Mistborn 2: Will it become bareable after Part 2? (Spoilers)

[Anaphyis]

I'm aware that asking this kind of thing is nearly pointless in a fan forum, however I loved Elantris and liked Mistborn except some passages where my willing suspension of disbelief was pretty stretched thin. Well of Ascension however I dropped after Part 2 with extreme disappointment.

While I could attribute some characters behaving somehow dense in the course of The Final Empire to the fact that I as the reader know more then them, It seriously gets frustrating in WoA. The whole kandra-spy-subplot doesn't make sense whatsoever: The thought to speed up the evaluation of the core crew from more then one per week/month doesn't occur to Vin when the stated facts by OreSeur makes the process actually quite easy, no one seems to consider it just plain ludicrous discussing a secret plan against an enemy in front of a potential spy of said enemy, Elend considers it a brilliant idea to pretty much tell his ruthless father "you better kill my antium-lacking darling you underestimated till now before marching towards Luthadel" and sorry, his whole pseudo-democratic monarchy dream is just Meh. Not to mention the - yes, subjective - feeling that nothing actually happened in the first 300 pages except new story threads appearing out of the blue.

But still, I really would prefer to continue a story which started so great with The Final Empire to throwing the book and it's successor in the crackling fireplace. It's just that right now I have lost all hope that continuing would be any more then a waste of time.

So please, it would be nice if someone could convince me that it all gets magically better after Part Two.

[Miyabi]

The last portion of the book is by far the best.  The break in action and adding of new plot points was mainly to set up for the end of this book and to set up for the third book.  This happens a lot in trilogies and is a hard thing to avoid.  However, I promise it does get better, and who the Kandra spy is will surprise you.  The action picks up and we learn a lot about thing and everything gets set up for an EPIC third book.  Just keep reading.

[Andrew the Great]

Yeah, I had a hard time with Well of Ascension the first time as well. It gets better as you go along, and the end is the best part, though if you're looking for resolution, you may want to hold off till book three comes out. The ending is intense, and it leaves you a setup for an amazing third book. So keep reading, if nothing else, for the sake of the third book.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Well, pretty much all the conflicts of the second book are resolved by the end of the second book, so you get enough resolution there—the setup for the third book that's at the end is mostly for a conflict that the characters are only starting to realize, in the second book, even exists.

The book does suffer from a bit of second-book syndrome due to the nature of the conflict, I think. The first book's and third book's conflicts are epic in scale, but the second book's conflict seems less so. Yet I still found it an interesting exploration of something you don't see a lot of in the genre (what happens after you defeat the dark lord; how you pick up the pieces).

Elend and Vin both lack a lot of experience and learn a lot through the mistakes they make in book two. That also is something I think is realistic; if they had the skill and wisdom to solve everything perfectly on their first try, that would have been unbelievable.

[Chaos]

In my opinion, the book didn't start to get good until after Part Four. After that, it's Brandon avalanche, where you push to the ending.

And the ending... holy crap, that made the entire book worthwhile. It is truly phenomenal.

[darxbane]

Please finish the book.  I personnally liked the entire book, but I can see where some people would be a little bored.  However, I believe that to be part of the plan.  You start to feel the way the main characters do about the siege.  The waiting is the worst part.  However, just when you don't think you can stand it anymore.....WHAM!  Down the hole you go.  This book is not War and Peace.  Suffer through the next couple hundred pages, it will be worth it.  By the way, which parts were difficult for you to accept?  I thought Elantris has a lot more holes in it than Mistborn does.

[GreenMonsta]

Agreed, now I really loved both Elantris and the Mistborns but I found there to be more holes in Elantris. It was an amazing book that I recomend to others but it had alot less continuity. If you've ever read an epic fantasy novel you will find quite a bit of re-building and times of upheaval where it seams the only thing the main characters are doing is the oposite of what they need to do. I found Woa to be a very good middle book for a trilogy. It had enouph plot of its own to stand alone and keep you interested while at the same time providing more closure from the first book and setting up for the third. If I might ask, how exactly do you drop a book of no more than maybe 400 hundred pages (I say maybe due to not having the book with me to reference) after you read the first book? You clearly liked it enouph to find this forum and post your opinion about how the 1/3 of the book you actualy read wasn't good enouph for you. I'm aware you knew what you would find when you posted on this fan forum. The real question is why post? Does the opinion of people you don't know really have that much effect on you or do you need a reason to justify picking the book up again (you clearly want to)? I know I'm coming off as rude so I'll stop here.

[Anaphyis]

Thanks for your answers, It's nice to see I wasn't alone with my impression and still could be persuaded to finish the book. I could go on nitpicking but most could be attributed to the simple fact that I can't stand Elend for various reasons and the deep worry  Brandon might be  going for a "build up a heroine and then degrade her to a sidekick for the Scrappy" stunt. Still, at the end, it was time spend well.

