Do the political relationships between Idris and Hallandren have a model in the real world? Do you think authors of fantasy are free to deal with current political issues in their work or is that something of a no-go for you?
In fantasy, we can often approach things like this in a way that is non-threatening. We can change things a little bit and focus in a little bit more on the issue that is interesting to us. I won’t say that I never do this, though again character and story are most important, but what I write about grows out of what I’m interested in.
With Idris and Hallendren, I noticed in my own work that I’d been painting religion in a somewhat less than favorable light in recent books; this is partially because I as a religious person think that the misuse of religion is one of the most purely evil things that can happen in the world. So I thought I wanted to play off of some of those sensibilities, and I built what I did in Warbreaker in part to actively show a different side of things. And when I was writing that book, the politics of the United States’ invasion of certain countries and other things going on were not something that anyone could really ignore. So I would say that there are themes that grew out of that.
I didn’t write the book to make a political statement. Yet at the same time the potential political statements of “Think twice about what you’re doing” and of the nature of war and what it can do is something that I’m sure grew out of my own thoughts on the issues.
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