A Bold Entry Into Modern Fantasy, A Rough Start for Sandersons career

The City of Elantris was once the central power in the lands of Arelon, a place where beings of silver hair and divine power lived like gods. Until the Reod came and the Elantrians lost their powers, becoming nothing more but rotting corpses trapped between life and death. 

Ten years have passed and now the power in Arelon rests with the merchant kings who is opposed by his libertarian son Raoden who is cursed to be an Elantrian. Condemned to the once glimmering city, now little more than a prison for the dead and the damned, Roaden endevers to fight his fate and survive – to being peace to Elantrtis and discover the reason behind their loss of power. 

While The Crown Prince, proclaimed dead to save face, battles for the soul of the once wonderous city new forces make their way to Arelon. The Pirnces Sarene of Teod who was promised to be Raoden’s wife arrives and is determined to make sure the bond between her home country and Arelon remains to face off against Derethi who seek to convert the world to the relgion of Shu-Korath by any means necessary. Set to be her foe is the Gyorn Priest, Hrathen who seeks the conversion of Arelon though hopes not to fall to more brutal and bloody tactics. 

Elantris is not exactly a fast passed action packed adventure, its very much a division of a grand mystery, a battle of political wits and a question of theistic morality. At times, each of these feels entirely separate to the central plot of Elantris and the loss of the once great superhumans that occupied that territory. At others, I feel as though Sanderson is trying to tell three versions of the same story. Whilst Sanderson has grown to perfect this model of story telling in recent years, Elantris is far from his best novel. 

The problem with Elantris right from the get go is it seems uncertain as to whom its protagonists are. So many a time I found that information regarding the characters seem to come after the fact, for example a discovery by Sarene about the character of Roaden will not be applied to Roaden until after Sarene has informed the audience.

There seems to be an uncertainty as to who these characters are and it shows – Is Hrathen a villain or an anti hero? Is Sarene leading a rebellion or protecting her father in law from forced abdication? And seriously, why is Roaden using an alias? 

Elantris is not a bad novel, as a debut novel its quite well written with a clear structure. The narrative always passes from character to character, and keeps the flow of the story going. The characters are all involved in the politics of Arelon, and continue to build towards the final confrontation of the novel. 

Sadly, some of this does fall short. As much as I wanted to enjoy this novel, I found that I was held back. Mainly by the narratives of Sarene and Hrathen who seem to spend hundreds of pages doing the most tedious of activities to uncover the most minor of revelations. Meanwhile any chapters involved Raoden and the dead city of Elantris, where most of the action and the mystery of the novel unfolds, would have five short pages. 

The balance of the narratives is far from well done, and however well meant the character of Sarene and Hrathen were meant to be their stories simply were tedious and, by the end, their grand efforts amounted to a rushed finale. Sanderson has improved massively on mixing perspectives in the two decades since this books publishing, though if this is your introduction to Sanderson and the Cosmere as a whole let me assure you – it gets better!

One thing that requires little to no imrpvement is Sandersons skills of world-building and crafting magic. 

World Building especially, this is a where Sanderson knows his stuff. The world of Sel, where this narrative takes place, is flushed out with a history and culture along with competing empires and legacies. From the moment the novels starts we are flushed with the religions of the world. The splintering of religions, most of whom believe in the mystical God Jaddeth, much ressemble our own world and the splintering of religions. 

The magic system is also one that is crafted clearly with its own specific rules surrounding its operation. The system, which realizes on the drawing of Aeon symbols, almost bear a resemblance to the subltley of hieroglyphic languages. The sightlest of varions could mean the difference between healing a wound and turning one inside out. 

In his more current Cosmere novels, both of these have gorwn to be even more filled out than in Elantris which, whilst not the best book published by Sanderson, is still an intriguing novel and must read for anyone looking to truly understand the full breadth and scope of the Cosmere.