Lupis

Do we actually know for sure what the intent of the Set's experiments were? Were they actively trying to create Atium and Lerassium, or were they trying to create a weapon? We do know Wax was intent on separating both metals. I know they were trying to create mistborn, so it seems likely they were trying to recreate Lerassium and the bomb was the second prize, but I can't actually remember if in the book that was ever stated outright, rather than them trying to create a WoMD right off the bat. I definitely may just have missed, or forgotten, it being stated outright though.

I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. It was ok. The main points of revelation, Chet, the Delvers, and the reality icon were made so deliberately obvious, long long before the actual reveals, that there was nothing shocking, or even surprising, in the book, which is very un Brandon like. I also didn't like the story, again, focussing purely on one character. It gets a bit tedious. That's his last couple of books that haven't blown me away. Fingers crossed The Lost Metal brings things back on track.

I actually rolled my eyes when reading that part, it seemed like such a lazy and blatant Dragnipur rip off from Brandon, even down to the echoes of chains rattling that made no sense here and was never explained...

Do it to Kalak as a test perhaps? They did say it was something similar to what the heralds are suffering from. I'm going from memory here so I may be off.

Sorry I probably didn't make it particularly clear, I didn't mean the extra connection to Scadrial was the issue per se but that in combination with him being a cognitive shadow was. Maybe he is somehow still tied to the well though. A thought has just occurred to me, although it has probably been asked and answered somewhere already. I wonder if he could be trapped in a gem, transported off world (very quickly before he dissipates!) then released?

Dr. Becky on youtube is worth checking out for anyone with an interest in the topic. Unusually for these type of things she is an actual PhD in the subject area, doing research on super massive black holes. Edit I should say her videos are pretty varied about astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. It's not all black holes!

I can't see it having any affect on Nightblood at all. Had it been the shard itself maybe, but a shardholder? I don't see it.

I think people are forgetting how hard food is to grow on Roshar. There is a very real chance by the end of the fighting both sides would be starving and need to concentrate on just survival. Without the use of soulcasters they would need to farm and hunt/gather, so before the radiants they just wouldn't be able to prosecute a genocidal war into hostile territory, and with the Radiants they would likely not be party to supplying food for an army intent on genocide. That's my take on it.

I still can't get my head around where they found enough spikes to be able to create enough new Kandra to impersonate everyone on Roshar and fool Odium. Although they should have thought that through more as, although it wasn't stated outright, surely the Kandra had to absorb their bodies first? I wish Brandon had explained that more clearly as that entire section just felt tacked on and lazy.

I was also pondering whether BAM was a spren (or something similar) predating honor and cultivation, which would probably have to mean they were a spren of Adonalsium, that was subsequently unmade by Odium. It would make more sense as to why shutting them away had such an impact on everything, as it had always been a part of Roshar I had also been wondering about something else. We know BAM can create void light, if they did predate Odium, and were of Adonalsium, could they, potentially at least, create lights of other shards as well? Is that why the Ghostbloods are so interested in it?

Why not a coppermind? Some minor mistborn spoilers below.

I wasn't a fan of the Pursuer to be honest, and by the end of the book I was just thinking how on Roshar did he manage to kill any radiants that had sworn enough ideals to have their plate? Unless, of course, he was so inept he kept getting killed by novice radiants/squires/non radiants I guess, then going after those and ambushing them while they were in the privy just to enhance his reputation. And on a similar note, the fused in general don't feel like they could have been much of a threat to the Radiants back in the day, considering how well the novice radiants and squires now have been dealing with them without access to any shardplate. Yes, I realise they could have avoided Radiants and just attacked the normal soldiers, where they would cause havoc, but Brandon seems to have been building them up as a threat to the Radiants themselves, and I'm just not seeing that.

I suspect you may have missed the point of my post, which was really just to alert the person I quoted as to what I believe was a mistake in what they actually said, compared to what I believe they intended to say. Which I'd guess was "pages" instead of "words", or 300-400 thousand words, as opposed to just 300-400 words.

While I agree the book was too long, I don't think he really could have told the story in "three hundred or four hundred words" to be honest...

Now I can't double check this as my stupid pc kindle app is refusing to load, and I don't have the patience to try and find the relevant section in my physical copy at the moment, but as far as I can remember fom my reading of it it was just the blade she saw in the safe (even though it wasn't there) and equated that with her mother's soul. That's what, to most people there, shard blades seem to do, burn out souls, so it would have, in her young mind, been in there along with the sword that did it. But admittedly I am not certain I am remembering it correctly as it has been a while. So I don't think her mother was a herald, but I have been wrong before!

Admittedly I haven't thought too much about this, but aren't Scadrians more closely connected to their world because they, and the world, were created by Preservation and Ruin, and contain a bit of preservation, where most humans elsewhere were created by Adonalsium? I always assumed that, and being a cognitive shadow, was what was anchoring Kel there.

Those are nice! And Shallan is of average cosmere height. It's just those Alethi that are freakishly tall...

I didn't love this book, nor did I hate it. It was a 2.5 -3.0 out of 5 for me, which is probably the lowest score I would give any BS book I have read. My major fear is he has set himself a far too ambitious target with the different series and trying to tie them all together and is struggling to stay on point, and for me it is affecting the quality of his story (I almost said writing but that isn't fair). I don't blame him for trying to stick with the grand scope of it as it is something unique. And if he continues to enjoy writing it and others continue enjoying reading it that's great, but I can honestly see him burning out if he tries to keep going with all the things he has said he was going to do. We saw a similar thing happening with Robert Jordan where the quality of the story telling got consistantly worse as the books progressed, due to trying to do too much. At this stage I am invested (pun intended) in the cosmere books, so I will be sticking with them, but I do think people should be pointing out if they think the quality is dropping, for his good as much as anything else, if it makes him reconsider how much he has on his plate and what is actually achievable.

Yeah, I've been of the opinion that whatever is left of the oathpact that is holding Odium in system affects everyone involved in the oathpact. At least until I see anything that is contrary to that anyway.

Well a lot of it will be down to knowledge and experience. The Heralds know the full capabilities of the honorblades, they also have many many years experience with them and how to best use them. Then there is the fact that they don't have a spren bond that can act counter to the users wishes, if they don't agree to what they are intending to do with the powers. I don't think it's as simple as either are superior or inferior, they are just different and have different strengths and weaknesses, with some crossover abilities.

Surely it is when you refer to all birds as chickens.

Probably, although I'm not convinced Spook isn't still kicking around somewhere. It also depends on your definition of living...

I am on the side of it definitely is Kel. Even the name "Ghostbloods" screams cognitive shadows+hemalurgy to me.

So many possible loopholes. The wording says they have to send a champion on the 10th hour of the 10th day to Urithiru, however it doesn't actually specify they have to meet then. One of them could take the long road. Also, as this is the cosmere, what does "to the death" even mean? They didn't clarify. If I were Dalinar I'd be seriously considering naming Nightblood as my champion, asking if it wanted to destroy some evil, and chucking it into the dueling arena for Odium's champion to deal with...

We don't know that they are the only surges able to be used, just that they were the only ones that were used, Perhaps if other radiants had been far enough along in their ideals to have remained awake they would all have been able to use one of their abilities as well. We just don't have enough information to say it was only progression and cohesion that could have been used and nothing else.