|
I've enjoyed catching up on the thread - I last read it just before Rhythm of War came out- I haven't read the entire thing, but reading some of the discussion as that book progressed has been fun. I have no experience at all with anything else in the Cosmere, but I don't know if I want to go through the entire mistborn series right now. Is Warbreaker a good spot to get some more fantasy reading in? If I start with Wax and Wayne will I be lost having skipped the first 3 in Mistborn?
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2021 10:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 10:55 |
|
|
Louisgod posted:but the whole sexy safehand thing is so loving funny and dumb. That whole thing made sense when I learned that he lives and teaches in Utah, and is a member of the Latter Day Saints church. It's clear that he knows about and is critical of arbitrary enforcement of specific hierarchical gender roles and taboos because of his lived experience. I used to live an an area with a lot of Mormons and knew a bunch of Mormon families, and that safehand stuff totally tracks.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2021 03:02
|
|
|
I read/audiobooked all of Stormlight Archive over the last year or so up until Rhythm of War came out. I just finished Warbreaker, and I guess I'm going to start working my way through the Cosmere audiobooks during my commute. Any recommendations for what I should read next?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2021 06:16
|
|
|
Well, shout out to whoever recommended that I dive into Mistborn after reading everything in Stormlight Archive. I've been listening to the audiobook during my commute for the past couple weeks. I'm getting close to the end, and now realizing that I need to be much more cautious with following the thread for spoilers in the later books. Such a good use of the heist format, thrilling final act, and I'm really close to the finale so I'm so curious about how it's all going to wrap up.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2021 17:24
|
|
|
I just got to the end of Well of Ascension, and I think it wrapped up nicely. A few spoiler type things: I was really mislead about the Well until the last minute. I assumed that it would be some sort of shard (only knowing about that from the tidbits at the end of dawnshard) but then the fact that it was some malignant deity that had been trapped was a huge twist. It feels like the definition of 'evil' for this god is very different from how Odium behaves, so I'm wondering how much (if any) crossover there is. I also really, truly thought that the bead of metal in the room would be the inverse of Atium, and in stead of letting you move forward, it would let Vin travel back and prevent the mist spirit from killing Elend. The fact that the steel inquisitors took the bodies of the keepers doesn't bode well. If the inquisitor-making process has any aspect of resurrection, then it's going to be terrifying that there will be a bunch of evil, powerful feruchemist/allomancers waiting in the shadows during the next book. I was also a bit bummed about how things turned out for Marsh- I guess there is something greater that controls the inquisitors. I was expecting him to come back and be a good guy again. I'm also sad they didn't double-tap and kill him after his injury. Everything else in the book is is very brutal and thorough, while he was down they should have taken a few seconds to pull that spike out. I guess he's necessary for the plot of the next book, but leaving him there to escape doesn't feel consistent with what had happened earlier. I was feeling a bit tired of hearing (listening on audiobook) the repeat of the same snippets of the old steel rubbing that I felt like I had all heard before, but it was such a fantastic reveal at the end. The idea that whatever it is can manipulate both writing and metal minds sets up all sorts of fun stuff for unreliable histories. I saw someone rank it as fairly low on the collection of sanderson books, and I probably agree. It wasn't the best, and there were a few bits that dragged on/bothered me, but overall I enjoyed it. I've already got Hero Of Ages downloaded- is that a good place to go next? Should i jump over to Arcanum unbound at some point? I've already read all of Stormlight, and also warbreaker.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2021 13:35
|
|
|
Someone mentioned the Mistborn Secret History about 10 pages back, and I'm now making my way through that. It's been a bit since I went through the original mistborn trilogy, but I'm up to date all the way through Wax and Wayne's adventures. I"m trying to recall: After Kelsier dies in Mistborn, how does he come back in his cognitive/ghost form in the core Mistborn world? He's making his way through the Shadesmar of their world now, I can't recall if we see/hear him touching through from the other side. Stormlight/Mistborn secret history question: Is that Wit (or Hoid) taking the become-a-mistborn bead at the well of ascension? If so, does he have mistborn powers during his time on Roshar? Do we ever see them, or could he possibly be using emotional Allomancy?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2022 11:24
|
|
|
