{"id":5154,"date":"2022-11-03T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2023-05-09T13:44:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T13:44:11","slug":"brandon-sanderson-elantris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/03\/brandon-sanderson-elantris\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Sanderson: Elantris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brandon Sanderson\u2019s <em>Elantris<\/em> (2005) is an epic fantasy but also, unlike much in this vein, a standalone. I\u2019d be lying if it weren\u2019t the major appeal in choosing this over the commitment of multiple book sagas. It follows the story of three characters: Prince Raodon, heir to Arelon\u2019s throne; Sarene, Princess of Teod and, by political arrangement, his bride-to-be; and Hrathen, a religious emissary mandated to convert the people of Arelon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The city of Elantris is a once magical place where the citizens practised magic and were seen as gods. However following an incident &#8211; the Reod &#8211; it fell ten years before and is now used as an open prison to new Elantrians. The twist: anyone can be an Elantrian. A magical conversion dubbed the Shaod doesn\u2019t discriminate in its random afflictions, which effectively renders people as a conscious zombie, a true living dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahead of his wedding Raodon suffers the Shaod and is secretly exiled to Elantris. By dint of contract, Sarene\u2019s wedding is still valid and she takes her place in Arelon society, or rather she rebels against it, bringing sensitivities from a more liberal society where women are less oppressed. And Hrathen skulks around in the shadows, pursuing religious imperialism, something he already has form in following the recent conversion of another fallen land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For all its plotting: political manoeuvrings, holy skullduggery, and the hint of magic on the horizon, I don\u2019t remember when I last read a book experiencing both genuine intrigue and cosmic indifference. Its world and presentation and mysteries kept me turning pages, but my complete lack of interest in the characters meant I wasn\u2019t turning them all that fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For me it&#8217;s the prose, which is effectively a catalogue of actions with details of what so-and-so thought. And maybe that\u2019s the problem, too much telling what people think over letting them think. But it\u2019s also the people who are somewhat stock. Our fated couple are perfect in almost every way (he\u2019s ever benevolent; she\u2019s feisty and better than all) with only Hrathen being somewhat interesting. The wider story is decent, with plenty of twists and turns, and though it builds to be magical, it wasn\u2019t magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brandon Sanderson\u2019s Elantris (2005) is an epic fantasy but also, unlike much in this vein, a standalone. I\u2019d be lying if it weren\u2019t the major appeal in choosing this over the commitment of multiple book sagas. It follows the story of three characters: Prince Raodon, heir to Arelon\u2019s throne; Sarene, Princess of Teod and, by <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/2022\/11\/03\/brandon-sanderson-elantris\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sanderson-brandon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hbg-title-9780575097452-65-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pon-1l8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5157,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions\/5157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booklit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}