The Well of Ascension

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.

Just when I thought I understood almost everything, Sanderson surprised me with more revelations. I guess Kelsier was right, there is always another secret. I liked this book even more than The Final Empire, and that's saying much because I loved that book. If I had some concerns about the romance in the first book, I don't have any now. Sanderson portrayed a realistic relationship with flaws and problems. I really liked that. Besides, the story was amazing and it keep me at the edge of my seat. There were some dramatic moments, and I tried really hard to behave like a normal person and not to throw the book out the window. So, yeah, well done, Sanderson!

Well, I got round to reading the second book of the series and again this is utterly fabulous. I have to say when it comes to Brandon Sanderson - Where have I been? How on earth did I miss these books. I know I fell out with fantasy books for quite a while, I kind of got sick of the same thing (bearing in mind I have been reading fantasy since I was about fourteen and I am now well past this age). Anyways, about the book. One of the things that impresses me about these book is the fact that they are character driven rather than all out fantasy action. Obviously, Vin's character is expanded on as is Elands, but I have to say that the growing relationship between Vin and Oresur is by far the most interesting and it also gives an insight into Kandra culture which I found intriguing.

A solid second book for a trilogy - certainly no sophomore slump. Though I tend to not be a fan of political/war-type drama, the strategical bantering of Elend and the crew doesn't inhibit the fast-pace of the book and is easy to follow. Sanderson is incredibly tactful not only in the way he meticulously unfolds the plot in such a way that you just can't stop reading, but also in the ways of subtle characterization - in watching the characters change is a terrifyingly unstable, Post-Lord Ruler world, allows insight into the deeper philosophical questions that face us all.

O livro demora muito para entregar a história cativante que eu não conseguia largar em O Império Final. Normalmente, eu não daria 5 estrelas para um livro que se demora demais pq pra mim ele tem que me prender desde o começo, mas Brandon Sanderson é mestre em entregar revelações e desastres que parecem um soco na sua cara, e não posso ignorar o quão eufórica eu fiquei lendo esse livro nos 60%. As últimas 200 páginas nem se fala - o homem não sossega nem no epílogo.

Me sinto muito burra pq nos estudos do Sazed estava na cara que havia algo de errado com a tal lenda do Herói das Eras mas eu não cogitei a possibilidade de eles estarem sendo enganados para libertar aquilo que fica preso nas profundezas. Parabéns, Brandinho.

A pior parte do livro foi o protagonismo do Elend. Eu acho ele um bom personagem pra gente ver de vez em quando na história mas no momento que ele se tornou o centro dela junto com Vin eu fiquei sem paciência. Como já dizem os personagens do livro ele é um idealista, um homem bom, mas pqp que homem mole e burro! Toda vez que tinha que acompanhar o lado dele eu queria passar aquelas partes logo. Felizmente, com a ajuda de Tindwyl ele melhora um pouco nesses aspectos. Ainda assim... Espero que ele ter virado um Nascido das Brumas melhore ainda mais o desenvolvimento dele para o livro 3, pois acompanhá-lo nesse aqui foi um porre.

Meus personagens favoritos nesse livro foram Vin, Sazed e OreSeur (que na verdade era o TenSoon). Espero ver muito mais dos dois últimos no próximo livro também.

You did it again Sanderson. As the first book of this serie, I don't know where we are going with this serie. I don't really care because I am just enjoying every minute of the read. Some people could consider it slow paced but the universe building and character psychology is so good that you just want to spend more time in this universe.

Damn... that was definitely not what I expected. 
Every time a bit of information about the so-called Hero of Ages was revealed, the curiosity was killing me. And then, when the real situation unraveled, it left me speechless. That twist!! That was so clever!
 The things about Terris religion, Hero of Ages and the mist spirit...👏🏻 

Rating: 8.7/10

Not quite as enthralling as the first Mistborn book but still a solid outing for Sanderson. A bit too political for me at times and lost the magic of Allomancy in the weeds of an almost endless siege on Luthadel. The best parts were the slow world building and finding out more about the lore of this universe, such as learning more about kandra and what actually happened to Alendi and Rashek. The Vin and Elend relationship was more of a slog, with the constant “he/she deserves better than me” refrain. I suppose there had to be some of that but the constant repetition grated me a little bit. This book still earning four stars after these flaws really shows how great of a writer Sanderson is and how he can still create extremely compelling narrative.

Love, love, love this series. I picked them up initially after hearing that Sanderson was to finish the Wheel of Time saga, to find out what his writing style is like. In this book, #2, we return to our characters after they have overthrown the dictator who ruled their land... only to find out that some of the oppressive laws he had instituted had been for a reason, he had been keeping their people safe from an even greater threat. Which is now their problem.

