When Brandon Sanderson’s debut novel, Elantris first appeared on store shelves, I was tempted to buy it. It had a lot of things going for it: good review quotes, a striking cover, an interesting description, and it’s published by Tor, who are usually pretty reliable. I couldn’t quite figure out, though, whether it was the first book in a series or not, and I’d really rather not commit to another long fantasy series if it can be avoided.
The paperback edition helpfully addresses this in the back cover copy:
“Elantris delightfully proves that a great complete fantasy story can still be told in a single volume of action, intrigue, wonder, and countless surprises.”
(If that was in the hardcover jacket copy, I missed it.)
Thus reassured, I bought a copy a while back, and read it over the last couple of weeks.
The really interesting thing here is the setting. The titular city of Elantris was a magical city, whose inhabitants were marked by glowing silvery skin and almost godlike powers. People became Elantrians more or less at random– from the highest level of society to the lowest, anyone could wake up one morning to find themselves transformed into an Elantrian, and granted magical powers (a process known as “the Shaod”).
Then, ten years before the book opens, everything changed. The magic of Elantris suddenly stopped working, and the tranformation became a curse– instead of silvery skin and magical powers, those taken by the magic turned grey and blotchy, and suffered lingering pain from even the slightest injury. The light of the city was snuffed out, and it became a decaying wreck, covered in muck and slime. And nobody had any reason why.
Starting from there, the plot is fairly standard fantasy material. It follows three viewpoint characters: Raoden, the crown prince of the kingdom that has sprung up since the fall of Elantris, who is taken by the Shaod; Sarene, a strong-willed princess from another country, who had been set to marry Raoden for political reasons; and Hrathen, a priest of a martial religion allied with a distant empire, sent to prepare the country for conquest. They all do pretty much what you expect them to do: Raoden tries to find out the reason for the fall of Elantris, Sarene tries to keep her new home from falling under Hrathen’s sway, and Hrathen plots and schemes and grapples with his faith. There’s political scheming, magical theory, discussion of theology, and a few big fight scenes, and i’s all handled very deftly.
Having opened this booklog entry with the worry that this might’ve been the start of a trilogy, it seems a little uncharitable to end it by saying that the book sags in the middle, but, well, it sags in the middle. The set-up is brilliant, the ending is very satisfying, but the book sort of drifts through the middle section. It’s clear where events have to go, but they take their time getting there. This easily could’ve been a trilogy, and God knows, there have been trilogies with less overall plot, but it still dragged a bit in the middle section.
Still, if that’s the only complaint I can find regarding a debut novel, well, that’s pretty impressive. Sanderson has written a very good book, falling just short of excellent, and it’s well worth reading. And, hey, the story is complete in one volume, so it’s not like you’re making a long-term committment by reading it…
Nice review, thanks.
I was looking at the hardcover with interest a few months ago, but it seemed, in some indefineable way, as though it might be preachy or propagandist in nature.
(Not that I need more fantasy books, though, since I just got the nice hardcover Dread EMpire republication by Glen Cook. Pretty good, so far.)
I read this yesterday. It was a good story, and pretty much exactly what I was in the mood to read.
That, I must say, is a very fair review of the book. I’m sorry about the sagging middle–always been a problem of mine, I’m afraid. I’m good with set up and great with endings, but sometimes things drag a bit in the center. I’ve been working on it. (One problem, I think, is that in my early books–Elantris most specifically–I pushed all of the climaxes onto the ending, rather than spacing a few of them out into the center of the text.)
Anyway, thanks for the kind words and fair review. I worried a bit about Elantris getting all of the praise it did when it came out, because I certainly hope it isn’t the best I can do. (Not to say that I don’t think it’s a good book–I just think that an author shouldn’t write their best work first.)
Next book, MISTBORN, is actually the first in a trilogy, separate world. However, I hate endless series, so I wrote the first book to stand alone like Elantris, then wrote two sequels (done and turned in) that expand on the groundwork of the first novel.) It came out in July, and is my newest work (I wrote Elantris about seven years ago, now) so I think it represents a large step forward in my style.
Best,
Brandon
I liked the book too… one point that especially caught my eye was that despite the prominence of religion, the problem turns out to be basically “naturalistic” — the gods stay determinedly offstage.
I would also point out that while the plot isn’t left hanging, there’s plenty of potential space for sequels. I.e., the Elantrians may be back in action, but that empire is still there! Also, the nature of the original crisis immediately suggests some possibilities for the next one — especially since that empire is still there, and they have their own powers plus some fairly smart folks….