Warbreaker
Ratings755
Average rating4.2
Warbreaker is such an interesting book with so many classic Sanderson elements, but just doesn’t quite put them all together as effectively as a lot of his other works do. The worldbuilding is incredible as always. It’s almost mistbornesque in that it’s urban based, with gangs of thieves and mercenaries, as well as an extremely powerful religious group running the show while leaving the commoners in the dark. Where it differs from mistborn is the colors. Mistborn is dark and grimy with ash falling nonstop and general despair, while Warbreaker is full of life with splashes of color all over the place and the people prioritizing leisure and entertainment even during their struggles.
Perhaps my problem with this book stems from false expectations. I thought it was going to be the story of Vasher creating Nightblood, or at the very least centered on those two, but they were auxiliary characters who played massively important roles, especially at the end of the book, but I’m left with more questions about them and even more desire to know their full story. That’s not to say that Vivenna and Siri are not interesting characters. The dichotomy and role switch between the sisters is an excellent plot. I just felt more drawn to Vasher’s story.
Lastly, how the hell is there not a sequel to this book. The sanderlanche was all about setting it up for future adventures, which was frustrating because there aren’t any yet and it made the events at the end of the book feel less impactful than they should have.
While in many ways, this book is the antithesis of Mistborn, it still feels so much like Mistborn in a way that I didn't realize I had missed from Sanderson's writing style. The stakes and story are just as epic with this being part of the Cosmere, but it feels much more self-contained. A really enjoyable read!
Gradually over the past year and a half I've been reading more and more fantasy books, gradually working my way through some new releases and some old classics but one name and author kept cropping up as the most recommended and highly regarded of the fantasy genre and that was Brandon Sanderson. It became apparent quickly that as master of the genre he was someone I needed to read.
Upon recommendation, I started off with Warbreaker, the story of the two Idrian princesses one of whom is sent away to the neighbouring Hallandren to marry their God King whilst her sister follows after her to try and save her sister from the fate she believes awaits her at the hands of her future husband.
I was worried initially that I'd find the book quite dense and difficult to delve into, being one of my first experiences of high fantasy I hoped it would be accessible to me. Instead of a difficult book to read I found one full of humour, relatable characters it is easy to fall in love with and vivid settings with histories that you discover as the book goes along. I could not stop reading this book, I loved the way that his characters are not always what they appear to be. Just as we are developing feelings for them Sanderson flips them and suddenly they are not all that they appeared to be. We can be cheering them one moment then praying for their demise the next.
The beautiful blossoming relationships between Siri and her God King husband was so beautiful to rea and they were two of my favourite characters in the novel. However, the real prize must go to Lightsong the Bold, the god who struggles with his godliness and his role as a deity and who develops a conscience about what is going on around him and so sets out to discover who is controlling the scheming in Hallandren, he is a beautiful and witty character to read from the perspective of and his journey of self-discovery and his endearing sense of right. I get it now, I'd heard people talk about the amazing characters Sanderson writes and I now sense the potential and hidden joys his other books have waiting for me and I cannot wait to savour them all.
When I initially started this book I had been led to believe that it was a standalone but I now believe that there will be more stories set around the characters of Warbreaker and I am totally invested, I cannot wait to learn more about the history of the Manywars and the players involved and to find out how things will resolve from Warbreaker.
A well deserved 5 out of 5 stars.
Sanderson has written a few books that are in the top of fantasy charts and they are truly outstanding, deserving the praise and hype. But...
How the hell is this book more popular than Elantris?! Elantris is great! If this wasn't Sanderson I would've dropped it long time ago. Except for Lightsong's humor and that black sword there's nothing interesting here. The plot crawls for the first 300 pages and the rest isn't much better.
Main characters are boring and dumb. Vivenna is Mary Sue with zero character development until 400th page. Four hundredth!!! The only interesting thing about Siri's chapters were the late night talks.
Magic is barely used and it's not even that interesting. Original, sure. But underutilized. I know this is his second published book but in reality it was like 6th or 8th he had written and yet he's explaining how magic works on 500th page out of 650!
Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe is a wonderful collection of stories. Knowing they are part of greater whole is intriguing and I am curious to see how everything gets tied together. The way he has got several coexisting storylines in similar but not the same worlds is definitely a clever way of world building.
Warbreaker is the first in one of these individual arcs within his universe. The key distinguishing of each separate arc is usually its magic system and warbreaker does not disappoint with a really clever colour based magic. Every magic system I have seen from Sanderson has been phenomenal and this is no exception.
The key plot of a princess sent to marry some ‘evil' king of a distant kingdom and their sibling trying to rescue them is a familiar fantasy trope but Sanderson puts his own unique twists on the tale. The characters are extremely well realized and thoroughly engaging. The banter and interactions are always gripping. The world building is fantastic. I look forward to the next entry in this arc!
