Brandon Sanderson's The Well of Ascension is the sequel to Mistborn, a very strong beginning to a new trilogy. Bridge books are always dicey things--many fall into a sophomore slump, meandering along trying to get from A to C with the required stop at B (because everyone knows a fantasy story can't be told in only two books, let alone one). Luckily for fans of the first book, Ascension doesn't fall into that trap.
For those who haven't read the first book, what are you doing reading a review of the second? Anyway, stop reading now, because it's nearly impossible to discuss Ascension without reference to prior events in book one. Spoiler warning. If you know Mistborn well, skip the next paragraph.
Mistborn is set in an ashen, mist-filled world whose myths tell of a time when plants were green. The world is dominated by the Lord Ruler, a seemingly immortal tyrant who had ruled for centuries, ruthlessly oppressing the majority population of Skaa, as well as the much smaller class of nobles. The Lord Ruler is also the hero who centuries ago defeated the mysterious "Deepness", saving the world from complete destruction. The magic system in Mistborn is "allomancy". Allomancers (a small percentage of the population) can "burn" certain metals to give them superhuman abilities, such as super-strength, super-senses, etc. There are only 10 such metals known and most allomancers can burn only one. True mistborns, however, can burn all. One powerful and charismatic mistborn, Kelsior, leads a group of thieves in their greatest caper--taking down the Lord Ruler. Integral to his plans is a street urchin girl named Vin, a more powerful mistborn than Kelsior. By the end (spoiler), the Lord Ruler is killed, as is Kelsior, and the Skaa are freed.
One of the pleasures of Ascension is that it picks up where most fantasy novels end. Ding dong, the Dark Lord is Dead. What's left to tell? Turns out plenty. First of all, the rebels start to learn that it's easy to carp from the sidelines but when it's your turn to actually rule, things aren't so simple. They also face the rule of "unintended consequences". Sure, the tyrannical Dark Lord is dead. But all that tyranny had a plus side--people were too scared to fight among themselves. Now civil war has broken out and young, bookish Elend Venture, the new king of Luthadel, faces three besieging armies, all trying to take his city and the rumored stockpile of treasure amassed by the Lord Ruler.
Oh, and that "free the Skaa, end despotism, move toward rule by the people" stuff that sounded so good in conspiratorial alley-meetings? Turns out sometimes "the people" aren't so smart. Or grateful. Not to mention the nobles continue to plot to find ways to retain their power, even if that means giving up the city to one of the armies.
The newly-freed Skaa, by the way, are wondering why they aren't getting regular stockpiles of food and tools etc. When they slaved on plantation estates they were horribly treated but someone fed them. Now they have to do it themselves and winter is quickly approaching.
And finally, the whole "Lord Ruler saved the world from a great evil" propaganda may, it turns out, have been right. And with the Lord Ruler gone, that evil may be back. The mists are now coming during the day and are starting to kill people.
If that sounds like a lot to deal with, it is. And that's not to mention the son-wanting-to-kill the father subplot, the brother-versus-brother subplot, the Vin and Elend romance subplot, the new bad Mistborn in town subplot, the other romance subplot, and, well, you get the idea.
Sanderson is juggling a lot here and the truth is he does it with a lot of aplomb. There's a sense of true fun in the telling of this story, despite its dark moments. It doesn't quite have the humor or Oceans 11 banter of Mistborn; it is a much more introspective, darker book in many ways, but it still feels like the author had a great time with it. And there are funny parts. The magical system remains a strength due to its utter originality and the way it gets refined and furthered, though the allomantic battles are a bit hard to follow at times. The secondary characters, with one prime exception and two other less-pronounced ones, aren't `t as strong as in Mistborn, but the focus on Elend and Vin makes up for that somewhat as they are compelling characters in their own right, if not as charismatic as Kelsior. Vin's victories seem a bit too predictable at times, but Sanderson balances that somewhat by not being afraid to have some major side characters die off. Even better is that the book sometimes spills off into very unpredictable directions, though that's all one can say about that. And the ending, though perhaps a bit rushed/abrupt, nicely closes off one story while greatly expanding the larger tale, much as happened in Mistborn.
Truth be told, the Mistborn series is one of the more original and enjoyable reads in fantasy I've had in some time. It's original in its own fashion, turning away from the typical fantasy tropes but without simply following down the path of the earlier "rebellious" fantasies, the once-new but now familiar "gritty" epic fantasies such as Martin or Erickson (both of whom I'm fans of). The series is highly recommended.
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