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I'm reading The Stormlight Archive for the first time


Amira

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SA2, chapter 31: Nice to see Kaladin making progress with the other bridge crews! Of course Tyn smokes (or the Roshar equivalent of it). I'm liking her less and less. I was excited for Shallan to arrive at the Shattered Plains, but now that she's playing this game with Tyn, I'm mostly nervous! :unsure:

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15 hours ago, Amira said:

SA2, chapter 31: Nice to see Kaladin making progress with the other bridge crews! Of course Tyn smokes (or the Roshar equivalent of it). I'm liking her less and less. I was excited for Shallan to arrive at the Shattered Plains, but now that she's playing this game with Tyn, I'm mostly nervous! :unsure:

It sounds like you will be satisfied with how this subplot resolves. Including Spoiler (Ch 34 - do not read before Ch 34):

Spoiler
Quote

“Difficult things,” Shallan growled. “Yes. I believe I told you. I’ve learned that lesson already. Thank you.”

One of my favorite Shallan lines so far in all of the books.

The combination of growling, plus content, plus the reflex "thank you" at the end just makes this sing to me.

 

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5 hours ago, Marabout said:

I envy you

The next three chapters for the first time are a joy.

Ooh, I'm excited!

SA2, chapter 32: YES! This is what I'm talking about! Kaladin vs Szeth let's gooooooooo!!! And Dalinar caught the Shardblade, go Blackthorn!

Chapter 33: It was so satisfying to read about Kaladin healing his arm/hand even though I knew it was coming. I hope Kaladin gets better with his powers soon; he'd better start practicing! I hope he tells Dalinar about his powers soon. And what was Szeth so frightened of when he saw Kaladin use Stormlight? He's truthless because of his powers? So many questions. 

Edited by Amira
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SA2, chapter 34: "Red carpet, before it was white..." where was that from? I can't remember. So Tyn is dead, nice, and we finally get to see Shallan using her Shardblade. What was that part about her not needing ten heartbeats, but she does, because she needs time? Pattern continues to be a badass, go Pattern! I'm glad Shallan will be arriving on the Shattered Plains without Tyn. Now I can look forward to reading that in the beginning of part 3. Another thing I look forward to in part 3 is Kaladin going back to that ardent who wanted to train him to fight against enemies with Shardblade and agreeing to be trained. After (temporarily) losing his arm, there's no way this isn't happening. Next up are the interludes, and Szeth isn't listed! Not fair! I want to know what happened with him! Is he just gonna retreat for a while? Can he do that when he was commanded to kill Dalinar? Szeth continues to be very confusing. Took me way too long to realize this, but despite the highstorms, there's no snow in Alethkar. Huh.

To celebrate my finishing part 2, here's a bad SA joke:
Q: Why do the Alethi collect gemhearts?
A: They like the symmetry of the word megagem.

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4 hours ago, Amira said:

SA2, chapter 34: "Red carpet, before it was white..." where was that from? I can't remember. So Tyn is dead, nice, and we finally get to see Shallan using her Shardblade. What was that part about her not needing ten heartbeats, but she does, because she needs time? Pattern continues to be a badass, go Pattern! I'm glad Shallan will be arriving on the Shattered Plains without Tyn. Now I can look forward to reading that in the beginning of part 3. Another thing I look forward to in part 3 is Kaladin going back to that ardent who wanted to train him to fight against enemies with Shardblade and agreeing to be trained. After (temporarily) losing his arm, there's no way this isn't happening. Next up are the interludes, and Szeth isn't listed! Not fair! I want to know what happened with him! Is he just gonna retreat for a while? Can he do that when he was commanded to kill Dalinar? Szeth continues to be very confusing. Took me way too long to realize this, but despite the highstorms, there's no snow in Alethkar. Huh.

To celebrate my finishing part 2, here's a bad SA joke:
Q: Why do the Alethi collect gemhearts?
A: They like the symmetry of the word megagem.

all those little discrepancies you're correctly noticing have perfectly good explanations; indeed, most of them will be key revelation to a story arc or another.
as for szeth, you'll see him in the next interlude. for now he's running - and yes, there's a very good reason he hasn't killed kaladin and is running away instead. you'll see it in this book.

as for tyn... tyn was cool, but she was a totally horrible human being. good riddance.

also shallan is pretty unlucky with the people she meets. the first guy she befriends is an assassin, then as she's shipwrecked she's rescued by slavers, and then she rescues some people and it turns out there's another assassin in there. and you still don't know about her family... it's like she can't take two steps without tripping on a hidden blade or soemthing

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1 hour ago, king of nowhere said:

as for szeth, you'll see him in the next interlude.

Lies.

SA2, interlude 5: Eshonai, no Szeth :angry:

Did you mean next * set * of interludes, after this one?

So, um, was Eshonai tricked? Was she given a different spren than she was expecting?

Edited by Amira
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10 hours ago, Amira said:

 Next up are the interludes, and Szeth isn't listed! Not fair!

Just as each book has a focus flashback character, they also each have a focus interlude character. Szeth was Way of Kings (at least one interlude in every set); while Words of Radiance's interlude focus character is Eshonai (at least one every set).

Szeth will be in the interludes between parts 3 and 4, and will also appear again in other chapters and interludes. . .

Quote

To celebrate my finishing part 2, here's a bad SA joke:
Q: Why do the Alethi collect gemhearts?

Spoiler

A: They like the symmetry of the word megagem.

 

Very nice

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56 minutes ago, Amira said:

SA2, interlude 6: As expected, Kaladin went back to ask Zahel to train him, but why didn't he wait til morning?? The storm is Invested and ardents are monks?

Hightstorms have to be invested, that's how the storms renews Sphere's Stormlight.

I thought they had explained the Ardents before this (in Way of Kings) - back when Jasnah was discussing the Heirocracy with Shallan.  A few centuries before the events of these books, the Vorin church attempted to develop a Theocracy by claiming visions from the Almighty.* Their defeat is why all Ardents are considered slaves (but not quite typical slaves, as Kaladin had been - they are "owned" and cannot own anything or participate in politics; but they also can only be tasked with religious tasks) and also led to the concepts of the Glory and Calling - making worship more "transparent." The Ardents typically provide education to pursue a Calling, and test for Elevations in that Calling (as opposed the the Heirocracy's "as long as you do what we tell you then you are following the righteous path" pretext).

  • Note: (Theory, not spoiler)

  • Spoiler

    If somebody in the Vorin Chuch back then had been receiving the same "Unite Them" visions that we know Dalinar has; then there could have been a valid reason for the church's actions - at least at the start of the political snowball. . .

     

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Zahel is a world hopper??

What makes you think that?

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1 hour ago, Amira said:

SA2, interlude 6: As expected, Kaladin went back to ask Zahel to train him, but why didn't he wait til morning?? The storm is Invested

investiture is the general cosmere name for magic fuel. it's the energy that powers magic. so on roshar investiture is carried in the storms, from there it goes into spheres, and from there a radiant can suck it to do radiant stuff. or a fabrial can use it to function. investiture is basically the magical equivalent of electricity.

as for zahel, it's not hard to spot. as for recognizing him, depends on which other books you read.
there are actually quite a lot of worldhoppers on roshar surrounding the main events - belonging to different factions, with different goals. the thing is, roshar has several things of interest for the cosmere at large.

i don't think it's really a spoiler, but just in case you consider it spoilery I won't go in more detail.

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2 hours ago, Amira said:

The storm is Invested and ardents are monks? Zahel is a world hopper??

Maybe I wasn't clear.
"The storm is Invested" = This was me pointing out that Zahel referred to the storm as Invested, a cosmere term but not a Roshar term as far as I know.
"ardents are monks" = This was me pointing out that Zahel referred to the ardents as monks, which I don't recall seeing in SA previously. Again, not a Roshar term.
Based on these two observations, I arrived at the conclusion = "Zahel is a world hopper"

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14 minutes ago, Amira said:

Maybe I wasn't clear.
"The storm is Invested" = This was me pointing out that Zahel referred to the storm as Invested, a cosmere term but not a Roshar term as far as I know.
"ardents are monks" = This was me pointing out that Zahel referred to the ardents as monks, which I don't recall seeing in SA previously. Again, not a Roshar term.
Based on these two observations, I arrived at the conclusion = "Zahel is a world hopper"

These are great observations

Another subtle hint that you can sometimes notice is idioms and/or phrases that seem "disjointed" (such as Zahel's line in this interlude:)

Spoiler

“Good,” Zahel said, settling down on the bed. “And don’t be green from the ground.”

