Reviews - Elantris | The StoryGraph

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11.1k reviews for:

Elantris

Brandon Sanderson

4.11 AVERAGE

majaholic's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

aedod's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-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

This book was the real deal. Incredible world building, extraordinary unique concept, compelling characters. An epic battle: of political and religious warfare, with very little actual fighting. The religious warfare bit and its resolutions were very intriguing knowing Sanderson’s own faith.

I LOVED this book and could not put it down. I can’t believe this is regarded as his “weakest” work. (In fact, the lack of drawn out action scenes made the book better imo, I get so bored reading those) Only small nit is that the climactic points in the story were one liners, would have liked to stay in those moments for longer!

bixgdm's review against another edition

4.0

"Starting the Cosmere" has been on the "goals" page of every single one of my reading journals since 2021 and I'm so glad I finally did it!!

I was a bit scared because I've seen some people say not to start with Elantris because it's not as good as his other books so you'd be setting yourself up for failure but I really enjoyed it. I LOVE political intrigue in fantasy and that was definitely one of the prominent aspects of the novel.

Of course this is the only one I have read so far but I think it was a great book to start with because there is not a lot of magic so I was able to get a good grasp of the writing, characters (whom I also loved), and of the universe without getting overwhelmed by the magic system. It still took some time and effort to get used to the names, countries, and terms in the different languages used by the characters but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Can't wait to pick up the first Mistborn trilogy next :)

c_ellis's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

jenny_king's review against another edition

5.0

Here it is - my first finished Brandon Sanderson. You can’t read up on high fantasy recommendations without his name appearing on both the Adult and YA sides, so I have been meaning to get to him for a while. But with a massive backlist I decided to do my research on where to start. There are lots of differing opinions on this - his books are all set in the same universe but outside of the collections they are not really connected. But despite people’s feelings around Elantris actually being one of his weaker works, I liked the idea of starting with a stand alone so that I could get a sense of his writing style, and yet also have the knowledge that the books would only get better.

But I was amazingly surprised by how much I enjoyed this, not only because the heroine was an absolute badass, but all the other supporting characters were amazing, and the villains were incredible. Give me a book where a villain can make me so angry that I just want to jump into the story to punch him in the face, and you are onto a winner. But aside from the characters, the world building and development of the religious and political society was incredibly well done. I never felt lost at any point, or felt like I needed more information.

Finally, the writing style was excellent- it was compelling to the point that I didn’t want to put the book down. But more than that it was amazingly funny in parts, which is something that I feel is missing from some fantasy novels (outside of Terry Pratchett). So overall I can’t wait to dive into the Mistborn trilogy and then go from there.

hannah_licklider's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Very boring. I felt like I was trudging up a mountain to get through it

esaisanchez's review against another edition

3.75

This book may or may not have been the cause of a long reading slump for me. But despite it moving slow, the ending really captivated me and almost made it worth it. I think the characters are the best part of this book. I am actually excited for the future sequels.