Shaidar

So now that I've now made 10 posts or so, it's probably time for an introduction. Who am I?: Freelance journalist and fairly prominent blogger (at least on the topic that I specialize in). Have wanted to write fantasy and sci-fi novels since I was about 8. How I discovered BS: When I discovered he'd be finishing WoT. I don't think he did a great job on that, BTW, but to be fair, I think the series was beyond salvation by that point and he did as well as could reasonably be expected. To the contrary, the Mistborn series was one of the very best speculative fiction works I've ever read, and The Stormlight Chronicles look very promising too. What I think of BS: The very best magic systems period. Some of the very best plotting too, I really cannot think of any other fantasy work with a Gambit Pileup that is as credible and comprehensive as in the Mistborn trilogy. Characterization, however, is a hit and miss affair. In my opinion, he is awesome at writing humorous interactions between male companions (e.g. Wax n' Wayne, Rand and Mat, Breeze and Ham), but quite bad at interactions between men and women. Most other characterizations are somewhere in between, i.e. they are solid, but not great. My writing plans: I am currently writing not a fantasy but a cyberpunk sci-fi novel in which consciousnesses are simulated, mostly against their will. What would you do if you found yourself within a computer simulation whose programmers exploit you - that is, observe your responses to the environment, and other agents - with no obvious way out? I have the characters, themes, and world (that is, simulation) all worked out to a large extent, but still need to finalize my plot so as to make the timeline consistent and the actions of all the characters plausible and understandable. My long-term goal is to write a multi-book fantasy series set in 3000AD, after peak oil, resource shortages, and global warming have regressed technology to c.1900 levels, and the surviving states are all concentrated around the Arctic Circle (the only climatically habitable area of the world). It will feature a dark lord type enemy (the precise nature of which is central to the very core of the series, so I'm afraid I can't reveal it) with a Horde in the southern deserts, and an original magic system. I am not happy with the characters or plot (which are basically non-existent, pretty much, beyond the barest archetypal outlines). I am however happy with the world-building, on which I have 100 pages of notes, and extremely happy with the magic system, which is as detailed, logical, and internally consistent as any one of BS' (even if I say so myself). This magic is loosely based on the Buddhist concept of the "Three Realms" and Gnosticism. (I suppose Realmatic Theory too is in that general "three worlds" category, but I came up with that magic system well before I came across BS' work; and for that matter, I strongly suspect that BS too delved into those philosophies when he was constructing the metaphysics of the cosmere). It's an extremely long-term project. I don't see myself starting on it for at least the next 5 years. For a start, my writing skills (as relates to plot, characters, dialog, etc) isn't anywhere near good enough yet.

I heard he'd be finishing the WoT. Read TGS. Thought it was a solid, if not great, effort on his part. 4/5, will check this author out. Decided to read Mistborn. Though it was one of the very best fantasy series out there (5/5), and now I expect to buy and read practically all of his new books. Read MoT (meh - 3/5) and AMoL (outright disappointing - 2/5). But that is bearing in mind that by that stage it would have taken a genius to truly salvage the WoT. I doubt even RJ could have managed it.

Allomancy Being a bloodmaker like Miles sounds really tempting, but in the end with full Allomancy I still get the regenerative benefits of pewter, plus the ability to fly, plus the ability to manipulate people easily. If being a bloodmaker made you immortal I'd go for Twinborn, but it doesn't, so Allomancy it is then. PS. Note that I can only judge the magic systems of Scadrial and Roshar.

Very disappointed. 2/5 Positive: Demandred's Sharan army (which I had called). That was really cool. The garden scene with Rand/Mat was excellent too. Of course it was pure Sanderson. Negative: Where to even start? Why is Demandred an idiot willing to fight 3 blademasters in a row? Why doesn't Demandred, with 72 linked channelers and the world's second most powerful sa'angreal, not destroy the Light's armies in the space of a couple of minutes? All the old rules of channeling strength are overturned, presumably because at that point RJ/BS realized that the OP was ridiculously overpowered. Then there was Lan's strange speech about gender equality in battle, which was completely out of character both as regards himself and that world more generally. There are many more, I had a list of them somewhere which I wrote soon after finishing AMoL. Regrettably, I can't seem to find it right now.

