PCBC: Warbreaker

[Latrinsorm]

I thought it was splendid, just splendid. The Returned/petitions interaction was brilliant.

The more I thought about it, the more I really wish he had gone into the king of Idris more after the initial "lol sucks to be Siri" part, and to a lesser extent the third daughter and the completely ignored son. What was going on in his head, especially after Viv left, and especially after all the spies he sent vanished via Denth? The conflict between the excruciating family dynamic and monarchical duty would have been fascinating, I think.

I also really wish he had explained why Treledees and VaraTreledees both had Treledees in their name. It feels like he had a later subplot development in mind that he just abandoned and forgot to remove the hints for.

An A for Brandon Sanderson! I will also update the selection thread shortly.

[Latrinsorm]

I feel obliged to say something like "so nobody else liked the book?", but that feels like a fishy thing to say.

[Warriorbird]

I felt like he went through too many subplots. I wonder if his assignment to cover Jordan's final book somehow fucked up his writing. I also feel like there's this big 'uh, missing princess, let's not hunt for her' gap.

I liked the Lightsong stuff more than any of the rest.

Then again, maybe this book suffered in that I'd reread Elantris recently.

[4a6c1]

I've been working havent had a chance to post until now but yeah. Sanderson, Yikes.

His reputation is great and I was excited to read this book but was greatly disappointed by a number of things. Read on if you dont mind spoilers.

First off I probably did not do Sanderson justice inserting him into my booklist where I did. I rushed through the newest Irshad Manji to get to Sanderson on time and before Manji on that list were a handful of what I call 'manbooks'...introspective and intellectual political thrillers, all random authors. So several weeks of critical thinking and feminism later we have Sanderson.

Poor Sanderson. I could tell right off the bat he was working on a deadline. He slowly eases into his story for the first half of the book and the second half of the book is a messy attempt at cleaning up all the 'lead ins'. The two halves were very obviously written in two seperate mindsets. Early on I detected a tribute to Charles Dickens 'Tale of Two Cities'. Sanderson is a fan of the classics but really has trouble translating it into new and modern ideas. His highly unbelievable 'perfect woman' archetypes are just as silly as Dickens and not even as well written, ie. "I would rather die than let a man touch me!!". Doable in 1859. Silly in 2009.

Along these lines I would like to mention my other major beef with this book and with the authors writing style. He has a SERIOUS problem with character progression and originality. Very early in the book it is obvious that Elric of Melnibone has been brought back from the dead to teach all our bad guys a lesson. Early being the first chapter. BUT HOW DO I KNOW THIS IN THE FIRST CHAPTER?? Well I have read the original books, by Michael Moorcock of course. I should have put the book down then. Sandersons Elric, complete with his great black, soul munching sword of doom is there to kill the bad guys. The problem is Sanderson doesnt quite know what to do with his Elric. So he pops up every other chapter or so, lurking and feeding bad guys to the sword but once again....nothing original.

It takes Sanderson a good 20 chapters to figure out what he is going to do with all his really shoddily written characters. Along the way he attempts two things that are hilarious: Addressing class issues and addressing teenage 'grow up' issues. Fortunately, Sanderson seems to work well under pressure. I'm assuming here is where he got a call from his editor. After Chapter 20 the book picks up a tiny bit-enough-to establish a few interesting back characters and a highly original and beautiful perspective on religious institutions.

Here is where I forgave Sanderson. In every book I think there should be a statement and I completely agree with his. His perspective of worship, faith and godhood is lovely. Perhaps he should write non-fiction instead. That is neither here nor there because before long, Sanderson bungles his characters and again shows that he understands nothing about women... or men for that matter. This is very obvious in his hilarious attempts at aristocratic intrigue where Sanderson shows that he is simply not smart enough to write an intellectual political dialogue and the conversation quickly boils down to 'mmm boobies.'

I realized at one point that the most interesting thing about this book were the characters that Sanderson ignored. The mans obvious lack of 'field experience' with sexuality, women, men and social dynamic ruined EVERY character he touched. I was genuinely interested in Llarimar, Denth and the mercenaries, the corrupt priests, Bluefingers and The God King because Sanderson did not develop them. I would read a book about them if another author wrote it.



TLDR/Summary: The intrigues were not intriguing, adult interactions were childlike and immature, the primary character was stolen from Michael Moorcock and this is the worst retelling of Tale of Two Cities that I have ever read!

[4a6c1]

PCBC: Warbreaker 08-23-2010 09:06 PM I liked the book before, now I feel kind of dirty for doing so. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ROBIN? :C ps <3

Sorry. Like I said, I think it was where I put it on my booklist. Right after Manji and the Clancy wannabees.

He has awesome ideas. I would read his non-fiction probably....if he put out something theoretical. I dont think he's creative enough for fiction.

[Warriorbird]

He's done fiction well...once. Apart from Elantris I've never really gone for it.