Pese a que no me gustó la traducción, disfruté mucho el libro. Me encantaron los personajes, la trama, el sistema de magia y el mundo. Ahora la única pregunta que tengo es: ¡¿cuándo saldrá el siguiente libro?!
A very interesting read! The magic system is very detailed and planned out, though I've come to expect nothing less from Sanderson. For him, magic must make sense in how it affects the real world, and I applaud that. The political intrigue, as always, is what sets his story apart. Fascinating characters fill the pages, and plenty of humor as well, and it keeps you reading all the way to the mostly satisfying ending. Definitely recommended!
I did not expect to love this as much as I do. I might even like it more the the Mistborn trilogy! I really appreciate the way Brandon brought up these characters. And all the twists, I really did not see it coming—or I might just be too dumb to pick up the pieces. Vasher the mysterious man, wasn't sure what to make of him. He so grumpy we don't really see his intentions until later in the book. And Nightblood! I love this sword. And a bit terrified. Siri, she very cute and the perfect match for Susebron. They just meant for each other. I hated Vivenna in the first half. But then, they way she grew from her former self was marvellous. Siri and Vivenna contrasted each other in the beginning and even in the end. And seeing them learning to become the person they are now makes me happy. Lightsong!!!! He made me smile so much. Urghhh thinking about him makes me tearing up. He convinced himself that he's not a god or a good one at that, but the others saw the opposite. His every words was funny. His interactions between Llarimar were hilarious.Then that happened. Well, it has been emphasised many times about this ‘god giving up their life to heal or save one person' thing, but I didn't expect that to be his fate! Oh man... I can't 😫. Lightsong... I love you man.
Bottom line, I'd give this book 10/5.
Great world-building, interesting characters, some very unexpected events and a strong story, all undermined slightly by what I thought was a weak ending. But I went through it at a pace, drawn in by all the above positive attributes. Rarely do I find I want to know more about a character, but that applied to a few here. I had previously read the first Mistborn trilogy, which started out brilliantly and faded by the third book, so I did not have high expectations. But I am reconsidering Sanderson, and casting my eye over his considerable ouevre, looking for a likely next choice.
Naturally, the first Sanderson book I finish has to be the one without a sequel. This book covers several different stories concurrently, which can be frustrating, but they are all of the highest quality, following interesting characters and their various overlapping plots.
I really cannot recommend this book enough if you are into fantasy worlds (particularly those with a fantasy religion), overlapping characters, and stories that you can't put down.
Edit (after second read)
I reread this book in 2020. What a delight. Enough time had gone by that I had forgotten most of the plot twists and could enjoy them again. Truly a delightful story. Take a step into the Warbreaker realm.
**Edit (a few hours after the first review): No Warbreaker#2 :( This book was written in 2009. I thought for sure there would be a #2 by 2016, but I was wrong. It even has reviews on goodreads as “Nightblood”. Turns out that I should read Sanderson's blog more often because he warned us! On the “State of Sanderson 2015” he says that Warbreaker 2 is basically not happening until Elantris is finished and it was a tertiary book (tertiary!!) in priority.I love Sanderson's stories, but I'm starting to think that I need to walk away for about a decade and then try to find them again. Maybe then he will have finished at least one of the series that I've started reading.*****
I opened this one and then didn't have time to start it right away. I am glad I was able to give it some attention. This story has all the trappings - adventure, conflicted characters, plot twists, and a new mythology.
There are a couple of strong female characters, so it would be a great pick for girls who like the genre but often only see male heroes. Not too much realistic violence or other things to keep limit the audience to adults. I'd probably not recommend it to anyone under 13ish anyways because the plot twists may be lost on those without some understanding of governance and policy.
Onward to Warbreaker 2!
Warbreaker was one of the first books written by Sanderson, yet it still feels the same as his most recent works. The magic system revolves around “breath” - which has a similarity to peoples souls. The more “breaths” you have drawn from others (by way of them giving them to you), the more unique and powerful abilities you'll have. The way this concept is expanded on, as well as giving and taking breath to others and physical objects makes for a depth of ways to explore this idea.
I was supposed to read this book years ago, it was to be my first introduction to Sanderson. I am glad that it wasn't because I might not have fallen in love with his writing otherwise. Mistborn and especially Vin was perfect for me to start. I have a rough start reading this but of course I trust Sanderson and his genius storytelling.
Mostly I just really hated Vivenna through the entire first half. I loved Siri and Lightsong but every time Vivenna came I was so bored and annoyed by her character. I hindsight that might have been the point because of what she became. Siri and Vivenna really changed place and swapped in many other ways, which was really beautiful to read. Lightsong and Vasher both had amazing character development and endings.