I came to fantasy largely by way of WoT (I'd read LotR beforehand, but it was RJ who got me hooked on the genre). That said, my own opinions on it are now quite ambivalent. It started out as a great epic. But then, as everyone and their mother points out, it started to drag and become grossly overstretched. At its nadir (CoT) it was well night unreadable. The last four books rescued the series from a withering death, but didn't come close to restoring it to the tenor of the first three or even the first 7 books. Don't get me wrong, it was a valiant effort on BS' part, but in my opinion he did not succeed. He came close with TGS and maybe even ToM, but AMoL was a disappointment on so many levels (at least for me). Conclusion? Read the first 3 books. If you like them, imagine the Dark One is defeated then and there (you'll know what I'm talking about it when you get there). If you love them, then you can consider reading the whole series. But beware that from then on, it increasingly becomes not so much an epic fantasy as a very long cautionary tale about how NOT to write a fantasy series.

There's a great post on this (with math) here. Basically it seems that the main factor is strength. The stronger you are, the longer you can channel before you become exhausted.

Without a doubt, the Lord Ruler being Rashek. I got there at the same time as Vin - missing that was pretty embarrassing. It did however teach me that BS likes to fiddle with his readers, so I've gotten better anticipating such twists in his work.

For the sake of argument, the Sauron we all know best: The Big Bad in LotR (before the Ring's destruction of course). That said, I think LR will curbstomp both that Sauron, and the one at the end of the Second Age. Now Morgoth will be a challenge and probably will defeat the LR. And? Balrogs are Maiar, and there were magic-less warriors who could kill them. Well, only if Lan has the Dark One's own lucky. As he does (Demandred). But objectively speaking, I don't see how even being the world's best swordsman could be superior to having pewter, which basically makes you twice as strong and twice as fast. They both have future sight, yes. But the LR has far greater recovery ability. Probably the only way for Darth Vader to have any chance whatsoever would be for them to start the fight right next to each other. Then DV might draw out his lightsaber and slice the LR into salami before he could react. At any distance, LR surely wins. *shudders*

Lord Ruler vs. Advanced Marsh Who wins? I remember an old thread here where there was a general consensus that a Hemallurgic Super Soldier beats an Original Allomancer and a Full Feruchemist. I think it would be a draw, with neither being able to kill the other. While both have mind-blowing strength, they also have tons of HP and almost instantaneous healing. Unless one of them gets extremely lucky - that is, either Marsh managing to pull off both the Lord Ruler's atium-mind bracelets at the same time, or the Lord Ruler managing to yank the critical spike from Marsh's back - they can keep going at each other for hours or even days. Lord Ruler vs. Sauron Really hard to say. Sauron is a demi-god, while the Lord Ruler is just a man with a lot of clever knacks. Then again, so what? The LR has some crazy skills and unlike the Dark Lord, he can see into the future with atium. Not knowing the detailed mechanics of the LotR magic system, I will bet on the LR here. Lord Ruler vs. Rand al'Thor I think the Dragon wins this one. While the LR has amazingly rapid reactions, all Rand needs to do - pretty much - is bind him with Air and balefire him. I don't think the LR will be able to withstand balefire. Nor do I think atium can predict balefire because of the latter's time-paradoxical effects. You with any modern assault rifle vs. koloss I'd imagine with a fair bit of distance between them and myself, I would be able to down perhaps 5-10 of them with short controlled bursts before they got onto me and ripped me to shreds. Ham vs. Lan Oldie but goodie. But I think definitely Ham. Average Koloss vs. Trolloc I think koloss comes out ahead. Trollocs are described as formidable enemies in the WoT, but in practice, they die by the horde, like flies. A single blademaster can (supposedly) take dozens of them. Average soldier w/ atium vs. Myrddraal I'll give the edge to the soldier. Though the fact that Fades are not "fully in phase with reality" may mean that atium won't work very well against them. In that case, the Fade can be expected to win. Lord Ruler vs. Darth Vader Lord Ruler of course. Is that even a contest? What do you think? Feel free to come up with additional scenarios of your own.

Is the plan to associate particular emotions (e.g. anger) with particular magical effects (e.g. "Fire")? Or is it a bit more complex?