olivemyheart

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the title. There's nothing wrong with it...but it feels a little generic and underwhelming. But of course, that's all subjective. I'm sure the novel will still be amazing, which is what really matters.

I like the interpretation that this Rattle refers to the Battle of Thaylen Field from the perspective of a Singer. Mainly because of "You cannot have it," Dalinar's oath. The biggest issue is that "lights fail" seems contradictory, since infusing gemstones with Stormlight is how humans won the day, but it could be taken metaphorically to refer to the defeat of Odium or the Unmade.

Pattern for sure. I just think he's hilarious.

Like someone else said, the true backstory behind the Recreance. I hope to see more follow-up on the revelation that the Singers were the original inhabitants of Roshar, and Kaladin (hopefully) saying the Fifth Ideal. Also, more Renarin.

It's an interesting theory but I have to agree with your counterpoints here. Tien's death is such a significant part of Kaladin as a character and has been since the first page; I just can't imagine a "Suprise! He's been alive the whole time!" plot twist being done in any way that feels satisfying. The idea that he hung around as a Cognitive Shadow á la Kelsier in Secret History is an interesting one, though. I would buy the idea if we didn't have multiple characters, including Kaladin, who have traveled in and out of the CR.

I don't have much to add but I'm surprised to hear that people view Cultivation as "a good guy." I've always seen her as completely morally neutral. She wants things to grow and change, she doesn't care whether the end result is good or bad. Regardless, nice theory! I hadn't thought about it before but I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be true.

Oh, I must have confused him saying he didn't think it would work with him not initially planning to do it. Thanks for the information!

It's cool that you noticed that! If I remember correctly, Sanderson has stated that he didn't set out to make the titles symmetrical when he first started writing the series, but after RoW released and fans noticed the pattern, he felt inclined to come up with a name for the fifth book that fit the KoWT acronym.

I agree. I think it's far more likely that Dalinar becomes Odium's Champion (although I don't necessarily think that would be satisfying either) than him Ascending.

Also, I see people in this thread were debating the Hoid narrative style, so I want to add my two cents, which is that the writing style isn't bad on its own, just way overdone. The book had a lot of clever bits of wordplay and some genuinely hilarious quotes (the language nerd in me appreciated the grammar jokes, although I know its not up most people's alley), but a lot of time things just felt...forced. This is actually a problem that I see across multiple authors in fantasy right now: they try to give every part of the story a deeper meaning, but it ends up making the entire story feel monotone, because the narrator is philosophizing on literally everything A good example is, I think, the Dougs. I thought the fact that Hoid consistently refers to the background characters as Dougs was hilarious. It's meta self-aware in a way that isn't too intrusive, in-character for Hoid, and just a funny concept in general. But when it's introduced in Chapter 14, he doesn't need four paragraphs explaining the linguistic reasoning behind the joke. He could have cut that section down to around three sentences, and it honestly would have been funnier. Let the joke be what it is Another moment that stood out to me is in Chapter 64 when Brandon writes: The reader understands perfectly well from the preceding context that Charlie ran inside the pewter tankard and is now hurtling down the staircase--and the mental image is hilarious. But then, he writes: But why? We, the readers, are already imagining it. We know what's going on. Why does it need to be hammered in this way, rather than letting the story progress as it already is? It makes it feel like Sanderson doesn't trust his readers to understand his narrative unless he guides us by hand Anyways, I enjoyed the book overall, but the narrative style made it difficult for me to read large chunks of it at a time, and I wanted to try to put my finger on why

I'm late to the party because the evil god University demanded that I sacrifice all things that bring me joy in order to meet its demands, but I finally finished Tress last night. I was shocked when it was revealed that Huck was Charlie, but I wonder if I would have seen it coming if I hadn't put the book down for six months right after the part where Tress walks across the spores Overall the story was fun and engaging, although I have to agree with the people who think the narrative style was a bit grating. I liked Tress as a character a lot. Crow was a fun villain, Ulaam is great, and Fort is great. I enjoyed how Sanderson leaned into generic fantasy tropes in a fun way, making it congruous with existing Cosmere lore while still being enjoyable for people who haven't read his other books. As always, I'm impressed by his incredible foresight and ability to tie all his works together. I didn't think it was a masterpiece or anything, but a good read overall

You will not believe the double take I did. So apparently (a part of) Scadrian religion has migrated to Lumar?? I guess it's not that surprising considering there's the confirmed presence of at least three Worldhoppers on the planet, but still, I really want to know how that happened So Hoid and the soon-to-be-Vessels told Adonalsium that shattering it that it was for its own good. Other people have probably already pointed this out, but this implies that pre-Shattering, Adonalsium was a sentient being rather than a mindless power or natural force, right?

That's interesting considering they were most romantic in RoW. I mean, "deliciously naive"?! Come on

That's really interesting. I love that way of thinking about it. It fits in with my speculation on Kaladin's Fifth Ideal, which I think is going to be something along the lines of "The most important person to protect is myself." The ultimate culmination of his triumph over survivor's guilt and acceptance that caring for his own physical and emotional wellbeing is foundational to being the best Windrunner he can be. I like that idea. How do you think that fits into his relationship with Taravangian? From my perspective at least, Dalinar taking the authority to choose who gets to be unified sounds similar to what Taravangian was trying to do with the Diagram. Maybe Dalinar needs a fantasy ethics committee .

Jasnah is asexual and heteroromantic. Her relationship with Wit hasn't changed that. She mentions in one of her POV chapters that she doesn't feel sexually attracted to him, but doesn't mind sleeping with him either. Sanderson elaborates on Jasnah's identity here.