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shlymiller's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Blood, Torture, and Gore
Minor: Physical abuse, Racism, and Pregnancy
giulianalb99's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
En este libro se nos presenta una magia súper peculiar, y es que la magia viene de los alientos de los dioses por los colores. Menuda imaginación hay que tener para hacer algo así, tan original e inusual.
Sinopsis:
En el reino norteño de Idris su monarca se ha visto obligado a llegar a un acuerdo para garantizar la paz por el que se compromete casar a su hija con el rey-dios de su enemigo ancestral, el reino de Hallandren. Sin embargo en el último momento el rey Dedelin se ve incapaz de enviar a su amada primogénita, Vivenna, y manda en su lugar a su revoltosa e independiente hija menor, Siri. Esto trastocará para siempre la inestable situación entre los dos reinos y convertirá a Siri en la pieza clave para evitar la guerra.
Los personajes me han parecido muy buenos, y me encanta que cada capítulo tenga perspectivas distintas. Creo que el único punto en contra ha sido Vivenna, porque no es hasta el final que me empieza (tampoco mucho) a caer bien. Me ha parecido un personaje un poco insoportable y sus capítulos se me han hecho eternos. La evolución de todos me ha encantado.
Mi opinión sincera es que el libro está muy bien, pero hay partes que se me han hecho un poco pesadas. Elantris, otro libro del Cosmere, me pareció mucho mejor y siento que conecté más con esos personajes que con estos. Como siempre, los libros de Sanderson son bastante densos y con mucham
religión de por medio, pero las 100 últimas páginas siempre son una maravilla (básicamente porque los desenlaces de sus libros son apoteósicos).
Obviamente seguiré leyendo a este señor (porque a este paso me voy a leer hasta su lista de la compra y me va a encantar), y no puedo esperar más a leer todos los libros del Cosmere💫
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, and Torture
Minor: Rape and Pregnancy
cookiecat73's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcohol, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, War, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Xenophobia, Classism, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Colonisation, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Pregnancy, Body horror, Sexual content, and Suicide
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Grief, and Gaslighting
anntharai's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Xenophobia and Violence
Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Torture, War, and Murder
Minor: Abortion, Rape, and Sexual assault
iono's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Classism, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide, War, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, and Torture
Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexual content, Rape, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Animal death
jswecu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Death, War, and Blood
Moderate: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Minor: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Torture, and Sexual content
genny's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Although I found Lightsong very tiring at first (obviously that was intentional, but still, I winced when his POV came up), I grew to really like his character by the end. Nightblood though?! What an annoying sword 😩 I understand it's for comedic relief, but I found its little quips corny most of the time. I could feel my eye twitching like a cartoon character's every time it "spoke". Siri and Susebron were very sweet.
The plot twist halfway through...man, I was bamboozled. I felt betrayed. Sanderson got me there. He got me good.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, War, and Torture
Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Pregnancy
ldorina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
And now let's get into the indepth review. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for the rest of the review!
We start with a prologue that features Vasher, one of the secondary characters, after he has got himself thrown into prison. I think it's an excellent opening because:
1. The reader gets immersed in the story right away as they get to know the arguably most interesting and mysterious character who is also in the middle of an action that brings up the question: 'What is his motive?' And of course there is Nightblood, the talking sword that can kill without being completely pulled from its sheet, so we keep reading.
2. It introduces the magic system which is the key element of the whole book and in the first 11 pages we learn the basics of how it works.
3. There's some action too keep us interested.
4. We don't know it at this point but the title 'Warbreaker' refers to the name Vasher was given when he returned (Warbreaker the Peaceful) so it's fitting that the book starts and ends with him as a way of framing the story.
In the first chapter we get to know the two main characters, Siri and Vivenna, the sisters from the royal family of Idris (and also their father, the king). The fact that these two girls are basically yin and yang is clear from the beginning, they are like Arya and Sansa Stark from GoT, with Siri being the adventurous younger princess who likes to be out in nature, talking to common people and causing her father a great deal of trouble by being rebellious, skipping her classes, shitting at propriety and not controlling herself at all. On the otherhand there's Vivenna, the older, more mature, calmer sister, who - unlike Siri - was born to be a queen and is responsible enough to try to live up to the task from early childhood by obeying her father's commands, studying hard and respecting the 'rules' at all times. The difference is visible just by looking at the hair of these two. Thanks to the royal locks, that show how a person is feeling if they don't focus on regulating the color (great piece of world-building by the way), Siri's hair color is always changing, letting the people around her know about her mood, while Vivenna's stay the same modest dark brown.
