Oh… God, I managed to finish this! Finally! I feel like I’ve been reading it for AGES! This was my 4th attempt to read the Well of Ascension and let me tell you it has been quite a rickety ride throughout.
May contain spoilers! Read at your own risk!
I am not a person that generally tries more than thrice a book before giving up on it entirely, but I persisted with Well of Ascension. There are a few reasons for this.
For one, it’s a Sanderson novel and I told myself that I’d read his books, even if I did not like them that much. Second, I felt that “because Kelsier was dead” was not a compelling reason to renounce continuing this series. I had to think of the series without him. Thirdly, there was a whole lot about Alendi and Rashek’s lore that I was really interested about. These were basically the driving motivators for my reading this. These and the fact that I got the Graphic Audio rendition of these books as a whole. At least this trilogy. Dunno about if I can get Wax and Wayne, but I’ll finish this one first.
Believe me, there were many times I just did not want to read Well of Ascension and I acted pretty much like this.
*shrug* Either way, now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to talk about the things that I had issues with and that subsequently made me rate this book so much lower than Final Empire and so many other of Sanderson’s works I’ve read.
1. Pacing it bothered me so much I will even make a separate category for it. Like Markus said Well of Ascension suffers from the infamous Second Book Syndrome i.e the second book of a trilogy is less memorable than the first and/or last. I’ve went more into that in my Siege and Storm review, but basically, I agree with him. While the plot is still present, we see no clear direction for it except the inevitable one: the koloss and the enemy armies attacking Luthadel and Vin finding the Well of Ascension.
2. Because of this lack of direction the plot twists did not feel rewarding either. I actually thought that Elend would Snap into his Allomantic powers, rather than being created like Rashek created the first Allomancers all those centuries ago. Why did the Well of Ascension feel so much smaller, so much diminished in scope than I had actually imagined it? Why was the only rewarding revelation I had, partaining to Sazed’s side of the story and his research?
3. Political intrigue. I’m not one to judge but I think both Sanderson and Elend are horrible at politics. Sanderson at writing it compellingly and Elend at executing it – he shot himself in the foot at least 3 times with his decisions. I have to agree with some readers that have reviewed this book. If the book were 200 pages shorter and cut all the political fluff this book would have been more compelling.
4. Zane. My firm belief is if we had had LESS of Zane and his “romantic subplot” with Vin, maybe the book wouldn’t have dragged the way it had. Yeah, Vin was conflicted, but seriously Zane tied her brain into a freaking Gordian Knot of emotions and contradictions.
I liked Tindwyl and the idea that Sazed is capable of loving a woman. Was pretty sad that she had to die, but it was inevitable I guess.
Also can I just take the time to talk about the work she did with Elend.
She ruined him. I had a kinship with Elend. We were both insecure wimps, with our noses in books, fleeing from responsibility and making questionable decision just because we felt like it. And Tindwyl came and ruined him with her talk of “looking and acting like a king, not just holding a title” and shit like that. I miss Elend. Now I don’t see him resembling Elril anymore. 😦 I guess it’s a good thing since i don’t have to imagine him in Elend’s place when his head gets chopped off by Marsh – that is a horrible way to die btw.
I really liked the fact that we get some of Breeze’s viewpoint subchapters in here as well 😀 I like him, still don’t consider him middle aged tho 😛 Wait was there closure with Breeze? Does he even get closure? Last time I read about him he was comatose O.o
So that’s how Elend becomes emperor. It’s not him! but Vin who made the other Kings bow to her will. Well that’s understandable considering that she beat up a few hundred koloss, got control over the rest of them and then used them to decimate Straff’s army. Speaking of which, she rammed a GIANT FUCKING SWORD straight into the guy’s face shooting towards him like an arrow.
Let me reiterate. At that point in the novel, Straff Venture was her father-in-law. The irony of his death does not escape me seeing how much time he spend disregarding her, even if she WAS the Mistborn who killed the freaking Lord Ruler 😛
The ending itself was pretty week compared to other Sanderson novels – no grand confrontation like in Final Empire, no epic whirlwind of Awaken items like in Warbreaker, no revival of a FREAKING CITY OF GODS! like in Elantris. I think the Mistborn finales are pretty dumbed down when it comes to epicness… makes me sad 😦
This being said about the pacing and the lack of appropriate epicness, I actually enjoyed the resolution for the Well of Ascension plot thread. I think Sazed going back to the slab from where he got his rubbing and reading it in the epilogue was the best plot twist in the whole novel. Why? Because it had the most build up, the most interesting developments, it provided the reader with the most lore and information and the most compelling character interactions and an actual “GOD! Dammit! It was foreshadowed, why didn’t I see it!” reaction from me.
Maybe it’s my fault, maybe I’ve spoiled myself too much to properly enjoy this series to its fullest. That has not deterred me from finishing it! Hell I’m more eager now to pick up Hero of Ages than I’ve been in weeks, for a book in general. Also… I’m eager because Spook becomes an Ascended Extra :> I like, Spook, can’t you tell?
Speaking of! Oh… poor thing! I know that Elend and Vin are officially married and everything, but I was just so triggered after I found out that they slept together at night while Spook stood watch. He’s a Tineye and I think he could probably hear their struggles. It must be hard for him to know that his former crush it having sex with her newly pronounced husband. I hope these things get addressed in Hero of Ages and are not just left dangling in the air.
I found some really nice fanart of Vin. This has to be my favorite fanart of a scene – it’s the part where Vin arrives back in Luthadel just in time to save Sazed from being obliterated by a koloss, because his metal reserves had run out.
And these, I think, are the depictions of her that fit my image of Vin the best.
I just realized I should add more fanart into my reviews 😀 I like sharing them ^_^
Now, they put themselves in a neat mess right now 😛 I wonder how they’ll get out of it and survive… Though from what I know their chances are really next to null. Does Elend grow a beard in the Hero of Ages o.o I dun wanna think of him as mature D: Welp, unlike this book, I know almost next to nothing about the plot of the Hero of Ages only select plot twists, but really… I really hope that Hero of Ages is overall a better book than Well of Ascension. *fingers crossed*.
Let’s Rate This – 8.3/ 10
Setting and Atmosphere – 9
Pacing – 7
Plot – 8
Main Characters – 9
Secondary Characters – 8
Antagonists – 8
Writing – 9
Enjoyability – 9
This book did not due enough for me to warrant a 5 star rating. I liked the characters but the pacing was slow and the reveals at the end lacked a specific wow factor prevalent in Sanderson’s works. I still like Vin, Elend, Sazed and all the other crew members but I think with Kelsier not around they had not much to do here except for politicking and chatting a lot.
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