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ILuvHats

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Everything posted by ILuvHats

  1. I have been summoned from the depths of inactivity to post once more. Glad to know that's how I've been remembered.
  2. Watched the first episode of Chainsaw Man today. Hoooweeee...
  3. Ha ha yeah... RoW hit me hard. I liked it, but it didn't live up to my expectations, so I've been pretty inactive here since then. Apart from a couple of posts about the secret project sample chapters, of course. I saw you're still working on the Iconar Collective, which is awesome! I hope I can stick with this story for as long as you've stuck with your own. @CalanoCorvus Aw shucks. Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did. Guess fifteen years of reading finally paid off, huh? Edit: Ah! I see you're a writer as well. I didn't realize you were the one writing The Verdur Trilogy until I saw it in your account signature.
  4. Guys, writing is hard. I knew it can be difficult for new writers, but I didn't realize the sheer amount of effort it takes when you've literally never written anything before. You do not want to know how long it took me to write this. But I was surprisingly pleased with how my first foray into writing fantasy turned out, and I wanted to share it. I've made world building posts about this book idea on the forum, but it's been years, so I'm sure nobody remembers them. Which is good! I don't want anyone going in with preconceived notions. I've heavily modified the world since then, and the characters have been even more radically altered. One of my concepts for a POV character got trashed and completely rebuilt from the ground up, but I've never discussed the characters before, so you won't know the difference. As always, I welcome feedback and constructive criticism, and I hope you enjoy it.
  5. Right off the bat, I'm going to address the lie by omission in the title. Goodbye Eri is not prose, but instead a one shot manga. But wait! Before all you fantasy readers leave, you should know this is one of the best stories I've read in recent memory. There's a reason I'm recommending this on a forum not dedicated to mangas or anime, and that's because I feel like it's one of those pieces of fiction that transcends the medium, and I don't say that lightly. So please throw out any of your preconceived notions about manga. If you simply want to read a great story and you're willing to give the medium a try, Goodbye Eri only takes about an hour to read and it's free to view on Viz (this is the link). Here are my thoughts (spoilers!):
  6. Here's another wildly speculative take. I just realized that this passage's emphasis on a command being the correct words to join the Oathpact is very reminiscent of the Dawnshards. Perhaps the Dawnshard Unite or Connect or whatever this hypothetical Dawnshard is called was integral to the formation of the Oathpact. It certainly explains how Honor was able to forcibly bind Odium to Roshar while other Shards did not do so when Odium attacked them. Not that this is the first time this idea has been suggested, but I think this passage is hinting at such a connection between the Oathpact and a Dawnshard.
  7. I don't have my copy of RoW on me right now, so I can't pull the direct quote. But I'm pretty sure Dalinar said he is planning on being his own champion rather than designating someone else, so unless he changes his mind, the third option you listed is a moot point.
  8. The two bolded lines in particular make me wonder whether the Ghostbloods played a role in Chana's death, assuming Chana is actually Shallan's mother.
  9. A Silent Voice got me, so if you’re open to anime please watch this movie, it’s great. But nothing has devastated me as much as A Dog’s Purpose. For a movie that critics have decided is utterly mediocre, it has made me cry on every rewatch. What can I say, I like dogs.
  10. The biggest fool of who all? It could be a turn of phrase, and referring to them in a broad sense. But this makes a lot of sense as the greatest fool among the Heralds if this is Ishar speaking. There are a lot of comments like this in the intro that make more sense if Ishar's speaking, but I don't really want to go through and transliterate them all.
