Vivenna

I definitely agree about the "Brandon avalanche." I love that there is always some mystery to his books, some secret about the world or the magic or the history that no one really knows about. The reveal about what had happened to Elantris, trying to figure out what had gone wrong all those years ago in Scadrial, with the Lord Ruler and the Hero of Ages and the Deepness, the secret about the God-King in Warbreaker - all those things keep me hooked and usually just end up blowing me away. It makes it so epic. On top of that, I am generally just in awe of Brandon's magic systems. I like how he takes very basic magic systems and makes them specific to his world, and that they are so tied into the plot, and not just having magic there because it's fantasy.

I honestly don't really remember. I would say I discovered it here after reading Way of Kings, but I'm pretty sure I knew about it before Way of Kings, because I don't remembering being surprised/confused about Hoid, or any other cosmere references. I think I probably heard something about it on Brandon's blog or from his twitter, and then started googling around and read about it here.

Well, I don't work for amazon, so I can't say for sure, but the box set on amazon is probably on sale. For online bookstores, the prices are often really cheap (not necessarily compared to the ebook price, but definitely compared to an in-store price). Part of that is because they don't have to pay to ship out like bookstores do, but it's also because online, they have a lot of sale prices all the time. EDIT - Just checked, and it likely is on sale - if you see the crossed out price, it's usually $23.97. Another thing to keep in mind is that mass markets paperbacks are already pretty cheap, so their ebook counterpart is often the same price, or only a dollar cheaper. Compared to, say, hardcover books, whose ebook counterparts are usually much cheaper.

That would be super awesome, I have to agree

It's relatively new news (lol), they just announced that yesterday, so you're not out of the loop! I just wonder what that means for Stormlight 2. It seems A Memory of Light was pushed back because they want lots of time for the editing, but does that mean Stormlight 2 is going to come out way later than originally anticiapted too? Or might it be released soon after AMoL? I suppose it depends largely on when Brandon finishes Stormlight 2. I'm certainly willing to wait as long as it takes, so I don't mind. But I do wonder.

Well, my story of how I found Brandon is pretty common - through Wheel of Time. I'd started reading Wheel of Time in high school, almost ten years ago now. I heard Brandon was finishing the series around the time they announced it, but it wasn't til a year or two later that I picked up Elantris. I found the beginning a bit slow, but the second half had me hooked, and the end just blew me away. I read the Mistborn trilogy about six months later and was even more impressed. I didn't read Warbreaker for a while, like a year and a half later. My family does a family book club (yes, we are big nerds like that), and it was my turn to pick the book, and we have to pick a book no one has read yet, so I picked Warbreaker. I thought it would be a good one, because not everyone in family likes fantasy, but it's (currently) a stand-alone, and if I had to pick a fantasy author to recommend to someone who doesn't liek fantasy, Sanderson is definitely one of those I would pick. Anyway, my whole family really liked the book! My mom wants to read his other books now (though she still hasn't, she doesn't read a lot), and my sister does too, though she'd been reading Wheel of Time first. Anyhow, shortly after that I read Way of Kings, which is now my favorite of his works. I can't wait for the second Stormlight book.

Me too! I just reread WoK and when Sadeas was showing interest in Way of Kings and starting to act understanding about it all, I was like, maybe I remembered the end of this book wrong...? Vivenna is actually one of my favorite characters (see:username), because of the same reason spacemonkey mentioned - her growth as a character. She was super annoying at first, but once she got away from Denth and got her act together, she changed radically. The moment when she swoops in through the window to save Vasher from Denth was full of win. Especially since she couldn't do much to help (couldn't really fight, and only had minor Awakening abilities), but went to save him anyway. On that note, I love Vasher too. Hrathen is definitely awesome too - he's really the only character in Elantris that I'm very interested in. He's a super awesome villain, and then does a 180, which is good, because otherwise he might have been a bit flat. I like Kelsier and Vin, but Marsh I like a whole lot more. Shows up to save the day at the end of Mistborn. Shows up to save the day at the end of HoA. Kaladin is definitely my favorite from WoK, though Dalinar is up there too, and I actually like Adolin quite a lot too - he annoyed me at first, but he also comes around, and I really wasn't expecting him to, so that made me like him a lot. So far I don't care for Shallan that much, though she has a lot of potential. I could see her being like Vivenna for me, annoying me at first but eventually becoming super awesome.

Well, on the subject of lying, Syl, at first, doesn't seem to understand the concept of lying or why someone would like, though later, Kaladin mentions that there are cirumstances where it's okay to lie, and maybe even the right thing to do (like telling his men they can escape when it seems extremely unlikely), and Syl seems to understand that. So, Syl being honorspren, I would think that those kinds of lies would be okay for Honor, but not outright deception.

These aren't all necessarily getting their own book though, right? They're just the main people we will get viewpoints from? I thought he said some people might get 2. Really excited about Taln's viewpoint though, and I agree that Shalash could be the other Herald.

Actually, Shallan is not really a favorite of mine either, though I don't want her to die and am really excited to find out more about her. I expect (or hope) that she will be one of these characters who I'm not crazy about at first, but eventually turns out to be really awesome. She certainly has the potential for it. That's happened for me with a few other characters of Brandon's in some of his other works. That said, because she's not a favorite of mine, and because Kaladin is, I'm kind of hoping they don't get together I like the idea of a Renarin/Shallan/Adolin triangle, I can definitely see that. Also, first post! I am officially delurking