Brandon Sanderson's first. And it did feel like a first.
Synopsis: Elantris was the city of Gods and magic until it fell from grace and was cursed with a disease that left its Elantrians powerless and sick. The plot follows three storylines – A Princess, on her way to meet and marry the Crowned Prince from arranged marriage...whom she finds out is dead. A Crowned Prince, who wakes up cursed and is banished from his city. And a priest, who plans to take advantage of this crumbling city.
Plot: The plot idea was super interesting and Sanderson is an absolute wizard in his storytelling craft but the execution fell a little bit short for me. I honestly think that this would have been much better in a series instead of a standalone (I know there are novellas). Having the extra pages to really flesh this out a bit more, have more conflict, and not rush things as much could have been a major benefit to this. Coming from the iconic Mistborn, another series of his, I think this just left me feeling disappointed. There was nothing innately wrong with this, it was creative and well-thought-out, and it had a great cast with some great twists too...but for some reason, I was just bored. It was an average story in a fantastic world and I think I just expected too much. Despite my qualms, Sanderson's writing still remains to be one of the best I've ever read.
Characters: The three main characters were fine. Our Princess Sarene did struggle a bit with girl main character syndrome, our Crown Prince Roaden was left with a slow-moving storyline, and our Priest was quite confusing to me, BUT I enjoyed the switching POVs and each narrative nevertheless. However, for me and my tiny brain, there were far too many side characters involved, and I could not keep any of them straight in my head. Coupled with the strong fantasy language that comes from a high-fantasy book, I really struggled to follow some sections meaning this narrative may not be super accessible to newbie fantasy readers.
Currently going through Sanderson's entire backlist in order...so I had to start somewhere. I just don't think anything can top Mistborn.
None of my issues are egregious and I overall enjoyed the ride.
3/5 stars.
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