Elantris

I must admit that until all the hoopla around the release of Jordan/Sanderson’s The Gathering Storm I didn’t know much of anything about Brandon Sanderson. As I have not read any of the Wheel of Time, and don’t plan to I was not really interested so much in the new book, but more so in this author who had been handpicked to take up the reigns for the late Jordan. Say what you will about WoT and Jordan, but I have to believe that someone chosen to basically speak with another author’s voice, especially in so well known a setting, has to be at least better than average.

So combined with this desire to find out just who this fill in voice was, and recommendations from several of my friends over at the aSoIaF forums at Westeros.org I decided to read some Sanderson. Initially I intended to start with The Final Empire (Mistborn book 1) as that was the direct recommendation but as I was not paying attention I wound up with Elantris (a standalone) instead. Mind you I am not complaining about this mix up.

Elantris is the story of a city perched on the edge of what was once the greatest civilization in the world. Elantris was the name of this great civilization, its members were virtually immortal and could control vast magical powers through what amounts to a complex and well explained system of runes. Then one day the magic stopped and the citizens of Elantris became what amounts to living dead instead of living gods. The story is set ten years later and tells of a power struggle both for the rulership of the city in the ashes and attempt to avoid domination by a neighboring warmongering religion.

The story is told from three perspectives, rotating in the same order throughout. Initially I found this a bit annoying as the third perspective was not as enjoyable to read as the other two, this is just personal preference not anything to do with the writing or the story itself. However, as the story progressed I found this third perspective to be important to the story and gave the reader information that would have been hard to implement in any other fashion.

This novel starts with a definite hook, and doesn’t let go until the end. All too often I find that even though I enjoy a story I don’t have a driving passion to keep reading it, that is not the case with Elantris. Sanderson has built a strong world to work with and spent obvious time on its magic system and building backstory and characters to inhabit the novel and its environs. While the overall arc of the story is predictable, Sanderson does very well at both hinting at the eventual twist and at the same time keeping it hidden so the reader doesn’t see it coming.

From what I have read about The Gathering Storm WoT fans seem to be on a whole happy with Sanderson, and I can see why he was picked to fill the void. I found Elantris to be one of the better books I have read this year, and cannot wait to read the Mistborn novels. Sanderson is a distinct voice amongst the masses and I am glad I took the recommendation to read his work. I give Elantris 4.5/5.