Elantris (2 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation]

Elantris [Dramatized Adaptation] #1, Part 2 of 3

by Brandon Sanderson, Johann Dettweiler (Director), James Konicek (Narrator)

The city of the gods. Elantris once stood as the symbol of all that is beautiful. A sprawling metropolis of unrivaled grandeur, it was a symbol of power and strength, built to be as imposing as it was magnificent.

The only thing more glorious than the city itself was its inhabitants, Godlike beings, with silvery skin and hair of the purest, flowing white. Able to create powerful magics with a mere wave of their hands, the Elantrians were able to heal mortal wounds and create any object they desired. To be an Elantrian was to be without sickness, without pain and without want.

And anyone could become a god. Through a process known as the "Shaod",a normal person could go to bed one night and awake the next morning to throw away the shackles of mortality and become a being of incomparable power and grace. With Elantris as their beacon, the light inside all humanity was allowed to shine, elevating it to new heights.

But Elantris fell...ten years ago.

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Magic, Adventure, Epic Fantasy, Action

7 pages, Audio CD

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

I’m Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers.

The release of Wind and Truth in December 2024—the fifth and final book in the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive series—marks a significant milestone for me. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it’s the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be. Now is a great time to get into the Stormlight Archive since the first arc, which begins with Way of Kings, is complete.

During our crowdfunding campaign for the leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance, I announced a fifth Secret Project called Isles of the Emberdark, which came out in the summer of 2025. Coming December 2025 is Tailored Realities, my non-Cosmere short story collection featuring the new novella Moment Zero.

Defiant, the fourth and final volume of the series that started with Skyward in 2018, came out in November 2023, capping an already book-filled year that saw the releases of all four Secret Projects: Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. These four books were all initially offered to backers of the #1 Kickstarter campaign of all time.

November 2022 saw the release of The Lost Metal, the seventh volume in the Mistborn saga, and the final volume of the Mistborn Era Two featuring Wax & Wayne. Now that the first arc of the Stormlight Archive is wrapped up, I’ve started writing the third era of Mistborn in 2025.

Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, four of the five Secret Projects, and various novellas, including The Emperor’s Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded. If you’ve read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read.

I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, which had its final book, Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians, released in 2022. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn.

Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the three stories in Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. These two novellas are also featured in 2025’s Tailored Realities. There’s a lot of material to go around!

Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart, The Emperor’s Soul, Tress of the Emerald Sea, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you’re already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.

I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan’s notes.

Sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.

Reviews

[Diane (I'm about a year behind in reviews. Yikes.) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am continuing to enjoy the performances in, and production of, this book.

For Part 1, I mostly sat back and enjoyed the story. For this second part, I began to develop stronger opinions about some of the events that take place and had more reactions to the author's voice/moral ideals coming through. Much more food for thought in this middle section.

Still enjoying it though and will write about some of the ideas this story presents when I review and rate Elantris as a whole book after hearing Part 3.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I am in awe by the fact that this is Brandon Sanderson's first novel, after reading most of his other works but never this one until now I cannot get over how amazing this story is. This was helped because of the great work done by Graphic Audio, whether its the small things like background noise of people talking or just the overall stunning effort put in by the extremely large cast of voice actors and actresses. This level of quality has almost tainted any other audiobooks I'll listen to in the future because of the amount of work put into this story. There are a little less than 30! voice actors used in this production and it makes me rethink of Graphic Audio's motto "A movie in your mind" as more than just a bold statement. I'm two thirds of the way through this story and am excited yet saddened by the fact that there isn't more to this great performance. I will be making sure I set aside time every day for the remainder of this thrill ride, which should be more than enough proof that I think you should pick up this book, and especially this audiobook.

