"Warbreaker" Final Thoughts *Spoilers*

[Penny]

What did you think? Who was your favourite character? Your least favourite? Did the ending take you completely by surprise? Are you hoping for a sequel? Were there enough twists throughout the book to keep you on your toes?

Give us your thoughts!

[Tara]

I loved the book! It did get a bit slow for me during the middle and especially during the parts of Vivenna and the mercenaries (before she got abducted by Vasher, that's where her part got interesting)..
My favorite character was Lightsong, I liked his carefree attitude, the way he questioned everything around him and how he sacrificed himself for Suseborn (glad that king got to talk eventually).. I also liked Siri, the way she handled marrying the God King and life in Hallendron, it was not what I expected her to be in the beginning of the book. My least favorite was Vivenna...
I did like how the author gave answers to how the awakening works gradually in the book and I was surprised that Vasher turned out to be Returned as well, I'd have to say I did start to enjoy his character towards the end..
According to the author's page on goodreads there seems to be a sequel called Nightblood, I wonder if it will only be about the sword or a continuation of the story.. guess we'll have to wait and see..

[Lee]

I enjoyed the Vivenna/Vasher storyline more than the Siri/Suseborn one. But I did like both.

[Andreas]

Tara wrote: "According to the author's page on goodreads there seems to be a sequel called Nightblood, I wonder if it will only be about the sword or a continuation of the story.. guess we'll have to wait and see.. "

Sanderson talked about his publication plans in a "State of Sanderson" blog entry in July 2013. He told us about Nightblood: "This one is still fairly far off." And he listed it after two Rithmatist sequels, the third Stormlight sequel, a Steelheart sequel, an Elantris sequel and a Legion sequel. Of course, he is a productive and fast writer. But that is surely very far away.

Lightsong was my favourite character as well!
It was a fast and easy read. But it should have been shorter. I liked the discussions about poverty and prejudice - the last one comes from Sanderson's experiences in South Korea vs. Japan.

I've got some links and more details in my review.

[Tara]

What did everyone think of Nightblood?
It was a bit confusing at the beginning but I thought it was funny at some times and helpful at the end... though I wouldn't be interested in a full book about this sword...

[Gordon]

@ Andreas - you mean the 2nd of the 'Stormlight Archives' no? 'WoK' is the only one out.

I read this book awhile ago although it still sits in my mind relatively well as many Sanderson books do, he's one of my favorite authors. He does an amazing job world building but occasionally the characters or idea's within books seem formulaic (but since he also writes amazing stories it bothers me little), i.e. IMO Warbreaker probably didn't take him long to write just like Steelheart probably took a couple weeks to write as well & the character of Vasher & the 'Prof' from Steelheart are similar in so many ways. He also likes to use swear words that are repetitive to the title or main idea of the book, in Warbreaker it was "colors!" in Steelheart it's "Calamity", many authors do this so it doesn't bother me & would rather read this vs. excessive cuss words used in our world.

Vasher/Warbreaker/.. was my favorite character, he started out a bit shady but than you realize all the things he has done directly or seen happen that makes him the way he is. I think the book like Nightblood wouldn't be so much about the sword but how the original group of 7 (there were 7 with powers like Vash & including him right? sorry, should have skimmed the book again but was hooked to another) that used the power of bio-breaths to give an inanimate object life with self thought vs. the controllable animated flesh. This 4th use of breaths was the hardest, complex, & powerful 'spells' to attempt & it wasn't recorded due to rifts it caused between old friends & Vasher's blaming it on himself.

LightSong was also an interesting character but it took me a bit to understand his playing dumb but learning his past life that made him a god & that his closest priest was family was quite a clever arc that lead to his sacrifice once again to help the Godking.

I liked the book but the ending was left open for future ideas. All the series & trilogies nowadays have me wanting more books that end clean after 1 book. Also read it following Mistborn: The Final Empire so he set the bar a bit high lol. IMO he did reach it with The Way of Kings so I'm really only patiently waiting for Words of Radiance:)

[Andreas]

Gordon wrote: "@ Andreas - you mean the 2nd of the 'Stormlight Archives' no? 'WoK' is the only one out."

No, I'm talking about the 3rd Stormlight. The 2nd isn't published but in copyedit. But Sanderson has that long list of planned novels that I were listing and Stormlight 3 comes even before "Nightblood".

I love epic swords. I hate comic swords - like Nightblood. Compare single-worded vs. talkative, e.g. Turin's Gurthang or Elric's Stormbringer. Of course, Sanderson couldn't throw in yet another epic sword. And Vasher probably needed a sidekick to get more dialogue in. But I didn't like that particular solution.

[Gordon]

Cool news Andreas! Just making sure

I'd be interested in what others thought of his ability to create new magical forms, such as bio chromatic breath in Warbreaker?

[Lee]

Well because it *is* Sanderson it wouldn't surprise me if Nightblood turned out to be more than just a sword. Maybe Nightblood is the soul of someone who had died.

[L.G.]

Nienna wrote: "Well because it *is* Sanderson it wouldn't surprise me if Nightblood turned out to be more than just a sword. Maybe Nightblood is the soul of someone who had died."

You're right about that. I would be extremely surprised if it was only a sword. At the very least it will have a soul, or maybe two.

[Andreas]

L.G. wrote: "You're right about that. I would be extremely surprised if it was only a sword. At the very least it will have a soul, or maybe two."

In fact, Nightblood is a virus infection because Vasher had the snuffles whilst applying the breath. Or some kind of verbal bulimia regarding its talkativeness.

[Pam]

I really enjoyed this book. The two plot lines of Vasher/Vivenna and Susebron/Siri held my interest and came together nicely at the end. I really liked the character Lightsong and how his story unfolded. This biochroma magic was very original and interesting and he has quite the knack for this. As others have noted questions and loose ends as the book finished so perhaps more in the future?

[L.G.]

I did enjoy this book overall. The writing was, for the most part, very good (one of Sanderson's strong points, I think, is that he is quite sound from a technical perspective). The magi systems was also quite interesting. It isn't the most inventive thing since sliced bread, but it's still a good step up from the usual systems we see. The characters were also well done. I feel that sometimes, in his other works, Sanderson doesn't quite give me a set of characters I can really care about, but that wasn't the case here. Good or bad, I was interested in how most of the characters were going to end up. A sequel would definitely be nice, but didn't he say it would be a while?

I'll probably flick through the whole thing again over the next week or so before I write a fuller review - I want to see how it holds up to a second look. I suspect it will hold up rather well.

[Trike]

Penny wrote: "What did you think? Who was your favourite character? Your least favourite? Did the ending take you completely by surprise? Are you hoping for a sequel? Were there enough twists throughout the book..."

I read this earlier in the year, so the details escape me now. What I do recall is that Sanderson wrote a killer opening scene that is better than anything else in the book, set up a cool magic system that would play well in a movie or, better yet, an MMO, and then saddled it with derivative plot and characters.

Nightblood in particular annoyed me, because it was so obviously a Stormbringer clone. Nightblood wanting to destroy evil but not knowing how to define evil was a huge missed opportunity to discuss good, evil and situational ethics.

Warbreaker struck me as competently written but far too derivative of better works.

[Penny]

I really enjoyed this one. Sanderson is a huge favourite of mine and he didn't disappoint!

The intricacies of the deep rooted biases and politics between countries was well laid out and made up an important part of the main plots. It also led to one of the more interesting discussions about what we take for granted as given based on where we've grown up and what we've been told to hate and not to be. It takes a lot of reflection and discussion to differentiate between what you think you know and what is in fact true. Vivenna isn't the only one to experience this, but she's a good example of it, and her transformation is both beautifully and believably done.

She wasn't one of my favourite characters, but I think the book would have missed one of the more interesting discussions without her.

The magic system was fascinating, but you only really get to appreciate exactly how much when Vasher goes into detail about it when he's teaching Vivenna about it. The depth of what someone who has been studying the art for as long as he has still doesn't understand gives so much more weight to the complexity of the magic than anything else could have.

I thought Nightblood was mostly amusing. And then he saved Vasher in the end so I liked him more. I was a fan as Vasher from early on in the novel. That's not to say I wasn't completely taken in by the mercenaries because I was, but I assumed that the issues between them was personal. Nightblood only destroyed evil and it hadn't destroyed Vasher so he couldn't be all bad.

Lightsong is one of those characters you can't help but love and he only becomes more endearing as the story progresses. The notion of a god that doesn't accept that he is in fact a god makes for some very funny lines and some deeper questions. I didn't see his sacrifice coming, but it was a great end for him sad as I was to see him die.

[Nick]

This is the first Brandon Sanderson book that I have read, and i must admit if it had not popped up in this group I would not have normally picked off a shelf.
I must admit I am now a sanderson fan,I liked the writing style, and the magic system was interesting, lots of twist's in the storyline, I really enjoyed this book, and read it in a couple of weeks, it was a page turner and all the story lines held my interest. I thought most of the characters were good, and I too was sorry to see lightsong die but he did go well. I certanly did not expect Denth to turn out bad. there is an opening for a follow up book maybe following the next Vasher adventre and it would be good to get more history on nightBlood. I will have to try and get hold of more of his books for over the holidays.

[Hillary]

I really enjoyed Warbreaker. I didn't think it was without weaknesses, but overall it gave me action, interesting word-building & characters I did care about.

