Elantris
Ratings1,005
Average rating4.1
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4, - 4,5 stars! ⭐️
Elantris has been my favorite book since I read it in June of 2006. It was the first book of Brandon Sanderson and somehow it made it to Europe fast and my dad got it for me. And I loved it!
I adored the world and the characters!
It became the first book ever to make me cry. And I decided then that this will be my favorite book and Brandon Sanderson my favorite author.
Things remain similar. So no big drama! But I must confess that I approached the re-read of Elantris with fear of not finding what I found so many years ago. Brandon has written ever since a lot of other books and he has clearly become a superior author. But this was his first!
Elantris tells the story of this land where suddenly people can get a terrible sickness - and if they do, they're exiled to Elantris, a place of rot where these people that never die are expected to “live”.
We will find 3 points of view:
- the first one of Roaden, the crown prince that suddenly gets this sickness
- Serene, the betrothed of Raoden, who will need to survive in the court of the king without Raoden and take his place
- Hrathen, a religious figure with a highly dangerous task and very limited time to achieve it.
And now what can I say? Did I love it as much as I did back then? Well... yes and no.
- I did because the majority of the time I relived my memories and was really expecting the book to reach the plot lines that I desperately remembered as amazing.
- But also no, I didn't like it as much. I see how the book has very slow pacing, it's overly religious and a bit cheesy (I can not believe I'm saying this about Brandon Sanderson LOL, no doubt he never again wrote characters that were as romantic as Raoden). I really relied on my memories to help me keep pushing and continue reading, so... yeah. If you're fresh you won't have it and you might like it even less
Overall I still consider this book splendid, but I 100% acknowledge that it's due to my personal history with the book and not the book itself alone!
I liked this one better than Mistborn but I cannot get into Brandon Sanderson. I find his stuff too cinematic and overly dramatic. He creates this massive buildup and really anticlimatic endings. It might make a decent B movie but was fairly disappointing as a novel.
I love this book- Interesting characters, a wonderfully constructed world and fully defined magic system, political intrigue and plenty of action. Plus, it's a full fantasy in just one volume! Such a refreshing change of pace from most modern fantasies that sprawl across several books. My only wish is that it were longer! This was my first introduction to Brandon Sanderson's work, also his first published novel. He has since become my favorite author, so I really couldn't recommend Elantris, or any of his novels, highly enough!
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4, - 4,5 stars! ⭐️
Elantris has been my favorite book since I read it in June of 2006. It was the first book of Brandon Sanderson and somehow it made it to Europe fast and my dad got it for me. And I loved it!
I adored the world and the characters!
It became the first book ever to make me cry. And I decided then that this will be my favorite book and Brandon Sanderson my favorite author.
Things remain similar. So no big drama! But I must confess that I approached the re-read of Elantris with fear of not finding what I found so many years ago. Brandon has written ever since a lot of other books and he has clearly become a superior author. But this was his first!
Elantris tells the story of this land where suddenly people can get a terrible sickness - and if they do, they're exiled to Elantris, a place of rot where these people that never die are expected to “live”.
We will find 3 points of view:
- the first one of Roaden, the crown prince that suddenly gets this sickness
- Serene, the betrothed of Raoden, who will need to survive in the court of the king without Raoden and take his place
- Hrathen, a religious figure with a highly dangerous task and very limited time to achieve it.
And now what can I say? Did I love it as much as I did back then? Well... yes and no.
- I did because the majority of the time I relived my memories and was really expecting the book to reach the plot lines that I desperately remembered as amazing.
- But also no, I didn't like it as much. I see how the book has very slow pacing, it's overly religious and a bit cheesy (I can not believe I'm saying this about Brandon Sanderson LOL, no doubt he never again wrote characters that were as romantic as Raoden). I really relied on my memories to help me keep pushing and continue reading, so... yeah. If you're fresh you won't have it and you might like it even less
Overall I still consider this book splendid, but I 100% acknowledge that it's due to my personal history with the book and not the book itself alone!
Ok, I should start by saying I dnf-ed mistborn. Loved warbreaker though, and haven't read the stormlight archive. But elantris. Simply beautiful! So here's some gushing:
1. The world. I loooved it. The world of the elantrians, their downfall, the current political climate, the religion wars. All of it! Engaging and well presented.
2. The pacing. Not fast, not slow, just flowing. There were moments we spent watching the characters do menial tasks (and how hard it was for some of them!). Moments where they sat and discussed political matters, evaluating every posibility before coming to a consensus, making it feel very real. There were horror moments, that also felt very real, and just painful moments (the toes man...)
