Tej Patel

I enjoy reading science fiction, fantasy, and sometimes fiction. I also read nonfiction works, especially the ones that focuses on science, philosophy, and the unique.

I really liked this book, and I hope that I will love The Wheel of Time. (Also, big fan of BookTuber Daniel Green :).)

It starts off very Tolkien-esque, which Robert Jordan admits was intentionally–him wanting to pursue a more “realistic” take on Tolkien. However, Jordan deviates from the Tolkien after the first third, going into more unique ideas (at least to my eyes, it has been a long time since I last read this).

I love the book, because of the characters and world (I'm not really a plot guy).

There are criticisms of course, the pacing feels a bit off for me. It's not a huge problem for me, but I felt it got too slow at some parts, and then quickened. For private reasons, I was not able to have a consistent reading schedule (and for the past few days I was too lazy to read at all), and I think that this might be the cause of this particular criticism, but I feel it to be true.

Secondly, though I haven't ventured far enough into Jordan to fully experience it, but Jordan sure loves his descriptions and info dumps. It isn't a big problem for me, yet (as I love info-dumps, and am quite forgiving of them)–I have a feeling that after 13 more books, or however many I decide to read, I will tire out.

4 stars because of enjoyment and the fact that I would recommend this (to be given at least a chance).

World, plot, and the mystery/suspense plotlines brought up in this book were all enjoyable, and the character work was not as bad.

While I think this is Sanderson's weakest novel, that doesn't really mean that it wasn't enjoyable for my (and for my tastes).

A beautiful short story to follow Elantris, done within 30 minutes or so.

It also has a wonderful story behind it, make sure to read the annotation for this either before or after reading this book.

This book is one of my favorites, in the top ten (maybe even the top three).

I love the character work - I felt like of the characters (Damaya, Essun, Syenite; though there is a spoiler caveat to this, read the book to find that out). I also like the prevailing idea behind it. Basically, after chapter one, the world is like a post-apocalyptic world and given the excellent tone and how a certain race is treated, it often feels like a dystopian novel - but this is a fantasy novel. The author even tells one of the POV from the second-person point of view (“you”s), and it was quite well done.

Overall, I would say this book was a great start to this year's (and decade's) reading list.