Elantris

by Brandon Sanderson

I remember reading about Elantris a while ago and not being too impressed with what I read. Then it came in my Amazon recommendations, and I took a closer look, and decided to give it a try. I had coupon, so even in hardback, the price wasn’t bad. And I’m glad I did.
It’s a good fantasy novel, and inspirational to boot (it’s the author’s debut novel, so there is hope for me). The world is well built and easily imagined. The characters are fleshed-out enough that you understand their motivations, except, of course, when the twist comes about…
The title of this entry comes from the name of one of the symbols that the characters use to work magic, for lack of a better term. An Aon is the symbol, and Rao means ‘spirit.’ I’ll try a summary: Elantris used to be a city of light and power, its people silver-skinned and glowing and capable of great magic. The Shaod was a mysterious process that transformed ordinary and extraordinary alike into Elantrians, but one day it stopped, and the city has fallen into ruins. Now, instead of becoming godlike, those taken by the the Shaod turn into zombies (okay, not the term they use, but if your heart doesn’t beat yet you are still walking around and alive, what else would you call it?), and are shut off from the rest of the country behind the still-standing, tall walls of Elantris.
Raoden is a prince of the land, and he is taken by the Shaod. He struggles to make a ‘life’ for himself in the ruins of Elantris. Sarene is his betrothed, widowed before she was even married because of Raoden’s disappearance. There’s an evil monk, an even eviler monk, political intrigue, magic, angst, humor…just about everything I like. The middle part is a bit slow, but has its shining moments. The end is especially good, with all sorts of plot lines coming together and questions asked about what will happen in that world…or even our own.
I’m terrible at writing summaries, so I suggest you pick up a copy and see what I mean for yourself. If nothing else, the image of a glowing Aon hanging in the air will stay with me for a long time. That and the cover of the actual hardcover book itself is green, so you know that makes me happy 😉
I’m looking forward to Mistborn, the author’s next book, which is set in a different world than Elantris. It comes out in July. Yay summer reading.
Hopefully I can have a new layout up for you soon. We’ll see…

Proven Guilty : A Novel of the Dresden Files (Dresden Files (Hardcover))

by Jim Butcher

Usually I’m not a particularly lucky person. This will probably be borne out when I get my MCAT scores in two months, but this week (once the MCAT was over, of course) seems to be going rather well. Nice start of the week spent with the ‘rents for their anniversary (no, I did not spend all day with them, but hey, I really appreciate the fact that they’re still together and that we still have a great relationship) and then Monday, as much as it sucked to be stuck in the equipment room all day searching for samples, I know that I only missed one on my A&P test (take that, studying for only a day after the MCAT!).
Anyway, last night I went to the St. Louis Writer’s Meetup like I do every month, and having heard that the newest Dresden Files book had been seen over a week early (amazon says it’s due out May 2) at other Borders ’round the country, I thought I’d have a look. I fully expected this one to be as it normally is and not have it, and a glance at the Butcher shelf proved me right. Sort of. The paperback version of the current penultimate book was also to have come out May 2nd, but there were two copies on the shelf. No Proven Guilty, though. So I thought, okay, my luck isn’t that good, but hopefully I perused the endcaps nearby…and there were five copies on one. Sweet!
(What’s not so sweet is that I bought duplicates of some magazines I already had. Again. I really need to just subscribe so I stop paying newsstand prices. Twice.)
I also had the interesting dilemma that once I got home last night, I was in the middle of two books by the same author at the same time. I had already reread all the Dresden Files, and had started on the Codex Alera last weekend (the first book was my MCAT escape during the test 🙂 ). I’d just started the second book yesterday morning. I wasn’t expecting to have Proven Guilty until next week, but obviously I took a break from the reread of Academ’s Fury to read the new one 🙂
Oh, so now you want the review, eh? Possible spoilers. Read on at your own risk…

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