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Anshu posted:It might! But remember that Heralds told everyone that they had achieved permanent victory on Roshar and there would be no more cycle of Desolations, and that the Radiants had just defeated the False Desolation by imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram; the Orders had good reason to believe their powers were no longer necessary to protect the world and its people, and then learned that their powers might pose some kind of long-term danger. Safer to just abandon their powers altogether—especially since nobody seems to have realized that imprisoning BAM would force spren into becoming deadeyes once the Radiant Bonds were broken. We also saw in Rhythm of War that Honor used to place some sort of restriction on what you could do with the honorblades when he was around so it could make sense that the radiant system might have had a similar effect.
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Dec 30, 2023 13:36
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Ethiser posted:We also saw in Rhythm of War that Honor used to place some sort of restriction on what you could do with the honorblades when he was around so it could make sense that the radiant system might have had a similar effect. more ROW discussion: yeah even if not the same kind of restrictions, the oath system is literally a restriction. not perfect, since you can probably sincerely swear the oaths while literally being at war with other people who've also sworn the oaths, but it is a baseline of conduct enforced by pieces of the gods giving you powers eke out fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 15:37
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Louisgod posted:I’m trying to get my buddy who got me into Sanderson to finish the last three Secret Projects, it’s kinda funny I’m ahead of him at this point. We’re all playing D&D next weekend so I plan to give him crap. My got me into Sanderson buddy hasn't even started MB era 2, let alone the secret projects, even though I bought it for him like a year ago on Kindle.
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Dec 30, 2023 15:58
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I thought the new Stormlight book was coming out this month, turns out it was December 2024, that explains why there was so little buzz.
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Dec 30, 2023 17:10
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Finished Yumi, overall I enjoyed it about as much as I did Tress. I was really into it from the yoki-hijo in the shroud to the confrontation with the scholars. I liked the ideas presented at the end, but I didn't care for the Xenogears last act narrator info dump. It would have been so much better if Yumi and Painter had continued to figure it out naturally. Also, what was up with that yoki-hijo in the shroud? Was she another one that had escaped her groundhog day prison but had got lost without a Painter equivalent to "anchor" her?
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Dec 30, 2023 20:16
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Just read Words of Radiance in 5 days. Onto Oathbringer!
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Dec 31, 2023 08:11
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virinvictus posted:Just read Words of Radiance in 5 days. Onto Oathbringer! That's it?? No thoughts or anything?? What the hell?? These Words are not accepted.
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Dec 31, 2023 20:27
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pik_d posted:That's it?? No thoughts or anything?? What the hell?? These Words are not accepted.
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Dec 31, 2023 21:00
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I am a stick.
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Dec 31, 2023 21:28
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virinvictus posted:Just read Words of Radiance in 5 days. Onto Oathbringer! I think there's a decent consensus that the flashbacks in Oathbringer are the best execution of that narrative device. I'd love to hear your reactions as the book goes through them.
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Dec 31, 2023 22:08
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Thoughts on Words of Radiance: - a great continuation of the story threads started in way of kings. favourite character currently is dalinar. In way of kings, favourite was Jasnah. - i found myself constantly frustrated with Kaladin and his constant focus on amaram. I get it. I do. But he fumbled everything every time he saw the man! When he challenged Amaram to the duel after saving Adolin- UGH! First time I’ve yelled at a book in years. - Suddenly everyone around Kaladin is turning Radiant and idk how I feel about that. It feels less… special? - these ghostbloods and this diagram… I feel are connected. The mysteriousness around this whole area of the world has me completely stumped. They don’t mind that Shallan is involved with the Knights… what does it mean? - when wit was talking to jasnah, I found myself squealing in excitement… but then… why hide? Why send no word to Shallan? To Dalinar? - I wonder how people will feel when sseth shows back up… There is so much going on. I devoured through Way of Kings in November and the first two Mistborn books. Finished Mistborn Era 1 and Words of Radiance this month. I don’t see how the universe is connected yet…
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Dec 31, 2023 23:35
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virinvictus posted:Thoughts on Words of Radiance: Gotta admit I never though about Kaladin being less special when his bridge crew started showing powers. I love people having powers and want everyone to have powers. Give all our friends powers! I do agree with your final point, but I think when I read that the Stormlight Archive was "The crossover series" I read more into that, thinking it was going to be some kind of MCU ensemble cast, when it's not quite that. A lot is happening in the background (and off page), and you can catch things if you've read more of the Cosmere, but it's not always going to be in your face. Sometimes it will be though!
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Jan 1, 2024 02:50
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Rhythm of War Part 5 (Chapter 98-117 & Epilogue) Finished the book over the past two days, and my word it stuck the landing. More happened than I expected with the Tower, and less happened than I expected in Shadesmar, but overall it was great. Loved it. El feels very much "next big-bad" to me. He's a new Fused and he's special because he doesn't have the Rhythms so he's mysterious. He's got "Odium's strongest Lieutenant" vibes to me. I was confused about his epigraphs being "on the first of the Final Ten Days" until I got to Dalinar and Odium's agreement, so that's absolutely terrifying now. I am honestly glad that Dalinar didn't go with Wit's plan. In effect it just kicked the can down the road 1000 years in the best case, and that's not what this story is about. On the other hand, ten days to prepare? Dalinar isn't ready, and I'm sure we're all wondering how he's going to get ready in that time. There's clearly Ishi who can show him some things, so long as he's sane for long enough. And then Dalinar has to somehow deal with (internally or not) what Ishi was doing with those spren corpses, which should have been impossible. I do like Dalinar asking Jasnah to write in some undertexts for Oathbringer and I hope we get those as epigraphs in Winds and Truth. Navani was probably the first star of the show for me. She pulled the rug out from under Raboniel with the pain trap, though had too give her a mercy killing later. She also had the Sibling tell her she wasn't worthy and basically said "yes I am" and "you want to live too, idiot". I really loved the sort of "I can see everything" moment when she could feel the Tower and all the fabrial work within it. I've been on Navani to become Bondsmith for a while now, I'm so glad it finally happened. I'm really curious to see how Navani and the Sibling work together to replace all the fabrials that use captured spren. I imagine getting their permission (though most of those spren aren't the intelligent kind) would help, as opposed to using corpses and captured spren. The worst part of this book's ending was obviously Moash and everything surrounding him. Worst in a good way though, like, he's there to hate. Maybe feel pity, but mostly hate, especially after murdering Phendorana and then Teft, both of whom were defenseless against his attacks. And then when he had his emotions back he only cared about how he felt. That little passage is what cements it. He couldn't apologize to Teft because he wasn't actually sorry. Him being blind though, that feels important in a literary sense that I haven't quite wrapped my head around. He's blind to how wrong he is? He's blind to the pain he's caused? gently caress him though. Kaladin was obviously the other star, finally achieving the Fourth Ideal. I was so upset last book when he didn't get it then, to finally see it happen is just so cathartic. And I was right about it too, it is about accepting he can't save everyone, and does give Shardplate (though that was already confirmed). I loved that he could Command his Shardplate to guard others, cool little trick I didn't see coming. I also didn't see him actually jumping after "failing" to save Teft. The Connection that Dalinar formed between Kaladin and Tien was pretty wild. I sorta thought that when people passed to the Spiritual Realm their "self" would evaporate away, since that should be in the Cognitive Realm? Either way he saved Lirin, who may be coming around to realizing that his ultra-pacifism isn't the way, thank gently caress. I thought it was pretty great how easily Kaladin and Navani cleaned house once the two of them said their Ideals. Lift is OK and stealing food again! And recovered her red chicken (Aviar) off screen! I guess even books this big don't have enough pages to give everyone a POV. Venli got some closure in some things, but still has some way to go. She wasn't quite the Bridge she needs to be yet. Yes, Leshwi saw her bond and basically burst into tears of joy that the spren (well some of them) have forgiven the singers/listeners (well... some of them too), but I think the Bridge has to bet between the listeners and humans, not just between listeners and spren. I had also hoped, that when Venli was originally running away, that she'd deicde to come back to help. She was forced back due to the Highstorm. The best part of her POVs was returning to her mother, not only to help her, but to bring the lightspren to the Lost Legion. It won't be as scary if some Fused tracks them down if they're a whole group of Radiants. I do wonder though, if the Nahel Bond could help Jaxlim regain some sanity, could the same work for the Heralds? Nale seemed better than some of the others, but not completely sane, so I'm not sold on the idea but maybe they should try it! And Eshonai got to ride off into the sunset, a Radiant and having seen the world. That was very sweet, and for a brief second I wondered if she was going to be granted the same ability that Lezian the Defeated had, and maybe her corpse was actually just a Husk left behind. No such luck, but at least there's closure on her story. Rlain also got his Nahel Bond after being a bit jealous of Venli getting hers. I had Rlain on my shortlist for potential Nightwatcher Bondsmiths, but now I think Dabbid or Rock could end up with