violence
Damn. The enjoyment continues with this series! And, there will be spoilers for the first book in here! That’s your spoiler warning because I’m not going to go through and mark each one.
This picks up after Vin defeats the Lord Ruler. Elend is king. Vin is still protecting everyone. And now armies are coming to retake the city and to put someone else as king and to take power away from the new regime.
While this book was just as tightly plotted as the first book, I just didn’t enjoy it as much. As I said, it was good. Damn, it was good. However, I felt like there were two different stories in this book that didn’t exactly meld together well.
First, there’s the defense of the city with Vin and Elend and the rest of the crew who are trying to keep power in memory of all that Kelsier did. That involves the armies coming, the deception, and the tricks that come into it.
Then, there’s another story, one that’s harder to wrap your head around (at least, it was for me) that involves the Well of Ascension and the mist. That mainly involves Sazed, honestly. This was the part that didn’t work as well for me. Sure, it was interesting. I love mythology and it was very interesting to see the progression of it, however it just didn’t make me go wow about anything. In fact, towards the end, it felt very convenient.
There were also new characters introduced in this book and some old ones get expanded on! I really enjoyed that because Sanderson is amazing at character development. Even though some of them don’t matter as much by the end of the story.
And, adding onto that, there were quite a few character deaths or very near misses that nearly killed me. These characters are amazing and I’m here for them (especially my favorite one, who nearly died). I’m definitely excited to read the next and final book in this series, even though I’m incredibly nervous about who will make it out alive.
CW: character deaths and violence
Damn. The enjoyment continues with this series! And, there will be spoilers for the first book in here! That’s your spoiler warning because I’m not going to go through and mark each one.
This picks up after Vin defeats the Lord Ruler. Elend is king. Vin is still protecting everyone. And now armies are coming to retake the city and to put someone else as king and to take power away from the new regime.
While this book was just as tightly plotted as the first book, I just didn’t enjoy it as much. As I said, it was good. Damn, it was good. However, I felt like there were two different stories in this book that didn’t exactly meld together well.
First, there’s the defense of the city with Vin and Elend and the rest of the crew who are trying to keep power in memory of all that Kelsier did. That involves the armies coming, the deception, and the tricks that come into it.
Then, there’s another story, one that’s harder to wrap your head around (at least, it was for me) that involves the Well of Ascension and the mist. That mainly involves Sazed, honestly. This was the part that didn’t work as well for me. Sure, it was interesting. I love mythology and it was very interesting to see the progression of it, however it just didn’t make me go wow about anything. In fact, towards the end, it felt very convenient.
There were also new characters introduced in this book and some old ones get expanded on! I really enjoyed that because Sanderson is amazing at character development. Even though some of them don’t matter as much by the end of the story.
And, adding onto that, there were quite a few character deaths or very near misses that nearly killed me. These characters are amazing and I’m here for them (especially my favorite one, who nearly died). I’m definitely excited to read the next and final book in this series, even though I’m incredibly nervous about who will make it out alive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, War, and Violence
Moderate: Rape