A real world analogy might be if I said "Even a monkey can fall from a tree" (which is a Korean Proverb about how anybody can make a mistake no matter how good they are at something); which, without context, just sounds like nonsense. . .

49 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

as for zahel, it's not hard to spot. as for recognizing him, depends on which other books you read.
there are actually quite a lot of worldhoppers on roshar surrounding the main events - belonging to different factions, with different goals. the thing is, roshar has several things of interest for the cosmere at large.

I believe Amara is starting with Stormlight Archive, so she would not have yet read the story where we see Zahel under a different name (but it will be interesting to see if she picks him out when she does read that work)

Edited by Treamayne
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19 hours ago, Treamayne said:

I believe Amara is starting with Stormlight Archive, so she would not have yet read the story where we see Zahel under a different name (but it will be interesting to see if she picks him out when she does read that work)

I don't think it's a spoiler to mention what story that is, but to be in the safe side...

Spoiler

... Zahel is a major character in Warbreaker. There is one more scene in WoR that you experience very differently if you have already read Warbreaker. I actually recommended a friend to read Warbreaker before SA so that one scene would have its full impact. But don't worry, I expect finding that out 'backwards' also has its rewards.

 

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SA2, interlude 7: Taln was brought to the Shattered Plains! This set of interludes might not have Szeth in them, but I'm rather liking how they're staying short and interesting. Both #6 and #7 had events that were very satisfying to hear about, and that have me looking forward to hearing more about how they develop.

23 hours ago, Erklitt said:

I don't think it's a spoiler to mention what story that is, but to be in the safe side...

  Hide contents

... Zahel is a major character in Warbreaker. There is one more scene in WoR that you experience very differently if you have already read Warbreaker. I actually recommended a friend to read Warbreaker before SA so that one scene would have its full impact. But don't worry, I expect finding that out 'backwards' also has its rewards.

 

Haha, I know, I'm reading the cosmere in the wrong order. Oh well

Edited by Amira
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SA2, interlude 8, Eshonai: The Parshendi discovered Stormform! I wonder how this will affect Eshonai's negotiation meeting with Dalinar. Another thing to look forward to in part 3. We still didn't find out what the deal was with her getting the wrong spren during the transformation (or whatever happened there). Hm...

Edited by Amira
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4 hours ago, Amira said:

SA2, interlude 8, Eshonai: The Parshendi discovered Stormform! I wonder how this will affect Eshonai's negotiation meeting with Dalinar. Another thing to look forward to in part 3. We still didn't find out what the deal was with her getting the wrong spren during the transformation (or whatever happened there). Hm...

Why did you think it was the wrong spren? Was it because Eshonai said "angerspren?" The spren was named in Interlude 4 (stormspren), when Eshonai said "this is wrong" she was referring to something else (but related) that will come up later in the book. . .

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On 12/28/2022 at 9:52 PM, Treamayne said:

Why did you think it was the wrong spren?

The way Eshonai reacted in the Storm. It seemed like she was expecting something different than what she got.

 

SA2, chapter 35: Adolin continues to wonder about Kaladin and Navani continues to produce impossible fabrials. I'm really looking forward to seeing how Adolin eventually finds out about Kaladin being a surgebinder and how he reacts when he does.

 

My rep says I'm a Lord Prelan now. I don't think I know what that is.

Edited by Amira
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48 minutes ago, alder24 said:
1 hour ago, Amira said:

My rep says I'm a Lord Prelan now. I don't think I know what that is.

That's a highest ranking bureaucratic official from another series. Congrats, you're a bureaucrat now

Specifically Mistborn, which I believe you said you once started. . .

1 hour ago, Amira said:

SA2, chapter 35: Adolin continues to wonder about Kaladin and Navani continues to produce impossible fabrials.

So much to look forward to. . .

Quote

I'm really looking forward to seeing how Adolin eventually finds out about Kaladin being a surgebinder and how he reacts when he does.

. . . While not a wish fulfillment, Ch 56-57 will be a solid step in the direction for which you are waiting. And I, for one, cannot wait to hear your reaction to that sequence.

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