Author Topic: Warbreaker: Free Ebook  (Read 234596 times)

vadia

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #540 on: April 26, 2007, 04:39:24 AM »
Unless I totally misunderstand what happened I think that Lightbold ought to have an on screen scene of giving over all of his breaths and life for Suseborn.  Maybe with Llarimar crying out or something.  It is more sad to me that Lightbold had no on-screen death [especially with a spectacular sacrifice like that] than that he died. 

firstRainbowRose

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #541 on: April 26, 2007, 05:21:46 AM »
I do have to agree there.

So, on the second do we get the first chapter of the sequal?
"The custom of royalty in referring to oneself is to naturally employ the royal 'we'.  We are very happy, we are very sad, we are bored and suffer from ennui.  For a royal prince there's no such word as 'me', It's always 'we'.  So rightfully I should be two or three, don't you agree?"

Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #542 on: April 26, 2007, 05:27:39 AM »
Um...there's one more full chapter left, then the epilogue...
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Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #543 on: April 26, 2007, 06:29:56 AM »
Actually I think it works - the whole Lightsong offscreen death thing - I mean, I would love some kind of aftermath, or last words, or something, but we all know what is about to happen, as opposed to Vivenna, who might still be alive; we don't know.

It seems to me that the God-King can command life into things because he gets more than that one breath a week. There is a command to give up your breath, then there are the commands to awaken, but they don't necessarily require the same amount of breath. It also seems like he has even more than he ever had before (which was an insane amount), like the breath from Lightsong was more than a single breath's worth. Pretty cool.

The question remains, with Sus being a Returned, will he have to keep sucking breath from others, or did Lightsong's breath do even more than just give him his tongue back?

dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #544 on: April 26, 2007, 02:21:36 PM »
That's a really good point, Qarlin, about Lightsong and Susebron that I hadn't thought of.  If Lightsong's miracle was something like "heal him," then would not just his tongue but also his need for Breath be "healed," and his inability to use just a portion of his Breath be eased?  (If indeed he is a Returned; not being one would also solve the problem.)

I always figured that the one-use-of-Breath thing was a property of being Returned, not a question of limited amount of Breath.  That is, a Returned God could not just go out and purchase an extra 100 Breaths, and then use them to Awaken and Command.  But I have no evidence for this other than the fact that it never happened.

Not sure yet what I think about Lightsong...if he is the main "good" character to die then it might be best if he dies on-stage, since the "bad" Denth did and all the other "good" characters have died off-stage (Peprin) or without any detail (Tridees).  But we need to read the next two chapters to see what happens and how the pacing goes.

firstRainbowRose, we know that the Manywar started after one of the Five Scholars discovered a way to make Lifeless with only a single Breath, thus causing a military power imbalance in favor of Hallendren.  We know from just a few chapters ago that it was Denth's sister who made this discovery (thus she was one of the Five Scholars).  We know Vasher was a compatriot of Denth's sister also engaged in research into Breath (thus likely also one of the Five Scholars), and that he killed her around the time of the Manywar to stop her from arming the Lifeless with other sentient blades like Nightblood.  We know that possessing a large amount of Breath wards off the effects of aging.  So Vasher's age isn't meant to be a surprise at this point, I don't think.

The new bit of information in this chapter was that Vasher "ruled and started wars" -- makes me wonder if he was one of the people we've heard about already in connection with the Manywar...

MattD
« Last Edit: April 26, 2007, 06:13:53 PM by dreamking47 »
"It had blood in it.  That makes it a good metaphor." -- Tonk Fah, in EUOL's Warbreaker

VegasDev

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #545 on: April 26, 2007, 08:46:58 PM »
I have been reading the book but finally decided to comment on something that just kind of seemed weird even though it happens all the time in books, movies, TV, etc.

Bluefingers tells the Lifeless to take the king below to hold him awhile before killing him, ultimately leading him to the one person that can heal him and ruin all of their plans. Why didn't he just order the kings death right there, avoid any mistakes like the king escaping or being healed? Obviously this is a small ticky tack thing, but when these Pahn Kahl have been planning all this time, does it make sense that they would just 'send him below until the right time' instead of ensuring his demise?

The story wouldn't have to change much if any. Bluefingers can order the room full of lifeless to kill the king as he and the princess are leaving the room to go sacrifice her. Meanwhile, Vasher upon landing on the ground and retrieving his sword earlier is forced to rush through the tunnel to get back inside the palace, sees Lightsong and lets him go free, then continues to Denth. Lightsong can stumble upon the room full of lifeless just about to kill the God King, they turn to face the new threat and he gets stabbed or something trying to save Seb. While he is slowly dying he gets the vision from his past, his vision fades and he sees the kings open mouth and performs his sacrifice just in the nick of time. You don't exactly have to see him heal the king, you could come along in the final chapters and have his brother holding him, saying he truly was the greatest man he knew. He gave his life time and again.

