Warbreaker

All of Brandon Sanderson's books tend to be long, which I like, because in addition to them being really great reads, I feel like I'm getting a lot of value for my credit. Of course, sometimes I feel like he could have shaved off some of their length, but overall, Warbreaker is a very well crafted story with a great cast of characters to get involved with. There are some very good and unexpected plot twists and a very interesting magic system.

The complete story is self-contained within this novel instead of being continued through more novels. It seems like everybody writes stories that span three or more books nowadays, Warbreaker, however, does end with the option for the main characters to have many more stories if sales dictate it.

The narrator, James Yaegashi, is very good. He gives a nice dramatic reading of the story with distinctive male and female voices throughout the large number of characters.

The bottom line is if you like sword and sorcery stories set in a medieval time period, you will love Warbreaker. It is well worth your credit.

This latest work from Brandon Sanderson is much more fun than some of his previous works. I've read (and enjoyed) Mistborn and Eleantris, and this story does border dangerously close at times to being too much like Eleantris. Still, there is enough difference to be entertaining. Some of the characters are carefree and comical, but there are still scenes dark enough to remind you who wrote the story.

Once again, Sanderson brings us a tale of a world with almost-mortal gods. It's a world where colors play an important role and the breath of life has magical powers. Both personal and political conflicts blend into a complex tale that is still easy to follow. Sometimes the story is sadly lacking in details, but no more so then Eleantris was. It's another wonderful one-shot.

A few of the characters are new to Sanderson's writing style. The most different is the carefree god who doesn't take his role seriously and attempts to be comical at all times. The expanded personality set used in the characters shows that Sanderson is still growing as a writer and we can continue to expect great things from him.

I'm not sure I understand the dislike of the narrator. He seems to capture the personality of characters well and I had no trouble listening to this work. I even laughed a few times as he brought particularly comical moments to life. Lightsong's voice might be what bothers people most; it's somewhere between a frat boy and a surfer dude. However, as I came to know more about the character, I found it fit his personality amazingly well. I'd have no trouble getting another book read by Yaegashi.

This was a great book. It was well written, the narrator nailed the different parts, including what others called a ‘frat boy’, which was exactly how the character acted.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a standalone story, and for one really enjoy when an author can wrap up an entire story without dragging a 7 book series out of it.

Overall I would recommend this book to sci fi fans, as well as people looking for a great listen with a very interesting story filled with unique characters.

I'll start with the reader. At first I really did not like his voice or the way he read the book. I decided to keep going though and got used to him after a while.

As far as the plot, I listened to this after the Mistborn series and I really was expecting better. It is good and has a few nice twists, but it didn't have the same hook that some other books have. The first chapter caught my attention but then it sort of slowed down for a long time after that.

I just finished it today and the ending seemed to need more. It does leave an opening for more books, and I would probably get them just because of the incredible job he is doing on Wheel Of Time. Future books can only get better.

Overall its an interesting concept that is worth it in the end, but had a few disappointments as well.

Warbreaker is a fantastic story, full of plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing right up to the epilogue. there are lots of secrets to discover and a very interesting world. However, the reader really just does not fit the book. because of this it was hard for me to like the book at first. eventualy i gave up on trying to like the reader and just enjoyed the story, which really is quite good. In hindsight, this may have been a better book on paper, I'm sure that if nothing else, the humor would come across much better on the page. It is available for free on Brandon Sanderson's website, so one loses nothing to check it out.

Unfortunately, this book would work far better as a series. There is a ton of build-up and not a lot of action, however the ending is pretty good, and could easily be expanded on. I only really started getting into it on the third part of the book, and then it ended... Like most Sanderson books, theres a ton of potential beyond what is used in the book itself, but unlike Mistborn, simply not enough of it is used to keep the entire book interesting.

If this would be your first Brandon Sanderson novel, try Elantris (stand alone novel) or Mistborn (3 book series) instead. If your already a fan, I'd still recommend reading this one, but unless you NEED this in audio I would suggest getting this in paperback or visiting the authors website where you can download this entire book in PDF format for free.

Should this book ever become part of a series I'll be very happy.

I liked this book, it was,like so much of the author's work, a well-plotted fantasy with some nice characters and a fascinating world. Having listened to most of Sanderson's work on Audible, however, there is a bit of Sanderson Bingo going on in the book, which is generally good (or at least agreeable) but is sometimes a little tedious.

Fascinating and very complicated magic system leading to a realistic, but strange world, where figuring out the deeper secrets of the magic system are a key to the plot? Check.

Standard collection of characters including humorous rogues, brooding anti-heros with mysterious pasts, strong-willed women, and powerful god-like individuals - each of whom has a fairly straightforward character development arc? Check.

Slow first third, lots of action at the end, with some interesting (but occasionally predictable) plot twists in the middle? Check.

A world history where almost every casually mentioned feature of the history of the world is eventually rolled into the plot? Check.

To be sure, I really enjoyed this book, but it was very much what I was expecting of Sanderson. There is nothing bad about being a certain kind of fantasy author, and Sanderson has a reasonably sophisticated style that makes many of the recurring features much better then they would be in the hands of another authors. If you are tired of overly gritty low fantasy, and don't mind books that are longer on talk and "figuring things out" than action, this is not a bad choice, and, while not as strong overall as Mistborn, it is much shorter than than a three book series. The narrator starts annoying, but, by a few hours in, is quite solid. Overall, a solid four stars.

Sanderson has done it yet again. I really enjoyed his debut Novel Elantris. The Mistborn Series was great, Especially the third book. I really enjoy how well thought out all of Sanderson's magic systems are. The story in Warbreaker was incredible. There were some twists in this book that took my completely by surprise and it has been a while since I read a book that was able to do that. I recommend this book to any one looking for a good read. Just be warned you may have to put your life on hold for a couple days and just spend your time listening.

This is another good Brandon Sanderson story. Although not as easy to buy in to the story as his Mistborn series, it is a good story with interesting characters and plot. If the narration were better, this would be a 4-star review.

The problem is the narration. Stresses on the wrong syllables, drawing out syllables, intonation in the wrong place for english speakers, all combine to make the narration very irritating to listen to. For example, if the narrator were reading this sentence it would sound like "for exaaaaaample, if the naaaaaaarrrrrator were reeeeeeeading this sennnnntence..." with rising intonation at the end like it was a question!!??!!

This is my first review and I normally wouldn't write, but I hope they don't use this narrator for future books in the series or for other audiobooks.

I listened and thoroughly enjoyed Sanderson's "Mistborn" triology. I was excited with Warbreaker but got quickly irritated with narrator he choose.

Yaegashi sounds like a sarcastic, 20 something frat boy. Throughout the entire narration there is no sincerity in his voice. He does a comical job with his voice changes for different characters....very inappropriate for sci fi/fantasy book.

I don't know why author's decide to change narrators for new audiobook releases when there earlier audiobooks got good reviews. Extremely irritating and disappointing.