Elantris

I'm honestly surprised that everyone says this book is the weakest of Sanderson's. I read The Final Empire and got so annoyed with the words ‘flared' and ‘burned' by the end of Chapter 5 that I almost DNF'd it. Elantris, on the other hand, had me hooked from the first page and never let go. I loved the characters (especially Sarene), the magic system that needed fixing, and the politics.

Se nota que es el primer libro (publicado) de Sanderson. El principio se me hizo cuesta arriba; pero cerca de la mitad, el libro adquirió ritmo, dejandanos con un final que se desenvuelve de forma muy interesante, con varios giros y sorpresas.

I started with the audiobook. The narrator is terrible! It was so bad that I almost put this on the DNF list. I decided to switch to the physical book. I am so glad that I did! This book is amazing! Serene is one of my new favorites. I loved the Elantrians, and I loved the magic system. I just loved everything except the narrator. If Brandon Sanderson would have this audiobook redone by someone else, I would love to listen to it!

This is a very long and complex story. It's very creative and original. I think Sanderson's writing improves from here.

WOW!
Ik geef toe, ondanks alle lovende kritiek voor Brandon Sanderson, behield ik een zeker mate aan scepticisme. Deze auteur kan toch onmogelijk zo goed zijn als men mij wil doen geloven?
Maar zie nu, ik ben uitermate verrukt te kunnen erkennen dat - voor dit Elantris alleszins - alle positieve beoordelingen meer dan terecht zijn.
Elantris overtrof werkelijk al mijn verwachtingen, het ganse boek is ongelofelijk uniek, complex en fascinerend.

De wereld, zijn politiek, zijn religies en zijn magie zitten zo goed in mekaar, ik denk niet dat ik zoiets buitengewoons ooit eerder heb gelezen. Elk nieuw weetje deed mijn achting stijgen. Hoe kan één persoon zoiets bedenken en het zo inspanningsloos eenvoudig over brengen? Petje af, echt.

Maar daar houdt het niet op. Niet alleen is de opgebouwde wereld en magie weergaloos, ook slaagt de auteur erin die wereld te bevolken met een grote cast aan echt aanvoelende personages. Geen bordkartonnen figuren, maar elk eigen en uniek, levend en geloofwaardig.

Zou er dan iets mis zijn met het verhaal?
Neen, in de verste verte niet of toch niet wat ik kon ontdekken. Ook het verhaal is uniek, meeslepend en zit meesterlijk in elkaar.
Miniscuul minpuntje is misschien dat de oplossing net iets te gemakkelijk komt, maar mij stoorde dit niet. Het voelde passend en voldoende uitgediept.

Echt, ik heb met hart en ziel genoten van dit boek. Geen seconde heb ik mij verveeld en dat feit alleen spreekt volumes voor een boek dat op mijn e-reader meer dan 900 bladzijden telt!

Elantris was Brandon Sandersons debuut en volgens velen blijkbaar ook één van zijn zwakste boeken. Amaai mijn voeten, als dit waar is, want dan maak ik mijn borst nat voor het meest epische boekenavontuur ooit, met mijn verdere exploratie van de Cosmere!

I originally started to listening to this on Audiobook, and quite frankly, found the narration awful to say the least. I don't know if anyone has heard the audible massacre of the book, but if they have and they liked it, I am sorry to have put forth such a polarising viewpoint. But I am sticking with it and not changing my mind.
However, in light of this I ended up getting the print version and carried on where I so vehemently left the audio book. Thank god I did!

Now, I have read a lot of reviews that state that a lot of people tend to start with Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy or Stormlight Archive and read this retrospectively. Which is what I did. In terms of a debut, it's good. It does not fall into typical fantasy tropes in some ways, but it does in others.
The begining of the book really does give a sense of unease when it describes the main characters change in circumstance and you think it cannot keep up this pace. And it does not. I think that when it does get to the middle of the book, it does drop off a bit.

The characters are good and you do tend to believe in them, particularly Sarene. Hrathen starts off as a two dimensional character but really does get fleshed out in the book

At times, I think the structure of the book does tend to hamper the story a bit. It changes viewpoints between the three main characters and at times I found this impeded the main story. However, I did enjoy the book. Just a few niggles.

This was the very first Brandon Sanderson book I read and I absolutely loved it, I couldn't stop. I read the reviews and some people were saying it's not really that great but I really enjoyed it, so much that I became a Brandon Sanderson fanboy. This was my first fantasy book by the way and it was such a nice and easy introduction, it's pretty accessible even to people who aren't big fans of the fantasy genre.

An incredible story with some character issues.

I loved the world-building and magic system in Elantris. Sanderson does a fantastic job of making a very believable set of cultures, and I was amazed by how real some of the struggles felt.

My biggest complaint is that the characters seemed very black and white. Raoden and Sarene are a little too perfect, in my opinion. Hrathen was easily the most interesting POV character, and his internal struggles were done a lot better than anything similar in Raoden or Sarene.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and am really looking forward to when Elantris gets its next entry in the Cosmere.

Finished this glorious book and I'm once again more confused by the current standalones than by Stormlight

This was love at first reading. I adore this book. I think I've found a new favorite author!!

The best book I have read all year. Mistborn is next, and I'm PUMPED to explore further into the Cosmere!

Has pacing issues compared to Stormlight or Mistborn (especially the ending, just like Warbreaker), but still entertaining and classic Sanderson.

It amazes me to think that there are people in this world who do read, but have not yet read any book written by Brandon Sanderson.
It gets me all excited hoping that someday, these people would pickup just one book of his and then fall in love with BS's world building and all the amazing characters. And then just one day, they would have finished reading all the books he has written and feel this amazingly satisfying “pain”.
Pain because now we wait for the great master to write more books and at the very same time, feel a bit jealous of the people who are just starting out in the Cosmere universe.

