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I do agree that Shallan rules. I think Sanderson doesn't know how to wield her.
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Apr 14, 2022 16:03
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Well poo poo, that sums up that character for me perfectly.
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Apr 14, 2022 18:12
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Brutor Fartknocker posted:Shallan spoilers talk. As much as it would fit because shallan twists, why would the heralds other than nale give a poo poo about radiants appearing? Other than like the oath pact failing or whatever, but I don't see them all coming to nale's conclusion of killing the radiants preventing the return. Sure, but why does Nale believe that? because Ishar told him so and he has an unexplained extreme level of trust in Ishar. In fact all the Heralds seem to have a surprising amount of trust in Ishar's conclusions despite all evidence that he is absolutely nuts. Probably because Ishar is using his Connection powers and the fact that he created the Oathpact to gently caress with the Connections of the other Heralds to force them to trust him.
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Apr 16, 2022 06:00
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Thanks, yeah, 100% with you and Torrannor on that. That does make it so much worse though. Also makes me wonder what he might do to Dalinar in a similar way of connection fuckery. On top of just stealing the stormfather or something completely game changing like that. Rip anyone reading the thread whose not down with spoilers or through rhythm yet.
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Apr 16, 2022 10:08
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Brutor Fartknocker posted:Thanks, yeah, 100% with you and Torrannor on that. That does make it so much worse though. Also makes me wonder what he might do to Dalinar in a similar way of connection fuckery. On top of just stealing the stormfather or something completely game changing like that. I didn't even think about Ishar doing some connection fuckery to make the other Heralds trust him, but thinking about his behavior in Rhythm, it would make perfect sense. Honestly, the plot of Kaladin and Szeth going to Shinovar has so much loving promise. I wrote a post before RoW's release that I'm not sure where that book was going to go, which lessened my hype a little bit. But for SA5, the Kaladin/Szeth plot thread alone will probably be amazing all on it's own. Szeth and Kaladin buddy cop? Sign me up. Learning more about the Shin?? Hell yeah. Seeing Szeth flashbacks, and finding out why he predicted the return of the Voidbringers in the first place??? I'm here for it! "Rescuing" Ishar, learning more about the backstory of the Heralds, Ashyn/The Tranquiline Halls, formation of the Oathpact, etc.?!? I'm dying of hype here!! Not to mention the other likely highlights, like the coalition's fight against Odium, Dalinar and Navani figuring their bondsmith powers out together, Taravodium tyring to foil Hoid's plan, and the big final showdown in the contest of champions... that's super exciting as well. RoW was not as good as a book as the three previous SA books, but I wouldn't be surprised if Stones Unhallowed were to be the best one of the front 5. Torrannor fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Apr 16, 2022 |
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Apr 16, 2022 10:57
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ROW has a lot of “gently caress gently caress gently caress I have to get all these pieces into place before the last book” feeling. I think on reread of the first five in the future it will hold up better but due to the wait before it came out and the wait now it feels weak without the surrounding context. Also oathbringer was really good so it’s a hard one to beat.
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Apr 16, 2022 11:44
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Yeah I think it definitely has middle book syndrome, where "middle" means "right before the Sanderlanche"
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Apr 16, 2022 13:14
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Yeah, that's some crazy hype for stormlight 5, if we learn all that it'll be loving crazy. I expect most of that and some more we didn't see coming will make for quite the book. It's interesting how reading with release vs a later reread really changes things, like Stramit said it'll probably be better in the read through later. If anyone read worm and ward by wildbow, ward really suffered a similar thing of being a lot easier on read after completion.
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Apr 16, 2022 19:08
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Just finished my Shadows of Self reread (reading it to my wife). Book still good. I still think it's the best of the three W&W books.
