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  1. Hey there everyone I have selected the 4 winners, so *drumrolls* Lyssie iregretathing Gaelan EnaMai I'll be in contact with each of you asap
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  2. I have a theory. Based on nothing very much more than a hunch. I think all Epics are granted the same baseline level of powers. Maybe some specific abilities are more useful than others (just ask "I can talk to cheese" man) but at sheer power, they were all the same. What's the difference then between High Epics and normal Epics? I'm glad you asked that, voice-in-my-head. The Tensors allow people to use the power of an Epic. David was naturally amazing with them. Tia was alright. Why the difference? It is my belief that there is some human trait, maybe the ability to improvise, maybe cunning, imagination, or just some ephemeral trait. I think all humans have it, to a greater or lesser extent. Usually it doesn't mean anything, since you don't have Epic power. But here's my hypothesis. The High Epics are the ones who a)are granted power by Calamity, b)got prime invulnerability and a useful offensive power, and c)had this je-ne-sais-quality. My only evidence is David. After a week, he was as good with the tensors as Cody, who'd been using them months (years?), and three days after seeing Prof pull a trick, he was replicating it. How? I think David never got an Epic power, but had the inherent quality that would have made him a High Epic. EDIT: Caught a typo.
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  3. Summary: An ongoing compilation of small fics featuring Shallan Davar and Renarin Kholin and a blossoming relationship between them. Takes place post-WoK. This story can be found in multiple places: Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.Net, and Tumblr. Click the names to read on the platform of your choice! (I would recommend reading on tumblr, because there you can see the art that Botanica Xu was kind enough to draw for me. Seriously like the best thing ever. She's awesome. Her cosmere art is incredible.)
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  4. These ideas have come from this thread, and the original idea in that thread of gathering a piece of every shard was Darnam's. The question is... could someone (say... Hoid) make a splinter of Adonalsium if he gathered a piece of each Shard, and if so... what would he need to gather. At least two are givens as far as I am aware (Preservation and Ruin) but what of the other Shards we know? As we go I'll update this post with what we figure out or suggest. Preservation: A Lerasium bead Ruin: An Atium bead Devotion: Dominion: Endowment: The tears of Edgli? A divine breath? Honor: A gemheart? An honourspren? Odium: Cultivation:
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  5. This year Brandon has been to Atlanta (twice), Birmingham, Raleigh, Fort Myers, and New Orleans. (And Denver.) If you've missed these events, get on his mailing list and tell him what city you live in so he can send you an email when he is signing nearby.
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  6. Welcome DLZ, glad to have another fan. there is a topic on which signing people will be attending and I remember someone posting they will attend multiple signings in the Chicago area. Go check out the thread, as I don't remember who it was. there is also another thread with a whole list of complied questions to ask Brandon somewhere...I think Chaos complied it. you'll have no shortage after reading that. and lastly, i'm rather new myself, but I haven't seen actual photos yet, usually clip art. but that doesn't mean you can't shake things up and be different.
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  7. well, when you said he had a few million in his pocket, I imediately though this little boy was filthy rich, irregardless of the fact it was leftover lunch money. if you could infer with word choice that peter only has a "measly 3 million, not worth the effort" it might help give the sense that the economy is way different. world building details that highlight how this story is NOT what we live in now should help. i like the world building ideas. I'm excited to see where this story goes.
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  8. . . Here it is: The part in brackets seems to fit with you here: This quote might imply that Hoid wasn't the original holder of Adonalsium. And: Would he still live if his power was Shattered? Skai, Honor and (forgot the name) died when their power (Devotion, Dominion and Honor) were Splintered (or Shattered).
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  9. They do indeed correspond to the symbols of the Radiant orders. The one on the cover of TWoK is of course the symbol for the Windrunners. I am less certain that they are also language glyphs unless Miyabi has a source to indicate otherwise. As to their relation to shardblades, it should be noted that the blade on the cover of TWoK appears to be double-edged whereas Szeth's blade is described as double-edged as a contrast to typical shardblades. Besides, if anything, I would expect that they would be representations of the Honorblades of each Herald associated with each order. In the case of TWoK, that would be Jezrien.
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  10. If David could copy or steal powers, why did he have barely enough power to stop a bullet when Lime Light was using almost everything he had to kill Steelheart? If David is an epic, why doesn't he exhibit any of the signs that epics typically exhibit when using those powers? If David is an epic, why didn't he steal Steelhearts powers when his life was in jeopardy? And finally, if David is an epic, knees is about the absolute worst epic name I've ever heard.
