Yeah... For a while there while I was reading Well of Ascension I was trying to decide if I liked it as much as the first book or not, and I wasn't so sure. The ending totally makes up for it, though.
I need to write a book review on this one and solidify my thoughts a lot more, but the ending was definitely very different from what I expected. I remember back when it first started to get off the pathway from where I was expecting it to go and it was, honestly, very surprising and very good. I don't want to give any spoilers here in case there are those that haven't read it yet, but my review will definitely be spoiler-heavy, just to get the thoughts going.
Another thing I noticed about the book: Brandon did an
awesome job of bringing out the emotion in this one. I find that to be the mark of a good fantasy/sci-fi author (and arguably in most other genres as well). I remember
really feeling for the characters and the predicaments they found themselves in during a lot of the very important scenes, especially near the end.
Brandon's books always leave me feeling inspired to work on my own writing, and this one was no different. I've been stuck for a few months, now, on my main writing project, but since I read Well of Ascension I've had a lot more drive to work out the plot problems and do a better job than I have been recently.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to #3. I'm going to try to see if I can be at the book signing for that one, too-- only missed the one for Final Empire, so far. These books are kind of like crack-- I need my fix.
I might have to go back and start re-reading the ones I do have before long here.