From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

Elantris (Elantris, #1)

Brandon Sanderson

Start date: November 13, 2011

Finish date: January 2, 2012

Discussion: 2011 Reads

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Shelves: fantasy

Brandon Sanderson’s first novel Elantris has the advantage of being a standalone book (for the moment, there have been talks of sequels). There’s something extra satisfying about getting the whole beginning and end of a story in one go.

Elantris was Sanderson’s first novel and it’s a very capable outing displaying most of the things that people generally enjoy about Brandon Sanderson’s writing.

51cDW lBNRL Book Review: Elantris By Brandon Sanderson Book Review: Elantris By Brandon Sanderson
The wor Brandon Sanderson’s first novel Elantris has the advantage of being a standalone book (for the moment, there have been talks of sequels). There’s something extra satisfying about getting the whole beginning and end of a story in one go.

Elantris was Sanderson’s first novel and it’s a very capable outing displaying most of the things that people generally enjoy about Brandon Sanderson’s writing.

51cDW lBNRL Book Review: Elantris By Brandon Sanderson Book Review: Elantris By Brandon Sanderson
The world building here is strong and by no means limited to the city of Elantris and its immediate surroundings. In fact there are areas of this world we never visit that nevertheless feel quite real to me.
In many ways the novel deals with a lot of very familiar fantasy themes. We have politics, religion, magic (of a sort) and of course an evil empire. However, Sanderson steers clear of many of the usual clichés. If Elantrians are by surface description quite similar to elves then they are in the details also quite distinct from elves.

As the book progresses we rotate through a small number of viewpoint characters and Sanderson plays fairly with the reader here, not holding stuff back artificially but also not letting them know more than the character would. One of our viewpoint characters is at first glance not a sympathetic one but Sanderson does a good job of showing that character’s perspective and how he is perhaps not such a terrible person after all.

The book is not perfect mind you and I think it’s fair to say that both Prince Raoden and Princess Sarene are just a bit too wonderful. Everyone likes them. Everyone wants to follow them. And they’re generally right. Sure they are the heroes of the piece but it gets a bit blatant at times.

And there’s something a little off about the speed at which things develop. Admittedly my grasp of the geography is pretty vague but people seem to be able to move around awfully quickly. Not to mention the scale of the political intrigue which happens over a couple of months and feels like it maybe should have played out over more like a year.

However the book’s pace stops you from spending too much time picking at the details. Things start off fairly tense and the plot steadily builds up the tension as the book progresses. It comes in waves so each time the heroes have some sort of success they are rapidly faced with a setback that leaves them worse off than they were before.

The pattern is obvious, but effective, leaving you wondering not so much if they will be able to survive this, but how.

All in all for fantasy fans, particularly those who like the political intrigue more than the hack and slash, Elantris is definitely worth reading. ...more

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