Book Reviews: Warbreaker and Elantris
Warbreaker
by: Brandon Sanderson
His latest, although evidently it was written a while ago, or something. He also released early drafts of it on the web for free. I probably should have checked them out, to see more about how his process went but I hate reading books on computer.
So. Yeah this was good, it took me a while to get into it – 15 chapters or so, so that makes it probably his “least” good book, but it was still quite enjoyable. The whole magic system came off kind of goofy to me BUT with the caveat that if he has a good explanation for it in a later book I may change my mind. Only having certain phrases invoke the magic just seems silly. I suspect that’s not the case, and it’s just that certain things are simpler than others, but we’ll see. The whole color thing is rather strange too, but I suppose there is energy of some sort stored in colors sooo…ok, sure.
My only real complaint is that we didn’t get enough info about the magic system.
The story itself was entertaining though – a really rather classic multiple bait-and-switch setup – probably the most “normal” of his 5 books so far. I think it was the shortest too. Still, none of these things are real negatives – I recommend it for any high fantasy fan.
3.85 STARS out of 5
Elantris
also by: Brandon Sanderson
Wow, what a debut. I’m not even going to bother shooting this high. Definitely stronger than Warbreaker (I know, I read the new one before the old one but they are only microscopically related, so it doesn’t matter, nyah!).
There were very few parts I skimmed – just some annoying banter about food. People talking about food…yeah that’s pretty much something I’m not going to waste more than half a second on.
The rest of the novel (you know, the other 99.9%) was excellent, especially for a debut. He created a fascinating world – almost as interesting as the Mistborne world, and more so than the Warbreaker one (so far) – and populated it with some good characters. That being said, the story was definitely not as unpredictable as his other books. Even though I said Warbreaker followed more of a formula, that formula included lots of twists and turns – this one had very few. The ones it did have were great though.
I wish he’d explained a little more thoroughly what they had to do to fix the magic, but I’m sure it’s out there on an internet discussion board somewhere, waiting for me.
Highly recommended for fantasy lovers.
4.1 STARS out of 5
Having finished all his (published) books, I’m definitely seeing a reoccurring theme of religion: examining it, its strength and roles in society, and its relationship with various forms of resurrection.
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