Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

30 reviews

laurengeorgia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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jamby4546's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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dkamada's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring reflective tense
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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astralfaery's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

this book was overall a bit slower than The Final Empire, but it wasn’t bad by any means, and i can’t wait to read Hero of Ages!! 
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mads_reads_books's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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wharj's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Definitely takes a while to get going, but great stuff in here!
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peasandpancakes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Loved this book. Perfect amount of slower and faster chapters. I cannot wait to start the last book in this trilogy to find out what happens next.

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naomi_k's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kidprezident's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This review will contain spoilers! I got spoiled in a review for this book so please be careful! 

I really loved this book! I really liked the way Brandon writes Vin and her insecurities - that they have nothing to do with how capable she is. I find that really relatable and honestly really commendable coming from a male author. He obviously did his research on how women think and tried to reflect that accurately (maybe even had a sensitivity reader? I think I remember him saying that in the intro). Overall, I really liked that Sanderson explored the characters outside of and in reaction to the problems around them. 
 
I thought I wouldn’t like Sazed having a romance but whew his hand shaking when he tells Tindwyl to “stay. Please” rivals that of the Pride & Prejudice 2005 hand stretch thing that Mr. Darcy does. Even more in love with him but I’m not sure how I feel about Tindwyl. I think she was an interesting character but I don’t think she really made that much of a difference in the story. Even she says herself that Elend would have eventually found his way without her. The whole romance subplot with Sazed was cute but was not necessary to the plot. However, I could see Tindwyl’s death becoming part of Sazed’s character arc later on. I’m not fond of the “killing off the woman for man pain” trope but I think that’s where this is going.
 Speaking of Sazed, I absolutely loved being able to see his perspective in this book. It made me love him even more as a character (although I do wish he would stop referring to himself as half a man or not a true man).  He is definitely my favorite character in the series and I’m glad we’ve gotten to see him shine a little bit more in this one. 
 However, the plot moves extremely slowly in this book. I was nearly half way through before anything of any real significance happened. The first half of this book made me extremely tired of reading drawn out fight scenes. They seemed a little too drawn out and filler-ish. This was mostly Vin’s sparring with Zane that I think could have been handled better. 
 
Brandon was getting very close to ableism with his characterization of Zane and Cett. Having a character who is unequivocally “insane” and hears voices might have needed a sensitivity reader (although there was some foreshadowing at the end of Zane’s life about him not actually having been insane). Cett is described as a “cripple” which could have just still been acceptable use at the time in 2007; I’m not too sure about when this word fell out of favor. Sanderson, as an able bodied person, may not have known not to use this word either.
By the middle of the book I was kind of getting annoyed with Vin and her questioning Elend when all he’s done is care about her. I understand her apprehension about being used as a tool but I dunno, she’s always viewed it as working for the betterment of the skaa rather than being used as a tool. Zane seemed to change that for her but I’m glad she made her way back by the end of the book.
At first, I didn’t like the idea of a “good king” that seemed to be floating around in the beginning of this book as Elend finds his footing. I assumed that the narrative was assuming that the reader was promonarchy like many other fantasies do but I appreciate that Sanderson, by the end of the book, emphasized that change, especially big political moves like the ones Elend was trying to make, can only be done slowly.
The end of the book was super cool and well written and it was the first time in this book that I actually found myself worried for the characters. The rest of the fighting in this book seemed to be, as I said before, just filler. There were no real stakes. However, during the last ⅓ the stakes are HIGH.
I really thought Sazed was going to die there for a while.
However, I found it kind of unbelievable that Vin and Elend would leave the city so easily. But we gotta move the plot on somehow and Brandon at least tried to give some explanation for it.
Overall, this book was entertaining and I loved getting to know the characters’ internal workings more. Breeze especially was fascinating. I think this book relied too much on people just sitting around and talking but when things happened, they were really intense. Second books are always difficult so I can appreciate what Sanderson did here. I’m looking forward to finishing out the original trilogy. :) 
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blythemind's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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