Author Topic: Warbreaker: Free Ebook  (Read 234702 times)

dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #585 on: May 10, 2007, 12:18:08 AM »
Some of the confusion with Vasher may just stem from the Command word he uses on himself: "Return."  It was ambiguous as to whether he is making himself a Returned, commanding his Returned status to return, etc.  If what he actually had been doing was hiding his divine Breath, just changing the word ("Reveal" or some synonym) might make things clearer.

I liked the epilogue...I think it's always better to leave things unsaid than to say too much.  I did think it could have used a little more meat to go with the witty banter, though.  To wrap things up, it might have been nice to read some combination (not necessarily all) of:

- Vivenna questions Vasher a little more...what has he been doing for the past few centuries, why did he leave Hallendren in the first place, why did he come back (why would he care if the Pahn Kahl plot succeeded), and why is he leaving now rather than sticking around to make sure things work out okay?

- Vasher and Susebron talk...given all the instructions Vasher apparently left the last time, he seems remarkably uncaring about the massive political upheaval he's leaving in his wake this time.  If the next book is going to take place in another kingdom, resolving the outstanding Hallendren/Idris issues seems important.

- Vivenna and Siri talk a little more...we've had dialogue where Vivenna realizes how Siri has changed, but Siri's realization of how much Vivenna has changed was only briefly touched on.  Plus if this is the conclusion of Siri's character arc, it would be good to have a little more closure with her.

(Also, one comment on the past two chapters: in the last chapter Siri was quite willing try to hold Susebron back from trying to save Idris, even if it cost Idris many lives; in this chapter, Vivenna is quite willing to go off adventuring without waiting to see if Idris will be saved, or doing anything to help.  Cutting the cord is a good thing, but this lack of caring about their homeland didn't feel quite right.)

Anyway, wow...I know you've been done with the story for a while, but congratulations!  And thank you so much for posting all the chapters online, it was very brave to subject your early drafts to all this scrutiny but I've found it both fascinating and useful, not to mention fun.  I think I'll pause for a few weeks to clear my head, then give the whole thing a re-read at once, to read it as a novel.  I'll also definitely be picking up the book when it's released in print.

Edits:

Anyway, The question I have then, is does that make Vasher her Great great great great great great grandfather? or something?
[...]
So, he was a scholar before he was Returned.

Vasher wasn't a member of the royal family -- he was called "the Usurper" after all.

I don't think it says he was a scholar before he was Returned;  he says he can't remember before he was Returned.

MattD
« Last Edit: May 10, 2007, 12:43:07 AM by dreamking47 »
"It had blood in it.  That makes it a good metaphor." -- Tonk Fah, in EUOL's Warbreaker

Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #586 on: May 10, 2007, 05:16:36 PM »
But when Vivenna asked if that was his real name, from when he was a scholar, he said he no, but that he didn't remember, because he doesn't remember anything from before he became returned.

"The Usurper" – ahh. But then who was her multi-grain -great grandfather? (Oops. Pun slip)

dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #587 on: May 10, 2007, 06:41:46 PM »
The royal family were the ones descended from the first Returned, the ones who founded the kingdom of Hallendren hundreds of years before the Manywar.  That's who Vivenna is descended from.  The chapter with Dust the storyteller has the most complete overview of the history, but basically:

- Hallendren is founded by explorers who include the First Returned -- they become the royal family.
- Some time later, whoever Vasher was dies and Returns, and is given the name Warbreaker.
- He learns to change his shape, takes a normal human form, and naming himself Talaxin (sp?) teams up with some humans doing research into Breath.
- Their research gives Hallendren a lot of military power; the imbalance causes the Manywar.
- The royal family makes Vasher a general and gives him command of the Lifeless army.
- Vasher leads the armies against the neighboring countries -- Pahn Kahl, plus the two mentioned in this epilogue.  He's now called Strifelover.
- Then for some reason -- experiencing the horror of war, perhaps -- Vasher leads the armies back to Hallendren and seizes power from the royal family in order to end the war.  The royal family escapes to the hills and founds the kingdom of Idris.  They call him Klad the Usurper.
- Vasher forces the other countries to submit to Hallendren or he'll release the near-indestructible statues on them.  He is hailed as Peacegiver by the Hallendren for ending the conflict.  Not wanting to rule, Vasher sets up a new Hallendren religion/government. 
- Vasher goes off and does other things for a few hundred years, until the start of this story.

