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dionysius_miller's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Religious bigotry, War, Murder, Body shaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment
Moderate: Chronic illness, Blood, Ableism, Body horror, and Child death
Minor: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Racism, and Cannibalism
an_alaskan_fairy_tale's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I struggled with this book. While it had some good points, a third of the chapters (the Hrathen ones) really made me want to quit reading. To finish the book calling him a tragic hero just because he did one good thing and then died really sat poorly with me.
Also, there are some notable instances of fat phobia in this book, which seem to be a bias Sanderson has worked on over the years but not entirely left behind. (I recall noticing some in the first or second of his books that I read). I hear that he's employed sensitivity readers as a response to fan criticism - I hope that's true. That said, I see why readers recommend starting with other works of his as introduction to the Cosmere. I'm personally glad I started with Tress.
Also, there are some notable instances of fat phobia in this book, which seem to be a bias Sanderson has worked on over the years but not entirely left behind. (I recall noticing some in the first or second of his books that I read). I hear that he's employed sensitivity readers as a response to fan criticism - I hope that's true. That said, I see why readers recommend starting with other works of his as introduction to the Cosmere. I'm personally glad I started with Tress.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Sexism
teyn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I'm conflicted on this one. The story was amazing, but soooo many unchallenged problematic biases seeped into the world-building.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Physical abuse, War, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Chronic illness
Minor: Death, Violence, and Suicide
sylda's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
It's fine until that one horrible part, which is bad enough for me to score it "not quite bad enough to DNF"
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
zea_d_writing's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This was my 2nd read through of this book.
When I first read Elantris, I loved it. I was fairly new to Sanderson’s work at that point and was kind of blown away by it all. The worldbuilding is detailed. The magic system is unique and interesting and complex and visual. The plot is a slow burn full of political intrigue that builds to a fairly satisfying crescendo of a climax before wrapping up nice and neat.
I was also in a fairly different place in life when I first read it; physically, mentally, and socially.
So I picked Elantris up again this year as the first book in my big Cosmere re-read and had…a very different experience of this book the second time around.
I still generally enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong. But it very quickly became very obvious that this was early in Sanderson’s career before he not only grew as an author but also (hopefully) as a person.
The story itself is not as clean as I’ve come to expect from Sanderson’s work. The worldbuilding isn’t as deeply intricate nor as subtly incorporated in this book as with his others. The plot and pacing are much slower and kind of stagnates in places. And the characters…the characters in this book are Sanderson’s weakest.
Sarene is damn close to being a Mary Sue without the self insert aspect nor a tragic backstory. She’s damn near perfect and isn’t shown to have many flaws (if any) that actually affect her arc and actions within the story. Sure, she seems to have some self-esteem issues. But that never stops her from being proud of herself, being confident, standing up for herself, etc. Sure, she claims that she isn’t attractive and no one wants her…but goes on to charm every single male character in the book including the antagonist. She can sword fight better than anyone, she’s an expert in politics and intrigue, she can solve puzzles and see patterns, she’s amazing at making public speeches at a moments notice, and the list goes on and on. She doesn’t read as a realistic human. She reads like an idealized independent yet feminine woman.
It gets nauseating at some point.
And I can’t say Raoden is much better, despite the fact that he’s my favorite of the three main POV. Something about him just made him pop off the page a little more than the others.
Hrathen I also found more interesting as a character and I feel he also had more internalized weaknesses and faults that actually impacted his arc and story, but he still didn’t feel entirely consistent. And honestly his “turning point” in the book, while not entirely out of the blue, also didn’t feel entirely earned either.
ALL OF THIS ASIDE, the poorer characterization isn’t actually what made me so disappointed in this reread.
What really caught me off guard during this reread was the blatant ableism, sexism, fatphobia, and racism throughout this book.
I knew, in the greater discussion of Sanderson as an author, that his earlier work contained a lot of biases he held before he very publicly started having discussions with his fan base about these issues, listening to the affected groups, and started implementing sensitivity readers. I knew all this, but I also hadn’t read his older work in a good long while in order to remember the extent of it.
As a disabled individual, I think there could be some really interesting discussions had about the Elantrians. How the Shaod can happen to anyone, at any time, without warning. How, instead of taking care of the Elantrians and giving them the tools to be able to take care of themselves, they are cast out of society and expected to fend for themselves within a system that intentionally isolates and impoverishes them.
I think there are really solid discussions to be had here. And I have no doubt this was the intention on Sanderson’s part.
However, the execution of exploring disability through this lens fell flat for me. Overshadowed by the blatant ableism displayed by all of the characters, how the aspect of chronic pain was “solved” in the narrative, and the use of the magical cure trope and how it applied to the only autistic character.
And I found that that was a theme throughout the book in regards to both the casual and overt sexism, fatphobia, xenophobia, and racism. The book tried to address SOME of these issues but always failed to do so with any nuance or authenticity. In many cases these problems weren’t being addressed at all and were simply there in the text or, worse, acknowledged and even joked about.
I’m not going to go into full detail on the long list of examples for these issues (the autistic coded character, the autistic character being magically cured, how both Shuden and Galladon are often referred to by their race instead of names, how Raoden - a pale skinned character - puts on an illusion to make him appear to be the same race/nationality as Galladon - a dark skinned character - and has Galladon pose as his servant, the rapey joke made by Roial, the numerous fatphobic jokes…etc) because if I did the review would be too long but the list is unfortunately far longer than I expected it to be upon going into this reread.
Overall, this book has a lot of problems. I like the plot and the story as a whole. I think some of the characters are interesting. And the magic system is easily the best aspect of the book.
It was also fun to see the first appearance of Hoid in the Cosmere.
If I didn’t already know that Sanderson is learning to do better, has taken steps to mitigate further harm, and improved in these specific areas in future books, I wouldn’t continue reading him based on this book alone.
Thankfully, he has. So, for now, I’ll continue to read.
I just might not be revisiting this one again.
And hopefully, when Sanderson finally gets around to writing in Sel again, he’ll fix some of these problems when he does.
When I first read Elantris, I loved it. I was fairly new to Sanderson’s work at that point and was kind of blown away by it all. The worldbuilding is detailed. The magic system is unique and interesting and complex and visual. The plot is a slow burn full of political intrigue that builds to a fairly satisfying crescendo of a climax before wrapping up nice and neat.
I was also in a fairly different place in life when I first read it; physically, mentally, and socially.
So I picked Elantris up again this year as the first book in my big Cosmere re-read and had…a very different experience of this book the second time around.
I still generally enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong. But it very quickly became very obvious that this was early in Sanderson’s career before he not only grew as an author but also (hopefully) as a person.
The story itself is not as clean as I’ve come to expect from Sanderson’s work. The worldbuilding isn’t as deeply intricate nor as subtly incorporated in this book as with his others. The plot and pacing are much slower and kind of stagnates in places. And the characters…the characters in this book are Sanderson’s weakest.
Sarene is damn close to being a Mary Sue without the self insert aspect nor a tragic backstory. She’s damn near perfect and isn’t shown to have many flaws (if any) that actually affect her arc and actions within the story. Sure, she seems to have some self-esteem issues. But that never stops her from being proud of herself, being confident, standing up for herself, etc. Sure, she claims that she isn’t attractive and no one wants her…but goes on to charm every single male character in the book including the antagonist. She can sword fight better than anyone, she’s an expert in politics and intrigue, she can solve puzzles and see patterns, she’s amazing at making public speeches at a moments notice, and the list goes on and on. She doesn’t read as a realistic human. She reads like an idealized independent yet feminine woman.
It gets nauseating at some point.
And I can’t say Raoden is much better, despite the fact that he’s my favorite of the three main POV. Something about him just made him pop off the page a little more than the others.
Hrathen I also found more interesting as a character and I feel he also had more internalized weaknesses and faults that actually impacted his arc and story, but he still didn’t feel entirely consistent. And honestly his “turning point” in the book, while not entirely out of the blue, also didn’t feel entirely earned either.
ALL OF THIS ASIDE, the poorer characterization isn’t actually what made me so disappointed in this reread.
What really caught me off guard during this reread was the blatant ableism, sexism, fatphobia, and racism throughout this book.
I knew, in the greater discussion of Sanderson as an author, that his earlier work contained a lot of biases he held before he very publicly started having discussions with his fan base about these issues, listening to the affected groups, and started implementing sensitivity readers. I knew all this, but I also hadn’t read his older work in a good long while in order to remember the extent of it.
As a disabled individual, I think there could be some really interesting discussions had about the Elantrians. How the Shaod can happen to anyone, at any time, without warning. How, instead of taking care of the Elantrians and giving them the tools to be able to take care of themselves, they are cast out of society and expected to fend for themselves within a system that intentionally isolates and impoverishes them.
I think there are really solid discussions to be had here. And I have no doubt this was the intention on Sanderson’s part.
