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A review by dawnilton
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It’s a great book, but by far it is not the best Brandon Sanderson book and that’s the reason why I’m giving it a three stars.
The pacing in the first half of the book was very slow. There was a lot of just filled up which I didn’t really mind because the build up and the side stories were still interesting. The only issue I had was the POV switches that kept happening every chapter. I was not invested in all of the POVs which made me lose interest and slow down my reading pace.
The plot definitely got more interesting in the second half of the book. I couldn’t stop reading once I got past the 50% mark. And after the 80% mark, it was just a break neck pacing with MAJOR events happening back to back.
The character development was disappointing, especially knowing that this is a Sanderson book. The princess’ character fell so flat for me. Her main goal was to fall in love. That’s it. Just boring. The prince was the ideal golden boy who shines with optimism, loved by everyone and would do anything for his kingdom. Predictable and boring. Hrathen was still a little interesting and brought personal conflict that we explore throughout the book. But even that isn’t fleshed out completely.
——SPOILERS——
I just wish the climax of the book was better executed. I just didn’t like the fact that Raoden given two fake out deaths (not exactly deaths but it was equivalent to that). Same thing with Hrathen. We didn’t even spend time talking about how Elantris got back its powers. We just moved past it SO quick. I also need to talk about the fact that the little kid was a hidden elantrian. UGH I hated that so much! It was so obvious that the kid was only there because of ONE plot twist and that it!! It just feels such an easy way out of the plot conflict. Speaking of why did the conflict have to leave Elantris?? It’s literally the main setting of the book. So the climax should be there too. It just didn’t make any sense. It felt so weird. Again, I loved the ideas in the climax but I just wish everything was just more polished and better executed.
One the major things that kept me hooked to the book was Hrathens personal conflict with his religion. It was just so disappointing to me that we didn’t get to spend more time with Hrathen when he resolved his conflict.I also think that him coming back to save Sarene one last time just made his last POV loose meaning and weight. ALSO he loved Sarene?!?!! That was so random. I was completely taken aback by that revelation. It just didn’t make any sense.
I wouldn’t really recommend reading this book unless you’re wanting to read all cosmere books (which was why I picked this book up in the first place). There are many other books by Sanderson which are much better written.
The pacing in the first half of the book was very slow. There was a lot of just filled up which I didn’t really mind because the build up and the side stories were still interesting. The only issue I had was the POV switches that kept happening every chapter. I was not invested in all of the POVs which made me lose interest and slow down my reading pace.
The plot definitely got more interesting in the second half of the book. I couldn’t stop reading once I got past the 50% mark. And after the 80% mark, it was just a break neck pacing with MAJOR events happening back to back.
The character development was disappointing, especially knowing that this is a Sanderson book. The princess’ character fell so flat for me. Her main goal was to fall in love. That’s it. Just boring. The prince was the ideal golden boy who shines with optimism, loved by everyone and would do anything for his kingdom. Predictable and boring. Hrathen was still a little interesting and brought personal conflict that we explore throughout the book. But even that isn’t fleshed out completely.
——SPOILERS——
I just wish the climax of the book was better executed.
One the major things that kept me hooked to the book was Hrathens personal conflict with his religion. It was just so disappointing to me that we didn’t get to spend more time with Hrathen when he resolved his conflict.
I wouldn’t really recommend reading this book unless you’re wanting to read all cosmere books (which was why I picked this book up in the first place). There are many other books by Sanderson which are much better written.