Elantris

Elantris has all the hallmarks of a story that is part of a greater whole. Sanderson's signature method of weaving Mormon themes of self-reliance and a touch of Mary Sue-esque qualities in his main characters are present, but not to the point of intrusiveness. Overall, a good introduction to Sanderson's writing style. I would definitely recommend this to fantasy fans.

Mir hat es wirklich gut gefallen. Was sonst über mehrere/viele Bände ausgewalzt wird (nicht, dass ich da grundsätzlich was gegen hätte; an der Wheel of Time Reihe hab ich z.B. 15 Jahre gesessen), passt hier in ein Buch, ohne dass es sich verkürzt oder schlecht ausgearbeitet anfühlen würde.

Besonders nett fand ich in der Jubiläumsausgabe, dass auch ein paar Kapitel im Anhang waren, die in der finalen Fassung nicht mehr enthalten sind inkl. Kommentaren des Autors.

Aber insbesondere bemerkenswert finde ich, dass Sanderson auch hier ein komplettes Magie-System am Start hat, so wie auch z.B. in Mistborn oder Stormlight Archive, aber eben wieder signifikant anders. Und das, obwohl die Magie hier auf der Welt "kaputt" ist. Apropos Welt, es gibt schon Referenzen auf andere Welten seines Cosmere-Universums. Ich bin immer wieder beeindruckt, wie tief und weit man imaginäre Welten ausarbeiten kann.

Elantris er en fin historie, en tydelig førstebok fra en forfatter med mer på hjertet. Boken er splittet mellom forsøk på brudd med sjangeren og åpenbare klisjeer.

Den Sterke Kvinnerollen, en av bokens tre hovedpersoner, er velment, men oser Mary Sue-energi – hun er høy, hun er sterk, hun er frittalende, hun er ikke bundet av samfunnets normer for hva en kvinne skal være (og stolt av det!), men hun er også dypt usikker i hvilken funksjon hun egentlig har uten en mann. Aldri glem at du også er en kvinne.

Sant nok, boka fyller 20 år neste år, både mitt og tidsåndens syn på hva en god, kvinnelig figur er har endret seg, og Sarene er ikke en dårlig figur, hun er bare veldig åpenbar.

På samme måte som at bokens andre (eller første, han har bokens første kapittel, og alt dreier seg jo egentlig om ham) rett og slett er Verdens Flinkeste™, helt fra start. Han er smart, kjekk (med en plottsensitiv asterisk), snill, dyktig, et godt menneske, alt det der. Gary Stu Sanderson.

Igjen, debutbok. Ikke dårlig, jeg er nysgjerrig på Sandersons forfatterskap videre, og den har noen ideer som jeg virkelig viber med. Når jeg skriver dette, klarer jeg ikke å ikke tenke på Steven Kings The Gunslinger, som også er en uerfaren førstebok. Vi får se om resten av Sandersons verk setter like dype spor i meg som The Dark Tower gjorde.

Pues qué se puede decir de este libro? Simplemente me ha encantado, no entiendo a la gente que lo llega a calificar incluso como malo.

Si que se me ha hecho un poco repetitivo por venir de leer Mistborn seguir en un mundo donde la trama se centra en la nobleza y seguir con bailes y todo eso.

Pasando un poco a otros temas Raoden y Sarene me han encantado como personajes y ya ni hablemos de Hrathen y Dilaf, sobre todo este último que tenía algo extraño que no se desvela hasta el final. Uno no se espera que cuando hablan de que hacen demonios sea de forma literal.

El final aunque se me haya hecho igual un poco precipitado y alguna cosa me parece un poco cogida con pinzas ha estado bastante bien para cerrar esta trama. Estoy a la espera de la segunda y tercera parte que se anunciaron hace ya un tiempo para ver cómo se van a enfrentar a la amenaza fjorden y las diferentes formas de interactuar con el Dor que puede dar para mucho.