However, the execution of exploring disability through this lens fell flat for me. Overshadowed by the blatant ableism displayed by all of the characters, how the aspect of chronic pain was “solved” in the narrative, and the use of the magical cure trope and how it applied to the only autistic character.
And I found that that was a theme throughout the book in regards to both the casual and overt sexism, fatphobia, xenophobia, and racism. The book tried to address SOME of these issues but always failed to do so with any nuance or authenticity. In many cases these problems weren’t being addressed at all and were simply there in the text or, worse, acknowledged and even joked about.
I’m not going to go into full detail on the long list of examples for these issues (the autistic coded character, the autistic character being magically cured, how both Shuden and Galladon are often referred to by their race instead of names, how Raoden - a pale skinned character - puts on an illusion to make him appear to be the same race/nationality as Galladon - a dark skinned character - and has Galladon pose as his servant, the rapey joke made by Roial, the numerous fatphobic jokes…etc) because if I did the review would be too long but the list is unfortunately far longer than I expected it to be upon going into this reread.
Overall, this book has a lot of problems. I like the plot and the story as a whole. I think some of the characters are interesting. And the magic system is easily the best aspect of the book.
It was also fun to see the first appearance of Hoid in the Cosmere.
If I didn’t already know that Sanderson is learning to do better, has taken steps to mitigate further harm, and improved in these specific areas in future books, I wouldn’t continue reading him based on this book alone.
Thankfully, he has. So, for now, I’ll continue to read.
I just might not be revisiting this one again.
And hopefully, when Sanderson finally gets around to writing in Sel again, he’ll fix some of these problems when he does.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Classism, Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and War
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Colonisation, and Eating disorder
diana_barv's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Well I'll be dammed. I am back on my fantasy-loving bs; expect a lot of cosmere reviews in the next months. I had intended to read more of them but finally, Jack convinced me by constantly making references to them and I wanted in on the joke.
Oh Elantris, for a first work it is surprisingly solid and I could see the roots of the style I so loved in Mistborn. The 3 POVs were very solid as was the world building. I could read an entire book on pre Shaod Elantris tho.
Sarene has everything I could wish in a protagonist, she was witty and bold and yet she had insecurities and fears. I loved her banter with Spirit.
Raoden was every bit a "good Prince this kingdom needs" but it slaps. His endless optimism was wonderful and I would have loved to see what he could have achieved with new elantris, separated from him as king of Arelon. Galladon (my beloved) was right, this dude was a sappy romantic and you know what? Some straights do deserve rights and him and Sarene were meant to be.
Hrathen's arc... sir, Mr. Gyron... holy shit. I am still unconvinced if I liked the last bit. His story was so complex and I loved the way he approached his mission and how strong his morals were, autodeception aside. He had purpose despite his lack of faith and he tried to mend his ways at the very end. BUT I do question his motivation. He and Sarene had mutual respect as opponents and barely. This was not an enemies to lovers and I think respect->admiration->love would have taken a bit more time. I feel that he could have realized he had faith in the people more than in his God's will (which was more Wrym's than a divine mandate but theological discussed will take us nowhere) And avoid parting with a dumbass confession he didn't even voiced.
Other random things that kept me from 5 stars are the weird shit with the king's rituals and lack of acknowledgement later. The "pope" who just came to read the frankly ex-machina decree. Sarene taking advantage of the shock; no way the people would have just calmly accepted an elantrian as king, not even their beloved returned-from-death prince.
Adien or whomever. He... No. Bad autistic rep. I am not well informed to give the particulars of why (Jack had however told me he IS bad rep and I trust her first-hand judgment) but even I know that was so wrong.
The pace was a bit funky, the last 3rd was super packed! But all in all I enjoyed it immensely. I even cried when I thought all elantrians lost forever. I am definitely going into the storm light archive next. Wish me luck.
Oh Elantris, for a first work it is surprisingly solid and I could see the roots of the style I so loved in Mistborn. The 3 POVs were very solid as was the world building. I could read an entire book on pre Shaod Elantris tho.
Sarene has everything I could wish in a protagonist, she was witty and bold and yet she had insecurities and fears. I loved her banter with Spirit.
Raoden was every bit a "good Prince this kingdom needs" but it slaps. His endless optimism was wonderful and I would have loved to see what he could have achieved with new elantris, separated from him as king of Arelon. Galladon (my beloved) was right, this dude was a sappy romantic and you know what? Some straights do deserve rights and him and Sarene were meant to be.
