Amazon Rating: 4.20 / 5.00
Goodreads Rating: 4.14 / 5.00
Vivenna
and Siri are Princesses, daughters of the King who lives in exile in Idris.
Since she was born, Vivenna has been raised to marry the God-King Susebron who
rules the city of Hallandren. Siri has always been surplus to requirements and
has been able to do as she wanted. However, when Hallendren demands that the
King delivers a daughter as soon as possible, he decides to spare Vivenna from
her fate and send Siri in her place. Angered that she has been overlooked and
worried about her sister, Vivenna races after Siri to try to rescue her.
Meanwhile, Siri is shocked that she must face a marriage that she never wanted
or expected.
Lightsong
is trying to find some way to deal with the boredom of being one of The
Returned. After dying heroically he was brought back to life as a God and so is
given all the luxury and diversion that anyone could wish for. However, he is
still uneasy, not knowing why he is a God or what he is really meant to do with
his powers. Also in Hallandren, we encounter Vasher, a gruff man with his own
goals and Nightblood, an evil sword that can talk and really, really enjoys
killing people. Vasher is adept at manipulating Breath, the magical currency of
this world. Each normal person is born with one single Breath, but they can
give it away and become a ‘Drab’, a person with dulled senses and monotone
coloring. Those people who acquire extra Breaths gain more and more control
over and perception of the world around them. With a relatively low number of
Breaths a person can perceive shades of color more accurately, but as they
acquire more Breaths the person can use them to Awaken increasingly complex
objects, even reanimating the bodies of the dead.
I had
just finished reading Mistborn:
The Final Empire when I saw a post about a Read Along for this stand-alone
book by the same author, Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn was my introduction to his
novels, but I was blown away by the amazing world building, most especially the
unique magic system, so I signed up.
As with
Mistborn, we are placed in a universe that is very similar to our own, apart
from the magic. Here the magic is based upon color, which seems like an
extraordinarily esoteric idea, but it really does work well. The idea that a person’s
innate ‘Breath’ makes them able to fully experience the world around them is
intriguing, but add in the ability to give away your Breath so that some
individuals can hold hundreds or thousands of Breaths and you have the makings
of some very interesting abilities. But why would anyone give away their
Breath? Simple: some individuals are reborn after death with the abilities
associated with a huge number of Breaths. However, these ‘Returned’ die within
a week unless they are given one Breath every week, in which case they are
virtually immortal. Giving one’s Breath to a Returned is a great honor, and
brings great rewards to those who make the sacrifice. Also there are plenty of
people so poor that the only valuable asset they have is their Breath.
So, as
with Mistborn, we have a magic system that is closely tied to the ruling power.
In both worlds one could argue that the bureaucrats actually run the system,
but both have immensely magically powerful beings in the place of God-King.
However, unlike Mistborn’s Lord Ruler, who is fully aware of his powers and how
they work, the Returned gods here are in a totally cloistered and protected
situation. We see this through the eyes of Lightsong, who is told that he was
Returned for dying bravely, but is kept ignorant of his previous identity and
history. He has no idea how he died or what he is supposed to do as a Returned.
In theory, they can make prophecies and continue to have audiences with the general
populace until they meet a person to whom they are willing to give all their
Breath, at which point they die. He constantly questions his role and seeks
answers, provoking his attendant priests and providing quite a lot of witty
banter and humor.
The
sisters are the two fairy tale archetypes: reckless, carefree tomboy and
controlled, perfect princess. By reversing their positions, Mr Sanderson places
them both well outside their comfort zones, leading to a lot of humor but also
to massive personal growth, as each has to adapt to her situation. At first Vivenna
is a fairly unsympathetic character because she is just so perfect herself and
so judgmental and critical of others. However, she learns to let go of her
training and do things that she would never have thought possible whilst
uncovering some amazing personal strengths. Siri is a thoroughly likeable
character from the beginning and her efforts to keep Susebron’s priests happy
are hilarious. She learns to be more restrained and responsible, but her
underlying compassion shines through in all her efforts.
My
favorite characters are not your typical offerings, even in fantasy novels.
Several hilarious scenes revolve an Awakened squirrel corpse, which proves to
be as much trouble as a live tiger: disgusting and yet hilariously funny. My
favorite character is another Awakened entity, Nightblood, a sentient sword.
Although it provides some very funny moments, Nightblood is also extremely
scary because it does not even need to be drawn to kill people. It has immense
power and yet has the personality of a small child, somewhat like young Robert
Arryn in A Game of Thrones, who always wants to see people ‘fly’ out of the
door that opens over a drop of several thousand feet. Nightblood’s voice can be
very chilling indeed even though we learn that it is not inherently evil.
The plot
moves along at quite a good pace, and you are kept guessing abut so many
aspects of the world and its characters that it is very entertaining. My only
criticism is the title. It is not a bad title, but it sets up a question (Who
is Warbreaker?) that is not answered until the very end of the book. This left
me with the constant impression that I had missed something really obvious
about the identity earlier on. I admit that Warbreaker is fundamental to the
resolution, and also a very intriguing and interesting character, but by using
the name as the title I was unsettled in trying to solve the mystery.
Reviews
that I recommend:
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