Name: Adwait Kulkarni's review of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
Item: Warbreaker
Rating: 4.5
Author: Adwait Kulkarni

Brandon Sanderson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, 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. Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson The Cosmere The Stormlight Archive The Way of Kings Words of Radiance Edgedancer (Novella) Oathbringer (forthcoming) The Mistborn trilogy Mistborn: The Final Empire The Well of Ascension The Hero of Ages Mistborn: The Wax and Wayne series Alloy of Law Shadows of Self Bands of Mourning Collection Arcanum Unbounded Other Cosmere novels Elantris Warbreaker The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians The Scrivener's Bones The Knights of Crystallia The Shattered Lens The Dark Talent The Rithmatist series The Rithmatist Other books by Brandon Sanderson The Reckoners Steelheart Firefight Calamity

Warbreaker

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.

Sazandaro

Finally finished warbreaker! Not sure which cosmere book to focus on next tho 

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.

Brandon Sanderson is a master of World Building, Character Development and having a very detailed, elaborate magic system.

All three of these abovementioned traits of Sanderson are on full display in this standalone story set in the Cosmere Universe. The character detailing of Siri and Vivenna is extraordinary. The God King and Lightsong make the story richer. My favourite pair though was of Vasher who is this beautifully layered character and his Nightblood (which till now I thought was called as Knightblood).

The story is set up nicely in the earlier chapters. It somewhat gets slow in the middle but the story gets into the top gear towards the end with so much happening in the span of few hours. I'm kind of surprised that Sanderson hasn't revisited Warbreaker till date with no sequel or even short story. The ending felt like it set us up for a new journey which I would love to know more about.

Adwait Kulkarni

Brandon Sanderson is a master of World Building, Character Development and having a very detailed, elaborate magic system.

All three of these abovementioned traits of Sanderson are on full display in this standalone story set in the Cosmere Universe. The character detailing of Siri and Vivenna is extraordinary. The God King and Lightsong make the story richer. My favourite pair though was of Vasher who is this beautifully layered character and his Nightblood (which till now I thought was called as Knightblood).

The story is set up nicely in the earlier chapters. It somewhat gets slow in the middle but the story gets into the top gear towards the end with so much happening in the span of few hours. I'm kind of surprised that Sanderson hasn't revisited Warbreaker till date with no sequel or even short story. The ending felt like it set us up for a new journey which I would love to know more about.

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.

Kyle James

Delaney Vorwick

nina 

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

Eneko Uruñuela

Sunny

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

Vicky  Nuñez 

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.

Sheryl

Tatiana

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.

Nate Niederkorn

Cody Degen

kyra

** 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?

Elisabeth Thoresen

unfortunately the Mormonism is not as subtle in this one, but I did really like lightsong, and watching Vivenna learn how much she sucks, so 4 stars

Annabelle Gauthier

Ward

After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, Elantris, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today's leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own. 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.

Apiecalypse Jen

Beatriz Aguiar

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. 

Noah Cross

Juliana Matias

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)

Dave | Storyphoria

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.

Voici l'histoire de deux soeurs : Siri, une jeune fille rebelle envoyée par son père pour épouser le tyrannique Dieu-Roi, et Vivenna, qui va tenter de la sauver de son sort. C'est aussi l'histoire de Chanteflamme, un autre dieu qui n'aime pas son travail, celle de Vasher, un immortel qui essaie de réparer les erreurs qu'il a commises autrefois, et de Saignenuit, sa mystérieuse épée. Dans leur monde, celui qui meurt auréolé de gloire devient un dieu et vit dans le panthéon du royaume d'Hallandren. C'est un monde transformé par la magie biochromatique, la magie du Souffle. Un Souffle qu'on ne récupère définitivement que sur un individu à la fois. Brandon Sanderson prouve une fois encore qu'il excelle dans la création d'un imaginaire avec ses mythes et sa magie propres.

andrea

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.

Janice Hopper

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!

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