4.5 out of 5 stars

[Eric Mesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the middle section of a novel, it was mostly concerned with expanding backstory and a few false starts at the climax. (Intentional false starts....more of a meta note) The three main thesis Sanderson seemed to have for this part of the book were:

1. Intellectual faith vs emotional faith - This mostly concerned the Doraki priest. (I'm listening to the audiobook so I'm going to go with the spelling of Hrathin). Sanderson continued to make Hrathin's plot much more complicated than a simplistic good and evil plot. Yes, he's part of an empire that sees itself as under a godly mandate and yes he must convert the city or they'll be destroyed by the empire, but while the religion is being forced upon these people, he's not an evil person. In fact, I wonder if Sanderson, who I found out via the Cosmere reddit is a member of the LDS, didn't see some comparison to the Prophet Jonah. If you weren't raised religious or didn't pay much attention to the actual Bible you probably only know him as the guy who was in a whale's stomach (like Gepetto in Disney's Pinocchio). But the story in the Bible has God telling him that he needs to convert the city of Ninevah or else God's going to destroy them. (Sound familiar?) Of course, things diverge there because Jonah hated the Ninevans and wanted them to die so he skipped out on his deal - hence the whole whale thing. In Hrathin's case, he is a more militant follower so he does not skorn the idea. In fact, he is haunted by the massacre that followed his previous success at city conversion. While modern humans in non-theocratic countries view it as bad that he wants to force-convert the citizens, he really is trying to save the lives of an entire city. But getting back to plot point in this book - he struggles with the fact that his relationship to his religion is purely intellectual. His intellect makes him a very entertaining sparring partner with Serene, but it means he cannot compete with Deloth over followers. He can logically get you to see his point, but most people need that emotional connection to join a religion. Of course, the emotional followers are the fanatics and this is causing a bigger and bigger problem for him.

2. The value of a human is in having a task - In Prince Rayodin's plot we end up in the puritanical philosophical point that a human needs a task to have humanity. I would say that some evidence in this being true is the death rate of seniors who retire from working and die without a purpose. At least that's the current psychology theory behind it once you control for other reasons old people die. What I love about this plot point is that it puts the Prince in a tough spot when Serene intrudes upon his project with handouts. Of course, one way of reading this plot might see this as an indictment against government support. Not sure if Sanderson meant it that way, because it does work beautifully plot-wise given the situation he put Prince Rayodin in. Still, it's hard to miss that those getting government handouts stop working and just sit there waiting for their next handout. Real life is much more complicated than that and, at least in the USA, we have designed out cutoffs to be step functions rather than a slope such that someone could be worse off with a better job. Anyway, USA politics aside, I do like the way Sanderson is tackling the Elantrian plotlines. I'm curious to see where he goes from here and whether he's going for a happy, sad, or realistic ending.

3. Earning respect from others vs earning relationships - Serene's plot has been a pretty interesting one. Sanderson's given us a strong woman who can accomplish much. Plotwise Sanderson does a good job giving her setbacks that are mostly a direct cause of her overplaying her hand rather than simply because she's a woman in a fantasy world. As I mentioned in my review for book 1 - in Elantris Sanderson has more of a modern vibe within a fantasy world - AI/Skype in the form of Saiyans, blended families, people who go to university, a society that seems to accept different races without too much overt racism, Hrathin's country aside - a tolerance for different religions. So while women aren't co-equal with men, they're not fighting against outright oppression. So my reading of Serene's plot here is not so much that she's being penalized for being manly, but rather that she's caught in a viscous cycle. Having been spurned by some men who are scared of strong women, she has made choices about the way she acts that alienate people. Her intelligence has made her so sure of herself that she comes off as standoffish. And that's not something that's limited to one gender or the other. So I do like when mentors take her aside - they don't tell her to be more womanly - they just tell her to be more empathetic. She has people's intellectual loyalty - she needs their compassionate loyalty. And I guess in that way, it's pretty neat that she mirrors her antagonist, Hrathin. They're both people who have let their minds get in the way of their friends. Something I know many other real-world intelligent people have struggled with.

A solid middle section that keeps the plot going and enriches the story. Because it's originally part of one book, it has better pacing than most middle books in a trilogy since those books often seem to be stalling for time.

[𝐻🌻𝓃𝑒𝓎𝐵𝑒𝑒🐝 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this second part—like I said about the first part I won’t be doing a full review until I finish the third since that is the FULL book.

But I will say that I heavily enjoyed Raodon and Serini’s meetings as she brought the Elantrians food. They are so clearly perfect for each other.
(Sorry if I spelled the names wrong)

[Heiki Eesmaa]

Cringeworthy displays of obviously American behaviour by the characters. Being the first to organize people into something businesslike (granted, its a cooperative, not importing capitalism into King Arthur's court). Slavery is bad, women are worthy of being equal to men, men taking up home cooking... All nice things, but just carbon copies of modern society. The religion is about repeating platitudes from Christianity. They have spell-cellphones!