her. I thought it was fun that he took control of the situation, even commanding the Fused, I guess maybe he learned that from Kaladin? Feels very much like Kaladin ordering Adolin around during the rescue of Dalinar when Sadeas (gently caress Sadeas) betrayed him. I had thought, like Rlain, that he'd end up with that honorspren, or possibly become a squire of Venli, but Truthwatcher works too! I'm curious if he'll have trouble with his second Surge like Renarin does. With all of Navani's science concerning the differnt Lights, and the fact that Lift uses Lifelight, I wonder if the corrupted spren of Sja-anat mean that their bonded Radiant's will need to use Voidlight for some of their Surges? Venli can use both, but I don't think Timbre is corrupted, but Rlain should try both either way. Shallan hit back at Mraize hard, and made a very powerful enemy. And Thaidakar is the "Lord of scars" according to Wit, which feels very much like a Kelsier "scars on my hands" thing to be called. With the Ghostblood connection to Scadrial, I'm pretty sure about that one, guess I'll find out in The Lost Metal? I guess I had hoped that Shallan would have been able to help Testament a bit quicker. Pattern said a long time ago that maybe if the Deadeye's Radiant was still around they could be healed. I still think it's happening and would love to see Shallan have two Nahel Bonds, just like I'd love to see Adolin and Maya form the Nahel Bond. And Shallan has a seon, I would love for someone on Sel to call her up out of the blue at some point. Or someone from the Ire. One thing I really did not see coming was Taravangian using Nightblood himself to kill Rayse. I honestly thought Taravangian had one foot in the grave and was a goner. But holy poo poo, Rayse got absolutely loving demolished, Nightblood had his first good mean in probably decades and was actually satiated. gently caress that was funny. But Taravangian becoming Odium was less funny. I'd honestly have preferred Szeth do it, but hey, this is interesting if nothing else. I do think Cultivation may have slightly miscalculated on this one though. Maybe not in the long term assuming the whole series ends on a good note, but Taravangian seems to have his full mental capacity back, and that's terrifying. Also terrifying is that Taravangian easily played Wit in the epilogue. He deleted some of Wit's memory and got to redo the conversation, though with him destroying some of Wit's Breaths, I feel like he's eventually got to realize it? He immediately noticed his Perfect Pitch (only the second Heightening) was off, so I feel like he's gotta figure it out at some point? Going forward, I'm really worried about Dalinar choosing himself as his Champion. He's such a baby Bondsmith as proven by Ishi. He might still be only at his Second Ideal. And he's got ten days? As I said, the whole "Last Ten Days" seems pretty terrifying and ominous. Though it would be absolutely hilarious if Winds and Truth took place over the course of ten days. That would be a huge shift from previous SA books. I guess we'll have to see! There's also the bigger picture though, of Taravangian turning an eye towards the Cosmere as a whole. So many of the other Shards have been shattered, Sazed is a new Shard who has his own problems with holding two opposing Shards, and whatever else is going on that I don't even know about yet. I wonder if the second half of the SA is going to be about that greater battle, truly dragging the whole Cosmere into war. Progress so far: 
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Jan 1, 2024 02:53
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Nm spoilers broke
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Jan 1, 2024 04:04
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Tokelau All Star posted:Finished Yumi, overall I enjoyed it about as much as I did Tress. Just finished Yumi last night and I loved it. I was kinda hoping Sanderson would stick with the sad ending but I know he can’t, his endings are generally always bittersweet or happy in some capacity. The yoki-hino in the shroud also confused me.. I’m guessing she’s one who “retired” or at least was alluded to early on about having broken away from the conservative life? I could’ve sworn there were 16 at one point but in the end I thought they mentioned 14 but I could be wrong. The ending exposition dump was a bit annoying too though it felt more like fan service than anything, with Hoid pulling back the cosmere curtain a tad as reward for finishing the book. I’m also still confused about the magic system.. it seems very similar to Warbreaker’s yet also not? Is it purely fueled by Intent? Regardless, easily one of my favorite cosmere books yet.
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Jan 2, 2024 17:14
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Rhythm of War chap 114 With so many people reading and posting about it, I went and reread a bit myself. Its pretty easy to convince myself how SA5 will end. Cultivation says: “I didn’t,” she said. “I couldn’t. You were heading this direction—all I could do was hope that if you succeeded, my gift would work. That I had changed you into someone who could bear this power with honor.” which is in a vacuum generic fantasy wording but Cosmere aware you'd read it as *with Honor* aka War, which very much points to War vs Harmony and the other shards Rayse hinted at the chapter prior.
