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White Sand Volume 1 Reactions


WeiryWriter

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To answer i quote myself some posts ago. Note that the model-like looks aren't a problem on their own; quite contrary, I like that appearance; it's more like the entrance does not feel consistent with the situation as a whole:

On 30.6.2016 at 0:37 AM, Alfa said:

But really, who in all Damnation, honestly, walks into a tent near a battlefield with a supposedly dead person inside after a bad day with half your expedition, guide included, killed and with almost no water in a way I would expect from models on the catwalk during a Fashion Week in Paris?

That just seems kind of wrong.

 

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On Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 1:37 AM, Alfa said:

But really, who in all Damnation, honestly, walks into a tent near a battlefield with a supposedly dead perosn inside after a bad day with half your expedition, guide included, killed and with almost no water in a way I would expect from models on the catwalk during a Fashion Week in Paris?

That just seems kind of wrong.

A naive college student with a silver spoon in her mouth, perhaps?  

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1 hour ago, Landis963 said:

A naive college student with a silver spoon in her mouth, perhaps?  

Yes, but without water? From own exprerience I say it's quite annoying to be thirsty even for a couple of hours on any kind of trip; don't know how it is in a desert (yeah, Kenton will disagree), but I doubt it will be more pleasant.

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1 hour ago, Alfa said:

Yes, but without water? From own exprerience I say it's quite annoying to be thirsty even for a couple of hours on any kind of trip; don't know how it is in a desert (yeah, Kenton will disagree), but I doubt it will be more pleasant.

And I'm certain that the Khriss we saw was selflessly giving up her own water ration for the sake of her beloved professors. [/sarcasm]  Besides, "a couple of hours" seems like a pretty good time frame between the start of the Darksiders' deprivation (if you can even call it that) and their discovery of Kenton, as ludicrously coincidental as it is.  And the annoyance you mention could easily contribute to the irritability and general 'tude that Khriss displays throughout that scene. 

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Actually, having visited a desert (in Utah of course!) REMEMBERING to drink can be the problem. Because sweat evaporates almost instantly you don't feel as hot as you do in technically cooler places that are more humid. I kept having to remind myself that even if I felt cool it was a 100+ degrees and I had to drink regularly. So Khriss may not be feeling as thirsty as she is.

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20 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Actually, having visited a desert (in Utah of course!) REMEMBERING to drink can be the problem. Because sweat evaporates almost instantly you don't feel as hot as you do in technically cooler places that are more humid. I kept having to remind myself that even if I felt cool it was a 100+ degrees and I had to drink regularly. So Khriss may not be feeling as thirsty as she is.

I agree, having lived for a week in black rock desert, Nevada at burning man, but that raises a different problem with her attire/entrance. When you live out in the desert (or in Khriss's case, travel for an extended period of time on foot, or tonk (I would say me riding a bike would be a good analogue)), sand gets everywhere. That's why daysiders wear boots the way they do. So sand doesn't sneak in, and tear up their feet while they walk. Your sweat makes the sand get glued to your face. Your sweat on your clothes, gets the sand glued to your clothes. Basically you have a fine film of sand/dust covering your entire body. If you had been traveling via tonk, or foot in the desert for hours, you are going to get covered in dirt and grime, and especially someone not experienced with such living, is going to be exhausted and exasperated. Walking through sand when you don't know how to, takes double the work of walking normally. She should be stumbling or wobbling her way in, exhausted, and filthy. Most definitely not catwalk material lol

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The sand didn't seem to be much of an issue on her trip, so it may be that the lichen causes it to act differently. Our sand doesn't have a micro organism allergic to water attached to it after all, and sweat contains water. Personally, I've never had an issue with desert sand, but then I tend to wear long loose clothes which are good for that sort of environment.

Edited by Kingsdaughter613
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8 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

The sand didn't seem to be much of an issue on her trip, so it may be that the lichen causes it to act differently. Our sand doesn't have a micro organism allergic to water attached to it after all, and sweat contains water. Personally, I've never had an issue with desert sand, but then I tend to wear long loose clothes which are good for that sort of environment.

