The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson: things have gotten exponentially worse

The Well of Ascension 

by 

Brandon Sanderson

Look it’s the second book. That means spoilers alright. So if you actually want to the read the first one Shoo!

The Lord Ruler has been defeated. The Final Empire has fallen. And when I say fallen I mean fallen. It’s all but dissolved. Elend may have taken the title of King at the fall of the Final Empire but there’s quite a difference between declaring one’s self King and having people listen to you. The biggest cities have split off from his control and every ambitious lord with a half-baked army is marching towards the capital in hopes of filling the power vacuum that the Lord ruler left.

Basically, nothing has improved since the first book. And my poor characters are still in imminent danger of dying. 

And it was, as usual, amazing!

Characters

Vin: She’s grown so much my adorable little assassin. Sure there’s a bunch of special snowflake tropes going on but, well I kind of expect it in High Fantasy now. Honestly the biggest problems with the Chosen One thing is a) the Fawning and b) the fact that said Chosen one is usually untrained, untested and basically the worst person for the job. 

Well nobody actually believes Vin when she starts talking about saving the world so the first one is taken care of and she’s extremely capable so she easily skips over those two things.

Elend: in the first book Elend was a naïve, sheltered idealist who I really couldn’t see with Vin at all. Sure he was super nice and the only honest person in the entire book it seems but he never quite clicked with me. This time around he was much cooler. Suddenly saddled with a kingdom to look after and a bunch of backstabbing, power hungry lords and ladies Elend had to grow and he grew fast.

OreSuer: Hmm it’s an ancient monster who can eat the bones of a person and use them to become that person. And he’s currently in the body of a rather adorable doggie. 

I love him. 

He’s my new favorite. Which is a tiny bit gross now that I think about it.

Sazed: I missed Sazed! He’s so prim and proper. At least to normal humans. His people see him as more of a firebrand inciting rebellion instead waiting patiently for the end of the final empire. Which is absolutely hilarious.

And a couple of other people: Yeah, this book still has way too many people in it.

Likes:

Holy cow everybody is going to die: and you thought the stakes were high in the first book. This time around there’s three different armies, one of which is made up of berserker giants , plague, starvation, a shortage of atium (which is super, super bad) and the end of the world. 

Do y’all remember the mists from the last book? Yes? Well they’re semi sentient now and they’ve started killing people! Woops.

I actually liked Elend this time around yay!: He certainly wasn’t my favorite in the first book. In fact I was pretty annoyed that Vin fell in love with him at all. (wow I didn’t like the main ship, what a novelty) But in this book, he had a purpose! I don’t know what exactly caused me to warm up to him but I suppose I’ll go with his sudden responsibility. Nothing like millions of lives on your shoulders to make you grow up.

Vin is still fabulous: it’s hard to get a protagonist who’s right in that sweet spot. You know not completely nonredeemable but not all sunshine and roses. 

Sure, there were a few places where she swung one way or another but Sanderson did a pretty good job of keeping her in the non-annoying area.

Dislikes:

There was a lot of talking: so much. These books are huge guys! I’m so glad I didn’t listen to them on audio because I’m pretty sure these conversation would go on for thirty or thirty-five  minutes at a time. Even reading it I got a bit bored.

For a book with three armies attacking, starvation knocking on the doors and a horde of other ways to die there is a lot of drama with Vin And Elend: I get it. They’re both young, unsure, and not actually used to being loved which is one part adorable and one part obnoxious.

Conclusion:

I love these books so much despite all that. They’re unique and interesting but still very fantasy-esque so I don’t feel completely bogged down and depressed by the dystopian flare. I need to get my hands on the third one! And, all the rest. There’s a lot of these books.