Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Original review from 2016

Like all of Brandon Sanderson’s books, this one has great characters, a large, imaginative world, and lots of unpredictable twist and turns. However, compared to the Mistborn and Stormlight series, the plot line was more jumbled. Moreover, while Sanderson normally has a masterful ability to introduce intriguing magical powers in his worlds and use them to create gripping action sequences, I found both aspects fell a bit flat in this book. In part, it’s because the focus on colors, souls, and gods doesn’t grip me as much as the more “concrete” or “physical” magic in the other series. In part, it’s because the rules for the magic in this book are not particularly well defined, so the abilities of characters seem to grow or shrink as necessary to fit the scene. Despite all that, it’s still a fun read, and I’ll be picking up the next book in the series to see where the story takes me.

A second read in 2022

Not realizing that I had read this book previously, I picked up a copy of it, started reading again, and only after a few chapters did I realize that some of the story seemed familiar. I must admit that I remembered very, very little from my first read: just about all the plot twists were still surprising, the action was still fun, and the jokes were funny again. So, I just kept reading, and got through it a second time. I think what I wrote in my original review still holds, but I must add that this is not as sticky of a book as some of Sanderson’s other work. For example, I still vividly remember many of the scenes and plot details from the Mistborn and Reckoner series, whereas this book seems to have faded into the background for me.

Rating: 4 stars