3. Characters. Also real. Loved. Them. All. Just all of them, I don't even have a favorite. And again, they felt very real!
4. The story. Good versus evil (but you're not sure who's who all the time) the characters would act a certain way, but their motivations were clearly laid out, so you could be fair witness to all sides.
5. The ending. I know some people take issue with the resolution of all matters, maybe a little neatly, but to me it felt earned and it was the ending I wanted so sue me.
Overall, i highly highly recommend!
I enjoyed the concepts and world that this was building, however, I could feel how this was the first published work for Brandon compared to the Mistborn Era 1 saga and Warbreaker. It's magic system is very interesting in how it works and who can use it. I am looking forward to the proper sequel as more of the magic in the world is explored and how it links his novella, The Emperor's Soul
I think this being Sanderson’s first novel really shows. Not necessarily in the contents or the prose itself, but it some of the pacing and rhythm of the book. That being said, it’s still a very enjoyable read with a unique and engaging plot. Absolutely worth a read for his fans.
The Sanderlanche is so real in this one! Momentum just kept building through out the entire book, pieces falling into place pages by page. I loved the character development for Hrathen the most, watching him struggle with his faith and come to learn acceptance. Serene was a great fmc and I adored her the entire book, so clever and brave.
Each Sanderson book I read the more I fall in love with his writing. Definitely one of my favorite authors.
A bit slow at times. But still a fun story, especially halfway through the book when the story develops further and comes together at times.
This was really interesting. Diving into Sandersons debut after reading half of the cosmere was quite the experience. I had heard it was slow and not his best book. While I agree, it's not the best, it was really enjoyable. I thought the world building and magic system was as unique as Scadriel in Mistborn, and that the messages were similar to Bridge 4 and Kaladin in Stormlight. Also, I got to see my first Cosmere connection in this!!! All in all, I thought it was great and really enjoyed this.
For this apparently being "the worst Cosmere" novel, I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Granted I've only read Mistborn Era 1 so far but I'm looking forward to getting to the later books if this is the level of his debut novel.
At first I really only wanted to read Raoden and Sarene's POVS, as Hrathen's didn't do much for me, but when everything came together later on you really see why his POV was so important from the start.
This is very much focused on politics and religion, with the magic system taking a back seat, so for that reason it's not an instant 5 stars, as I would have liked more on the magic. It was unique and interesting, just as the Mistborn magic system is, and I found the sections in Elantris and when they were discovering more about the magic were so good.
All in all, I really liked a lot about this and look forward to continuing my Cosmere journey.
you could tell this is sanderson's first work, but nonetheless, was a decent read! found the magic system and religious themes quite uninteresting until the end, what a sanderlanche!
The characters and the world created in this one were fantastic and the love story was compelling.
Początek jest bardzo słaby. Początkowo tylko jeden punkt widzenia z trzech jest jakkolwiek interesujący. Dopiero jak te trzy postacie zaczynają krzyżować drogi książka zaczyna być interesująca. Polityczne intrygi były nawet fajne. Niestety wiele pytań pozostaje bez odpowiedzi, głównie mam na myśli cały system magii, to jezioro i religie.
4.2
Bueno, como dicen por ahí: qué no es necesaria una gran batalla entre ejércitos para decir que fue gran final..
El libro al ocurrido en un corto lugar que lo vuelve simple, pero no aburrido. Se nota mucho que es el principal libro y misma inspiración para algunos del mismo autor.
El tema de la religión que marcará como algo recurrente es hermoso, la fe y el servicio a ciegas me encantó. Lo político que fue rascado también me ha gustado. No digamos el protagónico femenino. Buen inicio para Brandon.
En el futuro dire si es mi favorito, necesito leer más de Brandon
So listen, was this enjoyable? Yes. Would I recommend it? Not really.
Elantris is a perfectly competent story. Just nothing more than that. Which is a shame, because it did have a lot of intriguing thematics in it.
Like communism or the critique on institutionalized religion.
But as a fan of Brandon Sanderson, I gotta say - it definitely shows that it has been his first published work.
Some events just occurred without much of reason. It was a lot of: This happened, then this happened, then this... Rather than: This happened therefore this happened despite this happened. You know what I mean?
And another thing that Sanderson learned over the years - you might have heard of this little storytelling phrase some industry specialists talk about - SHOW DON'T THELL GOD DAMMIT.
(Yes, that's the official saying.)
Sanderson was definitely an offender of that but god bless, is not anymore as far as I can tell.
