The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson

Unusually, this second book in the Mistborn trilogy doesn’t disappoint as much as most middle books of trilogies. It remains engaging and involving, the characters all develop realistically and sometimes surprisingly, and the plot moves along briskly as the tension mounts. Vin particularly moves forward remarkably and convincingly considering her origins in the first book of the trilogy. Brandon Sanderson’s writing continues to improve, which allows the reader to focus wholly on the story. His plotlines manage to all come together in the end, (spoiler) but the end is much more of a cliffhanger than the first of the trilogy, which is somewhat irritating, particularly as we’ll be waiting until October for the last installment.

The subject matter is interesting – after the good guys have won, what do they have to do to keep control? It quickly becomes clear, however, that there are much larger matters at hand, and the battle hasn’t really been won at all.