Anyway, I hate to propose any changes to a very good story, but I thought it seemed a little strange.
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Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #546 on: April 27, 2007, 05:29:04 PM »
Questions still not answered:

Pahn in the beginning, who Vasher kills - same guy all the Pahn Kahl people like Bluefingers follow?

Who was the Second intruder when Vasher found the tunnels?

What did Vasher find in the tunnels, and why didn't it seem to matter to the story?

Why did Vasher use parts of him to awaken the straw men in the beginning (eyebrow hair) and no one does later?

How does Sus know how to speak? know the commands to awaken?

Maybe these will all be answered in the next chapter and epilogue, but if not, then I think they need to be addressed more.

dawncawley

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #547 on: April 27, 2007, 06:37:07 PM »
While you make a good point VegasDev, I have to wonder if Bluefingers knew anything about what was going on down in the tunnels. He may not have been aware that there was a live Returned down there, or that the Returned would discover Seb's problem and do anything about it. I agree with the original point, but I think that there are ways around it that are much less invasive than an overhaul to that part of the story, though you did make some good suggestions about how it could be done.

I like the way this is wrapping up. :)

dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #548 on: April 27, 2007, 06:50:54 PM »
Who was the Second intruder when Vasher found the tunnels?

That one is pretty strongly hinted at -- the priest who was killed (after Vasher left him tied up) was killed with a dueling sword.  Which character a) might have been tailing Vasher and b) typically uses a dueling blade?

Edit (addition):

VegasDev, you make a good point -- it seemed like Susebron was brought down to the cell to wait "for the right time" for his execution, about 20 minutes passed, and then they took him out to kill.  Why then but not earlier?

MattD
« Last Edit: April 27, 2007, 07:04:53 PM by dreamking47 »
"It had blood in it.  That makes it a good metaphor." -- Tonk Fah, in EUOL's Warbreaker

amyface

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #549 on: April 29, 2007, 09:33:50 PM »
Maybe they wanted to set up Sus's death scene like they were doing with Siri. If that is the case it should probably be stated. Maybe in the part where Bluefingers is telling Siri about her death scene...

I LOVED this chapter!
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Spink_Longfellow

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #550 on: April 30, 2007, 04:45:41 AM »
I've really enjoyed reading this inbetween school-work and other fun books. When will 'WARBREAKER' go up for sale? Are you now thinking of a follow-up?

J

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #551 on: May 02, 2007, 06:18:44 PM »
Chapter Fifty-eight

Second half of the climax. 

Thanks a ton for the comments on the previous chapter.  There was a lot of useful stuff there, and I can see I need to clean a few things up.  For me, a rough draft is less about the paragraph-by-paragrah roughness, and more about the inconsistencies and the like.  There will be loose threads, but I want them to be of the type I can deal with in the sequel, not ones that leave the reader confused about this book. 
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Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #552 on: May 03, 2007, 12:33:59 AM »
Wow. And yet the destruction of the Lifeless armie doesn't show until the epilogue.

So he's Returned, and he figured out commands to just be alive again, instead? or he's really a normal man (Scholar) and figured out a command to give himself Returned Status?

Funny though, that gives both girls a love interest who's kind of dead. Well, yeah. Or how'd they get the first God-king again?

dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #553 on: May 03, 2007, 03:38:26 AM »
Well, that was interesting.  It had seemed like you were hinting at Vasher's identity over the past few chapters, but I kept thinking "but according to the story Dust told, he was a Returned."  So this clears things up somewhat.  I like the idea of using commands on yourself, that's clever.

And I was sure something was up with those statues, but as the chapters passed without anything occurring I began to think I was just imagining things.

I'm curious whether the epilogue will cover the saving of Idris, or whether that's reserved for the sequel.  I guess we'll find out next week.

Issues?  I thought just finding Vivenna tied up in a closet was...not necessarily unreasonable, but it felt too easy and anticlimatic.  Also, at the beginning of the chapter Siri's hair is red just because she's displeased, and then a bit later Vivenna is thinking about how regal and controlled Siri is for keeping her hair black (which all seemed rather un-Siri like -- the reversal between her and Vivenna was a bit too forced).

MattD
"It had blood in it.  That makes it a good metaphor." -- Tonk Fah, in EUOL's Warbreaker

firstRainbowRose

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #554 on: May 03, 2007, 04:09:56 AM »
I liked that... lots of laughter.  (I think I might have even cried a bit if I were to be reading this in a book and thus had all the emotions still raw, not week to to week, giving me time to think about everything.)

And you don't fail us with the twist.  Although, I'd almost drag it out a bit more.  Have someone explain for the girls what exactly is going on, and the fact that Vasher is Warbreaker... (Woah... weird to say.)  Great forshadowing with the statues too!

Man... I really, really hope you'll post the sequal so at least those of us who have read this one can read it... I don't want to have to wait for it to be published.  *cries at the thought*
"The custom of royalty in referring to oneself is to naturally employ the royal 'we'.  We are very happy, we are very sad, we are bored and suffer from ennui.  For a royal prince there's no such word as 'me', It's always 'we'.  So rightfully I should be two or three, don't you agree?"