Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Warbreaker cover art

Warbreaker

By: Brandon Sanderson
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Elantris (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
The Singularity Trap cover art
The Malevolent Seven cover art
New Spring cover art
The Ninth Rain cover art
White Sand: Volume One [Dramatized Adaptation] cover art
The Black Queen cover art
Limitless Lands cover art
The Affiliate cover art
Mage Slave cover art
The Empire's Ghost cover art
Thornfruit cover art
Mordecai cover art
The False Prince cover art
The Sacrifice cover art
Princess of Dorsa cover art

Summary

After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, Elantris, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today's leading master of what Tolkien called 'secondary creation', the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own.

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn't like his job, and the immortal who's still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can be collected only one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the colour in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron, the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery; and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

©2009 Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC (P)2015 Recorded Books

What listeners say about Warbreaker

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2,082
  • 4 Stars
    795
  • 3 Stars
    150
  • 2 Stars
    26
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,927
  • 4 Stars
    585
  • 3 Stars
    152
  • 2 Stars
    30
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,843
  • 4 Stars
    657
  • 3 Stars
    167
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    10

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Painfully slow to get going but worth persevering

First time with this author and he has some great ideas and creates a convincing story once he gets over the tedious character development. Endless repetition of simple ideas insult the readers intelligence and it takes forever for the brakes to come off and to finally get going. Even then the author cannot resist reminding you (for the 20th time) that this person is the lazy one, that character is the reckless one who dislikes authority in case you forgot from 5 minutes ago.

I hate leaving books unfinished but 8 hours in I was seriously considering quitting but I'm glad I saw this one through. There are some genuinely original ideas here and the story twists and turns to a satisfying conclusion, all be it to set the stage for a sequel to tie up loose ends.

I will try another from Brandon Sanderson, but please get this guy an editor. The first 6 - 8 hours flow like treacle and yet the conclusion in the last couple of hours seems hasty and rushed and leaves a few plot strands hanging.

Narrator was only OK. Clear diction but a slightly lifeless performance, improved by listening at 1.3 speed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The Narrator spoilt it for me

By the 5th chapter I was still unconvinced if I could continue listening to the end. The over emphasis of every other word was draining to listen to and an unecessary distraction because the story unravelled beautifully. I had been spoilt by Michael Kramer narrating the Mist Born Series and this narrator was a total disappointmnt for me. I love Brandon Sanderson's literary style but wont listen to any more by this narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Missing its impact

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I came into this book hoping for a classic Brandon Sanderson book and I got what I expected from the story, it's well written and the magic systems are always brilliantly thought out. It's definitely worth listening to once.

How could the performance have been better?

The narration is my biggest gripe with the book and it's one of the things I really hoped to be a nice change. Initially, it was lovely to hear Alyssa Bresnahan narrate but as time went on I started to notice her lack of impact on major parts of the story. The storm light series read by Micheal and Kate always hit the nail on the head, building up the story with amazing narration and I just didn't get the same quality of narration from Alyssa.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Long and winding road to nowhere

Loads of build up. Then it completely fails to surprise or overwhelm at the end. So many unanswered questions. I haven't rolled my eyes so many times at a book before. Could never get invested.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

An interesting story

For me this is a difficult book to review. Firstly I'd like to say that I found the narrator to be first class and maybe the only reason I endured the story. There is a massive buildup (90 odd% of the book is buildup) and then a really hasty ending. With all the buildup I was expecting some real impact at the end but there just wasn't any.

What I liked: The narration - brilliant, The characters - superb, The magic mechanics - very well thought through.

What was decent: The story - Interesting but nothing more

What I disliked: The rushed ending

This is the first book I have listened too of Brandon Sanderson's and Im not sure I'll listen to another

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book!!!

I so wish that there were more to this series cos it's the 1st book by this author I've read. Extremely excited to see what else he has written and am determined to find a series, I'm surly not going to be disappointed!!! Thank you audible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Overall a good book

Good book with interesting characters and catching story. The story is full of twists and surprises, although the ending is a bit anticlimactic. The narrator's voice is a bit nasally and takes some time getting used to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Just no.

I expected so much from this. Sanderson is now a well-known name within the fantasy branch of literature. As an avid Song of Ice and Fire reader, I thought I would love this. In conclusion, I did not. It was slow-paced, some characters felt useless to the story. What I believed to be plotting...let me down immensely. And it is way to long for what it is. 800 pages of bland, milky characters and a d-grade plot. I am very hesitant to pick up the books in the Stormlight Archive series. As a result, this had me angry and disappointed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

I got 18 hours into the book before I decided life was too short for this snail pace story. Apparently the last tenth of the book is good, but the run up to it was dull. Took much too long to do far too little.

Narrator was doing her best, but she read the female characters as though they were constantly on the verge of tears / a nervous breakdown. She was a bit slow too so I sped her up.

World building wasn’t for me (almost entirely in one city) and the magic system although new was not the most exciting. I was utterly fed up of Vivenna by the time I packed in. The best characters in the book were a talking sword and a sarcastic god. The rest were all a bit boring.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Warbreaker

A fictional tale of a Deity system.

This was a very enjoyable book about someone who had died and discovered that he had been deified.

Intentional funny but gripping none the less.

I have read a number of Sanderson books and found them all to be most engaging

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful