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A review by lit_laugh_luv
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
4.0
[3.5 stars] I really enjoyed this, though I do think The Final Empire was stronger. The strong parts in this are very strong, but this suffers a little bit from pacing. I do enjoy political intrigue a fair bit in fantasy, but the central conflict in this felt a tad bloated and drawn out. It easily could have lost 100 pages or so and accomplished the same thing. I also felt the historical storyline (not describing it any further than that to avoid spoilers) to be a bit fragmented in execution; this is by design, but given the amount of conflicts happening simultaneously it did feel a little confusing to follow. I'm sure it will be made clear in book 3, but I think the execution in this entry made it feel too much like a 'set up' book at times.
With that said, the last ~33% of this is really strong and had several plot twists I never saw coming. The character development is really strong and I definitely appreciated Vin and Elend a lot more in this novel compared to the first, where they felt a bit one-dimensional. Sazed and OreSeur are particular favourites of mine - they're very complex and nuanced characters and Sanderson does a great job with them. Enjoyed my time with this a lot and it was so hard to put down.
With that said, the last ~33% of this is really strong and had several plot twists I never saw coming. The character development is really strong and I definitely appreciated Vin and Elend a lot more in this novel compared to the first, where they felt a bit one-dimensional. Sazed and OreSeur are particular favourites of mine - they're very complex and nuanced characters and Sanderson does a great job with them. Enjoyed my time with this a lot and it was so hard to put down.