Elantris

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Jack Garrett

Length: 27 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Legendary science fiction author Orson Scott Card calls Brandon Sanderson a writer to watch.

Once the godlike rulers of the capital of Arelon, the inhabitans of Elantris have been imprisoned within themselves, unable to die after the city's magic failed years ago. But when a new prince falls victim to the curse, he refuses to accept his fate.

©2005, 2015 Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC. (P)2008 Recorded Books,LLC

Critic reviews

"...readers won't want to put it down." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Outstanding." ( Publisher's Weekly)

second time, and I still love it.

There are not enough words. I did love this book, and tend to crave Sanderson books like I crave chocolate.

Worth the listen

After hearing how the narrator reads this book, i didn't think i would be able to finish this one. With the first part of the book being pretty slow and the reader sounding like the Moviephone guy, it was tough to get into this book.

If you like the authors other work you will like this book. Just give yourself some time to adjust to the narrator.

So slow

The best part was towards the end. It was slow dragging and painful. Don't buy this crummy stumbling book. Waste

Awesome Book!

I read the reviews on some people saying it was "predictable" or no "character depth". However, being that I've loved all his other books (esp Mistborn and The Way of Kings) I gave this one a try finally.

Yes, some of it was predictable, some of it was not. Doesn't make it a bad book. The book was great. Made me laugh and get goose bumps at certain points. Narrator does a good job. I was sad when it ended.

Devouring everything by this author

I appreciate Sanderson's female characters. He seems to understand that smart and powerful do not rule out feminine and kind.
I have since read Warbreaker and The Way of Kings and am halfway through the 1st of the Mist Born Series.
I am (im)patiently waiting for the next StormLight Archive

This could have been a third the length

Interesting idea. I think...?

Maybe the idea was too small for this massive novel. All of the filler here is meatless situations for the poorly named characters to pointlessly banter about nothing. All the way to the end and I still don't know who any of these characters are. You have to admire Sanderson's ability to write about nothing. It's the most incredible part of this book.

worthy of a sequel !

Mr. Sanderson is a master at creating a deep complex world. I love it when an author is not afraid to kill someone you love.

Great Story

Has a great story. The production could use some better editing. Was lacking on breaks between chapters. sometimes it seemed like the chapter number was part of the previous sentence.

Awesome debut.

What a stunning start! The storm light archives are still my fav... I really like how dark this one is though.

Impressed!

My first Brandon Sanderson. Having learned early on that this was Sanderson’s first book I can give latitude for some of the repetitive scenes and overly long descriptions. Knowing that he’s come a long way since then - I just listened at 1.25 speed often enough. I tried once before with a different novel but couldn’t get past the first chapter’s eccentricities. I was told the particular series I’d chosen previously may not have been the best “first”.
So this book intrigued me, since for once, it was a standalone commitment ... I Loved the story and got used to the complicated names — which are much harder to grapple with in the audio version bkz so many sound similar yet look different enough in the written word so as to be much less confusing. The plot and reveals were quite good and I was happy to have it resolve in one book, albeit 27 hours later. I can see where he left room for sequels but thankfully no cliff hanger. The best part of the book were it’s characters - some stereotypical, some antithetical but a few truly novel enough to make me wonder about them, their origins & their depth. Sanderson’s imagination is clearly well deserving of respect. This is not a retread of any other fantasy or alien theme but something altogether new. I would have given it 3.5-4 stars but the fact that some of these characters won’t leave my thoughts a day later proves that he got to me, so I’m giving him the 5 stars that he deserved for a first book!

Not sure if I’ll go to the "the Hope of Elantris" and "The Emperors SOul" or just onto Mistborn next...

The reader was quite good although at times he sounded more like a reporter than a reader...