Reviews,  RLovatt

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson : Review

 

Breathe.
Hallandren and Idris; two kingdoms sitting side by side.  Hallandren; an ostentatious kingdom of colors, gods, Breath and a spectrum of  colorfully dressed crowds bustling within sunny streets. And Idris, a humble kingdom laying within the mountains surrounding Hallandren. It’s people, subdued and live modest lives and worshiping only the god Austren. To the citizens of Idris who wear only browns, the ostentatious ways of the Hallandren is an abomination and blasphemous.

With tensions rising between the two lands, the King of Idris must send his daughter to marry the God King of Hallandren, as was agreed upon in a treaty signed twenty years earlier. But when he sends his youngest daughter Siri instead of his eldest, Vivenna; motives are questioned, and the sisters must learn to cope with their switched roles, and save their country from inevitable destruction.

Sticking true to his form, Brandon Sanderson uses multiple point of views throughout the story. Siri, the young rebellious princess; Vivenna, the eldest princess – who had been born and raised in preparation to marry to Godking; Lightsong, a self-proclaimed useless God who begins to raise questions that none will – or want to answer; and Vasher, a  mysterious and rogue swordsman.

There was one thing that I felt took away from the story though. There was a minor PoV change, which while it was only 2 pages long; was completely unnecessary. It did serve to explain what happened to something (sorry I know that’s vague – but I do what I can to stay spoiler-free) that would’ve been answered when the PoV got switched to Vivenna right afterwords. I just found the scene to be quite distracting from all the action which was taking place. Also, there were areas in the middle which just seemed redundant and repetitive, but those parts were definitely still decent.

While there were some things while reading this that seemed inevitable and quite predictable, Warbreaker was a fantastic and enjoyable read. With a unique magic system which perfectly complimented and balanced the plot, action, and a fair bit of humor. This book is definitely one that would be loved by fans of Brandon Sanderson or Brent Weeks (see the previous post, ‘The Black Prism‘).

~

Brandon’s Website: http://brandonsanderson.com/
Follow Brandon on Twitter : @BrandSanderson

 

Rebecca created The Arched Doorway back in 2011 as an outlet for her thoughts on the books she reads. She spends her time as a freelance editor and reviewer. Her first anthology, Neverland's Library, came out in 2014 from Ragnarok Publications. Rebecca primarily reads historical and epic fantasy novels, such as those by Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Christian Cameron and Terry Brooks. She lives in Toronto, ON with her two snakes and hundreds of books.

4 Comments

    • RLovatt

      Grace, I love all of Sanderson’s novels.. Not so much his Alcatraz ones; but those are for a younger audience from my understanding of it. I do highly recommend ‘Warbreaker’, ‘Elantris’ and his Mistborn trilogy (which by the way, a sequel to the trilogy was released today – Alloy of Law).

      It’s a shame that the sequel to the Way of Kings won’t be released until late next year/early 2013.. But oh well.. :) I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait.

      • Grace

        I have a copy of Elantris that I’m going to read when I get a chance. I’m not exactly patient when waiting for the next Stormlight Archive book… I wanna read it now!

  • Rickard Wozniak

    Nice review! I’m likely to start reading it right after I’ve finished reading Wise Man’s Fear. One question I have, since I have not read Elantris, how does Warbreaker compare to Elantris, has Sanderson improved as an author since his first stand alone novel?

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