The Idrian princess Vivenna has been trained all her life to marry the Hallandren God king to fulfill a treaty between the two countries and to prevent war. When her younger and completely unprepared sister Siri is sent instead of her, Vivenna decides to rescue Siri as tensions run higher than ever until war seems inevitable and everything the two sisters hold dear is in great danger.
"It was strange, how easily and quickly protection could cause destruction. Sometimes, Vasher wondered if the two weren't really the same thing. Protect a flower, destroy pests who wanted to feed on it. Protect a building, destroy the plants that could have grown in the soil. Protect a man. Live with the destruction he creates."
I wished I wouldn't have started reading this book with these huge expectations because it took me quite some time to get into the story and world, so the first 150 pages kind of did disappoint me. The rest of the book however, especially the last part, is spectacular. While the magic certainly is unique, it seemed strange to me at the beginning and I don't know exactly why, but the term BioChromatic magic sounded a lot more like Sci-Fi than fantasy to me, but as I got used to it, I started loving it. The concept of using the soul as the source of magic, that can be used to animate materials, as well as color is really interesting and refreshing, since it's a change from usual magic systems. The writing as well as the worldbuilding is fantastic and the novel in general is very fast-paced and enthralling with its big focus on politics and intrigues and the betrayals that come with it. There are also some amazing plot twists, and especially the first caught me when I was completely unaware, so it was utterly shocking. I absolutely loved the ending, in my opinion the book just got better and better until finishing with the ending as the peak, and I was suprisingly completely satisfied with it. Even though in my opinion it's really difficult to make a fantasy stand-alone work, Brandon Sanderson did an amazing job with Warbreaker. Apparently there's supposed to be a sequel in a few years, so even though I'll obviously read it and hopefully love it, I still think Warbreaker is fantastic on its own and doesn't necessarily need a sequel.
As you probably know, the characters are one of the most important parts about the story for me, and they didn't disappoint at all. In fact, they are all amazing, everyone with a different backstory and different strenghts. Although I love all of them, Siri is probably my favorite, along with Lightsong. I enjoyed how adventerous and spontaneous she is and definitely admire her ability to adapt so quickly to her new life. Even though I also liked her chapters in the beginning, they get so much better as the story progresses and she becomes more daring and more involved in politics. What I loved most about Lightsong is probably his humor, honesty and wit, but also his very unique and special relationship with his priest Llarimar and the way he treated Siri, as well as always being unpredictable, which adds a lot more excitement to the story. His chapters were no doubt the most entertaining ones. Sadly, I did have some problems with Vivenna for the most part of the story, since she's so arrogant and way to confident in herself, so she doesn't question her actions and the choices she makes as well as being so focused on herself, she can't see what's actually going on around her. I can definitely see and understand why she acts that way, but it didn't really make me like her more. Even though she needs 400 pages before even starting to change, the character development is amazing, probably one of the best I've ever read about. In comparisons to Siri's and Lightsong's development, which are both rather slow and subtle, she changes drastically during not even 50 pages, yet this development doesn't seem rushed at all, but is perfectly done. I would've loved to read more chapters from Vasher's point of view, since he's the only POV character who can control and use his magic properly and I think they'd give even more insight into how many different things actually can be created with breath as well as the limits of the magic. The most entertaining part about his chapters is definitely his sword Nightblood, that can talk to Vasher in his mind and even though it's pretty brutal and aggressive, it's also funny and quite sassy.
I just found out you can read several drafts of Warbreaker as well as the finished version for free on Brandon Sanderson's website, but please buy the book in case you like it.
Rating: 4.5/5 ✹Since you can't really see the cover in the picture at the top, here's a closer shot so you can admire this beautiful cover. I hope you
enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!
Leah
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