Moderate: Blood, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Confinement, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, Torture, War, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
leona's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is my fourth Sanderson book (second cosmere book) and it is safe to say I am well and truly hooked. I loved Warbreaker (okay not as much as The Final Empire which I have bumped up to a 5 star rating) but still, I really enjoyed it. Also, fair warning, I will probably be comparing this to The Final Empire a lot, which is probably unfair but ...
I have a lot of thoughts about this book, so hopefully I don't forget any - now, let's get started!
And some smallish spoilers below but I will try to tag the major ones.
First off: characters.
Sanderson has great characters. I think I can say that with some confidence now. The main cast consists of two sisters, Siri and Vivenna, the God King, Lightsong - a 'returned' God, and the mysterious Vasher. It took me quite a while to get attached to the characters. I liked Siri, Vasher and Lightsong but felt quite indifferent towards Vivenna and her POV's seemed to take up so much space. Actually scrap that, I really started to hat Vivenna for the majority of the book, her attitudes towards Jewels and Parlin were so controlling and entitled and it was very frustrating. But over time I started to like Vivenna a bit more, I started to like Siri and loved Vasher and Lightsong. Vasher is just such an epic character and I love the philosophical side that Lightsong brings. But if I am going to be honest, I just loved him when I found out he could juggle (and as a juggler I think Sanderson did a pretty good job here - no stupid hand waving and other weird crap people think jugglers do). He's just such a fascinating character. Lastly, is it unfair to say that Lightsong and Vasher reminded me of the opposite sides of Kelsier (okay maybe I'm just clutching at straws now because I like Kelsier's character so much.
Now onto some major character spoilers
I think Sanderson should have shown more detail with Lightsong's death because even though I loved this character, I think his death was a bit unemotional. The same with Blushweaver - I didn't like her from the start, hated her more after she called Siri a slut, then didn't really care whne she died, other than how upset Lightsong was. I would also say the same for Parlin's death There was barely any interactions with him and he was kind of just third-wheeling. I think Parlin and Blushweaver's deaths were used more as shock value but I didn't feel any emotional attachment to them. I actually really hated Blushweaver and she's a bit of a stereotype to be honest: the manipulative seductress who is flapping her cleavage around and trying to get with Lightsong every 2 minutes. Anyway, I loved Siri and Lightsong's relationship and I wish we could have seen more interactions with them. I also felt a bit underwhelmed by the revelation that Llarimarr (not sure about the spelling there...) was Lightsong's brother, or that Vasher was one of the 5 scholars (I think that's right). Why does Sanderson always kill off my favourite characters! Also: Hoid sighting 2! Are the materials he sprinkles from the various cosmere planets? I noticed him using small metal flakes or something along those lines and being like: MISTBORN!
Plot:
I can't really talk about plot that much, but this story is very political / court intrigue heavy and also relies quite heavily on mystery to draw you in. This is part of the reason I didn't give this a 5 star rating - for the first half of the book I was getting bored of Vivenna's POVs, didn't feel all that invested in the characters, and also didn't really understand what was going on. Some of the twists didn't land that well for me but I still think this book was pretty excellent. I was quite average about this book for a long time, but the Sanderlanche was epic and I just loved it. Although I think maybe the ending may have felt a little bit rushed? I also think this book definitely needs a sequel so hopefully Sanderson will work on one after Stormlight 5. It definitely isn't as action heavy as The Final Empire, Vasher brings most of the action, which I think is mainly a matter of personal preference.
Magic system / world building:
I am by no means an expert on these aspects but the world is very greek myth-esque with an excellent and unique magic system. The basics are quite easy to grasp but I also didn't feel like I fully understood some aspects of it which was also a contribution to some of the reveals not landing as well for me. But generally, I really enjoyed the magic and themes explored in this book.
Some general comments to add:
I think this book is mainly character driven and some readers may not like Sanderson's writing style. He is quite no nonsense and to the point, which makes it very digestible and his magic systems easier to handle but it is definitely not flowery or particularly 'beautiful' prose. Despite this he still manages to capture the beauty of the world very successfully. However one thing that annoyed me (and I had a similar criticism in Mistborn with the repetitive use of the word maladroitly) by the end of this book I was sick of hearing about every woman's 'dangerously low cut neck lines' or 'cleavage that threatened to fall out' or whatever other descriptions were used / descriptions of Blushweaver's boobs. I could forgive it at first with Siri and Vivenna considering their cultural / religious views but it did really start to grate on my nerves after a while.
So overall, definitely a solid entry of Sanderson's cosmere that I thoroughly enjoyed but not necessarily my favourite / on the same level for me as The Final Empire. I wish there was a sequel so bad though and I rate it 4 stars. Yay for the cosmere and I can't wait to finish the Mistborn trilogy.
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Gaslighting
keepsleep's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Vomit
Adult themes are handled in a very non graphic manner.