Warbreaker (2009)

Warbreaker is a fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It was published on June 9, 2009 by Tor Books.Sanderson released several rewrites of Warbreaker under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US), one chapter at a time. The entire novel, including older drafts, is available in digital format from Sanderson's website. Warbreaker has been well received by reviewers.

Plot Summary
Warbreaker tells the story of two Idrian princesses, Vivenna and Siri. Vivenna was contracted through a treaty written before she was born to marry the God King of rival nation Hallandren. However, King Dedelin sends his other daughter Siri to meet the treaty instead.

Vivenna follows her to Hallandren in the hope of saving Siri from her fate. Upon arriving in Hallandren, Vivenna meets with Lemex, one of her father's spies in the city, but he has taken ill and dies shortly thereafter — though not before bequeathing his large sum of BioChromatic Breath to her (which is considered heretical by the Idrians).

Vivenna joins up with Denth and Tonk Fah, mercenaries that were under Lemex's employ, and together they begin making guerilla attacks against Hallandren's supply depots and convoys that will hopefully give the Idrians an advantage in the seemingly inevitable war.

Siri, after spending many terrified nights waiting for the God King to procreate with her, finds that he is not actually the menacing, frightening God that she thought, but has actually had his tongue cut out by his priests, making him nothing more than a figurehead. Though he is intelligent, he possesses a childlike outlook because his education was withheld. Siri teaches the God King to communicate by writing, and over time they learn to care for each other and fall in love. However, Siri believes that the priests are secretly plotting to kill her and the God King if she produces an heir, and fears that Hallandren will soon launch a war against Idris. Siri finds a potential ally in the unorthodox god Lightsong, who is plagued by nightmares of war and is struggling to discover his purpose.

Back in the city, Vivenna discovers that Denth and Tonk Fah are not working for her but against her, having been hired by an unknown third party to instigate the war with Idris, and she barely escapes their custody with her life. After hiding and living destitute in the Idrian slums of Hallandren for weeks, Vivenna is taken in by Vasher, a mysterious man who can use his BioChromatic Breath to Awaken objects, an art at which he is incredibly skilled. He wields a sword called Nightblood, a weapon created in a Biochromatic experiment and which possesses sentience. Together, Vivenna and Vasher work to undo the damage done by Denth and avert the war.

Vivenna convinces Vasher to try and save her sister Siri from the God King's palace. However, Vasher is captured and tortured by Denth, who is revealed to have been working for the God King's Pahn Kahl servants, who are trying to incite war between the Idrians and Hallendren so that they can take the city for themselves.

The Pahn Kahl servants capture Siri, kill many of the God King's priests, and throw the God King in the dungeon. Lightsong and many of the other gods are taken captive as well. The Pahn Kahl, having gained the Commands to control the city's undead Lifeless army, send them to attack the Idrians and start the war. However, Lightsong, imprisoned in the dungeon alongside the God King, sacrifices himself by giving the God King his BioChromatic Breath. This heals the king, giving him his tongue back and allowing him access to his godly cache of BioChromatic power. The God King uses his magic to save Siri from the Pahn Kahl servants just as she is about to be murdered. Meanwhile, Vivenna uses her own budding BioChromatic powers to break into the God King's palace and free Vasher, who kills Denth.

Vivenna and Siri are reunited. However, even with the God King's near unlimited power, the Lifeless army cannot be stopped. Vasher then reveals that he is actually one of the Five Scholars — ancient beings who originally discovered the Commands for using BioChromatic Breath — and bestows upon the God King the code to awaken the city's secret army of nearly indestructible D'denir Lifeless soldiers, which have been hidden in plain sight throughout the city as statues. These soldiers are sent to destroy the Lifeless army before it can reach Idris.

While Siri and the God King begin a new rule and life together, Vivenna joins Vasher as he sets out on another quest to a distant land.

Magic System
The book uses a system of magic, "Awakening", which allows Awakeners to bring life to objects as well as provide benefits directly to the mages while they hold "BioChromatic Breath", the source of their power, such as perfect pitch, perfect color recognition, perfect life recognition, and agelessness. Use of Awakening drains the colors from surrounding objects and the less colorful an object is, the more difficult it is to apply Awakening to it. The system has been praised as a unique and original magical system.

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."

Michael Moorcock also praised Warbreaker saying, "Brandon Sanderson has written a heroic fantasy depending on originality of character and plot. His "heroines and heroes are outstanding – especially Vasher, the Warbreaker, whose special relationship with his sentient sword is both sardonic and sinister. The mysteries of life after death, of identity and destiny, the politics of magic, are unveiled through three-dimensional characters." He finished, "Not only has Sanderson drawn a freshly imagined world and its society, he has also given us a plot full of unexpected twists and turns ... Anyone looking for a different and refreshing fantasy novel will be delighted by this exceptional tale of magic, mystery and the politics of divinity. Warbreaker might even take your breath away."

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

Sequel
Brandon Sanderson has played with the idea of writing a indirect sequel to Warbreaker. The title of the book would be Nightblood refering to Vasher's sword named Nightblood. He has not revealed any plot, setting, or characters.