[quote="stramit" post="522672594"] when he touches the well he’s invested enough to resist being pulled away to the after life. I’m not sure if you have finished reading secret history yet so don’t want to spoil his journey but the specific mechanics of how he comes back into a body have not been revealed. There are some theories though [quote] Thanks for not spoiling, I'm still only partway through Secret History. What I'm trying to recall is: in Mistborn/Wax & Wayne, does he come back in some form? I'm trying to remember what plot purpose he serves/who he returns to and what he does, but my memory is fuzzy. Is it something with Spook?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2022 13:52
|
|
|
I recently went through the first Mistborn audiobook again, and it was fascinating to see how much he was doing with setting everything up for the rest of the series. So many things that are mysteries in place that clearly have an answer, but we don't get that answer until much, much later, like how the compounding feruchemy/allomancy works with Miles Hundred-Lives in the 2nd phase of Scadrial novels . Very fun stuff. I was also impressed by how Vin developed as a character. I had forgotten just how completely closed off and untrusting she was at the start, and how much she grows by the end of the trilogy. After that I went over to Way of Kings, and it was a bit jarring how much of a tone shift it was compared to Mistborn. I had read all Stormlight books first, before going anywhere with Mistborn. I remembered really enjoying the "war is hell" idea at the core of Way of Kings, and that first scene where they introduce Kaladin from the untrained soldier's perspective felt like it was a whole notch or two higher than however heavy Mistborn 1 got.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2022 06:01
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:I mean, war definitely is hell, but I'd argue that life on Scadrial sucked much more for the vast majority of people than life on Roshar, up until the Everstorm gets summoned. Roshar is not the friendliest place to be, but Scadrial was a literal hell world of ash falling from the sky every day. I agree with your points there 100% - I'd take the choice to get dropped into a random life in Roshar over a random life in Scadrial any day. I just feel like the specific prose of the battle scenes in Stormlight were more intense than at least what happens in Mistborn 1. The tone shifts a bit in Mistborn 2 and 3 like the descriptions of hemalurgy, and that time Vin headbuts someone to death, but I still feel like the violence in Stormlight is more graphic. I could be wrong, this could all just be my perception of it.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2022 12:47
|
|
|
CK07 posted:... I have never found the violence in Stormlight to be gratuitous - it serves a purpose structurally, it's taken seriously and has consequences, and it makes the reader confront some of the realities of war right alongside the characters who are themselves at various stages of doing the exact same thing. Once in a while I find a description of an injury to be a little stomach-turning, but those go by quickly. ... The difference between the fights vs full-scale battles is part of it, and I feel like it is a very intentional difference like you said. I agree that it isn't gratuitous, it's just heavier and is treated as such. The whole "get out to the shattered planes where the war means something, oops, human lives mean even less out there really rings true because the battle scenes are visceral. That's part of what makes Oathbringer so incredible. you get all these descriptions of Dalinar committing terrible acts of war, and the whole thing is building up towards something that even he thought was traumatizing and unthinkable. I felt like the whole book layered on suspense so well to get to the incident that finally broke him.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2022 16:46
|
|
|
I've been consuming the cosmere novellas by audiobook and by Kindle, and I realized that someone on coppermind has compiled all of the epigraphs from the start of chapters. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Epigraphs It is nice to be able to read the letters and more consistent epigraphs all together in stead of bit by bit by bit, particularly when it's tough to go back and forth on audiobooks. Reading through some of them has made me realize how many cosmere novellas are not listed in the 'cosmere' section on his website. I just discovered Sixth of Dusk, Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell, as well as some unpublished stuff that is also circulating around apparently. It's wild to find a full wiki page written for someone who responded to letters to Hoid, from a planet that hasn't been mentioned in any of the 'cosmere' book listed on the website, unless White Sand mentions a whole ton of planets that I haven't seen yet. So, if you're like me and haven't thought to put all the epigraphs together, there's the link. Also: I finished Elantris a few weeks ago. Definitely not his strongest work, and there are a few quick cringy lines that could have been cut pretty easily. He definitely completed the Sanderlanche in true form - the last 20% was really riveting, and the last 10% felt impossible to put down.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2022 19:25
|
|
|
I think I did end up taking a break in the middle of Elantris - not to read something else, I just had a big move and lost the reading routine.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2022 00:44
