Warbreaker is about a land ruled by a faceless God King and focuses on the woman (Siri) who is sent to be his wife. That core of the plot feeds several subplots – Vivenna, the sister of the God King’s wife (Siri) trying to save her; a brewing war between nations; the machinations of the Gods who live amongst men and just who and what the God King really is.
Siri’s sister, Vievenna, not long after Siri is sent to be the God King’s wife, follows her in order to save her sister from the dire fate. As the story progresses, Sanderson shows an engaging parallel story of how Vivenna and Siri learn about the two disparate sides of life in Hallendren.
Men and Gods live together in this world. Men return as Gods or One of the most important elements of being a “Returned” is being unaware of how their previous life ended and what kind of life it was. Naturally, Lightsong, one of the one who have returned, is nagged by this fact, and continually seeks information about who he was and how it might affect his role as a god.
Gods amongst men is just one magical aspect of the novel. People’s hair changes color giving away their moods, and the essence of thaumaturgical power is BioChromatic breath, which is collected, shared and given to others in order to manipulate magic.
A rogue swordsman named Vasher, is a man tortured by past deeds with a talking sword that seeks battle by his side. Sanderson applies humor to the master and weapon in Warbreaker, which allows for Sanderson’s voice and style to imprint its own image and character.
The characters and the world itself have a great "not everything is what it seems" feel to it. Sanderson does a great job of revealing these layers in terms of pacing them out to the reader. In many ways, the story initially has a faery-tale feel to it, with a royal daughter’s marriage binding two kingdoms. What unfolds from that simple premise is well-wrought and intelligent.
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