Aethling

Alera and Dresden are both good. I wonder how this one will turn out. Still would like more books to Alera.

Frankly, I can't see how you can't see how they are related. I doubt she has the required medical knowledge to do it, but that doesn't mean is not possible. Give Kaladin's father access and some lessons in how a fabrial works, and I imagine you would see some miracles.

Economics. The same reason that armies even today don't have full body protection for each soldier or a surgeon in each unit. They are continuously throwing away the lives of their soldiers in a stalemate much like WW1. Why spend the money or effort to heal someone that stands a high likely hood of being killed on the next run. If Dalinar were to suffer a serious wound, there would probably be several things being used to bring him back to whole.

Just because she has very powerful fabrial does not mean that she is capable of using it to its fullest extent. She has already admitted as such in the text. An item capable of turning rocks into food should be able to smooth the skin back over with a skilled medical mind behind it. Now whether or not it is subtle enough to do so would be a different idea.

Well, we already know that Jasnah has her limitations in soulcasting, just see the strawberry incident. Someone with more training and skill for healing could probably do away with almost any scar or wound.

I am not sure that the slave brand would make all that much of a difference. We have artifacts in the world that turn rocks into food. I doubt it would be very far beyond reasonable to say there is one that can get rid of scars. He could also be him disappointing someone that had faith in him. I am still leaning toward her being someone that helped him overcome the loss of his brother. There could have been some romantic entanglement, but it wouldn't have been a given.

There is a quote by Hoid near the end where he hints that there is a valid reason for the eye color making someone part of the ruling class. Not worth the effort to look it up really, but he is fairly explicit.

And considering the entire tone of the series, Kwaan being mistaken is probably more likely than him being right.

All the joking comments aside, this is actually a good question. She was probably a romantic/semi-romantic interest at some point. Maybe she helped him overcome his grief over losing his brother. The question of his "failure" has the potential for being an even bigger world-changing event than who she is.

I can't see attached hair ever being used for awakening. That just opens up way too many cans of worms. If can do hair, why not eyes, or skin color? We do have examples of skin color and hair color changing, but that was on inanimate objects. The royal locks wouldn't do you any good if you had to be dead to use them for awakening. Hair cut and braided into a rope or something else, now that would be a different story. I don't see any difference between that and straw that used to be a blade of grass. What might be extremely useful are extension made from real hair. Attach them as part of an outfit for a princess awakener, and she has a functional means of self-defense and offense if someone tries to attack. She could even wear a completely white outfit to put people at ease.

The AS do have a history of setting aside rulers. If one started behaving very erratically, it wouldn't be so far fetched for them to do it again. The borderlanders were also hyper-vigilant about such things.

I really doubt many people would consider risking your life to try untying a weave as a low hanging fruit. The AS also had evidence that being an experimenter wasn't exactly the best idea in the world. True, most of it came from the artifacts, but it was also possible to burn out through channeling. I see your point about Compulsion, but the AS did know of it, and a world leader that suddenly starting acting weird would have attracted much of their attention. Morgase was largely attributed to her just being a woman, at least that was the way I read it.

He might have tried to buck the family trend, but he doesn't seem to have done it fairly well. At least for that family, it seems to be playing a big role. it might not be anything more than the family mores causing the correct actions, but that still falls under family.

Well, all of his fantasy books so far have included some type of magic that runs through bloodlines, so the Kholin family being radiant central really isn't all the far-fetched. Plus, it is a fairly standard fantasy treatment.

You have to remember that many of the weaves that became common place later in the series were only discovered a book or two earlier. Many of the new AS powers came only after the kidnapping. If not for that, they would still be lost. Why didn't the Ashamen tie off the weaves? They trained mostly for battle, and there was not really anyone around to train them to tie off weaves. Sure, they might have an AS tell them it was possible, but how many times was it brought up that a female could not train a male to do something? Also, remember what happened when Avi tried to untie the gateway? It basically blew up a hillside. The lack of innovative uses for brand new weaves can be easily attributed to the lack of time since discovery. The entire series is set over what, two years or so?

The visions really depend on if you consider it The future or A future. Avi saw the reason for the war coming from the Aiel having no role. That is why she demanded Rand give them some. He originally intended to leave them free of the agreement, which is the reason they were fighting the Seachan in the first place. Making them part of the non-aggression pact killed that root fairly adeptly. We also have to remember that Elayne was not on the throne during the vision. Either she abdicated to prevent her reign for going on for centuries or something happened to her. I doubt that the AS would have allowed the first openly AS queen in centuries to just give up and move out of power. Yes, Nyn is now a queen too, but she is more queen consort than ruling queen. Also, has anyone ever considered that the remnant of a remnant idea might have been a hold over from the original Aiel ideals. There is already an in-world group that closely follow what the Aiel originally stood for. The hinting indicates there never have been all that many tinkers around, and they more appropriately fit the bill if the prophecy is as ancient as it is said to be.

Remember, Avi did whatever she could do to prevent the column visions from happening, thus her discussion with Rand about leaving the Aiel with a role. Making them the enforcement mechanism for the peace effectively killed off her vision. About the only thing that I really want to see is how long it takes Min, Elayne, and Avi to drag him back somewhere.

We already have an example of a bonded Wolfbrother. The control issue is probably more a power issue. It should be hard for a AS to control a male channeler of a much higher level. There just never was much of chance for either side to test things out. Weren't there several times where Moraine specifically said she could read Lan's emotions and physical sensations?

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.

Unfortunately storm speeds vary greatly. Even a full blown hurricane can change speeds depending on the local water and wind conditions. Living in a prime hurricane zone, I have seen storms do some crazy things. One even did loops in the Gulf of Mexico for several days before making landfall. It is probably something roughly like the big red spot toned down to a hyper-hurricane.

The East/West issue may not be as big of an issue as it seems. People do tend to migrate from time to time. If you move far enough to the West, eventually what would have been west of the origin point is actually to the east. Not saying I buy the idea that the city was on the plains, but the directional issue can be explained away fairly easily.

If you really want to mix up different magic systems, try the one from warbreaker and the one from The Black Prism. Form color into shapes and then use breath to animate the shape. Use Luxin armor on a Lifeless warrior.

I always saw it as more they are given a vision of what they could prevent and a choice as to whether or not they wanted to return to accomplish the goal. That could function independently of Endowment taking an active role in creating the mishaps that cause the death of the people that would then return. That smacks a bit too much of classical predestination

It doesn't really make much of a difference which order you read the two in, but Elantris is a much shorter and probably easier read. I pretty much read his cosmere books backwards without losing anything. Keep in mind though that Kings is a major project at over 1000 hardcover pages..

Sometimes it is as fun to reread as it is on the initial read. You get the added knowledge of how things are going to turn out. The Garion/CeNedra and Sparhawk/Flute/Ehlana relationships are probably funnier the second/third/fourth times around because you can see where everything is heading.