vividox

I don't understand why this is even an argument, to be honest. I'd like a polished White Sand Prose just as much as I'd like any other Cosmere book. And if it pushes out the Cosmere one or two more books... oh darn more Cosmere.

Yeah, Felt is a confirmed (by Brandon) worldhopper. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e138

I've seen a lot of anti-Shallan comments on this book. I actually liked her story arc a lot. I think the split personalities and her struggle with them is really interesting - definitely not something you see in fantasy pretty much ever. She's teetering on the edge of legitimately crazy and being a planet-saving hero, and that dichotomy is fascinating to me. I dunno, maybe I can strangely relate some days (not that I'm going crazy or anything, just that sometimes you can feel completely overwhelmed or lost and other times you can accomplish something amazing and feel great about it).

Malata just feels like a really boring Taravangian pawn at this point.

I couldn't agree with this more, and that part was incredibly frustrating to me. I mean, I guess you can make the case that Taravangian really thinks that despite everything Dalinar has done, it's meaningless in the face of a Shard. But to actively undermine him when he's doing such a good job of evening the score is just bewildering. I guess it does fall in line with Taravangian's smarter/crueler days (a guarantee of a city is better than a slim chance at the whole population, in sheer numerical terms), but it's kind of strange that he puts so much emphasis on the smarter/crueler days when several parts of the diagram have already been shown to be wrong and clearly the future is not set in stone. Tangential thought: I almost wonder if he's having more dumb/empathetic days because Cultivation is trying to make him more emotionally invested in his decisions?

+1 to all of this. This would also make sense in light of knowing that Brandon felt the need to write all of Szeth's flashback scenes for Book 4 before finishing Oathbringer. It's a good bet that that Szeth's history with his spren is already canonized.

Totally not book related, but how is it possible to read this book in 7.5 hours? Haha. I must be a super slow reader, or maybe I just like time to digest, but I'm doing well if I can cover 400 pages in that amount of time.

Oh my God, and I forgot to mention. Adolin and Maya was AWESOME. When he summoned her at just seven heartbeats... holy cow that was awesome. He's healing his Shardblade!

Just finished last night. Wow. Wow. Chaos' spoiler-free review was not wrong. That was one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Loved the lore and the double-Sanderlanche. Notable reactions: I had a very clear and precise moment when it finally clicked in my head that Azure = Vivenna. For some reason the name Azure didn't make it click, but the cape wrapping around her arm did. I had to put the book down, jump up and down a bit, and say WOW about sixteen times before I could get it together and read any more, I was so excited. I really liked getting to see some extended time in Shademar and the first glimpse of spren civilization. Dalinar's entire story arc was exceptional. His backstory was brutal, but the way it all came together and allowed him to be exactly where he needed to be to capture Nergaoul was excellent. I also really liked the Venli story arc. When she started saying the words, oh man. The feels. I'll be really interested to see where her arc goes from here. I'm guessing the Eshonai book is going to have Eshonai flashbacks and focus mainly on Venli? The book set up perfectly for Szeth's Book 4... Elhokar getting killed right as he was saying the first ideal... brutal. Effing Moash. SMH. The Battle of Thaylen City was so epic. One of the coolest battle sequences I've ever read, and that came after the Kholinar battle, which, up to that point, was one of the coolest battle sequences I've ever read. Jasnah as Queen? Interesting. Did... did Hoid just become a Knight Radiant?! There is just so much to process now. Time to start going through this thread and seeing what I missed...

Less than two days to go!

I wonder how long it's going to take me to read 900ish pages? T/W/Th is, unfortunately, the busiest part of my week.

Agree with the majority of your post, but I'd just like to point out that a murder turning out to not be successful is no reason whatsoever for Shallan to stop hating the Ghostbloods for the attempt.

Oooh, that's an interesting theory. And puts the Fuseds unfamiliarity with the powers in a very different light.

I just realized the next thing I get to read is some interludes and that has me so incredibly excited.

Kaladin: Some very interesting descriptions about the Voidbringers and their dark-Stormlight. I've said this before in another thread, but I love the direction this has taken with the parshmen/Voidbringers. So much more interesting than just "the Everstorm turned them all into mindless destroyers." Shallan: I wasn't expecting to hear from her again in Part 1, but as soon as I read her name I knew Jasnah was returning. Overall, pretty good start to the book. As I noted above, the parshmen/Voidbringer setup is excellent and Kaladin's POV offered a nice insight into what is going on there. There is a lot to come with Dalinar starting to remember Evi, Jasnah returning, Kaladin returning, the Re-Shephir encounter, Ialai/Adolin/Sadeas, Amaran, Taravangian, the Dustbringer, the Ghostbloods... Man. I'm so excited for next week. With Jasnah coming back and from Brandon's comments, I think there is a really good chance Part 2 is going to have a pretty significant Cosmere/Shadesmar infodump, and I am so excited for every single little morsel we can get. Just one week away!