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Apr 19, 2022 06:17
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Mordiceius posted:Just finished my Shadows of Self reread (reading it to my wife). Book still good. I still think it's the best of the three W&W books. I'm on Shadows of Self for the first time now and just got to the part where Sazed finally identifies himself by name and got a huge loving grin when he ended one of his sentences with "I think". They're fun so far though not as mindbogglingly cool as the first three Mistborn were. I'm about 15% of the way through reading the first Mistborn to my 8 year old daughter and she loves it though I do have to clean up some of the language or scenes a bit as I go. It's gonna be so much harder to do that with the W&W series; Sanderson has gotten much less prude over time.
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Apr 19, 2022 15:08
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Also just finished a reread of shadows of self, the ending is such a great tragic end. Just a real heart breaker of a climax. Having to wait for bands of mourning after finishing it must have been rough. Forgot how short they are though, banging through them so much quicker than I'm used to.
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Apr 22, 2022 00:17
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Brutor Fartknocker posted:Also just finished a reread of shadows of self, the ending is such a great tragic end. Just a real heart breaker of a climax. Having to wait for bands of mourning after finishing it must have been rough. Forgot how short they are though, banging through them so much quicker than I'm used to. Yeah, it's still my favorite book because of that ending. The other reason is because that's the book where I came to love Steris as a character. And Bands of Mourning completely reinforced that feeling. She's quite the scene stealer in that one.
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Apr 23, 2022 09:03
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Proteus Jones posted:Yeah, it's still my favorite book because of that ending. I wholeheartedly agree, and I can't wait to see what happens with her in her next appearance.
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Apr 23, 2022 21:40
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Ok I'm itching to read something and it's time I actually read Mistborn Era 2 even though I don't like the fact guns are added... at all. But it has so many cosmere important stuff I just have to get over it. My question is can I read Mistborn Secret History before Era 2? I thought I remember reading it had significant spoilers for Era 2 but now that I'm looking again I can't find that at all. It and Era 2 are the only cosmere things I haven't read yet.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:25
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Read all of Mistborn Era 2 books 1-3 and THEN Secret History. Then Mistborn Era 2 book 4. Mistborn 2 is a loving breezy series. They're Mistborn but with the tone of 1999's The Mummy.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:33
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insider posted:Ok I'm itching to read something and it's time I actually read Mistborn Era 2 even though I don't like the fact guns are added... at all. But it has so many cosmere important stuff I just have to get over it. I felt the same way and then it turned out that Mistborn with guns is really fun. Also Steris is just the best. Do not read Secret History before Bands of Mourning because that will kinda undercut the ending for you.
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Apr 24, 2022 08:49
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Mordiceius posted:Read all of Mistborn Era 2 books 1-3 and THEN Secret History. Then Mistborn Era 2 book 4. Yeah, Era2 is a Victorian adventure full of derring do with some of the best characters in the Cosmere. Plus I think it has the most interesting magical synergies of any setting so far. It's not as fantastical as what's in Stormlight books, but I think it has far more depth in the ways that feruchemy and allomancy (and hemolurgy) work off each other. Leng posted:Also Steris is just the best. Quoting for correctness.
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Apr 24, 2022 08:56
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The Lost Metal spoilers: Brandon's outline of book 4 said that Steris will have less screen time than Wax, Wayne, and Marasi, which makes me a bit sad 
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Apr 24, 2022 10:02
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Torrannor posted:The Lost Metal spoilers: Brandon's outline of book 4 said that Steris will have less screen time than Wax, Wayne, and Marasi, which makes me a bit sad Hopefully it's just because she takes over for Sazed (who is tired of trying to nudge all the pieces into place), Ascending as a new shard: Organization. Mistborn series 3 is therefore an anti-conformism screed in which a 99%-perfect future utopia is disrupted by some scruffy naive little fucks who still manage to be so lovable that you stop paying attention to how many people they murder without a thought. I have a high opinion of the individual you mention and thus share your feeling about that news.
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Apr 24, 2022 10:29
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CK07 posted:Hopefully it's just because she takes over for Sazed (who is tired of trying to nudge all the pieces into place) I unironically would love for this to happen.
