Warbreaker

I would have to say Brandon Sanderson may be the reigning king of epic fantasy in today's SF/F publishing world. He churns out books that should not be as good as they are considering the rate he writes them, but yet they are.

I first heard about Warbreaker because of the unusual publication method Sanderson used, releasing each successive draft of the book in public and giving readers a glimpse into the world of the writing, re-writing, and revising process that makes a novel. That takes a serious amount of authorship chutzpah.

I hadn't read it then, but it has sat on my harddrive (I downloaded the final draft and filed it away, meaning to read it but never had) until my book club picked it for their next read.

I admit, I had to force myself to start it. I had just blown through the first collection of Velveteen stories by Seanan McGuire, and just found the second collection and it took all my willpower to not start those instead, book club obligations be damned.

Thanks to the shaming from Suzi, I was able to resist the siren's call of a bunny-eared superhero. And once I started, I had a hard time stopping.

Sanderson does absolutely superb world-building, and Warbreaker was no exception. His worlds have complex magic systems, political machinations and conflict, and class struggle that all fit together and make his books come alive.

I loved Siri's storyline. It was interesting, and she was interesting. Her sister's storyline was less compelling, and I found Vivenna to be insufferable. She did redeem herself by the end of the book, but found her a difficult character. It was interesting, however, to think how the plot may have taken a different turn if Vivenna had been married to Susebron as originally intended.

Fantastic story. And Sanderson kept me guessing on where the plot was headed. Though I did figure out something was up with the statues early on - he didn't dwell on them, but spent just enough time on them that I guess they would be a major plot device.

A very pleasant change of pace from my usual fare.

It's a fantasy world with a well thought out (and somewhat over-explained) magical system to it. The nice part is the system actually affects how things are done rationally, and shows up in unexpected details here and there.

The characters are pretty well done compared to most of the fantasy I've read as well - each is an individual, and not one dimensional. They can be pretty naïve (if not downright stupid) from time to time, but they each have their own set of characteristics that change and develop as the novel progresses.

The real highlight of the novel for me were Denth and Lightsong's endless stream of commentary and wit. For instance -

"You have to believe in something. If not a religion, then somebody. A way of living."
"I did once."
"Do you always have to answer so vaguely?"
"Yes, except, perhaps, for that question"

"And if I don't know the answers to your questions?"
"Then make something up. I'll never know the difference. Unknowing ignorance is preferable to informed stupidity."
"I'll try to remember that."
"Do so and you defeat the point. Now, your questions?"

Imagine being able to take a piece of your soul and use it to manipulate the fabric of the world around you; from augmenting your strength, to animating the inanimate to creating an army of 40,000 lifeless zombies.

Such is the magical system of Sanderson’s Warbreaker . A tale of two exiled royal sisters Vivenna and Siri, one of whom must marry the Returned (resurrected) God King.

It’s a tale of two cultures, one austere the other flamboyant, one that delights in the ability to use BioChromatic magic, one that see’s it as an abomination.

These two cultures are set on a path to war, the sisters must stop it. Help as well as hindrance will come from strange quarters, and if you thought the politics of humans was internecine, they have nothing on the gods.

Thumbs Up?

Sanderson is to be applauded for giving us, once again a detailed and unique magic system that is entwined into the very fabric of the story, rather than a tacked on after thought.

The concept of BioChromatic magic- a magic that comes from the Breath, a transference of a soul like power into inanimate or dead objects, is brilliant. The way that it manifests, draining the colour from objects it’s stored in, or enhancing the vision, taste and feel of those that hold more than one Breath, makes for some stunning imagery.

The depiction of two strong female protagonists in Siri and Vivenna was also a welcome inclusion, even better though was that their strength was for the most part displayed through non violent means. Not all strong female heroes need to be Xena.

The use of Breath as currency, or a commodity to be bought and sold, the symbiotic relationship between Gods and their followers was, dare I say it a breath of fresh air.

The world of Warbreaker is definitely not your traditional fantasy setting.

Thumbs down?

And that for me was part of its undoing. Front loaded with gorgeous world building and detailed description of the workings and logic of the magic system, the pace of Warbreaker doesn’t pick up until about page 400.

There is enough information within the book to easily background a trilogy, but the end of Warbreaker sees a fairly solid resolution that doesn’t require another book. I can’t but feel that the book should have been shorter and more succinct or spread out over two or three books.

The theological banter and witty repartee between the god Lightsong and whoever he chose to inflict his wit on, also began to grate on me. The dialogue in the later began to feel overdone, while my irritation with the former might just be my increasing impatience with theological waffle in reality.

Verdict

The last third of the novel saves it. Sanderson creates a wonderfully intricate society and magic system, slowly moving the plot forward for 400 pages and then bam it’s all over. If you have the stamina it’s worth hanging in until the last third of the book.

This book was provided by the publisher at no cost to myself

I enjoyed Warbreaker, but not as much as I had hoped to. Sanderson sets a high standard for his work with the Mistborn trilogy, which this novel does not quite reach.

However, the world he has built here is compelling, with a mythos and history of conflict that one cannot help but get caught up in. As one expects with Sanderson, the characters are vividly drawn and fully realized, although oddly it is Vasher, the title character of the piece, that is perhaps the least fleshed out in the prose. Then again, the mystery of Vasher is an essential element to the story, and thus a limited knowledge of his nature is most likely a necessary evil.

Also problematic is that the magical system he has created for this world feels a bit too formulaic to me. Sanderson is known for his belief that magic systems must have rules, but unlike the Allomancy in his Mistborn series, the magical system in this book feels just a little too much like character statistics, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that you can hear dice rolling in the background. This is a fully realized magical system, but at times gets a little heavy on the exposition in order to make it clear to the reader how the magic works. However, it does not occupy so much of the story that this is a huge detraction, just a bit of a disappointment after how skillfully he handled these issues in the Mistborn trilogy.

I do want to be clear that this is an enjoyable novel, and I look forward to reading the sequel. I'm also intrigued to read in some of his interviews that the worlds of the Mistborn trilogy, Elantris (which I have yet to read), Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings (forthcoming) are all part of the same metaverse that he has created, but he does not indicate if there is going to be any interaction between them beyond that, with the possible exception of a common character in two of the books.

I am looking forward to reading more of Sanderson's works, but this particular novel really only merits a 3.5 (rounded down) for the reasons described above.