Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker was apparently written in his breaks while writing the last three volumes of the Wheel of Time. It is more than slightly disturbing to imagine a guy who can crank out a highly original 600-page epic fantasy in his spare time, but that seems to be what we have with Sanderson.
Warbreaker is almost prototypical Sanderson. We’ve got a world with a long history, a novel magic system, interesting characters, hidden secrets, and conflict on the verge of breaking out. I’ve compared Sanderson to the epic fantasists of the ‘80s — Eddings, Feist, Brooks — but in a lot of ways, he really is almost more in the tradition of Dave Duncan, only focused more epically.
So it’s a good book, and if you like this sort of thing, you’ll like it. I do have to toss out one criticism, though, which is that an element of the magic in the book is called “BioChroma,” which is just the most awful thing I’ve ever heard. Not only does it make the magic sound inappropriately scientific, but InterCaps? GoodLord, I hope BranSan doesn’t ever use those again.
Comments