#elantris spoilers

[bowlingwithplanets]

Me when Hoid showed up in the last 50 pages of Elantris:

[karlathewitch]

I've finished reading Elantris recently, however before even starting it I've been warned that since it is Sanderson's first book, it won't be as good as others. Now I'm finished, and I literaly cannot see why people judge this book, or claim it is bad.

Elantris was amazing.

Worldbuilding: Perfectly messed up, as every kingdom should be. I really liked how weird the political system was (money=rank), and how a very religious kingdom tries to forcibly convert others, and if that fails, they just label everyone a heretic and kill them. (Kinda like how it actually happens irl)

Magic: Strange, but if we could accept ppl eating metal for superpowers, then I guess we can accept map-rune thingies, that can turn you into a demigod, or a very strange zombie. Plus the fact that other kingdoms has their own Aons gives ample amount of content for the future sequels.

Characters: Sarene my beloved. She earned her rightfull place on my Fav Cosmere Ladies (Right after Vin and Sterris). Hrathen was something else, perfect anti-villain, who had a very well written redemption. Raoden reminded me a lot of Elend, and it is a good thing. And Dilaf is Moash2 (or Moash is Dilaf2, since he's worse)

Story: Strangelly well written. The pacing was alright to me as it is a standalone novel. The story bits build up well, the final Sanderlanche was great. I loved it, some parts I screamed, some parts I was super anxious.

Issues: It is a shame that Sanderson cut Eton from the story. I could see why, but the Mad Prince could've been a great part of the story. Iadon's secret just came out of nowhere, just like Ahan's betrayal, as they lacked some foreshadowing. Also Raoden pretending to be a black man, purposelly playing a stereotype was weird as hell.

Overall: 8/10, It was amazing.

[dinodivider]

A fun little game I’m playing while reading Sanderson books is “can I figure out what the name of this world’s Shard is?”

I barely know anything about Shards in general because I’ve only read Mistborn Era 1, White Sand, and Elantris (plus a couple short stories) so I’ve seen he name Adonalsium like 3 times total and I don’t know what all of the named Shards actually are. Never would have guess that Elantris was Devotion and Dominion. So now I’m trying to figure out what the Shard is for Warbreaker while I’m making my way through Warbreaker and I’m not gonna successfully guess it but that’s not gonna stop me from trying

[to-shards-you-say]

whats your job on the elantrian commune. im the guy who slaps everyone on their bald heads

[lunaticbookblog]

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

I read it mostly for the Cosmere lore. This book was sometimes fine but it’s the second Cosmere book I almost decided not to finish. Not to say it was bad, but it never hit a point where I was particularly engaged. The characters (Sarene and Raoden) often felt like prototypes for ones in later works who feel more complex and complete. Like this was a practice run.

The chapter point of view alternated every chapter in a consistent pattern that sometimes felt forced, as if the narrative pacing was forced to fit the structure rather than using the structure to enhance the narrative. This resulted in very odd pacing.

The magic system manages to be the most pedantic in the Cosmere to date, which isn’t a criticism, just a comment. I don’t mind it at all.

Character’s personal arcs didn’t always make much sense. And one character is named Dilaf which was really distracting as I kept misreading it as DILF, which kind of took me out of the scene.

There were hints of Cosmere lore, and recognizable people and magic that I saw in other books and now make sense. It was nice to get a more in depth explanation for Elantris based magic that has been spotted in other Cosmere books.

“”We’re not dead, Galladon, and we’re not damned. We’re just unfinished.””

[cosmereplay]

You know what bugs me about Elantris? Nobody asks about Ien, Raoden's seon. Sarene is suspicious about Raoden's death and she has a seon herself and she never thinks to ask after Ien??

[highly-invested]

What do you guys think the trick to better Connection spoofing? Alik, Vasher, and Galladon all have issues with their own cultures' idioms and word choices bleeding through (one of these is probably by choice though lol.) Whereas Hoid and that Terriswoman worldhopper from RoW for example do not. I think the fact that one of the few worldhoppers we see who isn't either unreasonably realmatically versed or well established, who also doesn't have issues with using connection to hop a language barrier is a Terriswoman.

I think the trick to good connection spoofing is to store or blank your Identity so your Connection with your homeworld/history offworld isn't fighting with the blank Connection you're tapping.

[knightsgaydiant]

The thing is that Hrathen’s love language is power struggle, so to me it makes perfect sense that he’s in love with both Sarene and Dilaf.

[ahhfear]

Spoilers for the end of Elantris

Dilaf tells Hrathen his sad backstory

[blazmaniv]

RIP to Hrathen, you would have loved Roshar.

Or just shardplate

[construction-cat]

This is making me as angry at myself for not realizing sooner as when we found out why elantris wasn't elantring (he gotta draw the picture with the funny line)

OH FUCK OFF GOLD BURNING MISTINGS SEE AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF THEMSELVES. ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. AU. AU IS THE ELEMENT SHORTHAND THING FOR GOLD. FUCK YOU BRANDON. FUCK.

[fippydarkpaw]

[karlathewitch]

Cosmere meme dump

[to-shards-you-say]

does the nature of the dor even get revealed in this book or was that just some shit brandon said at a book signing five years later. merciful domi this and that, do they even learn that her juice is loose in the mirror dimension

[too-many-blorbos]

I have to protest this analysis a little, because even in Elantris, the "bumbling" court women get development. And they do so while remaining the same characters at core. They learn to fence, but they insist on wearing skirts for it, even though Sarene says it's silly. They push back against the king's sexism and use it against him. They still gush over romance and fuss over their looks, and that doesn't stop them from being epic. In the novel's climax, they pick up swords and fight, not in armor and breeches but in their court gowns.

Sarene the character is dismissive of the court women; Sanderson the author is not. Sanderson pretty clearly said "don't underestimate women, no matter how silly you may think they are. They are capable of great things."

Reading Elantris and its interesting how Brandon wrote Sarene as very “not like other girls” and dismisses the other women of the court as bumbling idiots, but in mistborn he defies the same cliche with Vin slowly realising she should not underestimate or look down upon the women around her and even comes to accept her own femininity.

I don’t know I think its cool how Brandon rectifies this sort of trope in his writing after one book.

[cosmereplay]

Ok so I need to know the difference between the Aonic that Sarene was speaking and the actual Aons. Because you can only hear "Lord Rao" so many times before you put together that "Rao" might mean "Raoden".

Either the Aonic she speaks is significantly different than the aons or Brandon seriously underestimated my faith in Sarene's intellect.

Or is it like "John", like there are so many of them that the name gets hidden in its ubiquity?