If Hard Fantasy Is the Future, Mistborn Is Exhibit One
Written: Mar 11 '08 (Updated Dec 11 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Strong characters facing uncertainty.
Cons: I'm withholding judgment on parts of the ending until the next book.
The Bottom Line: Robert Jordan's widow chose Sanderson to complete The Wheel of Time, and who can fault her? As for me, I'd rather he not be distracted from his own work.
panguitch's Full Review: Brandon Sanderson - The Well of Ascension: Book Tw...
Brandon Sanderson began his Mistborn series by turning fantasy tropes on their head: What if the Dark Lord defeated the Hero? And he follows it up in book two, The Well of Ascension, with the subversive question: What if overthrowing the Dark Lord only makes things worse?
Rather than sailing off to a well-earned peace in a glorious West, Sanderson's heroes are left to pick up the pieces of a shattered empire. With warlords and petty kings sprouting up and vying for control, the noble young idealist Elend Venture tries to establish a constitutional monarchy in Luthadel. As he wrestles with the Assembly, two kings, one of them his estranged father, park armies on his doorstep. The only thing keeping them from invading is their fear of each other.
The only thing keeping Elend from assassination is Vin, the young woman who loves him and prowls the night to protect him. Vin is a powerful Mistborn. By imbibing and "burning" specific metals she can push or pull on people's emotions, make her senses more acute, and her body more powerful. She can also push or pull on any metal she sees, shooting it like a weapon or shooting herself through the air.
Vin slew the Lord Ruler and is held in reverence by the common people, but she'd prefer anonymity. Although her mentor Kelsier and his friends taught her to trust herself and other people, she still struggles with her identity and purpose; and although Elend needs her help in securing his throne and freeing his people from tyrants, she wonders if she's worthy of him, and she's beginning to feel that something larger and darker is threatening not just Luthadel, but the world. Something she unleashed when she killed the Lord Ruler.
Vin's coming of age in book one, The Final Empire, was wonderfully written. Now, in The Well of Ascension, the depth of her characterization is matched by Elend's deepening personality. This young couple's anxieties, stemming both from their roles in the new society and from their relationship, are realized with clarity and credibility, making them vastly sympathetic. Sazed and Vin's kandra, peripheral members of Kelsier's former crew, also step forward to enjoy further characterization than they received in book one.
We also meet Zane, a mysterious Mistborn with whom Vin becomes fascinated. There were several moments during The Well of Ascension when I paused to marvel at Sanderson's authorial chutzpah. Points where he throws sudden defeats at his characters just when I thought I could take a deep breath, or when his characters make horrible mistakes, however well-intentioned. The only point where I felt he missed such an opportunity was with Vin and Zane, but I'll say no more.
I also enjoyed the increased attention to Feruchemy, the magic system set up in parallel to the Mistborns' Allomancy. In Feruchemy, instead of burning metals to tap their power, a Terrisman can store attributes in metal. Thus Sazed carries incredible knowledge in his copperminds and can tap the strength he has stored in pewter, or make himself light as air by storing weight in iron. None of this comes easily, however, and Sanderson applies rigor to both magic systems. This is hard fantasy in the best sense.
By the end there are still secrets waiting. If learning to trust is what defines Vin, then uncertainty defines the conflicts in the Mistborn series. The heroes labor without knowing the best course of action, and their decisions are made under duress and in doubt's shadow.
The action is breathtaking, the story keeps you guessing, and the characters make you care. This is fantasy of the first order. I'm glad the third volume is already in prepublication. I'd be choleric if it was held up while Sanderson completed an inferior author's inferior series.
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler - the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years - has...More at HotBookSale
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