Elantis by Brandon Sanderson

I had high hopes for this one. Lots of great comments from fantasy writers in the first few pages of the book.

I didn't like it tho. It has a great premise and I did like the first few chapters. 2 cities, one a normal city, the other a shining, glowing city filled with beautiful glowing beings that could heal, create about anything with a wave of their hand. But 10 years previous something happened and all the shining beings turned into the living dead. They aren't really dead but they are. No heartbeat, they don't die exactly but any injury causes them great pain and suffering. They don't need to eat but a great hunger gnaws at them. Normal citizens from the other city sometimes turn into these living dead and are basically tossed into the dead city to fend for themselves, no longer welcome in the other city.

The hero quickly turns into one of the living dead and begins to learn about his new city. The heroine is his new bride that has never met him but nonetheless is still married to him and is now a widow.

She is saavy beyond all measure and what made me detest the book was all the characters saw transitions in a paragraph or two and the author HAD to explain it to the reader. Which imo, assumes the reader is too stupid to figure it out himself. Or herself in my case. The mysteries of the Elantis people were figured out in a snap and then it was explained directly to another character.

Not only is there a mystery to the city of Elantris but there is also a religous war on their doorstep and because the city is only 10 yrs in the making the ruling class (of which the hero is the crown prince and the heroine the newly made princess of this country) is still finding it's feet. The ruling class used to be the merchants, how they were ruled prevous to the the fall of Elantris I can't remember. So there are monarchs to be disposed of, and financial (read: nobility) alliances to be made.

The time line is gawdawful, all of this takes place in less than 3 months. The religous group is cult-like and eventually the leading priest is overcome by some fantastical superhuman religous super priest of the same religion but a different sect. THis bothers the first priest and he finds salvation by helping the hero and heroine.

I was surprised by the reviews on Amazone, I took a look at them after I finished the book. It gets a 4.7 overall rating. I'd give it a 2.5. Only because the dialog was sooooo juvenile.

Don't bother - it's 656 pages of ambitious work but too simplistic in it's delivery.