I think Vasher has more names than Aragorn!  ;)

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

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #588 on: May 10, 2007, 08:33:30 PM »
That's a pretty solid timeline.  Well done.

One thing I've been toying with for a time now is getting rid of the name 'Peacegiver' and making that 'Warbreaker' from the get-go.  So, when people speak of the old Returned who ended the Manywar, they'd talk about Warbreaker. 

I didn't do this in the original draft because I was afraid that naming the book Warbreaker, then having Warbreaker get mentioned so often, would be too much of a clue that he was going to show up somewhere.  Yet, the only place I was able to fit the name in was in the epilogue, and it feels tacked on there to me.  I don't like naming a book after something that gets mentioned so off-handedly.

What do people think?  Would this have been too much of a hint to you as to Vasher's real nature?
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dreamking47

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #589 on: May 10, 2007, 10:44:40 PM »
Thanks.  I wasn't quite sure how the Five Scholars came to be, so guessed a bit there, but that sounds like something you could easily address in the next book.  That is, did the others know Vasher was a Returned at the time?  I was guessing not, just because Jewels recognizes his normal human form as "Tax," but Denth (now, at least) clearly knows who he really is.  Although that makes me wonder, if Vasher can change his shape, why keep a recognizable face?

Re: the title, the good thing about "Warbreaker" is that it isn't obviously a Returned name, so I remember seeing many people here speculate whether the "warbreaker" would be Siri, Vivenna, etc.  As soon as we know it is the name of a Returned from the past, the list of candidates does shrink dramatically (and the sense that history will repeat itself increases).  I can't say I would have guessed, but I do think your original instinct was most likely right.

Given that Denth does know who Vasher is, you could have Denth tauntingly call him "Warbreaker" while torturing him, or during one of their fight scenes (keeping Vasher's explanation of the name for the epilogue as now).  That would save the first mention until the end, but not the very end.

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

The Lost One

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #590 on: May 11, 2007, 03:13:19 AM »
Keep the name 'Peacegiver' and don't mention the name 'Warbreaker' until the last chapter, as written. The fact that the plot is based around the expectation that war will break out and the main characters are trying to prevent or accelerate the war is sufficient to support the book's title. The name 'Warbreaker' is mentioned off-handedly at the end, but it didn't really bother me because it was at the end of the book.

I was a little troubled by how quickly things got wrapped-up in the end. Vasher almost casually handing over his army to defeat the marching lifeless seemed too easy. Why can't Vasher simple use his army without handing them over the Suseborn. Of course, we are left to presume that a stone army will catch and defeat the lifeless army. I would have preferred more of a struggle towards the end, giving more of a sense that no one is all powerful and can simply say the magic words and problem is solved.  Maybe a sene where it looks like Vasher has lost his mind as he talks to the statutes in his futile attempt awaken them (thus given a motive to hand them over to Suseborn) and them something more than Vashers statement that his army should defeat the lifeless, like a short battle seen with he lifeless being victorious but providing enough time for the characters to enact their final plans. But then again, the book needs to end before it gets too long.
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firstRainbowRose

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #591 on: May 11, 2007, 09:19:35 PM »
I thought at one point SOMEONE meantions Warbreaker in regards to being the end of the war, because I remember thinking "OH!  So that's why the book is titled what it is.  Hm... I wonder who this person was?"  If not, you could easily just have the story teller say something along the lines of "The war was ended by Warbreaker, also called Peacegiver, also called many other things long since forgotten" (which would be a small hint towards Vasher since he does go by many names, and we see that quite oftan.)

