После смерти Вседержителя империя погружается в хаос: аристократы рвутся во власть и три наиболее могущественных лорда приводят войска из людей и нелюдей под стены бывшей столицы. С неба по-прежнему сыплется пепел, а по ночам, как и раньше, приходит туман… Только вот теперь он иногда появляется и днем, забирая жизнь у тех, кому не посчастливилось оказаться под открытым небом. Если верить древней легенде, миру по-прежнему угрожает непостижимая Бездна, справиться с которой по силам лишь тому, кто разыщет Источник Вознесения и станет героем пророчества – Героем Веков. Но где же его искать и что за сила таится в нем?
The Final Empire was one of the best fantasy books I'd read in years, and The Well of Ascension didn't disappoint. This one goes much deeper into politics and philosophy as well, and was overall a really fantastic book.
I don't think I could possibly have fit this into my schedule, as it's quite long, without Audible, but the Michael Kramer narration was, as for the previous book, absolutely top notch. Highly recommend.
Part of the issue, I think, is that I get so caught up in watching for things to come I sometimes struggle with middle books in a trilogy.
Part of the issue, though, is definitely that this book made me feel kind of dumb.
Not in a...bad way, strictly speaking? I don't blame Sanderson for it at all--he did a good job somehow hiding things in absolute plain sight from me. Re-reading, I realize how well done it all is, and I see the final twist coming, because it is laid out early on.
I just missed it completely and I facepalmed so hard I actually spent about thirty minutes explaining what lead up to it and as much background as needed to explain the twist and why I didn't see it coming and should have to my father. It …
I enjoyed this more than I did the first time.
Part of the issue, I think, is that I get so caught up in watching for things to come I sometimes struggle with middle books in a trilogy.
Part of the issue, though, is definitely that this book made me feel kind of dumb.
Not in a...bad way, strictly speaking? I don't blame Sanderson for it at all--he did a good job somehow hiding things in absolute plain sight from me. Re-reading, I realize how well done it all is, and I see the final twist coming, because it is laid out early on.
I just missed it completely and I facepalmed so hard I actually spent about thirty minutes explaining what lead up to it and as much background as needed to explain the twist and why I didn't see it coming and should have to my father. It takes dedication to explain the plot of two books to someone who has never read them (or heard of them) in order to explain why a twist is good, so I probably should have given this more credit then. (Also huge kudos to my dad, who was willing to sit at the table with me with wine and Fireball during one of my visits and listen to me explain a whole fantasy universe to him to get to a single story twist.)
Things I loved, without spoilers: a girl and her dog politics and people too good for politics someone actually handling the aftermath of a standard fantasy story awkward people who love books too much awkward people romancing new characters to love new characters to be conflicted about some people to hate prophecies
I am probably going to accidentally read all of the Cosmere books (again for most of them) after having finished Rhythm of War a few weeks ago, and I honestly don't regret it.
