Warbreaker

Warbreaker
Cover of Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson
Author(s)	Brandon Sanderson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Tor Books
Publication date	June 9, 2009 (first edition, hardback)
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	592 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-7653-20308 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	276334993
Dewey Decimal	813/.6 22
LC Classification	PS3619.A533 W37 2009

Warbreaker is a stand-alone fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, published in hardcover in June 2009 by Tor Books. Sanderson released several rewrites of this title under a Creative Commons license, one chapter at a time.^[1] Older drafts of the various chapters are also available. The entire novel is available in digital format from Sanderson's website. Warbreaker has been well received by reviewers.^[2][3][4]

Plot Summary

Warbreaker tells the story of two princesses, Vivenna and Siri. Vivenna was contracted through treaty to marry the God-King of rival nation Hallendren. Instead Siri is sent to meet the treaty. Vivenna then follows to Hallendren in hopes of saving Siri from her fate. Both sisters become involved in intrigues relating to an imminent war between their home nation of Idris and Hallendren.

Breath

The book uses a system of magic, "BioChromatic Breath", which allows mages to bring life to objects as well as provide benefits directly to the mages,^[5] such as perfect pitch, perfect color recognition, perfect life recognition, and agelessness.^[6] Use of BioChromancy drains the colors from surrounding objects and the less colorful an object is, the more difficult it is to apply BioChromancy to it.^[4] The system has been praised as a unique and original magical system.^[5]

Major Themes

According to Sanderson, "Warbreaker's substructure is that of reversals."^[7] In the early chapters Sanderson begins to show a swap in the roles and attitudes of the main characters Siri and Vivenna. Through the contrast between the Hallandren and Idrian civilizations, a few major themes are displayed. One is the misunderstandings that can occur between two cultures, and the biases that can result from these. This is in part shown by the mistreatment of Idrian workers, who are thought to be boring, untrustworthy, and stuffy. Another is how two cultures may interpret history differently - the Hallandrens think of the Idrians as rebels, while the Idrians think of themselves as the rightful rulers.

Reception

Orson Scott Card said that he initially found some aspects of the magic system disappointing because he felt it was too far-fetched to obtain magical power from color. He did not mind it as much when it turned out that the draining of color was a symptom of magic use rather than the source of the power. He stated that "As with all good fantasy fiction, the story isn't about the magic; that's just the rule set within which the real story takes place. That story is absolutely up to Sanderson's very high standard, with political intrigue, carefully differentiated cultures and believable human motivations."^[4]

SFFWorld called the book "well-wrought, intelligent, and at times, surprising – one might say a conspiracy novel with hints of slight hints 1984 wrapped in a wonderful fantasy package."^[8]

Sequel

Sanderson has discussed the possibility of writing another book in the same universe as Warbreaker. It would not be a sequel (in the strictest definition of the term) as the first book was written as a stand alone novel.^[9] Sanderson has not stated anything about possible location, events, or characters involved. A possible name for the second book is Nightblood, which refers to the living sword Nightblood which is carried by Vasher, one of Warbreaker's main characters.^[10]

Audiobooks

GraphicAudio has released Warbreaker as a dramatized audio production.^[11] It was adapted and produced with a full cast, narrator, sound effects and music.

Recorded Books .^[12] has also published an authorized audio book of Warbreaker, read by James Yaegashi.

References

1. ^ "Warbreaker". BrandonSanderson.com. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/page.php?id=20. Retrieved 2006-08-10. 
2. ^ "Amazon". http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765320304. 
3. ^ "Barnes & Noble". http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&z=y&EAN=0765320304&itm=1&afsrc=1. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Orson Scott Card (25 June 2009). "The Proposal, Warbreaker, Cups, Yogurt". Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. Rhinotimes. http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2009-06-25-197027.112113_The_Proposal_Warbreaker_Cups_Yogurt.html. Retrieved 21 August 2009. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Book Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson". Blog Critics. 20 August 2009. http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-warbreaker-by-brandon-sanderson/. Retrieved 21 August 2009. 
6. ^ Sanderson, Brandon. Warbreaker. New York: Tor, 2009. pg. 589 June 6, 2010 <http://www.brandonsanderson.com/drafts/warbreaker/Warbreaker_hardcover_1st_ed.pdf>.
7. ^ Brandon Sanderson. "Warbreaker Annotations, Chapter 2". http://brandonsanderson.com/annotation/373/Warbreaker-Chapter-Two. Retrieved 14 February 2011. 
8. ^ SFFWorld (June 2009). "Official SFFworld.com Book Review of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson". http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/543.html. Retrieved 14 February 2011. 
9. ^ "Brandon Sanderson Blog: Baffled Editor". Brandon Sanderson. May 12, 2009. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/785/Baffled-Editor. Retrieved February 27, 2010. 
10. ^ "Q & A with Brandon Sanderson." GoodReads.com. June 6, 2010 <http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/264132-q-a-with-brandon-sanderson>.
11. ^ "GraphicAudio". http://www.graphicaudio.net/c-86-warbreaker.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
12. ^ "Recorded Books". http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.show_prod&book_id=81657. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 

External links

• Warbreaker - Official website
• Free ebook download of version 6.1 (the last step before copyediting): zipped MS word - PDF^{[dead link]} - PRC
• Free ebook download of the PDF final version ("The images in this file are not at full print resolution, and printer's marks such as crop marks are absent, but otherwise this is the final copy Tor sent to press.")