J. Grimm

IMO I think it has to do with Design having that human “shell” around her that makes the machine register her as just another human in the city and not a spren. Also she is actively trying to act, appear, etc as a human, which probably has an effect on her Identity as well. And as Werewolff Studios said above, Hoid is more invested than Design so he would be instantly recognizable as being different from the other humans and too juicy of a target for the machine to ignore.

So far looks like I’m in a minority but I liked this book more than Tress overall. Yes the defeat of the machine was a bit abrupt, but the twists throughout the story were well-executed and fit the overall narrative. I thought that the body/soul swapping was actually done very well, and the bathing scenes were fine. Not my favorite parts of the book but I think they helped “normalize” how Yumi and Painter were getting around each other. For Cosmere stuff, I thought that there were a lot of cool tidbits dropped throughout. I guess at the end that Yumi and Painter merged souls in such a way that he gained some of her investiture? Otherwise I don’t see how they could be alive by the time Hoid is telling this story, which has to be after the events of RoW since Hoid references his memories being stolen. Or is Yumi a cognitive shadow of some sort since she was pulled back from the Spiritual (?) realm into the physical. I’ll have to go through my notes later on, but there were some other interesting Realm-related stuff going on in this one as well. But I liked the art, cultures, and overall story of this one better than Tress. They’re close though, and both are definitely ahead of Frugal Wizard (although I didn’t think that one was bad, just very different from Brandon’s usual work).

Hey all, after getting through White Sand vol 2 and seeing our favorite worldhopper (or what we think is him anyway) pop up again, I was wondering if people have created a rough timeline of when Hoid has visited the worlds throughout the Cosmere. I suppose this would be the same order as the worlds appear in Cosmere chronology, but then again, maybe not. So from reading the books, newsletters, WoB, etc, has anybody pieces together a timeline for Hoid's travels?

I have the link in my newsletter from November, 2018 (overlooked it first time ) but it appears to be no longer working. Anybody else have this problem?

Put me down as another who favored the art in chapter 6. While I can appreciate how much time and effort went into those first 5 chapters, the blurry backgrounds and characters, poor consistency in character depictions, and honestly underwhelming depictions of sand mastery just didn't do it for me.

I completely agree that the art in the final chapter was a very welcome close to the novel. While it wasn't a flashy or "colorful" as the first artist's work, I much prefered the simpler, more consistent style as opposed to the "cram as much color and as many things in here but draw it all blurry" visuals.

I was literally about to post the same photo that ShatteringEchoes posted above. I'm convinced that this musician is Hoid.

"You cannot have my pain" struck the biggest chord with me. I was so sure Dalinar was going to go over to Odium in that moment, and instead he resisted. Second biggest moment was Kaladin crying to Syl about not being able to speak the next Ideal. I certainly expected it to happen, but for BS to throw a curveball there was such good writing.

I completely missed this. Where was this in the Diagram?

When did this occur?

Just wanted to say thanks for,compiling all of this! I'll chime in later on with some thoughts/additional speculations.

That's a good point. I suppose it would depend on if the act of filling the metal mind transfers Dor along with the connection. Because if so, then I think what @Lord Maelstrom said above could be true - that using the stamp while taping the metal mind would work, but the time frame would be restricted to how much/long the investiture lasts. After thinking about it a bit more, that seems like the more plausible scenario. Still though, even being able to stamp an object (or person) for a short amount to of time could have its benefits.

Having just finished the book last week, I'd love to hear about what I should have seen, or what I could have missed.

Hello everybody, glad to be here! A little about myself - I discovered I loved reading fantasy & sci-fi novels when I was around 7 years old and I bought a used copy of Timothy Zhan's Thrawn series. From there, I was hooked. Something about characters who can do so much, yet are also inherently flawed, combined with world-threatening events juat resonated with me. I first learned who Sanderson was when I began reading the Wheel of Time series several years ago. My info was limited though - I just knew him as the guy who took over when Jordan passed away. After completing that series, I was impressed with BS, but didn't know he had his own series until a friend told me that he was actually a very well renowned author himself. The first book by Sanderson I read was actually Way of Kings, and I thought it was excellent. My life at that time was pretty chaotic though, and so I remained oblivious to the rest of the Cosmere stories. When Words came out I purchaed it as well, and finally saw that Sanderson had written a bunch of other books. Fortunately, I randomly picked the first of the Mistborn series and dove in. That was around August of last year, and since then I've managed to read every Cosmere story (I think anyway). The more I read the more I was in awe of the sheer scope of the universe BS has created. I'm the type that loves to read a series planned out for the long haul, and so the Cosmere books are right up my alley. I've got tons of theories to discuss, and I'm also really looking forward to reading the ones people have already come up with on here! Thanks again all, look forward to talking with you all some more in the future!

Here's something I've been thinking about ever since reading about stamping: ***Note, I'm brand new to these forums and my theory contains spoilers from the Wax & Wayne books, so I wanted to put this here first. If there's a better way to do this, please just let me know!*** Since we know that stamps lose their effectiveness as they move away from MaiPon, wouldn't being able to use Feruchemistic bands of duralumin solve that problem? Since they store connection, if a person in MaiPon was given a band of nicrosil and duralumin, I believe that they could fill the metal mind, then tap it whenever they needed to use a stamp. Sanderson has talked about how certain magic systems in the Cosmere could work together, which is what led me to this theory.