Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Warbreaker
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Pages: 656
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: A-

From Goodreads: 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.

Looking at that summary, this story may see kind of odd. BioChroma? Breath? Wha…? Anyways, if that stuff turns you off, ignore it and read the book anyway, because it’s very much worth it.

I guess I better mention I am a HUGE Brandon Sanderson fan. No, not because he’s finishing the Wheel of Time books, but because of his original novels. My favorites are the Mistborn books. In the end, I put this one just slightly behind Elantris (meaning, my least favorite so far), but it’s still heads above many other fantasy novels I have read.

One of my favorite elements from Warbreaker are the strong women characters. I particularly liked Siri. Normally I would go for someone like Vivenna, but Siri, despite being a young woman thrust into a world she never knew or expected, shines. I loved all the scenes with her and the God King. They were charming, heartwarming, and genuine. It was a pleasant surprise, since I never expected these types of scenes.

Also, of course, the world building and magic systems are just so well thought out and executed.

One of the things I have started to notice about Sanderson is that he always writes awesome non-human characters. In Mistborn it was the kandra, in Elantris the Seons, and in Warbreaker it is Nightblood. Some of Sanderson’s most vivid characters for me are those who are not necessarily human. Nightblood’s innocence is endearing yet he is also lethal.

If anyone hasn’t tried one of his books and like high fantasy, please do so. In fact, you can get Warbreaker for free off his website here. Hope you enjoy! A-