You have cost me so many hours of sleep.
No, but seriously I have really enjoyed these books. I'm (im)patiently waiting for October, and I've been following the blog and the forum here fairly closely.
I first heard about Mr. Sanderson when it was announced that he was going to finish The Wheel of Time. I remember thinking, "Who? Great, they hired the cheapest bidder or something, didn't they?"
But then, I heard good things about him. People posted to say they thought he was a good choice. He actually posted on our board (at Wotmania) and eased some fears. So I decided I would at least check his stuff out. Signed up at Tor for their e-book giveaway, and started reading the Final Empire. And finished it, about a day later. And searched the internet for more books by Mr. Sanderson. And then found out that not only was he an amazing fantasy author, he lived in Utah, and
he was a Mormon! And I know, I know. that kind of stuff shouldn't matter. But I thought it was pretty awesome. Plus, he went to BYU. (Go Cougars!)
I searched everywhere, and I couldn't find the Well of Ascension in any library, bookstore, anywhere. Gave up, then found it at my local grocery store, of all places. I read it whenever I had spare time, and had to beat my brother away (looking back, I should have got him hooked
after I had already read all the books).
By now, I no longer doubt or have any concern about AMOL. I know that it will turn out amazing, and they picked the right guy for the job.
So that's my history, and kind of my introductory post.
But I'm really posting to talk about Elantris. I just barely finished it today, and I guess I missed all the discussions on it. Everyone's talking about Mistborn (and I have been diligently following all the topics), but maybe this will be a nice distraction while we wait for October. Or maybe you'll all copy+paste your old posts and replies. Either way:
I guess because I went "backward" and read Mistborn first, then Elantris, I did a lot of comparing between the two stories. The books are kind of similar. Strong female lead, interesting magic systems (I prefer the ones in MB, personally), strong religious presence in both (more so in Elantris, IMO), surprising plot twists, and both are good, exciting books. Shuden and Galladon both reminded me slightly of Sazed (one of my favorite characters), but not too much.
To me though, it was apparent that Elantris was his first novel. Extremely good, better than many books I've read, but he definitely got better and worked out some kinks before Mistborn. I'm not talking story-wise, the story in Elantris was very good. Mistborn just flowed better, and seemed more... polished. It feels kind of weird saying that here, where I know a lot of his friends and family hang out, and he supposedly visits from time to time, but if any of them are reading this, I don't mean to sound critical. Any complaints or questions here are minor things in my head.
As for the Elantrians, and the Reod/Shaod, I thought that it was very interesting concept, and it was described so well that I remember my toe hurting whenever there was a Raoden PoV there for a while. The society in Elantris (or lack thereof), was interesting and believable. I enjoyed Raoden's schemes for New Elantris. His banter with Galladon was fun (and reminded me of Kelsier's crew's banter sometimes) (that's not a bad thing).
Hrathen was interesting, and sufficiently gray for me (I very much prefer gray to black or white in my stories). He was working for the destruction of what the Good Guys™ believed in, but he did have good intentions. He had doubt, he had his own enemies, I really enjoyed his character, though I enjoyed his PoV the least of the three (which doesn't mean much).
Sarene was interesting. I thought of the Aes Sedia Sarene the first time I saw her name (Yeah, I'm a geek
), but I got over that quick enough. I liked how she presented such a strong, confident air, but her inner thoughts were often anything but.
One complaint however, was that the Good Guys™ were
too competent. I remember cringing when Lukel (I think it was Lukel) mentioned how Raoden was good at everything but cards. However, their struggles were intense, and the suspense, especially at the end, was incredible. I couldn't see any way out of the Blue Pool/Lake.
I do have one big question though. How could the Seons survive if their Aons were rendered obsolete/incomplete? Wouldn't they die/decay like Elantris and the Elantrians did? I was very interested in the Seons, and was disappointed we didn't find out more about them, and where exactly they came from. Oh well. I notice Mr. Sanderson has tentative plans for a sequel.
I'll probably edit in some more questions, but I need to wait for my mind to settle a bit. It's still a little too fresh.
