Elantris

I enjoyed Alcatraz versus the evil librarians so much that I had to see what else Brandon Sanderson has written. That's how I ended up with his 622 page first novel, Elantris.

Elantris entered the fantasy market in 2005 with wonderful reviews. Sci-fi/fantasy veterans like Orson Scott Card and Simon R. Green are quoted as saying this far surpassed their expectations. Independent reviewers like Publishers Weekly called it "outstanding" and "refreshing." All of this gave me hope because I don't generally like fantasy, I like science fiction even less, and here I was with a whopper.

I think what discourages me most about sci-fi/fantasy is that so much needs to be defined at the beginning. Instead of setting the scene as Paris, 1933, or backwoods Canada, 19th century, the author has to spend pages and pages on description. It's not just the details of setting and characters, it's everything. Who and what are the characters? What is the landscape? Is it on Earth? Is it in our version of time or completely separate? How do creatures relate? Does Earth exist? How do communities work? Who holds power and why? How are right and wrong determined and judged? Is there history that characters (and reader) know about? The questions go on and on and all of them need to be settled before much of the story can happen.

Not only is that a lot of description to get out of the way right at the beginning, but it's a lot for the reader to keep track of. Add to that names that look unpronounceable and secrets that are revealed as the story develops, and it's a lot of work to keep the story straight.

I kept that in mind as I waded into the first 125 pages. I was introduced to characters, settings, social, political, and religious history, and secrets on all sides. It was a steep learning curve but the storyline caught my interest. I read in short bursts until I got about 200 pages into the book. By then, I was hooked and ended up finishing the rest in just two evenings.

So what do I think? As I said the story caught my interest but that's not all I enjoyed. Elantris doesn't consist of one story but of several, all intertwined. I was often surprised at how situations turned and how the resolution of one issue would affect another part of the story. I was also impressed by how the characters change and grow through the course of the novel. Not only did I learn new things about them, but they learned new things about themselves.

This is a story that examines lots of deep questions without feeling like an introspective tale. It asks questions like "What is faith?" and "What makes a person good or evil?" and "How should power be allocated and used?" and "What does a person truly need to be happy?" and "Where does pain come from?" and "What does dead mean?" If it weren't 622 pages long, it would be wonderful for a novel study. Its very length makes it hard to become familiar enough with the text to facilitate active discussion but the discussion would be fascinating.

If you liked Lord of the rings and would like to see a strong female protagonist, you might want to give this one a try. I still wouldn't call myself a fantasy fan but I'm considering reading the sequel. In case you're interested, it's called Mistborn and it came out in 2006.)

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Published in 2005 by Tor. ISBN: 0-765-35037-8.