Somehow, I missed this Sanderson Cosmere novel in my journey through all of his books. Thankfully a friend asked me about it, we worked out that I hadn’t read it, and so he recommended it.

I was a bit worried that going back to an older (2009) Sanderson book after I’ve read so much of his later work would feel like stepping backwards - that his improvements as a writer would work against him. Not the case! Not that I couldn’t tell the difference at all, but the things I love about how he tells stories are still here.

Now, Warbreaker itself! The most important thing about the characters in a fantasy world is that you care about them. (Even if you don’t like them, you can still care.) Siri was someone I particularly cared for throughout this book. Her journey from carefree to pivotal importance was energizing to see, and the way that some of what were originally her flaws come to help her realize her destiny, I love to see it.

There are a lot of notable folks in this book who I enjoyed following. Vivenna was great, and the contrast between her and Siri’s experience and interpretation of Hallandren (which Sanderson clearly intentionally draws you to) made a great show of how two people who were close and came from similar backgrounds could end up so different.

Denth, the charming mercenary, does a good job. And it’s all the more impressive that he was convincingly charming to the reader, but there were sufficient gaps that when he turns against her, it’s surprising, but still immediately makes sense.. He and Tonk Fah have a wonderful chemistry.

Lightsong is very interesting, and a character I enjoyed reading. He turns a phrase very well, and in such a way that makes me think he some early practice for Sanderson on Hoid’s/(spoiler for Stormlight Archive)Wit’s dialogue in later books. I almost thought he was Hoid early on, if Hoid himself hadn’t shown up.

And that must bring me to the connections. Oh, Cosmere, I do love the connections. So, spoilers for later Sanderson books, I’m going to give you a Coppermind-deep tiered spoiler to avoid reading too much if you don’t want to. Spoilers for: Stormlight Archive book 3 to 5. So this is where Nightblood is from! That fills in a lot. It wasn't that I felt I was missing information before, but it's remarkable to come back and find out that this connection has been here the whole time and I hadn't known about it. I laughed out loud when Vasher was explaining in narrative how Nightblood was created with a command phrase, and I realized a few paragraphs before he said it that it was "Destroy evil", not just because of the incessant repetition, but because it's what Nightblood says when Taravangian uses it to kill Rayse and become Odium. Remarkable callbacks.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the very first chapter when Vasher finds Vahr strung up in prison. The way Vahr was restrained was how Vasher was restrained later in the Stormlight Archive, because it’s how you imprison an Awakener. Sanderson’s all about those connections!

And of course, Vasher himself (Zahel), now has a much greater history. It always felt like there was more to him. It was clear he was from a previous story, but I never figured out which one. I’m glad that now I know! It’s also remarkable that my not knowing this didn’t take away from any part of the Stormlight Archive where it was relevant. Truly impressive universe management from Sanderson here.</spoiler>

Phew, that’s the spoilers-beyond-Warbreaker done.

I also enjoyed how the God King ended up being. He defied my expectations significantly. And his priests as well - the setup of them to clearly be intended to be an adversary both to Siri and the reader was great. But Bluefingers twisting it around, being the real villain, was another instance of this book giving you all the pieces but not managing to give the game away before it sprung the twist.

I did mention early on though that I could tell this was an older Sanderson book. There are some criticisms I have here because I’ve seen him get better at this kind of thing later. In a very specific sentence structure sense, he repeats the phrase “to the side” and “from the side” a lot here, in a way that I found distracting and repetitious. Not something I’ve noticed in his later books. And I think overall he’s gotten better at naming things. Some characters here have great, satisfying names (Vivenna, Denth, Vasher). Some didn’t sit with me, Hallandren in particular, which comes up a lot, never felt like it fit as a name.

All in all, I’m thoroughly impressed. Now that I’m reflecting on it, I’m more impressed even than I expected.

Warbreaker

By Brandon Sanderson

See on Storygraph

See on Goodreads

20

/

19

Reference links: Why I like Storygraph, My concerns with Goodreads, How my scoring system works