Unraveling: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Warbreaker

Series: Warbreaker Book One

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

  

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My Thoughts

Sanderson has become my favorite author since I read Legion. That lead me to The Emperor's Soul and then Mistborn, and now I'm just trying to make my way through all his books. A friend and I decided to read this one after finishing Words of Radiance since Nightblood was mentioned there. I trust Sanderson. I trust that the slow progression of the book leads to an awesome ending, and Warbreaker was no different. My problem came in with one of the characters. That one character made the slow progression of the book seem that much slower and the ending to be not as awesome. I'm a reader who relies heavily on the characters, even the villains, specially the villains. I like my bad guys to be truly bad, not some washed out guy playing at being evil.

In the case of Warbreaker we had Vivenna and Siri, the sisters that are meant to save the Kingdom. I adored Siri, sure she acted like nothing was ever really important and just went through life doing what she wanted, but when push came to shove she fought back. She adapted, she asked questions, she heeded advises, and trusted her instincts. She was a supposed to be the silly, unimportant one, the one everyone though amounted to nothing, and instead she became one of the most important ones. Suddenly ripped for her peaceful little city and thrust into the chaos that was Hallandren. Siri not only survived but she flourished and made it work for her.

The real Vivenna hadn't come to Hallandren to save her sister. She'd come because she couldn't stand being unimportant.

Vivenna on the other hand acted like the little stuck up bitch that she wasn't supposed to be. The most infuriating part was that she truly didn't see how she was in the wrong.

"You don't have to believe in my miracles. You don't can call them accidents or coincidences, if you must. But don't pity me for my faith. And don't presume that you're better, just because you believe something different." Vivenna closed her mouth. Obviously, there was no point in arguing. Jewels was in no mood for her sympathy.

It was like she had been brainwashed. She would talk down to people, question them, shover her beliefs as truths to their faces and offend them, and she would honestly believe that she was somehoe doing the right thing. It was beyond aggravating. I just can't handle people that won't accept their own flaws and failures. Yes, she eventually started realizing that she was actually in the wrong, but it just wasn't enough for me, or I guess, not fast enough, or maybe her highhandedness just lasted too long and irrevocably changed my views of her, or just all of the above. Needless to say she single-handedly ruined my pleasant read.

He eyed her. "I underestimated your stupidity."

Now for some positives! Lightsong and Vasher, and pretty much the rest of the book. I adored Lightsong, he would always make me smile.

"Identify yourselves. You on the left, who are you?"
"My name is Gagaril," the man said.
"I'm sorry," Lightsong said.
The man flushed. "I was named after my father, Your Grace."

He would try so hard to be lazy and ineffective but he was a good man through and through, and people saw that in him, always. Vasher was the badass of the story. He was a man who had made some dire mistakes and was trying to do redeem himself now. We get to learn who he actually is by the end, but there is still so much mystery surrounding him. He was crass, blunt, and straightforward, but always did what he thought was right.

As for the world building, this is a book by Sanderson, enough said. If there is one thing you can be certain of when reading one of Sanderson's book is that the world building is going to be awesome. For all the background we get and for all the answers that were given about this world and BioChromatic Breath (which by the way is still kinda confusing to me) there are still plenty of unanswered questions, but Sanderson always manages to have a nice balance between the answers and the questions, enough to satisfy you for now, but also to keep your curiosity fueled.

All in all, another great fantasy book from Sanderson. 

That priest - you spent all those words on him, then you just let him go. It's not really how I would have handled the situation. Yes I know, Vasher said. Your way would have involved making several more corpses. Well, I am a sword, Nightblood said with a mental huff. Might as well stick to what you're good at...

So...

Would I Recommend it?

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Other books in the Warbreaker series:

1. Warbreaker
2. Nightblood

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