2.25
This was going slowly but OK to good. I was hoping for a great ending and it seem like it was building up to it, except there were hanging lines and the big solve hadn't happened at the 15% left mark. Still now most of the characters know what is going on so might be able to wrap. So there is only 15% left of a 638 page book, which is 95 pages, enough to write a good novella. This is enough page time to go in a good or bad direction. This for me went in the latter.

So this has several plots going on through the slow building world. The prince Raoden, the princess Sarene, and the priest Hrathen. Hrathen was pretty much the only one I felt like I understood well, and I had hope for a coming to God moment. He was the nemesis of the prince and princess, though he really doesn't know that the prince is alive, he is at first against the Elantrians.

The prince Raoden is turned into a Elantrian over night at the beginning of the book. He is considered dead and cursed was thrown into the dead city of Elantris, though the people are told he died by sickness. He now lives under an assumed name, Spirit, and looks nothing as he did. He is trying to accept his lot in "death" or life and starts to rebuild Elantris, the former magical and beautiful city. He starts building hope with its feral factions and tries find out what happened and if it could be fixed or at least helped in some way. This was interesting but dragged so greatly it was hard to stay engaged, when we finally find out the missing piece of magic, we are still held back and it drags.

Next there is Sarene, who arrives in Arolen to be told that her husband to be is dead and now she is considered his widow, even though they never had a ceremony and they never met in person. She decides to stay as her dead husband's father, the King, is running Arelon into the ground with its capitalism form of authoritarianism monarchy. It is a patriarchal sexist society and she starts fighting the status quo while finding political dissent among the nobel to try to wrest control.

And finally the priest, Hrathen, who has come to Arelon to convert its people without the bloody war of conversion as happened in the last Kingdom that he came from. He wants all the land to be under the religious theocracy that he follows. He thinks he can do this by conversion through making of the same enemies. He starts making the people of Elantris, a pitiful people the enemy. When one of his followers, a religious zealot starts usurping his plans, he has to switch focus. This zealot seems one step ahead of his political machinations. Every step he takes makes him question his belief and he seems to get thwarted by others, especially the priest zealot but also Sarene, whom he comes to admire even while working against her and her beliefs.I think he was the most well thought out of the characters and at the end I was rooting for him to find his way. He does but way late and by then I was so frustrated.

So all of this takes a long time to paint and other than the priests plans getting ruined, nothing really moves forward and any magic just doesn't happen. Pretty much Elantris starts getting cleaned up. The princess meets people, furthers the women's positions, which really doesn't come to much other than them picking up swords in the end battle and loosing but buying time, and meets the other political players. She tries to help the Elantrians but that backfires and actually gets a bit in the way.

Finally things seem to start really going they try to counter the priest's plans but she gets thrown in Elantris as a fallen but then gets well because it was all from a poison. When she emerges, they again try to stop the plan only her father has already agreed to Hrathen's demands, only the new King of Arelon doesn't follow his agreement and thwarts the priest again. This is where Reodan comes into Arelon and talks the nobles into another plan only it doesn't work because one of them betrays them, so he finally shows who he is. They again try to take control by getting married only the priest again tries to counter by ruining his magic that hides his deformed Elantrian face. But the people agree with him anyway as the princess accepts him. But...

Then all hell breaks loose in the last 15% of the book, we get several scenes happening getting thrown back and forth between them. They are all overwhelming battles with last minute killings and saves, all of them, Raoden, Elantris, Sarene, her father, her uncle, Hrathen, etc... all last minute, and the monologuing of why this is happening. Every time we think it is going in the direction of our people, it goes back to overwhelming odds against them and last minute saves, over and over. And this is when my enjoyment died.

Was it bad, no not really, only in places, and it was good in places but not great. This last minute, overwhelming odds at multiple points of conflict, is just not for me.

If you like fantasy you would probably like this book, it's got a good plot, but it wasn't my taste so eh. I prefer his later books.

Lots of characters with individual traits but most of them felt shallow or wasn't interacted with enough. Although having a optimistic protagonist, that really tries to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, was nice for once.