  11. Is this poll premature? Hell yes. We don't have SP #4 yet, and of the two cosmere projects we do have, we only have 5-6 chapters each, and those not even the final drafts. But! Based on a sample size of two of Brandon's staff (Karen and Peter), these seem to be vying for most beloved. So what's your favorite secret project? And no takesy backsies after SP #4 sample chapters are released, or the full books come out . At this point, I definitely prefer SP #1, mostly because I loved the modern fairy tail tone, and it legitimately made me laugh on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, SP #3 is a return to normalcy in terms of tone, which is still enjoyable but obviously lacks novelty. SP #1 also possesses the advantage that we actually get to see enjoyable character interactions throughout the excerpt. In SP #3, so far the focus has been on world-building and developing the two lead character's internal conflicts, which by necessity takes more time seeing as us readers are split between 2 protagonists and 2 worlds. So, SP #3 is more of a slow burn, and it's unfair to expect it to progress as quickly as SP #1. That doesn't mean it's still less engaging, considering Yumi and Nikaro (I refuse to call him Painter) are both very isolated socially. I also want to say that while I preferred the tone of SP #1, I think it can be improved. During the first couple of chapters in particular, the witticisms and jovial attitude felt slightly forced simply because the meta commentary and jokes were so concentrated. It felt like Brandon was looking for every opportunity to stick a one-liner in rather than allowing the reader to breathe a bit. In later chapters, there was a significant drop in the prevalence of the tone, which I think is a definite improvement. But IMO, you can tell Brandon was experimenting in this novel.
  12. Just speculation at this point, but I'm assuming that on Painter's world, the darkness only absorbs energy in the visible spectrum, so the temperature is still regulated by the sun with relative normalcy. Any deficits in heat caused by the absorption of that particular sub-spectrum of energy could be accounted for by a denser atmosphere.
  13. Yumi's plantet is definitely not Sel considering A.) Brandon commented (in a livestream I believe) that all of the planets/shard worlds we encounter in the secret projects will be new ones, and B.) The giant red sun and other aspects of the environment are incongruous with Sel. I'm pretty sure that Hoid called the chopsticks Maipon Sticks not because the locals called it that, but so that his audience understood what he was talking about.
  14. You are much stronger than I am lol. Another possibility for SP #3 and #4 includes the Dusk Brigade.
  15. Always glad to see another AoT fan . It’s unfortunate that Wit Studio dropped it after season 3, though it’s understandable given how little time they had for production and their financial concerns. It was Wit’s insanely high production quality combined with Isayama’s brilliant source material that made AoT a phenomenon which transcended the medium. Mappa’s doing a decent job with animation, but the animation has gone from amazing to merely above average. Still watching it for the story though.
  16. Do you intend your elemental magic to be a soft system like Avatar, or do you want it to be a hard system? If you're imagining it at as a soft system, I don't have much to offer, though I will say I really like the concept of elemental manipulation being powered by adjacent elements. If you instead want it to be hard, I can totally offer you some ideas. For your general worldbuilding, I'll have to echo Frustration's comment. Your character concepts, your ideas of gods, and your cultural relations are all single-mindedly guided by your political views. There's nothing wrong with letting your political beliefs influence your writing. Write what you're passionate about, and if you're passionate about your political views, you should definitely incorporate them into your stories. Hell, there's nothing inherently wrong with being politically didactic, though such stories can be very divisive. However, politics becomes a problem in writing when you oversimplify the issues, their origin, or reality without meaning to (allegorical tales are an example of intentionally simplifying issues to make a fundamental truth more obvious). Based on the outline you shared, which I admit may not be comprehensive in its descriptions, it feels like your story is expressing that "progressive = good, conservative = bad," and this idea is so pervasive that your world feels black-and-white and lacking in depth. I'm not saying you need to overhaul your story. There are a lot of things I like, such as your protagonists, especially the Boyfriend because let's face it, we need more transgender characters in fiction. But I do have a few recommendations for adding nuance to your world and plot. Be careful how you write your protagonists in a society which is definitely set before the equivalent of the European High Middle Ages, based on the lack of gunpowder. While the protagonists are all outsiders, their perspectives shouldn't only be antagonistically reactive to the dominant culture. How has the dominant culture influenced their views subconsciously to align with popular ideology? Basically, make sure your protagonists don't feel like modern progressives set in the age of antiquity. I'd consider characterizing your gods in a more primal, archetypal way. Basing the deities purely on political concepts feels odd because such systems are very human in origin, filled with biases that aren't fundamental in nature. You can still achieve