After reading Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson became one of my favourite authors. Even so, it did take me a little while to finish this book. Not because it was hard to read, but I think part of me wanted to draw the book out for as long as possible.
The idea of Elantris was a really intriguing one. Raoden was a character I could relate to right from the start. He had a lot of good qualities that clearly aided him after he was turned.
I did also particularly like Sarene. And I liked her not because of what she did well, but because of what failed. What went wrong. She was clearly an imperfect character and that’s what made her so interesting.
The heroes of this book weren’t the only characters I liked. Hrathen was one I enjoyed learning about. In my opinion, he was a good example of a three-dimensional villain.
I liked being able to see some of the politics and intrigue; the way some of the characters didn’t agree with the King’s actions, but had to work behind the scenes to affect any change.
While, at first, Sarene’s act of an air headed princess did irritate me, it was good to see that it worked against her quite often. And that she had to make adjustments due to not being able to hold onto the act. Compared to her father, she was a much stronger person.
I did find it sad to read about the fate of the people of Elantris. I could definitely get behind Raoden’s actions to change things. I thought I was rooting for them to return to their former glory for a while, but the strength the people ultimately demonstrated made me feel I would have been happy if they’d just made do.
Like Warbreaker, this book is one I would very much enjoy reading again. And I would love to read more books set in the same world.
Ink of Blood 