Warbreaker written by Brandon Sanderson
Release Date: June 9th, 2009
Publisher: Tor Books
Format of Novel: Paperback
Rating: 4/5 stars
Summary (from good reads): 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.
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.
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Ever since I started watching book tube videos full time, I've noticed a lot of people raving about this particular author. As a curious person, I decided to give him and the genre of High/Epic fantasy a shot. Normally I am not one to reach for high fantasy, but this book caught my eye. As a result to it, I really enjoyed it. Each of the characters were their own persona, making them original and fresh in the mind. Their relationships were slow burning yet they held onto a certain meaning that made this particular story so fresh in my head. Not only that, the political system and the concept of using breath to gain power was a very unique idea to bring into this sort of story.
However, what really brought this story to life was the different subplots. Whenever Brendon Sanderson mentions a significant character, he was able to make their growths come to life in a realistic level. For example, Lightsong. For a god, he reminded me of a teenage and as the story progress, he starts changing into a much mature 'god' and I was really pleased with how his story came to an end as the finale took place. (And also a little sad as well).
While this book was major plus in my newfound love for high fantasy, I had a couple of issues with it as well (two issues mainly). Issues number one was my patience. While the story was fast pace and the story was really compelling, It literally took me till the end of April to read it and I obtained the novel in mid December and didn't start it till the very beginning of January. I did have very personal issues with the duration of that time, but I ended up getting very distracted by other books that were shorter and exciting for me during that time instead of reading a 657 paged novel. I don't know why, but a few of the chapters were unnecessary in my opinion and that slowed the book down for me (coming from someone that has read the first novel to Game of Thrones in two weeks flat). And the final issues was remembering a couple of the characters. At first I thought Lightsong was Siri's godly husband, but when I read that it was someone completely different, I almost threw my book in annoyance before I looked up the full summary. And all of the gods and the political system were also a tad annoying to follow during that time. (like I said, personal reason blocked my '5/5' rating).
But basically, this story was a great start to this wonderful and complex fantasy author. I just wish that I was enjoy Warbreaker more without dealing with the funk I was in for the majority of my time reading it. The story was simple yet very compelling with the overall fantastical elements, political system, and original characters. I will be continuing on reading more of this author's works when I get the chance too and understand more of the epic fantasy genre that he gracefully writes on a regular basis. ^_^
However, what really brought this story to life was the different subplots. Whenever Brendon Sanderson mentions a significant character, he was able to make their growths come to life in a realistic level. For example, Lightsong. For a god, he reminded me of a teenage and as the story progress, he starts changing into a much mature 'god' and I was really pleased with how his story came to an end as the finale took place. (And also a little sad as well).
While this book was major plus in my newfound love for high fantasy, I had a couple of issues with it as well (two issues mainly). Issues number one was my patience. While the story was fast pace and the story was really compelling, It literally took me till the end of April to read it and I obtained the novel in mid December and didn't start it till the very beginning of January. I did have very personal issues with the duration of that time, but I ended up getting very distracted by other books that were shorter and exciting for me during that time instead of reading a 657 paged novel. I don't know why, but a few of the chapters were unnecessary in my opinion and that slowed the book down for me (coming from someone that has read the first novel to Game of Thrones in two weeks flat). And the final issues was remembering a couple of the characters. At first I thought Lightsong was Siri's godly husband, but when I read that it was someone completely different, I almost threw my book in annoyance before I looked up the full summary. And all of the gods and the political system were also a tad annoying to follow during that time. (like I said, personal reason blocked my '5/5' rating).
But basically, this story was a great start to this wonderful and complex fantasy author. I just wish that I was enjoy Warbreaker more without dealing with the funk I was in for the majority of my time reading it. The story was simple yet very compelling with the overall fantastical elements, political system, and original characters. I will be continuing on reading more of this author's works when I get the chance too and understand more of the epic fantasy genre that he gracefully writes on a regular basis. ^_^
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