a very similar setting by narrowing the core of who Ahriman is such that his beliefs, motivation, and then interference in the world would result in a fascist society. This prevents the cosmology of your entire universe from feeling directly inspired by real world politics. Since your viewpoint characters are such complete outsiders to general human society, your plot could benefit from a major character that's a sympathetic and understandable insider. I'm not saying you need to advocate for fascism, but the story will feel less monochrome if it doesn't feel like every indirect supporter of the fascist human society is pure, villainous scum. In a similar vein, I'd think through the basis of the human-shim war. In its current state, it's a blanket-statement genocidal war motivated by a society being... evil. While ethnic prejudice is a common factor in historical wars, it was rarely the sole driving factor. Often, it was more of an excuse to motivate individual citizens to fight for resources, which is usually the real reason wars start. What historical war do you want your fictional war to mirror? Do you want your human civilization to reflect European colonialism, driven by rapidly accelerating technological advances which led to depleted natural resources, increased competition within Europe, Darwinism, and the ability to expand due to said tech advances? Is your human society like the Islamic caliphates, formed through a combination of religious warfare and cultural absorption through conversion, both made possible by a coherent and unifying ideology merging religion and politics in a way that Medieval Catholicism could only envy? If it's a largely race-based bloodbath you want, Nazism and Imperial Japan are the quintessential examples. WW2 Japan was a product of simultaneously adopting foreign technology while retaining a high degree of cultural isolation, enabling the formation of a nationalist state on a resource barren island that literally required expansion to maintain its current trajectory. And if any war was completely race-driven, it's WW2 Germany. But even the Nazi state has a nuanced origin that can be traced to the Treaty of Versaille, which unjustly placed almost all of the blame for WW1 on Germany, leading to sanctions which economically ruined the nation and creating the domestic suffering and hatred needed for a doctrine like Nazism to take hold. Wow this bullet point ended up long. Just think through your war more, lol. Edit: Bear in mind my recommendations are just that; recommendations. I don't want to tell you how to tell your story. At the very least, I just hope you understand why I think your world needs to be developed more.
  17. In the last half a year or so, two new research papers have been published which validate warp drives as potentially achievable at some point. Which is super exciting! There has been very little progress on warp drives since Alcubierre first proposed this theoretical method of travel. One of the largest hurdles was that up to this point, any solutions to Einstein's field equations which satisfied the conditions for warp bubbles required negative energy, which as far as we are aware, is physically impossible. Thus, it has been assumed that such technology would require exotic matter, which is physicist for "matter which shouldn't exist based on our current understanding." However, these two new papers have found solutions which require purely positive energy. This first one, "Introducing Physical Warp Drives" by Alexey Bobrick and Gianni Martire, found a solution with positive energy requirements for subluminal velocities in addition to optimizing the energy requirements. The second paper, "Breaking the Warp Barrier: Hyper-Fast Solitons in Einstein-Maxwell Plasma Theory" by Erik Lentz, discovered solutions for superluminal warp fields, so assuming his calculations prove correct, FTL travel is officially possible given our current understanding of physics. Bear in mind that these paper have yet to be peer-reviewed, but from what I've heard they both stand very good chances. Even given these new solutions, though, warp drives remain far outside of our current capabilities. The lowest theoretical energy requirement yet obtained for a 100 m warp bubble is 0.1 M, or 10% the mass of the sun. For comparison, Alcubierre's original model required more energy than was contained in the universe, so at least we've made progress? Plus we're far from exhausting methods of reducing the energy requirements. I watched a lecture by Lentz summarizing his paper, and he was positive that within the next decade, someone will either find a solution with practical energy requirements or the obvious routes for decreasing energy requirements will be exhausted and we'll have to wait for another breakthrough. Another practical issue with warp drives is that all of the current models assume constant velocity, and so acceleration has to be figured out. And there's probably numerous other problems that I'm unaware of. Still, I'm amazed we're making any progress at all. With any luck, I'll live long enough to see us experiment with warp bubbles in the lab. It's a long shot, but less of one that it seemed one year ago. This video summarized the new findings really well, and it also provides links to the original papers in the description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk5bxHetL4s&t=142s
  18. Awesome! Let me know what you think after finishing it.
  19. I actually haven't read Malazan, though it's on my TBR list. I can really only get into one megaseries each year. Two years ago it was Wheel of Time, last year it was Dresden. This year will probably be Malazan.
