[Spoilers] Shadows of Self Full Book Reactions

[Chaos]

Shadows of Self is out now. This is the full book reaction topic. What did you think?

[Lady Radagu]

So my run on sentance reaction was that this was a pretty fun book, and it zipped nicely along, ooh, Hi there, Hoid!, and all in all it was more serious than Alloy of Law, but it was so good to see these characters and this world again, some interesting worlbuilding here, and some good cosmere bits, hmm, going to ignore that forshadowing because I really don't want to think about the implications, and Brandon wouldn't do that, and HOLY CRAP, SANDERSON! That was COLD!

It was one thing when you killed off Kelsier. My heart ached when Tien was discarded in an eyeblink. And I thought you'd hit your threshold for dark when Deathpoint killed that mothers baby in her arms, in excruciating detail. But Sanderson! That. Was. COLD!

Also, you go, Aradel! Woooo!

[Windrunner]

Whoa, where was Hoid? I totally forgot to look for him.

The new metal and all its implications were my favorite part. I really don't know what to think there. I don't think it's Odium, but that is just a gut reaction.

Also, did it explain how Paalm used spikes to speak directly into someone's mind? Or was that just tied in with her mysterious spike? Was it her that spoke through Miles at the end of Alloy? Seems unlikely. She also devised a new Hemalurgic construct, which she definitely didn't learn from the Lord Ruler.

Harmony's more active role this time was cool to see as well. And Steris really did come into her own. She and Wax may just turn into an awesome couple still.

I was intrigued by the "mixed" ability of Twinborn as well. They may be subtle, but if each is unique there are 256 more potential quiet powers we know nothing about!

Stormlight Spoilers

Also, from the broadsheet, does anyone think that picture of the visitor from another planet looked an awful lot like Iyatil's description? Maybe, maybe not, but it's all I could come up with.

[Moogle]

Just finished it. What a fun ride! Not that I'll be thanking myself tomorrow...

• What the heck did the Set want? Why did they support pretty much burning Elendel down to the ground?
• Idashwy is still a mystery. She was spiked by someone, and "visited by her dead brother". They found no spike in her dead corpse - what spike was she given?
• I really appreciate the exploration of Harmony's woes. Would still support him acting as an immortal judge on whether not someone committed a crime. When you're manipulating the course of people's lives, at least you could see fit to make sure the people who deserve punishment get it.
• Suit mentioned an expectation that Wax's sister would want to be a hero... any guesses on what Metalborn powers she ended up with? Someone suggested Connector Ferring, but that doesn't fit "hero" to me.
• NEW METAL HELLO. Silvery with dark red spots. Cosmere spoilers:
  Odium seems to like his red, but he's been confined to Roshar for the past while, and silver ain't his thing(?). I would expect Endowment to be more colorful. Of course, metal color doesn't correspond to Shardic color.

  And this god knows how to use Hemalurgy... is that a hint? Do other Shards know how to work the systems of others? Or perhaps this god just has an instinctive understanding of their own metal...

• Using a god metal to spike someone should allow that god to control them.
• Worldhopper coming from a pool of blue. Is blue considered a Harmony color? The fact that the pool was in the mountains is evidence for it being a Shardpool, but blue? WoR spoilers:
  And the mask thing... I'm with Windy on this one, sounds like Iyatil's people.

• New Hemalurgical creations. Didn't TLR fail to create those over a thousand years? Definitely a Shard or Splinter involved with Bleeder.
• Bleeder has a really good point in that people resent being manipulated!
• Bleeder was Lessie, and Bloody Tan was... not Bleeder. The mystery of Tan has yet to be resolved.
• Someone has to say it: someone get Harmony to draw up a list of bind points and start experimenting with this new spike. I want alloys! I want alloys of god metals with god metals! Get Harmony to make some gigantic plants for you to spike. Gold Compounders can test them out, since they can heal after.
• Really enjoyed Steris. Pity Wax seemingly feels zero attraction for her.
• Ranette actually namedropped a girlfriend! Actual in-text confirmation is nice.
• I was amused when it was explicitly noted one of the characters constantly assumed mysterious people were male.
• Hoid, driving carriages! Wonder why he was in Elendel.
• Feruchemical iron conserves momentum! Doesn't fix infinite energy exploits, but notable.

[Zathoth]

The Bleeder reveal left me heartbroken. Like... wow...

I dont know about Wax feeling nothing for Steris. He at least likes her as a human being and doesnt mind being married to her. The marriage was never out of love anyway.

 

Who was Iyatyl? I seem to have missed that. The visitor from the other world looks more like a Parshendi to me.

 

Anyway I think the shard did the hacking of the hemalurgical landline. Seems like they can hack each others magic systems.

 

I find the twinborn having an extra effect to their abilities to be interesting as well.

 

 

Remember when Hoid said that he had to be somewhere else in WoR? I think he went to Scadrial for these exact reasons.

 

Also, God Metal alloys, yes please I want to see all the possible alloys that could possibly exist. Actually give me God Metals of all the shards and their alloys.

 

My theory is that Bleeder is not really doing all this by her own free will at all, she is being manipulated by her spike.

[natc]

If that's what Hoid left for, he must work pretty fast, since he returned in time for the WoR epilogue.

Huzzah for god metal!

[Mashadar Mistborn]

I'm going to make a rather weak theory here. If the theory that Shards can act upon one another's intents is true, then Odium, fearing Harmony, might have corrupted another shards influence, as shown by the red spots on the metal. I'm going to call that Shard Freedom for now because a corrupted version of freedom seems to align with the intents of the followers of Trell shown in the books. Both Miles and Paalm show a twisted desire for freedom.

[eyestothesun]

Wow, wow, wow. I read it in one go because, as usual, I couldn't put it down. That Bleeder reveal left me in tears. Wow, that was brutal, and I think that might of been the cruelest thing Sanderson has done to a character (yeah, I think it might be crueler than

Tien dying and Kaladin watching Amaram murder his friends

. I mean, it's pretty stiff competition). What's worse is looking back it was so clearly laid out, and a part of me suspected it once we realized it was a rogue kandra behind everything, but I so did not want to believe Brandon would go there.

 

The character development was lovely and watching the relationships unfold was a lot of fun. Still rooting for Steris/Wax--she doesn't need to be his great love like Lessie was, but I think there's potential to find peace and comfort with each other. That closing scene between the two of them also left me in tears.

 

I haven't had a proper book coma like this in a while, but this one is going to leave me in quite a state for a while. 

 

Does it necessarily have to be another shard? Isn't Kelsier hanging out somewhere--any chances he's causing problems? I mean, I think it would be awesome to see another shard, but it feels too early to begin that sort of obvious cross-series stuff. 

Edited October 7, 2015 by eyestothesun

[the winter system]

Did someone see the other post, I think someone put it in the Cosmere forum, but it said that Bavadin's Intent was Autonomy.  

[xekrar]

Really great, as very much expected. It was particularly fun reading about the era 1 mistborn characters.

 

Need more time to digest, but I was particularly interested in Harmony remarking about tech like radios and aviation. That he knows about them suggests someone on the planet has developed it, probably the southern civilization. So technologically superior red and gold invasion soon? >_>

 

Perhaps Autonomy "oversees" them, letting them develop tech mostly on their own? I don't think it's Odium either, currently, and it's interesting Bavadin's intent was released. Fits to an extent with Paalm's spike/goals as well.

Edited October 6, 2015 by xekrar

[fyodor]

• Idashwy is still a mystery. She was spiked by someone, and "visited by her dead brother". They found no spike in her dead corpse - what spike was she given?

Was she spiked? I thought that they found the wounds of her having had her ability taken away. I assumed that the dead brother was Bleeder. 

 

 

• Feruchemical iron conserves momentum! Doesn't fix infinite energy exploits, but notable.

Does it? When did this happen? I thought that we'd seen some counterexamples in alloy, like when Wax breaks a door open by leaping into it and then increasing his weight.

[fyodor]

Really great, as very much expected. It was particularly fun reading about the era 1 mistborn characters.

 

Need more time to digest, but I was particularly interested in Harmony remarking about tech like radios and aviation. That he knows about them suggests someone on the planet has developed it, probably the southern civilization. So technologically superior red and gold invasion soon? >_>

 

 

 

 

 

I got the impression that Sazed knew about these from his harmony-powers. I think in Alloy Marasi notes that the Words of Founding foretold all of the recent technological innovation and additional future ones, like flying machines.

Edited October 6, 2015 by fyodor

[Moogle]

• Idashwy was being visited by the spirit of her dead brother and acting "erratically" - clear signs of a Hemalurgic spike. Not confirmed I suppose, but it seems very much to me like she had one.

Kandra need to consume people's hair to use it well - Bleeder was very potentially not at the party, because a girl matching Idashwy's description was there with the golden hair and everything. (Also, her corpse was not digested.)

For the conserved momentum thing, check out Wax's chase of Bleeder at the end. As he's flying along by Pushing on lamp posts, he notes when he becomes lighter that he gets a speed boost.

