Elantris

I'm a big B. Sand fan anyway but Elantris takes the cake. It is easily one of my favorite stories of all time.

This was the first book by Brandon Sanderson I ever read and I’m glad I did. This is one of my favorite books of all time. The characters are amazing and Sarene is very understandable in her. The only thing I didn’t enjoy as much was how rushed the ending was but I found myself crying at the end due to the characters and how everything resolved. I would say that any fan of fantasy should read this and also if your a fan of Brandon Sanderson.

The ELANTRIS by Brandon Sanderson is one awesome book! You'll be hooked how he narrated the story, the world building, the characters! IT WAS SUCH A FANTASTIC read for me plus I can readily recommend this to ANYONE and i know they'd surely love it!

I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes I crave a single volume story. Sometimes I just don't feel like slogging through the minimum of 3 and maximum (well actually I don't know what the max is, I think Jordans on at least ten and I gave up on Terry goodkind after book four)...of whatever the author can crank out to keep making money. I love epic fantasy/Sci Fi probably more than most fans but sometimes it's nice not to wait THREE YEARS, at a year per publication, to get the resolution of a really good story. This is what prompted he five star rating I've given Elantris. It was extremely well written, had a fresh concept in the "plague" that hit Elantris ten years ago, had engaging characters, swordplay, an interesting magical system, an unsolvable mystery, twists, surprises, and best of all it was all contained in ONE novel! Just when I thought that the stand alone novel was dead, Sanderson proved to me that it was still very much alive! I would reccomend this book to all fantasy fans,,,especially those interested in epic fantasy and don't mind a twist of romance. (When I say twist I really mean just a twist...not romance thinly disguised as fantasy...the romance is NOT the pervading theme of the novel).

I read Elantris for an English assignment, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Needless to say, I loved it! Elantris is one of the most origianl fantasy books I have read. The story is creative, and not something that has been recycled. It is new, exciting, and fast paced. Not only did I love the story, but I fell in love with the characters. Sarene is a strong female character that breaks all the sterotypes of women heroes. I also came to enjoy the character Hrathen. Througout the book it is hard to tell if he is good or bad. I haven't ever encoutered a character with such internal struggle in any book. It is so refreshing to see an atagonist that actually seems real, and you can see their conflict with their evil side. This book doesn't just have amazing characters, but it is fast paced, exciting, and humourous. Thats right, its funny at points! It blends fantasy with a refreshing blend of humor that doesn't seem out of place or gaudy. I recommend this book to all fantasy lovers! Brandon Sanderson is a welcome new fantasy writer with a great talent. I hope to see more work from this author!

Although this book will likely appeal to a smaller audience than your run-of-the-mill modern fiction or science fiction and fantasy with flashier covers or from popular mainstream settings, it's a damn shame because this is a very exciting, mature, and fascinating book. At first I was a little put off by the early introduction of foreign slang and foreign terms but they are much simpler and less in number than say, that of Frank Herbert's "Dune" or something more in the vein of science fiction. Unlike most fantasy books that focus on adventure and often a party of individuals, "Elantris" is a more realistic story of political intrigue that is split between three main characters. These are the two protagonists -- a bright, savvy princess who comes to a foreign country to marry its prince and hopefully secure peace for their side of the continent and the kindhearted, cunning prince who effectively dies on the very first page and before he can meet his fiancée -- and the antagonist, a calculating but remorseful priest from a theocratic empire that very nearly has control of the known world. His orders are to convert the king and/or the entire city in three months or else the city would be violently and forcibly converted. Besides these three main characters is one character that looms above them all very literally: the city of Elantris and its long-gone people. Elantris was literally a city of people ascended to godhood and had been for as long as known history. But ten years prior to the setting of the book, something inexplicable happened and the Elantrians fell, also literally. Yes, it sounds fantastical and fanciful but it's not really that much so for 50% of the book, if not more. Pretend it's renaissance France -- only it's on the border of the Holy Roman Empire who is almost done taking over Europe and the Black Plague ate everyone in the next country over ten years ago. Then you're all set. If you just can't deal with the fantastical aspect of the Elantrians but you like interesting, three-dimensional, characters and some political intrigue, suck it up and try "Elantris" anyway. It's that good. Just look at the first sentence of the book, quoted at the top of the page.

The premise for this novel is breathtaking. I must admit, that on reading the blurb on the back I thought to myself, 'there is no way this book can measur o up to this premise'. I was pleasantly surprised as Sanderson proved me wrong. The plotting is intricate and unpredictable (on at least three occasions I gasped with the melodramatic panache of a cartoon character). The pacing is also impeccable. One slight deficiency is that for the first half of the book, the Hrathen sub plot is not as interesting as the Raoden and Sarene sub plots. This imbalance is shortlived and in the second half, Hrathen's arc becomes as fascinating as the other two characters. The system of magic and the world are interesting and original. A novel approach to the fantastic. The end is satisfying but has weaknesses. it hurtles by at such a rapid pace that some of the built momentum segues into anticlimax rather than climax. Also, there are way too many 'surprise' revelations that happen too quickly, creating a soap operaesque situation in the final 50 pages. Amid these revalations, the given explanation for Elantris' fall is somewhat disappointing. Even so, this book is way ahead of competitors in the fantasy field. It is an astonishing first novel and I eagerly await to see where Sanderson's career leads.