Elantris – Book Review

Heads up; I’m disagreeing with the claims that Elantris is one of Sanderson’s weakest books.

Even worse, I’m doing this in the full knowledge of how offensive it is to the author to suggest that their earliest books are the best, and subsequently that all attempts to improve have been a waste.

Unfortunately, knowing this isn’t going to stop me.

Elantris Plot Summary

A young handsome prince and a statuesque princess are going to marry… or are they? While waiting for his fiancée to arrive, Prince Raoden undergoes a gruesome transformation that will see him excluded from society.

Princess Sarene believes her fiancé was murdered and is along in a foreign court. Will she discover Raoden’s truth, or will a determined evil priest come between them?

Elantris – Brandon’s Weakest Book?

Most fans agree that Elantris is Brandon’s weakest book, but I don’t. I acquiesce that some character arcs in Elantris aren’t quite as strong or elaborate as what you might find across Mistborn and Stormlight, HOWEVER, Elantris is only one book. It doesn’t have the same amount of room.

Brandon’s series give their characters time to endure long, complicated, and very satisfying journeys. Elantris is one book with three perspectives. I would agree that none are as satisfying as Vin, Sazed, or Shallan’s arcs in Mistborn and Stormlight overall, but I preferred the journey I went through in Elantris compared to, say, The Way of Kings on its own.

The fact that Elantris is a standalone book made it a much tighter read. As much as I love a long and complicated mystery, I appreciated the speed of Elantris—and most readers still complain that Elantris is a slow, political trawl.

To be fair, I’m yet to read Sanderson’s other standalone novels—they might put Elantris to shame—though I’m very keen to. Warbreaker is next on my list!

A Change of Pace?

Having already read all of Mistborn and Stormlight, the first thing that struck me about Elantris was the change in pacing. My experience of Brandon’s books so far is that he will tell a scene in its entirety; there will be lots of details, many angles, and often a soft lingering look back on what’s just happened. In Elantris, he’s more keen to move on and get to the next section of story.

Now, I don’t dislike Mistborn and Stormlight for all its lingering and lengthiness, but in contrast, the speed of Elantris was refreshing. To use a very early example from the text, there’s a jump cut between Raoden discovering his disfiguration and getting booted into Elantris. I really enjoyed the speed of this; it made me laugh and I was excited to be getting into the bit that the book’s named after.

However, this isn’t how Brandon usually writes, is it? I spent a while decoding why I was so shocked by the jump cut—something that wouldn’t happen if I was reading work by another author—but I realized that I expected more of a wait. I expected to see Raoden lamenting his fate, and later on I realised I was also shocked that the book hadn’t paused here to show us more of Raoden and his father’s relationship.

Elantris has plenty of slow moments where you can really bask in the characters dilemmas, but I’m thankful that sometimes, the book just moves on to plot instead.

What Are the Themes of Elantris?

-A summary with spoilers.

I was very excited to read Elantris but I was quite giddy to discover it’s basically romantic zombie fiction. Considering how many times it’s been recommended to me, I was quite surprised as I don’t read zombie stuff nearly as often as trad fantasy, vampires, and werewolves. Similarly, nowhere on the book does it look like its going to be a zombie fiction—at least, not on my copy. The covers are such a crisp white, and my 10^th anniversary edition is coloured with an orange light. Admittedly, the alternate version boasts green smoke, which is a little more suggestive of the themes of disease and decay. I prefer the 10^th anniversary edition, however, because the main crux of the book is all about hope and belief that everyone can do better—and I think the orange light reflects that emotion far better, and that’s more important.

Aside from the zombies, I also enjoyed the long-distance lovers narrative—that’s something that I think will resonate quite strongly with a lot of the under 30’s crowd today. Though, in a post-covid world, I imagine the dystopian plague will also do quite with well with everyone.

Struggles with religious questions, morality, and faith are the car that drives this book forward, and in the main seat is my favourite Sanderson villain so far—Hrathen. I struggle to define what makes him such a great villain, despite having spent a long time thinking about it. I think that what really sets Hrathen apart from other villains is his sense of fear and uncertainty; it humanises him in ways that more overblown villains lack.

Lastly, I want to talk about the theme of immigration in Elantris. I’m fairly recently an immigrant (about a year and a half ago) and all three perspectives are from outsiders, two of which belong to entirely different countries. There were a lot of relatable moments and it was nice to read a book that reflected some of my own worries about living abroad.

Final Feelings

I loved Elantris. I binged it over a weekend and I’ll definitely reread it at some point. Sarene’s yearn to be loved mixed with her blunt personality were a delight to read, and prince Raoden was swoon-material.

For now, I’m really looking forward to reading the expansion on this world in Arcanum Unbounded!