Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Well of Ascension

This is the second book in the Mistborn trilogy. As such, it builds upon the previous characters and events. However, it is enough of a story to stand alone. In the previous book, Vin and her team had toppled the Lord Ruler and the final empire. In this book, however, they have the much more difficult task of running the empire.

This book is loaded with action, but also deals with the coming of age and personal relationships. (We even get a marriage near the end.) Vin struggles with the words of Zane, her soon-to-be husband's half brother. He almost convinces her to join his cause, but she realizes her affection towards him is real, overpowering their physical differences. (And in the end, he gets the "mistborn" power.)

The quest of the novel is to arrive at the well of ascension in order to take and "release" the power. However, it turns out that doing so benefits some negative force instead of good.

The characters her struggle with decisions that have no clear best path. Being true to oneself seems like a good way to rule. However, doing so fails to inspire the confidence of the subjects. Being a strong, forceful ruler helps to inspire confidence. While it may not appear to be "real" at first, it may eventually better express true feelings and meaning.

This book combined nonstop actual with plenty of paradoxes and difficult decision. I was eager to get through it to find out how things worked out. I found myself surprised, but not upset with the way things turned out. Now I'm ready to hit the next book in the series.

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