Warbreaker
After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, Elantris, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own. 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.
Stats for nerds
19recommend
23mentions
23people
2010–2026years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I recently finished "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson, now plan to go back to reading "Designing data-intensive applications" since it's been a long time (for me) since I read anything educational. Warbreaker was amazing, I still think about it, a week after finishing, about the characters and how much fun I had while reading it. It's one of those books that you smile when you read it because of how pleasant it is and how enjoyable the characters are.
- I want to answer this question as if you asked which book had the biggest impact on me, that I remember with the most fondness, the one I wish I could forget so I could experience again from zero.
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Long and sometimes tedious, as his books can be, but the characters are so memorable. Bobby Shaftoe is one of my all-time favorites. The book takes place on two timelines, involving two generations of characters, that have interesting parallels. The audio book narrator does a great job, if you're into audiobooks.
Runner-up would be Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. His best, IMO.
- Fiction - I started reading the Cosmere universe by Brandon Sanderson.
Mistborn Trilogy, Stormlight Archives, and Warbreaker.
Pick 1 - Start with Warbreaker or Mistborn.
I'm new to fantasy fiction and his writing totally hooked me. I think of "hard" fantasy as a puzzle. The world has a unique physics and the plot of the story is based around characters figuring out how to operate inside of those physics... what are the bounds, how can it be manipulated, etc?
What I've loved about Sanderson is the plot turns are never Ex Machina. Every new development fits inside the rules of the world and deepens your understanding of what can be.
- Others haven't said so but maybe you should try Warbreaker as it's the "most" standalone book of the Cosmere saga. It's the "most" in the sense that there are still subtle references to other works but they are very minor and you can totally enjoy it without reading the rest of them first. In fact, once you read Warbreaker you can see some connections with it later on the Stormlight Archive
- Many of his books fall under a shared universe: https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order
If you prefer novellas/standalone to get a feel, I'd recommend "Emperor's Soul" and "Warbreaker". He's known for good magic system and Sanderlanche (things coming together at the end in a hurry).
I went on a binge read when I started reading his work about 4-5 years back. I still enjoy his books, but I'd recommend giving gaps between books. As they say "Too much of anything is bad".
- Emperor's Soul is a fantastic book along with Warbreaker. The world building Sanderson does is amazing even in his shorter books.
