The Well of Ascension

"Description contains spoilers for previous book in the series"

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.

Genre - Epic Fantasy

578 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2007 as part of the Mistborn Saga

Average Goodreads Rating - 4.38

My Verdict

A friend of my describes Brandon Sanderson novels as "crack for fantasy readers". This is only my 2nd Sanderson novel, but I may be addicted to his writing style. This one is the second book in the Mistborn Saga and it took me awhile to get back to it, but boy am I glad I did. The pace of this novel is different than The Final Empire, but Sanderson moves it along and it never stalls. He gave me something I didn't know I wanted in this one -- a story of what happens after you kill "the Dark Lord". I love that thing get worse rather than this being a case of "and they all lived happily ever after." Vin is still a central character and I still like her character, but book 2 forces her to share some of the limelight, and I liked that. Vin develops more depth as a character and I enjoyed getting to know Elend better too. In the first book it was clear who the good guys and the bad guys were. The second book blurs the lines a little and I liked that. After all, none of us are purely good or purely evil, are we? I can't wait to read the third book. I give this novel 5 stars.