A few other things I cannot bring myself to write down in a cohesive way, slight spoilers:
Why was the mystery around Raodens death just forgotten halfway through? Like it was such an engaging part of Sarenes character introduction and then she just didn't care anymore?
Why has the magic system only been part of the unraveling in the last third? Like the magic system has been sooo interesting. Give me MORE of it throughout the book. This is my drug of choice!
(Maybe I will get it when Elantris Part 2 comes out?)
Sadly, epic scenes where really cut short in the end. Everything was amping up and then: Over? Oh, okay I guess. The first third was really to slow for the end to be this quick.
That's it, that's my Senf to it.
3.5. Love the world, loved the concepts, characters and ideas being discussed. Great final act. Reveals were cool
Disliked: the pacing, plot kinda gets stuck in places, characters become important then forgotten again. The ideas being implemented in the story are beaten over the head instead of conveyed by the characters or actions that take place.
Zombie Lepra, Zauber-Kalligraphie, Endgamr Kapitalismus und ultra-religiöse Hulk Mönche.
War schon irgendwie ziemlich cool. Nur einige riesige Logiklöcher. Aber hey, Hulk Mönche!!!!1111
I overall enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would (considering I DNFed this at an early point during my first attempt a year or so ago). The first 25% or so was too infodumpy and at that stage I was thinking I'd give this a max 3 or 3.5 stars, but after reading it through, I've increased my rating to it to about 4, maybe even 4.5 stars. The world was immensely fascinating and so so interesting, even if the set-up was a little clunky. I also had some issues with some characterisation works in this one, but it was palatable enough to read and especially knowing that Sanderson has improved on many of these issues in his later works (which I've already read earlier).
I also get why the book was so expository at the beginning - it's a huge world and Sanderson really needed to give us enough context to appreciate all the political and religious machinations going on, as well as the central mystery surrounding Elantris. All of these was probably my favourite parts of the book, and what really kept me going. The construction of the religious tension within the society, the clash between different cultures, and the fascinating mystery of Elantris was all so rich and engaging that it really caught me and was why I finished most of this book in one day.
I do think his characterization was also a bit rougher than his later works but we had some really good gems here. In particular, I was a little put off by Sarene's characterisation. I felt she was based a bit off the “not like other girls” trope, but also “different girl who thinks she's unattractive but actually many guys think she's hot” and “yearning for love against all odds”. Then we have to reconcile that with someone who is apparently so very politically skilled and intuitive, apparently able to twist all these veteran politicians and businessmen around her finger from as quick as a single conversation. The combination overall just doesn't make sense to me, it just didn't feel like good characterisation to me. Some parts that just didn't make sense to me: I didn't understand why she put on an act of silliness in front of Iadon but then flagrantly disposed of that act in front of almost literally everyone else in Arelon, as if news of that wouldn't reach back to Iadon. we were supposed to think she's politically manipulative by putting on that act of Iadon, but we also needed opportunities to prove how glib and witty she was and have other ppl admire her, so everyone else in Arelon could apparently see through it. a lot of things happened way too conveniently for her (and for Raoden too), like even her acceptance by the other Arelon nobles into their secret club felt a bit too quick and easy. Overall though, I thought Sarene was perhaps a precursor to Steris from Mistborn Era 2, of whom I'm a much bigger fan, so I'm glad that Sanderson at least brushed up on that.
I did really enjoy the character of Hrathen though! His internal struggles were really fascinating to watch - he was powerful but yet suffered enough setbacks to make him human as well. His was perhaps my favourite POV in the whole book. The only thing that didn't make sense to me was him falling in love with Sarene at the end. It just really seemed to come out of nowhere and felt really unnecessary tbh. I didn't see a single interaction between them that would make someone, especially a hardened priest like Hrathen, fall in love with Sarene.
This book worked well as a standalone but there're a lot of things about the conclusion that made me feel like it kept itself open to sequels, and I've also since found out that Sanderson has in fact planned/written sequels to Elantris which would be super exciting. I'd be really interested to see how he brings this world forward with his current level of expertise versus this being his first published work.
2.50/5.00
As a first book of Brandon Sanderson, Elantris is impressive. Evaluated on its own, Elantris is a disappointment. The book started great, setting up a predictable outcome, but failed to deliver on most of the promises. Raoden's character started out interesting, but became very predictable and one dimensional. Sarene was very strong-women tropy.. The worldbuilding was interesting, but when the mystery was releaved, I was kind of disappointed.
Good book, but man was I lost at the start of it. Loved the characters and the magic system, I could see some pacing problem but it was still a enjoyable read. Recommend it.