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A review by mooseabs
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
I've spent the last two hours yelling and throwing my phone around (it was an ebook) while finishing Elantris. It is rare that a book gets you high in that way, and that feeling is always welcome.
Sanderson is a genius. A standalone fantasy novel is not something I'd readily go for. Considering the amount of time it takes for proper world building and narrating an engaging story with enough elements to make it eligible for high fantasy, a single book instead of a series would prove detrimental, but this guy pulled it off remarkably well, although the writing in the end was marked by haste, and a profound lack of subtlety.
Out of all the plots in the book, I was really touched by the religious conflict portrayed in it, which was very well expounded. I realize that it was the writer's experience as a Mormon missionary that allowed him to explore the depths of the topic, something I found extremely relatable, having been in a similar situation.
The character contrast, like in Mistborn (the only other series I read by Sanderson) was Mashallah quality. Like, seriously, how does he include so many facets of personalities in a single group of people? Hecking amazeballs.
Oh, and this got me interested in reading about Sanderson. The guy had apparently written 12 novels and all of them were unpublished till Elantris went into print. I'm so happy that he's starting to get due now.
Sanderson is a genius. A standalone fantasy novel is not something I'd readily go for. Considering the amount of time it takes for proper world building and narrating an engaging story with enough elements to make it eligible for high fantasy, a single book instead of a series would prove detrimental, but this guy pulled it off remarkably well, although the writing in the end was marked by haste, and a profound lack of subtlety.
Out of all the plots in the book, I was really touched by the religious conflict portrayed in it, which was very well expounded. I realize that it was the writer's experience as a Mormon missionary that allowed him to explore the depths of the topic, something I found extremely relatable, having been in a similar situation.
The character contrast, like in Mistborn (the only other series I read by Sanderson) was Mashallah quality. Like, seriously, how does he include so many facets of personalities in a single group of people? Hecking amazeballs.
Oh, and this got me interested in reading about Sanderson. The guy had apparently written 12 novels and all of them were unpublished till Elantris went into print. I'm so happy that he's starting to get due now.