Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

8 reviews

bergha1998's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Utterly brilliant, such good world building and characters. The magic system was so interesting and well paced in when the reader was given more info. I liked Siri’s plot the best, but all of them were interesting. Not to mention how opaque everyone’s motives were and the mystery of that. I also liked all of Vivianna's inner dialogue about who she had been raised to be and what she had been told to believe. 

Fantasy, Magic System, Multi-POV

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death, Murder, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Confinement, Alcoholism, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, War, Death of parent, and Blood

lakinglaze's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! I know I said Elantris is now my favourite Brandon Sanderson novel, but this comes in as a very close second! The more I think about it, the more I love it! I really hope we get additional books! The characters are great! I had such a blast speeding through this book! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Abandonment, Gore, Torture, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

giulianalb99's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Creo que ha llegado un punto en mi vida en el que Brandon Sanderson se ha vuelto uno de mis escritores favoritos y es incapaz que me decepcione. 
En este libro se nos presenta una magia súper peculiar, y es que la magia viene de los alientos de los dioses por los colores. Menuda imaginación hay que tener para hacer algo así, tan original e inusual. 

Sinopsis:
En el reino norteño de Idris su monarca se ha visto obligado a llegar a un acuerdo para garantizar la paz por el que se compromete casar a su hija con el rey-dios de su enemigo ancestral, el reino de Hallandren. Sin embargo en el último momento el rey Dedelin se ve incapaz de enviar a su amada primogénita, Vivenna, y manda en su lugar a su revoltosa e independiente hija menor, Siri. Esto trastocará para siempre la inestable situación entre los dos reinos y convertirá a Siri en la pieza clave para evitar la guerra.

Los personajes me han parecido muy buenos, y me encanta que cada capítulo tenga perspectivas distintas. Creo que el único punto en contra ha sido Vivenna, porque no es hasta el final que me empieza (tampoco mucho) a caer bien. Me ha parecido un personaje un poco insoportable y sus capítulos se me han hecho eternos. La evolución de todos me ha encantado.

Mi opinión sincera es que el libro está muy bien, pero hay partes que se me han hecho un poco pesadas. Elantris, otro libro del Cosmere, me pareció mucho mejor y siento que conecté más con esos personajes que con estos. Como siempre, los libros de Sanderson son bastante densos y con mucham
 religión de por medio, pero las 100 últimas páginas siempre son una maravilla (básicamente porque los desenlaces de sus libros son apoteósicos).
Obviamente seguiré leyendo a este señor (porque a este paso me voy a leer hasta su lista de la compra y me va a encantar), y no puedo esperar más a leer todos los libros del Cosmere💫

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, and Torture

Minor: Rape and Pregnancy

chris_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, War, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Sexual harassment, and Misogyny

Minor: Gore, Rape, Torture, Trafficking, and Vomit

cookiecat73's review

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcohol, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, War, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Xenophobia, Classism, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Colonisation, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Pregnancy, Body horror, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Grief, and Gaslighting

iono's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide, War, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexual content, Rape, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Animal death

genny's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

My first Sanderson! Is this classified as adult fantasy? Because it feels very YA to me, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Maybe it's just his writing style - this ultimately felt like an easy, "light" read despite the length. Sometimes it was a little too unsubtle, particularly in Vivenna's chapters where she flat-out tells the reader how she has changed as a character. It felt like the author didn't trust the readers to figure these things out on their own. Vivenna still ended up as my favorite character, the writing just took me out of the story sometimes.

Although I found Lightsong very tiring at first (obviously that was intentional, but still, I winced when his POV came up), I grew to really like his character by the end. Nightblood though?! What an annoying sword 😩 I understand it's for comedic relief, but I found its little quips corny most of the time. I could feel my eye twitching like a cartoon character's every time it "spoke". Siri and Susebron were very sweet.

It was odd at first because Susebron is at least 50 years old, yet very childlike in some ways. I couldn't decide if he was too old or too young (mentally) for Siri 😅 They quickly felt like equals though. In other news, does Siri not know about withdrawal? The calendar method? 💀

The plot twist halfway through...man, I was bamboozled. I felt betrayed. Sanderson got me there. He got me good.

The whole point of the story was to subvert expectations, and I still got tricked. I realized that Denth was a deeper, more important character than I first thought, but I didn't suspect he was a VILLAIN! Heck, I thought he was a potential love interest for Vivenna. Man. Of course, there's another plot twist, that regarding Pahn Kahl, which was logical but didn't make as much of an impact on me. The statues turning out to be Kalad's Phantoms was very obvious.

I didn't realize there was an appendix until I finished the story. I have to admit...I couldn't be bothered to read it, or to care much about all the rules regarding Breath. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I enjoyed my time with this, I simply wasn't as amazed as I thought I'd be considering how popular Sanderson is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Xenophobia, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, War, and Torture

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Pregnancy

ldorina's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The short review: In my opinion the best thing about Warbreaker is that it brings us an incredibly detailed and lively fantasy world with a mind blowing magic system you've probably never seen before and a lot of discussion about religion without taking sides. It also has a cast of realistic lovable characters and some interesting relationships (though it's true that there are some tropes too). Brandon Sanderson does a solid job with character development, as well. For the most part, there isn't much action in the book but the plot is compelling enough to keep reading. However, it's obvious that characters and worldbuilding are the stronger elements of the novel. I think there's room for a sequel but Warbreaker is great as a stand-alone.

And now let's get into the indepth review. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for the rest of the review!

We start with a prologue that features Vasher, one of the secondary characters, after he has got himself thrown into prison. I think it's an excellent opening because:
1. The reader gets immersed in the story right away as they get to know the arguably most interesting and mysterious character who is also in the middle of an action that brings up the question: 'What is his motive?' And of course there is Nightblood, the talking sword that can kill without being completely pulled from its sheet, so we keep reading.
2. It introduces the magic system which is the key element of the whole book and in the first 11 pages we learn the basics of how it works.
3. There's some action too keep us interested.
4. We don't know it at this point but the title 'Warbreaker' refers to the name Vasher was given when he returned (Warbreaker the Peaceful) so it's fitting that the book starts and ends with him as a way of framing the story.

In the first chapter we get to know the two main characters, Siri and Vivenna, the sisters from the royal family of Idris (and also their father, the king). The fact that these two girls are basically yin and yang is clear from the beginning, they are like Arya and Sansa Stark from GoT, with Siri being the adventurous younger princess who likes to be out in nature, talking to common people and causing her father a great deal of trouble by being rebellious, skipping her classes, shitting at propriety and not controlling herself at all. On the otherhand there's Vivenna, the older, more mature, calmer sister, who - unlike Siri - was born to be a queen and is responsible enough to try to live up to the task from early childhood by obeying her father's commands, studying hard and respecting the 'rules' at all times. The difference is visible just by looking at the hair of these two. Thanks to the royal locks, that show how a person is feeling if they don't focus on regulating the color (great piece of world-building by the way), Siri's hair color is always changing, letting the people around her know about her mood, while Vivenna's stay the same modest dark brown.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Confinement, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, Torture, War, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence