Welcome back to another installment of Readerspren.
Today we look at Chapters 3-10 of Elantris.
Previously...
We have a group of friends who all like Brandon Sanderson's fictional Cosmere universe.
We've decided to blog while reading or re-reading his works.
We started of with Elantris since some of us have not read it and wanted to see how Sanderson wrote early in his career.
A lot of us found the character introduction of Sarene and Raoden a bit on the bland side compared to how some of his protagonists were introduced in Mistborn and Stormlight Archives.
Chapter 7
AorDon! Magic! Raoden tries to piece together why the Elantrian magics failed. He manages to do some weak Aordon.
Raoden takes action and recruits his first newcomer into Elantris. We also gain more insight into the inhabitants of Elantris
"I have to keep moving, Raoden repeated to himself. Keep working. Don't let the pain take control."
Raoden asks the new recruit Mareshe to fashion him some new shoes and tells Mareshe he has to make it perfect the first time. If shoes aren't perfect they will cause blisters that stay forever on Elantrians.
Raoden also takes the name Spirit (a translation of Aon Rao) for himself.
Chapter 8
Sarene continues with her idiot act in front of the king. She is able to stay inside the throne room pretending she is repainting the paintings inside.
We also find out despite her brilliance she is horrible at painting. Ashe and eventualy Lukel take turns needling her over the splotch on the canvass.
We get some insights into the king, Iadon. A good businessman but a bad king. He had turned the kingdom into one where monetary success was justification for rule.
We also find out that Raoden the prince went out if his way to use the laws of his father against him.
It becomes obvious that the throne is beset by a myriad set of problems. From the unclear succession to its possible fall due to the upheaval of the societal systems.
This chapter also provides us the first face-off between Sarene and Hrathorn as Sarene cleverly diffuses Hrathorn's sermon on top of the city walls. Round 1 goes to Sarene with Hrathorn giving her begrudging respect.
Ashe points out that Dalif might be a source of problems later on.
As Sarene looks down into Elantris the reader realizes that the Elantrians she is pointing at are actually Raoden and Galladon. She does think that she notices something different about the two.
Kaise continues to be a cute distraction.
Oh and we also find out that Raoden had been gathering people to discuss doing something about his father's bad government.
Chapter 9
Hrathorn and Dilaf work out their feelings in the aftermath of Sarene's disruption of their sermon.
Dilaf is frothing at the mouth. Hrathorn is impressed at Sarene.
Hrathen works on the Kae nobility and starts to foment trouble against the king. He manages to get Telrii as an ally.
Chapter 10
We shift back to Raoden and Galladon.
The other gangs in Elantris are now convinced that Raoden intends to form his own gang.
3 new Shaod-ed enter the city gates. Raoden enacts a plan to get all three. Once again Raoden finds some work for all three. Once again he pockets a portion of the food that they were carrying. The reader is not yet told what he'd gotten from the last 4 people who entered Elantris.
We get more insight into Raoden from his actions as well as Galladon's words:
"The newcomers, sul. You made them all think they are of vital importance..."
And in Raoden's own:
"The city needs a sense of purpose."
Galladon is not convinced:
"We're dead sule," Galladon said. "What purpose can we have besides suffering?"
To which Raoden retorts:
"That's exactly the problem. Everyone's convinced that their lives are over just because their hearts stopped beating."
Galadon finally pieces together all the clues and realizes who Raoden really is.
Raoden also encounters his seon Ien. The Shaod had left Ien mindless.
-----
So I'll this batch of notes at chapter 10. We are now getting more complete characters out of all the main character.
No comments:
Post a Comment