A review by diazona
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In the author's note at the beginning, Brandon Sanderson said that everybody writes about overthrowing an evil ruler, but nobody (in fantasy) writes about what to do after you've done so. I'm glad he did. There's a lot going on in the book, but everything else takes a back seat to the political maneuvering that Elend and Kelsier's crew have to engage in to keep multiple invading armies from squashing their newly liberated kingdom, and personally I find that very interesting to read about, when in story form. The book does a great job of conveying the combination of worry and a thin sliver of hope that the characters must be feeling, and it keeps the plot going in a fairly believable way. Plus, there are secondary storylines involving certain characters' relationships and histories, and the mystery of whether a greater evil is making its presence known, and there's just enough of that woven in to keep the political material from getting boring. All in all, it is a masterfully crafted story and delivers everything I've come to want from an epic fantasy series.

There are a few things that make the book a bit rough around the edges, though. Like, as of the end of the last book Vin and Elend both felt unworthy of the other, and although they do make some progress on that in this book, it seems kind of forced. They milk entirely too many emotional moments out of it over the course of the book. And while there's a good plot twist at the end (there are many twists, but I'm talking about the final Big Twist), it comes out of nowhere. I would have liked more hints to be dropped along the way - just enough to help readers feel like they're solving the mystery along with the characters. The way it was written, it's like, "oops, everything you thought is wrong, surprise" and we (both readers and characters) really had no chance. But honestly, that just makes me wind up want to read the next book more.

I'm giving this one 5 stars despite my minor complaints because, in the end, I'm definitely getting enough enjoyment out of this series as a whole that at least one of the books deserves to be on my 5-star list.
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