Elantris

Elantris is the first novel written by Brandon Sanderson, who, as posted earlier, is in charge of completing The Wheel of Time, based on the notes left by Robert Jordan. I read it out of curiosity, to see what style we could expect in the final volume of The Wheel of Time and I am rather disappointed by the result! Compared with the Mistborntrilogy from the same author, which is mostly enjoyable (even though the characters are also somehow lacking in depth), Elantris is clearly missing: the setting (of the city of Elantris and of its surnatural characteristics) is well-thought, but the plot is very predictable, with (spoiler?!) the recovery of the lost city at the end, and, worse, the characters are incredibly caricatural. They reminded me of David Edding’s characters in The Belgariad, so it figures! Basically, there are three major characters and they manage to run the whole book. All other characters have stereotyped features that make them rather uninteresting… Just an example: the family of the main female character is made of children so perfect and bright that it does not seem possible Brandon Sanderson has ever spent time with children (or else I should introduce him to my kids!) So I hope either that Robert Jordan has left enough notes and hints for the style to remain consistent with the previous volumes of The Wheel of Time or that the author’s style gains in depth and psychology.