  20. If you're looking for books with epic battles, revelations, etc., here are my recommendations: The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks - The twists and turns in this series are superb, and the world building, specifically the magic system, are sooo well done. Weeks used to be in my top 3 favorite authors, though after reviewing his work and expanding my reading horizons, he's since dropped off. Still, Lightbringer is a must-read IMO if you're a fan of Sanderson since the two authors are very stylistically similar. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters - Man, this book was a quick read. It's a classic revenge story taking place in an ancient Nigeria inspired fantasy world, and throughout all media, I've rarely seen vengeance arcs done so well. The protagonist's hatred is so visceral, driving him to become almost superhumanly powerful without magical abilities, in a world where magical strength is the standard for elite warriors. Winters story doesn't take too many unexpected turns, but it doesn't really need any considering the sheer charisma of his cast of characters. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir- The front cover blurb says it all: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space." This is not your traditional SFF, and I'm not sure if it's quite what you're looking for since the focus is on the stylization of the characters and setting, but I think the plot is still cinematic, especially the last 100 pages or so. If you want to get outside your comfort zone a little, give this book a try. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - I'm sure you've heard of Dresden if you pay any attention to the fantasy community. I put this series off for a long time because 17 books (15 at the time) seemed like a lot. Every day I regret not reading the series earlier. If you can ride out the first two books, which are pulpy and not terribly distinctive, you are in for a ride. It picks up on the third book, and Butcher does not let up. The books still remain somewhat episodic, but different plot lines and characters start to be weaved together into a vast, expansive universe. Later in the series, Butcher pulls off some jaw-dropping moments, and a cliffhanger that would have killed me if the next book hadn't come out yet. In terms of Sanderson style avalanches, Dresden is one of the few authors I've read who has matched Brandon. Just get through the first few books and you'll be in love. And really, the first two books aren't bad by any measure, they just don't hold up to the rest of this majestic series. The Greenbone Saga by Fonda Lee - Think "The Godfather" set in 1960s fantasy Japan/Vietnam with Abercrombie style morally grey characters. Of the Asian inspired SFF I've read, this is probably my favorite one. It's highly character driven, and if you're a fan of Abercrombie's style you'll definitely enjoy Fonda Lee.
  21. Just finished RoW and I loved it. Were there faults? Yes, but after seeing some of the book tuber reviews, I was afraid it wouldn't resonate with me like the previous books have. Thankfully I was wrong. Storms knows I cried during Kaladin's POVs leading up to him swearing the 4th oath. Anyways, I wanted to discuss what I consider a major theme in the book. Everyone is fallible. If there's one thing this book has shown, it's that even gods mess up in huge ways. No one is omnipotent; no one is perfect. In fact, those who should be the most powerful, those with all the experience and skill and knowledge to back them, are sometimes weaker because of their capabilities, because of the arrogance it invites. We see this time and time again in the book. Raboniel is set up as one of the most dangerous Fused. From her introduction, we see that Leshwi is terrified of what she is capable of. We learn she developed a biological weapon that wiped out a tenth of humanity. Then we see Raboniel outmaneuver everyone else, manipulating others to obtain her objective. Especially Navani, who fell right into Raboniel's traps multiple times. And yet, in the end, Raboniel herself is tricked with a relatively simple trap; a momentary distraction from Navani leading her to step on a pain fabrial. R-Odium's also set up to fail. This we expected since WoK when Honor suggested a duel between champions was the only way to beat him. However, Cultivation's mistake came out of left field. A lot of us sharder's have made her out to be brilliant and subtle strategist, using Fortune to find pathways to victory the enemy cannot foresee. And that she is, but I know I've over inflated her abilities in my head. I thought her machinations would be what proved the deciding factor in the war; I considered her the infallible wild card no one would see coming. This is what OB led us to believe, considering how deftly she outmaneuvered R-Odium with Dalinar. We expect her other machinations to similarly succeed. Instead, she doomed everything. Cultivation, for all her knowledge, bestowed the shard of Odium on a man she thought she knew, but she was oh so wrong. Instead of leading to a peaceable end to the conflict by ensuring Odium was controlled by someone of Honor, someone who shared her aspirations for peace, Cultivation put the Shard in the hands of a man who shares Rayse's desire for domination. And this man is so much more capable than Rayse. And of course, who can forget the epilogue. I'm seeing a lot of theories here that Hoid came out on top somehow, that he merely pretend to have lost his memories the second time, and that Taravangian did not come out on top in that exchange. But considering the emphasis Brandon put on showing everyone is fallible, I think it likelier that Hoid was deceived by T-Odium in truth. I know all us consider Hoid someone that is always on top, will always be several steps ahead of everyone else. But what better way to establish this theme of fallibility than to show that even he makes mistakes and can be manipulated. To be fair, I believe Hoid will eventually realize his memories were tampered with, but I don't think it will be in time to interfere with Taravangian's plans for the duel.
