New Releases – Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

New Releases

Elantris by Brandon SandersonElantris, Part 1
By Brandon Sanderson; Performed by a full cast
6 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 6 hours – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Graphic Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781599505558

This is wonderful news. Graphic Audio has been publishing a bunch of material as full cast dramatic reading – the ones that interested me most were the superhero stuff, but now they are publishing Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris, an epic fantasy novel. This is the first of three parts.

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.
 
CLICK HERE for all of Graphic Audio’s new releases.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #026

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #026 – Jesse and Scott argue about how long books should be, talk about audiobooks, audio panels, Audible’s new audio format (higher quality). We also ask the questions:

“If Stephen King was your dad and reading you a bedtime story, would you ever get to sleep?” and “Why does Epic Fantasy have to be so long?”

Talked about on today’s show:
Science Fiction Symposium @ BYU, Writing Excuses podcast, Brandon Sanderson, I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, The Immortals by Tracy Hickman, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Vol. 1, Elantris |READ OUR REVIEW|, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., David Farland, Eric James Stone, James Dashner, Orson Scott Card, Audible’s new Enhanced Audio Format, Blackstone Audio‘s forthcomings: new Harlan Ellison (and old), Stir Of Echoes by Richard Matheson, Passage by Connie Willis, Bellwether by Connie Willis, CBC Radio Between The Covers, Wake by Robert J. Sawyer, Battlestar Galactica, the Story Speiler podcast, And All The Earth A Grave by C.C. MacApp, The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill |2 FREE STORIES|, Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill, On Writing by Stephen King, Telling Lies For Fun And Profit by Lawrence Block, Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle |READ OUR REVIEW|, Escape From Hell, Wikipedia is full of spoilers, Exit Door Leads In by Philip K. Dick [is full of swearing], The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet: Philip K. Dick |PDF|, Starship Rebel by Mike Resnick |READ OUR REVIEW|, and a 5 sound review of Babylon 5, A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin, Wild Cards would make good audio, HBO’s True Blood, is it all ‘too much conversation, not enough sword?’

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #017

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #017 – Brian Murphy of The Silver Key blog joins the podcast and talks to us about his terrific blog, writing habits, and how vikings and rappers are alike.

Talked about on today’s show:
Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf, Michael D.C. Drout‘s Beowulf, Neil Gaiman‘s Beowulf, religion in fiction, god in fiction, Stephen King, Carrie, The Stand, Desperation, The Regulators, Kate Nelligan, Delores Claiborne, Cujo, The Tommyknockers, On Writing, Duma Key, The Dark Tower, George R.R. Martin, A Song Of Ice And Fire, Roy Dotrice, Pandora Star, Peter F. Hamilton, Audiofile magazine, how being a truck driver is worse than being in prison (without audiobooks), Mini-Masterpieces of Science Fiction edited by Allan Kaster, Fantasy, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, The Wheel Of Time, Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, my fantasy fiction rant, “fantasy fiction works best when magic is talked about but rarely seen”, The Cimmerian blog, Mark Finn’s Blood And Thunder, Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Gentlemen Of The Road, Henry Treece, The Viking Trilogy: Viking’s Dawn, The Road To Mikligaard, Viking’s Sunset, Bernard Cornwell, Saxon Stories: The Last Kingdom, Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels, William Gibson, Neuromancer, The Dark Worlds Of H.P. Lovecraft, Wayne June, horror movie: Session 9.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Tor.com: Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tor.comTor.com has a lot of downloadable short stories on audio. The latest to catch my eye is an SF novelette written (and read?) by Brandon Sanderson!

This was Sanderson’s first published work. The Tor.com email newsletter describes it as…

“out-and-out science fiction… SF like it used to be.”

Tor.com - Firstborn by Brandon SandersonFirstborn
By Brandon Sanderson; Read by Brandon Sanderson (?)
1 |MP3| – Approx. 74 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tor.com
Published: December 2008
“…a tale of war and sibling rivalry…”

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

SFFaudio Review

Elantris by Brandon SandersonElantris
By Brandon Sanderson; Read by Jack Garrett
24 CDs – 27.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781436155977
Themes: / Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Magic / Curse /

Ten years ago, the magic city of Elantris failed. What had once made the Elantrians god-like beings is now a curse, trapping citizens within the walls of the city, and within their own decaying skin — unable to die, not able to truly live.

Brandon Sanderson is a relatively new fantasy writer who has been tapped to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Elantris is his his first published novel. It hit the shelves in 2005 and this unabridged audio version was published this year (2008).

Raoden is the crown prince of Arelon. He enjoyed every luxury until the fateful day when the Shaod took him. Unfortunate souls who were taken by the Shaod were cruelly exiled to the city of Elantris with a few scraps of food to take with them. Now ten years later, old Elantris is but a legend. The people of Arelon tell stories of how the very stones of its walls and buildings glowed with the magic the god-like Elantrians could produce.

Now Elantris is a place out of a horror movie. It is dark, grimy, and filled with living corpses. This is all that is left of Elantris and its Elantrians. Raoden is left to die in Elantris with no hope of a better existence, however he manages to find a purpose.

Jack Garrett, the narrator, was particularly skilled with characterization. I had easily distinguished Raoden from other characters throughout this whole story, it was quite easy to tell which character was speaking. This made the story very fluent and made it easy to understand. He made the scenes in the book very vivid. He told it in a way that made it desirable to me to listen to more.

Elantris ranks my top five by far. I recommend this audio book to teens as well as adults. Along with a great story is a great narrator, throughout this whole book I was able to almost visit Arelon, I could see it in my head so clearly it was amazing. I would be in the middle of an activity while listening to this book and I would get so caught up in it that I completely forgot what I was doing and why.

Posted by DanielsonKid, Age 14