The Well Of Ascension

Er. Mah. Gerd.

Beware - I'm about to go all dorky fan-girl on your asses.

I just finished The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Every book that I read by him I like more and more.

(Spoilers!)

This is the sequel to Mistborn. Kelsier's friends have successfully overthrown the Lord Ruler - and they are not trying to rebuild a free and equal society without him. Elend Venture is the King, his lover -and the most powerful mistborn alive - Vin - and their crew.

Their little utopia of Luthadel is about to be attacked, while not one but THREE armies march to their doorstep.  Straff, Cett, and Jastes all want to take over Luthadel, enslave the skaa again, and have all the riches that they are sure are there. What they don't know is that Luthadel is broke. The citizens are starving inside of it, and there is no atium. Elend and his crew decide to bluff, playing the waiting armies against each other to buy time and try to figure out a way out of the stand-off.

Time runs out with Elend is ousted from the thrown - the democracy that he had set up turning against him. The mists are starting to act violently, and the wanna-be kings are sending assassins almost as fast as Vin can kill them. Sazed, the Terrisman who has abandoned his people to help the crew, discovered a document that tells of the first coming of the Hero of the Ages.  Sazed begins to believe that since they over-threw the Lord Ruler, whatever power he was using over the mists has gone away. He thinks that Vin may be the new hero. Vin has been coming to that conclusion on her own.

Vin manages to figure out where the Well of Ascension is - and goes to do as the prophecy foretells. She must take the power and then release it. On the way to the well Elend is injured and is dying. Sazed discovered a missing passage that makes him realize that if Vin succeeds in setting the power of the Well of Ascension free - the Deepness will be set free - not defeated. He tries to reach her in time - but he is too late. Vin sets free the power in spite of Elend's injury, and realizes at once what she has done. She finds the elusive 13th metal - gives it to Elend - and he becomes a mistborn - and is able to heal himself with pewter.

The book ends with Sazed feeling broken and betrayed, and Vin and Elend terrified of what they have set free on the world.

I can't WAIT for the next book.

When I think back about the 600 pages I read - I realize that not much actually happened. It is mostly just a waiting game - with a few mistborn fights thrown in there. The only real action is in the last 80 pages...but I was still riveted. It is a lot of theological and political discussions and posturing - but it is still fascinating.

The first couple books that I read by Sanderson, I really liked, but I could tell that he was just getting started. His characters were either all good or all bad. His magic systems are ah-MAY-zing - and he is obviously endlessly creative - but he didn't have as easy of a time making the people as he did making the story.

The Well of Ascension is his third book - and I really feel like he has hit his stride. He manages to make his characters real and flawed. I just wanted to scream at and shake Elend and Vin until the freaking TALKED to each other. It was frustrating and perfect.

I didn't understand Zane. He was interesting, crazy, damaged and thought that God spoke to him. Then he just died. I was confused and didn't think that he was utilized to his full potential. I know the whole point of him was to make Vin have her epiphany that she did actually want Elend and that life and then to defend that choice...but still. I didn't understand who God was and why it told him he wasn't crazy as he was dying...I felt his story was a little under-done. Same with Straff - Sanderson went through all this trouble to find out that Zane's lover had been getting him hooked to this drug, and he managed to save himself and was dealing with the effects of this weed on his body - and then - boom....he is dead. It seemed like a lot of work to just end. I felt like Sanderson had a few ideas of what could happen with certain people - and he chose later in the book. The endings didn't necessarily match up with the rest of it for me.

My complaints are nothing compared to my compliments. I love the magic - I love that there are still things that we don't understand and we get to learn it with the characters. I adore Sazed. Actually - I am a big fan of the whole Terris society. I love getting to know all of the characters deeper. It is smart, its funny, its deep - its fantastic.

Here is the fan-girl in me. I don't think there is much that Sanderson does wrong. He is young and seeming brilliant. In this series he just continues to build on the magic and the characters - taking us deeper and deeper into their world.  I love the theological aspects of his book - I love that he is a Mormon but writes from an atheist/agnostic point of view. His personal beliefs don't creep in at all. He is SO YOUNG and already has an incredible amount of work to his name - his books are all amazingly different - and then he was chosen to finish Robert Jordan's epic series- Wheel of Time. I haven't read what he did there yet- I am still pretty early in that series- but still - he was like 30 when he was chosen.

I have read other reviews of some of his books - where people are not huge fans. They make valid points and with most authors I would probably agree. However, when I get attached to a writer- I tend to love everything they do and defend them to the end. Like J.K Rowling. I don't care at all that her newest book is supposed to be boring as hell. She gave me Harry Potter- so I love her! Sanderson is about to be added to my little club.  When I read a poor review of his on-line I immediately get indignant. That is how I know I love him. I also checked out his web-site. I never do that.

I'm such a nerd.