The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
*Spoilers Mistborn: the Final Empire*
In this second book of the Mistborn trilogy Kelsier’s crew of thieves and con-men have to figure out how to deal with success after deposing their totalitarian god-king. Now they have to rule in his place without his god-like powers or the stability granted by a thousand years of legitimacy. The empire is gone, fractured overnight into a collection of warring kingdoms and several of the most powerful warlords set out to conquer Luthadel, the capital city where Kelsier’s crew have set up their own attempt at government.
The tight pacing and plan-focused narrative drive of the first novel is replaced by a more reactionary plot as the characters adapt to roles in the fledgling government. The novel suffers some as the characters become less archetypal and more confused in their roles. It works from a plot perspective, and the characters need to be unsure of themselves as they try to adapt from being revolutionaries to ruling. But the transitions character arcs mean that we are stuck in transition with some awkwardly presented characterization as they try to change to their new situation.
The siege of Luthadel as the neighboring kings come to claim the wealth of the empire and compete for the legitimacy of holding the old capital city. This siege is a central point of the plot but it hangs over the story without urgency and the effects are rarely felt as the characters work on resolving internal conflicts. The same lack of urgency plagues the mystery presented by evidence that a shape-shifting Kandra has infiltrated the group. The effort to address either of these issues is sporadic and drawn out with long gaps between attempts to deal with these issues as other character points become more pressing. Both conflicts are played as plot points and feel artificially paced to resolve at the end of the story and are drawn out in time to allow the other events to occur. Instead of the characters having a clear goal that they are working towards with a plan which is challenged the plot hinges around characters trying to meet the demands of their situation from one state of mind and needing to move to a state of mind where they can take actions to change the situation.
That said. The mysteries that are revealed as the plot unfolds are very interesting and the book manages to transition the arc of the whole trilogy from the setting establishing work of the Final Empire to the events of Hero of Ages, moving to a completely different phase of the world with impressive escalation of urgency and scope. I really enjoyed Vin’s interactions with the Kandra OreSeur as she takes over his contract and works with him. And Sazed is solid in this story as he holds the group together with his conviction and faith in the individual members of the crew and the goal that they are trying to accomplish. His knowledge of religions and the exploration into the background of the Lord Ruler and the ancient religion of Terris are some of the best parts of the book tying into the mystery and depth of the setting in unexpected and satisfying ways.
One of the themes that comes up frequently in Sanderson’s books is the reflection on what it means to be a leader and how to handle the responsibility of ruling. This is often a secondary theme to the explorations about the process of deification and the conversation is sometimes a little confused by his mixing of the two. Deification and the qualities needed to rule rightly are not always granted to the same people in his body of work: we are definitely shown gods who do not have the qualities that make a good ruler and we are shown simple men who learn how to rule at least with a modicum of wisdom, but those same simple men are frequently rewarded in the text by the gift of godlike powers as a consequence which can cheapen the qualities that made them good rulers or lead them to make decisions that prove them to be not ready to rule at that level.