[Anne-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!! Rushing on to the next one.

[viih · Rating 5 out of 5]

Releitura dessa obra fantástica do Brandon Sanderson, mas dessa vez resolvi encarar a versão em inglês na edição especial de 10 anos de Elantris.

Devo começar a dizer que foi uma releitura com cara de lendo pela primeira vez. É surreal quantos detalhes deixamos passar quando lemos pela primeira vez as obras de Brandon Sanderson, notei isso ao reler Warbreaker, e se repetiu com Elantris, que foi a primeira obra do autor.

Outra forma de ler os livros do Brandon e que é muito bom, é ler em leituras coletivas, com outras pessoas, tendo discussões a cada capítulo. Nessa releitura de Elantris, por exemplo, estou lendo dessa forma e tem sido extremamente útil, sempre compartilhamos nossas teorias, tiramos dúvidas uns com outros, e assim um vai auxiliando o próximo, o que torna a leitura muito mais dinâmica e divertida.

Dessa vez também resolvi encarar as versões do Graphic Audio, e achei interessantíssimo, muito divertido as vozes dos personagens, realmente pareceu que estava dentro de um filme ou uma série. Achava que esses tipos de audiobooks contavam muitas partes dos livros, mas realmente me surpreendeu positivamente, achei uma delícia acompanhar o texto e poder ouvir o áudio na versão dramatizada.

Quando li pela primeira vez, os capítulos do Hrathen me irritaram bastante, agradecia que eram os menores capítulos do livro, mas nessa releitura isso mudou, dessa vez, os capítulos da Sarene conseguiram me deixar um pouco entediada no início e no final, os capítulos do Hrathen e todo seu desenvolvimento foi o que mais me agradou. Já os do Raoden, continuei com a mesma opinião da primeira vez que li, é um dos meus personagens favoritos.

Lembro que cheguei a dizer na minha primeira resenha do livro, que a escrita, mesmo sabendo era o primeiro livro do autor, tinha me incomodado bastante, mas aí reler com a versão em inglês, não senti isso em nenhum momento, logicamente é nítido que temos um autor iniciante mas nada que me irritasse como me irritou na versão em português, acredito então, que a culpa se deu pela tradução e não pelo autor, então, me retifico nessa crítica que realizei anteriormente.

Foi um leitura que assim como a primeira vez, não perdeu seu brilho, cada vez mais interessante, intrigante, com temas políticos e religiosos, uma contrução insana de universo, de magia e principalmente de personagens, um verdadeiro prato cheio para quem é fã de uma fantasia épica e/ou alta fantasia.

Como disse, decidi ler em inglês dessa vez, e escolhi a versão especial de 10 anos. Nessa versão, Sanderson colocou alguns capítulos extras e, ao final, explicou o motivo de terem sido retirados da versão final. São capítulos curtos, bem interessantes.

Enfim, "Elantris" continua sendo um dos meus favoritos do Sanderson, continua tendo um lugar muito especial no meu coração, por ser a primeira leitura que realizei do autor, minha porta de entrada nesse universo que é uma verdadeira obra de arte. E continuo indicando e recomendo para aqueles que querem iniciar nessa série de livros do universo da Cosmere ou do Brandon Sanderson no geral.




• SPOILERS | Quotes, Notes & Highlights •

"Elantris was beautiful, once. It was called the city of the gods: a place of power, radiance, and magic."

“This is Elantris, sule. There’s no such thing as help. Pain, insanity, and a whole lot of slime are the only things you’ll find here.”

"(...) You will find that hate can unify people more quickly and more fervently than devotion ever could."

"(...) it is human nature to believe that other places and other times are better than the here and now."

"As was often the case, the most outspoken man was the least discerning."

“People do a better job when they assume they’re important.”

“(...) I don’t want to ‘lord over’ Elantris. But I do want to help it. I see a city full of people feeling sorry for themselves, a people resigned to viewing themselves as the rest of the world views them. Elantris doesn’t have to be the pit that it is.”

“You made it sound as if we wanted to be in here. Like it was a privilege.”
“And that is exactly the way we should feel. After all, if we’re going to be confined to Elantris, we might as well act as if it were the grandest place in the entire world.”

