As always, I’m discussing a book without caring whether you read it or not : there will be multiple spoilers, so beware.

Well, this was the last “adult” Sanderson I hadn’t read : funny thing is that this is the first one he published.

As usual with him, this is a good story, but this one is not quite like the others he published so far.

First, the structure with 3 characters having cyclic screentime is perhaps the most interesting thing in this book : it allows Brandon to fine tune his pacing, from slow in the beginning, to breakneck in the last chapters. I found this very interesting, and I didn’t feel the need to jump chapters like Brandon described in one writing excuses podcast. Yes, I liked one of the three characters less than the 2 others, but that didn’t mean that the third was less interesting.

The plot is always a strong point with Brandon, including the mandatory “Brandon Avalanche” at the end. Yes, it might seem contrived that nearly every character has one of his secrets revealed before the end, in particular, I never picked on the Daorn character, and asked myself what the fuss was about him in the end, but everything weaves well together, so you’ll get no complaint from me.

In fact, knowing Brandon, I tend to build scenarios while I read his books : I had put into my head that Iadon had performed some ritual to bring down Elantris because of the “incident” with Raoden’s leg, and had to continue fueling his rituals with human sacrifices. When you understand in the end what really happened with the reod, I was slightly disapointed : yes, the explaination is logical, and well thought of, but there was no one behind Elantris’ fall, as it was a natural evenement. I would have loved to have someone design this loss of power.

As I said before, the characters are compelling, especially Sarene. I love Sanderson’s heroines. She is competent, full of self doubt, and daring enough that she really is the element of chaos, as Brandon says. Raoden is OK, I think, even if too perfect. It’s good that he has Galladon going with him to make a proper counterpoint. As for Hrathen, it was nice to have an opponent’s viewpoint, and being able to understand him well. I like the fact that in the end, we witness this character’s redemption, even if we had seen it coming for a while.

I’ll reserve for the last the magic system. Maybe it is because I was expecting too much, having coined Mistborn’s and Warbreaker’s magic systems as genius. I should have started with Elantris perhaps (though I couldn’t find it, and had to start with Mistborn). Brandon has accustomed me with brilliant and new magic systems : this one is fine, but nowhere near as good as with his other books. I like the ideas about adding modifiers to runes, but this is introduced late enough so that it cannot be used too much (cf “Sanderson’s first law”).

Overall, this is a very good book, with an interesting structure and characters, quite a page turner, even if I found it slightly less interesting than his later work. I’ll label this as “early Sanderson’s work” : it’s interesting, not only in itself, but to see what came out later. The seeds of his work are there, and it’s nice to see how he managed to grow as a writer after this one.

Just an afterword about Seons. I twitted about that already : I never read Elantris while writing my first novel, so I never ripped him off. Seons are not Guardians! Ok, they look and sound much alike, except Guardians have very little power compared to Seons.