Elantris

Executive Summary: For a debut novel, this is decent, but Mr. Sanderson's writing ability has definitely come a long way since then.Audio book: Jack Garrett does a pretty good job. He does a few voices and overall his reading style was enjoyable. I'd listen to another book he narrates.Full ReviewWell this is it, the last published Sanderson novel I haven't read. At least of the Cosmere books. I probably shouldn't have saved it for last, since it was his his first novel.That certainly shows here. It has the elements of a Sanderson novel that I love: interesting world building and a cool magic system. The pacing however, leaves much to be desired. The first two-thirds of this book or so are far too slow. There is just too much going on. I think some of the this could have been edited out into a tighter, better story.The characters were decent, but some of them were a bit too black and white. Then again, that's still common in Mr. Sanderson's later novels. I liked both Raoden and Sarene as protagonists. But while Radoen's story mostly moved at a decent pace, it was Sarene's whose parts seemed to really bog things down.The last third was very enjoyable though. I'd definitely like to read another book about Elantris, especially now that Mr. Sanderson has refined his craft.I am eager to check out the novella [b:The Emperor's Soul 13578175 The Emperor's Soul Brandon Sanderson https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343059311s/13578175.jpg 19161502], which I've owned for some time, but didn't want to read until doing this first. Overall I'm glad I finally read this, but it's not something I'd really recommend except for the Sanderson die-hards such as myself.