Elantris

I first ran across Elantris when it came out in hardback, and was interested, but not interested enough to pay for it in hardback. I'm not sure when, exactly, it came out in paperback, but I'd forgotten about it until the announcement that Brandon Sanderson was going to be helping to finish the final book of the Wheel of Time. I managed to hunt down a copy at the local Waldenbook, which accidentally turned out to be an autographed copy (can't complain; no extra charge), and started reading it. Fair warning, it's rather slow to get going. It took me almost two weeks to get through the first 200 pages. Then, suddenly, everything started fitting together in an exquisitely intricate manner and I didn't want to put it down. So a brief summary and a minor, but camouflaged spoiler, below the fold.

Elantris is the name of a fallen city, and I'd be surprised if the name weren't supposed to conjure up "Atlantis" in the mind. Ten years before the book starts, it was the grandest city in the world, populated by powerful people who were very nearly gods. They could draw "Aons", complicated sigils that drew on the power that made them as gods, to make almost anything happen. Healing. Lights. Instant transport. Unfortunately, they didn't really understand the source of that power, and so when it went wrong, it went wrong spectacularly. Overnight, the glowing lights turned dark and the near-gods lost their power.

Back to the present, the monarch who managed to seize power in the chaos sits precariously on this throne, his perch made more precarious by a neighboring theocracy with dreams of conquest. As for our main characters: a newly made Elantrian copes with life as a fallen god; his bride-not-to-be has arrived to turn the city upside down; and a priest of the theocracy hopes to convert the city before his country's armies can destroy it. The characters are beautifully written and amazingly complex. Highly recommended.

I have to admit, however, that the first 200 pages were slow enough that I nearly gave up on it. What kept me going was a minor spoiler, hidden above as well as here: The Elantrians' power depended on a sort of technology that they didn't understand. It could only be repaired when someone finally figured out how it went wrong. That spoiler kept me interested through the slow bits, and then became unnecessary once the pace picked up. It's fairly minor, but I figure I'll give people the option of reading it or not.