Seriously one of the best books I have ever read. I will say I often flip between audio and reading so I can listen on my drive to and from work, on this one however I do not recommend the audio version. I opted to just listen to a podcast on my drives as I could seriously not get into the audio at all, it is god awful. Do yourself a favor.. read it.
I've got no problem recommending this to fantasy fans. It's got cool magic, interesting politics, and the characters have a lot of depth. My only complaint is that it wraps things up almost too quickly. I was left wanting more, which is good, but the end of the story arc comes at you so fast that you almost can't process a lot of the heavy material thrown at you.
For a while I thought I would end up giving this a slightly lower review, but it just didn't feel right giving it only 3 stars and the last 3rd of the book really picks up! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4!
Se nota que es una precuela hecha para explicar el origen e historia anterior de algunos personajes (lo dejamos aquí para evitar spoilers) y que es más “ligero” que Mistborn y el Archivo pero no por ello deja de sorprender en cuanto a construcción de mundos, desarrollo de personajes, planting narrativo y finales de escándalo como suele ser ya habitual en Brandon y su estilo inconfundible. Sin duda diría que casi es el mejor libro del Cosmere para empezar, por encima de El Imperio Final ya que es autocontenido, al menos hasta que saque la secuela que tienen anunciada.
SANDERSOOOOOONNN HOW DO YA DO IT?! Warbreaker was a fantastic standalone addition to Brandon Sanderson’s growing list of published works.
Read the rest of the review (with artwork and quotes) at my website in the link below.
Originally posted at kirethwritesabout.com.
Overall a great read and a great entry into the Cosmere universe, which I am loving with every book. I read this after [b:The Way of Kings 7235533 The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1) Brandon Sanderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388184640l/7235533.SY75.jpg 8134945] from the Stormlight Archives.Siri is the youngest daughter of the Idrian king and has spent her life believing that she's the runt of the Royal children. Her eldest sister, Vivenna, lives her life in picture-perfect decorum, perpetually in training to eventually be the bride of the God-King of their neighbouring country, and historical enemy, Hallendran. But Vivenna and Siri's places are switched. Siri, who has little to no idea about the politica intrigues behind their two countries, finds herself neck-deep in the sinister watchfulness of the Hallendran court and the husband she had never wanted, while Vivenna struggles to find her place now that everything she had trained herself for has crumbled before her eyes.I love how different the world is but yet there are underlying motifs that isn't explicitly explained or shown to you, but you could just about pick out or sense so that you know instinctively that you are very much in the same universe as the events in Stormlight Archives. That's fantastic overarching world-building in my book.I've been on the lookout for a good colour-based magic system for a while now, since Brent Weeks's [b:The Black Prism 7165300 The Black Prism (Lightbringer, #1) Brent Weeks https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327921884l/7165300.SY75.jpg 7534979] whet my appetite but which I DNFed for other reasons. In a sense, Warbreaker kinda filled that void, but also not really. It's not as intensely colour based as The Black Prism was, where different wavelengths of colour actually had different magical effects). Rather, Warbreaker purported that magical power lay in something called Breath, or BioChroma, which living persons could possess, give away, use to heighten their senses, or imbue them into inanimate objects/dead things to Awaken them.I took an extraordinarily long time (for me) to finish this book primarily because of my own personal life, rather than because of the book itself. However, I did find that the middle 20% to maybe 40-50% or so sagged a little for me. As usual with Sanderson books though, the last bit of the book from 70% onwards is as good as a non-stop read for me, with all the revelations hitting you fast and furious. Some twists you could probably see coming, but some would hit you out of nowhere. For fans of his other works, there are also some easter eggs here that may leave a nagging suspicion at the back of your mind - “Where have I heard this before?” - and then when you double confirm your suspicion in another book, you realise just how many hints Sanderson has planted around the continuity of his universe in all of his books.Character-wise, Sanderson doesn't disappoint. Although she wasn't my favourite character, I personally enjoyed Vivenna's character arc the most. Everything she has known and believed her entire life is tested to its extreme, and her character development was the most stunning. I enjoyed the whole discussion about beliefs, about how every side thinks they're fighting for the right one, and how one person's austerity could look like luxurious extravagance to another. I liked most of the other main characters in the book as well. Lightsong was also another stand-out in the cast - he's irreverant, his humour is on point, and I loved how mercurial and unpredictable he was. (Ending spoilers) Most of all, the scene at the end where he finally realised that he had in fact been Returned for a reason, and gave his life to save the God-King - that was just amazing. I loved that Llarimar was his brother, and that he wasn't just some manipulative fanatical priest trying to stamp Lightsong into the mold of the god he wanted him to be, but that he truly believed in him because he had sacrificed his life to save his daughter. Also, I loved how the God-King did a 180 from his reveal, and that he is not in fact a tyrant but a poor cinnamon roll. He's probably my favourite character after that, but Lightsong is a close second.