By the way, which parts were difficult for you to accept?  I thought Elantris has a lot more holes in it than Mistborn does.

It has been some weeks since I finished The Final Empire so I don't remember the details. It was just an overall feeling. Maybe it is because Elantris has a more unconventional setting and premise which let me dismiss plotholes more easily then Mistborn, which is a bit more "mundane" so to speak. But it really isn't much more then a subjective impression thing so I can't say for certain.

If I might ask, how exactly do you drop a book of no more than maybe 400 hundred pages (I say maybe due to not having the book with me to reference) after you read the first book? You clearly liked it enouph to find this forum and post your opinion about how the 1/3 of the book you actualy read wasn't good enouph for you. I'm aware you knew what you would find when you posted on this fan forum. The real question is why post? Does the opinion of people you don't know really have that much effect on you or do you need a reason to justify picking the book up again (you clearly want to)? I know I'm coming off as rude so I'll stop here.

No, these are valid questions. Let me try to explain what I intended to do here by using a metaphor:

You go into a restaurant. It all looks nice and it smells good and you had good experiences in the past in that restaurant. You eat the first course of the meal and find out it contains an ingredient you can't stand. Unfortunately, the chef is currently unavailable so you look around and see other guests in the restaurant who obviously enjoyed their meal and are now chatting idly. You tell them nicely that you can't stand ingredient xy and ask them If it would be worthwhile for you to stay for the other courses (thus asking if they would contain ingredient xy) cause you don't want to gulp down other courses in the faint hope, the following would be more like the ones you remembered from the other times you've eaten here.

I might just do the latter under normal circumstances, however I still have plenty of other unread books here and my vacation is coming to an end, so I have to be a little bit more picky.

What I was afraid of were fanboys telling me how stupid I was for not liking Teh best b00k evar!!1! What I wanted was a more earnest opinion and surprisingly, that's the only thing I got. Which gives me hope for the internet - Thank you for that 

[Chaos]

Maybe... maybe Brandon just appeals to a better, more competent audience, and so all the fans on the internet are correspondingly more mature? I sure hope so

No, but while I still stayed up many nights reading Well of Ascension (I wanted to get some answers on mythology! That's what pushed me through the thing!), I never really liked most of it--at least, not in the same way that I adored TFE. I still don't like Zane.

Things get awesome when, you know, the siege starts.

[Miyabi]

I actually enjoyed the entire book. . . . then again I also enjoy reading philosophy, war and peace, etc. ha ha.

[Reaves]

i would definitely say Final Empire was better, but the ending of MB2 is by no means dissapointing. You did not really flesh out your opinions on Elend but i did find myself disliking him, when i really did like him a lot in FE.
And yes you should definitely finish the book, the ending is epic and sets the stage for Hero of Ages!!

plus, would it even be possible for you to read half a book, post and ask opinions on it, and then not read the rest? IMPOSSIBLE!!!

[GreenMonsta]

plus, would it even be possible for you to read half a book, post and ask opinions on it, and then not read the rest? IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Agreed. I think with the interest shown here that Anaphyis will at one point finish the book. My problem is that until now I had no idea that this many fans of Mistborn didn't like WoA. Im not going to criticise. I understand that we're all allowed our own opinions and most people who post here are fans of Brandon so your entitled. But really? Wow I thought it was very good.

[darxbane]

What I was afraid of were fanboys telling me how stupid I was for not liking Teh best b00k evar!!1! What I wanted was a more earnest opinion and surprisingly, that's the only thing I got. Which gives me hope for the internet - Thank you for that 

No need to worry about that here.  In fact, I have yet to read a post that was in any way mean-spirited or harmful to someone else.  

I actually liked WoA better than Final Empire, if only for the fact that I always wonder about what happens after the bad guy loses.  I love the appendices in Return of the King, especially the ones that describe what becomes of the Fellowship.  

[Andrew the Great]

As far as the concepts and ideas, yes, I liked WoA much better.

However, there were some spots that were just a little slow for me to get through. And in the end, I pushed through, and it was more than worth it.

[GreenMonsta]

What I was afraid of were fanboys telling me how stupid I was for not liking Teh best b00k evar!!1! What I wanted was a more earnest opinion and surprisingly, that's the only thing I got. Which gives me hope for the internet - Thank you for that 

You know I find this to be very true. People here aren't very quick to judge other posters in opinion or anything. (except the occasional spelling correction miyabi. jk) I find it very nice to be able to hop on TWG and express opinions about EUOLs books without anything unnecessary involved. I'm still new to this whole thing so I’m still surprised with how well it works out sometimes.