Mistborn: The Well of Ascension

Well here we are again, with book two of Mistborn. This one was a blast. I think I liked it a bit less than the first one, but it was still very entertaining. There are so many things to talk about so let’s quickly get started.

Spoiler warning for Mistborn: The Well of Ascension

After the Collapse

The Lord Ruler

The Collapse as it called is the period directly after Kelsier dies and Vin killed the Lord Ruler. It is when the skaa had a revolution and overthrew those in power. Elend managed to keep them calm and not bring total annihilation, instead he advocated for peace where the noblemen didn’t rule over the skaa, but simply managed the kingdom with fair laws for all. Elend managed to get all the skaa wages and more rights. He himself became king and wrote entirely new laws which is an insane task and to think that Elend made decent laws within a year after the Collapse (as this is when the book takes place)…

The Deepness

Mists over Luthadel

We discover that the mists have become more present after the Lord Ruler’s death. Who, with his final words, warned of this. Using his final words he told them that he kept doing something for them to keep them safe. Spoiler warning, Vin thinks that the Deepness is the mists, however there is apparently some other force that acts. That force changes religion, words written on paper, memories stored in a Feruchemists metalminds. Sazed discovers a text near the beginning of the book, a text written the Terris Worldbringer that discovered the Hero of Ages. The very first words are “I write these words in steel for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted”. And this dear reader, was some foreswadowing that I, as well as Sazed and Twindyll all ignored. Why would you put that there? Unless…it is true. Sazed makes a copy of the words by writing it on paper. However when he returns to the text in steel, it is different from the text he himself had written.

There exists some power that can change words, even metalminds all to allow for some prophecy to lead someone to the Well of Ascension and release the power. This power manages to trick everyone and Vin gets the power and then releases it. Only to be met with “I am FREE!”. What this power is, is very uncertain and what it can do even more so. The Lord Ruler with this power was able to create new species and change the landscape as the Well of Ascension was in Kredik Shaw (the Lord Ruler’s castle) instead of the Terris mountains as all the prophecies (which cannot be trusted of course) said. This is some incredible power and at the hand of the Lord Ruler it was terrible, what if it had a will of it’s own?

Also, also there is some spirit in the mists that wanted to try to help them by not releasing the power in the Well of Ascension. The spirit stabs Elend right before the Well to make Vin use the powers to heal him, but she doesn’t and the power is released. It is still unclear what the mist spirit is, but maybe we’ll figure it out in book three.

Mist Spirit

Zane

Zane

There’s so much left to go, that entire thing about the Deepness is kind of a subplot, just like Zane is. Zane is one of Straff’s unlawful offspring (Straff is Elend’s father). Zane is a Mistborn, and a powerful one at that, nearly as powerful as Vin. But Vin has plot armor so therefore she always wins of course. No I’m just joking, yes she does often win, but in a believable way and at great costs. Anyway Zane is insane, there is a voice in his head he calls God that tells him to kill everytime he sees someone (we know this because of the segments written from his perspective). Zane spars with Vin a few times and he tries to convince her that they are nothing more than knives to Straff and Elend and that they should run away together. He tries to convince her by manipulating a few assassination attempts and lying to her about who sent the assassins, etc.

Oreseur and Vin

When he finally asks Vin to leave, she rejects him and he does not like that. He keeps saying that she was supposed to save him. And a bunch of things are revealed. Oh I forgot to mention that they discovered that there was a kandra spy in their midsts. Well it turns out that that spy was OreSeur, the kandra that was under Contract with Kelsier. TenSoon, the spy, killed OreSeur and took his place. Secondly, Zane discovered duraluminium too, with help from TenSoon. Also atium can be beat, Vin attacks Zane without any plan and then Zane blocks her expected attack which allowed her to react and change it to kill him. I think it is very hard to do as she had to clear her head and then attack and then change it all in a very short time. Finally, Zane was not insane. Throughout the book it is very clear that he is, but when he is dying he tries to say that he wanted to be with Vin because “God” didn’t tell him to kill her. The only person that God didn’t want him to kill. Then God reacts to his proclomation with something along the lines of: “Of course I didn’t tell you to kill her” and “You know the really funny thing, Zane? The most amusing part of this all? You’re not insane. You never were.”. Implying that he voice he had heard WAS NOT A CRAZY VOICE FROM INSIDE HIM. WHAT?!?!

Armies

Anyway those were some of the subplots, in reality there is way more going on and to know all of it you should read the book and not a random recollection of fictional events by someone who is not a professional writer at all. There are multiple armies under siege with Luthadel as a few warlords want to take control of the capital and it’s atium reserve. The first army to appear, and it is already at Luthadel when the book starts is Straff Venture’s. Yes, Elend’s father. Suffice to say, they are not on good terms. Elend also has to do a bunch of political maneuvering to prevent the government he set up to not just hand to city over to Straff.

Straff Venture

Straff seems to have this easily, but then Cett shows up, another warlord from the Western Dominance if I recall correctly. With Cett now here, Straff can’t take the city easily because after he claims Luthadel Cett will then attack him and, against Straff’s weakened troops, will win Luthadel for himself. The same thing is true for Cett though, if he were to take Luthadel he would be too vulnerable to protect the city. The crew devises a plan to have them attack eachother through feigning an alliance with both of them. This, however, becomes much more complicated after an army of koloss show up.

Koloss

Jastes, an old friend of Elend’s, manages to control the koloss with wood painted gold to pay them. The koloss are very unstable so it is very unclear why they care about things like money. They seem to want to be humans, as when they kill people they steal their clothes and wear it for themselves. Very scary unpredictable killing machines. This makes the siege even more complicated as the koloss could probably defeat either Straff’s or Cett’s army, but not both. Eventually the koloss become enraged and attack Luthadel after Cett withdraws his army after a devastating attack from Vin and Zane. It is Straff’s plan (formulated by Zane) to wait for the koloss to destroy all the defences and weaken themself before going in and killing the koloss. Being seen as a hero as he saved everyone from the koloss. This doesn’t work however as Vin manages to discover that she can control the koloss using Soothing and duraluminium. She uses the koloss to fight and defeat Straff’s army and Cett joins the Luthadel forces to help as well. After the battle is over, she makes Elend emperor.

Conclusion

I still glossed over a lot of things, I don’t think I even explained duraluminium: it enhances whatever material you’re currently burning. But there is also a plot with Sazed and Twindyl, Breeze and Cett’s daughter, Vin growing closer to the kandra she thought was Oreseur. It is insane how much is in there without it being too much to keep track of. Nothing really seems out of place and the storytelling is amazing. How Sanderson even seems to know so much about politics and psychology, I don’t know but I’m very excited to read Hero of Ages and I’m really curious about Era 2.