I thought one of the most interesting parts of the book was how it asked questions about religion -- why do/should one believe? what happens when different ? how do the actions of different believers match up with the ideals of their belief systems? are religious phenomena physical, metaphysical, or both? In one of the Q&As w/Sanderson, there's some talk about how fantasy religions tend to be so obviously true (i.e., w/gods actively meddling in human events, prophecies that are taken seriously by all, etc.) that you don't often see cases where characters actually need to have faith. I really enjoyed LIghtsong's dynamic w/his priest & loved that he was revealed as an accountant in his original life. (Just when the character had me convinced, along with himself, that he was some kind of city guard/detective.) I was a little disappointed that Lightsong finally clearly remembers seeing a future and choosing to Return; I wish there was still that a little bit of ambiguity as to whether the Returned were all they were cracked up to be so the reader remained in the position of needing/wanting to have faith...

I don't know whether my favorite character would be Lightsong or Siri. Although the ending of the book was definitely action-packed, part of me wishes that Siri & Susebron had been able to carry out her plan of going public -- that seemed to offer so many interesting possibilities (including some where Siri would get to play a bigger role, since her importance did seem to fade a bit toward the end).

Gotta side w/those who think Nightblood'd be better as a silent character ... I was expecting a reveal that someone Vasher knew in an earlier era had been sacrificed to create the sword, but that doesn't seem to be the case (unless it's being saved for a sequel).

[Leonie]

I really enjoyed Warbreaker, although I think that Brandon Sanderson's story telling has only improved with time.

His ability to world build is, I believe, second to none. I was already a fan, and had previously read Warbreaker, but it was nice to come back and rethink a few things through.

I enjoyed the fact that Siri's character was so prominent in the story. My initial thoughts on the first read, were that Vivenna's story would dominate the book, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it didn't. I'd love to read a sequel.

[Peggy]

Like many of you, this was my first Sanderson book, and for the most part, I really liked it. The man clearly has a huge imagination and wields it well, and his world building is top-notch. The book could have been shorter - I did find a lot of repetition, especially in the Vivenna chapters. Like Vivenna, I was gutted when Denth turned on her -- I did not see that coming (and I usually do). It was so nice to read a book with so many strong female characters -- Vivenna, Siri, and Blushweaver.

Which brings me to the ending. Ugh. I wasn't surprised by the Vasher reveal, but I was surprised to find that all three woman had been played by their allies, and now had to be rescued by the menfolk. Or, in the case of Blushweaver, had to die in order to stoke Lightsong's manpain. Siri is saved moments before being sacrificed, and Vivenna winds up bound and gagged in a damned closet. I mean, yeah, they contributed and all, but when it's time for the finale, the tough ladies we've been following for seven hundred pages are suddenly damsels in distress. Grrrr.

It wasn't all bad -- I appreciated the way Lightsong's character arc played out, and liked the way the stone warriors were hidden in plain sight.

[Tara]

Peggy wrote: "Like many of you, this was my first Sanderson book, and for the most part, I really liked it. The man clearly has a huge imagination and wields it well, and his world building is top-notch. The bo..."

Since this was your first book, you should try reading Mistborn: The Final Empire .. As much as I loved Warbreaker, I'd have to say Mistborn is even better..

[Matthew]

Tara wrote: "Peggy wrote: "Like many of you, this was my first Sanderson book, and for the most part, I really liked it. The man clearly has a huge imagination and wields it well, and his world building is top..."

Agree. Mistborn is phenomenal. As for Warbreaker, I, too, liked Lightsong quite a bit. And he died very well. I also liked how it was revealed that he was a god right before he died.

[L.G.]

Peggy wrote: "Like many of you, this was my first Sanderson book, and for the most part, I really liked it. The man clearly has a huge imagination and wields it well, and his world building is top-notch. The bo..."

I was a bit put off by that. I find it staggering that the princesses had almost no grasp of real politik, which would seem to be essential if they wanted to stop the war (Vivenna in particular should have a better grasp of politics given her ambitions at the start of the novel).

[Jim]

I really enjoyed this, although I agree that Sanderson's writing has further improved since this was written.

I've previously read Elantris and the Mistborn books, and I've always been a bit baffled by the Hoid character. I know he's supposed to be a multi-verse sort of connection between Sanderson's books, but I never really noticed him in Elantris at all and only figured out who he was in the Mistborn books from reading online afterwards. I'd heard others say it was Warbreaker that actually named the character and gave some more information. But I was a little disappointed here - he's actually a pretty quick cameo and there doesn't seem to be any special insight into the "Cosmere" here at all.

So is the greater Cosmere picture really known only through Sanderson interviews and his website more so than through the actual content of the books? Or is this better explained in The Way of Kings (which I haven't gotten to yet)?

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

The pages of my book have gone all grey from my soaking up of its colors, but my hair has turned blond with happiness!

COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!