”This dream you have, this crazy idea of an Elantris where we grow food and we ignore our pain… I want to see you try to create it. I don’t think you can, but I think you will make something better of us in the process.”

“We’re not dead, Galladon, and we’re not damned. We’re just unfinished.”

"Truth is the one thing you can never intimidate."

“A man can force himself to hate if he wishes, especially if he convinces himself that it is for a higher good.”

"Those people gave in to their pain because they couldn’t find purpose — their torture was meaningless, and when you can’t find reason in life, you tend to give up on it."

"All things must progress, and progression is not always a steady incline. Sometimes we must fall, sometimes we will rise — some must be hurt while others have fortune, for that is the only way we can learn to rely on one another."

“Elantris will change,” Raoden said. “If not, then those who come here after us will plant the next season.”

“Remember, the past need not become our future as well.”

“Revenge is always a foolish motivation (...)”

[Logan Callen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - Great voice actors, but story line is a bit slow. Some good parts in this book though

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

- Quote: Maybe instead of asking why I know these things, you should wonder why you don’t.
- Thoughts: Elantris is, in my opinion, one of the best story from one of the best storytellers of our age.
Truly amazing story.
Also, Graphicaudio version of it was masterfully recorded.
▶◀
These are my personal opinions, you may discord, my final rating of the book is not necessarily linked to this system and may diverge from it.
Book Storyline
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Development: 5/5 stars
- Enjoyment: 5/5 stars
- Writing stile: 5/5 stars
- Funnyness: 3/5 stars
- Epicness: 3/5 stars
- Scaryness: 2/5 stars
- Smartness: 5/5 stars
- Addictiveness: 5/5 stars
- Plot twists: 4/5 stars
- Pace: 5/5 stars
- Storyline planning: 5/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Ending: 4/5 stars OR /5 negative stars
- Holes: -/5 negative stars
- Self contained (Y/N): ✓
- Cliffhanger (Y/N): ×
- Adult (Y/N): ×
- Mystery (Y/N): ×
- Treasure Hunting (Y/N): ×
- Violence level: There's torture, killing and burning people
- Tech level: No firearms, but shipmounted cannons, swords.
- Religion level: High, fictional
- Main genre: Fantasy
- Subgenre: dystopia, dark fantasy
- Point of view: 3 different points of view, each inside it's main character's mind
- Best of it: A really different and rich setting
- Worst of it: ---
- Aftertaste: More! I want more!
Cover
- Quality: 3/5 stars
- Traces: 3/5 stars
- Colors: 4/5 stars
- Style: 3/5 stars
- In a few words: Tenth anniversary author's definitive edifion: By using most of the space for the wall, the artist failed to offer a reference for grandeur and thus failed to impress the supposed size and magnificent if Elantris. Bad choice of scenary.
World
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Variety: 4/5 stars
- Consistency: 5/5 stars
- Impact on the story: 5/5 stars
- Maps: 5/5 stars
- Real world (Y/N): ×
- Fantasy based on real world (Y/N): ×
- Journey (Y/N): ×
- Main scenario: Elantris and it's neighbor city
Characters
- Total amount: ~30
- Points of view: 3
- Main characters: The prince, the princess and the inquisitor, all three very intelligent and resourceful.
- Secondary: Well crafted and noticeable characters, with very refined personas.
- Overall quality: 5/5 stars
- Main: 5/5 stars
- Secondary: 5/5 stars
- Consistency: 5/5 stars
- Connection: 4/5 stars
- Dialogs: 5/5 Stars
- Interactions: 5/5 Stars
- Underworld Crew (✓/×): ×
- Training (✓/×): ×
- Romance: It starts with and wedding.
- Notable best characters: Almost all of then
- Notable worse characters: --
Setting
- Historical importance: 5/5 Stars
- Historical deep: 5/5 Stars
- Historical score: 5/5 Stars
- Geopolitical importance: 5/5 Stars
- Geopolitical variety: 5/5 Stars
- Geopolitical score: 5/5 Stars
- Setting overall score: 5/5 Stars
- Tension: 5/5 Stars
- Atmosphere: 5/5 Stars
- Classic Supernatural (✓/×): ×
- Superpowers (✓/×): ✓
- Non-human races (Y/N): ✓
- Virtual Reality (Y/N): ×
- Monsters (Y/N): ✓
- About the setting: Very unique, very rich and detailed, also very daring.
Rules
- System: 4/5 stars
- Complexity: 3/5 stars
- System explanation: 4/5 stars
- Impact on storyline: 5/5 stars
- Rulebreaker (Y/N): ×
- Type of Rule: Dor, that stuff that makes the water "want" to flow.

