The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

I like this picture--you can read the back of the book and therefore read the summary. You know how I dislike summaries.

This is book 2 in the Mistborn series. Book 1 is Mistborn, and book 3 is The Hero of Ages (which I’m reading right now).

So. Vin has killed the Lord Ruler and put Elend on the throne. Now what? That’s pretty much what this book asks. Things were pretty dark when the Lord Ruler was in charge, but since his death things have gotten even harder. With no strong leadership, wars and famine threaten, the city is filthy and chaotic and outside the city conditions are even worse. The heroes of book one (Mistborn) are struggling to find their roles in this new world and more questions are asked than answered in this installment of the series.

Elend Venture, Vin’s love and the country’s new ruler, has just started applying his ideals to leadership when three armies appear at his door. As the siege threatens Elend’s people, there is dissension within his Assembly, a mysterious mistborn follows and flirts with Vin in the night, there is a spy within the ranks of Elend’s most trusted, Sazed investigates a possible solution to the troubles of the whole world, and Vin feels an increasing sense of urgency to find the Well of Ascension. 

This is uphill work, reading these books. I really like Brandon Sanderson, but these books are not happy. Mistborn has a good ending, in that the rebellion succeeds, but this book is just slogging through trouble after trouble all the way through. And I suspect the next book will be too. Whew!

Bad language: Nope
Sex: References to married sex between Elend and Vin, no sex scenes.