|
|
|
Wangsucker 69 posted:Hey thanks for this, I didn’t realize there’s extra books in the series, is there a preferred reading order? Warbreaker is great to drop in whenever. By the time you get to stormlight 3ish it starts to hint more heavily at the wider universe, and that starts to arrive moreso in Mistborn 5ish. Elantris is regarded as his weakest work, so some people might tell you to skip that. Then there's Arcanum Unbounded, which is... a lot of other stuff, bits and pieces from the Mistborn and Stormlight worlds, plus a few things that seem to take place on other planets with other magic systems. How much am I missing out on from not reading White Sand? I've never been much of a graphic novel person.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2022 22:54
|
|
|
Stormlight spoilers and general Cosmere chat: Do we have any good speculation on where the humans on Roshar came from? I vaguely recall the realization from the humans that they were basically an invasive species not native to Roshar because investiture/some other magic catastrophe made their planet unlivable. I'm going through stuff I haven't listened to from Arcanum Unbounded, and in the intro to Sixth of the Dusk mentions that their perpendicularity on First of the Sun is unusual because there is no shard there, and that there are other inhabited and one uninhabited planets in the system. That makes me wonder if there are other specific hints about planets/systems that we know so far that humans may have fled from, maybe in the falling out from the death/splintering of a shard? Could a shard itself have been weakened by people using it's investiture or become to powerful from it, to the point where the shard or planet is destroyed? Kind of an echo of the people destroying Adonalsium, but just becoming strong enough from one shard to destroy that shard.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2022 01:04
|
|
|
Tunicate posted:They are from a couple places, but mainly Ashyn, the planet they ruined Ah, thank you! I had forgotten whether or not that was clearly stated or what the audience knows about Ashyn. It's been several years since I read whatever Stormlight book that comes from, so off to Coppermind I go to refresh!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2022 01:47
|
|
|
Mistborn Secret history/ Rhythm of War: I just re-read the scene in Rhythm of War between Wit and Ruthar. Someone in this thread at some point mentioned by WOB that Wit has very clearly used allomancy at least once, and one of the emotional ones. I'm assuming it's the Ruthar scene - if you need to guarantee that someone flies off the handle, rioting is how you would do it. Since Stormlight Archive happens so much later than the first Mistborn books, it means Wit has already had decades (centuries?) to practice his rioting and soothing. Puts a wild spin on how much he inspires characters, or insults everyone and does/does not get a rise out of them. It's not just that he gives an inspiring heartfelt speech to Kaladin, but he is probably also rioting the sense of determination, etc etc. And then later in the book he becomes a Lightweaver, so he's shown his ability to use investiture from 3 different planets in the Cosmere so far. What a character that Wit is. Related: Because I read stormlight first, he's always going to be Wit to me. None of this Hoid appears once in the book to give the right nudge nonsense. Wit has a much more developed personality and motivation, so that's what he is in my brain.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2022 03:13
|
|
|
Stormlight structure in general: I think the flashback chapters in Way of Kings are an interesting narrative device at the start, but by the time you get closer to the end it feels a bit predictable. I think the Shallan flashbacks in WOR drag on as well, and maybe that's some of why Shallan gets the dislike she gets - here's another chapter of her backstory before we continue to move the plot forward. I think he really nailed flashbacks as a storytelling tool in Oathbringer - I feel like I spent the last half of that book just thinking "oh god Dalinar, what did you do" as each flashback moved along, and feeling as on edge about the flashback chapters as I did with the main prime timeline chapters. I appreciate the labeling of spoiler tags. I'm in a re-read of Bands of Mourning right now, and I'm waiting until Lost Metal comes out before starting it, so it's taken a lot of restraint to skip those spoilers until I start reading in a couple weeks.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2022 22:35
|
|
|
Lost Metal and Stormlight spoilers RE: Ghostbloods - I felt such a disconnect between the ghostbloods in the Lost Metal and in Stormlight - I was reading thinking "did I misremember how the ghostbloods are in Stormlight?" The Ghostbloods on Scadrial seem mostly reasonable, and the Ghostbloods on Roshar seem mostly evil. I'm glad there was some line about "your sister running amok over on Roshar" - the idea that the group that is so far away doesn't have the steadying hand of Kelsier to keep them in line - the fact that he says "No, don't kill Merasi" means the organization attracts at least some unstable/very violent types. I felt like Wayne's death was well written, and found myself ugly crying on an airplane as I read it, so that was effective on me at least. I think it was well done, especially since the