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Jan 2, 2024 17:31
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M_Gargantua posted:Rhythm of War chap 114 With so many people reading and posting about it, I went and reread a bit myself. Its pretty easy to convince myself how SA5 will end. Cultivation says: “I didn’t,” she said. “I couldn’t. You were heading this direction—all I could do was hope that if you succeeded, my gift would work. That I had changed you into someone who could bear this power with honor.” which is in a vacuum generic fantasy wording but Cosmere aware you'd read it as *with Honor* aka War, which very much points to War vs Harmony and the other shards Rayse hinted at the chapter prior. Cosmere fan theory spoilers It really does seem to be setting up War vs. Discord given what we know of late-stage Cosmere geopolitics given Scadrial and Roshar are known antagonists
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Jan 2, 2024 17:36
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DarkHorse posted:Cosmere fan theory spoilers It really does seem to be setting up War vs. Discord given what we know of late-stage Cosmere geopolitics given Scadrial and Roshar are known antagonists
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Jan 5, 2024 05:23
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M_Gargantua posted:Rhythm of War chap 114 With so many people reading and posting about it, I went and reread a bit myself. Its pretty easy to convince myself how SA5 will end. Cultivation says: “I didn’t,” she said. “I couldn’t. You were heading this direction—all I could do was hope that if you succeeded, my gift would work. That I had changed you into someone who could bear this power with honor.” which is in a vacuum generic fantasy wording but Cosmere aware you'd read it as *with Honor* aka War, which very much points to War vs Harmony and the other shards Rayse hinted at the chapter prior.
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Jan 5, 2024 14:24
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Infinite Karma posted:My fan theory is that when Dalinar keeps hearing "Unite them," it means uniting the splintered pieces of Honor and restoring it to an actual whole shard which tracks with yours as an endgame. I just finished a re-read of Oathbringer and 1/4 through RoW I'm noticing a LOT more instances of items like listening to the rhythm of Roshar, lots of referencing the Rhythms associated to Odium/Honor/Cultivation. I honestly think Dalinar is being told to Unite Honor as well but I suspect he'll fail
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Jan 5, 2024 17:27
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Currently a quarter of the way through Oathbringer. A lot of stuff being introduced in this one. I’m reading this one slower cuz I’m working on site for two weeks so I don’t have any free time but reading a couple chapters every day. There are so many questions that are floating in the air that I’m biting my lip waiting for an answer for. No longer annoyed about all of the radiants suddenly since it now appears that Bridgemen lost the ability since Kaladin is out with the Parshendi runaways… but then I’m wondering why they were able to in the first place. Man, what a series. I haven’t felt this way about a book since I was in jail reading through Stephen King’s library of work.
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Jan 5, 2024 17:32
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Langolas posted:I just finished a re-read of Oathbringer and 1/4 through RoW It feels like it would take a Dawnshard to mend a splintered shard. Rysn muses in chapter 19 of Dawnshard: “The will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better. The power to change.”
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Jan 6, 2024 02:30
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Words of Radiance: Kaladin getting his rear end kicked by Zahel and Adolin while Renarin repeatedly faceplants in the background is incredible comedy. Book owns.
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Jan 6, 2024 05:28
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funkymonks posted:It feels like it would take a Dawnshard to mend a splintered shard. Rysn muses in chapter 19 of Dawnshard: attitude adjuster
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Jan 6, 2024 06:11
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What do folks here think the end state of the Cosmere is? Do all the shards get recombined? Does God decide to gently caress off to a new universe and leave everyone to make their own destiny? How does this square with Brandon’s own spirituality, since many have pointed out that he’s writing books in part to explore his personal belief system?
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Jan 6, 2024 06:19
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Grundulum posted:What do folks here think the end state of the Cosmere is? Do all the shards get recombined? Does God decide to gently caress off to a new universe and leave everyone to make their own destiny? How does this square with Brandon’s own spirituality, since many have pointed out that he’s writing books in part to explore his personal belief system? I mean, in the way, the Cosmere is a much darker take on the Mormon afterlife, right? I remember hearing that an aspect of the Mormon afterlife is the good Mormons get to go be the god of their own Earth. I think? That's basically what every shard is doing, except they shattered God to do so. Which, I guess is certainly more anime and  No idea what the endgame is. One thing I do hope is that Hoid never really becomes the Cosmere "main protag" because he's already leaning a little too much toward "the author's favorite perfect little golden boy original character do not steal."
