Warbreaker

Executive Summary: While not among my favorite books by Brandon Sanderson, I still really enjoyed it, which may say more about my love for Brandon Sanderson's books than it does about the book itself.Full ReviewCool Magic system? check.Interesting world building? check.Easy to read? check.So at first blush this is a typical [a:Brandon Sanderson 38550 Brandon Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1394044556p2/38550.jpg] novel. However this one isn't nearly as polished as his Stormlight Archive books, nor as fun as his Mistborn books. That said, I still really enjoyed it. Mr. Sanderson writes the kind of books I like to read, and this one is no different. Your mileage may vary however.I moved this one up on my reading list due to Cosmere tie-ins to [b:Words of Radiance 17332218 Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2) Brandon Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1391535251s/17332218.jpg 16482835]. That probably added to my overall enjoyment. Many people were recommending having read this before Words of Radiance, but I found it fun to go the other way and look for things that related back to the book. I think it would probably work out pretty well whichever way you choose to go.Lightsong was easily my favorite character. I found him very quotable if not always funny. The mercenaries were less so, but still lightened up the mood with Vivenna, who was by far my least favorite POV in the book. She did grow on me by the end, but early on I just found her annoying. Siri was somewhere in the middle. She starts off naive and a bit annoying. However she's not dumb and as she starts to get her bearings I found myself enjoying her chapters more.The magic system is another cool idea, though it seems underutilized here. We only learn a few things about it early on and seem to be hit over the head a bit with those details, while never really expanding our knowledge until much later in the book.The world seems pretty well built out for such a stand alone book, and from the notes available about the book it's apparent that Mr. Sanderson knows a lot more about the world than he's including in the story. He's supposed to be planning an eventual sequel, and I will definitely be excited to read it when it comes out. Then again that's pretty much the case for EVERY new Brandon Sanderson novel for me these days.