Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson: a review

Rating: 4/5

Review by: Sharvani

I always have a hard time reviewing Sanderson's books. I am a fan of his work, and these are the only physical copies I buy without a second thought. I hope my Sanderson glasses aren't too thick to make this a useful review for those of you who are wondering if you should pick up this book.

This is an epic adult fantasy story set in Cosmere, Brandon's fictional shared universe. Two POVs that we follow in this book are that of Idrian princesses, Siri and Vivenna. Vivenna is groomed to be sent as the wife of the God king of the rival nation Hallandren, in accordance with a treaty that was drafted before she was born. However, their father makes an unexpected decision to send Siri in her place. The events that unfold after Siri reaches Hallandren brings her into the company of a lesser God of Hallandren called Lightsong, and Vivenna into working with a mysterious man called Vasher, who is working towards correcting the mistakes he has made previously.

This story is the same as most Sanderson stories in terms of worldbuilding. It's different in the sense that it's a more contained story. This is a character-focused story. There is less action involved compared to his other books. Sanderson takes his time, and slowly works towards exploring the personalities of the different characters involved, and tells us how they grow through various scenes, Vivenna in particular.

Arguably, the best parts of the book were those written from Lightsong's - who is now one of my favourite fictional characters - POV. He is hilarious, and spends a lot of time arguing with his priests, and questioning the faith that treats him like a god.

I'm now proposing to believe that God - or the universe, or time, or whatever you think controls all of this - is all really just a drunk monkey.

The parts that contain his interactions with other gods and also with Siri were hilarious and snappy.

My dear Mercystar, if you know anything of me, then you will realise that leaving you alone is by far the best comfort I can offer.

On the other hand, Vivenna, who holds great belief in the faith preached to her and starts thinking about how much would be too much. Her experiences show great character growth and the dialogues involved in these incidents is where this book truly shines.

You don't have to believe in my miracles. You can call them accidents or coincidences, if you must. But don't pity me for my faith. And don't presume that you're better, just because you believe something different.

If you've already read anything set in the Cosmere, you don't need me to ask you to pick this up. I'm sure you know how this book was written, and that you already have this book, waiting for you to pick it up. I believe that this book contains his most believable romance, till date.

If you haven't, this would be a great place to start. Brandon has explained it well here. I recommend that you would It started as an experiment that asked for reader involvement, and I regret that I wasn't a part of it then.

If you are one of those rare readers who found that the other books written by him don't work for you, this book will still have something for you. It's differently paced, a mystery, and contains enough banter to make you laugh, though there are certainly has dark bits to the story.

After reading this book, I can confidently say that I believe of all SFF authors we have today, Brandon does the best work with putting human emotions to paper. But, like he says in this book:

Who is to say that my judgement is best?