Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

4.5/5 stars 

"Protect a flower, destroy pests who wanted to feed on it. Protect a building, destroy the plants that could have grown in the soil. Protect a man. Live with the destruction he creates.”

The problem with reading Brandon Sanderson is that after you want to read more Brandon Sanderson. I've tried reading two books after, but nothing just holds up. 

​If there ever was a book that played me for a fool - this is it. I spent 60 percent of the book rooting for the wrong guy and hating a very decent character. I still don't know how I let myself to be so blinded. 

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“They say a man doesn't know himself until he faces death for the first time. . . I don't know about that. It seems to me that the person you are when you're about to die isn't as important as the person you are during the rest of your life. Why should a few moments matter more than an entire lifetime?”

The characters of this book are phenomenal. I do have to be honest and say that Mistborn era 1 still has better cast (but only because it's larger), but Warbreaker comes pretty close. 

Siri for starters is my new favorite female character. She is more than that - she is my soul mate. She is both a person I am and I person that I am always striving to be. 
Lightsong is somebody that I'm having trouble describing. He's got so many angles - he's warm and funny, and fuzzy and precious, but he also has a very deep and emotional side. You just have to experience Lightsong, that is the only way to know and understand him. 
Vasher and Nightblood are a charismatic duo. Vasher is a grump and Nightblood is hilarious in his own way. Now I also understand why people say that Clef from Foundryside is basically Nightblood's "twin" (by the way, if you haven't read Foundryside by Robert Bennett, I highly recommend that you do so - great industrial fantasy!).
​Vivienna is Siri's opposite, in every way imaginable - but I loved how their thoughts and insecurities kept intertwining, in the end they were more similar than they knew. 
There are more characters, but I don't want to give anything away.

“You don't have to believe in my miracles. You can call them accidents or coincidences, if you must. But don't pity me for my faith. And don't presume that you're better, just because you believe something different.”

​As usual the book was full of wisdom and quotable sayings, as all of Sanderson's books usually are. It's hard for me to choose what I love best- the character developments or the way the plot kept weaving and twisting - they both are done exceptionally well. A new favorite, that's for sure. Which his what I've been needing lately, because nothing manages to hold my attention. So this book was a beautiful ray of color for my soul. 

​The Warbreaker does have an open ending of sorts. It's not a cliff hanger, but there are a lot of things that can happen after, and quite a few things that weren't fully explained. The book was published in 2009, and in 2016 there were some mentions of book 2, which is going to be titled Nightblood, but we're in the later half of 2018 and no news yet. It's going to be a long wait, folks. I don't know how those of you who read this when it came out survive it - I need more right now! 

“You want to be competent? she thought. You want to learn to be in control of what goes on around you, rather than just being pushed around? Then you’ll have to learn to deal with failure.”