  22. Thanks for clearing this up. I hadn’t seen the WoB yet, and the way it was phrased in book was very ambiguous. Oh god. That’s terrifying. That makes a lot of sense that Huio was able to kill one then. I just hadn’t considered it because it seems so OP.
  23. We got SO much information about the Sleepless in Dawnshard. One thing I want to dissect is the extent of their abilities, because we got a few more tidbits. 1. The size limitations of a Sleepless' horde - Nikli is able replicate a dead Santhid by itself. The description of Santhids in the coppermind says, "Santhidyn have a dome-shaped brown-green shell on the top of their bodies, about the size of three rowboats tied together and at least six or eight feet in height." We also know much of their mass is below the water, so they're probably somewhere between the size of orca whales (~10,000 lb) and humpbacks (~60,000 lb). That's a LOT of hordelings, more than I was expecting honestly. So the answer to this WoB is that a Sleepless could probably form a creature the size of a Chasmfiend. We also need to consider the size of the monsters at the end. It's difficult to get an exact size estimate, but we do get descriptors. First, they are able to fit Huio in their mouth while he stands. Two, their legs are described as spindly compared to the body, but the legs are also the thickness of tree trunks. I get the impression that these creatures are much larger than Santhids. However, it's interesting that there are a total of seven of these monsters; one originally, then six more followed. We also know that there are 20 Sleepless following the First, making there a total of 21 Sleepless actively guarding Akinah. We don't know for sure that all of them were present on Akinah, but considering how important they consider its defense and the presence of a large group of people containing multiple Windrunners, it's not unreasonable to assume they went all out and all the Sleepless were present on Akinah at the end of Dawnshard. This could imply that each monster was comprised of three distinct Sleepless hordes, which would mean hordelings from different Sleepless are capable of working in conjoint to form larger masses. It's definitely a stretch to say we know absolutely that the monsters were comprise of multiple Sleepless, but the numbers divide by each other, and I can't think of any reasoning for why Sleepless would not be able to combine hordes to create larger creatures. 2. Sleepless communicate with each other via vibrations - Not much to say on this one. We knew they could communicate long distances before Dawnshard, though I don't think we knew the method, so it's nice to find that out. 3. Sleepless are able to breed with species that are not a part of their own horde or any other Sleepless' - This is evident since Nikli mentions they were able to create hordelings capable of consuming Investiture by cross-breeding with Larkin. I'll be honest, I had never considered this before. I had always assumed that a Sleepless' hordelings mainly mated within a single horde, and probably with other hordes, possibly to create new Sleepless. This was based on the premise that while hordelings are flexible and can be bred to a significant degree to evolve, their reproductive methods were distinct to the species. Apparently, this is not the case. I suppose it makes sense; if you're able to evolve hordelings to the degree that they can mimic human body parts, it's reasonable to assume they can breed hordelings to be physiologically similar enough to foreign species to mate with them. This explains how hordelings can vary so much as the mating pool is virtually limitless.
  24. It's in his viewpoint chapter in OB. He mentions almost being able to hear some Rhythms. Unfortunately, I don't have my book on me so I can't quote directly.
  25. You know what, yeah. I'll just change my original post to be Remain. That does sound better.
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