The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) – Brandon Sanderson (2007)
(4 / 5)
Well, that was another LONG audio book! But I got through to the other side! I can’t say that I was overwhelmed with excitement for this one. The last part was pretty epic, but overall it moved quite slowly. However what it lacked being overly long it made up for with a clever and engaging storyline. Still a solid 4
Vin and Eland are back ! Eland is trying to run a kingdom and Vin is trying to make her powers even stronger and has a new metal to play with. Meanwhile there are not one, not two, but three armies taking stance outside the city gates, waiting to take over! And in comes Zane, another mistborn, does he have the capacity to defeat Vin? Or win her heart over Eland? And what is this Well of Ascension about anyway?
In my personal opinion, there is something that should NEVER be overdone in a high fantasy novel. What am I speaking of? ANGST! I’m talking about teenage puppy dog angst! Vin and Eland, man! They made me CRINGE! “I’m not good enough for him”, “I’m not good enough for her”. My goodness I just wanted to smack their heads together! If it was just once or twice I wouldn’t have minded so much but at times it felt like chapters of them pining over something or another. AAAAARGGGG!!!!! I get that they are young with hormones but for goodness sake I don’t want all that crap in a high fantasy novel!
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, lets discuss the positives. I really enjoyed the politics in this one. It was cleverly written, and actually a lot of fun to read. There was more politics than there was action, and that was ok with me because it was entertaining! What I didn’t like was politics amongst the teenage angst! How can you run a country if you can’t even figure out your girlfriend Eland?!!! Darn sorry, back to the angst again!
Zane, I LOVE Zane. I want Zane to be in every book I read. I couldn’t get enough of him. He is interesting and creepy and crazy and I thought he is the best character out of the whole series so far!
I also loved all the twists and turns, there was a big one I didn’t see coming and I love being surprised!
Even though there wasn’t much action, the action that was there was pretty good. There were a few really cool scenes with Vin, the ones without the angst…
There is an introduction of some new memorable characters, and a couple of side stories to keep things interesting.
The audio version again was narrated by Michael Kramer. He is amazing narrating this series! I love his characterisations and there is something very cool about his voice. I am so glad he is also narrating the next one. Perfect voice for high fantasy. It made the 27 hours not quite so long.
This still isn’t the longest audio book I have ever listened to. That award goes to The Wise Man’s Fear which was a whopping 42 hours long! It had angst in that too come to think of it.
OK I am done now. The next one is on my phone ready to go. Man, I really hope it doesn’t have more teenage angst!!!
Would I recommend The Well of Ascension?
Absolutely! You will have to read The Final Empire first, or you will be totally lost. An amazing fantasy series so far! I am looking forward to the next one!
I purchased The Well of Ascension at my own expense at audible.com
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