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Alright, just finished warbreaker (half-baked characters but cool magic system and setting) and have read all 6 mistborn books, Elantris, the 4 stormlight books, and random novellas and shorts. What else is there to read other than the rest of the short stories, for cosmere stuff?
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May 4, 2021 16:39
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mewse posted:You've covered all the complete novels. The cosmere collection has basically all of the short stories that are cosmere related. Secret history is pretty huge if you haven't read that yet. Stormlight archive novellas are pretty big too (edgedancer, dawnshard) Yep, I read secret history and dawnshard, my library loan ran out before I got to edgedancer though. Thanks! Sounds like I can fairly safely wade into reading spoilers now.
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May 4, 2021 16:59
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Torrannor posted:Post your impressions/thoughts about books or characters or plotlines, we're always super interested in reading those! I read everything in the last six months or so, so it should be fresh. I’ll give it a shot tonight. Edit: one book review down, 11 more to go. will post when i'm done Lawnie fucked around with this message at 05:36 on May 5, 2021 |
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May 4, 2021 17:35
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“Hold on I just need to finish this banana really quick and then I’ll be able to shoot lasers out of my eyes.” -Mistborn era 3 protagonist, probably
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May 15, 2021 16:17
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Dalinar is a chosen one, given the word of god in book form directly, and leads his tribe on a journey to their mythical promised land. He’s basically Joseph Smith
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Jan 8, 2022 22:55
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eke out posted:if you think dalinar was ever given the word of any kind of capital-G God in book form you may have missed a great deal of plot Well I never did say capital-G god which I would have if I meant it. The guy has seemingly mystical visions of the past, and based on them leads the alethi, who if I remember correctly follow a religion sometimes considered strange to their geographic contemporaries, to urithiru, a place supposedly central to their ability to survive impending apocalypse. At least through the first couple of novels the plot as revealed through Dalinar’s POV chapters seemed to share some similarities to me. Stories don’t have to have literal 1:1 analogues to read them as interacting with each other. In fact, subverting expectations established through references to other texts is a perfectly common writing device and mode of rhetorical analysis, and it’s patently absurd not to expect a practicing Mormon to be influenced by his own holy books. You don’t have to agree with my interpretation but I also wasn’t exactly trying to speak literally, but I probably didn’t convey that very well in my post. Lawnie fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jan 9, 2022 |
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Jan 9, 2022 02:47
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eke out posted:your post was that he was "given the word of god in book form directly, and leads his tribe on a journey to their mythical promised land" and you have already dramatically retreated from that bad take and are trying to pretend you didn't say those things lol Half of your middle paragraph there are bog-standard critiques of organized religion, and yes, Dalinar does turn out to be horribly, tragically wrong in thinking that he’s receiving divine missives directly! What might the author be saying about the nature of self-professed prophets?? Yeah, when someone writes a fictitious story about a religious person leading a nation state out of persecution or to a promised land, there is necessarily a rhetorical relationship between that character and Moses! This time I am being literal: the Old Testament and the Torah are the most widely read texts in the history of humanity and are thus hugely influential. The works of Shakespeare are similar in influence if not as dramatic and specifically limited to English, for the most part. But if you’re reading a story written in English in the last 300 years about two young lovers kept apart by politics, possibly ending in tragedy, it’s probably worth considering that the author has read and been influenced by Romeo and Juliet. I’ll admit that I posted a lazy, unsubstantiated hot take in my first post but I stand by my interpretation that Dalinar sees himself as a prophet and it’s worth considering how his story might illuminate the author’s feelings towards prophets in their own religion. Feel free to disagree but I’m not gonna post here again probably because I didn’t learn anything from this conversation Edit: I take back what I said about not learning anything eke out posted:thinking about this more, i think the actual interesting thing about Dalinar re: Sanderson's religion is not some joseph smith comparison but that it's a character working through what it means to have faith in some kind of higher power with literally zero orthodoxy and only basically a secular humanist code of ethics via the knights radiant Thanks this at least gives me credit for being literate. Lawnie fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Jan 9, 2022 |
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Jan 9, 2022 04:12
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eke out posted:okay great so dalinar is a negative commentary about people like joseph smith? feels pretty different than the initial take, if you think this is sanderson indirectly criticizing the core figure in his religion. unfortunately still doesn't hold up well due to literally nothing else being at all like joseph smith except the 'leading a nation' and 'religious in some way' parts I think the themes of imperialism explored in Wit’s story of the walled town and racism throughout the series can be seen as piece and part of the conversation between Dalinar’s story and Mormonism. The alethi are at least initially interested only in subjugating or ethnically cleansing their dark-skinned enemies who turn out to be the true natives of the continent and predate the lighter-skinned people of Roshar. If there’s anything Mormons have historically clung to and only recently officially changed that a modern progressive man ought to wholly reject it’s the idea that black and brown people are less than whites (not welcome in the Mormon priesthood). Dalinar explicitly humanizes and normalizes a racial minority as part of his tribe, embodying a progression and outright rejection of the dominant ideals of his culture. This is what I mean when I say that just because they aren’t exactly similar doesn’t mean that there isn’t meaning in the differences, or that those differences invalidate any rhetorical interpretation of the similarities.
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Jan 9, 2022 04:47
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Tunicate posted:Dalinar's never shown any regret for killing the Listeners, though. He occasionally was worried that killing them was no longer pragmatic, but that was about it. I feel like he demonstrates some regret for the things he did in general under the influence of the thrill, but you’re right that he’s never shown remorse specifically for the genocide of the Listeners. Whether or not the world he lives in and the circumstances of his life and culture progress to a point where he considers his behavior morally wrong is a question of plot, character development for Dalinar, and worldbuilding for Roshar. Whatever answer Sanderson chooses and how he goes about it will be influenced by his own beliefs, values, circumstances of life, culture, and religion. For example, it’s completely believable for Dalinar to ultimately never feel bad for slaughtering indigenous people in the text of the books when it’s all finished, but one would assume there will have been been negative consequences for Dalinar and/or and the world not learning the error of their ways if Sanderson wants the text to support the idea that ethnic cleansing is reprehensible.
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Jan 9, 2022 05:54
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Embarrassing that no one has mentioned Le Guin’s writing yet, which is plainly superior to pretty much every other SF/F writer I’ve ever read.
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Mar 28, 2023 18:54
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Arrath posted:I've only read Wizard of Earthsea so far, but I can't say it struck me as anything special. Any further recommendations? Wizard of earthsea is basically a children’s novel, albeit a great one imo. Left hand of darkness is an incredibly interesting story, I love that one.
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Mar 29, 2023 20:13
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Honestly Dawnshard probably has the most interesting details that don’t mean anything without other Cosmere context, IMO
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Jun 12, 2023 15:03
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Now taking bets on when the first ghostwritten cosmere novel gets published, o/u is midnight on June 1 2029.
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Jul 21, 2023 14:47
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MagusofStars posted:Two are Gandalf and Saruman. One’s blue
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Aug 25, 2023 04:30
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Still all stormlight/cosmere spoilers i have been assuming there is a Seon in there
Lawnie fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 18:09
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Xenix posted:While I know he already came back with a "lol, no," this reminds me of a happening on the old Gene Wolfe mailing list. There was a guy there who posted by the name Roy C. Lackey who has similarly very well thought out posts. He eventually got called out in a very cavalier way as potentially being Gene Wolfe who sees himself on the mailing list as a king overseeing his servants with a clever name (Roi see lackey). It would be kinda hosed up if Wolfe didn’t do that tbh, those readers probably deserved it
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Oct 12, 2023 18:12
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DarkHorse posted:It's simpler than that. Hood has a jar of sand on the table he's using for his illusion, and it's apparently from Taldain because one side of the jar facing Shallan changes color, which indicates that someone is using Investiture in that direction Surprise! Malazan is now in the cosmere!
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Nov 13, 2023 16:55
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McSpankWich posted:I also have only read it once and understood it fine. People make it out to be much worse than it is, and jumping into book 1 is definitely difficult because Erikson just drops your right in the middle of a whole world with zero prep. I almost gave up at the half way point of Gardens of the Moon, but after a week I picked it back up and it got much better from there, Gardens is also the worst written of the books as there is 10 year gap between it and the rest of series where his writing improved tremendously. If you're worried about that you can start he series with book 2 or even 4. Also, Sanderson's "Sanderlanch" pales in comparison to Erikson's I agree with this post, it’s only unpleasant to read if you don’t enjoy feeling like you’re discovering a primary source from an utterly unknown civilization. It’s totally fine that I don’t really get how Warrens work or why/how/when three major races of people warred with each other, it’s not like every character in-universe is in on it, either. I also really, really love Book of the New Sun so I’m pretty biased towards the “here’s the world, no questions and no answers, please” genre of epic fantasy.
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Nov 13, 2023 20:23
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All cosmere spoilers there’s a bunch of minor details in sunlit man that touch on a lot of these topics. I haven’t quite finished but I’m thinking of the pure investiture on the lab table and the mention of an Awakened steelmind suggesting cross-planet investiture interaction
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Nov 15, 2023 20:03
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Sunlit man and stormlight archive spoilers: did anyone else get the vibes that maybe this planet is the ancient homeworld of the Rosharan colonists? There was mention that there was an exodus from the planet with some people left behind. Sigzil also points out that the planet seems to be attracting Investiture to its core in a direct line from the sun. Could be that the ancient inhabitants eventually needed such vast amounts of Investiture that they thought they could just siphon energy from the sun, only to turn their homeworld into a slowly shrinking, partially-molten drag strip. It’s also curious that Sig notes the orbital anomalies of the planet with respect to size, rotation speed, and distance from the sun, all of which would be thrown off-kilter by nuking half the mass of the planet with magic at all times.
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Nov 27, 2023 15:57
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It’s easy to hate on Lirin, Kal’s dad because he lives in a violent world but he’s a strict and consistent pacifist, which the world needs more of.
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Dec 19, 2023 17:50
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Mordiceius posted:Some wise old guy once said: "To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom - it is indolence." Ah yeah guess it doesn’t matter if you harm some people in the process of saving others, thanks, trolley problem’s been solved then.
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Dec 19, 2023 23:25
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Yeah who could have guessed that one of the Targaryens would make a heel turn and kill a bunch of innocent people the second she got to the city
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Feb 3, 2024 14:46
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Stormlight spoilers, also content warning for sexual assault (was gonna abbreviate this ‘SA’ but, well) The alethi practice cultural genocide and chattel slavery against the listeners, there’s pretty much nothing that’s beneath them in my mind. The only reason there aren’t heavy themes of sexual violence perpetrated against so-called “parshmen” is that Brandon’s imagination isn’t nearly violent enough to include such a heinous practice in his books, I think. Edit to add I’m not really clamoring for that kind of content, in fact I read these stories because there’s a refreshing lack of over-the-top sexual violence relative to a lot of modern adult fantasy.
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Feb 21, 2024 02:06
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CapnAndy posted:The Expanse guys should do it, they can hit the tone and they write fast. The expanse guys are literally absolute fucker’s assistants, or were
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Mar 6, 2024 03:09
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Dawnshard rysn also has perfect pitch after becoming the Dawnshard, she’s obviously holding a relatively (compared to Stormlight native to Roshar) massive amount of investiture at this point
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Apr 11, 2024 16:36
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DarkHorse posted:I always imagined Shadesmar as like being in a total solar eclipse. The sun is black with a brilliant white ring around it, the sky is black, things are dim like twilight, but there are sharp shadows everywhere and you can still see clearly drat, I didn’t really put this together at the time, but my experience of the eclipse a few weeks ago was absolutely awe-inspiring and weird in the way Shadesmar sounds.
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May 10, 2024 19:32
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Nitrousoxide posted:Bands of Mourning: They don’t have radio, their “scientists” have no loving idea about the Doppler effect
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May 12, 2024 15:31
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Nitrousoxide posted:They've got electricity, so it's in principle possible for them to have developed the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_converter or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter on purpose or accident. But yeah, they are likely a few decades too early to have encountered the physical processes that would lead one to develop a theory of relativity Do they know they have electricity? Or do they just know that putting these kinds of metal things here makes stuff go? I find it really hard to analyze the state of “science” in Scadrial since A) it’s disparate between continents and B) can’t tell if god just made a crop circle that said “plug in here” for any of their technology.
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May 12, 2024 16:58
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