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A review by sarahdm
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
TL;DR: Holy shit this was slow. And so boring. I listened at 2x speed just so I could finish it. I did not give a shit about any of these plots. But I still really like these characters. I just wish each character had its own book that focused on just them. Cool metal magic and loveable characters can not carry this book alone. 2.5 stars.
The Negatives
1) Politics/The Armies Clashing:
Most of the time this was so boring. I just did not care enough to be invested in the out come of who is gonna rule what. I get that the politics are here so we can reach this 3 way army show down at the climax but it took so long to get there that I just didn't care. We got to the fighting, what, around part 4 or 5, about 60-80% way through the book. And then the battle was all over so quickly.
2) Romance
Sanderson does not know how to write romance or relationships. Stick to the cool metal magic fight scenes my guy.
Vin and Elond's relationship suffers from "Everything would be fixed if they just talked to each other" types of tropes. There is also an attempted (?) love triangle with a new character. Its so completely out of left field, I didn't even know it was happening until someone was confessing their feelings. I laughed out loud. It was really bad.
There is also the relationship between Allrianne and Breeze. She is 18 and yes it is states explicitly that that is her age in the book. He is twice her age and has "been in the business for over 30 years." Dude is anywhere between the ages of 36-40+. Breeze is ashamed of their age gap and is constantly resisting his lustful thought about her. But don't worry reader you get to read all about Allrianne's shapely 18 year old body and how hot Breeze thinks she is (gag me). Oh but you know what, lets flip this trope on its head and make HER the aggressor. Cause guess what? She's been manipulating his emotions with her own metal magic super powers. So its NOT a toxic age gap with a power imbalance and dating a barely-adult girl is totally normally cries the fandom who will completely justify this relationship and call you prejudice for even bringing it up (looking at you r/mistborn). Listen, I like these two characters. Allrianne isn't put into these weird female boxes like Vin is. Breeze's powers and his emotional introspectives are super interesting. A relationship between two emotional manipulative magic people would be interesting, if she was like idk 5 years older. There is absolutely no reason Sanderson couldn't age up Allrianne. He has chosen to justify this type of relationship and it honestly fucking disgusting.
Sazed and Tindwyl are fine actually. I'm not gonna dive into gender dysphoria that Sazed experiences cause the book only has the passing comment on it and this relationship isn't really explored a lot. Go read She Who Became the Sun to read an actually interesting take on a eunuch character.
3) The Mystery of wtf The Well of Ascension is
Reading about character researching this wasn't interesting. And the thrown together climax at the end was so left of field that I couldn't be bothered. God I am so glad I can finally stop reading this book.
The Positives
I love all these characters. Vin, Elend, Dockson, Ham, Breeze, Allrianne, Clubs, Spook, Sazed, Tindwyl, OreSeur, TenSoon, hell, even fucking Jastes. I love all of these bastards. And Zane. ZANE. What a great fucking character. WASTED ON THIS BOOK WTF. Also the Kandra characters and plot lines are fucking great. I got to the plot twist for this part and I was like "finally some good fucking soup." Honestly all of these characters could have their own stand alone book that just focus on them and not this whole politics killing god none sense and I would EAT THAT UP. Give me a book just about Elond and Vin navigating Elond's politics and Vin trying to find her place in his world. Give me Dockson struggling to come to terms that his revolution isn't going as planned and trying to be the new leader of the team. Give me a whole book about Breeze and Allrianne struggling to figure out wtf is up with their relationship since they are both emotional magic people. Give me a whole book on Zane being hateful towards Elond and him trying to take everything he ever wanted from him. Give me a whole book on Sazed and Tindwyl trying to understand history and themselves and their people. The sad part is that we just get little snippets of these stories, but unfortunately, characters are not the center piece for Sanderson. Give me the CHARACTER driven novels these amazing people deserve, not the PLOT driven disaster that was Well of Ascension.
Okay I am done. this was so boring. I hated it. See you in book three I fucking guess.
The Negatives
1) Politics/The Armies Clashing:
Most of the time this was so boring. I just did not care enough to be invested in the out come of who is gonna rule what. I get that the politics are here so we can reach this 3 way army show down at the climax but it took so long to get there that I just didn't care. We got to the fighting, what, around part 4 or 5, about 60-80% way through the book. And then the battle was all over so quickly.
2) Romance
Sanderson does not know how to write romance or relationships. Stick to the cool metal magic fight scenes my guy.
Vin and Elond's relationship suffers from "Everything would be fixed if they just talked to each other" types of tropes. There is also an attempted (?) love triangle with a new character. Its so completely out of left field, I didn't even know it was happening until someone was confessing their feelings. I laughed out loud. It was really bad.
There is also the relationship between Allrianne and Breeze. She is 18 and yes it is states explicitly that that is her age in the book. He is twice her age and has "been in the business for over 30 years." Dude is anywhere between the ages of 36-40+. Breeze is ashamed of their age gap and is constantly resisting his lustful thought about her. But don't worry reader you get to read all about Allrianne's shapely 18 year old body and how hot Breeze thinks she is (gag me). Oh but you know what, lets flip this trope on its head and make HER the aggressor. Cause guess what? She's been manipulating his emotions with her own metal magic super powers. So its NOT a toxic age gap with a power imbalance and dating a barely-adult girl is totally normally cries the fandom who will completely justify this relationship and call you prejudice for even bringing it up (looking at you r/mistborn). Listen, I like these two characters. Allrianne isn't put into these weird female boxes like Vin is. Breeze's powers and his emotional introspectives are super interesting. A relationship between two emotional manipulative magic people would be interesting, if she was like idk 5 years older. There is absolutely no reason Sanderson couldn't age up Allrianne. He has chosen to justify this type of relationship and it honestly fucking disgusting.
Sazed and Tindwyl are fine actually. I'm not gonna dive into gender dysphoria that Sazed experiences cause the book only has the passing comment on it and this relationship isn't really explored a lot. Go read She Who Became the Sun to read an actually interesting take on a eunuch character.
3) The Mystery of wtf The Well of Ascension is
Reading about character researching this wasn't interesting. And the thrown together climax at the end was so left of field that I couldn't be bothered. God I am so glad I can finally stop reading this book.
The Positives
I love all these characters. Vin, Elend, Dockson, Ham, Breeze, Allrianne, Clubs, Spook, Sazed, Tindwyl, OreSeur, TenSoon, hell, even fucking Jastes. I love all of these bastards. And Zane. ZANE. What a great fucking character. WASTED ON THIS BOOK WTF. Also the Kandra characters and plot lines are fucking great. I got to the plot twist for this part and I was like "finally some good fucking soup." Honestly all of these characters could have their own stand alone book that just focus on them and not this whole politics killing god none sense and I would EAT THAT UP. Give me a book just about Elond and Vin navigating Elond's politics and Vin trying to find her place in his world. Give me Dockson struggling to come to terms that his revolution isn't going as planned and trying to be the new leader of the team. Give me a whole book about Breeze and Allrianne struggling to figure out wtf is up with their relationship since they are both emotional magic people. Give me a whole book on Zane being hateful towards Elond and him trying to take everything he ever wanted from him. Give me a whole book on Sazed and Tindwyl trying to understand history and themselves and their people. The sad part is that we just get little snippets of these stories, but unfortunately, characters are not the center piece for Sanderson. Give me the CHARACTER driven novels these amazing people deserve, not the PLOT driven disaster that was Well of Ascension.
Okay I am done. this was so boring. I hated it. See you in book three I fucking guess.