|
Barreft posted:Yeah fair. I'm okay on Kaladin, love Dalinar, like Shallan and most of the book was a slog for me, and I loved the first 3 and Edgedancer/Dawnshard. I've been thinking on Kaladin lately and one thing that feels a little odd to me about Kaladin is that, since he is the main PoV character for book 1, it feels like he should be a bit of the audience insert character. He comes from a small town, so he's a bit naïve about the greater world so it's great to have a character to learn the world through their eyes. Except he spends almost the entire book as a slave doing bridge runs, so it's not really experiencing much of the world or society. 
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2024 00:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 12:25 |
|
|
It’s interesting because I found Wayne a little grating in book 1. Like, not bad, just a bit much. A bit too try hard with the humor. By the end of the series though, Wayne was explosively funny.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2024 22:15
|
|
|
While I totally understand why you might feel that way, I disagree. I thought Edgedancer was delightful because Lift feels like it is Brandon writing a Pixar character and inserting her into a very not-Pixar world. Meanwhile, there's a portion of Oathbringer which, while I thought was okay, I think would have worked better if they were fleshed out more into a series of short stories instead of stuffed into Oathbringer.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2024 23:11
|
|
|
On another note - I was reviewing how I've ranked all of the Cosmere books and I've decided that it's unfair to just create one big list because comparing full novels to novellas and short stories results in, naturally, the short stories almost all falling to the bottom of the list which is not an accurate representation. pre:|------------------------------------------------------------------| |-------------------------COSMERE RANKINGS-------------------------| |-Novels----------------------------------Novellas & Short Stories-| | | | The Final Empire | | The Hero of Ages | | Words of Radiance | | The Lost Metal | | Shadows of Self | | Warbreaker | | The Bands of Mourning | | The Way of Kings Edgedancer | | The Alloy of Law Mistborn - Secret History | | The Well of Ascension The Emperor’s Soul | |--------------------The Line of Recommendation--------------------| | Elantris Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania | | The Eleventh Metal | | The Hope of Elantris | |------------------------------------------------------------------| -----Not Listed----- Oathbringer (In Progress) Dawnshard Rhythm of War Tress of the Emerald Sea Yumi and the Nightmare Painter The Sunlit Man Wind and Truth Isles of the Emberdark Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Sixth of the Dusk White Sands
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2024 23:48
|
|
|
Oathbringer - Ch 75 “Only Red” and Ch 76 “An Animal” Has anyone talked about how a very present recurring theme in this book specifically is addiction?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2024 17:19
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Some characters in Sandersons books die, but it's to fit their character arc or for story purposes, it's never done to shock you. I wouldn’t say never, but mostly. I can think of at least one instance of a woman being suddenly fridged.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2024 16:09
|
|
|
socialsecurity posted:I mean Mistborn era 1 was what really shot him into popularity and id consider that the most grim dark or his main series. The thing I really liked about Mistborn era 1 was the lack of sexual violence. When I was a teenager/early 20something, I had, unfortunately, read the Sword of Truth series. They loved to talk about rape. Maybe not to the degree of GRRM but still they loved to talk about "oh this kingdom was taken, look at all these dead women tied to the beds. they were raped before their throats were slit" gently caress Terry Goodkind. Glad that rear end in a top hat is dead.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2024 18:00
|
|
|
space uncle posted:I never read any Goodkind, from the reactions it sounds like I dodged a bullet. Goodkind is a cross between Robert Jordan and GRRM but taking the worst elements of both of them. He died a couple years ago to "undisclosed causes" - I am willing to put money down that he died to covid and was a covid denier. He was 72 years old and it was Sept. 2020. Get hosed, shithead.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2024 19:30
|
|
|
eke out posted:yeah i frankly don't have a lot of interest in a "i wrote a whole book but i needed to throw it out and rewrite it completely" deal like twok prime I'm of the mind that, generally speaking, if an author says "This was bad, that's why I didn't publish it" then I have zero interest in even looking. Because if it's worse than Elantris, then it must be really bad.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2024 21:13
|
|
|
Chapter 82 of Oathbringer (The Girl Who Stood Up) might be my favorite individual chapter of any Brandon book.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2024 23:24
|
|
|
So uhh.... Oathbringer part 3. That was a thing.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 18:29
|
|
|
pik_d posted:Yeah, some real brutal stuff in there, I assume you'll write up more detailed thoughts later? I'm curious how they compare to my own from that point. OATHBRINGER PART 3 Wow. TLDR: I liked this a lot. I know Brandon often talks about how he feels like each Stormlight book is three books in one. Maybe I'm taking his words too literally, but often times it doesn't feel that clean. Most of his books don't feel like they have three unique arcs or anything like that. Nor do they necessarily feel like three books woven together across the duration. Oathbringer Part 3 is the first time I've kind of felt that. Honestly, I felt like Part 2 of Oathbringer ended up being a little meandering (maybe my opinion will change by events that happen later). Oathbringer Part 3 is my favorite section, thus far, of The Stormlight Archive. Let's get into it: First off, I'll say that one of the main reasons that I find Part 3 so strong is that it is almost entirely about the Kholinar situation. After the little bit toward the beginning with Dalinar in Theylan City and Azimir, we're almost exclusively spending time in Kholinar. Let's start by addressing Dalinar - both in present and flashbacks. Present Dalinar - I love his sudden realization about his gently caress-ups in diplomacy. How he immediately leaps into "I NEED TO DUEL THIS MAN!!!!" Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, he's a badass. But that's not good enough. The humbling of Dalinar is absolutely fantastic. Seeing him work to build bonds is so exciting that it feel electric. He's finally becoming a leader that can inspire via his deeds to help others vs someone who leads due to control and fear . Flashback Dalinar - What a dick. I love how much the flashbacks earlier in the book essentially started with "Haha what a funny barbarian man" and then transition to "Look at this abusive monster." He's a terrible husband and father. I love the Dalinar flashbacks. The Dalinar flashbacks also make me incredibly uncomfortable. It is such a fun contrast to the present version of him. I think it was smart to hold them back until the 3rd book because we get two books of Dalinar just being a cool dude before the reveal of "Oh actually, he's one of history's greatest monsters and it makes sense why every other monarch loving hates him." I had assumed Dalinar would murder Evi, but I wouldn't have expected it to go like that. I like the way it was handled - with her death being indirectly caused by him instead of him being overcome with The Thrill and swinging his sword to strike her down, like I had assumed would happen. The stuff at The Rift was... rough. Kholinar - I feel like Shallan and Wit are the stars here. I love every interaction with them. The unraveling of Shallan was fantastic - her becoming more and more unhinged with her personas. The death of Grund was surprising and a great shock to things. This all lead to chapter 82 (The Girl Who Stood Up) with Wit and Shallan talking in the room. Despite it being a 30 minute chapter of the two of them talking, it is probably my favorite chapter across any Brandon book. There is just so much heart there. When Wit tells Shallan to not ignore the pain inflicted upon her but at the same time recognize that she didn't deserve it - gently caress, man! That chapter was "Wit talks about surviving trauma." Incredibly emotional and effective. Azure - Clearly Vivenna. It's cool seeing her being a complete badass. She's clearly been thorugh some poo poo since the end of Warbreaker. I wonder where she got the scars on her face. I assume her time on Roshar will take place before the Warbreaker sequels? The timeline on how all of these series intersect is fuzzy at best. Kaladin - Goddamn. That was rough. I did like when Kaladin showed up to the tailor shop with the army and Adolin though "Goddamn, only a few days with these guys and Kaladin already became their leader." That got a good laugh out of me. We finally get payoff for Kaladin's time with the "free" Listeners - and it was a bad time for all. The chapter with just everyone dying and Kaladin seeing the true horrors of war is another one of the best things Brandon has written. It did not feel good at all. I'm sure Kaladin will be super depressed after this and it is completely justified. Adolin - is Adolin and he's fantastic. I did like that he was terrified when they flew to Kholinar. I love Adolin as the POV character for the transition into Shadesmar. It's great seeing a "common" person's reaction to that space. ADDICTION - I feel like a reoccuring theme in this book is addiction. We've seen Teft addicted to firemoss. Shallan is addicted to using her personas. Dalinar was addicted to The Thrill. The Heart of the Revel feeds off peoples addiction to excess. I'm not a smart enough man to write any deeper thoughts than that, but while trauma seems to be the general theme of The Stormlight Archive, addiction feels like the theme of Oathbringer. It was good and I can't believe that there's almost exactly 1/3 of the book remaining. If this is what we're getting right now, I feel like the next 18 hours of audiobook are going to be non-fuckin-stop.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2024 20:50
|
|
|
I feel like Oathbringer has been a loving tour de force of what Brandon can do (and I still have a third of it left!!) Even the first chapter of Part 4 (Voices) - a Dalinar flashback where he is looking for some alcohol to quiet the voices. He talks early in the chapter about how old Gavilar looks and how Dalinar is going to be a good brother and take his brother on an adventure and so on. It makes it seem like Dalinar has his poo poo together, just coping with life, loss, and trauma. Sure, he needs a little drink here or there, but it's just to take the edge off. Then you get to him hearing the conversation at the end between Gavilar, Adolin, and Elhokar where it is clear Dalinar does not have his poo poo together and he is a barely functional alcoholic. It recontextualizes the rest of the chapter as clearly Dalinar is not a reliable source of how he appears to those around him.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2024 17:55
|
|
|
theysayheygreg posted:The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Brandon Sanderson: Spoilers (don't read yet Mordiceius) I read it.  Dalinar is my favorite character, but Shallan is the character I get most excited for, if that makes sense. Narsham posted:Sanderson is better at the dramatic and revealing action scenes than the conversations, I think, but he's really good at both and he's improving, too. I agree. His dramatic action and reveals are always top notch. So when he nails the "two characters sitting and talking" scenes, they land that much harder. That chapter literally had me in tears by the end. Every time I think back to it, it makes me emotional. Mordiceius fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Apr 30, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2024 20:45
|
|
|
I'm nearing the end of part 4 of Oathbringer, so this may get answered at some point in this book or in RoW, but I'm wondering re: Heralds we know that if they are killed on Roshar, they get teleported to Damnation (Braize) and while I still don't understand the mechanics behind that, does that remain true no matter how they're killed? What if they got killed by a Shardblade? What if they got killed by Nightblood? What if they traveled the Cognitive Realm and went to Scadrial and were shanked by a beggar?
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2024 18:33
|
|
|
pik_d posted:That's a big fat RAFO Hah. I assumed as such. A Sneaker Broker posted:I tried to get started with Elantris and tapped out about halfway into Chapter 2. I'll return to it after I finish Sword of Kaigen but it's evident that Brando didn't get his magic on Book 1. Elantris is the one book where I would recommend that people just go read https://coppermind.net/wiki/Summary:Elantris and skip the book. Only read Elantris if you have no other books on your TBR list.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2024 19:28
|
|
|
A Sneaker Broker posted:I just did that so I'm glad I am sharing brain cells here. Also, damnit, I didn't get any badges because I slept in. Elantris is a book I find to be intensely frustrating. You spend the least amount of time with the most interesting character (Hrathen) and then the most time with the least interesting character (Sarene). Elements of the plot often feel either extremely rushed or glacially slow because he's trying to keep to the rigid format of alternating chapters. For the audiobook, you'd often get a 50 minute Sarene chapter followed by a 6 minute Hrathen chapter. Raoden isn't that interesting of a character because even Sanderson admits Raoden has no arc. He wanted to try to write a character that was already just a cool good dude that didn't necessarily need any personal growth - and that just doesn't work. There are characters that just completely disappear from the story. Also there are multiple elements of the story that have little to no payoff. The main one I point to with this is that Sarene spends multiple chapters teaching the women of the court fencing. Later during the climax when the enemy is attacking, the women pull out fencing swords to fight back - only to be immediately defeated literally a sentence later, accomplishing nothing. The audiobook narrator is also atrociously terrible. He deliveries every line as if he has a smirk on his face. There are Elantris defenders out there and I'm sure there are some in this thread that will talk about how it is actually a really great book (it isn't).
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2024 19:44
|
|
|
Nitrousoxide posted:Something has been bothering me now that I'm ~25% of the way through Mistborn: Shadows of Self. Full Mistborn Era 1 spoilers Harmony is Ruin (and Preservation). If Sazed had only picked up the Preservation shard, he would still be referred to as Preservation. Sazed took up both shards and now goes by Harmony - kind of a Yin-Yang sort of deal. As for the Koloss - yeah, their situation is odd in Era 2 and hardly touched on. They seem to be mostly a tribal society that lives in the wastelands? I feel like that's one area of Era 2 that is underdeveloped.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2024 21:13
|
|
|
One thing I wonder with regard to Shardblades (general Stormlight/Cosmere spoilers) Shardblades kill anything they touch - I'm speaking about limbs with this. That's the real scary thing about Shardblades. One touch and you're hosed. Mistborn can take hits and deliver hits with other Mistborn, but a Shardblade? Immediately hosed. In WoR we see that Stormlight heals Shardblade damage. Is that exclusive to Stormlight or a quality of Investiture in general? Stormlight seems disproportionately powerful if it's the only type of Investiture that is ultrahealing. Allomancy can't heal. It can just allow you to survive longer. Feurochemy can heal to an extent, if you have it stored up. Very easy to run out of that. But can it heal a Shardblade cut? For Breathe, it seems like Divine Breath can heal, but common breath can't. Would Unkeyed Investiture give turbo healing?
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2024 03:30
|
|
|
its HIM posted:Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania addresses it. I would not call an Allomancer Jak production to be an authoritative source. That's like claiming that the Adam West Batman show is an authoritative source on criminal activity. I'm not sure what, if anything, from that story can be taken as "true" to Scadrial. There's some curious elements to it at the end, the Jak grabs a chest full of Koloss spikes, which they're excited so they can reproduce again. So then are Koloss still made by spiking people? How does that make any sense with regard to half-koloss/koloss-blooded people. I feel like the presence of Koloss post-Era 1 is awkward at best and I'm curious to what degree they'll have a presence in the stories going forward. Personally, I think Brandon should have gone with "Harmony wiped out all the Koloss when remaking the world."
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2024 17:58
|
|
|
its HIM posted:Jak exaggerates his exploits for sure, but WOB is that it is accurate with respect to Koloss reproduction. DarkHorse's explanation succinctly nails it. Ah. Okay. And diving into the Coppermind Wiki, it has this to say about Era 2 Koloss: After Harmony's Ascension the koloss were transformed into a tribal race that could breed, which lived in the Roughs. As a true breeding race, koloss raise koloss-blooded children. Those who chose can turn into full koloss at the age of twelve in a coming-of-age ritual where they choose to accept the requisite spikes or not. Those who do not accept the spikes leave, and live outside the tribe. Additionally, outsiders can choose to become koloss through this ritual. The koloss as a people have made a vow not to harm the Terris people, which entitles Terrismen to safety and a degree of respect amongst the koloss. The changes in the koloss and their breeding subsequently allowed some koloss-blooded to become Allomancers. How this is achieved is unknown, but koloss with the powers of Allomancy appear to be known in the Roughs enough to be recognized. Since the koloss are no longer required to fight for anybody, they are able to live longer lives. This allows for the development of koloss ancients, who have little to no skin at all. They are enormous, have no noses or lips, and their eyes appear to bulge. They survive only by wrapping themselves in leather to keep in their blood. While their intelligence is still at the level of the average koloss, they are looked after by the tribe and given respect similar to that of a tribal elder. I do wish we would have gotten more time with them in Era 2. After spending so much time with Roshar via the Stormlight Archive, it makes Scadrial feel somewhat underdeveloped comparatively. On the subject of Scadrial and it's society and geography - We know that there is the Elendel Basin, surrounded by the Roughs and beyond that a bunch of wasteland. Then you have the southern Scadrial society. Is... that it? Basically the world is made up of two pseudo-nations? (Granted, it seems like Southern Scadrial is somewhat a confederation of nations?) I know Roshar is one single mega-continent. Is Scadrial the same way?
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2024 20:37
|
|
|
I know I'm definitely the first person to ever say this statement but goddamn should Adolin/Shallan/Kaladin just be a throuple.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2024 22:30
|
|
|
Ten days later and part 4 is done. OATHBRINGER PART 4 Part 4 was very enjoyable. Not quite the power house of Part 3, but a deep breath before the storm, so to speak. Let's start with the Dalinar flashbacks - what a depressing man. An incredible portrait of an alcoholic too. The first flashback in this section was so good. Him wandering Kholinar rambling about how Gavilar hid his booze only to listen in on the conversation for the reader to hear about how Dalinar has been drinking it all and forgetting and blaming everyone else. Fantastic use of an unreliable narrator to drive that home. Every Dalinar flashback chapter is just incredible at driving home what a miserable, pathetic man he is during this time. His outburst towards Adolin and Renarin is... rough. I wonder if anyone with alcoholic parents found the Dalinar flashbacks triggering. Shadesmar - I don't have much to share about this part. It was cool. At times I had trouble picturing things because everything is so completely weird and different. Like, I know there's an eternal false sun in the sky, but like does it feel like daylight? A lot of art makes it look like the area is in eternal night with the "sun" being like a brighter moon. I don't feel like we had a ton of revolutionary aspects in this. It was cool to see, very alien, but this felt more just like these characters on a physical journey vs a journey of self-discovery. I did like Kaladin finally getting to his wits end with the Honorspren. Also Adolin's confession and Shallan just saying "good for you." Dalinar & crew in the present - Stuff is moving. Other than the major revelations at the end, this section felt a lot like moving pieces into place for the big finale. I feel like this Sanderlanche is going to be a doozy. Part 5 is 7 hours long in this audiobook, compared to the prior books being around 3-4 hours long. Plus, one of those chapters is 2 hours long alone. The "we're the true colonists" reveal is something I had, unfortunately, had previously spoiled to me from a friend that gets too excited about things. I do not like Venli. I am wondering if Rhythm of War will change my opinion. I want to go to Shinovar!!!!! I feel like that has to be centrally important to book 5, right? Since I am nearing the end of book 3, I've been trying to speculate what I'll get for books 4 and 5. Each book needs to be a bit of an escalation, because that's how he always does is. The climax of Oathbringer will clearly be in Thaylenah and I doubt we do anything much beyond that. For book 4? I know it's a Venli book, so I can only begin to imagine how she gets more integrated into things. Will she join the Dalinar crew? I'd have to assume so or else that would make RoW feel like two halves of a book smashed together. For the core plot of book 4, I guess I would assume that we'll get some retaliation for whatever happens in Thaylenah. The I doubt we go to Shinovar in book 4. That feels like a Book 5 thing, since that's the Szeth book. My guess is that a lot of book 5 ends up revolving around Shinovar (they still have 8 Honorblades there). Watch Shinovar basically turn out to be a Rosharan Wakanda. I would not be surprised if Book 5 took us to Ashyn or Braise as well. I'd like more Shadesmar too. I think the cover of Book 4 shows Shallan in Shadesmar, so I feel like I'll get my wish there. Currently: Part 3 > Part 1/4 >>> Part 2 I suspect part 5 will not take me long, I'm champing at the bit to get through it.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2024 18:22
|
|
|
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 Yeah. I kinda feel like it's the equivalent of when you see day-for-night in film/tv (aka, it's clear that everything was shot during the day, but there's kinda a dark filter over everything dimming things). Tangent - fun fact about day-for-night in film/TV: the best way to tell if something is shot that way is to look at things in the distance. In true night time, even if the area is lit by a bunch of lights, things in the far distance will still be heavily shadowed and dark. If something looks very distinguishable despite how dark the screen loots, it was probably shot during the day. Also, see if you can see sun reflections on people's heads. Day-for-night is best shot during cloudy days, but sometimes you can't help it. Example:  This is clearly day for night as look as much detail you can see throughout the frame. In comparison to:  This has been your lesson on Day for Night.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2024 19:16
|
|
|
I wish I liked Bands of Mourning more. It probably has some of the funniest moments out of the whole series, but I rank it 3rd for Era 2. Plus, there is a single element of it where Brandon really disappointed me. And I will NEVER forgive him. Around here, it’s fairly well regarded though
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2024 21:04
|
|
|
So uh... Oathbringer part 5. (I'm not done with it, but even only 3 of 8 hours through it and I'm exhausted.)
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2024 17:39
|
|
|
UNITE THEM 
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2024 21:26
|
|
|
stramit posted:it's so good Dalinar shouting "YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN" while grabbing the cognitive and spiritual realms and slamming them together to create a perpendicularity might be one of the most hype things I've ever experienced in a book. Also, I feel like Oathbringer part 5 is a triumph in recontextualizing and giving new meaning to statements previously. I had to stop at the next chapter because the audiobook chapter is two hours long and I don't have the time or energy to get through that at this moment.
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2024 22:24
|
|
|
Nitrousoxide posted:Finished Secret Histories. If you are post Bands of Mourning and Secret History, you should have details to a lot of this stuff. Here are some of those details for clarifications purposes: "Ol' One Spike" is Kelsier. Even before Secret History, this is outlined in the Bands of Mourning epilogue. Kelsier feels the spike over his eye and then looks down at his arms covered in scars. The Beggar is Hoid. The Driver is also Hoid. The Ire are indeed Elantrians
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2024 20:26
|
|
|
I'm almost done with Oathbringer (just finished the 2 hour chapter, will probably try to wrap up the other to chapters tonight). Hopefully get my thoughts written up tomorrow. Unfortunately, I know one major spoiler from RoW (the owner change of the Odium shard) but beyond that, I have no fuckin clue what they're going to do to fill the duration of that book.
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2024 23:06
|
|
|
M_Gargantua posted:Ahh dang that’s a big surprise that’s been spoiled. TGG posted:Ah drat, that was the one thing I didn't get spoiled on as I just blitzed the book in a day and a half, bummer you got spoiled on the biggest RoW twist. It's a drat good book and it goes hard in a bunch of spots but that was my biggest WHAT THE gently caress of the whole book. Ehhh it's a big thing but it is, in the end, a single moment. I'm sure that moment will still go hard. I can know a detail without understanding how we get to that point or how it happens. It was my fault for watching a Tiktok from an interview where Brandon was talking about his favorite villains he's written. 81sidewinder posted:Oathbringer Part 5 was everything I wanted this series to be as far as the 'small moments leading to big payoffs at the end'. Peak Sanderlanche. Probably the most similar to a Wheel of Time book in that regard. Extremely minor WoT spoilers - The battle at the end very much felt like the Last Battle chapter of WoT with the 1v1 moments happening while others fight the ultimate evil and others fend off the hoards and it was just perfect for my tastes. Love that feeling of controlled chaos. Nice to be immersed in a story where there is a plan for a satisfying conclusion. I'm surprised you didn't like the Shadesmar stuff. It definitely was a little slower than other parts, but I liked how it fleshed out the Cosmere in general. If anything, it made me want an entire book set there and exploring that setting. (No, I'm not counting Secret History)
|
|
#
¿
May 15, 2024 23:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 12:25 |
|
|
Without going too much into my Oathbringer thoughts - I loving loved the Lift/Szeth pairing. It probably won't happen, but give me a book with the two of them going on adventures. 
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2024 00:06
|
|