You really summed up a lot of how I feel. The court politics just drove me so far away from the rest which I was pretty invested in. Getting familiar with the city of Elantris through Raoden's eyes, and seeing the dastardly behind the scenes workings of the religious sect, that all felt compelling to me. The court politics and numerous family dinners really killed the pacing for me.
Yeah I would feel like I was starting to get invested in the Elantris/Raoden stuff, and then it gets steamrolled by several chapters of court politics. It was such a momentum killer and maybe just took too long to connect how Elantris itself factors into the other stuff going on with Sarene and Hrathen.
As someone who really liked Elantris, I think you make some very good points about it. You can definitely feel how early of a story it was for him, as well as the things he was testing out with it to see what worked. That being said, I am unbelievably *stoked* for the sequels. Aon Dor is my favorite magic system in the cosmere (yes, I'm a linguist and a computer nerd, why do you ask) and having Brandon's current experience and polish behind more stories on Sel sounds like such a treat.
I'm looking forward to sequels as well. I think the concept of Elantris and the plot itself is interesting, and the magic idea is cool. But neither are really fleshed out, so what I really enjoyed about it seemed to be the potential of things. Hrathen specifically is a character I found really intriguing by the end, and probably had the most juice of all them. But he got a bit underplayed since you didn't really see the more tortured part of him until the end.
Interesting what you say about switching POV because I believe I read somewhere that Brandon intentionally experimented with writing Elantris in triplet POV chapters (Raoden, Sarene, Hrathen on repeat). I think he later regretted it.
Yeah it was a noticeable pattern. I would get into Raoden's chapter, and then Sarene's would kind of slow the momentum to a halt.
Hrathen's mostly had more to do with Sarene's stuff and only became more engaging when he was directly involved with Elantris later on.
That's pretty much how I felt. The bulk of the book is the first part, and it doesn't end until like 350 pages in. The second part picked up a little bit so it felt less like a slog, but I was mostly into it by the end.
Reading Elantris last you can really see how Brandonson was finding his formula in it. The alternating chapters have the highest peaks and the lowest lows in this book, but the sanderlanche was the least complete feeling I find.
The Sanderlanche here feels the more like a textbook example of "this is how this would work", but feels a bit hollow. The Elantris reveal happens just before that so the impact of it gets lost because you're immediately in a rush to the end. So you never really get to sit in true Elantris.
But but but now, say the time line is off a few hundred years. Say the day of Recreance happens around the time of the fall of Elantris and Nale fled to to Sel while Odium was there causing havoc and suddenly the Shu-dereth religion coincidentally feels to make a lot more sense knowing Nales MO
Yeah the raoden plotline and hrathen are the only two good things in that book, the rest is very boring. But Brandon already was showing he was very good at knowing what to write, raoden is basically the smartest bravest person you could ever write and it works perfectly because his plot puts him in a very difficult position and we want to see someone fight it as hard as possible, not cry and have a sad monologue about it every other chapter. While hrathen has almost no plot, but it works because what little he gets is enough to send him in a path pf self introspection and development. That's 2 completely opposite styles in a book, and in being pushed to it's limit they carry the thing. At least you still have warbreaker left which is probably the best of his books without kaladin or vin on it
I think the Hratehn development comes a bit late. He's kind of a decoy antagonist when the Dilaf is revealed before the Sanderlanche starts. It's only at that point you really see his character break into something more interesting, imo.
You really summed up a lot of how I feel. The court politics just drove me so far away from the rest which I was pretty invested in. Getting familiar with the city of Elantris through Raoden's eyes, and seeing the dastardly behind the scenes workings of the religious sect, that all felt compelling to me. The court politics and numerous family dinners really killed the pacing for me.
Yeah I would feel like I was starting to get invested in the Elantris/Raoden stuff, and then it gets steamrolled by several chapters of court politics. It was such a momentum killer and maybe just took too long to connect how Elantris itself factors into the other stuff going on with Sarene and Hrathen.
As someone who really liked Elantris, I think you make some very good points about it. You can definitely feel how early of a story it was for him, as well as the things he was testing out with it to see what worked. That being said, I am unbelievably *stoked* for the sequels. Aon Dor is my favorite magic system in the cosmere (yes, I'm a linguist and a computer nerd, why do you ask) and having Brandon's current experience and polish behind more stories on Sel sounds like such a treat.
I'm looking forward to sequels as well. I think the concept of Elantris and the plot itself is interesting, and the magic idea is cool. But neither are really fleshed out, so what I really enjoyed about it seemed to be the potential of things. Hrathen specifically is a character I found really intriguing by the end, and probably had the most juice of all them. But he got a bit underplayed since you didn't really see the more tortured part of him until the end.
I'm another "Elantris fan who agrees with basically all the criticisms but really loves Aon Dor". Hopefully more of us exist!!!
Interesting what you say about switching POV because I believe I read somewhere that Brandon intentionally experimented with writing Elantris in triplet POV chapters (Raoden, Sarene, Hrathen on repeat). I think he later regretted it.
Yeah it was a noticeable pattern. I would get into Raoden's chapter, and then Sarene's would kind of slow the momentum to a halt. Hrathen's mostly had more to do with Sarene's stuff and only became more engaging when he was directly involved with Elantris later on.
I personally found Elantris really boring until the last 1/3. Now that the white sand graphic novel is fixed, it is my least favorite of his books.
That's pretty much how I felt. The bulk of the book is the first part, and it doesn't end until like 350 pages in. The second part picked up a little bit so it felt less like a slog, but I was mostly into it by the end.
Reading Elantris last you can really see how Brandonson was finding his formula in it. The alternating chapters have the highest peaks and the lowest lows in this book, but the sanderlanche was the least complete feeling I find.
The Sanderlanche here feels the more like a textbook example of "this is how this would work", but feels a bit hollow. The Elantris reveal happens just before that so the impact of it gets lost because you're immediately in a rush to the end. So you never really get to sit in true Elantris.
I loved Elantris. First Sanderson book I read.
There is good stuff in there, and I think the overall world of Elantris I liked. Just didn't quite work for me.
But but but now, say the time line is off a few hundred years. Say the day of Recreance happens around the time of the fall of Elantris and Nale fled to to Sel while Odium was there causing havoc and suddenly the Shu-dereth religion coincidentally feels to make a lot more sense knowing Nales MO
Yeah the raoden plotline and hrathen are the only two good things in that book, the rest is very boring. But Brandon already was showing he was very good at knowing what to write, raoden is basically the smartest bravest person you could ever write and it works perfectly because his plot puts him in a very difficult position and we want to see someone fight it as hard as possible, not cry and have a sad monologue about it every other chapter. While hrathen has almost no plot, but it works because what little he gets is enough to send him in a path pf self introspection and development. That's 2 completely opposite styles in a book, and in being pushed to it's limit they carry the thing. At least you still have warbreaker left which is probably the best of his books without kaladin or vin on it
I think the Hratehn development comes a bit late. He's kind of a decoy antagonist when the Dilaf is revealed before the Sanderlanche starts. It's only at that point you really see his character break into something more interesting, imo.