Hrathen's arc... sir, Mr. Gyron... holy shit. I am still unconvinced if I liked the last bit. His story was so complex and I loved the way he approached his mission and how strong his morals were, autodeception aside. He had purpose despite his lack of faith and he tried to mend his ways at the very end. BUT I do question his motivation. He and Sarene had mutual respect as opponents and barely. This was not an enemies to lovers and I think respect->admiration->love would have taken a bit more time. I feel that he could have realized he had faith in the people more than in his God's will (which was more Wrym's than a divine mandate but theological discussed will take us nowhere) And avoid parting with a dumbass confession he didn't even voiced.
Other random things that kept me from 5 stars are the weird shit with the king's rituals and lack of acknowledgement later. The "pope" who just came to read the frankly ex-machina decree. Sarene taking advantage of the shock; no way the people would have just calmly accepted an elantrian as king, not even their beloved returned-from-death prince.
Adien or whomever. He... No. Bad autistic rep. I am not well informed to give the particulars of why (Jack had however told me he IS bad rep and I trust her first-hand judgment) but even I know that was so wrong.
The pace was a bit funky, the last 3rd was super packed! But all in all I enjoyed it immensely. I even cried when I thought all elantrians lost forever. I am definitely going into the storm light archive next. Wish me luck.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Ableism and Blood
ggcd1981's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Essa é minha segunda experiência com Brandon Sanderson (a primeira foi White sand) e dessa vez eu “remei” mais do que na primeira experiência. Em 2021, até o momento, este foi o livro que levei mais tempo para concluir. Elantris não é ruim, na verdade é uma história bem diferente do que tenho lido até agora. Assim, foi novidade para mim um livro tão focado em maquinações políticas. Porém tive a sensação que a narrativa era lenta, tanto pela história ser de passo lento quanto pelo narrador, Jack Garrett, narrar de forma bastante espaçada (Vale acrescentar que pode ter sido a edição do áudio e não a narração de Garrett que deixou a história lenta, é difícil determinar a causa). Acrescentando o fato de que há relativamente pouca ação na narrativa e Elantris me deu a sensação de que se movia a passo de tartaruga, apesar de ter sido um bom livro.
Vamos ressaltar os pontos positivos da obra: Personagens agradáveis por quem pude torcer, como Raoden, Sarene, Galladon e até mesmo Hrathen, o antagonista inicial; Ótima personagem feminina (Sarene), mentalmente forte, com muita agência, e enredo próprio em separado de seu par romântico; Raoden foi um excelente protagonista que resolvia os problemas com inteligência e diplomacia já que não possui muitas habilidades de combate; Hrathen foi um antagonista interessante com aspectos de personalidade conflitantes que deixavam o seu futuro ambíguo, com um final que satisfez (ele ter começado como antagonista e terminado como herói do país foi um ótimo final); O desenvolvimento da histórica foi em maior parte imprevisível para mim e a conclusão foi satisfatória, respondendo todas as minhas perguntas razoavelmente bem.
Não houveram muitos pontos negativos para mim, os únicos que posso apontar foram mais uma questão de gosto pessoal: gosto de um pouco mais de ação em livros de Fantasia, mas compreendo porque Sanderson concentrou a ação no fim; as tentativas de humor durante a história foram um pouco embaraçosamente executadas, apesar de terem sido importantes para mostrar personagens desenvolvendo laços; Por último, o que já havia mencionado, seja pela edição de áudio ou pela narração, em conjunção com o enredo de passo lento e pouca ação fizeram com que eu tivesse a sensação de que a história era muito mais longa do que realmente era.
Um ponto ambíguo foi o personagem Dilaf, porque por muito tempo no livro eu considerei o personagem muito interessante e assustador. Por ser fanático religioso o personagem parecia não ter limites para seu ódio. Isso para mim, por causa de minhas experiências pessoais com fanatismo religioso, é bastante assustador. Contudo, no final o fanatismo religioso foi na verdade revelado ter por base o desejo de vingança por uma perda sofrida, e de certa forma Dilaf perdeu, em minha opinião, a aura de perigo e imprevisibilidade. Acho q foi um ótimo personagem que se perdeu um pouco na conclusão.
Minha opinião geral é que foi uma história de intriga política e religiosa bem escrita e com personagens interessantes, contudo a sensação de lentidão da história me impede der dar uma nota maior. Desta forma dou 4 estrelas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Colonisation, and Confinement
Minor: Cannibalism
The Dementia TW is not for Dementia as we know, but for a chronic state in which some characters went into when they would lose all grasp of reality and be lost in their own minds and suffering indefinitly.
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