Advertisement

  This is the finest, as well as the final, installment of the Warbreaker trilogy of audiobooks.  Brandon Sanderson proves to be a master at hiding things in plain sight. He managed to hide an entire mythical army right out in the open.  He also hid the true enemy, the force behind all of this, and when that enemy is revealed, it is both logical and surprising.

  Everything that was promised in the beginning is delivered. Armies of Lifeless soldiers march on Idris. An attempt is made on Susebron's life.  It's just not fulfilled in the ways we're led to expect. We're led to question the source of a lot of the information, and how things transpired because of the characters' responses to that information. Much like Vivenna had to rethink her time in Hallandren in part two, we are made to rethink much of the story in part three. So much of the meaning of the early scenes is changed by the revelations at the end, my first impulse was to start listening all over again. It's one of those works that only benefits from a second go through.

  Some events are easy to predict. Given how many times we're told that the Returned can use their Breath once to heal someone and then they die, it's no surprise when one the Returned does exactly that.  Those are in the minority, and serve to involve us and ground us in the story.

  Lightsong learns the truth about his past, and he is transformed by these experiences, and especially from that revelation, from someone who joked about his divinity, to someone who could proudly declare himself a god, and live up to it.  Vivenna casts off the identity of sacrificial princess, for choices that are both logical and surprising. Her movement, from competent, to helpless, and back to competent, but in a greater way, is one of the most interesting in the book. Vasher's past is revealed, and it makes sense of one of the best lines from the beginning of the book: 

 

The guard turned away, apparently convinced that Vasher was no lord.               He was right. And he was wrong.

  The dénouement ran longer than it needed to for the sake of this story, but it did a good job of setting up a potential sequel.  This is a compelling universe, and I hope Brandon Sanderson writes more in it.

  The audio quality is, as always with Graphic Audio, splendid.  The voice acting was fantastic. The sound effects were appropriate and. the voice alterations done to imply thought or magic helped pull the listener into the story.

Ivy Reisner is a writer, an obsessive knitter, and a podcaster. Find her at IvyReisner.com.