Table of Contents:

General Impressions of Chapters 1 – 4

General Impressions of Chapters 5 – 10 

After all of the acclaim I’ve heard for his writing, I decided to get the free pdf file from his website and finally give one of his books a try. I liked Sanderson well enough when he gave me advice in the r/writing subreddit and all I ever hear is good things about his books and himself as a person. Warbreaker is generally recommended for people who are unsure if they’ll like Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is well-loved by Fantasy genre fans. After reading five chapters of Warbreaker, I wonder if it is just a case of parasocial relationships between the fans and Sanderson himself. Just take a look at this three-minute review of Warbreaker by the esteemed Daniel Greene:

I hate to say this, but so far everything he’s said is wrong. In fact, the opening prelude is filled with a vomiting of exposition dumps regarding the magic system. It is so awkwardly placed and noticeable that I have no idea what the heck Daniel Greene is talking about in his review for Warbreaker. I’m just bored out of my mind as I read it. I was initially interested in the Siri chapters, but Vivienne and Lightsong are so boring and Siri’s chapter itself feels so agonizingly slow. Why does it take five chapters to travel down to Hallandren by carriage? Worst of all, we never see the interaction between Siri, Vivienne, and their father when he decides to switch Vivienne for Siri and the touted “worldbuilding” of Sanderson feels so vague with no explanation on the treaty details. Vivenne’s chapter has her thoughts go all over the place as if Sanderson couldn’t be bothered to pick a decent motivation for this character. The characters feel empty, the world feels empty . . . this is just boring. Where’s the touted pacing of a Sanderson story? Where’s the touted plot to grip me? Why am I five chapters in with barely anything happening? I’m bored. This is boring me. If Sanderson’s stories are so good, why is this boring me five chapters in? Why was there so much exposition vomit in the Prelude regarding the Breathe magic system?

Why does Sanderson have online teaching classes filled with advice on good writing, if he doesn’t even follow it himself with his own writing? How can anyone claim you need good prose to be a successful writer, when Sanderson’s writing doesn’t bother? How often am I going to read the word ostentatious one sentence after another? Why do people make a big stink about bad prose, when Sanderson’s writing doesn’t even try to have good prose and yet people seem to revere him? I don’t get it. Someone please explain why this is so boring. I guess I’ll try to force myself to finish this book, if I can. It’s just so dull and lifeless so far. All that shit about worldbuilding and I don’t get it. This feels very shallow; where’s the culture? Where’s the mystique? Why do even the idioms for the God of Color seem so off a few times?

This book is making me fall asleep so far. Hopefully it gets better. Right now, the only way I can even get through it is if I sometimes pause reading mid-chapter to go watch some porn on Netflix. I don’t know exactly why, but porn in the background helps with my ability to complete reading a chapter of Sanderson’s Warbreaker. I recommend fellow adults trying it out. I guess I’ll just do my best to force myself to finish it and write another blog post or perhaps multiple blog posts on my progress depending on how it goes.