I'd like to have some of my relatives meet Nightblood over some Christmas eggnog, but I would hate to become any more drained than I am on finishing this story at the moment. Used up my Breath screaming at everyone to leave me be until I finished reading.....

[Sandra]

I loved this book. The characters were great, the magic system was interesting, it managed to surprise me--what is not that easy--, and the execution was NICE.

Of course there are lil things... like the bubble bath, when Siri covered herself with the bubbles. Bubbles are not that easy to make, that was an invention of the XXth century. There are many plants with saponine abilities, but they do not do bubbles like that.

The other point that was not clear to me, but I probably missed something, was that the royal family descended from Denth, and he was a Returned. Are Returned able to have kids or not?

Overall, a great read. :)

[Gordon]

LoL, this is written in fun & smiling - quite a... specific observation of an error in reading. Im clueless in quality of soap & it's components, only that it needs to be used let alone bubble bath dynamics lol. 'Fight Club' had a great visual regarding making soap... testament to interesting differences in people. I don't think I've ever had a bubble bath... perhaps as a child, but not due to lack of appeal, hot soaks for muscle soreness. It never crosses my mind except my kids love them so I get second hand bubble :) sry, useless post.

[Kyra]

I read Warbreaker a few years ago after reading the Mistborn series; don't remember if I read it before or after Elantris. But it further confirmed my opinion that Sanderson is one of the most original and imaginative fantasy writers working today.

I really enjoyed this book. I can say on this thread (spoilers allowed) that I hate when main characters die. But like Matthew said, at least Lightsong died well, and at least his death meant something.

[Sandra]

LOL Gordon... yeah, I´m weird like that. :D

soap is "easy" to make. You just need to mix lie with a fat - lie can be done with hardwood ash and water, fat can be animal or vegetable oil. But that soap does not make much bubbles. For a foamy bubble bath you need to go to detergents, what are a bit more complicated.

[Gordon]

@ Kyra, I'd recommend staying far away from GRRMs 'Song of Ice & Fire' :) lol, if you can get past the death of likeable characters IMO its worth the abject torture of waiting & hoping he's around to finish!

@ Sandra, It was the fat part that got to me with the use of liposuction fat to make soap to sell back to the people who had the procedure. Yuck, can that happen in real life?

**Sorry for getting way off OP, my bad

[Sandra]

@Gordon, I never heard of it. But I think it could be done.

[Antonis]

I just managed to finish Warbreaker, only a few hours before the end of the month and the year! :D A nice book to finish this good reading year! I liked it a lot but also had a few complaints about some minor things like dialogue and pacing.
Here's my review if you want to read it.

[Kyra]

Gordon wrote: "@ Kyra, I'd recommend staying far away from GRRMs 'Song of Ice & Fire' :) lol, if you can get past the death of likeable characters IMO its worth the abject torture of waiting & hoping he's around ..."

lol, actually, I got 2 1/2 books into Song of Ice and Fire and decided I couldn't take it any more.

[John]

I really enjoyed this book. It's the 2nd or 3rd one I've picked up ONLY because it was a group selection and wound up really impressed with. The book description centering around "two princesses" and politics normally would have sent me running.
Guess I'm in the majority here as far as finding Lightsong to be a really good character. I thought his dialogue was some of the cleverest I'd seen in a while. Alot of the other dialogue I found really clever as well, the mercenaries for example.
Deep down I was hoping Lightsong would wind up administering some major ass-whoopings but I was okay with him sacrificing himself so Susebron could administer them instead. It was a whooping done by proxy kind of.
There was also a pretty big focus on religious and social differences that I didn't even really think about until after reading it. It was nice to have the seed planted without it being blatantly shoved in my face.

[Kristin B.]

Just finished this. It was interesting, but the treatment of the women in this book took it down a couple notches for me. Especially the portrayals of the female Returned characters. They were either super sexy and feisty, or sexy and dumb, or matronly. Just put me off. And of course Blushweaver had to die to further the plot. Ugh.

Not the best introduction to Sanderson from what I've been told. I may give Mistborn a shot at some point.

On the plus side, I am totally using this as "A book with an amateur detective" for my Popsugar challenge. Lightsong is about as amateur as a detective can get. But really rather adorable anyway.

[Skye]

Kristin B. wrote: "Just finished this. It was interesting, but the treatment of the women in this book took it down a couple notches for me. Especially the portrayals of the female Returned characters. They were eith..."

There are definitely problems with Sanderson's female characters. He actually has addressed it in the past as something that he is actively working to improve and has definitely made some progress. Most of his female main characters rub me the wrong way at some point - apart from Vin (the protagonist of Mistborn era 1) who is one of my favourite protagonists of all time and has one of the best character development arcs I've ever read. You've probably already heard this ad nauseum, but you absolutely should give Mistborn a shot!