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Apr 24, 2022 10:38
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insider posted:Ok I'm itching to read something and it's time I actually read Mistborn Era 2 even though I don't like the fact guns are added... at all. But it has so many cosmere important stuff I just have to get over it. I’m about to finish book 5 today and it’s been very fun despite the guns because they, more than anything, are used simply as a tool for neat allomancy tricks and in no way negate its larger elements (pun intended). They’re also a very quick read compared to Stormlight and even the first three Mistborn books. I think I average something like 12 hours for each era 2 book and I’m not the fastest of readers. e: also with that said, should I move on to book 6 as soon as I’m done with 5 or are there any novellas I should knock out first?
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Apr 24, 2022 23:25
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Straight on to book 6. Only novella is Secret History after Bands of Mourning.
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Apr 25, 2022 00:02
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Leng posted:I unironically would love for this to happen. Right? I feel like that person and that (totally invented by me) position are made for each other. Or alternately, Saze and Steris working together - Organization and Harmony investing the same planet? Sign me up. But I think that would be too nice and thus Mistborn Future would just be people chilling and then getting Alderaaned by Odium's Death Star or whatever big bad decides Scadrial looks juicy. And I'm pretty sure that's not what happens since Scadrians are out colonizing the galaxy by Sixth of the Dusk. Ah, well, a boy can dream. In order to avoid turning the thread entirely into spoiler bars, I'm on my first re-read of Stormlight after doing the full Cosmere readthrough and JESUS do I understand everything so much better now. Words of Radiance is actually comprehensible. I feel like Oathbreaker and RoW will still be a little opaque, probably by design. But with unfettered Coppermind access to fill me in about everyone's secret identities, I will understand this poo poo, by God. It does kind of bug me how much critical information is confirmed, identified, or hinted at outside the actual books - like, okay, I'll read these huge-rear end novels with a thousand unsolved mysteries, fine, but could you at least keep most of the clues in them instead of writing the stories assuming I have also pored over transcripts of your book signings, the chat from your live youtube streams, your unpublished novels from twenty years ago, and the loving notes you write to people in the books you sign? I don't think it's safe for one person to contain this much narrative. CK07 fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Apr 25, 2022 08:42
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I don't think people are expected to know all that stuff, it's just people eager to know so they ask Brandon and he reveals what's true before it comes up in the narrative
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Apr 25, 2022 10:55
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DarkHorse posted:I don't think people are expected to know all that stuff, it's just people eager to know so they ask Brandon and he reveals what's true before it comes up in the narrative I guess I hadn't thought of the timeline when it comes to the older stuff, you're right that a bunch of it appears in the narrative after a given question was asked. That's fair. I still feel like I wouldn't understand a vast quantity of aspects of the Cosmere without the external clarifying info, so maybe I'm just stupid, actually!
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Apr 25, 2022 10:58
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CK07 posted:I guess I hadn't thought of the timeline when it comes to the older stuff, you're right that a bunch of it appears in the narrative after a given question was asked. That's fair. I still feel like I wouldn't understand a vast quantity of aspects of the Cosmere without the external clarifying info, so maybe I'm just stupid, actually! Nah, we've only recently started getting to where a bunch of this stuff has started being revealed and relevant so it feels like you should know it, but a lot of it requires extremely close reading and knowledge across multiple series. Things like noticing a character's passing description matches a disguise a main character used once in an entirely different series
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Apr 25, 2022 11:57
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So I caved and read the Stormlight 5 prologue. Holy poo poo, it's good. I think it's not even the big revelations in there, but how well planned a lot of details are. Like Dalinar and co. were shocked to find out that Gavilar could write and read due to his dying message, but the readers "knew" that wasn't the case, because that dying message had been written by Szeth. But no, it turns out that Gavilar actually did know how to read and write! Or the thing with Gavilar telling Dalinar to follow the Codes, which was a good man and brother trying to get Dalinar to stop drinking. Except in reality it was a nudge to get him drunk and thus out of his way. And it makes sense, since we had tiny hints in Words of Radiance already that Gavilar might not have been the good king everybody thought, with much bigger hints appearing in Oathbringer, and Rhythm of War's prologue revealing his true character. It's also great to compare and contrast both Dalinar and Gavilar learning to read. In Gavilar's case, it's part of him being a faithless person who's only interested in his own immortality and glory, and couldn't care less about Vorin teachings except for the fact that publicly violating them would reduce his power. In Dalinar's case, it's part of his disillusionment with Vorinism, and partial rejection of some of it's teachings, while still searching for a higher power to believe in, and still holding to virtues he holds sacred. And Dalinar openly reveals his ability to read and write as part of his desire to reform and better Vorinism, while for Gavilar it's a tool he employs in secret to further his power. To go to the big revelations, namely that the Stormfather might have searched for a replacement Herald, and that he lied to Gavilar. It's interesting what that promises to Dalinar, since if the Stormfather is still trying to make another Herald, and has reluctantly settled on Dalinar after his failure with Gavilar, then there are suddenly two factions that want to make Dalinar immortal. And depending on how the Stormfather is manipulating Dalinar (if he is manipulating Dalinar), it's possible that even with Dalinar winning the Contest of Champions, he might end up as an immortal cognitive shadow. And temporarily sane Ishar saying the has a way to reset the Oathpact lends credence to the "new Heralds" plan. The old Heralds obviously can't be counted on to for anything, they are far too broken and insane. If a reforged Oathpact works like the original, the new Heralds would also need to hide on Braize and then withstand torture to prevent the Fused from returning, provided the heroes can deal with the Everstorm. Shalash and co. probably would do a very bad job of hiding on Braize, and would likely break instantly the moment torture began, so new Heralds seem like a necessity in a reforged Oathpact. Honor created the original Heralds, and the Stormfather has inherited much of Honor's essence, powers and authority. Syl said "Your [Dalinar's] abilities are what made the original Oathpact. [...] A Bondsmith Connected the Heralds to Braize, made them immortal, and locked our enemies away. A Bondsmith bound other Surges and brought humans to Roshar, fleeing their dying world." That Bondsmith was surely Ishar himself. And so, with Dalinar's abilities as a Bondsmith, and the Stormfather's inheritance of much of Honor, it would make sense that they would be able to reforge the Oathpact and make new Heralds. It's also interesting to note that while Honor was alive, the Heralds holding their Honorblades had unlimited access to Stormlight through their direct connection to Honor. And now the Stormfather's Bondsmith can renew spheres and grant access to stormlight, an ability that Bondsmiths before Honor's death did not have. It's fun to speculate about the Stormfather's actions since bonding Dalinar. Did he lie to Dalinar? Withholding the information that he wants to make Dalinar another Herald, if that is actually his goal, wouldn't be out of character for him. He held back his knowledge about both the Heralds in general (their torture on Braize, them beginning to break ever sooner, Talenel being left behind and the rest abandoning the Oathpact), as well as details about the Recreance. He's also not been terribly helpful in regards to Dalinar trying to figure out his abilities, which I personally interpreted