Sixpips

Firstly, thank you for the incredibly quick responses! This has been bothering me since I finished the book a couple weeks ago and I am glad to see it was a fault on my part rather than something deeper in the book. Secondly, I was impressed with the quotes and references rather than refutations off of memory. It seems I'm not the only one that this seemed odd to, and I am glad to have learned something new about the series!

Words of Radiance Spoilers below, please be warned. Perhaps I failed to follow something, however this seems to be an oversight in Words of Radiance. We start out with a conversation between Dalinar and Amaram in which Dalinar shows Amaram his irrefutable evidence of Amaram's deceitful nature. Dalinar reveals that he had planted the rumor that the Herald Talanel spoke of a treasure of Shardblades hidden in a cave. Dalinar had placed Talanel's blade in the cave, but only after having bonded with it. He then summoned the blade after Amaram had thought he successfully stole it. The important distinction to recall here is that Dalinar bonded with Talanel's blade. Later in the book Dalinar is speaking with the Stormfather and wishes to bond him. The stormfather tells Dalinar that he will have to get rid of his shardblade, which we have learned is essentially the undead corpse of a spren (rather metal in my opinion). Dalinar drops the blade and instantly breaks his bond. This is the part I have a question about, as it does not make sense, and if it does make sense it paints a very different picture of Talanel. We learn from both Sylphrena and the internal monologue of Szeth that the original shardblades were made by Honor, whom Dalinar refers to as the Almighty. We also learn that these blades are different from other shardblades in that they give the wielder surgebinding powers, and are referred to as Honorblades. This was later imitated by the spren who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Honor and help fight the Desolations, thus creating the Radiants. This sets up the conflict that I read with Dalinar's conversation with the Stormfather. The Honorblades are not spren corpses like the rest of the shardblades. The honorblades give surgebinding capabilities to the wielders. With those two statements held to be true, we have to ask two questions: 1.) Why was Dalinar unable to inhale Stormlight until after he bound the Stormfather if he was bonded to an Honorblade? and 2.) Why did the Stormfather have Dalinar cast aside his shardblade if it was not a spren corpse, but in fact an Honorblade? I can arrive at two separate conclusions for this. One is simple, there was a Continuity error and it was missed in editing. There was never meant to be any hidden meaning behind Dalinar bonding a Herald's Honorblade, and it's a miniscule issue in what has so far been an exemplary piece of fantasy writing. The second conclusion is a little heavier. This is the assumption that Sanderson and his editors are far more diligent than I am, and in fact intended every scene. This implies that either the Herald Talanel bonded a shardblade other than an Honorblade; or Talanel is not a Herald. If this is the case, it could suggest a follow up, if Talanel is not a herald, is it possible that the man who saves Szeth is not a Herald either? I am very interested to hear anyone else's input on this. I am new to the forum, and it is possible this has been discussed before and I haven't found the thread, if so I apologize.