# Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949 "2009-07-05T02:26:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/1 "2009-07-05T02:26:20Z")
Reading _Warbreaker_ is like getting punched in the solar plexus. I say that as a good thing. Brandon Sanderson has come out with another masterpiece. The setting is original, the system of magic is complex and well-thought out, the characters are three or four dimentional, and nothing is quite what it seems. Oh, and he loves playing around with cliches, lampshading them, turning them inside out, subverting them, and subverting them again. The man is just… incredible. I hate it when people write reveiws and don’t say what the book’s actually about. So I’ll post the description on the jacket: > [@](#): > > 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. Also, the number of unresolved questions at the end makes me think there might be a sequel. Here’s hoping. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/2 "2009-07-05T10:21:24Z")
I have just started it and find it to be promising. However, for some reason when I sit down to read it isn’t the first book I pick up. It \*seems \*to have promise, but has not yet pulled me into the “must have more” mode. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/3 "2009-07-05T16:52:36Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Brandon Sanderson has come out with another masterpiece. Is the Mistborn Trilogy the other masterpiece you speak of? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/4 "2009-07-05T17:39:59Z")
Is it better than _Elantris_? I barely made it 50 pages into that one. Inane dialogue, telling rather than showing ( **way** too much telling), and unnecessary description. It was disappointing because the premise was intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/5 "2009-07-05T18:13:48Z")
I liked Elantris. I’m not very critical, I guess. But the description of the new one sounds way too complicated for me. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/6 "2009-07-05T21:14:48Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Is it better than _Elantris_? I barely made it 50 pages into that one. Inane dialogue, telling rather than showing ( **way** too much telling), and unnecessary description. It was disappointing because the premise was intriguing. I didn’t like _Elantris_, either. He gets better. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/7 "2009-07-06T00:36:13Z")
I rather liked Elantris. It developed very well. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/8 "2009-07-06T01:00:37Z")
I liked _Elantris_ pretty well, though it did take a while. I just finished the 3rd Mistborn book and really enjoyed that. Sanderson must have a mind like a labyrinth. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/9 "2009-07-06T01:12:21Z")
_Elantris_ seems to be one of those YMMV works. Actually, from what I’ve seen on the Net, people either love everything Sanderson wrote, or they think some of it is genius and some of it is awful. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/10 "2009-07-06T09:35:44Z")
His books’ best qualities are their plots and magic systems. I love the fact that he’s added very strict and consequent restrictions on both. Sometimes (Mistborn 2) he adds a whole great deal of too much filler, though. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/11 "2009-07-06T10:06:37Z")
I think that’s his book’s second best qualities. His best quality is that he knows how to write endings. The stories may be long, but they _go places_. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brandon-sandersons-warbreaker/501949/12 "2009-07-14T01:37:05Z")
I just finished _Warbreaker_ a couple of days ago. I saw a major improvement in writing between _Elantris_ and _Mistborn_, and a bit more improvement with _Warbreaker_, though the difference wasn’t as great. (We’ve been following Brandon’s career since he’s a friend of my brother’s, and just hired my brother as his assistant a couple of months ago.) There is going to be a sequel (_Nightblood_), though he probably won’t get to it for several years, with all the other stuff he has going on. He’s starting a major ten-book series called _The Stormlight Archive_ (unless this gets changed). He just finished writing the first book, _The Way of Kings_–which in reality has absolutely nothing to do with the reviews on [this page](http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/B000WH4TIA). I enjoyed [this interview](http://www.bscreview.com/2009/06/brandon-sanderson-interview-bookexpo-america-2009-video/) with Brandon. It’s almost half an hour long, but substantive.