Elantris (Elantris, #1) in WACKY READING CHALLENGES

Mar 20, 2013 Gesa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 01-book, 06-mine, 15-language-german, 18-read-in-2013

Since I only read the first two parts of the Mistborn series I was curious about how I might like other books from Brandon Sanderson. And also I was very curious how he might sound in German. And since the publisher Heyne brought this edition on the market I took it （￣ー￣）

(view spoiler) Since I only read the first two parts of the Mistborn series I was curious about how I might like other books from Brandon Sanderson. And also I was very curious how he might sound in German. And since the publisher Heyne brought this edition on the market I took it （￣ー￣）

(view spoiler)[The Cover:
It took me some time to put the parts together. The person in the front is the Gyron Hrathen, who is looking at Elantis, which is not really shown and looks somewhat foggy and dirty. This is altogether a pretty good cover I think. It shows that there is someone coming who wants something from this cursed and evil city. Yet he looks not like he wants to save it but doom it completely.

The Story
The story was an up and down. A lot of politics and religious stuff. Where everybody tried to get that what he or she wanted and this mostly by stepping over others and using them as step stones or sacrifices. Which was shown in a pretty cool way. One action - like dooming the inhabitants of Elantis - conduces another action - like helping the inhabitants. It is all based on each other’s actions and the author has well-conceived this actions. But somehow it works all a bit too well. There aren't big mistakes or this stuff.
Another part of the story was the secret around Elantis. Why is this once so wonderful and advanced and magic city now doomed? What happened in the past? And why are still people sent to it? What happens to this people? Is there a way to lift this curse? That's the part I loved! All this secrets and questions.

The Characters
This is were I was like is (¬､¬) after reading. Raoden is totaly and completely an optimist. Nothing can be bad even bad things. He always finds a way to make things good or great. He knows people and can get them into doing that what he wants. He's perfect. And that drove me mad.
Sarene on her side is pretty confident when she can act like a "man" and then she's alot like Raoden. But she is totaly unsecure when she has to do "woman-stuff". So it looked like she's not really well balacend one really strong side and another pretty week.
And then there is the Gyron Hrathen who was my favorit in this book. He's the bad guy. Nothing wrong with that, ever book needs a bad guy. But you can't hate him since he just does what he things is right. And you cann understand why he is doing all this. So you can't see him as a bad guy completly. And what was even better he got a personal antagonist who worked against him! That was so great. I loved this "an antagonist has an antagonist" stuff.

My Conclusion
Since I knew the Mistborn Series already I was disappointed. It wasn't as epic as that series. There was a lot of stuff where I wished for more explanations and all this stuff. But if you thinking about reading something from Sanderson for the first time. Read this! It is pretty good and if you don't want to start another series, yes this is perfect. You see how Sanderson writes and builds his worlds how his plot works and all this stuff. And you get a good feeling if you like him as an author or not. (hide spoiler)]

I give 3,5 stars :) ...more

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Mar 27, 2020 Evil Secret Ninja rated it really liked it

Shelves: reading-challenges

This book was very different. I have to say it was not my favorite by the author but I have to say for a first novel it was well done. I liked the attention to detail and the world building. The characters were well rounded and had purpose in what they did. I felt like the ending was a little rushed as if all hope was lost until suddenly it all makes sense. In later books Sanderson does this way better but in this one it was just a little off.

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