[fyodor]

Yeah, I see what you mean about the momentum-it seems to contradict what we've seen before, particularly here. 

 

https://goo.gl/xjzG3v

 

To be honest it's never really struck me as a particularly well thought out concept in the series.

Edited October 6, 2015 by fyodor

[acatnamedkaren]

MINDBLOWN. TWICE.

First with the identity of bleeder, and then the new metal/shardpool/Autonomy.

Totally worth ordering the book and spending nearly 50 bucks. Rusting shipping fees.

[Moogle]

Thinking things over... Wax notes his grandmother does not need a walking stick, but uses one anyways.

 

Full Feruchemist?

 

(We need her to start storing/tapping in this strange new metal immediately.)

[lordofsoup]

I was expecting Lessie's body to show up at some point with Bloody Tan still floating around, but not like that.  Dam

 

Also Im sad that Marsh didnt get an emergency call up.  

 

Hello this is Death, I would like you to stop rioting.  

K, Thanks.  

Ironeyes

[Zathoth]

Thinking things over... Wax notes his grandmother does not need a walking stick, but uses one anyways.

 

Full Feruchemist?

 

(We need her to start storing/tapping in this strange new metal immediately.)

... I dont think I understand your reasoning.

 

(I definitely think we'll see more of this strange, new metal in Bands of Mourning)

[Moogle]

... I dont think I understand your reasoning.

 

(I definitely think we'll see more of this strange, new metal in Bands of Mourning)

 

She's using a walking staff because she's storing strength is my thought.

 

Here's the passage:

The three Terrismen turned, then quickly bowed as an old Terriswoman approached. Stately and white-haired, she had darker skin than Wax, and walked with a cane she didn’t need. The woman, Vwafendal, studied Wax. He found himself sweating.

Razal, still bowing, spoke with a stubborn tone. “We tried to send him away, Elder.”

“He has a right to be here,” Vwafendal said. “He has as much Terris blood as you do; more than most.”

The Terrisman Brute started, then rose from his bow, peering again at Wax. “You don’t mean…”

“Yes,” Vwafendal said, looking very tired. “This is he. My grandson.”

[hafje]

So I guess the boost Wax experiences when decreasing his weight during a steelpush is the effect of his twinborn powers.

Also Harmony saying: "Yet others, who were nearly destroyed..." When talking about technological process. Does he mean the Southern people here?

[Zathoth]

She's using a walking staff because she's storing strength is my thought.

 

Here's the passage:

The three Terrismen turned, then quickly bowed as an old Terriswoman approached. Stately and white-haired, she had darker skin than Wax, and walked with a cane she didn’t need. The woman, Vwafendal, studied Wax. He found himself sweating.

Razal, still bowing, spoke with a stubborn tone. “We tried to send him away, Elder.”

“He has a right to be here,” Vwafendal said. “He has as much Terris blood as you do; more than most.”

The Terrisman Brute started, then rose from his bow, peering again at Wax. “You don’t mean…”

“Yes,” Vwafendal said, looking very tired. “This is he. My grandson.”

Oh, nice thinking! She could just be a Brute though, or do we see clues of her using any other kind of feruchemy?

[Moogle]

Oh, nice thinking! She could just be a Brute though, or do we see clues of her using any other kind of feruchemy?

 

She could be, but she seems to be particularly pure Terris-blooded. She's remarked as having very dark skin, whereas her descendent (Wax) is merely tan. Ferrings only came about when they intermixed with Allomantic bloodlines, to my knowledge.

[Landis963]

I just finished reading it about an hour ago, and I'm still slightly poleaxed from the emotional barrage.  I completely missed the clues about Shardpool #3, assuming that the Pits of Hathsin are still, technically, in use, although I did notice the parshendi and that the pool was in fact a Shardpool.  However, my main thoughts are that Harmony does not have as tight a grip on his Intent as he might like, if he plays the chessmaster as often as he appeared to.  (Seriously, what in Damnation, Harmony?)  

Edited October 6, 2015 by Landis963

[Zathoth]

She could be, but she seems to be particularly pure Terris-blooded. She's remarked as having very dark skin, whereas her descendent (Wax) is merely tan. Ferrings only came about when they intermixed with Allomantic bloodlines, to my knowledge.

How comes Terris are so tan when they lived in ice and snow anyway?

I can see her being a full feruchemist then, it is possible.

 

I think it was something about the spirit genes mixing poorly and thats why you get ferrings, yes.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Morzathoth

[Echo]

Snow can cause seriously bad sunburns. They probably have really dark skin because over time, their skin got darker and darker. Or thats just how they started. I don't know.