Warbreaker: Free Ebook

[EUOL]

I figured I'd start a new thread, since I'll be linking this from my site, and don't want the files to be buried two or three pages in.

This is the place for a collection of sample chapters from the newest book I'm working on.  Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the links, read on for an explanation of what's going on here.

WARBREAKER (tentative title) is the novel I'll be releasing through  Tor after the MISTBORN trilogy.  It is a stand-alone fantasy novel, with no relation to previous books I've done.  From the beginning, I've said that I want to publish stand-alones frequently, since I see a distinct lack of them in the epic fantasy field.

I finished the three MISTBORN books before Tor even published the first one, and I'm putting those through my writing groups.  However, it will be years before Tor--or my writing groups--will have a chance to look at WARBREAKER.  I've already got two books in the queue, and so a lot of the focus will be on them for a time. 

However, a number of people have noticed that I'm working on the book, and are curious about it, so I thought I'd start posting some of the sample chapters--both because I wanted to show them what I was doing, and because I wanted to get a bit of feedback.   

These then got quite a good reaction!  I went to Tor, and we both decided that posting the whole book on-line would be a great way (hopefully) to improve my readership.  I only ask a couple of things:

1) Consider giving me comments to help me make the book the best it can be. 

2)  Don't judge my writing style too harshly based on these chapters, as they aren't polished at all!  This is more than simple prose problems. Names will change--sometimes inside of the same chapter--as I try different spellings and see which ones I like.  The setting isn't as fleshed out as I'd like yet, and some of the mechanics are awkward.  And, I often flesh out characters a lot as I write them.   So, consider yourself warned!  Remember, my published works are much better.

3)  And, speaking of my published works, I ask you to consider buying them.  If you like this book, then you'll like them even more!  Plus, the better my sales are, the more likely I'll be able to keep doing this for a living.  So, please check out Elantris (paperback stand alone) and Mistborn (hardback, first in a trilogy).  Also, consider buying Warbreaker when the hardback comes out!

That said, here are the chapters!  I'll update them as I revise, and add new ones to this post as I decide to put them up.

Thanks!
Brandon Sanderson
September, 2006

And now, the actual chapters!

Part One Collection Version 2.0(Chapters 1-13 in one download)

Part Two Collection Version 2.0(Chapters 14-25 in one download)

Part Three Collection Version 2.0(Chapters 26-37 in one download)

NEW:
Chapter Forty Nine

Old Chapters:
Chapter Forty Eight
Chapter Forty Seven
Chapter Forty Six
Chapters Forty four and forty five (one file)
Chapter Forty Three
Chapter Forty Two
Chapter Forty One
Chapter Forty
Chapter Thirty Nine
Chapter Thirty Eight
Chapter Thirty Seven

Comparison Document Part one 1.0 to 2.0

Link to older versions of chapters


NOTE:
If you want something more polished to compare WARBREAKER to, you can reference ELANTRIS chapters:  (I wrote this book seven years ago, and it was published last year.)
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/page.php?id=8

Or, you can look at MISTBORN chapters:  (I wrote this book two years ago, and it will be published in July.)
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article.php?id=30

[EUOL]

Theory of this book and known issues.

Other than the things I mentioned above--the things I still need to work out with character and setting--I have a few comments about this book.  The first thing that you might want to know is that it is a reaction against MISTBORN.  I did a big trilogy which was generally very serious, with a lot of dark colorings in the setting and description.  So, I wanted to something different.

That said, I don't want the book to feel frivolous or silly.  I want the characters to have depth and feel just as real as those in MISTBORN, even if I'm not giving them the deep emotional scars that Vin, Sazed, and Kelsier displayed.  In a way, I want to deal with people who are actually more real, in that they aren't quite as messed up.  (But, hopefully, still interesting.)  

The cook character might be going too far--I'm still not sure on here.  Also, chapter three feels a little like a filler chapter to me, yet another piece of me sees it as necessary to get reactions on page.  I may just cut all three of these chapters (once the book is finished) and begin more in the middle of what is going on.  (I considered starting the book with what will be, eventually, chapter four.  However, I worried that I needed a few scenes earlier to establish character.)

[EUOL]

Update:

I posted the 2.0 draft of chapter one.  I changed the prose quite a bit, fixing some of the dialogue.  

Another thing I could use some comments on is the naming paradigms of the book.  For a long time, I've been wanting to use an almost stuttering sound for a language--one that started off with repeated alliterative syllables.  So, we've got:

T'Telir, Vivena, Susebron, and others.  I resisted doing all of them as apostrophes (V'Vena and S'Sebron) simply because it's become a fantasy cliché to have apostrophes in names for no reason.  

[42]

I agree that the apostrophe thing is overdone. I also think it makes the name a little harder to remember.

[EUOL]

Update:  Chapter four is up.  This one is extra rough!  It's 4 am, and I just finished this.  I haven't read through it at all, I just spellchecked it and posted it!

42:  It's kind of sad.  The apostrophe got so over-used that now it's hard to even justify it when one has a distinct, linguistic reason for it.  Do you like me varying the methods of the alliteration, like above, or do you think I should lose all of the apostrophes?

[42]

IMO, lose the apostrophes. It's a writing tool that's past its prime.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Even Salvatore (who essentially started the fad) admits it's far overdone. However, it's not like every other name in the drafts has one.

However, I just scanned. Now I'm going to have to read closely. From what I saw, it looks like you're using an idea very similar to one I've had boiling in my brain. THus I might have to hate you once again.

[Spriggan]

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/14/campbellnominated_sf.html

Did you send in this link yourself Brandon?  

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Did Anne McCaffrey not start the apostrophe thing with the Pern books?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

The Pern names are actually contractions of their birth names. In Salvatore.... everyone just ... had them.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I know they were contractions... Did any fantasy writer use apostrophe names before McCaffrey? Were there any in Tolkein?

[EUOL]

I always thought it was McCaffery that started the trend, then Salvatore that killed it.

And yes, I submitted the BoingBoing link.  I thought the readers there might think this was an interesting exercise.  None of them registered to post, however, so I'm not sure how interested they actually were.

Anyway, chapter five is up.  My current issue is the Siri age issues.  How old should I make her?  In my first draft, she was going to be only one or two years younger than Vivena.  However, when I wrote the first Siri chapter, I realized that she needed more siblings in her family to properly craft the "youngest child" persona.  

I generally think that the youngest child acts young for their age.  I actually placed her at about seventeen in my mind--which means I'll probably need to increase Vivena's age a bit, since there are two children between them.  

Any thoughts?

[Spriggan]

Well we got about 700 extra hits from the link so it wasn't a waste.

You had 106 downloads of chapter one from the 14-15
and 50 of chapters 2 and 3
while chapter 4 had 44.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I think, in answer to a previously asked question, the cook may be too much.  Could she not have the rustic/hillbilly accent?  I think that's what's jarring me out of all the nice descriptions of what's going on.  She could fulfill her role as lady-in-waiting/mother figure/explainer, what-have-you without being the dialecty comic relief.

Oh, by the way, Siri is much better in this chapter, and I especially like the part about "For the first time in either of their lives, Father had chosen Siri over Vivena."

I await with great anticipation, as we never got past this part of Siri's story in Mythwalker, and I've been waiting probably 4 years or more to find out what happends  

[thelsdj]

I found this via boingboing, just finished reading chapter 5, really liking it so far.