As for the fighting, I just figured we'd see a lot more of it and how the fight between the statues and the lifeless in the next book.  *shrug*  Actually, I thought the ending was a great set-up for that (just like with Mistborn it gives enough closure to not leave you dying for the next one, but at the same time you can see how another one would fit, and can't wait for it.).  I mean, yes, more of the book with be with Vasher and Viv fighting the final Scholar, but that doesn't mean that Viv can't talk with her sister and find out what's going on, and thus we would know (because despite her current carefree manor, I do believe she would check in and make sure everyone was fine.)
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DavidB

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #592 on: May 12, 2007, 12:57:43 AM »
Regarding Vasher hiding his divine breath from the world: it occurs to me that when Vasher wants to hide the fact that he's an awakener, he hides his breaths by storing them in a cloth or something. So it makes the most sense (to me) that Vasher should have an amulet or a ring or something like that in which he stores his divine breath; the trick then would be for him to find a way to get the divine breath to sustain him even when it's stored in the amulet. Then, in order for him to "return", he'd just have to draw the divine breath back into himself.

I agree that there ought to be a scene between Vivenna and Siri before the end of the book, for the reasons Rose and Matt have already mentioned.

Quote
They’d recovered Vasher’s cloak, shirt, and trousers--the ones that Denth had originally taken from him.  There had been enough Breath in those to split among the two of them and get them each to the Second Heightening.

Heh. We're not even pretending anymore that the "you can only give other people all your breath at the same time" rule is hard to circumvent, are we?

Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #593 on: May 12, 2007, 03:32:28 AM »
As I recall, Wasn't it Denth who mentioned that rule in the first place? And while it's true, I think he was discouraging her from getting rid of that much breath, which he was probably going to take later on, anyway.

Spink_Longfellow

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #594 on: May 17, 2007, 01:19:47 AM »
Excellent! I'm glad there will be another book. I feel there is much more story to be told. I would really like to see Vasher's character more developed and possibly see how he has become as jaded as he is. Susebron's knowledge is hopefully a little more than just his childhood book. Maybe enveloped in it's 'stories' are more than vague truths? Having had this resource of being able to watch this story unfold has helped me to get past some of the roadstops on the way to my finished book.

THANKS!!!

qirien

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #595 on: June 21, 2007, 12:30:55 AM »
I'm enjoying the book so far!  I downloaded it on my palm pilot so I can read it whenever I get a minute (I'd be happy to send post the palm version if you would like).

Would you like me to report typos, or is that something you don't even worry about until much later drafts?

Thanks for providing it for download!

Lightningfall

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #596 on: July 11, 2007, 06:05:48 PM »
I just finished Warbreaker.  Its an awesome book.  I absolutely loved it.  I do have a couple of questions though.  They may have been answered already and if thats the case feel free to refer me to the proper place as I haven't yet had time to read through the back posts yet.
First, has Vasher found a way around needing a breath every week as a Returned? 
Next, when Vivenna  was practicing her Awakening she tried to use a tree for color but was unable to, I had assumed that currently living things could not be used, and yet Vasher was able to use the grass in the fight in the Court of the Gods.  Could anyone shed any light on that for me? 

fanak

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #597 on: July 27, 2007, 02:37:36 AM »

What do people think?  Would this have been too much of a hint to you as to Vasher's real nature?
I don't think that's the case, I didn't even assume Vasher was awakened until the end. I thought he was probably some other form of awakened, not like the gods.

I think mentioning it was Warbreaker earlier would be fine, given the fact that all awakened have compound names like that, I simply assumed Warbreaker was an awakened.


Qarlin

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #598 on: July 29, 2007, 12:48:35 AM »
I'm having a thought here; What about Vasher's dreams? Returned have dreams that predict the future. Even if those dreams fly fast like dreams are want to do, Vasher would probably remember some snatches of them, even if it was just Dejavu like.

miss-bee

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Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« Reply #599 on: August 13, 2007, 02:54:17 PM »
I´m all new to this. Happened to stumble on this site, just a few hours ago.
This morning I went to my local book-shop in search for new books and authors to still my hunger for good fantasy reading. Well I saw a book by Mr. Sanderson and liked the synopsis. The only thing which stoped me from buying it, ... it was only available in my mother-tongue.  On the inside of the book I discovered that it was translated into German from it´s english version. I do like to read the original rather than the translated one.
So I went home, started up my Computer to search for Mr. Sanderson´s work. First I opened his Web-Site and was happy to  find some sample chapters and started reading. Finally I made it through to the Free Ebook, which seems to be in the last stages before it goes into publishing. I have downloaded the 3.5 Draft and I´m excited to get into the world of Warbreaker. I´ll let you know how I like it and give you my comments if you still want to hear them.

Best regards from Germany
miss-bee