Love the way Sanderson takes a traditional fantasy theme - overthrowing the bad leader and instituting a better one - on its head by showing that the bad leader wasn't as bad as he appeared to be, and that the new leaders are now up a creek with no paddle trying to learn what they need to know and FAST to protect their people from the larger threat.

Also fascinated by Sanderson's ability to play with magical systems... in Elantris, he's got a system based on geography and sigils. In Warbreaker, he's got a system completely based on colors. And in the Mistborn series, it's metals. Very inventive, and I look forward to reading more from Sanderson.

DNF 13%

Update 09/11/2016

Hell. It's so hard to put my feeling about this book into words. I just can't. So much happened. So much death and heartbreak. And so much humour and happiness. Too much emotions. And yet never enough of them.

I'm so glad that I didn't give up on that series. I wouldn't want to miss out this story.

Brandon Sanderson managed to hook me once again. The Well of Ascension has the perk of being the second book in a trilogy. Which means that we're already introduced to the characters, the state of the world, the magic system and everything else we need to know. So instead of using the pages to introduce us to those things, the 2nd book can jump straight into the action. And Sanderson doesn't use this perk very well.

Yes, this one has way more action than the 1st and there is even a huge battle for the city, but it could've been so much more. Sanderson likes to fill pages after pages with conversations, when you just want action.

I also thought that there was way too much hand holding. Often there are hints about interesting things lore wise, and just as you finished to piece together the pieces and getting that nice AHA! effect, Sanderson destroys it by explaining every little detail. I think he fears we will miss something, or thinks we cannot form thoughts on our own.

But all this is bitching on a high standard, because despite of those small things that bugged me, The Well of Ascension -just like The Final Empire- is one hell of a ride. Most of the long conversations are adding depth to the characters, the magic system is still fresh and fast paced and the world with it's lore is full of interesting cultures and species.

The ending sure is twisted and open enough, to have peaked my interest to read the 3rd and last installment. But I guess I would have done it either way, just to see where those likable characters end up.

Not as good as the first, which I thought was excellent. A lot of the book was about the characters worthiness, a bit to much of it. There was a ton of back and forth, am I good enough or not. Past that it was, again, a great read and good story. If you liked the first there is no reason not to continue the series and I myself am off to book 3. Enjoy!

Demoramos para terminar esse volume, não é mesmo?
Embora ainda ache essa série excelente... achei um pouco maçante esse segundo volume. Varias mortes sofridas, varias atitudes estranhas, tudo para Vin torrar as paciências, Elend quase morrer, Sazed sofre e este livro ser um belo degrau para o terceiro volume.

Obs: esse ano está o ano das opniões impopulares, não?

Comme le premier, ce deuxième roman de la série joue avec les stéréotypes de la fantasy pour nous balader, nous enfumer, et nous surprendre à la fin. C'est parfois long, mais c'est très bien fait. Un mot m'est venu en tête en lisant les dernières pages : brillant !

Vivement la suite, avec le troisième tome que je vais entamer dès aujourd'hui.

OK, this probably won't be much of a review because I pretty much just skimmed through 500 pages of this book.

I started skimming through because by about page 200, or around Chapter 20 or so, I was getting really bored. I'm usually extremely spoiler-sensitive, but this time I felt like I needed to know something to spur me on. So I just kinda skipped through huge chunks of the book to intentionally spoil myself about something to motivate myself to continue.

But nope, basically nothing new happened. So I just skimmed all the way to the end, and precious little has changed from the beginning.

I did, however, appreciate the characterisation of Vin. I don't think she had a ton of character growth in this instalment, but I like that she's both strong and vulnerable at the same time. I liked Sazed and his plotline. I was deliciously creeped out and on edge with Marsh and really wanted to know where his allegiances are going to lie.

But I think the problem with this book is that we get hooked by a lot of questions posed in the beginning, but nothing happens to resolve almost any of those big questions by the end. Such as who was the apparent spy or kandra amongst Vin's friends? Because I skimmed, I have no idea whether this was resolved or not but it seems that all the old hands are still well and alive and apparently not a spy - Ham, Dockson, Breeze, Clubs, Spook. So I can only assume that it was either not answered explicitly, or that it was resolved without taking any casualties from the band. What happened to Marsh? We don't know. He tried to kill Sazed but then got hammered (but non-fatally) over the head by Ham, and basically nothing happens. It seems like we're asked these big questions, we just uncover like 30% of the answer and the book ends that way.

Thankfully, I'm also reading Way of Kings at the same time by Sanderson. Although it's a 1000-page instalment of another series, there's something happening in every chapter. Not so much this one. I'm starting to think I just maybe gravitate towards Stormlight more than Mistborn.