reviews on the net

[Spriggan]

http://www.hbfenn.com/new/ff/20050302/20050302export1.htm

[fuzzyoctopus]

Wow! Do you think he liked it?

[Spriggan]

that reviewer is a "she" but ya its a gushing review.

another one is

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. 0765311771 Tor Fantasy hb $24.95. Surprisingly well done first novel. Original high concept and well thought out subplots on the intersection of religion and politics. Not the usual high fantasy. Well worth discovering.

http://www.crimeandspace.com/upcoming.htm

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I sure everyone has seen it, but here is Scott Cards Review.

For those of you who are always on the lookout for excellent heroic fiction of the Robin Hobb and George R. R. Martin tradition -- heroism, intrigue, and inventive fantasy world creation -- I have good news.

For those who are sick of fantasy series that go on and on, never seeming to come nearer to an ending, I have even better news.

Elantris is the finest novel of fantasy to be written in many years. Brandon Sanderson has created a truly original world of magic and intrigue, and with the rigor of the best science fiction writers he has made it real at every level.

What makes this novel unforgettable, however, is the magnificent characters he has created. True heroes who, in the face of adversity, find strength they did not know they had, make mistakes from whose consequences they do not shrink, and sacrifice to save what is worth loving in their world.

Best of all, the story is complete. Oh, there's room for a sequel - and I hope there'll be one. But this does not feel like "volume 1," with all the important questions yet to be answered. Sanderson brings off an impossibly complicated resolution only a few pages from the end of the book, and you finish the book satisfied.

Sanderson writes within a moral universe where people are rarely sure who the good guys and the bad guys might turn out to be. But the difference between good and evil is clear even though it's subtle and sometimes hard to find.

It's rare for a fiction writer to have much understanding of how leadership works, how communities form, and how love really takes root in the human heart. Sanderson is astonishingly wise.

I'm glad I didn't write this book. I'm not the least bit envious. Because if I had written it, I wouldn't have had the pleasure of letting it unfold before me as this story did, in all its ugliness and beauty and excitement and pain.

Here's the bad news. This book doesn't come out until May of 2005. But in the spirit of movies that get hyped for many months prior to their release, I want you to be anticipating this one. It's worth the wait.

[Mistress of Darkness]

The Barnes & Noble Review
Brandon Sanderson's debut novel, Elantris -- an instant fantasy classic about a fallen city of the gods and its inexplicable rise from its own ruins -- is a singular storytelling tour de force that is absolutely beyond compare.

The city of Elantris was once the most beautiful in the world. Inhabited by a godlike populace and home to innumerable wonders, it attracted people from far and wide. But then something happened. The magic that powered Elantris suddenly disappeared. The once-radiant Elantrians became leprous creatures, and the city fell into shadow.

Ten years after the Punishment, Elantris is a ghost town, a "land of sludge, insanity, and eternal perdition," inhabited by those few who become afflicted with the Shaod, a dread disease that blackens the skin, stops the heart, and suspends those ill-fated souls in a state of nightmarish half death. Raoden, the beloved crown prince of Arelon, contracts the ailment just as he prepares for his wedding to Princess Sarene of Teod. He is secretly whisked away to Elantris, where King Iadon informs his people that his son has died of an "unexpected disease." Sarene arrives shortly thereafter, finding a kingdom on the verge of collapse. In the shadow of the ghostly city, Sarene vows to do what she can to stop the religious and political upheaval. Raoden, meanwhile, uncovers the jaw-dropping secrets of Elantris.

In a genre where mainstream success regularly leads to mind-numbing repetition (unnecessarily prolonged series that recycle predictable plotlines) and shameless mass imitation, true creative genius is often hard to find. Fantasy fans need not look any further for such genius -- Brandon Sanderson is his name, and Elantris is his calling card. Paul Goat Allen

Link

I love that . . . "Brandon Sanderson is his name, and Elantris is his calling card."

That would be cool if they put that on the fly leaf of the paperback edition.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Ha...this review doesn't mention Hrathen, unless "religious and political upheaval" counts...

[Spriggan]

Some new net reviews.

This weekend I picked up a new fantasy novel called "Elantris." It is really good. Really good. At first as I scanned the shelves at Barnes and Noble I was disappointed, "nothing new" I thought. But there were new things, lots of them... they just weren't from the old reliable authors who I trust. I realized that I had fallen into a rut: wherein I was only looking for new stories with the same old people... no challenges, no new friends, no chances. So I decided I was being stupid and started checking out the new titles. This book has a lot of really excellent characters, not to mention plot devices that, I think, are truly unique. If you have the cash I suggest you give it a shot... or at least see If your local library will get it for you.

From this Blog. Couldn't find a way to link directly to it, but it's about halfway down.


Not really a review but someone with a picture of Elantris on thier bookshelf,http://trashotron.com/agony/shelves/2005/05-03-05.htm

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Someone posted some lame review on Amazon. Sounds like she didn't read the whole book. Complained about the first 2 lines of the first 2 chapters, and then made up a third line to complain about!

Everyone go mark it 'not helpful'!!

[Peter Ahlstrom]

http://www.sff.net/people/sherwood/RecentReading.htp

Short review by sf writer Sherwood Smith. What's meant by "eyeball cliches"?

[Spriggan]

Not quite sure myself, but I did like the line "The protagonists were not Noble Heroes so much as genuinely good people, something far too rare these days, at least for my taste."

On another note someone needs to write a new amazon review since that one that is more negative is what shows for a lot of google searchs.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I have been waiting to read the book with Karen, but I suppose I can write one if no one else does.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

my wife and I are reading Wake me When it's Over together. We'll probably do Elantris next.

[Mistress of Darkness]

Someone posted some lame review on Amazon. Sounds like she didn't read the whole book. Complained about the first 2 lines of the first 2 chapters, and then made up a third line to complain about!

Everyone go mark it 'not helpful'!!

My response to her complaint

Similarly, the dialogue was a bit jarring: the prince and the princess particularly sounded like a couple of cocky, fairly smart college students.

was, "Well, Brandon is a cocky, fairly smart college student." But my husband explained it better. Who are Raoden and Sarene? They're well-educated, of the nobility and in their early twenties. What does that translate into in today's standard? "Cocky, smart, wealthy college students."

[Tage]

"Eyeball cliches" might refer to something that's always bugged me about Brandon's writing. Emotions and reactions are often communicated only through "narrowed eyes" or "rolled his eyes" or "shifty eyes." (Ok, I don't think Brandon's ever used shifty eyes, but you get the idea.)

[Spriggan]

That makes sense.