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)

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...

Need a longer break between chapters.

The only slight complaint is that it could use a brief, one second pause after each chapter. It presently is about a quarter of a second.

I'm sure this is likely a byproduct of being originally produced for cds and they were probably trying to cut time to reduce the number of discs.

Another Sanderson gem ... too long

I like this author's work a lot, but aside from the Mistborn series, I find his work too wordy.

Pretty grand first entry into the Cosmere.

I don't know why people berate this book for not being the best thing he's ever written, as if that makes it bad. The narrator could have done better but the story itself was very good. Don't make this your first Sanderson book but don't miss out on it either.

love the book

I wish he would make more of these, I love the magic and stuff :)

pretty good book.

Overall its a good book! It's worth the read,
pacing is pretty quick at times and you never will expect what'll happen next in this story of magic, love and politcial intrigue.

story takes you to another world

The narrator was out of his league with this one; little variance in voices and a sad comparison compared to other fiction narration. But the story...it draws you into a world like something a series would and keeps you there for the entire time. You fall in love with the characters and feel like you're living the story.