Vaidd

Calamity wanted to see the humans get wiped out, and he assumed that the Epics would do it. Apparently it wasn't happening fast enough for him, so he may have figured that a super-duper-powered Epic or two would speed things along. Also note that Obliteration was going around wiping out humans, so Calamity may have wanted to "reward" him by enhancing his powers.

This follows the pattern of modus tollens: Premise: If A is true, then B is true. Premise: B is not true. Conclusion: A is not true. You used the negation (that, is you said "not X" or "X is false") in place of A, but it's still a valid way of forming an argument. Of course, as Blaze noted, the challenge comes from rigorously proving the premises.

The symbols beside the thread indicate There is a new post in that thread since the last time you read it (that's also why some thread titles are bolded). The thread has been locked by an admin. You've posted to that thread. More than one symbol can appear, or none, depending on how many of those things apply to that particular thread. Pro tip: You can click on the "new post" symbol to jump straight to the first unread post in the thread.

I cringe every time I read this. It just doesn't sound right in my head. I'm with you. That's an awesome, stand-up-and-cheer scene...except that line throws me out of the narrative every time. Either make her say "your," or have her say "thy" every now and then during the previous three-quarters of a million words. Still, if that's the worst I can say about the books, I guess they were pretty darn good overall.

I think this would be awesome, especially since Brandon is planning to be at Fantasycon. If you do it, please: a ) try to get a picture with Brandon, and b ) keep track of how many people ask you for autographs.

That unit would be the brown, of course. Based on Leester's theory, where 1 Breath contains 0.5 browns worth of soul, one would achieve the Fifth Heightening after accumulating approximately one kilobrown. Edit: made my stupid joke more consistent with the discussion above.

I personally liked it a lot, so I'd say go ahead and take the plunge. If the size is intimidating (and I don't blame you if it is), there's nothing that says you have to read them all back-to-back-to-back-to... etc. If you finish a book and want to "take a break" and read a something else, do it and come back later. The subsequent books won't change any while you're gone. I'll warn you that the middle portion of the series may seem a little, um, unfocused. Oh, okay, I'll say it straight: Jordan's storytelling starts to seriously meander into some really wide-ranging plot threads. You might, for instance, spend several chapters wondering why you're reading about characters you find annoying. Don't give up on it. There are some really awesome scenes in there (the climaxes of books 6, 7, and 9 come to mind). And all of those meandering plot threads will start to converge, resolve, and make sense starting in about book 11. By the time you reach Brandon's contributions in books 12, everything will be building up to the big finish in book 14. And by "big finish," I mean (seriously, this is a spoiler) And by the way, if you were really channeling David, you'd have compared the series to a parking lot or a flamethrower or something like that.

Well, if you accept this deleted scene as canon, then you pretty much have to accept that the stick is a stick. Otherwise, we only have Shallan's word for it, and we know she's an unreliable narrator.

It's not yet confirmed, but he's "leaning that way." I believe Brandon has previously said that he wants to write the first couple chapters of multiple (two? three?) flashback characters and see which one works best. Edit: Cleaned up formatting.

Welcome to the site! LabRat's suggestion is as good as any, but Brandon wrote the different series so that they stand alone, so read whichever one looks most fun at the moment. I'd also add, don't forget about the Mistborn sequels (starting with "Alloy of Law," with two more coming out in the next few months). You should also make time for The Stormlight Archive, which is my personal favorite Sanderson story, but not by much. Have fun reading, and be sure to come back here to share your ideas and theories.

Just one. I originally got The Way of Kings in paperback, but when I realized how awesome it was and that there would be nine more in the series (this was before Words of Radiance came out), I decided to get a hardback copy. Since I now had an extra, I gave my original paperback copy to a friend. A week later (!) I got an email from her that said, "Why didn't you warn me he hasn't written book two yet!?"