That very well could be the case, or my disappointment in the graphic novel grows as they gloss over the hardships Khriss should have gone through traveling through dayside. Regarding your comment about water allergic organism, i put the newsletter info in spoiler below:

Spoiler

the water is actually part of the lichen's life cycle as per Brandon. So the changing color isn't actually it reacting adversely, but in fact progressing in its cycle. 

Yeah, I feel like she was not dressed for the environment at alllll and should have had a harder time than she did lol. But who knows. You did make a good point that the lichen hanging around full of investiture might be doing something we haven't realized yet. 

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Sweat has water in it, and since simply holding sand doesn't turn it black I'm guessing something is going on. Otherwise the sand would blackened if it was touched. 

Spoiler

I know the water is part of the life cycle according to the newsletter. I've just always referred to it as allergic, since that was my first reaction when reading the prose.

 

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8 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Sweat has water in it, and since simply holding sand doesn't turn it black I'm guessing something is going on. Otherwise the sand would blackened if it was touched. 

  Hide contents

I know the water is part of the life cycle according to the newsletter. I've just always referred to it as allergic, since that was my first reaction when reading the prose.

 

Hmmm, maybe it has to be "fresh" water or the sand needs to be saturated to turn black?

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54 minutes ago, Argel said:

Quantity explains why those plants contain enough water for people to drink. If it was just "fresh" they wouldn't need as much water.

I am confused as to the correlation. Could you explain? To clarify, I was positing that because sweat contains urea, salts and such that perhaps that is why the sand/lichen does not turn black. Or another possibility is that the sand/lichen needs to be soaked with water for the sand/lichen to turn black. Not saying your comparison is wrong, but I am confused as to why the vines having enough water for people to drink is evidence that the sand needs to be saturated to be turned black, vs fresh not needing as much water. Could you elaborate?

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Am I the only one who has the feeling the the X marks are form based magic like the one we just happens to have on Sel the plant with the shard called Dominion that happens to be the opposite of Autonomy? I'm not saying it's Dominion himself but maybe someone with a big amount of his power after he was shattered?

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36 minutes ago, feldi said:

Am I the only one who has the feeling the the X marks are form based magic like the one we just happens to have on Sel the plant with the shard called Dominion that happens to be the opposite of Autonomy? I'm not saying it's Dominion himself but maybe someone with a big amount of his power after he was shattered?

I don't think so.

See, all Kershtians wear symbols on their foreheads, based on their caste (I can't remember if that's what they call it in-universe, but it's the same idea). Usually, they're on those medallions that we see many Kershtians wearing.

The "X" has long been a symbol of the priesthood, and scarring it into their foreheads instead of wearing it on a medallion is just this new warrior-priest caste showing how extreme they are. Actually, they apparently existed a couple of hundred years before the time of the story, so maybe they're bringing back a tradition rather than starting a new one.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that you're assuming that the antagonists in the story would not be aligned with Autonomy. Considering that we know very little about Autonomy beyond the fact that Bavadin is probably a villain to at least some extent, this is probably not a safe assumption to make. It is tempting to assume that a Shard would be "on the same side" as the magic users who access its Investiture, but that isn't a good assumption, either. In most cases, the Shard's relationship to magic users is pretty neutral. There are cases, like with Endowment, where the Shard actively tries to work with those accessing its Investiture, but the opposite could also be the case. Autonomy could be working with the radical Kershtians, in direct opposition to the sand masters.

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2 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

I am confused as to the correlation. Could you explain? To clarify, I was positing that because sweat contains urea, salts and such that perhaps that is why the sand/lichen does not turn black. Or another possibility is that the sand/lichen needs to be soaked with water for the sand/lichen to turn black. Not saying your comparison is wrong, but I am confused as to why the vines having enough water for people to drink is evidence that the sand needs to be saturated to be turned black, vs fresh not needing as much water. Could you elaborate?

