The Well of Ascension is the second book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy. It’s very much an Empire Strikes Back type middle book. There are still lots of interesting things going on but the conflicts are muddier and the opposition is suffocating (rather than more viscerally scary).
After the good accomplished by the heroes in the first book, everything seems ready to fall apart. The book begins a year after book one, with Elend ruling a shaky kingdom centered on Luthadiel.
If I had to quickly summarize the difference between this book and its predecessor, I’d say this book is like the first, minus the “planning the overthrow of the Last Empire” crime caper style collaboration and adding an extensive “politics and ruling” subplot. This was still a great book and has me eagerly awaiting book 3 (The Hero of Ages).
One of the biggest changes is spoilery, so I’ll put it below the fold.
The first book was very coherent in asking “what would happen if the wrong person saved the world”? This book changes the question altogether– the prophecy is cast in doubt, which builds to a great and disturbing epilogue with Sazed and the steel plate. The new question is less interesting (though still good)– “What happens if evil corrupts prophecy, seeking release?”
In the end, it feels rich and complex… but also diluted. It also implies that the next book will be much more straight forward– with evil loose on the land, I expect a more straight forward good versus evil setup. It’s not going in the direction I thought it was going. Which is good (a good book surprises), but bad in that I’d bought into the cool question and am sad to see it discarded.
Minor annoyance: The metals quick reference chart lacks Aluminum and Duralumin. (The later omission is more understandable, since it’s introduced in this book.)