Bestest Novel Ever

So I just finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson tonight.  For those of you who don’t know off the top of your head, Brandon Sanderson is the guy who is finishing Wheel of Time.  I heartily approve.

Anyway, I really shouldn’t have stayed up this late finishing it.  And I really shouldn’t be writing about it.  But I can’t help it.  It’s just that awesome.  I really can’t help it.

If you have any interest in Fantasy this is a must read novel.  It’s so incredibly well told and the world building is so good.

Oddly, I got tipped off to the real villain due to some things I discovered about “golden era” mysteries by reading up on Umineko no Naku Koro ni.  Knox’s Decalogue.  I’m not sure if I’d recommend reading that.  To an extent they are obvious truths but by reading that list they are brought to the forefront of the mind and are consciously thought about while reading.

Anyway, spoilers abound after the break.  Don’t read if you have any thought of reading and have any respect for spoilers.

Oh yeah, I got Windows 7 today.  Pretty sweet.

First thing that really got me was how well Sanderson got me connected to the characters.  Lightsong and Blushweaver in particular were my favorites.  But all of the heroes were quite likable.  Well, except Vivenna.  I just never warmed to her.

How well everything fit together was great.  So many things click just before they actually mention what’s what.  The most vivid example is Kalad’s Phantoms.  I’m not sure why I didn’t pick it up earlier.  The attention drawn to the statues all over.  Vasher mentioning how one could go about making functional Lifeless from bones.  The moment he mentioned that they did have an army to stop the Lifeless en route to Idris I went, “Ah!  But of course!” and thought of the statues.  A few pages later thus it was.

I never did pick up on Nightblood draining Breath until it happened.  Should have been obvious.

And of connection to characters, and this was made all the more strong by my particular love of Lightsong and Blushweaver, when Blushweaver was killed so casually I was distraught.  I nearly cried and I don’t cry at those kinds of deaths. She was such a great and likable character, and the insurgents just abruptly slit her throat.  Just to show Lightsong that they meant business.  How could you do that, Sanderson, how could you do that?  But it made sense.  At that point her only use to the insurgents was a weapon to be used against Lightsong, and use her they did.

Lightsong’s death shortly thereafter was also emotional, though not in the same way.  While the heroic, self-sacrificial deaths are the ones that make me cry, this one didn’t.  A somewhat startling contrast to how I nearly cried at Blushweaver’s meaningless death.  This was because his death felt right.  It was meant to be.   It was there that we get a hint that the Returned are, in fact, of divine origin though they are not (probably) divine themselves.  They Return for a purpose and in fulfilling that purpose they die.  So when he realizes what he’s here to do, and does it, I felt proud of him.  I had nothing to do with it, but still.

On top of that, Lightsong without Blushweaver just wouldn’t feel right.

Nightblood was a fascinating character.  On top of being unique, there were plenty of regular human characters and plenty of Returned characters, but only one Awakened-with-sentience object.  And Sanderson did a very good job of making a character so detached from humanity.  As an object it had no sense of what it meant to be human.  It pretended it did.  It thought it did.  But it didn’t.  It had one, single, primal urge: destroy evil.  The problem was that as a hunk of metal Nightblood had no idea what evil was.  It really, really, really wanted to destroy evil, but had to determine evil via the perceptions of those around it. That  this character that is so single-mindedly driven with such pure motives could be so fascinating and disturbing is awesome.

The magic system was so unique.   Beautifully thought out.  And according to Matt E., Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy has a unique and interesting magic system as well.  Apparently Sanderson is good at coming up with magic systems.

Siri and Susebron’s relationship was amusing.  I always looked forward to the parts that were building their relationship.  When Susebron is finally able to unleash his power’s due to Lightsong’s sacrifice and goes to rescue Siri in majestic power….  Awesome.

The twist that the priests were actually good guys was great.  Priests make such good villains due to the fact that the supposed to be good, they have (and sometimes still do) wield lots of power, and how a corrupt priest can easily manipulate decent and devout folk to nefarious ends have made villain priests into a cliche.  Really, how often are high priests good guys?  Sanderson takes advantage of that and plays it well.  When it comes out that they were good guys all along it’s all What?

I have more to say but I’m running out of words due to lack of 2-way communication and it’s getting late.

Mmm…  gushing about stories after having just finished them.  Delightful.