The Well of Ascension: Book Two of Mistborn Author: Brandon Sanderson | Language: English | ISBN:
B000UZQI0Q | Format: PDF
The Well of Ascension: Book Two of Mistborn Description
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler – the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years – has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.
As Kelsier’s protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.
Stopping assassins may keep Vin’s Mistborn skills sharp, but it’s the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn’t run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier’s crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won’t get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler’s hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.
As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
- File Size: 2000 KB
- Print Length: 796 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (April 1, 2010)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000UZQI0Q
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,833 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension is the sequel to Mistborn, a very strong beginning to a new trilogy. Bridge books are always dicey things--many fall into a sophomore slump, meandering along trying to get from A to C with the required stop at B (because everyone knows a fantasy story can't be told in only two books, let alone one). Luckily for fans of the first book, Ascension doesn't fall into that trap.
For those who haven't read the first book, what are you doing reading a review of the second? Anyway, stop reading now, because it's nearly impossible to discuss Ascension without reference to prior events in book one. Spoiler warning. If you know Mistborn well, skip the next paragraph.
Mistborn is set in an ashen, mist-filled world whose myths tell of a time when plants were green. The world is dominated by the Lord Ruler, a seemingly immortal tyrant who had ruled for centuries, ruthlessly oppressing the majority population of Skaa, as well as the much smaller class of nobles. The Lord Ruler is also the hero who centuries ago defeated the mysterious "Deepness", saving the world from complete destruction. The magic system in Mistborn is "allomancy". Allomancers (a small percentage of the population) can "burn" certain metals to give them superhuman abilities, such as super-strength, super-senses, etc. There are only 10 such metals known and most allomancers can burn only one. True mistborns, however, can burn all. One powerful and charismatic mistborn, Kelsier, leads a group of thieves in their greatest caper--taking down the Lord Ruler. Integral to his plans is a street urchin girl named Vin, a more powerful mistborn than Kelsier. By the end (spoiler), the Lord Ruler is killed, as is Kelsier, and the Skaa are freed.
With this book, THE WELL OF ASCENSION (WOA), Brandon Sanderson continues his MISTBORN trilogy. Unfortunately, unlike MISTBORN, this novel came across as more of a chore than a cheer. Here's my take on it . . .
STARTING FROM SCRATCH (FOR THE MOST PART)
Let's face it, the previous book, MISTBORN, could have nearly been a stand-alone novel. Towards its conclusion most of the plot threads had been tied up--the Lord Ruler defeated, the skaa freed, and Vin/Valette gets to hang out with Elend. About the only thing that didn't get resolved in that novel was this: What about the Mist that is still floating around the world?
As a result, WOA starts off with a situation that, while plausible, comes across as forced simply "for sequel's sake". WOA starts off with the now-free city of Luthadel facing an army outside its gates. This army is led by a nobleman (Straff Venture) that chose to leave the city in the previous book. More armies come to lay siege to Luthadel and all are led by characters who previously had small roles.
THE SADLY SLOW SEQUEL
You would think that a newly-freed city being threatened by three armies would make for quite the page-turner.
Not quite.
Sadly, a lot of time in WOA is spent just waiting for something to happen. For the vast majority of the novel, the armies do nothing but sit there, Elend Venture learns how to be a king and Vin grows a little distrustful and kills off numerous nameless assassins (which didn't pose that much of a threat anyway. To paraphrase Austin Power's father: "You don't even have a name tag! You've got no chance!")
At the beginning of the book there are a couple of maps. One of Luthadel and one of The Final Empire.
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