Getting a Read: Elantris
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
It’s my firm belief that when a person recommends a book to me, they’re handing me an inside look at their soul. In this series, “Getting a Read,” I try to uncover truth about books and their recommenders.
THE RECOMMENDER
Alyssa Krueger: my other graduate school partner in crime. Alyssa was beginning her PhD coursework about the time I began my master’s coursework. We hung together through Gertrude Stein, George Elliot, and a bit of everyone in between. She’s a solid source for book recs in my life, whether or not they make it onto this blog, and has been reminding me to read Elantris ever since we first found out we share a love of big, fat, fantasy novels. If I had to guess, that would’ve been about day 0 of our friendship and likely a conversation had over giant cups of coffee/chai lattes at our favorite study spot: Bodhi Leaf Coffee. (yes, coffee lovers, go buy their coffee. I’m not getting paid to advertise for them, it’s just that good!)
HOW TO READ IT
In the stacks of a local college library or in a nearby cathedral (Gothic preferable, if you can make it happen). Essentially, somewhere that will make you believe the walls might crumble around you or slime might ooze from the foundations if you break from reading just long enough to glance at your surroundings from the corner of your eye.
REVIEW: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
It doesn’t take more than a moment with this book to find out a whole lot. In fact, I’ll include the prologue here for your viewing pleasure.
I mean, really, how do you put this book down after a concluding sentence like that?
Hooked on this book in seconds, I tentatively recommended it to everyone I talked to during my readthrough based solely on the concept. It seemed like a magic zombies story, and I was so intrigued I couldn’t wait to finish it. A perfect story, perhaps, to wrap up your October reading list?
A glance through the text and Alyssa’s teaser commentary told me this was a single volume fantasy story done in the old style, emulating masters like Tolkien, Martin, and many others. A little web research also revealed to me that this is Brandon Sanderson’s debut novel.
Sanderson is WIDELY successful. His books are so beloved that they’re rarely on the shelf at used bookstores. I know this because I’ve had this book on my to-read list for several years, since Alyssa recommended this book to me long before the idea for this blog even entered my head. I’ve hunted my way unsuccessfully through several states and a dozen or more bookstores in that time to get my hands on a cheap copy. Never once did I see anything other than Sanderson’s later-numbered series installments available in these places, and those were few and far between.
Safe to say, people who read Sanderson books love them and hang onto them.
Alyssa was kind enough to loan me her copy the last time I visited her in California, and I’m so glad I read it this way. Alyssa’s copy is worn and tattered, taped together from reread after reread, a velveteen-rabbit-creation crafted by both her and her brother over years of sharing the copy.
Sanderson is most well known for his epic fantasy series, so this little one-off is an aberration. I was, initially, pretty pumped about this singular entry. Truthfully, I’m a little exhausted by series, a fact that’s likely unsurprising to those of you who read my Outlander review earlier this summer. Approaching this book, I loved the idea of a single narrative running all the way to its conclusion in one neat package.
Raoden, the crown prince of Arelon leads off the three-viewpoint omniscient-narrative story. Chapters written from his perspective captured me from the beginning, as it’s through his eyes that we understand what’s happened in the mysteriously diseased city of Elantris. Other chapters are written from the viewpoint of his “wife” Princess Sarene, and the mysterious Hrathen, high priest and operative for the Empire of Fjordell, home of the people of the Shu-Dereth faith who aim to spread their fanatical, caliphate-style, religion by force if necessary into the unsuspecting or unprepared west—oh excuse me, I mean into Teod and Arelon, who are, hopefully only accidentally, nations situated to the west of the Shu-Dereth empire.
Yes, I’m absolutely implying that this book is at the very least unintentionally xenophobic, and at the worst, racist, depending on your interpretation. It’s hard to unpack that thought without spoiling the text, so at risk of having my critic-card revoked, I’m not going to back that thought up with any further evidence. I’ll let you come to your own conclusion if you choose to pick it up.
There are, after all, many reasons to pick it up and enjoy it, and for sure there are reasons to disagree with my reading of it as xenophobic. One, very simple way to step aside from that reading entirely is to leave the book alone in its world as a fantasy novel, and that’s an easy thing to do. All three of the characters are truly unique and have their own strengths that people will love according to their own personal connections with the traits they embody. Sarene is a kick-butt feminist who’s not about to take orders from any man. Hrathen is a complicated logician who struggles with his faith throughout the story. And Raoden… well, Raoden is the whole reason I’m giving this book my giant stamp of approval.
