Warbreaker

Since Mistborn's world was so bleak and gray, Brandon Sanderson wanted to write something more colorful after it and thus Warbreaker came to be. He also released the novel for free on his website much to his publisher's dismay. The novel's still there though now it's available as multiple webpages rather than a PDF file. Good thing I grabbed the latter when I first heard about it: I think it felt more proper to read something that looked like an actual, printed-on-paper book.

I was disappointed to learn colors were not the base of Warbreaker's magic like I had thought. Instead colors are how the strength of one's magic manifests: how many 'BioChromatic Breaths' one is holding. (I dislike the mid-word capitalization: it makes the word look like a trademark.) The more Breaths one has, the more aware of their surroundings they are. They can distinguish more colors from each other and read other people better. Holding a large amount of Breaths also shows to others as colors becoming brighter and more saturated in the immediate vicinity.

There are few different applications for the Breath magic in the book. Awakeners for instance are able to animate objects by storing Breaths into one and giving it simple verbal commands. Most people in the book's world are born with one Breath and giving away one's Breath (which is not lethal) has to be voluntary. That makes Breaths valuable and someone having a considerable amount should be paid attention to.

Out of interest I have watched almost all of Sanderson's Brigham Young University lectures on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy that have been uploaded to Youtube. They have given me pretty good insight on how he approaches writing and maybe that's why I found Warbreaker to be quite predictable. The ending didn't have as satisfying twist or revelation as in the Mistborn novels. I would have liked all the viewpoint characters to get together more as a group at some point too. I guessed the ending and whom the novel's title was referring to the first time Sanderson dropped a hint.

The only thing that surprised me were few characters who were introduced as very David Eddings -like good guy sidekicks. I didn't guess their true nature until too late. With hindsight it should have been obvious due to the naivety of the protagonist who was interacting with them. Women in the book in general are not the greatest characters. They're so plain and/or simple.

By far the most interesting protagonist was Vasher. He has a sentient sword and he clearly knows a lot about the world. Early on Sanderson avoids visiting Vasher's viewpoint to keep things secret from the reader. And when Vasher is visited, he avoids thinking about certain stuff. That's one of Sanderson's tricks I learned from his lectures.