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  11. When the guards are looking at David and Megan in the elevator shaft, they hear the tensor: David and Megan then discover the secret room. But the secret room wasn't making any noise. So what did the guards think they were hearing?
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  12. Interesting questions. Does he simply need ANY part of each Shard (be that Sliver, Splinter, physical body, cognitive aspect, or spiritweb?) I'm not saying he'd necessarily make a "Splinter of Adonalsium" with it, but maybe he could do SOMETHING? It's my belief, though I admit I have no real evidence and I'm completely open to other ideas, that Hoid is trying to reform Adonalsium, or at least rejoin all the Shards into one thing which may not be the same thing as Adonalsium anymore. I've heard the Shattering described as breaking a window. That each Shard is one slice of the "pie" of what used to be Adonalsium. We've seen with Ruin and Preservation that joining those two, specifically, is as easy as a single human taking up both Shards. Is that the case for any two Shards, I wonder? Were Ruin and Preservation originally side-by-side in the "pie" of Adonalsium? Could you join two Shards that didn't share a "border", as it were? If this theory is unclear, I will try to get someone better than me to draw a bitmap or something to illustrate. Back to my original thought: If Hoid is trying to join them all, maybe he doesn't know exactly how to do it, either. Maybe he's trying to take all these bits of the Shards, their bodies and Splinters and what-not, so he can begin experiments to figure out how they interact and what he can do to bring about their joining. Side theory: We actually do have an idea of something Odium fears. He doesn't want to take on any other Intents. What if the way someone finally defeats him is that a Shardholder sacrifices his or her life to literally force their own Shard upon Rayse? We have WoB (does anyone have the quote?) that Shattering Harmony back into Ruin and Preservation isn't quite that easy. Rayse might not be able to divest himself of the second Shard once it's melded to his own, which might be something that distracts him long enough for someone else to stop him. Or maybe Rayse will end up being the one to take on EVERY other Shard, become the new Adonalsium, and live eternally with the regret of how he acted as Odium? LAST SIDE THEORY I PROMISE. Has it already been suggested that Hoid might be the man who originally held the full Adonalsium? EDIT: To add one random thought. What would happen if the bead of lerasium were placed in Ashe's Aon?
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  13. Valid. However, we were never promised that every power was useful on its own. Aluminum on its own doesn't, at first glance, seem to have much utility (though we've heard from Sanderson that it might). Duralumin without anything else to burn doesn't help you much. Here's a random thought. What if you're a nicrosil ferring, and someone tries to use brass to Soothe you? Can you start tapping, and drain away the Investiture being used ON you?
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  14. Welcome to Reading Excuses! On with the critiquing... As jParker said, watch out for the info dump on page 2. Having the reader learn about Peter's skills firsthand is much more interesting than just listing them for us. I'll probably have forgotten specific traits by the time you use them, and then you'll have to repeat them anyway. Is Peter's narration believable? Not really. This sounds way too old for a 9 year old. I do think the asides work for his age, but not the calmness and exposition. He's too much in control of his self. 9 year olds have the attention span of a goldfish, so I don't quite believe he can summon up the will and concentration to craft two spells in the space of a couple seconds. What issues distract from the main thrust of the narrative? There's a lot of bleed-over from Harry Dresden: named with four names, some of the skills as a wizard, the third eye, the names of spells (infernus)... I'm not saying these are specific only to the Dresden Files, but you've portrayed them very similar to the way Jim Butcher portrays Harry Dresden. You can use the same abilities, but you need to shake them up more so people don't immediately make the association. There are some good futuristic elements, like the scanning equipment and robot dogs, and I would maybe put more focus on that part at the beginning to differentiate. I'm wondering if any of this Is what you will portray differently later? Are you drawn in by this opening? Does it make you want to read more? This is a qualified yes. Your prose is good, light, and engaging. I want to read more of this character, even if I don't necessarily believe that he's 9. That said, I'm not sure where you're going from here. Peter is pretty powerful, and rich, for a 9 year old. Is he going to get more powerful, somehow ("I’m the most powerful magician in the world")? If his mother is still in control of his actions (he can't even get home a little late), and he's already solved the biggest problem I can think of for a pre-adolescent (bullying by armed teenagers and surviving a mugging at gunpoint), I'm not sure what else he's going to do.
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  15. I think the statement "One who trusts you" probably works better. It's not really inconsistent with what David said or what we saw, but it shows how stringent the requirement is. And best of all, it was certainly not true of Deathpoint at any point.
