The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler—the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years—has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier’s protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin’s Mistborn skills sharp, but it’s the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn’t run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier’s crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won’t get easier with three armies – one of them composed of ferocious giants – now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler’s hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.

I purchased a copy of this book for my own reading.

Carrying on my journey into the Mistborn series from Brandon Sanderson, I picked up the audiobook of the second novel. It follows on neatly from the events that led to the death of the Lord Ruler and the skaa uprising.

Where the first book was filled with action as the rebellion kicked off, book two is more grounded. It is filled with political machinations as the new rulers try to unite the Final Empire. When two nobles seek to grab the power for themselves and lay siege to the great city of Luthadel, King Elend must balance this and save the city.

While the pace is significantly different compared to book one, it’s no less an incredible read. The sheer scale of the task before those in power is unimaginable, and the level of deception by all those outside of their circle is not to be underestimated. I found it to be a dark book filled with much soul-searching for the core characters. A brutal battle in the closing stages of the book added a shot of action to this brilliant read.

My rating: