|
Wolpertinger posted:I don't think that the Diagram faction is going to end up as absolute 'bad guys' per se - Odium and his lackeys are obviously the true enemy. They're ruthless enough that they will probably end up opposing the main characters a lot, but in the end they too are trying to save the world, and not out of any greed or malice, and they have a plan written by what was possibly written by what was possibly the smartest person to ever exist in the entire cosmere who was at least partially informed by all the prophecies from the death rattles - there's a good chance that the Diagram will play a huge part in saving the world. Hell, in a way, their machinations that attempted to followed that pattern set up the events allowing Kaladin/Shallan/Dalinar to become Knights Radiant in the right place and the right time, and the Diagram even said that it would happen - It's possible that the people just following it weren't smart enough to fully understand what the plan in the Diagram was actually supposed to accomplish, and how. If I remember correctly, one of the chapter heads from the Diagram had something about "well who the gently caress is this wandering Hoid guy because whatever he's doing is way over all of our heads." I can see there being multiple groups that are all trying to beat Odium, but clash with each other along the way because the way the Radiants want to do it differ from the Diagram's plans which differ from Hoids plan which could very well involve destroying the world "for the greater good."
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 02:38 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:23 |
|
Walh Hara posted:Call me naive, but why do so many people assume that Taln doesn't have his honourblade anymore? Perhaps he simply bonded it and dismissed it? After all, in the prelude in WoK both Kalak and Jezerian summon their blade so they don't/shouldn't have to permanently lug it around unbounded. The Blade used to catch Amaran out (which Dalinar bonded to and started using) came along with Taln - that's where they got it. It should be an honorblade, but it doesn't match the physical description of Taln's Honorblade given earlier. Also, Dalinar hears screams coming from it after he bonds with the Stormfather, which shouldn't be the case if it was an Honorblade.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 03:39 |
|
Law Cheetah posted:The Blade used to catch Amaran out (which Dalinar bonded to and started using) came along with Taln - that's where they got it. It should be an honorblade, but it doesn't match the physical description of Taln's Honorblade given earlier. Also, Dalinar hears screams coming from it after he bonds with the Stormfather, which shouldn't be the case if it was an Honorblade. On that note, why didn't Amaram just grab the Honorblade and pretend-radiant with it? If he's part of some weird secret society venerating the Heralds, and he's willing to pretend to be a radiant for Dalinar (which was totally random), why not go all the way?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 03:46 |
|
Tunicate posted:SA 3 is apparently planned for late next year. Alloy of Law 2 is getting bumped back. The new order is rithmatist 2, SA 3, Alloy 2. You forgot Steelheart 2 which is the current novel that's being finished. And any short stories he tosses off on a long plane ride.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 03:46 |
|
Velius posted:On that note, why didn't Amaram just grab the Honorblade and pretend-radiant with it? If he's part of some weird secret society venerating the Heralds, and he's willing to pretend to be a radiant for Dalinar (which was totally random), why not go all the way? It is theorized that Wit switched the Honorblade with a normal Shardblade. Ending: Looks like Nightblood is called a Shardblade. I guess Shardblades are generic terms for weapons made of Splinters? I'm very excited for book 3 as it looks like the Radiants are going back the old people who knew them before they were Radiants. Kalladin going to his parents and Roshone and Laral. Shallan's brothers coming to her. Dalinar going back to Kholinar. It's one reason I liked The Shadow Rising so this will be exciting as well Also, after looking at how similar the word Kalladin is to Shallan and Dalinar (L, 2 A's,and N), no wonder people think Kalladin is a light eye's name.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 04:07 |
|
This seems like a good time to mention that at the recent book signing I was at, Brandon did a reading from another series where bacteria and viruses have evolved to give people superpowers while they are sick to make themselves more likely to spread. No clue if it is Cosmere related. He also mentioned that White Sands is being turned into a graphic novel
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 04:09 |
|
L-O-N posted:It is theorized that Wit switched the Honorblade with a normal Shardblade. I'm pretty sure that he just calls it a Shardblade because an actual explanation of what Nightblood really is, where it is from, and how it got there would break Szeth's mind, and so he calls it by the name of the only magical swords that exist in that world.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 04:42 |
|
The Glumslinger posted:This seems like a good time to mention that at the recent book signing I was at, Brandon did a reading from another series where bacteria and viruses have evolved to give people superpowers while they are sick to make themselves more likely to spread. No clue if it is Cosmere related. Cool beans. That book's called Silence Divine, right? Any juicy Q&A?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 04:45 |
Wolpertinger posted:I'm pretty sure that he just calls it a Shardblade because an actual explanation of what Nightblood really is, where it is from, and how it got there would break Szeth's mind, and so he calls it by the name of the only magical swords that exist in that world. That and he himself is hardly the exemplar of sanity. Really all of the former Heralds seem to be mentally "lost" and not just the guy who had to suffer 4500 years of whatever passes for Hell on Roshar.
|
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 05:17 |
|
The Glumslinger posted:This seems like a good time to mention that at the recent book signing I was at, Brandon did a reading from another series where bacteria and viruses have evolved to give people superpowers while they are sick to make themselves more likely to spread. No clue if it is Cosmere related. I'm sure I've read something of that sort before. I mean, it is an interesting idea and can go a number of ways. Patrick Ness did it in the chaos walking series and I'm sure that isn't the only author to use that idea.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:02 |
|
Tunicate posted:Cool beans. That book's called Silence Divine, right? In terms of comsere info, not really. He did tell a hilarious about pranking a beta reader for The Gathering Storm. One of the readers hated Cadsuane, so he added in an extra scene to the epilogue where she revealed that she was a dark friend and then proceeded killed Rand and bring about victory for the Dark One, but only for that one guy. When they got to that chapter, he apparently freaked out and wrote a giant diatribe on the shared google docs thing they were using for the reviews. Everyone else thought he had gone completely insane.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:03 |
|
So obviously I now have to read the full cosmere. Warbreakers, Elantris, and Emperor's Soul are those I have yet to consume. Reading order?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:41 |
That order, of increase in quality.
|
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:42 |
|
api call girl posted:That order, of increase in quality. Agreed, but switch warbreaker and elantris.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:56 |
|
Tunicate posted:Agreed, but switch warbreaker and elantris. Listen to this guy. I thought Warbreaker was way better than Elantris. Ethiser fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Mar 9, 2014 |
# ? Mar 9, 2014 06:59 |
|
Élantris, Warbreaker and then E Soul
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 07:13 |
|
Ditto on Elantris, Warbreaker, Emperor's Soul.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 07:23 |
|
Seems we have a consensus. I'll definitely be caught up by SA3.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 07:48 |
|
Law Cheetah posted:The Blade used to catch Amaran out (which Dalinar bonded to and started using) came along with Taln - that's where they got it. It should be an honorblade, but it doesn't match the physical description of Taln's Honorblade given earlier. Also, Dalinar hears screams coming from it after he bonds with the Stormfather, which shouldn't be the case if it was an Honorblade. Yes, I agree entirely. Basically, there are 2 questions: - where did the unbounded cleaver-like shardblade come from? - where did the original honorblade Taln had go? I don't know the answer to the first question, but to me it seems like the answer to the second question could easily be that it didn't go anywhere, he just bonded it and dismissed it. Velius posted:On that note, why didn't Amaram just grab the Honorblade and pretend-radiant with it? If he's part of some weird secret society venerating the Heralds, and he's willing to pretend to be a radiant for Dalinar (which was totally random), why not go all the way? The blade Amaram grabbed was not a Honorblade.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 11:34 |
|
Velius posted:On that note, why didn't Amaram just grab the Honorblade and pretend-radiant with it? If he's part of some weird secret society venerating the Heralds, and he's willing to pretend to be a radiant for Dalinar (which was totally random), why not go all the way? I don't think anyone even knew Honorblades gave radiant powers except the Shin? Or that Taln had an Honorblade instead of a regular Shardblade?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 14:02 |
|
Velius posted:he's willing to pretend to be a radiant for Dalinar (which was totally random), why not go all the way? It's not random at all - Dalinar chose him because he's on of his strongest supporters and publicly has the best reputation in the army and is already considered a hero by some. He also at that point had no proof that Kaladin was telling the truth, so he believed that Amara could lead by example. And Amaran himself probably doesn't know all that much about the Heralds or Knights Radiant other than they were lighteyes favoured by his god. He wants to create a crisis to bring back the Heralds, but doesn't realize that 9 out of 10 of them were there the whole time, just in hiding and slightly insane apparently. He proably thinks being a lighteyes with a shardblade and plate is good enough to be a Knight Radiant
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 15:46 |
|
Walh Hara posted:Yes, I agree entirely. Basically, there are 2 questions: My guess is Hoid took the opportunity to steal the honorblade, and replaced it with a normal shardblade. He was *right there*, and has a habit of doing this.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 16:59 |
|
So only people with living spren as blades can have them change their shape/weapon? Do we know if honor-blades can change shape yet? Also did the swords and shard armor look straight up like samurai anime armor and the fact that pure light eyes would have black hair and blue eyes honestly make them sound more like anime characters. I want more horn-eaters in the book. Rock should become a Radiant of awesomeness.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 19:37 |
|
Holy poo poo I just finished the book (at 4am last night) Ahhhhh!!! szeth coming back pissed me off until I realized that Nin the herald had done it and then loving Nightblood! I need to reread Warbreaker now since I'm pretty sure Nightblood shares many aspects with share blades and would likely be able to feed off storm light just as it does breath since both are simply forms of investiture. Makes me wonder also if Nightblood was an "artificially created" spren. Perhaps it has more to do with spiritual realm vs cognitive realm stuff Jasnah surviving doesn't bother me since it hugged me how she went down like a chump in chapter 7. The big part of that plot development still occurred (Shallan being on her own) but now she's back, late to the party, and has to walk a few days with Wit who for once has questions himself. Everyone becoming a radiant was a little surprising, I'm very curious about Dalinar as a Bondsmith and I'm glad Adolin finally just killed Sadeas after 1000pages of taunting. I'm glad Kaladin manned up and finally kicked more rear end at the end, though the first time he flies halfway through was amazing to read treeboy fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Mar 9, 2014 |
# ? Mar 9, 2014 20:50 |
|
Wait wait wait. Shardplate has pockets? Edit: ahh, read the scene wrong. It was my mistake.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 20:50 |
|
More end of book thoughts Sadeas murder has me wondering if Adolin will become a Skybreaker. They're good at arguing (the epigraph suggested obstinately so) and based on Nin are far more concerned with justice than doing what's "right" like Windrunners. And his relationship with kaladin seems to fit the somewhat strained relationship they apparently had with the Windrunners
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 21:21 |
|
treeboy posted:More end of book thoughts The problem with that is he broke a law, and skybreakers hate people who do that.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 21:50 |
|
Superstring posted:I don't think anyone even knew Honorblades gave radiant powers except the Shin? Or that Taln had an Honorblade instead of a regular Shardblade? Well, the Parshendi did (from the Parshendi Excerpt: "They have surgebinders." "Maybe not. Could it have been an honorblade?") quote:szeth coming back pissed me off until I realized that Nin the herald had done it and then loving Nightblood! I need to reread Warbreaker now since I'm pretty sure Nightblood shares many aspects with share blades and would likely be able to feed off storm light just as it does breath since both are simply forms of investiture. Makes me wonder also if Nightblood was an "artificially created" spren. Perhaps it has more to do with spiritual realm vs cognitive realm stuff Cosmere spoilers: Spren are shards of Honor (although some are Honor/Cultivation), and so a shardblade is also a shard of Honor. In Warbreaker, Breath is a shard of Endowment, so Nightblood being a sword animated from breath makes Nightblood a sword which is also a shard. In Warbreaker Nightblood works slightly differently from shardblades - leaves blackened wounds, not burnt out eyes. But that could be just because of the way he was made, or because he's from a different shard of Adonalsium. Nightblood probably also has a big part to play in this. He was made to 'destroy evil' and handily, we've got Odium, which is just about as evil as Ruin.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 21:51 |
|
treeboy posted:More end of book thoughts Interesting interactions between the Windrunners and the Skybreakers. Third Ideal of the Windrunners is "I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right", the Ideals seem to become more restrictive as you go along, greater access to power from cleaving closer to the Sprens ethos. Now protecting the weak and what's right would seem like it could come into conflict with justice. So did Odium defeat the Knights Radiant by forcing their oaths to conflict with other Orders and the Recreance happened rather than fight a war?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 22:38 |
