Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Your breath to mine

Synapsis

Indris and Hallandren- two mighty nations of Nalthis- have been on the edge of war for many years since the end of Manywar. The peace treaty that was made twenty years ago to relieve the tension between the nations, demanded that the king of Idris provide one of his daughters to the God-king- the king of Hallandron- to Marry. Vivenna has been trained to be the queen of Hallandran for all her life. But when her father decides to send her younger sister Siri instead to be the wife of the God-king, Vivenna decides to go after her baby sister to save her life.

Genre: Adult fantasy

Page count: 592 (paperback), 25h (Audiobook)

Published year: 2009

Goodreads score: 5/5 stars

Warbreaker is one of Sanderson's many books that is set in the Cosmere universe. If you are a hard-core Sanderson fan then I am sure you know what Cosmere is but if you are still new to Sanderson’s books, then Cosmere is a fictional universe that he has built in his books. Warbreaker is another testament to Sanderson’s amazing story-telling. Honestly, the man is a genius and a great fantasy writer. His world-building, characters and magic systems are so intricately detailed and cleverly built that I just can’t imagine how he comes up with such brilliant and sophisticated plots and magic systems.

This is a mystery- thriller type of story set in a fantasy world. The story is not very action-packed and it has a slow pace. However, I never felt bored while reading this massive tome because everything that happened in this book from start to finish was so intriguing and exciting. I thought every scene was relevant to the overall story and despite its page count, the book didn't feel like a lengthy one at all. The world-building in the book was so bloody brilliant. The story is woven around two nations, Idris and Hallandren. Idris is the home of Vivenna and Siri and it is ruled by their father AKA the king of Idris. In the south, Hallandren is ruled by the God-king Susebron and his court is made of returned gods who had died in some honourable way and returned to life with divine powers. Each god has his/her own devoted priests who study the doctrine of Iridescent Tones and handle court politics. I enjoyed reading about political manoeuvres and schemes that went on in the court of gods and how much power and influence the priests had over their gods. The ending of the book surprised me a lot, and it went on a totally unexpected direction from my initial predictions. Nonetheless, I think this book has a perfect ending and I hope we will get a sequel to the story soon.

The thing that made this book so unique is its Magic system. To give a small summary of how this works, everyone is born with one single breath which they can give/sell willingly to another person. This breath is known as Biochromatic breath because releasing it produces multiple colours like a reflection from a prism.

Accumulation of multiple breaths gives a person the ability to achieve different stages of Heightening. People who achieved higher stages of Heightening have the ability to prolong their life, resist illness and also have heightened senses like seeing and hearing individual harmonics of colours and sounds. A person who has reached higher stages of heightening can awaken inanimate objects by giving it a certain amount of breaths with a specific command. One thing that blew my mind was the complexity of the magic system and what people can do with it in a battle situation.

I always loved Sanderson’s writing style. I like that he gives enough information to understand the scenes but don’t shower us with overly specific details. Also, Sanderson is best known for his character work and he did not disappoint me in this book too. I loved every character in this book and their character arcs. We get four main POVs.

Vivenna: Vivenna is the princess of Idris and the elder sister of Siri. She has been trained in court politics all her life and she has been brought up to follow and obey their culture, religion and rules. So, she always appears as a controlled, calm, graceful and clever person. At first, I thought that she is just a pompous, uptight princess who judges all and behaves superior to everyone around her. However, her character arc surprised me a lot and changed my opinion about her. I admired her tenacity and I thought she was a very brave character. She looks at everything with a logical lens and could adapt to every situation accordingly. She showed strength in her character by accepting her mistakes and working on improving them slowly. I also loved her relationship with her sister and how she always wanted to protect her sister as best as she could.

Siri: I loved Siri from the very beginning. She is care-free and a wild character. She is rebellious, stubborn (in a good way), sweet, loving and caring. I loved the way she adapted to life in the court of Hallandren so fast with minimal training and her determination to find the truth to help the one she loved. I loved the slow-burning romance too. It was so precious and adorable. I normally have trouble latching on to or rooting for Sanderson’s romance stories, but this love story was just sooo adorable and I loved every second of it.

Lightsong: I loved Lightsong’s character. He is the god of bravery and he is funny, witty, smart and strong. Basically, a perfect character to win my heart. His witty and sarcastic remarks to other people around him made me laugh so much. But underneath that light-hearted funny character, I got to know a nobleman who cares deeply about his people and wants the best for his nation. I loved how his character progressed and the reveal at the end. He lived up to his title until the very end.

Vasher: Vasher is mysterious and a dark character at the beginning of the story and his true identity is revealed at the very end. At first, I couldn’t figure out which side he was on and how his story connected to the main plot. He is a very closed off person and can be rude and blunt sometimes but underneath of it all, he is a caring person with a complicated past. I liked his talking sward ‘nightblood’ too.

So finally, after gushing about my love for this book, I would like to recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This is a standalone book so if you are worried about going into Sandersons bigger fantasy series this book is a nice place to start. Just READ it, it's awesome!