as normal spren behavior, but might be seen in a different light after reading the SA5 prologue. I do wonder how sinister we are supposed to think the Stormfather is. What we can tell is that he lied about the Heralds being alive on Roshar. How far along was their relationship by then, had he already begun to distrust Gavilar and was trying to limit the fallout of his decision to make Gavilar into a new Herald? Then it would be understandable that he lied. It seems oddly pointless to lie otherwise, Gavliar clearly knew that the Heralds went insane in time, and thinks about having a thousand years to solve this problem. So it's not a case of lying about the identity of the Heralds in order to hide that all of them were mentally broken for fear of discouraging Gavilar from becoming a new Herald. What other reason would be to lie to Gavilar then? Of course there is the possibility that it's Ishar instead who's masquerading as the Stormfather. And there are some clues that this could be true, what with "physically" appearing to Gavilar, granting visions without a highstorm occuring, instantly knowing when a Herald died, and lying about the Heralds being on Roshar, which would be much more understandable if it were done to hide his own presence on the planet. But where would Ishar have gotten the visions from? I think Connection could have been used to give Gavilar those visions, but he still would have to have received them beforehand. Unless Gavilar gets different visions. We only see the one vision, and it's a scene that Ishar obviously was present in. He had moved on before Kalak met Jezrien and left his blade, but Ishar had seen the other Honorblades before, so crafting this specific vision might not have been outside of his powers. And Connection fuckery might have enabled him to appear as the Stormfather to Gavilar. But it would still be a strange coincidence that he had shown Gavilar a vision that was very similar to one the Stormfather would later show Dalinar. Which might be too much of a coincidence, which brings us back to the real visions and the question how Ishar would have obtained them. And while I can't find the passage again, I'm pretty sure the Stormfather said he had shown the visions to Gavilar before. So while the theory of Ishar pretending to be the Stormfather is somewhat plausible, I still think it's wrong and it's the real Stormfather speaking to Gavilar. Which is overall the more intriguing plot imho, which makes it even more likely to be true. In a way, I think the Stormfather would in any case be wise to not reveal too much to his Bondsmith. Honor limited the order's powers when he was alive, but now they have unrestricted access to their powers. And given the example of Ashyn, the Stormfather is likely right to be wary of an unrestrained Bondsmith. So I'm judging his actions so far to be relatively benign. And truth to be told, from an overall perspective, tricking people to become new Heralds would probably pass muster if you followed utilitarianism. If the Stormfather had achieved his goal before the coming of the Everstorm, it would have delayed the next Desolation, and likely would have avoided the Final Desolation for some time. Perhaps that's why he's no longer mentioning the "become a Herald" thing to Dalinar, because with the Everstorm active, creating new Heralds wouldn't fix anything right away. They would only become useful once the Everstorm is gone. And Dalinar winning the Contest of Champions might make reforging the Oathpact superfluous anyway. Or such a win could mean an end to the Everstorm, enabling the Oathpact of trapping the Fused on Braize again. But it would mean an end of hostilities regardless, which makes a new Oathpact superfluous again. In any way, there's a lot to think and speculate about in the prologue, it's a great bit of writing by Sanderson again. As I wrote before, I'm really hyped about SA5. But finishing Mistborn Era 2 this year will also be great. Especially since Harmony implied to Wit that he had found his "sword" that "can both protect and kill", which most people think refers to Wax. Mistborn Era 2 is set after the first half of Stormlight Archive books, but it might be set before the back half, in which case Wax might make an appearance in the later Stormlight books. But even apart from that, with the Ghostbloods and Thaidakar playing a significant role in the Stormlight Archive storyline, it will be good to finish the current Mistborn era to learn more about them.
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Apr 27, 2022 16:36
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That was an interesting and insightful post about the prologue, thanks for your thoughts. I definitely gained an increasing sense of concern as I read the prologue, specifically regarding whether that was actually the Stormfather talking to Gavilar - the differences in behavior and affect are pretty drat distinct. It felt very Ruin-as-Kelsier, but if Ruin were at Odium levels of scheming. It seems obviously written with the intention to seed suspicion on that front, so I hesitate to draw conclusions when I feel in my very bones that there is either a triple-backflip 360 no-scope fakeout or a pile of shredded Gordian knot remains waiting in the wings. But I enjoyed your theorizing!
