Elantris was my first time reading exposure to Brandon Sanderson, I have heard a lot about his Cosmere universe, brilliant magic systems and characters each of his books have. Even for his debut one I can safely say I am impressed and everything I heard was right!
Elantris, a former jewel of Arelon, now is a cursed city where lives cursed Elantrians who are considered dead and just exists with pain and misery. Told from three perspectives, each one shows different side of the story and takes us to different journeys of all three characters and how they converge in the end.
Our First perspective was of Prince Raoden, future heir of Aredon who finds himself cursed with shroud, the same transformation curse which took Elantris years ago in the reod. He was undoubtedly my favourite character in the whole book. Through his eyes we got acquainted with Elantris and the people in it. I especially liked this section of the story in the first half a lot more than the rest. How we get to see colonization among the Elantrians and how Raoden establish himself in that area. His leadership and optimism is envious and something we can learn a lot from.
Second POV was from Princess of Teod, Sarene, Raoden's berothed. Now, she was one perspective I had trouble reading from. Her initial chapters were little boring and stretched and I was dying for those chapters to end. Even if she was intelligent, kind hearted and witty but in some places came off a little arrogant know-it-all. But by the end of the book, I grew to like her and her bravery and efforts to keep Aredon out of wrong hands.
Derethi High Priest Hrathen, our third POV was a complex character. Initially coming off as villainous, Hrathen had good intentions even if we disagree with his methods and their consequences most of the time. Earlier in the book he came off as one invincible figure of religion but as story progressed we got aware of his uncertainty and his diminishing passion towards his beliefs. But he was the most sympathetic character out of all, who did what he could do best by the end for everyone.
Overall I really liked the structured, descriptive world and magic system created by Sanderson. Most of the characters were not much likable and had flaws, which I really appreciated even if we had one very likable and perfect main protagonist with hero complex (whom I adored!) I really liked secondary characters a lot too, especially Galladen and Ashe. Galladen was completely opposite of Raoden with his pessimistic natire, but their bond was awesome!
“Stop moping, sule," galladon said with a grunt."It doesn't suit you-it takes a fine sense of pessimism to brood with any sort of respectability.”Ashe on the other hand was snarky and provided funny moments with his remarks!
“You're getting better, my lady.""Don't patronize me." "No, really, Your Highness. When you started painting five years ago, I could never tell what it was you were trying to depict."
"And this is a painting of?"
"Ashe paused. "A bowl of fruit?" he asked hopefully. Sarene sighed in frustration.It was 4.25 Stars for me, as I really liked the whole story but the last two chapters felt little less developed and fast paced unlike the whole story. These chapters were my least favourite part of the whole book.But it has been a great start of 2019 as well of Sanderson for me and I cannot wait to read more from him.
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