The Well of Ascension is the second book in Sanderson’s Mistborn series (my post on The Final Empire, the first book of the series, is here), and unlike most second novels in a trilogy it does more than just move the plot forward. By its end we have started to get a better feel for who the actual enemy is, and Vin’s and Elend’s paths have become clearer…but most second novels do that. The Well of Ascension goes a bit farther in exposing not just the narrative but also the generic tweaks…
More thoughts:
- A generic expectation of fantasy is that we know that once we find the source of evil, our heroes will work to confront and defeat it. They will go through the entire Hero’s Journey, and will bring back the boon and, in modern versions, even survive.
- Sanderson’s portrayal of Vin’s journey so far fits along those lines, with some interesting differences. For instance, she’s fallen in love with a potential rival (Elend), and that relationship has threatened a couple of times to derail her following of the storyline. Generically, relationships simply cannot happen, even when the love is as pure as that shared by Frodo and Sam.
- She has confronted increasingly threatening challenges, which also fits. The challenges feel a bit off, though, not in the typical arc that I at least suspect. This disruption feels as if it comes about because of the ease with which they are defeated, at least so far – rival army lords die because of their own weaknesses, another Mistborn who seemingly has the upper hand on Vin gives her a potential boon and then is killed with almost suspicious ease – and generically those challenges need to seem greater, as if they are the proving grounds on which heroes hone their craft.
- Again, I will need to wait for the final novel in the trilogy to see just how far Sanderson will push this…
- A character that I am fascinated by is the mist. My guess is that the mist is some sort of toxic residue left from previous populations. I might be sorely disappointed if it is actually some sort of supernatural force aka Thomas Covenant…
- One question that I have not dealt with much yet is the idea of ascending, an act that clearly will or has happened, and is part of this world’s history. The mistborn are god-like in their powers, and we just witnessed one character ascend to that status, but there is little talk of religion in this context.
- Sanderson is not ignoring religion – there is a cult of humans who have dedicated themselves to simply gathering all the stories of religions in order to disseminate them back to folks. So whatever divinity awaits is an intentional product of the narrative.
The Well of Ascension promised all sorts of interesting threads, and I am looking forward to the final book. I am fairly certain that I have not captured all of the intricacies of what Sanderson is doing, but there is one more blog post that awaits…