Fantasy sequel masterpiece by Brandon Sanderson about a world wracked by echoes of a revolution, building a state and protecting itself against enemy armies, that are trying to take over and use the chaos for themselves.
Second book from the Mistborn trilogy, The Well of Ascension, is a great example of a lost city after a revolution hits and the Lord Ruler as the dictator is killed. Many do not know what to do, who they are, many want to usurp power and establish their own dictatorship.
The story begins one year after the death of Lord Ruler, Elend is King and Vin is becoming a leader she never wanted to be. Honestly, I can quite understand her fear and unwillingness of this role. From a quiet, intentionally never noticed girl to be set in the footsteps of a hero is not something, that was mentioned in her job application. We are introduced to some new characters, but the most interesting and important one is Zane. A powerful and mental unstable guy is a combination and starter for a great plot twist. From his first appearance in the book, it was clear, that he is shady. I could not understand, why would Vin believe and trust him at such level without any further knowledge. He was an enemy, why would she start to believe his narratives towards her friends? I can understand that the weight of the role and responsibility is strongly influencing her, but literally to trust the enemy´s assassin? I thought about two options. The author wanted to show us young and childish naivety, or he wanted to point out the strong influence of a similarity between two or multiple people and their power of changing ones decisions.
Back to the world. I appreciate the long lost forgotten or suppressed history, which changed the world to a completely different place. It is interesting to see how small pieces are coming together and are preparing us for the final explanation. Also, the small part from the memories at the beginning of every chapter are devouring us more into the story. It is obvious that the author invested many thoughts and time into building this world. It is a heavy, complicated, detailed and plot connected fantasy with many characters. This book is a fantastic example of what´s happening after a revolution. Chaos, uncertainty and fight for the crown and power. Several countries in real world went through it. But the biggest hint we meet with is the tendency of people to choose the known evil and dictatorship, rather than the unknown future. This book became a political one, it was entertaining, but for some readers it can be way too long without any drama. I see it as a preparation for the final chapter of this series.
Even if we lost some important characters in the final battle, the show must go on. We observed major character development mainly by Elend and Vin. The idealistic, good-hearted Elend became King but found himself fighting with the old mindset of the state. He changed from a boy to a ruler, who understands the need of survival and that it is not always going the good way, but you have to spill blood to achieve freedom for others. He is becoming an interesting character. His father on the other hand reminded me of Tywin Lannister. A bad person, and about his taste for young girls we will not continue to talk about, but a mastermind in war and a tactical, experienced player of political manipulations and blackmailing. Not saying he did not deserve the things done to him, but if he would build a better relationship with Elend and Zane, they would be unstoppable together. As Tywin with Tyrion would be, given the circumstances. Elend is not the only character going through a life crisis. Vin was fighting some internal demons as well, about her love and loyalty, the thought of the revolution, the understanding of Allomancy and Allomancers, or finding herself in this complicated world. In multiple cases she has shown the power of her intelligence and intuition, which saved her and the city, but also freed something way to dangerous. No one is infallible, not her, not Elend, not even Sazed. It would be not fair to not mention him and OreSeur. Those two characters are coming on my favourite list. Glad to see, that Sazed used his intelligence to figure out the influence of the Well and all the events in history. Also, the building relationship between Vin and OreSeur was good to read. Hope to see them both in the next book.
Sad to say, that one of my favourite characters from the first book, Marsch, had not that much plot time, but based on the ending he will have a huge role in the last book. Finger crossed for that. The Inquisitors are in my opinion very interesting characters, not good ones, but important for the story development. One of the main but not noticed characters was the Well. As it was mentioned, the Inquisitors were created by the Lord Ruler, based on that, they had to be created by the power of the Well itself. That´s why the Inquisitors are destroying Terris, why Marsch could not remember the reason for the attack on Sazed, why everything that is not written on steel cannot be trusted. The power of the Well, or what´s kept and imprisoned there, is unimaginable for us right now. Freed power sounds like a beautiful catastrophe, which kills everyone at the end. Lord Ruler is a complicated character, where I don´t know what to think. He did not yield and freed that power, but he also did not behave on any moral merits we, or at least I am, able to understand. What changed his character? Hundreds of years of ultimate power? Did he create new species like the Inquisitors, Koloss and Kandras, a strong and brutal army, to prepare the world for another rise of the Well after thousand years? Did he massacre the Terris Folk to prevent the influence of the Well on their memories, like we see in Sazeds case? In this book goes everything basically down the river. The Ending was fantastic, we see multiple plot twists, problems and complications, which are a great preparation for the following book. It is a very well written masterpiece, which is not an easy read, but it consumes you whole, even if the middle of the book was longer and slower evolving, it is hard to put it down.