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Honor

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  1. RoW is easily a distant 4th best book in the SA. It had its moments and was was ok overall, but I felt like there was something off with the overall plot and pacing. I felt like in some ways I was back to reading some of Brandon's earlier works like The Well of Ascension, which while decent just wasn't near as good overall as The Final Empire. Can't decide if I put TWoK or WoR 1st place. And OB is close behind them in 3rd for me. RoW just isn't as good and that is ok. In a 10 book series, you are going to have a few of them that just aren't as good as the others. Negatives I don't think the Venli/Eshonai flashbacks actually added that much to the story and were a mistake to focus on. Yes, we learned about the Listener culture, but I felt like most of the major stuff we needed to know their past was already mostly covered in WoR and the journey of Eshonai and Venli of how they ended up where they were at by WoR just wasn't that interesting at this point, imo. I am struggling with Shallan overall as a character, there are times I like her and think her story is interesting(why did she become a radiant so young, what were her parents, Helaran up to) and other times I just want to skip her chapters. I feel like overall throughout the series that she is a different character in every book, and the changes between books just seem to abrupt to me. And while I enjoyed seeing Shadesmar, the arc that Maya would be the key to convincing the other spren that Adolin (& Team Radiant) were ok was a little too telegraphed. I didn't really enjoy the repeated battles between Kaladin and the Pursuer at Urithiru. And the lashing fabrial glove, while an interesting development of technology, just wasn't enjoyable to see Kaladin repeatedly use awkwardly. Jasnah's appearances seemed underwhelming for some reason to. For the native Rosharan that seems to be the most learned and intelligent, we got a lot of generic girl power/even though I am a woman I am your equal story. I was hoping to get more of her knowledge and sharp mind put to use rather than someone in shardplate bashing more parshendi in battle or putting uppity highlords in their place. Dalinar and Jasnah seemed very slow on the uptake about Urithiru being conquered, so Navani and Kaladin being on their own to save things seemed a little too contrived. And while we all want answers about the Cosmere, I felt like a lot of the cosmere stuff was info dump and didn't play into the actual story arc that much, so seemed sort of extraneous if you aren't that cosmere aware. Positives Finally got to see Radiants clearly use living armor. Liked seeing more of the Fused culture and seeing distinct characters and that they aren't just monolithic bad guys. Enjoyed Lenwi and Raboniel, the Pursuer is a good minor villain too. Not quite sure how I feel about Venli being a "good" guy. Was nice to finally get the Sibling and Urithiru explained more fully. And was interesting to see the mixing of shard investiture. Liked Dalinar realizing he needs to figure out to be more than a Radiant battery. Dalinar and Stormfather seeing Kaladin needs help and give him the chance to come to grips with Tien's death and see things from Tien's point of view I thought was a good moment. And because of that he was able to save himself and his dad. I thought the Navani and Raboniel story was good, interesting to see the motivations of a Fused who has been around for thousands of years. Good unexpected twist to have Taravangian end up pulling a fast one on Rayse, but also seemed too easy for T to pull off when it actually happened (Nightblood seems a little deus ex machina). Not sure what Cultivation is thinking putting T in charge of Odium. Wish it wasn't 3 years until the next one.
  2. It is definitely a little different story compared to most books you will find out there, but I liked it. I think some of its shortcomings are the fact that Brandon had a lot less experience when he wrote that compared to what he has now. I think it has one of the most unique and creative magic systems you can find. And I felt like all of the main characters ended up having satisfying story arcs.
  3. My experience playing so far is that it is much easier to go for a skaa rebellion and disgrace then it is to go for favor and saving the final empire. I have only played a handful of times but most of them have turned into a race to the bottom. Also several games were handicapped by lacking access to 1 or more resources with the random hose cards we dealt out, which made it virtually impossible to solve problems even if you wanted to. I don't remember the houses we had but in one 4 player game, the one guy with access to nearly all the resources decided to tank it and race to the bottom. The rest of us I want to say had mainly prestige?(purple), skaa, and soliders not really any food or gold available to solve problems. I like the general idea of the game, but to me it seems like it lacks enough incentive to try and solve problems and win by gaining favor. Even in 4 or 5 player games if 2 players with key resources decide to just race to the bottom it makes it virtually impossible for the remaining players to solve many of the problems and rebellion inevitably erupts. I do agree there is some incentive to solve a problem and dump favor on another player racing to the bottom, but it is difficult given the lack or resources or cooperation I have seen in several of the games I played. And the game isn't real enjoyable if it turns into just waiting for problems to erupt. Don't know if anybody else has run into these problems?
  4. Here are my thoughts children of Sanderson: Abrams played it safe, probably too safe, people like the original Star Wars so he made a movie like the original Star Wars and avoided the problems the prequel trilogy had like the plague. My opinion - it was not better than A New Hope or Empire and I'd actually probably rank it below RotJ at about the same level as the prequels. It had the "look" of the original trilogy but it lacked the "heart." It avoided the pitfalls of the prequels but it had other mistakes that keep it from being among the best of the series. I like it but I think it has some serious flaws. Here is what I feel the positives are: -Entertaining appearance by Han Solo, had some pretty good lines. -Likeable character in Rey. -Fairly believable fighting - avoided the implausible lightsaber battles of Revenge of the Sith for instance. -Story and action was good paced. -BB-8 was an entertaining addition. -I like the idea of Finn's character. And some negatives [nerd rage on]: -A 3rd death star - really? I always felt like the Emperor ok'd the building of the 2nd death star as much to create a trap to end the rebellion once and for all as much as for the threat it posed by itself so it at least didn't feel like a clone of the 1st death star. But man, starkiller base felt like as stated so obviously in the movie a bigger death star - pretty much a copy of the 1st death star and plot of A New Hope. - The execution of Finn. His story was just poorly executed in my opinion. I know you can only fit so much in a couple of hours but I didn't find his character and story believable at all. On the one hand you have the 1st Order Brass and Finn himself claiming Stormtroopers are raised from childhood to be fanatical killing machines that don't question authority and then in apparently the first time Finn sees combat, he is like well I am getting out of here. What put the frosting on the cake for me with his character is later on when he says he knows about Starkiller base because he worked there as a janitor.....jaw drop. Why the heck would the janitor be a part of a Stormtrooper assault squad on Jakku? Why would a janitor be a Stormtrooper to begin with period? I like the idea of a Stormtrooper questioning what he is doing and going rogue but man, it was just so poorly done in this case. - Rey learned to use the Force way too quick - the Jedi train for years including Anakin and Luke Skywalker but Rey picks a heck of a lot up in a couple of days. Seemed like the Jedi mind trick to escape was a cutsy way of the producers and writers going - Ok we want Rey, our strong independent lead female character that doesn't need rescuing to get free from Kylo....dang we got her locked up by herself and if she doesn't manage to escape quick then it will be just like A New Hope when Han and Luke rescue Leia....hey speaking of A New Hope why don't we make the 1st Order's base a gigantic death star....sorry back to the topic, how does Rey escape....hmmm yeah she could use the old Jedi mind trick (just ignore she just learned about the force and has had no training and probably hasn't even heard of a Jedi mind trick.) - What the heck is up with the Resistance/Republic - why isn't there an Army of the Republic? Why is the Resistance some seemingly relatively small little group that is "supported" by the Republic, the only people fighting what has to be the biggest threat to the Republic, the 1st Order? Just doesn't make any sense to me. [Nerd rage off] I enjoyed watching it, but it just seemed to feel a little hollow actual story content and logic wise. It is setting records but heck Avatar set records and that was just a remake of Dances with Wolves with some new special effects. It was ok but not the best Star Wars movie.
  5. I think Jasnah had connected or strongly suspected Elhokar's wife was part of something that was no good given the state of things in Kholinar. Alternatively she could be out of touch like Elhokar....but I don't know why Jasnah would assassinate her for that. It seems like the clearest group for her to belong to is the Diagram (her actions seem to weaken Alethkar from within)...but I'm thinking that Mr. T would have created the Diagram after Jasnah thinks about having her assassinated. Does it ever say where Elhokar's wife is from...surely she would have been from an important family somewhere?
  6. Audiobook naturally had narrator make "Shshshsh" sound......guess they couldn't figure out how to have the spoken word have a yellow highlight..
  7. You're assuming that Stones Unhallowed and Highprince of War aren't in world books. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't but at this point it would be against the trend if they weren't in world ooks.
  8. I just don't agree with a large number of people having secret blades. I don't understand what all these people with secret blades are doing with them. Sure it is a big surprise if you all of the sudden whip out a blade when nobody expects it. But what good does it do to have a hidden blade your whole life? In the places with the largest number of known blades, Alethkar and Jah Keved, most men would take advantage of having a blade to become a "Lighteyes" which although not confirmed seems widely accepted. I think the only reason Amaram got away with stealing the plate and blade from Kaladin's squad was that Kaladin himself didn't immediately claim them so it was ambiguous to the rest of the army as to what happened/who actually killed the shard bearer. I just find it improbable that many people in the Vorin culture would be patiently waiting for the right moment to pull out that secret shard blade. And I find it equally unlikely that large numbers of blades are secretly held in non-Vorin nations. There is a reason Alethkar is seen as a power center on Roshar. So where are all the blades? Thinking about it I think it is possible that they were destroyed/decayed. I don't have any evidence to back it really. It seems that plate and blades are made in different ways. Or they at least behave differently in the current period, but what if they are more similar than we think? Blades are stored presumably in the spiritual realm when not in use by their owner but plate doesn't disappear. However, in the "Falling Stars" or whatever chapter it is with Dalinar fighting with the Radiants, he keeps getting shocked by their helmets seeming to disappear and re-appear. We know that in the current period when a helmet's visor is closed the view the wearer is transparent but doesn't appear so from the outside. So either when used by Radiant's they can make their helmets completely invisible or has been speculated they may be able to dismiss it somewhere and summon it back at will. And if they can do that to their helmets why not the rest of the armor? We also know that currently plate needs infused gemstones to power it and it is possible that this wasn't always the case. Well what happens when a suit of plate sits for extended periods of time without any infused gems? Is it possible it could eventually decay away? I am saying possibly yes. And because of that I think it may be possible for regular shardblades to decay away if they sit without an owner in the physical realm instead of being stored in the spiritual realm. This could help explain the relatively few plates and blades we are aware of. Despite it being rare in the current period for them to just get lost or disappear - mainly because there are so few left for the most part everyone knows who has them. It would be possible initially when there were many more for them to occasionally get lost or hidden and forgotten. And perhaps they eventually crumbled away. The honor blades are a different story I think. I think they are either where they were left which is now a forgotten location or they were taken by a group - perhaps somebody like Shin stone shamans and kept hidden.
  9. I disagree that a large number of shard blades would be held by criminal/assassin types. It just doesn't seem likely to happen, as we know it is tough to get blade or plate without having some yourself. Most shard bearers are very well known nobles surrounded by other soldiers and guards to just mysteriously die and have their blade or plate stolen. And if an organization like the Ghostbloods currently had a large number, they could easily attack and overwhelm any foe and get the rest of the shardblades. There wouldn't really be a need for secret plots, no one could oppose them. I can see a small number being secretly held by a few individuals in unusual circumstances, but as has been stated by others, having shard blades and/or plate has too many advantages to keep it secret. As further reinforcement Szeth mentions at one point he didn't have time to fully study who held what shards in the area on one of his missions. I take that to mean it is fairly easily accessible knowledge that who owns what shard is kept track of by people. So people would notice if shards and plate randomly disappeared in probably the past couple of hundred years of Roshar's history. I could see that some during the initial fighting after the Recreance being lost or hidden. etc. Again that doesn't really explain why there are currently so few known blades and sets of plate.
  10. Hmm, I've pondered about Szeth's obedience. It seems at times that he really does hate killing people as evidenced by his weeping etc, but it seems he still has a choice as evidenced by his desire to kill Taravangian. The Shin don't seem the malicious or evil type from the other stuff we know about them; so I don't quite understand why they would unleash someone with his abilities to be put in a position to kill people right and left...there is something more to his punishment I can't lay my fingers on yet and does seem contingent on his blade.
  11. I find it highly unlikely that the sphere is from the Nightwatcher with the current information available on the Nightwatcher. I also think it is unlikely Dalinar was married to Malise Gavelmar or Shalash. It seems other characters remember Dalinar's wife, I don't think Shalash one of the heralds would randomly get married have two kids then run-off, there just isn't any evidence to support that. I don't think there is really any evidence to support her being Malise Gavelmar although it was curious that Jasnah knew she was Shallan's step mother.
  12. I'm not dead yet, in fact I'm feeling better.
  13. I think it says somewhere that four horseman could charge abreast across the bridges. 3 meters seems too narrow for that, it would probably be more like 5 or 6 meters wide.
  14. I think Dalinar will die, but I don't think it will be in the next book. And I am not so sure about characters like Amaram and Sadeas being guarenteed deaths.
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