If you're referring to the Harry Potter series, "Half-Blood" was used pejoratively. Rowling made a point of showing us how hurtful it was when the "old" wizarding families were dismissive of a "half-blood" or "mud-blood's" talents or accomplishments. Going back to the real world, I'm afraid the term is much, much more common than you realize. In the U.S., it was historically applied to people of both Native American and White descent, but its use has expanded to include people of both Black and White descent. In both cases, it was a way for racists to categorize someone as "not White" or specifically as "less than White." If you still don't believe me, try a few Google searches with "safe search" turned off. Be prepared, though: you will see some truly vile, racist screeds if you do this, but maybe that will help you understand why I felt I had to speak up.

Oh, I know you wouldn't dock rep points. It was more of a lame joke to let me segue from my disclaimer to my actual point. Okay, so Vin and Kelsier are awesome. But would you walk up to Vin and say to her face, "Yeah, I guess you're doing pretty well for a half-breed?" If you did, there'd be two half-people standing where you used to be. Even in a fictional world, a label can hurt no matter how widely it is used or even accepted. In the real world, race relations are much more complicated. (And besides, if all "half-breeds" are really that awesome in the Cosmere, this rank would be much higher up the list.) If only it were this easy to avoid the real world. This is basically my point, except expressed in a single sentence instead of an essay. Thanks for weighing in--it's good to have an "insider's" view on this. I agree that it should not be awkward to discuss race when it is relevant, although if I found myself in such a discussion, such as this thread, I would try to avoid terms that historically have been used to disparage or insult others. That way, if my my listener(s) would be insulted by such terms, I would avoid giving offense (at least in that particular way--I'm perfectly capable of putting my foot in my mouth in other ways.) I have one question for you, and this is to help me understand your point of view, and not to try to bait or entrap you. If someone posted and said "I'm bi-racial and I get really mad when people use this term," what would your reaction be? Would you accept it as a valid response, or would you say that person is too sensitive? Or perhaps some other response that didn't occur to me? And yeah, that was technically three questions, but they're all asking the same thing.

There's something that's been bothering me since I started coming to this site a few months ago, and I've decided I have to say something about it. Please note that my intention is not to make any accusations toward anyone, nor do I want to inflame any angry debate. I would encourage anyone who contributes to this conversation to do so in a reasonable and respectful manner. If the mods feel that this topic will lead to--or has led to--a massive flame war, I'll completely understand if they wish to lock or even delete this thread. (I just ask that they don't dock me 15 reputation points from my current 33, for reasons that I will explain in the next paragraph.) When a person has between 16 and 19 reputation on these forums, he or she is given the rank of "Half-breed." I'm fully aware of the connection between this term and Sanderson's work. However, we Sharders live in the real world, and in our world, "half-breed" is often used as a racial slur to describe a bi-racial person. If you don't believe me, look it up for yourself. I'll wait here. Everyone on this site makes great efforts to be friendly and agreeable, so I know that we all want to be as welcoming as possible to everyone who comes here. I'd hate it if a new user came here, made a few posts, earned a few rep points, and then was made to feel unwelcome because the label "half-breed" was suddenly applied to him or her. This would be especially true if he or she had only read, say, The Reckoners and didn't understand the context from which the rank was derived. I'm certain that the admins who came up with the ranks had no intent of being offensive or insulting when they put "half-breed" in the list. That doesn't mean it can't legitimately offend or insult someone. Unintentional insults can inflict just as much pain as malicious ones, and it's important that we always do our best never to give offense, whether accidentally or on purpose. Of course, if we're going to do away with a rank, we need to think about what to replace it with. I nominate "Slontze" because we don't seem to have any Reckoners ranks on the current list, but really, just about any Sanderson-related term we pick would be better than what we've got. I'm certain that an admin could, in far less time than it took me to compose this post, change whatever table governs the ranks and replace "half-breed" with something more appropriate, and this brings me to my final argument: cost versus benefit. With only a few seconds of effort by one admin, we'd all gain the benefit of being even more welcoming to potential new members of our community. I'd say that's worth the cost, wouldn't you?

Fear not! All of the illustrations are available at Brandon's web site. Just select any individual title from the "Books" menu at the top, then look in the right-hand column for "<book name> Maps and Illustrations." For example, here are the illustrations from The Way of Kings.