Sean

Empire of Silence is epic sci-fi, very much in the tradition of Dune and the later Enders Game books(some of my favorite of all time). It’s written as Hadrian’s memoir, thousands of years after the events of the first book, and is constantly dropping hints about what’s to come in the future as Hadrian evolves into this emperor/deity who is retelling his own story. This book is full of his personal philosophy and the phases of it each teach him some new lesson, in an almost religious way. Until the end when he meets the Cielcin, it doesn’t feel like the events of this book have major stakes for the story at-large outside of evolving Hadrians character. The most interesting part is the Cielcin, how unknown and inhuman they are, and how the majority of humanity views them compared to how Hadrian does, feels like the foundation of the series going forward and I’m glad I got to read about Hadrians first encounters with the aliens he’s so obsessed with. Knowing where the story goes makes me so excited to know how it gets there. This book itself wasn’t that great, but the world it builds and the future it sets up is what has me hooked.

Where the Water Goes is written as someone who doesn't know anything about the Colorado River going on a source-to-sea trip and learning the basics of an incredibly complex network of legal, social, and environmental factors dictating how water is supplied to essentially the entire southwestern US. It did an excellent job explaining everything the author saw on his trip, however, I went into the book with a solid understanding of the majority of these systems already and so didn't gain as much from it as I would have. If you're at all interested in learning about the Colorado River, this is definitely a good place to start and will make you want to know even more.

Warbreaker is such an interesting book with so many classic Sanderson elements, but just doesn’t quite put them all together as effectively as a lot of his other works do. The worldbuilding is incredible as always. It’s almost mistbornesque in that it’s urban based, with gangs of thieves and mercenaries, as well as an extremely powerful religious group running the show while leaving the commoners in the dark. Where it differs from mistborn is the colors. Mistborn is dark and grimy with ash falling nonstop and general despair, while Warbreaker is full of life with splashes of color all over the place and the people prioritizing leisure and entertainment even during their struggles.

Perhaps my problem with this book stems from false expectations. I thought it was going to be the story of Vasher creating Nightblood, or at the very least centered on those two, but they were auxiliary characters who played massively important roles, especially at the end of the book, but I’m left with more questions about them and even more desire to know their full story. That’s not to say that Vivenna and Siri are not interesting characters. The dichotomy and role switch between the sisters is an excellent plot. I just felt more drawn to Vasher’s story.

Lastly, how the hell is there not a sequel to this book. The sanderlanche was all about setting it up for future adventures, which was frustrating because there aren’t any yet and it made the events at the end of the book feel less impactful than they should have.

I didn’t realize the power of Babel until the last fifty or so pages, but then it all clicked for me. The story wasn’t really about the characters themselves, rather the imperialist system they found themselves in. Using a magic system based on translation was a stroke of genius when it came to enforcing the message of the book. Language is the backbone of cultural identity, so to weaponize it as silver does, using a cultures own words to oppress them, was incredibly effective. Rf Kuang was not subtle in communicating the themes in this book, but maybe that was the point. There isn’t subtlety to the impacts of colonialism so why pretend that the book is about anything else. I do wish she’d spent more time building up the characters, especially as we get to know them in their formative years at Babel. I felt like I was being told about the bonds between the four main characters more than I was seeing them develop naturally. That led to a frustrating first half of the book, but from the trip to Canton onwards a switch was flipped. This is a book I think everyone should read at some point, I certainly am glad I gave it a second try.