I’m currently reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

I must admit that two years ago, I had no idea who he was when he got picked up to continue the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan died.

I first went on his website around that time – mostly to get updates on A Memories of Light. At the time, I didn’t look at the other work he had done – if Hariet had picked him, I had no doubt that he could finish WOT.

Around last may, after the release date for TGS was set, I decided that I maybe should read something he had written before, so I could get accustomed to his style. At the time, Brandon had published his young adult books (Alcatraz series), Elantris and his Mistborn series. I decided to pick-up mistborn and ordered the three on Amazon (The french one – for some reason, Brandon has difficulties being published in the UK).

After reading a few chapters of Mistborn, I was hooked. I loved the heist style (Who doesn’t?), the whole concept of the hero of prophecy having failed also interested me, but what got me was that original allomancy magic system. That system is well thought, rounded and very logical. The system was so logical that I was able to guess some new allomantic metals before I read about them in the book. That’s always a good impression on me when I understand something before it is actually shown to me (that’s why Dead Again is one of my favorite movies ever).

What could possibly be more original than Allomancy?

Well, I give you Warbreaker the new Sanderson book. Well, new is a relative term, it was published last june, I believe.

Warbreaker is a strange book. First, it was published both in hardback and online, where it can be read for free. That’s original enough to mention.

But that’s far from it. To say it simply, Warbreaker blows my mind (I use present tense here, because I’m only halfway through).

You’ve got it all here : A fascinating setting and plot, with some intrigue (Love intrigue!) and there’s the magic system.

It’s so different from the one from Mistborn and from everything else I’ve ever read! Well, WOT is great on that respect and I love Erikson’s take on magic (as far as we understand that magic), but Warbreaker’s seems … unique to me.

Imagine magical powers fuled by color? Where people infuse inanimate objects with life by infusing them with their own spirit and where a person’s spirit is for sale for other people to use?

I can’t elaborate too much about the plot yet, but it’s riveting for now.

As for characters, if you don’t like LightSong, a witty god that doesn’t believe in his own cult, I don’t know what I can do with you.

The funny thing about Warbreaker for me is that now that I’m writing a novel, I read slightly differently, noticing some things. At one point, there is a conversation between two mercenaries who swap jokes. As someone that had to write a scene a little like that, well, suffice it to say that I would have liked to have written mine a tenth as good as the one Sanderson wrote.

So, either buy it or download it, but if you’re intrigued by strange places and different magic systems, Warbreaker is definitely for you.