Sanderson, Brandon

Cosmere Works

Elantris

Elantris was a city in the country of Arelon. It was inhabited by Elantrians, who just happen to be Gods, not the insubstantial, believing is not seeing type of God, but the sort of Gods who you can actually pop and visit to get something irritating like broken arm fixed, pronto. The kind of Gods who can click their fingers and produce food for the general populace AKA the rest of the folk who aren’t gods. Even better, as a member of the general populace there was even a chance that you’d wake up one day and find that you’d become an Elantrian, this happened now and again, at which point you’d go and live in Elantris and God about. So far, so good, or at least it was before something went very wrong and the Elantrians stopped being generally awesome and instead became really kind of rubbish, not the fire and brimstone, and smiting type of rubbish, the lying around in the gutter, moaning incoherently type of rubbish. The something which went wrong was called the Reod and it happened ten years before the events in the book. Unfortunately for the rest of the populace who’d been used to getting everything sorted by the Gods and not having to worry too much, that just stopped (I imagine that it’s a bit like your local Waitrose closing down), and they weren’t very good at quite a few things, like farming and government. There was also a neighbour who’d been put off sending emissaries round to try and convert the Arelons to a new religion (why would you worship anyone else if you’ve got an actual God living just round the corner, especially if they actually do a bit for you and there’s a possibility you might even get to have a go at a bit of God-ding yourself), more bad news, this wasn’t the kind of neighbour who’d pop round for a cuppa, a biscuit and a deep and meaningful about the nature of the human soul. They were more the wake up in the morning and find that the fence which used to divide your gardens is missing, and they’re all sat in your kitchen waiting for you to cook them breakfast, but don’t bother making yourself any, thanks very much. Nightmare.

Arelon now is in a bit of a mess, people still occasionally become Elantrian, but that’s now viewed as a curse and you’re thrown into Elantris to rot, it’s now locked from the outside and no one is in a hurry to help the Elantrians. The King who was chosen after the Reod is, it turns out, a bit rubbish, but people put up with him because his son Raoden is a decent bloke and they hope he’ll inherit soon. Raoden’s due to marry a Princess, Sarene, from a friendly neighbouring country, who share a peaceful religion, which the Arelons turned to after the Reod, it’s an arrangement which will help Arelon to defend itself from less friendly neighbours. Talking of whom, they’ve sent a high priest, Hrathen, in to start trying to convert people, the last country he visited ended up having a violent uprising which he propagated, he’ll struggle to get the same foothold in Arelon though, because of the respect people have for Raoden. Then Raoden wakes up as an Elantrian and things get interesting.

The story follows Raoden’s attempts to untangle the mystery of the Reod from within the confines of Elantris, Hrathen’s attempts to convert the people of Arelon to his religion, and Sarene’s attempts to thwart Hrathen and nudge Arelon nobility into a slightly more progressive way of thinking. There is a gentle quality to Elantris, please don’t take that to imply a lack of activity, there is plenty of that, but it is mostly cerebral rather than physical. The book plays out rather like a detective novel as each of the protagonists goes about their personal agenda. Each of these is portrayed sympathetically, Raoden genuinely seems like the kind of person people would trust and follow, trying to make the best out of an unfortunate situation. Hrathen doubts his faith but is given good reason to believe that he is saving the people of Arelon. Sarene is a strong female character who finds herself in unfamiliar surroundings with few friendly faces, she is forced to use her wits to first ingratiate and then to outsmart and cajole.

I found Elantris to be very enjoyable. I’d have no hesitation recommending this work to others with one caveat, if you enjoy the blood, gore and thrill of an action packed epic, you may find the story in this book to be a little subdued and narrow for your taste. It definitely doesn’t stray into the kind of territory inhabited by Joe Abercrombie or George RR Martin, something for which I’m grateful, it’s nice to read a slightly less visceral, more thought provoking form of fantasy now and again. If this is an indication of the quality of Sanderson’s subsequent work then I’m going to enjoy exploring his back catalogue immensely.