Thank you Brandon Sanderson. I have yet to read The Rithmatist, but after that I would be well and truly done with all the books you've written so far (or should I say “published”, I still have Aether of the Night :P).

Thank you for Mistborn, thank you for The Reckoners, thank you for The Stormlight Archive (and hey, you better get on with writing more books for this series) and finally thank you for Elantris

Epic

Quando aquela música do “que tiro foi esse” começa a fazer sentido.
#favoritado

Elantris, bercahaya dan dihuni oleh makhluk abadi yang menggunakan kekuatan sihir mereka demi kemanusiaan. Penduduk Elantris berasal dari manusia biasa yang disentuh Shaod sehingga mereka dikaruniai kekuatan abadi. Sepuluh tahun lalu, tiba-tiba saja kekuatan Elantris musnah. Shaod mengubah penduduk Elantris menjadi penyakitan, berkeriput dan tak berdaya bagai penderita lepra. Kota yang dulu indah dan bercahaya kini kumuh, kotor, dan diambang kehancuran.
Ada 3 tokoh utama, Raoden, putra mahkota Arelon yg terkena shaod hingga dibuang ke elantris. Sarene, putri kerajaan Teod yg mengunjungi Aerlon untuk menikah dgn Raoden namun dikabarkan meninggal secara mendadak. Hraten, pendeta derethi yg ditugaskan untuk membuat warga Arelon memeluk agam derethi.
Awalnya membacanya lambat sekali krn dunia & intrik politik yg begitu kompleks beserta segala istilah yg gk biasa. Hampir menyerah namun semakin ke tengah semakin seru & ternyata buku ini layak mendapat 5 bintang. Sebuah dunia high fantasi yg luar biasa dgn strategi2 politik yg penuh strategi, kelicikan & tipu daya, sangat kompleks.

One of the best Fantasy books I've ever read

A most original story and premise for magic and politics; characters seemed well-rounded and the world was rich and enjoyable to explore.

This is very clearly Sanderson's first book. And he definitely got better. There are hints at what makes Sanderson so great, but it's over shadowed by cliche after cliche, flat character after flat character. (And ugh a not-like-other-girls character that is juuuuuust perfect enough but still needs saving in the end... and another character falling in love with her for no reason except to show how special she is... and how no one thought she was pretty until she met the one... gag)

I wouldn't recommend this book. But if you're curious to see an evolution of what I consider to be one of the best current fantasy authors, start with his better books (Mistborn, Stormlight Archive) and then read this. So at least it won't turn you off of the better stuff.

I was not blown away by Sanderson's novel by any means, however, it is a solid book nonetheless. My biggest issue was the lack of much interesting in about the first 80% of the story. There was a lot of political and religious back story being set up, and while that is certainly necessary, I as a reader personally prefer more action, intrigue, and suspense. All the little breadcrumbs dropped throughout the novel do come together so nicely at the end like much of Sanderson's other works. I felt the characters were well-developed and the setting of Elantris was fascinating. All in all a solid first novel by one of my favorite authors.

Actually I finished this four days ago, I have tried to write anything.......to put into words on what I felt, it is an amazing read, what can you expect, it's from Mr. Brandon Sanderson...........there is never a dull moment in reading his stories, the only complaint I have.......why do you kill off some of your more interesting characters.........DANG!!!

Elantris, look around your city, your country......you might recognize something like it, a minority as Elantrians, you might be a Fjordellian or Teodian, depends on your thinking and personality.......actually finishing the book, I was ready to write something grandiose and emotional, and then I read Mr. Sanderson's rambling, and everything melted away........gone all gone........

I am rambling, I do not understand why......I read the first Mistborn trilogy, I was not affected by it, while it was a brilliant story, this one truly felt heartfelt.........I guess you really are a GREAT writer Mr. Sanderson!!!

Funny......I read and re-read this and still I am scratching my head........oh well.............

Amazing world, beautiful magic system and a great story. It is a shame there is not a sequel.

Sarene is my favourite female characters in the fantasy genre. Love.

I love the idea of this novel. The execution was patchy in terms of character development and pacing, although shows signs of the typical Sanderson style that clearly has matured throughout his writing career. For a first novel, it's completely acceptable, but I wouldn't recommend you start out here if you want to give Sanderson or the Cosmere universe a go.

One of my favorite fantasy books I've ever read. It was my first introduction to the Cosmere after Mistborn. Just got the Tenth Anniversary Edition– it's beautiful and actually includes a new hoid chapter.

Que gran libro es Elantris, que gran historia, que buenos personajes.

Otro más de Brandon Sanderson que me encanta, La historia de los marginados, de los olvidados de los odiados y temidos sin razón, magistralmente contada, sin ser melodramático, yendo de la locura a la superación y la esperanza con fluidez, nos entrega a cada paso nuevas pistas del mundo, de los habitantes, de la magia, en su medida justa para que no se vuelva abrumador, los personajes de una realidad impresionante te puedes creer fácilmente que existen, lo que sienten y sueñan, los estereotipos se pierden, se diluyen en una mezcla de personalidades, lo que los hace aún más creíbles.

Si tuviera que decir algo malo de este libro es que en él se nota un poco la planificación por la que Sanderson es famoso al escribir, las piezas encajan matemáticamente en su sitio y en este caso se nota, no es que se fuerce la trama ni que aparezcan demasiados Deus ex machina, pero fue una sensación que me dio al ir acabando.

Recomiendo leer este libro y leer inmediatamente “la esperanza de Elantris” relato que transcurre antes del final de la novela solo para completar algo la trama.

La primera novela de Sanderson no parece la primera y está a la altura de cualquier autor consagrado.