|
Tunicate posted:The problem with that is he broke a law, and skybreakers hate people who do that. and yet Szeth broke plenty of laws
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 22:54 |
|
Nin isn't concerned with justice, he's concerned with judgement. Bit of a difference.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 23:10 |
|
Fallorn posted:Also did the swords and shard armor look straight up like samurai anime armor There's a lot of variety with the swords- Dalinar's Oathbringer was huge with a loving hook on the end, Adolin's was wavy, Szeth's was thin and smaller than most.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 23:26 |
|
There's a Shallan sketch page with a bunch of Shardblades, none of them are ~hanzo steel~ I really liked the sketches in this book, they were all pretty good and I think they got just the right frequency. My favorite was Shallan studying how people walk with comments by Brightness Axeface . They're all up on Sanderson's site if you read on an e-reader or just want a better look at them.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2014 23:45 |
|
treeboy posted:and yet Szeth broke plenty of laws Superstring posted:Nin isn't concerned with justice, he's concerned with judgement. Bit of a difference. To go off of those Since Szeth was truthless, it could be argued that the only law he was beholden to was to obey whoever holds his oathstone. He did that, so from that point of view he didn't break any laws at all.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 00:07 |
|
Finished the book, loved it. I wish we didn't have to wait so long for book 3 Also based on some of the discussion on this page, is Emperor's Soul a cosmere book? I had assumed it was not but if it is then I'll have to track it down and read it.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 00:50 |
|
Notorious QIG posted:Finished the book, loved it. I wish we didn't have to wait so long for book 3 Yeah it is. Same world as elantris but a continent and thirty years away.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 00:53 |
|
HidaO-Win posted:Third Ideal of the Windrunners is "I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right", the Ideals seem to become more restrictive as you go along, greater access to power from cleaving closer to the Sprens ethos. I never got that impression that he swore the Third Ideal. I think that that still counts as the Second Ideal, "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." Kaladin lost contact with Syl when he broke that oath by deciding to help/let them kill the king. When he realized that protecting the King was the right thing to do and went back to do it without his powers, I think he had a chance to reswear the Second Ideal and renew his broken oath and that "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right" is just a rewording of it.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 01:10 |
|
Tunicate posted:Yeah it is. Same world as elantris but a continent and thirty years away. Oh poo poo, I didn't realize it was connected to any of his other stuff. Looks like I have some more reading to do before book 3!
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 01:31 |
|
Khizan posted:I never got that impression that he swore the Third Ideal. I think that that still counts as the Second Ideal, "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." Kaladin lost contact with Syl when he broke that oath by deciding to help/let them kill the king. When he realized that protecting the King was the right thing to do and went back to do it without his powers, I think he had a chance to reswear the Second Ideal and renew his broken oath and that "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right" is just a rewording of it. I can see both sides on this one, on the one hand, the scenario where he broke the oath and needed to reswear is plausible. On the other hand, the stricter oath he swore and the increased power indicates a deeper bond, which is why I felt Third Ideal. I'm also not sure he broke the oath, I thought he came close and the Stormfather separated Syl and Kaladin to stop her being "killed" by Kaladin breaking it. He then overcomes the separation by forcing a closer integration with Syl.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 01:41 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 05:23 |
|
treeboy posted:More end of book thoughts Can't quote it right now because 17th Shard isn't loading but somebody asked Brandon about this at a signing and he said that the Skybreakers probably wouldn't want him because he broke the law, but that other orders would think he did the right thing, like the Dustbringers.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2014 02:52 |