A review by ryelees
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.75

This book has big shoes to fill following 'The Final Empire'  and it does an... okay job. Sanderson really expands upon the lore of his world, introduces new themes for the series to address, and starts to shift focus to and fill out a cast of characters. All of these are good things to do in a series, but as a sequel to "The Final Empire" there's a difficult switch from heist/revolution/theocide adventure with deeply liberationist themes to a slow burn political seige thriller exploring the harsh realities of running an Empire. To make matters worse, the love triangle subplot is unconvincing, repetitive, and takes time away from the far more interesting and severely underdeveloped religious mystery subplot (

and as a result the Final Book requires a literal Deus Ex Machina lore dump to pick up all the slack

.

Overall still a very enjoyable read, and exactly as reliable as you'd expect from Sanderson. The prose is clear; the magic and lore are interesting and engaging; and the characters are well differentiated and likable.