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Kirkus

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EUOL:
This one's not good enough that I'm going to go around posting it unedited in most places, but I thought you all might like to see what they had to say about the book:



"Debut author Sanderson serves up an epic fantasy novel that is (startlingly) not Volume One of a Neverending Sequence.

Ten years ago, the magical city of Elantris fell under a curse, and the land of Arelon it once ruled has hit hard times. The mysterious transformation known as the shaod, which falls on Arelenes at random and used to turn them into spell-wielding Elantrians, now leaves its victims half-dead husks, exiled to live in the ruined city. Even Prince Raoden, transformed overnight, finds himself imprisoned with the others, but he's soon rallying the downtrodden and seeking out the source of the curse. Meanwhile, his betrothed, Princess Sarene of Teod (Sanderson's got a tin ear for names), sets about modernizing the backward Arelish court, and thwarting the schemes of the spy-priest Hrathen of Fjorden, who plots to convert Arelon to the harsh Derethi faith. Sanderson offers an unusually well-conceived system of magic, but he cuts his characters from very simple cloth: only the Derethi agent Hrathen develops any intriguing depth or complexity. Still, the pages turn agreeably, the story has some grip and it's a tremendous relief to have fruition in a single volume. (Not that sequels won't be coming.)

"A cut above the same-old, but hardly a classic."

Peter Ahlstrom:
Boo! Tin ear? Gaah... (Okay...umm...how DO you pronounce "Sarene" anyway? I always said it as two syllables, like "serene" but with more of a schwa for the first...)

Well...it's a review, I guess... Plus your magic was complimented, which is something you must like...

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers:
yeah, weak review! but all press is good press, I suppose.

Spriggan:
maybe it's my layman status with the English language but I didn't even get the Tin Ear thing the first few times I read it, I though Ookla was trying to be funny since I didn't notice it at first in the review.

stacer:
Well, it's not like Kirkus counts as much as some of the others anyway. At least, they're very controversial right now because they charge for reviews. I've heard that they are actually being tougher on books they review because they don't want to be accused of doing better reviews because they're charging for them. Either way, I think their opinion is tainted. Publisher's Weekly and genre publications are the ones to trust.

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