The Well of Ascension

I'm invested enough in the story and characters that I enjoyed this book. But it seemed awfully clumsy to me, the plot was weirdly static. And the characters less compelling, almost wooden. Just lacked the excitement and novelty of the first novel, but was a solid enough continuation of the story. I wish some of the central mysteries about the mist, etc were less oblique. The surprise twist at the end was annoying too, it didn't feel like there were meaningful clues to lead us to it.