SarahfromVA

I think my theory is that it's a little like forging, from Sel. Kelsier puts his identity into an unkeyed aluminum metalmind and somehow crosses that over from cognitive to physical realm. Then Spook fills a different metalmind with HIS identity, and then taps Kelsier's. Then Kelsier's identity gets temporarily "forged" onto Spook's body -- scars and all, since that's part of his cognitive identity. Then whenever he's ready for a break, they switch identities back. (Or not. Maybe Spook got tired of living and retired his body permanently over to Kelsier.) This kind of arrangement would require a LOT of trust -- A LOT -- but it seems less convoluted to me than growing a whole new body. (I could also be entirely wrong about how identity works/what is possible here, but it's fun to think about.)

It's a section of the book that's all Wax staring at the statue and thinking before he leaves -- so he remembers that he checked the belt and he remembers that he gave the bands to MeLaan, but not necessarily in that order. If he was checking to see if the belt was just like the bands, then he wouldn't NEED to have the bands on him to check for that; he'd just hold it and try to tap everything. It just seems kind of suspicious to me, this one extra piece of metal on an otherwise all wooden statue. And it's mentioned twice. (Plus, remembering how expensive aluminum is -- why would it be just for decor??} But then, maybe it really is just a red herring to distract from the spearhead. (Oh, this is aluminum, that must be aluminum too.) It's not a theory I'm married to. Just thought it was interesting.

So when Wax & crew come upon the statue of the "Lord Ruler" -- which we know from Secret History, of course, to be NOT the Lord Ruler, but either Kelsier or Spook or some kind of Kelsier/Spook hybrid (???) -- there are two pieces of metal on the statue. One is the spearhead, chock full of all the powers. The other is the belt, and Wax double-checks it later to confirm that it's just aluminum. But is it really JUST aluminum? The appendix to BoM tells us "Trueself Ferrings can store their spiritual sense of identity in an aluminum metalmind". The book is unclear about whether Wax checked the belt before or after giving the Bands of Mourning to MeLaan. So my wild theory is that he checked AFTER -- and not being a Trueself Ferring, he couldn't tell that the aluminum belt actually was a metalmind full of identity. Kelsier's identity, in particular. My bet is somehow Kelsier could store himself -- his Kelsier-ness -- into an aluminum metalmind, cross it from the cognitive into the physical world -- and then Spook could tap it to "become" Kelsier. Which Wax might have been able to see if he'd had the bands of mourning still on him when he checked that metalmind. Probably a good thing. Still, it tickles me to imagine Kelsier in cold storage up there on that statue, so to speak. Somebody's bound to pull him out eventually, right?

That is definitely one of the more masterful parts of the book -- how Sanderson plays with your expectations and loyalties by what information he chooses to share and when. You start thinking, yeah, Elhokar IS terrible and awful. He SHOULD go. And then you get the scene where he asks Kaladin to teach him how to be a better king, where he shows real humility and confesses his shortcomings. I said aloud to my husband, "Wow! Elhokar KNOWS he's a terrible king! I didn't expect that." And then, with Kaladin, you have to struggle with those feelings of conflict. I think it was also a masterful move on Sanderson's part to withhold Dalinar's POV for so long. I LOVE Dalinar, but it added so much to the tension that we couldn't be in his head -- just like Kaladin and Shallan couldn't -- with so much riding on what he believed, who he trusted, and what he chose to do. I was palpably and physically relieved when he finally had a POV chapter again.

Now barely a fifth of the way through. And I cannot HANDLE the TRUTH SUSPENSE! Deep breaths. I remind myself that my marriage is more important than finding out what happens. The rest of the book will still be there tomorrow. And I really do like winding down at night by talking about what we just read that day. I can do this. And now I have way more sympathy for all the people who have to deal with the March 6 release date. Two days can indeed be a very long time.

