The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn series is a heist story of political intrigue and magical, martial-arts action. 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.

...I don't even know what to say.

4.9

Sanderson creates amazing worlds. His inner dialogues and the humanity of the characters is almost unmatched. You can really believe they're real. The uncertainties, decisions, failures, feelings, successes... All of it is believable and compelling.

However, here's the catch with this series. It's a young adult fantasy. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the trilogy. All I knew was that it's an awesome series set in a huge universe of so called Cosmere with a unique magical system. I was intrigued. I believed Sanderson to be one of the greatest fantasy authors of this era. I still believe it, I'm just a bit disappointed.

Luckily, it's not like Hunger Games. The YA aspects are very carefully laid through the book and they more than less don't stand in the way of the real story. But that's probably part of the problem. They don't even feel necessary here!

The Final Empire had only Elend and the love plot was... alright. But here we have annoying love triangle that actually isn't even a triangle. It is stretched throughout half of the book, not all of it, which is good, but I still feel like the story would have been better without it.

The main plot is about a siege of Luthadel. Some may not like it because it's kind of dragging but I enjoyed it. It's not as compelling as the plot of Final Empire but it has its moments. However, some aspects don't feel thought through and seem a bit naive. Maybe I'm being too harsh with it. I don't know. Maybe it was really aimed for younger audience and I, as a more experienced reader, am giving it a hard time.
Nevertheless, I think Sanderson polished his craft and wrote the characters even better than in its prequel and that's why this book gets 4 stars instead of three. The YA aspect could've been way worse than it was.