Sorry, I was equating quantity with saturation, and agreeing that saturation/quantity must be the reason. "Fresh" alone doesn't make sense because a membrane would suffice, so why spend extra energy collecting tons of additional water. Of course, it could also be  Saturation + Fresh. Also, Brandon wrote this a long time ago and mentioned he doesn't think the whole turning sand into water thing works well, so it's possible other aspects were not thought through as much he would do today as well. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My copy finally arrived in the mail and I read it on day. I liked it! It seems like many of the complaints consist of a: people didn't know its 1/3 of a story b: poor quality of digital copy c. People don't like graphic novels. I'm not huge into graphic novels, but I do like Bone by Jeff Smith and Cerebus. Its far from Sanderson's best creation, but still enjoyable enough I will continue to buy them...despite the fact that, in my opinion, it is very much overpriced.

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My reaction to Kenton's character arc:

- Oh, he's super weak.

- Even with the control he's pretty damnation weak.

- damnation, he survived being buried alive under a hundred people, their grandmothers and a cubic meter of sand. 

- *some time passes* Oh, suddenly he's stronk as fuk.

- I AM THE MESSIA--  Oh hey it's Blonde Jesus!

And to Aarik:

- Oh hey, it's Kelsier!

Edited by Rob Lucci
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I agree with the the "show don't tell" comments already posted, especially the view from space (I am sure Howard could give some tips). Even though I haven't read the prose version, I have read all the published Cosmere works, so I was a little surprised at how hard I had to work and how many times I had to flip to previous pages to figure out what was going on. Then again, pretty much all the graphic novels I have read so far are continuations of favorite TV shows, so maybe I have an unjust meter for a new story's learning curve in this medium.

I agree that a number of characters looked too similar, especially since there were name typos confusing things further. Another issue I had was that the sketchy line work makes it look like practically everyone has a skin condition. It's pretty clear that Traiben was dessicated in the battle and there is something bad happening on Nilto's face, but in the scenes where N'Teese takes Khrissalla around to try to talk to the leaders her hands look just as bad (or should they look that way?). And on the previous page I can't tell if Cynder is balding of if skin is peeling off his head. 

But I will definitely keep on reading based on an intriguing plot, the hope that the humor, magic system and pacing will improve as the need for exposition decreases and of course my faith in all things Sanderson to entertain.

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14 hours ago, LeahAstonished said:

I agree with the the "show don't tell" comments already posted, especially the view from space (I am sure Howard could give some tips). Even though I haven't read the prose version, I have read all the published Cosmere works, so I was a little surprised at how hard I had to work and how many times I had to flip to previous pages to figure out what was going on. Then again, pretty much all the graphic novels I have read so far are continuations of favorite TV shows, so maybe I have an unjust meter for a new story's learning curve in this medium.

I agree that a number of characters looked too similar, especially since there were name typos confusing things further. Another issue I had was that the sketchy line work makes it look like practically everyone has a skin condition. It's pretty clear that Traiben was dessicated in the battle and there is something bad happening on Nilto's face, but in the scenes where N'Teese takes Khrissalla around to try to talk to the leaders her hands look just as bad (or should they look that way?). And on the previous page I can't tell if Cynder is balding of if skin is peeling off his head. 

But I will definitely keep on reading based on an intriguing plot, the hope that the humor, magic system and pacing will improve as the need for exposition decreases and of course my faith in all things Sanderson to entertain.

I can definetly recommend reading the prose version. It's just a very fun read and gives a much greater amount of information about the world and the systems involved. And you don't really notice that it's an unfinished version. There are more grammatical and spelling errors than usual, but other than that I would think it's more than good enough for a full book release.

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I finally signed up to 17th shard just to say I LOVED WHITE SANDS! But being a graphic novel I was hoping for heaps of detail in the background, the sort of stuff you might only notice on a second or third read through and it just feels too quick paced the way that the scenes are cut. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally (finally) managed to get a copy of White Sand. So far everything goes as I expected, so basically no surprises there. But I have one, very minor question, couse I just simply can't remember:

Did Ais change genders, or do I remember the prose wrong?

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I just got my hands on a copy and read the book, and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a shaky, implausible, very non-Sanderson work, but I was proven wrong. Despite being only volume one, I already feel very engaged in the characters and world. I strongly enjoy the sort of colonial/19th century imperial vibe the Darksiders give off.

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