Elantris

3.5 stars. This is Brandon Sanderson's first novel, and it shows. It contains all the elements that make him so extraordinary now: worldbuilding, unique magic system, and political struggles. Just on a lesser skilled frame than Mistborn or The Way of Kings.

Elantris is a city in the country of Arelon. Ten years ago before the story happened, a natural disaster caused magic to fail in the city. Before that day, the Reod, the inhabitants of Elantris had been god-like creatures with magic powers who were able to create food from dirt, heal wounds and live like gods, with the country of Arelon serving them. But not anymore. Elantris is now full of zombie-like creatures without any magic or life in them. It is into this city that the protagonist Prince Raoden, crown-prince of Arelon, gets tossed in when his body begins the transformation to Elantrian and he joins the 'zombie' masses. At the same time, his fiancee Princess Sarene arrives in Arelon, only to find out that her husband-to-be 'died' and she is now legally tied to be a widow and member of the royal family. A royal family that is not very stable in its rule, and which is threatened when Gyorn Hrathen arrives in Arelon, trying to convert the country to his god Shu-Dereth for the Empire of Fjorden.

I don't know, sometimes I was really thrown off by this book. It is written in what felt like a very light-hearted manner but the story that is going on itself is not very light-hearted at all. Those are desperate times in Arelon and Elantris, and I never really get to feel that despair inbetween all the light-hearted banter of Sarene and her band of Arelene nobles. The emotional impact could have been a lot higher, which would have made this a lot better. I think it's in this area that Sanderson has grown the most, if I compare Elantris to The Way of Kings, e.g. Sarene seemed like a first prototype version of Shallan in TWoK. Or maybe he just likes to write about women like that. Female characterisation is not a huge strength of his for me, I tend to like his male characters a lot better.

That said, despite this grudge of mine, the book is chock-full of action, and especially the last 20% are full of surprises, twists, turns and kept me glued to my Kindle.

I had hoped to get a better understanding of Sanderson's Cosmere universe from reading this, but other than spotting Hoid in the book, I am still no further at grasping what connects all his worlds.