In the land of Arelon, random people would wake up transformed into shining immortal Elantrians with powerful magic. But ten years ago, the Elantrians suddenly became living corpses, and their once-glorious city became a prison for the afflicted. 
 The mystery of exactly what happened to the Elantrians hangs over all of "Elantris," Brandon Sanderson's solid but flawed debut fantasy novel. It has a brilliantly complex magical system and an epic interwoven conflict of politics, religion and history, with some genuinely likable protagonists... but it also has some freshman mistakes, as well as an uncomfortable undercurrent to the religious criticism. 
 Princess Sarene of Teod is shocked when she arrives in her new land of Arelan -- her fiancee, Prince Raoden, has unexpectedly died. And because of an odd clause in their betrothal contract, she counts as his wife even though they technically didn't get married. So now she's a widowed princess with a dead husband she's never seen in person. 
 However... Raoden isn't actually dead. He's been turned into an Elantrian, meaning he now resembles an immortal zombie who suffers from a never-ending hunger, and will eventually go mad from the assorted small injuries he can't heal from. But he decides to make the best of his imprisonment in Elantris, gathering followers and trying to clean up the filthy, slime-drenched city. And as he studies Elantrian texts, he begins to learn what caused the terrible transformation. 
 Meanwhile, Sarene finds herself in the middle of political and religious conflicts -- she joins up with some friends of Raoden's in order to figure out if her betrothed was murdered. She also comes up against a devious Shu-Dereth priest named Hrathen, who has been given three months to convert all of Arelon to his religion, or the entire country will be invaded. But she soon finds that overthrowing the king may only be the beginning of the chaos. 
 One of the best things about Brandon Sanderson's books is that he's an absolute genius at coming up with fantasy worlds and different complicated systems of magic. "Elantris" is no exception, since he slowly reveals some of the magical intricacies of this world -- particularly interesting is AonDor, an alphabet of magical signs (with modifiers!) that are drawn in the air or on objects to cause changes like light, teleportation, healing and whatnot. 
 The story is mostly split between Sarene and Raoden -- half about Elantris and how it went bad, and half about the crumbling kingdom. Both halves are essentially about a young, pragmatic person trying to restore order and balance to a place that has fallen into ruin (socially, literally, or both). By the end, he weaves together these two stories in a fiery, bloody, epic battle that sprawls across two countries, and keeps throwing shocking twists right up to the end. 
 Sanderson's writing has some noob flaws here (guess how many times Sarene blushes/flushes), but his prose has a robust, detailed quality that is equally good at the bright and elegant as the bloody and decayed. The middle section of the book tends to drag somewhat, but he keeps things interesting by switching between three different third-person narrators -- Sarene, Raoden and Hrathen -- and juggling their stories as he slowly weaves them together. 
 His characters are also likable... but flawed. Sarene and Raoden are practically perfect -- she's a politically-adept princess who scared off all the weaker men with her giant brain, brings feminism to Arelon, and is so persuasive that she instantly gets the masses to accept a king who is seen as undead. Raoden is pure-hearted and beloved by everyone, to the point where his paranoid, corrupt father was trying to disinherit him because he was just so awesome. 
 However, these characters ARE quite likable despite a hefty dose of Mary Sue -- they suffer, they struggle, they take actions they regret, and at times it seems that their cause is lost. And over time, they begin feeling more like three-dimensional people and less like perfect dolls. There are some interesting supporting characters -- the mysterious Galladon, the kindly elderly duke Roial, the roguish cooking-noble Kiin, and especially the conflicted, crafty Hrathen. 
 Unfortunately... it has an unpleasant anti-Catholic overtone. I doubt it was deliberate, but Sanderson spends a LOT of time talking about how the Wyrn (a single religious leader who is the only one supposed to speak for a monotheistic God) sucks, the assassins and warriors trained at monasteries (no REGULAR monks are ever mentioned) and the backstabbing internal hierarchy of Shu-Dereth... whose gyorns (highest priests) wear bright red. Like cardinals. Subtle. 
 What's more, they're all evil, wild-eyed fanatics who want to cleanse everything with fire, except for a single character who ends up renouncing his religion. And for some reason, Sanderson goes out of his way to inform us that while other religions are essentially good and at least partially true (the Jesker belief in Dor ends up being pivotal to the story), Shu-Dereth is not only evil, but fundamentally false and based on a pagan belief, and all their scriptures and culture have been lies to cover this up. So... combine this with the emphasis on "pope be bad," and it paints a rather unpleasant picture. 
 "Elantris" has some hefty flaws -- particularly an unpleasant religious undercurrent -- but not enough to obscure the talent and imagination that Brandon Sanderson has proven over the years. It's certainly worth a read.