Warbreaker

Very interesting fantasy book. First Sanderson book, as well as the first book told from third person with multiple perspectives. Slow start, but rapid buildup with great character development. The ending was so much fun to experience.

love!

3.75

Such a good fantasy book. I loved the way magic worked in this one and the different plot twists were very good.

First finished read of 2016! I think is definitely one of my favourite Brandon Sanderson books!

Warbreaker is an incredible story of magic, politics and gods and is amazing. Brandon Sanderson has definitely perfected the art of storytelling, especially worldbuilding. This is the fourth series I've read and each one had a distinct and unique magic system. Loved the duality of both sisters and how each grew in its own way. Incredible storytelling, not without its fault, but definitely entertaining and leave you wishing for more.

4.5⭐ That was so much fun to read.

Warbreaker: 4/5 Finally finished this book after putting it down for months. Although it was long, Sanderson continues to be unmatched in creating unique magic systems, exhausting world building, and incredible twists. I don’t think I will ever get used to Sanderson endings. They make all the world building worth it, as he answers questions the reader doesn’t even know they have. Overall, I do prefer Mistborn to Warbreaker, but this is a worthy standalone and great lead into the Stormlight Archive.

** spoiler alert ** 4.5/5

I'm feeling a light to decent 4.5

lightsong. thats it

** spoiler alert ** What a delightful, evocative book! Wonderful characters, excellent plot, beautiful world building... I wish there was more, I didn't even want to let go of the characters towards the end. A special mention: Lightsong - can a Returned return twice because he was easily my favourite?

Annotations are cool

Could not put down. Genius.

4,5

read

it's a sanderson so <333 i'd say it worked better for me than his more sci-fi works though it wasn't as good as mistborn (what is??) or the emperor's soul. but that's not saying much because i absolutely loved those. my main complaint is that i wanted so much more from this. there is so much lore, so much potential that i just wanted this book to go into detail on everything but i guess it isn't fair to ask sanderson to only write books with upwards of 1000 pages. basically, i just hope the warbreaker sequel comes soon cause i can't be made to wait long :((

I enjoyed this quite a bit. I’m an avid Sanderson fan and love his books. This didn’t appeal that much to me. Not to say it was bad in any way, I just didn’t fall in love like I did with the other books.

So at the beginning of the pandemic when I first discovered Booktube (actually, when I found 2 people who talked about books on YouTube and didn’t yet know it was a thing), I noticed how both of them loved this completely random guy, but I didn’t know if I’d like fantasy. I don’t know why I thought it was supposed to be such an intimidating genre, it was just not what I’d been used to reading. Anyway, Emily Fox suggested to start with Warbreaker, since Sanderson has it available for free on his website, so I thought I might as well try, right? No risk, high reward. Well, that’s great in theory and all, but turns out he actually has various versions of the books drafts available and it was just too confusing for little old me. Because I am clearly an idiot, I accidentally downloaded one of the drafts instead and read Draft 4 (or maybe it was draft 3?) of Warbreaker. And I liked it very much. Don’t get me wrong, I was thoroughly confused about the concept of a hard magic system (what do you mean you use colors to bring things to life? where are the witches with their magic wands and their BibidiBobidyBoos?), but even with half of it going over my head, it was still an easy 4 stars. So when I found myself in a slightly slump-ish mood a week ago, I decided it was time for read of the actual final book (and I got it on audio). I’m considering it a re-read, mostly, but as this was read in a year when I was not doing CBR, I thought I might as well review it here. Very quick non-spoilery (but opinion-heavy) synopsis of this book: Vivenna, the eldest princess of the exiled royal family is betrothed the “returned” God-King of Hallandren as a means to avoid war, and has been preparing for it all her life. But tensions are rising and the old King decides he loves his perfect daughter too much to send her to her possible death, so he sends in Siri, her little sister, instead. Yes, you heard it right: he sends in his 17-year-old unprepared daughter to marry a man he considers to be an abomination (he’s basically a zombie if you’re to believe the old royal religion) because he loves his older daughter more. You know, a royal dick move if I’ve ever seen one. So then Vivenna, who feels slighted and is the single most self-absorbed character I’ve ever seen in any book decides she needs to follow and somehow “save her sister”, because that was supposed to be her sacrifice. *facepalm* Meanwhile in the Royal Court in Hallandren, Lightsong – one of the returned Gods -, does not believe in his own religion and is doing his best to be completely shallow and useless. But the arrival of the new queen is making it very hard for people to stop bringing up pesky subjects such as politics into conversations, and he is not amused (though I am). I think that covers the basics: Siri is terrified, Vivenna is stupid, Lightsong is hilarious and full of ennui, and no one speaks to the God King because he’s just too important for that… oh, and there’s a talking sword! Go! Enjoy! So first of all, I have learned I LOVE hard magic systems. I feel like restricting the characters to very strict rules gives the story stakes and I’m here for it. And man, is Sanderson good at worldbuilding and hard magic systems. Sanderson is not quite as awesome at the character side of this book, but it was still quite okay. I loved Siri and Lightsong, and enjoyed both their arcs immensely. On the other hand, as you might have noticed, I wanted to bitchslap Vivenna. so. much. I mean, how stupid can an arguable smart girl be? and I’m not sure any arc would be enough to redeem her in my eyes. The side-characters were also mostly fun, if not really layered, but that’s also fine. Finally, the plot is really good, as I’ve come to expect from him. He somehow manages to have satisfying endings which are not at all what I was expecting (though not quite as good as the ending to Mistborn – that was chef’s kiss) So overall I guess I think everyone should read this? Yes, that’s my conclusion. This re-read was a 5 star and I think you should go read it too. Similar Books (Beta)

Actual rating is a 3.5 out of 5 - just rounded up for Goodreads. Full review is at: https://aicpod.com/review/warbreaker-... Warbreaker is a solid fantasy story from a storyteller that excels at his craft. It’s almost entirely character driven in it’s approach however, so if you are looking for an action packed fantasy romp, it may let you down. If you love a good character driven story however, you’ll love it. Sanderson does a fantastic job with his world building, his characters, and of course a unique magic system. Unfortunately trying to cram all of it into a stand-alone novel vs a series is what seemed to stall the momentum through an otherwise excellent tale of mystery and intrigue in a terrific fantasy setting. Even though I was left wanting more from so many aspects of it, the main thread of this story and the mystery that unfolds as Siri, Vivenna, and so many others discover the depths of treachery hidden in Hallandren, is pretty damn fun. It’s definitely worth a read if you enjoy fantasy.

as always, the magic system and the characters are immaculate and is very easy to find yourself invested in them. warbreaker is the lightest cosmere book in my opinion, meaning that the magic and world are not overwhelming, the number of povs is significantly smaller and the whole plot is not very complicated, so i don't think readers will have any problem following it. but this work has charming points that are not found in other books that share its same universe (the color-based magic system, the beauty and the beast sort of trope with siri and susebron, the princess vivenna who learns how to defend herself and is in search for her place in the world now that the future she has been preparing for all her life has been taken away from her... ), and i recommend warbreaker wholeheartedly. it was very entertaining and engaging, it has so much to offer and, as for now, it is an amazing, well-constructed standalone fantasy that i think many people would enjoy if they picked it up.

As I went through this book, I think I've actually read it in the past. I didn't remember that! But it was a fun story, and I'm glad I went through it again, even though I had to blast through on audio to finish in time for book club!

NEW FAVORITE BOOK!!!