Hi, thank you for visiting my blog. Today I am going to be reviewing Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, I am going to preface this review by saying that this is not my first time reading a book by Mr. Sanderson, in fact, I would consider myself a fan.
Warbreaker is a standalone (so far) novel which is part of Mr. Sanderson's "Cosmere" universe in which most of his books take place, though there is no particular reading order nor do you need to know about one book to enjoy another. The book focuses on two princesses, Siri and Vivenna, from the small nation of Idris which is under threat of war from their larger, more powerful neighbours the Hallandren. The story follows the two sisters as one is sent to the larger nation as part of a peace treaty to marry the nation's God King, the other one follows to rescue her sister from this fate. The other two main characters are an indolent God named Lightsong and a mysterious man known as Vasher with a black sword.
I don't want to go too deeply into the plot as I hope that you, like me, will enjoy discovering this world for yourself but I do need to cover some points so that you will understand when I talk about what I liked. The story takes place in a world of magic and focuses on the religious and cultural divide between the nations of Idris and Hallandren. The Hallandren nation worships a pantheon of Gods led by the God King, these are real-life Gods that live a life of luxury in the nation's capital city in grand palaces. Conversely, the Idrian nation worships the God "Austre" that is not a living being but more of a concept. Culturally the Idrians live a simple life, ostentation and excess are sins and the religion teaches the virtues of humility, sacrifice, and seeing another's problems before your own. The Hallandren live a more colourful life and make use of the system of magic that comes from Breath.
Breath, or to use the full title BioChromatic Breath, is the main divide between Idris and Hallandran. Idrian's see Breath as akin to one's soul, everybody is born with a Breath however Breath can be transferred which the Idrians see as a sin. The Hallandren Gods exist because they have a divine Breath and Hallandran's use of Breath is much more practical, almost like a second form of currency, the more Breaths a person holds the higher in society they stand and more Breath can be purchased though it is costly. A person with a large amount of Breath can also use it to perform Awakening, a process through which inanimate objects are invested with Breath and can perform tasks autonomously, for example, a rope can be commanded to tie itself around a person to hold them. Awakening is abhorred by Idrian's as they see it as using a person's soul to animate objects.
Moving on to the actual review part of this review, I really enjoyed this book, ok review done thanks for coming. Ok, why did I enjoy it? As I read through the book I was expecting the use of Awakening to set up some amazing action set pieces, and it does, however for me it is the characters that really make this book. Lightsong The Bold was my favourite character, a God who questions his own divinity and has the best one-liners and witty responses by far, but all four main characters are well written and with the possible exception of Vasher very relatable. Each character at some point in the story has to answer the same question, one we have probably all posed ourselves at one point, who am I? They each look at their own lives, experiences, prejudices, and those of their culture/religion and how they fit into their place in society. Also, prepare to have your views on mercenaries challenged thanks to the fantastic secondary characters present in Warbreaker.
A few more quick points that I liked, as I mentioned I am a fan of Brandon Sanderson and he is a master of world-building, Warbreaker is focused on a relatively small area, the majority of the book takes place in one city, but at no point did it feel like the wider world wasn't there, it never feels confined or cramped. There is a very satisfying anti-climax during the book, I loved it. The names of the Hallandren Gods are fantastic (Lightsong states that: "Our names and titles are assigned randomly by a small monkey who has been fed an exceedingly large amount of gin."). The pacing felt just right to me though I did talk with someone who felt that certain things were maybe covered too much. One tiny negative to end on for me, there was one semi-major plot point reveal that I saw coming from miles off, it didn't matter too much as there were plenty of other things that kept me guessing all the way through.
So, a very enjoyable book. I came to read this book off of the back of The Wheel Of Time series which is 14 books plus a prequel book so having this be a one and done standalone book with a satisfying (yet open to sequels) ending was perfect for me, I would highly recommend it if you are into fantasy and don't have the time to invest in a series.
No comments:
Post a Comment