whole past 4 books has been "Wax is important, Wax is The Chosen One, Wax is going to save the world." At the end, it's Merasi stopping the invasion through her craftiness and quick thinking by burning the investiture, and Wayne who has the actual skill, talent, practice, and absurd amount of bendalloy to actually be able to stop the bomb. Steris steps up in her preparation and politics and has the skills to maneuver the city and the governor when it's time. It's nice to see the big hero figure not being the one who saves the day in every single aspect. Not that he isn't given the 'Wax is the ultimate badass" treatment, but he's really not the one who ends up making the important final steps. I thought Hoid's role as the cabby is more in line with how he is in all the non-stormlight books - He's a beggar on the street, he's a random passerby, he's a storyteller with one scene at the right time, an informant - a one off character who seems to be around at pivotal moments. Wit is a fully-fledged character in Stormlight, with feelings, interactions, arcs, and he is a known person with a name who plays a role in politics. Hoid as a "huh, who's that guy?" chauffeur tracks for me. There's a scene in Mistborn Era 1 where Vin gets bad vibes from a meeting with Hoid as an informant and blows him off. General magic implications: The Ars Arcanum talks about one of the Feruchemy metals just storing investiture, and now we have an idea of how pure investiture can work in the world, literally being carried around in jars. If there was a compounding allomancer/feruchemist who could do the equivalent with investiture like Miles Hundredlives could do with Gold, that would be a really useful powerful to have around, particularly with the idea of un-identified (untagged? unbound?) metalminds, creating portals, or powering the abilities of other world travelers. non-spoiler review: It was good, it wrapped up Era two pretty well and set thing sup well for Cosmere era 2. I also thought the pacing was good- it didn't do the traditional Sanderlanche, but it feels like that's just because he got past exposition and into explosions a lot faster. I thought it was a nice pace. just another Lost Metal thing - my favorite little one-off moment that stands out so much is when Marsh arrives. "Would you like to die, mortal? ... Here? Right now? Crushed by the weight of your own stupidity?" made me laugh so much the first time I read it. That whole little section there of his entrance is just... *chef's kiss* road potato fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Nov 28, 2022 |
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2022 23:14
|
|
|
I'm re-listening to the Way of Kings audiobook. General Cosmere/worldhopper/Lost Metal spoilers, one of which I only learned from looking it up on coppermind: I'm glad they introduced that the Ghostbloods use nicknames in TLM. Im not even sure where it was made clear (or if it's just a tiny hint from one throwaway line from Hoid) that Thaidakar is Kelsier. I was just thinking how different it would seem if in the Prologue to Way of Kings Elhokar said "You can tell Kelsier that he's too late" as he's dying during Szeth's assassination. What a fun little tidbit that this named character and suspected assassination-attempter gets mentioned one time at the start of the series and then doesn't come up until much, much later is a big important character from the other main Cosmere series.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2023 00:08
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:Stormlight Archive benefits more than any other Sanderson series from rereads. Of course that was a pivotal moment in the world's history in that little prologue, and rereading it when you know the context is imho quite satisfying. I recently re-listened to the audio book for Way of Kings, and it's 100% my experience that Stormlight is way better on the second go-round, preferably after getting through at least the next book or two. It's clear how fully built the world and history and story was from the start, once you see how the big picture plays out. On this round I finally made the connection Oathbringer/Rhythm of War? spoilers: Szeth's/the Shin whole religious belief that walking on stone was seen as unholy comes from the agreements they made with the Singers when they first arrived. The locals dictated that if the humans stayed over where the soil is, it's fine, so the legal treaty of "don't go out into the stony lands to the east" became the religious taboo of "walking on stone is unholy" over generations of the Shin trying to hold to this ancient treaty. I didn't immediately put that together first time it's revealed that humans were not native to Roshar, or at least I had forgotten about it between that any my 2nd re-read.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2023 14:00
|
|
|
Subvisual Haze posted:I'm surprised that Wired article stirred up the reaction that it did. It didn't read particularly mean spirited to me, just a moderately resentful journalist trying and failing to create an interesting story about the most "aw shucks" agreeable writer and fandom possible. I think maybe the journo had internalized too much media about wholesome appearing middle class communities hiding deep terrible secrets and was disappointed that everything was just boring nerds with way too much disposable income who won't even get particularly mad if you say their favorite writer isn't very talented. If the writer was compassionate and hadn't already made up his mind, this here was a chance for an entirely different article: quote:Turns out Sanderson doesn’t seem to feel pain of any kind, even emotional. On roller coasters, he’s dead-faced, while his wife is shrieking. “It’s sick and wrong,” she says, smiling. She likes to say she married an android. For his part, Sanderson actually, at this moment, looks pained. He might not feel, he says, but his characters do. They agonize and cry and rejoice and love. That’s one of the reasons he writes, he says: to feel human. That last line genuinely tugged on my heartstrings, and there's so much to unpack there. And that's just a nothing bit in the middle that seems like another thing to point out like how this boring weirdo also adds salt to his food at restaurants.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2023 00:55
|
|
|
I had read the last 4 (5?) wheel of time books as they came out, but somehow never thought to read any Sanderson after that. I was visiting my brother in law and he was reading something from Stormlight Archive, so I picked up Way of Kings and got into the Cosmere from there.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2023 22:36
|
|
|
I think I read most of ROW as a book-book, and then when it felt like too much of a slog and work was too chaotic I switched over to an audiobook. I did end up re-reading some of the latter-half in the print version later. The finale is really good, there's some great stuff going on in the latter third of the book.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2023 23:12
|
|
|
Role of Hoid in the Cosmere: I read WOK as my first Cosmere book, so I was used to Hoid as functioning, living character, if not a 'main' character. It was interesting to read Warbreaker, Mistborn, and Elantris after, and just see his tiny/moderate cameos as he sat on the periphery of the world events and only appeared to do some small nudge, not being as central to the action. I wasn't as into him as the narrator in Tress, I'm glad to hear folks mention that he's a little less... hoid-y? in his narration in SP3.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 02:13
|
|
|
I've done a re-listen at random times in random order for the audiobooks of all of stormlight archive. Way of Kings was fun because of how well it sets up everything that follows- going back and reading these theories and recaps is part of the fun when you know how all the pieces fit together (or at least how they all do by the end of book 4.) I really enjoyed the re-listen of that. General stormlight spoilers: so much of Oathbringer/ROW is all about "what if we're not the good guys" and in WOK he does such a good job of just "yeah, here's what this society is like, it's normal" and the normal is just weird and violent and super into their gender-roles and their bizarre relationship with the church. It's so patently odd and it really sticks out on the re-listen. Words of Radiance was a long time ago and I feel like it was Meh on the second time through. Oathbringer was one of my favorites on the first read, but I feel like on the re-listen I didn't have the same emotional impact because I knew what was coming at the end of the flashback sequences. I just felt so much dread in the lead-up to the end, just seeing how much of a monster Dalinar was, and wondering what event was monstrous enough for him to have to have a reckoning with himself. I could aprpeciate the buildup, but since I knew where it was heading the emotional drama just wasn't there. Rhythm of War gets some flack for length/slog, but I thought the action sequences in it are still great the 2nd time around, and a lot of the characters have interesting internal struggles to wrestle with. I like that a lot, and maybe because of the audiobook format it moved at an easier clip for me.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2023 01:29
|
|
|
Ojjeorago posted:Future Stormlight The Shin already only have half of the honorblades left. Ishar and Nale have theirs, Jezrien’s is with Moash, Taln’s is ???, and since Taln initially had his Honorblade, Chana’s presumably would’ve poofed back to her when she returned and caused the desolation. Oathbringer / future stormlight it's curious to think about what combinations could happen if a bondsmith without Honor's limitations uses one of the Honor Blades. If there was more time between ROW and the contest, Dalinar could train up on one of the other blades and create some ridiculous power-combo, like how he and Shallan can lightweave the whole Roshar map. In the battle at the end of Oathbringer Jasnah talks about how her elsecaller soulcasting powers are amplified because she was using them so close to the perpendicularity that had just been opened. Imagine Dalinar having the full perpendicularity and all of that possibly reality-bending power paired with the elsecaller surges, or any of the others. I'm curious to see how much of the book takes place after the contest. How much of the war is just going to be an arms race for who can create the most anti-stormlight and anti-voidlight daggers, how the fused react to fighting with real, mortal stakes for the first time ever, how the spren respond to the possibility of real, genuine death. The obvious plot point is that the contest happens towards the end of the book, but now that I think about it, the immediate fallout and repercussions might be the more interesting story. Sucks that it's still more than a year away. So it goes! Updated to fix spoiler tag, thanks! road potato fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Aug 15, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2023 18:07
|
|
|
Whoops, fixed. Thank you!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2023 18:25
|
|
|
I finally opened up Yumi, and I just finished part 1. My main takeaway so far, compared to Tress: in Tress I found Hoid's narration and interjection to be very annoying, particularly around when he arrived in the story. It was too much. In this one, his style is a bit more... restrained? It shows up from time to time, but not to the point where it pulls me out of the story. I have other thoughts about Sanderson's use of 'voice' or 'style' or whatever, but I'm going to save them for later and just read the rest of Yumi now. Somebody fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Sep 5, 2023 |
|
#
¿
Sep 5, 2023 01:03
|
|
|
silvergoose posted:My 8yo just finished tearing through the three extant Reckoners books and is eagerly awaiting the next one. I read and quite enjoyed Mistborn, but I don't necessarily know how they compare. I was always thinking Mistborn would be more like early teens kind of fare? But if Reckoners is only a bit behind in theme and language, maybe it'd sooner. Any thoughts on the relative age levels of the two series in question? Do you want to explain to a child with a single digit age about the part where they periodically murder the prostitutes and/or rape victims? It feels YA because it has a young protagonist and the lexile level isn't too high, but content wise it's definitely not there. And the violence is pretty graphically described, with real world consequences and depth. I'd say wait a while.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2023 02:40
|
|
|
socialsecurity posted:WOR spoilers where Pik_D is Kaladin hopping into the ring like is one of my favorite moments of WoR Continuing same distance in the books Honestly one of the best action sequences in all of Stormlight Archive, through and through. There's other moments and snippets that are as fun, but as far as a high-octane, longer scene, that one is just beautifully crafted. Spoilers from further on/future books: The big set-piece battle at the end of Words of Radiance, with the Everstorm coming, the Alethi plan falling to poo poo, Kaladin returning after swearing the next ideal, etc. Jasnah's sequence on the battlefield in ROW has some pretty good moments. What else is there that comes close?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2023 02:39
|
|
|
CapnAndy posted:because I am telling you right now, everyone in this thread who's read the series is laughing their heads off at one specific thing you said. Yeah, I had to figure out how to bring that up to the rest of us without spoiling it. Another highlight of the SA series is that scene. I think the flashback thing is hit and miss, and if you're not powering through the books very rapidly, it feels like it slows down the pace. When I was doing the audiobooks I had an hour commute each direction, so I'd get through 10 hours of book in a workweek if I didn't listen to it while hanging out around the house. If you've paced that first bit over a number of weeks, that will make it feel like a slog for sure. Brandon gets better at the flashback structure as the book goes on, with each of the SA books having it's own focus character. It depends on how much you like the 'main' narrative character that it flashes back to, and how invested you are in learning about their past. If you aren't interested in Kaladin then going back to learn about his pivotal moments, particularly with the slow build is... a bummer. Full SA spoilers: personally I feel like I didn't get as much out of Shallan's flashbacks. I loved the Dalinar flashback arc in Oathbringer, and I enjoyed the worldbuilding from the ROW flashbacks with Eshnoai and Venli and getting more in-depth on Listener/Singer culture.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2023 02:41
|
|
|
acumen posted:I'm actually kinda curious, because there's a bunch of points in there that are a little premature. I mean it's like someone's a third of the way through Fellowship of the Ring and they're wondering why a dumb hobbit gardener is a main character on an important quest or why there aren't any big battles yet I had assumed CapnAndy was talking about (WOR Spoiler) Elhokar sucks and needs to get the poo poo smacked out of him, because that scene is both funny and very satisfying. "Your mother and I are now courting, you might want to start growing accustomed to that" is just the all-time cherry on top. But I could be wrong!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2023 04:00
|
|
|