I disagree entirely with Elitist Book Review’s conclusion that Prince Raoden is the weakest character. Make your own decision, of course, but to me, Raoden was the most authentically produced character present in the text.
Before I tell you why I loved him, let me say that the fact that I named him “produced” at all is evidence of this book’s weakness. I felt that Hrathen, and most of all Sarene, were forced, contrived personas that did not always abide by their own rules. They didn’t jump off the page for me, and I certainly felt the strong arm of the author coordinating their every movement, culminating in a deus ex machina move the likes of which I rarely see in narratives anymore. But so be it. They were still fun and the ending was pretty cool.
But Raoden was unique. He seemed to me to be a living, breathing person who might wake up and walk around in my home at any time, ashen face, bruises, and Elantrian slime included. I found myself leafing ahead in the book to find the places where his story picked back up—counting down the pages I had to get through till I could find out what was happening in the rotting city again. He seemed always to make sense. The choices he made throughout the book were choices I never questioned. This is the mark of a good character—a person you believe throughout the many twists and turns the plot takes.
For me, character development is a big, fat, giant, deal. When I sit down to create a character for my books, it’s not uncommon to find me staring at walls. Why do I do that? Because I want to create a blank space for the character to come alive. I’ll find a coffee shop, then a wall, and walk into my mind. There, the character wakes up. I ask them something pertinent to their storyline like “Why do you always run away from relationships?” and let them speak back. Sometimes they answer, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they turn to another person in the room and engage a secondary character in conversation and my job is just to listen. Sometimes they run down the hallway and I have to chase after them to figure out why they’re running. In any case, if I don’t allow them the freedom to answer questions, move around, and speak back to me, my characters never feel alive on the page.
For at least one character, Brandon Sanderson has figured this process out.
Raoden moves and breathes as though he really might be alive. It was always a trick to determine what he was thinking, but somehow I knew whatever move he made would be real, true, or something else ineffably authentic.
Sarene amused me. Hrathen irritated me. But Raoden captured me. I seem to be pretty alone in this reading. Others have called Raoden and Sarene both “flat“ and otherwise felt that these characters lacked the kind of growth that Hrathen went through. I quite simply disagree. Reader, this means that you get to break the tie and decide for yourself!
One other element deserves mention before I wrap. Seons, subservient creatures of light created in the city of Elantris before the Shaod fell and destroyed everything, are fantastic features of this book. They’re full-fledged characters of their own, but they also serve as video/audio calling devices—and truly, I’m a sucker for any magic book that figures out how to deal with long-distance communication in a way that’s not “seer” magic in a pool of water. Major creative points to Sanderson for coming up with this race of… orbs of light?
This book didn’t come close to fulfilling my vision for a text that wraps itself in one, simple volume. In this way, Elantris did not live up to my expectations, but I’m not super mad about that. I wanted a book that solved all of its problems in a few hundred pages, and I got… not a cliffhanger but certainly an open-ended story. Elantris seems to communicate to its readers that there may be a sequel in the works. It would be very easy, and welcomed (especially after the literary learning and growth Sanderson’s undergone in his other novels, so Alyssa tells me), to concoct a new story of an Elantrian beating back the darkness of some new foe, whether that be the Shaod, Empire, or other enemies. I, for one, am on the lookout for such a story.
THE RECOMMENDER IN REVIEW
No matter where I found myself at the end of this book, I knew Alyssa would be alright with my reading. Alyssa is the type to embrace the intellectual, even when it appears in strange moments, like the middle of a fantasy novel that should really just be plain, good fun. I appreciate Alyssa’s willingness to move in and out of the complexities of life; whether things are difficult or laughable, I always know she’ll be willing to go with the flow. Whether I’m counting on her for a great new read, or to help pick me up off the floor when life knocks me down, I know I’ve got excellent company in Alyssa.
WHERE TO FIND IT
New, preferably, or borrowed. You aren’t gonna find this book at a used bookstore, as I’ve already mentioned. Ebook would work beautifully, if you needed it fast. Borrowed was a fantastic method for me. But if you don’t want to wait to consume the eccentric pages of this book in physical form, spring for the $10 mass-market paperback. You can order it from any online book retailer or from your local bookstore.
