Book: Warbreaker
ISBN-13: 978-0765320308
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Fantasy
Release: June 9, 2009
Length: 592 pages (Hardcover)
Rating: C- (65%)
Verdict
The strength of this novel lies in the novelty of its magic system. Unfortunately, nearly all of the book is spent exploring that system, world building, and very slowly unfolding a dull political plot.
-
Pros: Interesting magic system.
Cons: Weak deus ex machina ending. Very little suspense. Shallow characters.
Synopsis
In Brief: When a belligerent princess is married off to the God King of a neighboring nation, she finds herself lost in a strange culture, struggle to avert a war by working within a political system that is not what it seems to be. Meanwhile, her older sister, who plots to free her from the grip of the godless nation, encounters one setback after another.
Official: 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.
Review
I would say that I was disappointed by Warbreaker, but the fact that the cover of the book brandishes the logo of the Sci Fi Channel was huge tip-off not to get my hopes up. Still, I have a hard time reconciling the this dull, emotionally flat book with Sanderson’s stupendous work on The Gathering Storm.
That’s not to say that the book was bad. It’s just that, after Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy and his contribution to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, I had expected that Warbreaker would be a sweeping epic fantasy on the scale of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. Instead, I found a novel almost completely devoid of action, populated by characters whose emotions lacked authenticity, and heavily reliant on the novelty of its magic system to maintain readers’ interest.
What’s more, Warbreaker might still have rated a “B,” if not for its ending. I won’t spoil it, but the term deus ex machina comes to mind. After five hundred pages of build up, all of the book’s fighting occurs “off stage” in an afterward that glosses over all the gruesome details.
All in all, the book is written like an anime series. It’s magic system is extremely reminiscent of the system used in Fullmetal Alchemist, and the book’s twists and turns are executed with the same peculiarly long explanations and smug, overplayed one-upsmanship that so often characterize anime storylines. If it had been animated, it probably would have been one of the better anime series to come along in recent history, but in the fantasy aisle, it only ranks as mediocre.
Similar Books
If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy these very similar series:
- The Belgariad: Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
- The Saga of Recluce: The Magic of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt Jr.
- The Tawny Man Trilogy: Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb
Further Information
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