Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker (Cosmere Universe)

by Brandon Sanderson

WARBREAKER is the story of two sisters - who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Theirs is a world in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city. A world transformed by BioChromatic magic, a power based on an essence known as breath. Using magic is arduous: breath can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

But the rewards are great: by using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be performed.

Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is a master of what Tolkien called 'secondary creation,' the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own.

Reviewed by Annie Jackson on

3.5 of 5 stars

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The worldbuilding is, unsurprisingly if you've read Brandon Sanderson before, very well done. The thing I like best is not that he's able to conjure such immersive worlds but that he reveals the history of them in intriguing ways. It's off-hand comments and bits of history that make the reader ask questions. Once you've read one Brandon Sanderson book, though, you know in his books you're in the hands of a conductor who is playing each note with purpose. Questions aren't evoked without answers down the line. And those answers will come when the characters or the reader need them most. It's always very well done and Warbreaker is no exception.

The characters are well developed and interesting and that sense of wanting to know where the story is going kept me interested through Lightsong and Blushweaver's banter and the scene with him and the other guys playing that game. It kept me going through Vivenna's scenes which I didn't find as interesting as Siri's scenes. I also wasn't sure I liked her companions. It felt like what those characters were doing was going to be relevant to the overall story. It was and it wasn't--it was more relevant to her character which requires liking her. I didn't dislike her but I liked Siri much better.

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Reading updates

  • 2 March, 2022: Started reading
  • 5 March, 2022: Finished reading
  • 22 March, 2022: Reviewed