Ricardo

This book is not as good as Brandon Sanderson’s Mist Born. This book (Elantris) has a good plot, civilizations demise and what happen to it, however the book jumps around a lot from the POV of different characters, this makes the book a little hard to follow. I would get into a section of the book with one character and what was happing and the next sentence I would be thrown to the POV of another character. There are several books where this concept works, however in Elantris this seems to break up the rhythm or pace of the book. Since I only listen to books and not read them due to my long commute in the Washington D. C. area, I can say that the reader is not too bad; however Michael Kramer who reads the Wheel of Time series and Sanderson’s Mist Born Series would have been better. I gave the book 3 stars as the concept of the plot I will say is good, however the flow and pace of the book needed work.

First there will be some spoilers: This story if defiantly NOT one of Terry Goodkind's best, but not the worst either. This story is a plot line from the Sword of Truth and the main characters are associated by blood with Richard and Kahlan. Unlike the Sword of Truth, which the first book grabbed a listener into the world of Richard and Kahlan, the Law of Nines is like the Cherokee that Alex (one of the main characters of the book) drives, the engine turns over and over and is hard to start and get going. The story in this book is like that, the main story takes a lot of chapters to really get going and make for a difficult and slow listen to. I found myself just listing to the narrator's voice and not paying a lot of attention to the story itself. Once the story gets going the over all story line has promise it just was not fulfilled in this book. I read somewhere that this series will be a 3 book series, but with Terry it might turn out to be a 10 book one instead. I hope if there is another book or 3 that the story of Alex Rahl and Jax Amnell takes off better, there is promise in the story line. As far a purchasing this book, I would have to say if you can rent it from your local library and save your money for something else, if you must hear it and have to own it, then know you are going to consider this as a mid-level, get you through to the next good book on audio that you buy. I wish I just went and rented it from my local library then spend a credit on it. I like the Sword of Truth series (even if the series should have concluded 4 books earlier) I was taken by Richard, Kahlan, and Zed as characters and the over all plot line, but this story of Alex Rahl & Jax Amnell has to grown on me more before I find myself really connecting with the characters like I did with Sword of Truth or Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time (Mat, Perrin, and Rhand). So if Terry reads this review I would say; Good try, but needs more work.

A great 2nd novel for Brandon Sanderson and Michael Kramer brings the audio book alive the same way he has for the Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan). I can see why Brandon Sanderson was picked to complete the Wheel of Time books. The Well of Ascension continues the story from The Final Empire. The charters and story progress at a great pace and there is no lack of action for the listen to hear. Brandon has developed the charters in a positive matter that is believable and makes sense which is difficult for writers to do sometimes. I would recommend this series of books.