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May 5, 2024

I felt like writing a short review of the book I just finished, Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, so here I am! Going forward, I don't see myself posting writeups for every single thing I read, but I wanted to make one for this book because fantasy has always been in my wheelhouse. I also feel like critiquing others' work can help me hone in on what I really like to see in storytelling and distill those things down into my own projects.

Anyways, Warbreaker! This is my first Brandon Sanderson novel, and though I don't know much about the guy, I'm aware of how critically acclaimed his work is (sidenote: I've been told that Mistborn is his best series, so I have the first three books on standby). Due to his reputation, I had high expectations going into this book, and I came away feeling like it was a pretty decent read.

My very first nitpick is going to be about my first impression of Warbreaker, which is the cover art. I know, this has nothing to do with the writing whatsoever, but I'm an artist and a visual person, and it's a pet peeve of mine when the cover art is unrelated to any actual story beats. Perhaps this would be considered a spoiler, but the character on the cover is most likely the princess Siri, and she doesn't perform any magic at all in the book. The sword next to her is also probably meant to be Nightblood, which is specifically described as having a black blade and off-putting aura, nowhere close to the design seen below:

Interestingly, a special edition of Warbreaker was released a few years back with new art by the same artist (Dan Dos Santos), which I think does a much better job of showcasing the book's plot and characters. You can check out the illustrations and read about Dan's creative process here!

Moving on to the plot, Warbreaker has much of your standard fantasy fare - kingdoms that are teetering on the brink of war, a royal family that has to marry off a princess to prevent said war, and a powerful rogue character with a mysterious past. Despite how generic this stripped-back desciption sounds, there was always some kind of spin or twist on how things played out (no spoilers here), which made these ideas feel fresh and exciting.

The magic system in Warbreaker is unique, if a bit convoluted. First off, it requires the user to have multiple Breaths (which seem to be synonymous with souls). More complicated tasks intuitively require more Breaths. Next, you must say a specially-worded Command while touching the object you wish to manipulate, with longer Commands being more difficult to complete. And since Breaths seem to be related to color in some way, you must also have a color source on hand that you are also physically touching - once you say your Command, the color drains out of this source, leaving it a lifeless grey.

I think the last part here is where it gets to be overkill for me in terms of the rules, since it never restricts the main characters from using magic in any way. There is only one character who is ever trapped in a grey cell, but he is also bound and gagged, which would prevent him from using his Breaths in the first place. I suspect this detail was added solely for the cool visual potential it has - like draining the color out of your own bloody wounds as a power source, but it unfortunately results in the author having to constantly remind us that a character has colorful handkerchiefs tied to their legs. I just felt like the magic system should've been simplified, by omitting rules like this that seem redundant (you already have to be physically touching the object you wish to Command), but that's my own personal taste!

Continuing on with my very few complaints about this book, my least favorite parts were definitely the sections dedicated to the character, Lightsong, whose scenes just plodded along. I felt that most of the events in these chapters (especially the early ones) could have been condensed into fewer pages and still gotten the same points across. As well, much of his dialogue is spent flirting with a character called Blushweaver, who is presented to readers as a politically-savvy seductress, but their relationship never advances in any meaningful way. As someone who's aromantic, I found their witty banter to be honestly grating, and in my opinion, there was zero payoff for it in the end. If I'd somehow known that ahead of time, I probably would've skipped these pages altogether.

All in all, I found Warbreaker to be a pretty enjoyable read and I'd give it a solid 3/5. It's definitely your standard fantasy book, with kingdoms and princesses, an expansive magic system, and political intrigue, but the worldbuilding and character development here elevate it beyond a lot of other books I've read in the genre. The last 100 pages in particular are nuts. Although I don't plan on ever revisiting this book, I would be interested in reading a sequel, especially if it focuses on the rogue, Vasher, and his sentient sword, Nightblood, as I found them to be the standout characters of the bunch.

Mar 19, 2024

I was invited to go bouldering with some coworkers the other day and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Okay, the brightly-colored holds and their weird noodle shapes were partially why, since they tickle my brain in a way I can't quite explain. I think it's the resemblance to 80's and 90's aesthetics, or those cool microscopic photos of grains of sand, which are much prettier than they have any right to be.

The climbing centre also had a cute mini-bar (with plants!) near the entrance where you could sit and drink after your workout, the idea of which I really like. With seemingly less and less places out there where you can just hang out with friends, this gym gave off great communal vibes and I could imagine spending a few hours there without anyone minding. Entry definitely wasn't free, though.

But enough about the physical space. How about the climbing itself? As a total newbie, I am...completely unqualified to make any judgments there, but I climbed a few V0's, one V1, and learned not to fear jumping from the final hold - as much. The thought of it still makes my palms sweaty, aha.

Another thing I've been doing lately is going to local meetups for in-person sketch sessions! I had a super-rewarding chat with some new friends who went the art college route and are now looking to pivot into software as a career.

Even with a degree in computer science, it took me a while to break into the industry, since I had very little guidance on how to present myself to employers (thanks, university!). That cost me a lot of time, so I want to prevent people from making the same mistakes that I did, maybe as a kind of personal redemption, haha. Here are a few strategies that helped me, while I'm on this train of thought:

• Look at a bunch of job descriptions and take note of which programming languages/frameworks are the most commonly used. From this, I decided that I wanted to focus on learning React.
• Make about 5 good-sized projects using those popular languages/frameworks. For detailed tutorials on basically everything, I like FreeCodeCamp's Youtube channel the most.
• Create a portfolio site to show off your projects and make sure it has a responsive, mobile-friendly design (the little details matter). I created a free Netlify account to host mine.
• You might've heard about Leetcode, but now you must live and breathe it. Many companies pull their interview questions from Leetcode, so you should have some familiarity with how to solve the easy and medium-level questions. Or you could get lucky with a company that uses different testing metrics.

Phew! Enough about work-related stuff, what's been especially nice about these art meetups is that they've been forcing me to use traditional media, since a sketchbook is much easier to carry around than a beefy computer (I've considered buying an iPad for art, but haven't committed to it). So at the end of the night, I ended up with this pretty sweet sketch of Nadia!

Ideally, I'd take this pose/concept and translate it into a finished digital piece, but I have so many other things to draw already...this probably won't get done for a very long time. Gotta finish my cutesy relationship zine first, along with some other convention-ready products!