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Jan 6, 2024 06:47
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Mordiceius posted:One thing I do hope is that Hoid never really becomes the Cosmere "main protag" because he's already leaning a little too much toward "the author's favorite perfect little golden boy original character do not steal."
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Jan 6, 2024 07:09
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CapnAndy posted:Well then you're going to hate my guess, because it's "Hoid's been a human incarnation of Adonalsium all along and ends by recombining all the Shards to become himself again". Somewhere along the way, he gets really into skeeball.
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Jan 6, 2024 07:15
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Finished Mistborn era 1 and really enjoyed it. The payoffs at the end was extremely satisfying. I have started The Way of Kings and it's way up my alley. I would like to be ready for Stormlight 5, but don't want to burn out or just have my reading be all Sanderson this year. Am I good to go if I just do Stormlight 1-4 and Mistborn era 2 between now and December? I'm sure I'll fill the rest out in the coming years, but doing the whole Cosmere this year seems daunting. 81sidewinder fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Jan 6, 2024 |
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Jan 6, 2024 22:42
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81sidewinder posted:Finished Stormlight era 1 and really enjoyed it. The payoffs at the end was extremely satisfying. Stormlight 5 isn't out now, so we have no idea which other Sanderson book might be important  But so far, Warbreaker and Mistborn are the only ones I'd consider strongly recommended, and Mistborn only after Oathbringer. So you should be good with Mistborn and Stormlight 1-4 (and Warbreaker).
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Jan 6, 2024 22:48
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I'm assuming they mean that they finished Mistborn era 1.
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Jan 6, 2024 22:58
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81sidewinder posted:Am I good to go if I just do Stormlight 1-4 and Mistborn era 2 between now and December? I'm sure I'll fill the rest out in the coming years, but doing the whole Cosmere this year seems daunting. Stormlight 1-4 and Mistborn Eras 1 and 2 make up majority of the Cosmere at this point. Outside of those two, the remaining full novels are: Elantris, Warbreaker, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Sunlit Man. Essentially, the current state of the Cosmere is 7 Mistborn novels, 4 Stormlight novels, 5 standalone novels, and a bunch of novellas.
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Jan 6, 2024 23:02
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Edgedancer and Dawnshard are novellas, but definitely act like Stormlight Archive 2.5 and Stormlight Archive 3.5, respectively.
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Jan 6, 2024 23:03
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funkymonks posted:It feels like it would take a Dawnshard to mend a splintered shard. Rysn muses in chapter 19 of Dawnshard: Re-reading Dawnshard is in queue after RoW and I definitely agree. I'm kinda excited to see what I pick up this time since I read Dawnshard the night it came out straight through. My current re-reads I'm picking up a LOT more that I either glossed over/missed/forgot about. Maybe Ill go re-read the first 2 Stormlight books again, I havent done that since before Oathbringer came out.
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Jan 6, 2024 23:06
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Mordiceius posted:I'm assuming they mean that they finished Mistborn era 1. I did, edited to clarify. Thanks for the guidance, folks.
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Jan 6, 2024 23:13
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If you like The Way of Kings you’re in for a good time, it is the worst Stormlight book.
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Jan 6, 2024 23:24
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CapnAndy posted:If you like The Way of Kings you’re in for a good time, it is the worst Stormlight book. Why do you say that when RoW isright there
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Jan 6, 2024 23:32
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You’re both wrong, the worst book in the Stormlight Archive is The Book of Endless Pages. No plot, just goes on forever.
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Jan 7, 2024 00:12
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Ojjeorago posted:You’re both wrong, the worst book in the Stormlight Archive is The Book of Endless Pages. No plot, just goes on forever. I like the story of Brandon wanting to use that for one of the Stormlight titles but his editors were like "ehhhh that may be too on the nose when you're writing 1200 page books."
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Jan 7, 2024 00:48
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CapnAndy posted:Well then you're going to hate my guess, because it's "Hoid's been a human incarnation of Adonalsium Hoid was a normal human birthed pre-shattering so there's about a 0% chance this is accurate, considering he was a key player in the Shattering itself CapnAndy posted:If you like The Way of Kings you’re in for a good time, it is the worst Stormlight book. I used to think you were a good poster but this is the worst opinion I've ever read
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Jan 7, 2024 01:17
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