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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
medium-paced
Muy bueno, el comienzo fue algo lento pero luego de un punto no pude parar de leer.
Me impresiona la mente de Brandon Sanderson.
Me impresiona la mente de Brandon Sanderson.
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
OK, so I have some feelings about this one. Overall, I enjoyed it, and by the time I had reached the second half… Maybe the final third I was absolutely hooked and found myself wanting to leap back in to figure out what exactly is going on here. This is definitely a first novel, you can tell that Sanderson is still finding his footing as a fantasy author. Ultimately, the entire concept is a lot of fun, and the stakes felt appropriately high throughout most of the novel. There are points in which I want to strangle each, and every one of the characters, a little bit too much…pandering? Kinda? I will say, if you’re an audiobook lover like me (I tend to listen or listen-and-read), go straight for the text and skip the audiobook. The VA is…not great at any inflection that isn’t Movie Trailer Announcer Guy and his cadence takes a LONG time to get used to. I ended up doing my listening portions at 1.75 speed because the pauses (pause) were (pause) infuriating.
As it stands, Elantris is a stand-alone novel (with a lil companion short-story) and can be read with no other Cosmere exposure, or can be skipped if it doesn’t tickle your fancy. He does plan to write more on this planet, but at the moment it’s really just a “oh hey it’s those guys” tie-in at best.
I’m absolutely in love with Sanderson’s world building, and you can see the early stages of the methods he uses regularly now, and can even pick up on some of the “oh this was fleshed out into X in this other series” moments, which is fun as a Sanderson fan. He’s also incredibly adept at keeping his separate planets within the Cosmere strong enough to stand alone, making tie-ins more like Easter eggs than the Marvel Cineverse requirement of actually NEEDING to see/read every other bit within the universe to understand the story. This is a difficult task when building a larger universe, and for that I seriously applaud him.
I wasn’t particularly awed or surprised by most of the twists (he’s gotten much better at those in later novels), with the exception of one…which was truly only accomplished by withholding a bit of information until the twist arose. There’s a lot of “convenient” finds and revelations, which makes the book a bit…flatter than his other series and short stories, but again, it was his first one! Literally only improvement from here, and there’s a marked improvement even from the beginning of the book to its end, when you can kinda see Sanderson hitting his stride later on.
I recommend, but with cautions for expectation management if you’re coming here from his later publications. 4/5
As it stands, Elantris is a stand-alone novel (with a lil companion short-story) and can be read with no other Cosmere exposure, or can be skipped if it doesn’t tickle your fancy. He does plan to write more on this planet, but at the moment it’s really just a “oh hey it’s those guys” tie-in at best.
I’m absolutely in love with Sanderson’s world building, and you can see the early stages of the methods he uses regularly now, and can even pick up on some of the “oh this was fleshed out into X in this other series” moments, which is fun as a Sanderson fan. He’s also incredibly adept at keeping his separate planets within the Cosmere strong enough to stand alone, making tie-ins more like Easter eggs than the Marvel Cineverse requirement of actually NEEDING to see/read every other bit within the universe to understand the story. This is a difficult task when building a larger universe, and for that I seriously applaud him.
I wasn’t particularly awed or surprised by most of the twists (he’s gotten much better at those in later novels), with the exception of one…which was truly only accomplished by withholding a bit of information until the twist arose. There’s a lot of “convenient” finds and revelations, which makes the book a bit…flatter than his other series and short stories, but again, it was his first one! Literally only improvement from here, and there’s a marked improvement even from the beginning of the book to its end, when you can kinda see Sanderson hitting his stride later on.
I recommend, but with cautions for expectation management if you’re coming here from his later publications. 4/5
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
An interesting book with some intriguing plots and characters. After reading some of Sanderson's other novels you can tell this is his first big book, it lacked the big twist and bigger worlds from his other series, but still not a bad stand alone novel.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book was insane! I loved it. Took a huge break from reading cause work was crazy! But I finally finished it and aghhh! I loved it!