Got bored with the nobleman politics and their religions which are important themes here though (that one is on me for not doing a preview).

Good and bad magic was interesting but didn't have much backstory, would like to read more about the seons for example.

I can see why this book is unfavourably compared to some of the other early cosmere books, but that has more to do with how brilliant they are than anything else. By itself, this is an excellent fantasy novel with an interesting structure and lots to say about the intersection of faith, religion, politics and power.
It is a little frustrating just how few of the larger mysteries of this setting are resolved by the end, and there is some plotting that I'd expect Sanderson to handle with more subtlety these days. While there are plenty of women with potentially interesting characters, all are outshone by the female protagonist in a way that didn't quite seem to occur for the men, which is reminiscent of Vin in The Final Empire but he seems to have improved with age in this regard. There's also a lack of class perspective, and given that the mechanism of Elantris allows for anyone to be promoted into a position of interest, this feels like a missed opportunity.
However, it's still a good story, told well, with plenty of action and intrigue and a mostly sufferable romance to boot.

"Elantris" me ha dejado una impresión duradera. Me cautivó el rico escenario creado por Sanderson, donde los detalles sobre los distintos reinos, facciones y grupos religiosos se presentan de manera puntual pero continua. Agradezco que el autor no dedique largas descripciones a estos aspectos, sino que los introduzca naturalmente a través de los diálogos entre los personajes. Dejo mi reseña en : www.enredandotemas.com/2023/06/descubriendo-la-magia-de-de-brandon.html

"Elantris" me ha dejado una impresión duradera. Me cautivó el rico escenario creado por Sanderson, donde los detalles sobre los distintos reinos, facciones y grupos religiosos se presentan de manera puntual pero continua. Agradezco que el autor no dedique largas descripciones a estos aspectos, sino que los introduzca naturalmente a través de los diálogos entre los personajes. Dejo mi reseña en : enredandotemas.com/descubriendo-la-magia-de-elantris-de-brandon-sanderson/

I liked it but... I only loved a few ideas that weren't focused on all that much. Like I really liked the concept of elantris as this hell like state and the way Raoden gives people purpose to avoid their pain. I enjoyed his struggle with the decisions he is forced to make. I FREAKING LOVED HRATHEN AND THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. I loved it. Seeing his struggle with religion, faith, and logic, and his desire to do the right thing but his fucked epistemic framework and situation leading him to make horrific decisions, seeing his conflict in his actions. And then on top of that the religious ideas it is critiquing are explicitly the pitfalls of hierarchy and organized religion. THEN there's the whole concept of how the original religion that all the other religions based off of was based on "unity" which has been interpreted differently by the different branches. Then seeing Hrathen's redemption arc mind view change. And the criticism of blind hatred... And GOD it's so good.

Unfortunately that stuff is basically only 50% of the book if I'm being generous. Seemingly the other 50% is the most mind numbingly boring politics talk ever. And it's not like I dislike politics. I fucking loved dune messiah and Mistborn had it's own massive politic talks. It just feels so hollow in this book. I never cared or felt like any of the characters beyond Sarene were different enough to warrant caring about. The scenes didn't have enough spice to them imo. And ultimately the politic talks don't end up saving the day because Sarene overthrows the king through scandal, not a peasant uprising. Now, that's not a criticism of the plot, I'm just trying to explain why I felt the political sections were lacking, especially coming off of Dune and Mistborn. It was a struggle for me to get through those sections. Like wow that random political guy was the traitor, oh FR? On God? Just like that? I couldn't be bothered to care lol.

I will say though, the except comes when Sarene was outwitting people like when she made the king cry or beat Hrathen in an argument.

For moments I liked besides the religion stuff, the reveal about why the Aon's weren't working was cool and the moment when he puts everything back together with the title drop "Aon Rao. The spirit of elantris" was cool (if maybe kind of cheesy lol).

The part where galladon laments how Raodon gave him hope was cool.

Solid book all in all.

Time to read: 11 hours 47 minutes