Tag Archives: Mistborn series

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Well of Ascension (The Mistborn Saga 2) by Brandon Sanderson

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Stars: 5 out of 5

This book is a big step up from the first book in the series, at least in my opinion. The story is top notch, the stakes are higher than ever, and there is substantial character development. In short, everything I like in my books. 

We had left Vin and Kelsier’s old crew in charge of the city of Luthadel, the capital of the Final Empire, right after Vin killed the Lord Ruler, thus ending over a thousand years of tyranny. It was a happy ending, of sorts, with the big bad deposited, and our heroes triumphant… minus Kelsier that is, and yes, I’m still salty about that one.

In this book, we deal with the aftermath. What happens after the revolution? After the dead are buried, the victory is celebrated, and people need to decided how to keep on living. There is a city to run, mouths to feed, order to be maintained… all of that while the rest of the Final Empire dissolves into bloody wars as nobles everywhere fight for power and a chance to declare themselves king of a small domain. Which means less people to work the fields and harvest food. And winter is coming. Now, there are three armies at the gates of Luthadel, the Assembly inside the city doesn’t accept Elend’s authority… oh, and the mists linger longer and longer after sunrise, and they started killing people.

I loved that the author put all of his characters through the wringer in this book. Vin, Elend, Sazed, and everyone else had some hard decisions to make, that came with great losses and responsibilities, and, yes, guilt they had to live with afterwards.

And because of that character growth, the relationship between Vin and Elend feels a lot more grounded. It’s not teenage inta-love anymore. They are allies, they trust each other, they are one another’s port in a storm and a strong shoulder to rely on when things get tough. This realization comes a bit later in the book for Vin, because she was still operating under the impression that she had to protect poor weak Elend, being a Mistborn and all. I love that she comes to realize that there are different kinds of strengths, and not having Allomantic powers doesn’t make a person weak or useless. I was on board and fully invested in their relationship in this book while it was mostly eye-rolling in the first one.

Sazed also had some major obstacles to overcome in this book, and I’m not sure where this left him. Damaged, certainly. Disillusioned, most definitely. Heartbroken. I think it was a hard realization for someone who spent his life preserving lore and memories, to discover that none of the religions he remembers could help him at the moment he needed it the most. Or that the greatest prophecy of his people, the one that brought about the Final Empire, was a lie. Something perverted by a greater evil.

I also loved how the stakes kept getting higher and higher in this book. It starts with a besieged city, which is already a desperate situation. But it ends with a much bigger catastrophe and even the annihilation of a whole caste of people, if Terris has truly been sacked by the Steel Inquisitors.

Our heroes fought against a tyrant, but in doing so, they brought something much worse into the world. The question is, what are they going to do about it now? I can’t wait to start book three and find out.

PS: This book had been languishing on my TBR list since 2014. I’m glad I finally got a chance to read it.

books, epic fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

The Final Empire (Mistborn 1) by Brandon Sanderson

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

If you can give one thing to Brandon Sanderson, it’s that he has a knack for creating unique and complex magical systems. Allomancy is a delight to read about and you can see that a lot of thought went into figuring out how this system would work and what its rules and limitations are. I love a well-thought out world where the author abides by the rules they created. It makes the world feel more real. Sure, it’s not our world, but something like that could exist somewhere.

I also like a good heist story, and what is bigger than organizing a heist to rob the supreme ruler of the Final Empire? I love the preparations and the unfolding of plans and contingencies when the original plans inevitably fail. I even liked the couple twist we had towards the end. 

So why did I give this book 3.5 stars then if I liked so many things? 

Well, a good world and plot are important for my enjoyment of a book, but I am also very character-driven. I need good characters to follow to fully enjoy a book. Unfortunately, Mr. Sanderson wasn’t very good at creating memorable characters, at least in his earlier books. No, actually, let me rephrase that, because it’s not entirely true. He wasn’t very good at creating memorable protagonists. 

Again, this is just a question of personal preference, but I really didn’t like Vin. She read a bit too much like a YA heroine for me: ball of insecurities that turns out to be a special snowflake, instalove, knows everything better than people who have years more experience than she does, etc. I mean some of the stuff she pulled with the nobility should have gotten her severely reprimanded by her crewmates at the very least. Instead they just shrug and give her a pat on the head. 

In fact, Vin’s arc was the most boring part of this book. I didn’t care about the balls, the gowns, and her budding love for the wonderful nobleman’s son. Especially since his characterization is rather weak. I honestly don’t think that putting a young boy with book knowledge and no experience in charge of reconstructing an entire empire is rather foolish.

The characters I liked were Kelsier and his gang of thieves with a heart of gold. They were “real”. They were interesting. There was criminally too little of them in the book. If we had cut out the balls and winy Vin and added more about Kelsier’s planning and plotting, it would have made a much better book, in my opinion. Then again, I don’t read YA, so any YA tropes make me burst in hives. 

As it stands though, this book made me interested in the world and eager to read the next installment to find out the answers to some of the questions that were left untold – what was the Deepness? Where do the mists come from? Why is the sun red instead of yellow now and why is ash falling from the sky? What really happened at the Well of Ascension one thousand years ago?

I want to learn about that, even if that means I will have to follow Vin once again. Let’s just hope the events at the end of this book made her more mature.