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  16. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this piece. And as a reader, thank you for being able to admit the flaws in your work. On the plus side, I absolutely loved the narration style. It's fun and light and easy to read. I am definitely hooked for the long haul. That being said, Papa Tolkien would be proud of your info-dumping. Is it really necessary to tell us the full breadth and depth of Peter's powers? Because that's usually a solid no-no this early in a piece. Granted, I like that you submit to Sanderson's Law with the spell--acknowledging thermodynamics lends to the credibility. On the other hand, would a nine-year old be familiar with Newtonian physics? Much less, the advancements made in the time since that I'm unfamiliar with and so can't talk about. All in all, good stuff man. You should be proud of your baby.
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  17. Comments: I haven't read part 1, nor do I know about Dark Crystal. That in mind, some of these comments may be misleading, but here's what I see: The part when Lapp and Selvi were Dreamfasting (BTW, where does that name come from? It doesn't seem like a Fast to me.) started out really good ("I've lived my whole life in the forest/I've lived my whole life underground), but the end where Lapp tells her what his grandfather saw seemed too... pat. Even if it's a telepathic thing where keeping stuff quiet is hard, I wouldn't have expected it to be so easy, given how clearly nervous he was about telling them previously. I might have accepted this more if Selvi had tried persuading him to tell her, and he couldn't help it because she was pretty (since that was mentioned to be a factor previously). The fact the characters met up by hearing music might seem a little contrived, too. The speech patterns of the characters were very formal, more formal than the narration, actually. That's okay, but as I got used to it (it really started sticking out to me after the Dreamfast), the characters starting using contractions in speech and being a bit less formal, which threw me off. I'm not sure I'm getting "innocent, naive, forgetful" vibe from the Gelflings in this piece. Gurjin seemed nothing of the sort, Lapp seemed mostly sad, and while Selvi might have been that at one point she seems to be more than that in the piece. I would potentially be interested in reading a 50,000 word story in this world. Not knowing what happened in part 1 makes judging this difficult, but I did find some aspects of the story (Gelfling race, spirit, etc) interesting. I don't know a lot about what's happening or what these new terms mean, but that's okay, I'm used to it in fantasy novels. However, while I meet read some more after this chapter, if this was the first thing in the story that I read, you would not have much time remaining to really grab my attention. Perhaps the end of the chapter at best. I hope you find this helpful! Good luck in that contest!
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  18. Such an interesting idea and I have to work. My first ideas: The beads are "condensed essences" of their Shard (says the wiki); I'd have them called "pieces of the physical manifestations" of their Shards, but that might be the same. The beads are neither Splinters nor Slivers. The Divine Breath is a Splinter of Endowment. No . If anything it would be the Aons inside the Seons and Skazes. Those Aons are Splinters of Devotion. Where I want to go: I don't think a mixture of essences/Splinters/Slivers will serve to form a Splinter of Adonalsium if this is even possible. Therefrom results a new question in my mind: Why had Adonalsium been Shattered in its different Intents and not in Shards of all containing a mixture of the original?
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  19. Wow has it really been almost a year since I posted this...? DANG. Well, UPDATE from the tumblr cosmere fandom then. We're still the best fandom. If you don't believe us, why would we tag all of our posts as #cfsbf ? Cosmere Fandom is STILL the BEST FANDOM. Shipping wars are getting more intense. Canon-contender Shallarin is locking horns with slash favorites Shasnah and Kallarin! (And then there's Fruity who started shipping Hoid and Renarin???? We're not sure why.) Who will win? Who will gain the most followers? Why does everyone ship poor Renarin around so much? We have Friday Night Cosmere Chats on Tinychat. FNCCs are super fun... though whether or not we'll actually talk about the Cosmere is up in the air. Oops. We get crashed by the admins sometimes but otherwise, it's usualy just us Tumblr Sanderfans. If you're interested in crashing our party, keep an eye on the tag #brandon sanderson or #cosmere or #mistborn or #CFSBF around Friday nights American timezones and you should see a link. (At time of posting, you can see a link to last week's cosmere chat from my sideblog, alwaysanothersecret.) LAST BUT NOT LEAST! WE HAVE A DEDICATED COSMERE TUMBLR NOW! The 17th Shard tumblr works pretty well as a bridge between the sites, but I figured it was time that tumblr had our own blog for Cosmere stuff. When someone offered me the URL "adonalsium" I couldn't pass up the chance to start one. If you're on tumblr, give us a follow and we'll make your dash pretty. If you're not on tumblr, feel free to peruse and look through some of the art, fics, media, fanmixes, and other stuff. (We've even got fandom teas now! Woot!) Posts are organized by Shardworld, Series, Character, and Type for easy browsing!
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  20. I'd concur that you can respect a person well enough to trust them in a sensitive matter without having an emotional attachment to that person. We don't know what Luesh reported to his masters, or what his reasons for withholding information from them may have been. It's possible that Luesh was an advocate for the House Davar operation from the outset, and had more at stake in its success than we are aware of. We know assassins are at play in the world of high level politics, so it's always possible that the opposition, perhaps even Amaram found out enough information to implicate Luesh and have him removed. Enough time had passed by then to discover who was behind the Shardbearer, and how they were connected to the plot on Amarams life by the time Luesh mysteriously died. Where you're losing me, is here. Nan Helaran was, despite his vocal opposition to his father, brought in on the plan and coerced into joining the Ghostbloods so far that he was allegedly considered trustworthy enough to be loaned a set of Shards to kill Amaram in a border dispute. But after his disappearance and declared death, his brother, now Nan Balat, was kept in the dark. If it was so important for Nan Helaran to know what was going on why wasn't it important for the new heir apparent to know what was going on?
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  21. Yeah, I can imagine that for a lot of people here, "Figure out the answers to all the questions we still have about the metalic arts" would be high on the list. "Yeah, I could have taken over the world, but I had to figure out the way to Shadesmar." XD
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  22. Culturally the South and Texas are two very different places. Texans do not have a "Southern accent" they speak "Texan". They definately do not view themselves as part of the South and as far as I know the South generally agrees. Because Texas was an independent country before it joined the USA, it has a strong individual cultural identity . Being part of the Confederacy qualifies Texas as a Southern state only to those who are outside the South and Texas. And frankly, I don't think that anyone outside of Texas or the South gets to decide.
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  23. You just offended the entirety of Texas (except perhaps Texarkana ) and most of the South with that statement, Two. For the record, Texas is not the South.
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  24. Let me begin by saying that I, too, had considered entering this Quest. That other WiP and the fact that I return to working life on 1st October stopped me from persuing the idea much further than some initial ideas and reading all the material. To your piece: Yes, I think it hits the right style and evokes the world nicely. I especially liked how the opening is very typical of Gelfling, using mostly physical senses and very little verbalized thought or even dialog. I've read the original film novelization and must say your style here reminds me of the writing. With all that praise, you'll want some critique too, and some critical thoughts, so here we go: 1) The characters you set up are convincing and in-style of Dark Crystal. My thought here is only... maybe they are too close to the two Gelflings we already know? Make sure you disctinguish your two from those in the film. 2) The word-count of about 50k for the finished novel does call for a tight narrative, but I'd have liked more description of the world (flora and fauna). Also I like the location(s) you set up, although we won't likely be seesing much of that hidden palace? 3) I do like how you centralize the theme of the Skeksis Lie of being noble and benevolent. My only concern would be that this might be 'too early.' After all, this seems to be The Central Conflict that has been set out for the new stories to be written. I don't know, just my 2c here. All in all, I think this is solid Dark Crystal. I would definitely read more. I'm curious how the two characters you set up will meet, and what their adventure might be. The obvious one being: go see for real how the Skeksis are... And here, again, I think maybe it would be good to NOT do that, as it is the very obvious plot.
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  25. Excellent question. Have a rep. EDIT: Sorry, that was a bit cruel. I just couldn't resist, though Reputation is a lasting, forum-wide measure of how the amount and degree of "good" posts you have made. When you look at a thread, each post will have green and red arrows in the bottom-right corner. Click green to upvote, red to downvote. Individual posts will record their net reputation, which will count towards the rep underneath each member's avatar. We've had some discussions recently about the proper use of they system, but suffice it to say that, at least from my perspective, you ought to upvote posts you "see as particularly funny, witty, helpful, or insightful" and downvote with extreme caution. Generally, people only downvote truly "bad" posts--not offensive, since we normally just "Report" those, but the kind to which the only reply even vaguely possible without inciting a flame war is "dude, just no". Do you understand now? EDIT 2: You can also see what posts have negative or positive rep on users' "Reputation" tab, accessible on profiles. Here's mine, for instance, and here's yours. And here's Brandon's, if you want to be blown away.
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  26. I have a minor theory that Szeth's odd shardblade is the source of his Windrunner abilities, but no one else seems to like it. There's a lack of information when it comes to determining how abnormal his shardblade really is, and nothing in the story to tell us that there is another way to get Windrunner abilities. If it wasn't for the Goodreads interview, we wouldn't even know that.
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  27. Um, Texas was part of the Confederacy. That by default makes them a southern state. Not necessarily southeastern, but southern. Probably better classified as Gulf South. Plus, he did a hit and run in New Orleans early this year. I almost went, but the thought of driving in that traffic without a tank or walking around in that city without a concealed carry permit won the mental argument.
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