Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Title: Warbreaker
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Warbreaker #1 (?)
Genre: Fantasy/Magic/Adventure
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: June 9th, 2009
Edition: Kindle Edition, 669 pages
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Powell's | Thriftbooks

Synopsis:

   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.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

 

 

 Possibly an unpopular opinion, but this book was kind of boring. I only really cared about one character, Vasher, and he was simply not in this book enough for me to enjoy the rest of the book. I liked Siri only a little more than Vivenna, and that was because she was just more likable. Vivienne is very judgemental, self-righteous, and often a little cruel in how she views those who didn't think or behave the way she does. Likely unintentional, but it felt like negative commentary on overtly religious types. She views herself as this virtuous person, but instead of showing compassion for those who may have less than her. She has either pity or judgment.

 

Lightsong was the second more enjoyable character to read, but it took nearly half the book to get there for me. All the "Lesser Gods", I don't really understand how their position in court matters, since they can't really do anything but give their life to save one person, and then are replaced. Their existence is almost redundant. Perhaps if I hadn't been skimming most chapters the magic and how politics work would've made more sense to me.

I honestly thought, and feel, that Siri and Vivienne's father would've played more of a role in this book. He has POV chapters at the start of the book, then never seen or heard from again. Not even to send people to try and retrieve Vivienne despite her threats. That is also something else that really bothered me. I read the footnote where Sanderson tries to justify the King isn't a piece of trash for sending the younger daughter to potentially die because he loves his eldest daughter more. No, he sucks let's not pretend that he's a good dad. He ignores his other kids, and nearly hates his youngest daughter to the point where he's okay if she dies. 

This is very obviously one of Sanderson's early books. It might also be one of my least favorite. The Reckoners is only better because there aren't a bunch of loose ends and flat one-dimensional characters. If this book ever gets a sequel I might read it only to see if things are tied up better. This book has a very abrupt ending. And to be frank, if this book had been my introduction to Sanderson, I might not have read any other books by him.