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A review by timgarris
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
3.0
Before I go anywhere else with this review, I need to address Zane.
God. Even his name sounds like he should be working the register at Hot Topic. I hated this character and everything about him. He's annoying. Whiny. Self-involved. Boring. A veritable collection of poor character cliches. And, most unforgivable of all, he's completely unnecessary to the story. His only purpose is to serve as a foil for issues that Vin could just as easily have worked through herself. I felt like the story didn't really start to go anywhere until after he was out of it. Unfortunately, even then it never really found its pace.
This is really a story about nothing. There's a lot of political tension that carries on at a snails pace throughout the whole novel, before finally coming to a rapid conclusion in the last hundred pages or so. Meanwhile, Vin and Elend have drama and then eventually make up, even though he was oblivious to her feelings and she was kind of a bitch. Then there's a subplot about the Well of Ascension that doesn't become important until the very end. For most of the book, there's no real -point- to it all. It just putters around in circles, doling out character development now and then. Ironically the structure of it reminded me of nothing so much as the latter Wheel of Time books, which makes me think that Sanderson's volumes should fit right in with that series.
Still, at least the development is interesting. We learn a lot more in this book about some of the supporting cast, as well as the Mistborn world itself. It was enough to keep me going, because I really do like the universe that Sanderson has established. But the third novel had better have a plot I can sink my teeth into.
God. Even his name sounds like he should be working the register at Hot Topic. I hated this character and everything about him. He's annoying. Whiny. Self-involved. Boring. A veritable collection of poor character cliches. And, most unforgivable of all, he's completely unnecessary to the story. His only purpose is to serve as a foil for issues that Vin could just as easily have worked through herself. I felt like the story didn't really start to go anywhere until after he was out of it. Unfortunately, even then it never really found its pace.
This is really a story about nothing. There's a lot of political tension that carries on at a snails pace throughout the whole novel, before finally coming to a rapid conclusion in the last hundred pages or so. Meanwhile, Vin and Elend have drama and then eventually make up, even though he was oblivious to her feelings and she was kind of a bitch. Then there's a subplot about the Well of Ascension that doesn't become important until the very end. For most of the book, there's no real -point- to it all. It just putters around in circles, doling out character development now and then. Ironically the structure of it reminded me of nothing so much as the latter Wheel of Time books, which makes me think that Sanderson's volumes should fit right in with that series.
Still, at least the development is interesting. We learn a lot more in this book about some of the supporting cast, as well as the Mistborn world itself. It was enough to keep me going, because I really do like the universe that Sanderson has established. But the third novel had better have a plot I can sink my teeth into.