Well, it's not so much that I like to spoil as that I can't help myself. I just get so excited about whatever I just read that I have to talk about it. It's not like I wander around the Internet spoiling unsuspecting forum-browsers. I just kind of overflow. At least my husband read chapter 7 at the same time as me, so we could shout at each other about it.

Slow reader? Trying to savor the book as much as possible? Writing down reactions as you go? Not able to get your hands on a copy yet? Come complain-brag here! I'm naturally a very fast reader, and if I had truly had it my way, I would have started at midnight and been done by now. But I had this idea that I should read along with my husband, so we can discuss it as we go. Otherwise, we would hardly be able to talk to each other for the next several days while he finishes it, because I just like to spoil things. And while he's a fast reader, he's also VERY busy right now, juggling regular work with freelance work and some volunteer things he's got on his plate. So I managed to get him to read all the readings released officially by tor.com before the release, and he read chapter 7 this morning. I'm allowing myself to go ONE chapter ahead of him at a time, so he never has to wait for me, but that means I've read chapter 7 and 11 like three times now. So excited for more! It is both nice and torturous to have to read slowly. I feel like I'm picking up on more things and savoring it more, but I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. (So, for my own sake and the sake of others who haven't gotten very far yet, keep spoilery specifics out of this thread. Feel free, though, to agonize over general emotional reactions brought about by what you have slowly read this far.)

I just finished rereading while specifically looking for clues about Gaz and a few other things. Whatever it is, it is certainly not very obvious! As has already been noted in the thread, the last time Gaz is mentioned before his disappearance/death/illness is when Bridge 4 is in the chasms and finds the emerald broam. Now, we also know that Gaz was having severe money problems, enough that just a portion of Kaladin's already pathetic pay was enough to make a difference. It is possible that when Lamaril died, those money troubles went away. I'm not inclined to believe it, though. My guess is that when Hashal said that she and Matal REQUESTED Lamaril's old job, that they weren't lying. They may have known him and heard him talk about the payments he was receiving from Gaz. (Also, I got the impression somehow that it wasn't a straight-up debt that Gaz owed Lamaril, but something more like blackmail, where Lamaril had information on Gaz and demanded regular payment so as to not tell. But I can't recall where or how I got that idea.) ANYWAY, Hashal & Matal are ALSO minor lighteyes who very likely have money trouble because they want desperately to have the same status as higher-up lighteyes or to differentiate themselves more from the darkeyes. (We have heard in the book that the minor lighteyes are the most dangerous for that reason.) So they actually do request Lamaril's old job in order to take over the job of extracting whatever money they can from Gaz. So poor Gaz, now in debt to Hashal -- who seems much meaner and more ruthless than Lamaril -- is in a real pinch. When the bridgemen leave the chasms, Gaz is the most likely person to collect their scavange. He is in charge of the bridge crews, after all. And the emerald broam is nearly as much wealth and temptation to him as it was to the bridgemen, so he takes it for himself, rather than passing it on to his superiors. And with that broam, he either somehow pays off the debt to Hashal and Matal and gets reassigned, now that they have nothing to hold over him, or he uses it to pay his way on some escape scheme -- perhaps as bribes or just as seed money to get restarted somewhere. And Hashal refuses to elaborate on where Gaz is when she's asked because she's quite put out about losing the income stream. But really, that's all conjecture -- nothing would really surprise me, whether he's dead or incapacitated or whatever.

I've been thinking that this quote actually refers to Taravangian. One of the death cries has a note about it being from a child and that the child's diction improved remarkably while speaking. I can imagine his next "test" being to try an even younger child (perhaps one even still nursing) and see if THEY would talk. All in the interest of helping humanity, of course. That would also explain why he or his helpers think that the sample is of particular note. They'll interpret it as proof that what they're doing is right. I personally interpreted this as being the return of Dalinar and Adolin, who should have been dead, and who hold Navani's heart in their hands, metaphorically speaking. (Of course, that's Dalinar much much more than Adolin, so it's not exactly a perfect theory.)