No cold open. No fluff. Just a straight shot of enthusiasm for a book the boys clearly had to talk themselves down from. Well of Ascension — Book 2 of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Era 1 — picks up after the revolution and immediately asks a harder question: now what? It's Sanderson at his most focused, and the result is a massive leap from Book 1.
Rich has a 500-page rule. Books over that threshold better earn every chapter. At 590 pages, Well of Ascension earns them. Ryan, the guy who read Mistborn years ago and felt nothing, is a full convert. The boys were actively fighting themselves from scoring this too high.
Score: 8.7 out of 10 — their highest of the year, and Rich says it's miles beyond Mistborn and, yeah, Words of Radiance too.
---
Show Notes
**Episode Type:** FastTake**Book:** Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson**Series:** Mistborn Era 1, Book 2 — part of the Cosmere**Score:** 8.7 out of 10
### Timestamps-
[00:25] — Intro: no cold open, trying something new-
[01:53] — What is a FastTake / episode framing-
[02:33] — Should you continue Mistborn? Ryan's conversion story-
[04:14] — Rating system explained-
[05:38] — Score reveal: 8.7 out of 10 — highest rated book of the year-
[07:58] — Sanderson wrote all three Mistborn books before Book 1 released- [
08:35] — Page count, pacing, and the Stormlight comparison- [11:35] — "Winning the revolution was the easy part"-
[12:06] — Book 1 criticism / the Lord Ruler problem-
[14:31] — How Book 2 enriches Book 1-
[15:09] — World building explosion: factions, creatures, magic system-
[17:52] — Villains: why they work so much better here-
[19:06] — Straff Venture breakdown-
[20:52] — The 500-page rule-
[21:49] — Rich's favorite Sanderson Part 3-
[22:36] — Most underrated Sanderson sequel-
[23:20] — Wrap-up + where to follow
Links
