Originality is So Relieving to See Nowadays.

Warbreaker.
Every now and then there comes along a story that really captures my attention -- something that fills me a childlike sense of wonder that I rarely get to experience nowadays, in my cynical young adulthood. Unfortunately, Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker" didn't quite hit that sweet spot, but it's come the closest out of anything I've read in the past, let's say, two years? Also unfortunately, as has been the case with all of these novels, I was unable to finish reading it. I did, however, manage to get to chapter 8, which felt considerably further than I'd gotten in the other things I've read for this class.

There are two things I'd like to harp on, considering what I was able to read. First of all, breath. As anyone who's ever played a video game or watched a movie with me can tell you, I'm all about originality -- if I see something that's been done before, chances are good that I won't like it. There are exceptions of course, as there are with everything, but in general I'm just one of those people who must be kept entertained with a steady stream of original content. As you can imagine, this makes enjoying the entertainment industry a little frustrating at time. Now then, concerning breath, I have a hard time describing how impressed I am sheerly by how unique and solid this system of magic feels to me. I believe it was Orson Scott Card who said that all magics need a set of strict boundaries to be interesting, and having a system limited by something as arbitrary as color is a far cry from the standard of just being able to wrap your head around a spell. Hell, as soon as someone in the Harry Potter universe figures out the hand motion for "Avada Kadavra", he can become the great mass murderer ever known -- where's the interest in that? More than anything in this "Warbreaker" book, I laud the idea of BioChromancy and its extremely large array of uses, but extremely strict limitations. It makes meaningful interactions in the plot using "breath" that much more important and impressive.

The second thing I'd like to talk about is much shorter: I just want to mention how little I care about what appears to be the main plot. As a twenty-something year old male, I'm so much more interested in Vasher and his mysterious presence in Hallandren than Siri and... the older sister whose name escapes me. Vivian, perhaps? Anyway; I know it's just my extreme bias towards the brave adventuring alpha male archetype that makes me feel this way, but really, I'm just not that interested in the story of a sudden political weight that's been placed onto a young girl's shoulders. I'm interested enough in Vasher, BioChromancy, and this "Lightsong" character, though, to finish this over Christmas Break, so hopefully the main plot will be twisted in such a way that I can appreciate it more as I read on.

--William Avery