Warbreaker was Disapointing

Oh boy. This makes me sad. Warbreaker is what’s recommended by many when getting into Sanderson, and unfortunately, it turned out to be disappointing for me. The pace sucked, I didn’t care for the political system, the magic system was over-explained, and the writing dull. Plus, I hardly enjoyed following any of the characters.

Lightsong was what he said he was – useless. All the deities were. The political system was understood at the very beginning, and there wasn’t much interesting about it. Some people knew it was corrupt but the common people still went along with it, blindly following their religious beliefs when they could have used some maths*. The different cultures interpreting and following the same religion differently was interesting, though. But the court talk was just boring as hell, and the snarky dialogue dragged to the point of numbness.

The most useful thing Lightsong did was . . . the only thing the deities could be of use. The Returned were believed (by the commons) to be only good for that one thing. Doesn’t seem worth serving them all their life to me, really. Treating them like royalty for just one supposedly “big” problem solved. *The maths is screwed up, any common person could see that.

“You are wonderful, Lightsong.”

He stood there, looking into her eyes for a time. Widely set, beautiful green eyes.

“You always talk about being useless, but we all know that you’re one of the few who always goes through every picture, sculpture, and tapestry in his gallery. The one who hears every poem and song.”

But hey, at least he’s self-aware, right?

The only perspective I truly enjoyed was Siri’s. She is the only one questioning and also defying the system, and being a charm while doing so. Suseborn turning out to be actually a cinnamon roll of a human being was a nice twist. I liked his friendship with Siri and their collective conspiracy against the system. That was probably the only enjoyable story arc for me. But even that was a disappointment because for some reason the author had to make a love story out of that.

We follow Vasher around on his little quest never knowing who he is and why he is doing what he is – until the very end. At that point I wished I was reading a different book, his backstory with Denth and the gang was way, way more interesting.

I don’t understand my morality either,Vasher thought. I’d suggest you avoid confusing yourself.

Vienna’s character development is interesting, but repetitive. The commentary on privilege was really interesting. I eat that ish up. But I personally think her perspective didn’t need to cover almost half of the book.

The magic system is too structured, too descriptive, and the rigid writing doesn’t help. It’s so much “tell” and so little “show”. Vasher turning out to be a you-know-what in the end only proves that the effort on info dumping was useless. Give us a bit of info but let the rest be a loose wonder.

What kept me reading was the mystery of how the political system would unfold. The twists were all interesting, but they depended on the reader’s and the character’s ignorance, not cleverly inserted clues earlier in the plot. Plus, the plot hardly develops at all for at least half of the book.

All that said, though, I’m still willing to give Sanderson another try. But a young adult next time, please.

Have you read Warbreaker? Let me know what you thought of it! How does it compare to Sanderson’s other works? I’d love to know.