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Apr 27, 2022 17:57
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Really digging your thoughts on Gavilar and Dalinar. Reminds me of why Dalinar is my favorite character. Wild speculation: It's been a while, but it's still stuck in my mind how "unite them" kept being a recurring theme for Dalinar. It didn't come up much in RoW, so maybe it's not going to come back, but an end game Dalinar becoming Honor + reuniting multiple shards into Honor/Odium/maybe more, maybe becoming the new Adonalsium, etc. still seems like a possibility to me. Though probably after Dalinar is the general of Odium in a cosmere wide war of two major shard groups. With the stormfather lying I wonder if it's something that will be edited to be less of a lie and more of a spren halftruth kindof thing.
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Apr 27, 2022 20:05
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What's the consensus on the Skyward series? Haven't really followed Sanderson's side projects in a while but catching a flight tomorrow and need something to read. I love Mistborn and Stormlight, but wasn't a huge fan of the Reckoners, read too much like YA fiction.
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Apr 28, 2022 01:57
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Theli posted:What's the consensus on the Skyward series? Haven't really followed Sanderson's side projects in a while but catching a flight tomorrow and need something to read. I haven't read it but Skyward is explicitly YA fiction
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Apr 28, 2022 02:30
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Skyward is much better than Reckoners imo. The inter team relationships are much better written. The romance also isn’t painful to read.
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Apr 28, 2022 02:49
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Skyward is pretty YA but it's fun. The second and third books repeat story arcs a little bit, but they're short and fun so it doesn't really matter.
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Apr 28, 2022 03:00
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I enjoyed the first Skyward book more than any of his other books. It's tightly plotted, inventive, and full of wonder. I made it halfway through the sequel because it was none of those things. I might finish it later, but it seemed like a quickly knocked out workshop for Shallan chapters.
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Apr 28, 2022 04:33
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Theli posted:What's the consensus on the Skyward series? Haven't really followed Sanderson's side projects in a while but catching a flight tomorrow and need something to read. Skyward is YA but I think the first book is one of his best novels. The sequels and the spin-off novellas are fine but don't live up to Skyward. Defiant comes out next year so we'll see if he can land the Sanderlanch. I'm really hard pressed to think of an example where he hasn't, and the closest would have to be Cytonic (Skyward 3).
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Apr 28, 2022 09:22
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I guess I'm not up to date on Skyward, but what the heck is a Boomslug? as seen on Sanderson's store page
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Apr 28, 2022 15:42
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Sab669 posted:I guess I'm not up to date on Skyward, but what the heck is a Boomslug? as seen on Sanderson's store page Just another type of slug. They've become kind of a mascot for Sanderson. That one sends out psi-blades that cut things.
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Apr 28, 2022 16:03
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Hahaha yessss the neighbors across the street from my finally confirmed they're the ones who named their networks Bridge 4 and Stormfather. One of them saw me walking my dog earlier and flagged me down to ask if I had named my network shadesmar and we got into a quick convo about all the books we've read and he's gone to a few Sanderson signings and went "all in" on the Kickstarter. Sounds like I need to read the book series with the slugs in it too, his teenagers and my young girls did some chalk drawings in the street a while back and I didn't know but they drew some of the slugs. What series is that? Is that the YA one? Is it in the cosmere?
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Apr 29, 2022 19:55
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Louisgod posted:Hahaha yessss the neighbors across the street from my finally confirmed they're the ones who named their networks Bridge 4 and Stormfather. One of them saw me walking my dog earlier and flagged me down to ask if I had named my network shadesmar and we got into a quick convo about all the books we've read and he's gone to a few Sanderson signings and went "all in" on the Kickstarter. Sounds like I need to read the book series with the slugs in it too, his teenagers and my young girls did some chalk drawings in the street a while back and I didn't know but they drew some of the slugs. What series is that? Is that the YA one? Is it in the cosmere? Skyward. And no.
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Apr 29, 2022 19:57
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Sad they didn't do Rithmatist drawings (where chalk sketches come to life) That's another YA one that's not in the Cosmere
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Apr 29, 2022 20:40
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