Most fantasy novels end with the heroes' great victory over evil. Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension, the second novel in the Mistborn trilogy, asks the rare follow-up: what next?
The answer, it turns out, is a lot of amateurish politics. After the Lord Ruler's death, the people of Luthandel implausibly elect Elend Venture as their new leader. Elend proceeds to draft up a new set of laws as well as a new parliamentary body -- apparently without actually persuading anybody that these reformed institutions are a good idea, if their subsequent disaffection is any sign. When not one, not two, but three conquering armies show up at Luthandel's gates, Elend's idealism quickly falls prey to the baser instincts of his erstwhile allies.
The political story that begins The Well of Ascension is tiresome, not just because Elend is an idiot, but also because the plot twists seem so contrived, and the politicking so shallow. I also found Sanderson's implied lesson a little disturbing: sometimes, he seems to be saying, people really do need a Big Man to take control of their lives. That might be a legitimate point of view, but the backbiting "democracy" that Sanderson sets up is too flimsy a straw man to serve as a convincing foil.
Even worse, Sanderson pairs the political story with an equally lame love story about Elend and Vin. The two youths spend a lot of time worrying about how they perceive each other -- does he think I'm pretty? does she think I'm strong? Even with the introduction of an unconvincing love triangle anchored by a quietly insane Mistborn named Zane, the endless cycle of "he loves me, she loves me not" quickly grows stale.
Fortunately, things pick up when the invading armies begin launching both diplomatic and military attacks against Luthandel. Politics and love then take a back seat to a gripping tale of overwhelming odds, leading up to a late, harrowing siege and a surprising betrayal.
Sanderson's excellent world-building, absent for the first half of the book, also accelerates. Because most of the protagonists are too preoccupied with military matters to care about cosmic mysteries, Sanderson has one character, Sazed, devote himself completely to historical research. It's a ham-handed expository device, but the gradual unfurling of the Mistborn world is interesting enough to excuse it. And, best of all, Sazed's investigations lead to a great ending and a very clever twist that undermines much of what has already happened, despite being quietly foreshadowed from the outset of this series. Although The Well of Ascension begins slowly, its conclusion is well worth the trouble.
Copyright © 2009 Steven Wu 