Elantris

By Brandon Sanderson.

A cute (I can tell you're hearing the death knell when I use that word), light fantasy with some fresher ideas than just a ring of power. It's not that it doesn't have death and carnage in it, it's that for some reason it didn't capture me emotionally. Hence the "light" feel. Possibly it's caused by Raoden's unending optimism. There are no sex scenes in here, making it a pretty clean book. It also deals with one or two religious issues but while they may have been challenging to the characters they didn't seem very interesting to me.

On the super-duper upside, there are tons of extras on the author's website, including notes on each chapter. It's interesting seeing the author's thought process about some of the issues and the way he handled certain scenes. It's also interesting having him point out details that I completely missed. (Sarene sees Raoden being escorted to Elantris in chapter 2; it's only one or two sentences so maybe I can be excused for missing it or not comprehending. One is led to wonder if she later remembers that and realizes that she saw him.) There are also little details that I did notice, like the aons before each chapter, and wondered at the significance of. Apparently they were intentional.

On the downside, the book just didn't grab me emotionally. I don't know if it's me or the book, which otherwise seems fairly well written.