I just finished Yumi, and I really enjoyed it! It was a good book, and the back half moved along very, very quickly. Like I said earlier I didn't mind the amount of Hoid's voice and involvement in the story as I did in Tress. It was a bit less obstrusive. Now, here's some of my thoughts about the Cosmere going forward, and relation to writing style. Only the tiniest of Tress spoilers, but I'll put it up anyways. I feel like maybe I've voiced this in the thread before, but when I heard in an interview that Mistborn Era 3 is going to be a ~1980s-esque setting that made me a bit nervous. I've become really invested in the Cosmere after reading all of these books. My impression on starting Wax and Wayne was like 'oh it's fun he's writing a western, what a cool little digression before getting back to the epic high-fantasy that I love.' It made some of the technology that appeared in Tress a bit baffling, and the fact that he felt like he had to obscure 'it's just a laptop' and 'it's security monitors' as some arcane thing before just coming out to say it didn't help. I dunno if I get as excited about magic-powered laptops as I can someone launching themselves through the air with a sleeve full of glass daggers, or conjuring their big-rear end magic sword out of thin air to turn the tide of a battle. I also really, really like the tone Sanderson writes with, and I hope that in 'modernizing' everything he doesn't lean too-far into stylizing it. It's very possible that I'm creating a worry out of nothing - I thought Wax and Wayne were good, and got a lot of joy out of the ending of Yumi, so even if the tone/setting is radically different he still knows how to write what I like. Just not what I'm normally looking for to scratch that high-fantasy itch. Am I crazy? Is that weird?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 17, 2023 15:23
|
|
|
I'm meandering my way through Words of Radiance audiobook again. It's fun seeing some foreshadowing, but since I'm going slowlyI have an impatient very-spoilery question for something I forgot: If you have not finished WOR, do not read! Can anyone refresh my memory on what the deal is with the glowing box? I remember Shallan's whole deal with killing her mom with a shardblade and then later her father, but what's the deal with the glowing box that she sees after? She mentions something about a soul, but I just don't recall and don't want to wait a bunch of hours to remember this small bit since I already know the big reveal. Thanks!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2023 14:46
|
|
|
I'm about 1/3 through The Sunlit Man, and so far so good. I'm going to echo Mordiceius's complaint about Fantasy Vocabulary. spoiler for the first bit of Sunlit, I guess Holy poo poo please tell us what the deal with Torment is. The Torment comes up frequently, and it seems like Nomad is intimately familiar with what it is, where it came from, what it means, why it doesn't allow him to do harm to others, but there doesn't seem to be a convincing reason not to have at least given us SOME information. I think there was some kind of bread crumb that happens when they break oaths? or something? but it's just so frustrating at this point. Is this "torment" thing something that has occurred in other parts of the cosmere too that I missed from some other book? Or is Brandon just concealing it for some reason?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2023 18:08
|
|
|
HidaO-Win posted:Stormlight 5 speculation My personal theory is that our core radiant cast are used to make a revised Oathpact and they are all soulcast into stone so they never break from torture. The facts that herald faces cast in stone head chapters and the Fused merged with stone feel like big honking hints in this direction. Stormlight speculation / Secret Project 4: I like the 'Core characters become new heralds' theory, though I don't think the oathpact will exist in the same way as it did before. Sigzil says that there are still people on Roshar he cares about. Which means that some time decades (centuries?) after Stormlight 5, and presumably many years of running, some of the folks have become semi-immortal in some way or another.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2023 01:14
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2023 22:08
|
|
|
I recently re-listened to ROW, and I have a question (full spoilers) the second to last set of epigrams seems like it's Restares/Kalak writing, including this: "The singers first put Jezrien into a gemstone. They think they are clever, discovering they can trap us in those. It only took them seven thousand years." "Yes, die. If you’re reading this and wondering what went wrong—why my soul evaporated soon after being claimed by the gemstone in your knife—then I name you idiot for playing with powers you only presume to understand." But then at the end Shallan doesn't go through with it, so he's still alive. Was that just a misdirect, and we're getting excerpts of his journal that no one is actually reading? Did I somehow miss the chapter where someone else comes and kills him?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2024 20:06
|
|
|
Mordiceius posted:
The hootin' and hollerin factor is much better in Words of Radiance, you've got some fun 'sit in your car in the driveway to finish the chapter' quality scenes later in this book.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2024 20:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 10:55 |
|
|
Stormlight interlude question: There is an interlude in one of the stormlight books told from the perspective of one-of-two random hired goons, who are on some mission with a female master who is smashing old art and such. She says something about shardblades being convenient/handy/whatever and she should get her hands on one some time. She's a world-hopper right? Do we know who she is?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2024 20:15
|
|