[Azure · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book by Brandon Sanderson and I am an immediate fan! I only hate I waited so long to finally read something of his. Wonderful world building and storytelling. Loved the heroes and other characters of this story. Well written, good hearted characters like these that face off against the evildoers make for a great story and stay with you for years to come

I love graphic Audio and these voice actors were great! At a few times the background sounds were a little too loud and overpowered the narrator but overall great and so fun to listen to

[Xochiquetzalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The nice part about rereading is that I was able to simultaneously read Brandon's annotations for the book available on his website and that was a nice combination. I hadn't done so before, because I felt it too distracting to read both at the same time and it was a bit complicated to stop my reading (of the book) to go read the annotations, this was perfect.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the Graphic Audio, which have different people acting out the different characters with sound effects. This is more fantasy then science fiction, and has wonderful world building and characters. Elantrinians cannot die, but they can age. Many people fear them and want to destroy them. But there is now a man, son of a ruler of a different city state who is also an Elantrinian who wants to save Elantris and the world from fighting.

[Liz Mandeville · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better, more time spent in Elantris and less family life and court politics. More time spent developing the creepy religious zealots and finally some magic.
Finally the prince and princess meet, although she doesn’t recognize him and they don’t get along.
The prince is infinitely more interesting than the princess and even more so is his friend in exile.
Cool discoveries are made and there may be hope for this author after all.

[Madison Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elantris wasn't my favorite of the cosmere stories. The plot interested me, a fallen city, curses people, line magic systems, a princess rising to her role, and a cursed prince rebuilding. This story was entertaining, but it wasn't my favorite in the way it was executed.

part 2 - we got more character development and an intro to the magic system. But again, this should never have been split into parts.

[Aurora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic Audio did a fantastic job of this one. Listened to all three parts and loved the story although it's extremely "busy" for an audio book with a huge cast of characters, many with similar names, that were sometimes hard to keep straight.
Definitely worth the listen if you're interested in sword and sorcery political dramas.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting more and more intense; Hraithan now has more depth and is harder to be blindly annoyed by; Serene has interesting run ins with spirit , and the creation of New Elantris seems to be getting more intense.
can't say much more without spoiling more.

Still seems to be bound in a system which is great.

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This just fit with the series. The acting is great and I did get lost a few times, but the lead actors and the characters they represent do a great job. I so want to know what happens and can't wait for book 3. GA has won me over to Brandon Sanderson at this point. I might have to try some of his other stuff.

[Lio Leeuwerink · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for all three parts.

Great quality production as always. It was a joy to listen to. I recognized a lot of the voice actors from the other Graphic Audio Sanderson series (Stormlight, Mistborn) but they did a great job using distinct voices for these characters.

The story itself is good. Definitely not Sanderson's best work, but a solid fantasy read nonetheless.

[McKayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 2 had some definite audio issues - unless you listen with AirPods, the background noise and sounds is so loud you can’t even hear the narrators. The story is still very intriguing and Brandon Sanderson is definitely doing his thing, but it is distracting how bad the audio is mixed for part 2 compared to part 1.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is great, but the audio book have the background noises too load in some parts...

[Amy Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good adaptation.

[Not plagued by an overlong starting ad this time. A long ad at the end I can deal with.]

[Melisa Ramonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente también! Vamos a por el desenlace!

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

The walking dead may not really be dead.

[Ciprian Sf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great piece of work! Can't wait to jump on the next book.

[Dani Paige]

ok what the heck graphic audio why is this so good??

[Jonathan Raikes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second part in this series fallows the same quality as the first.

[✯Angharad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I FINALLY finished part 2. And Idk what's going on. But all I know that I stand for Sarene actions.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic Audio production version, part two of three

[Jefferson Coombs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really getting into this. The story of course is great, it's Brandon Sanderson. I'm also enjoying the voice acting.

[Jael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don’t like fantasy but I like this format where I could hear it as if it was a movie and was interested in finishing the story