Elantris

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.