Farewell interludes

[Shaukan-son-Hasweth]

I just finished Rythm of war. And I liked it quite a lot. Some scenes hit deeper than anything else in the series.

But there is one thing I was very dissapointed by. I used to love the interludes. In the beginning they were a break from everything we've known so far and gave us a glimpse into so many other things happening on Roshar. They were something I liked to reread independently from the rest of the books. They just had a unique feel to them. And they are loosing this feeling to me more and more each book.

It started to happen in Oathbringer. With Taravangian Szeth and Lift now being frequently featured in other viewpoints their apperances in the interludes just lost their draw to me. There still were other interludes like the lighthouse keeper or the Romance reading ardents that had the old style. But in RoW every interlude was very tightly connected to the main story. We spend the whole book in Emul or in Urithiru. And thats where all the interludes happen.
I get that Brandon does this to give the feeling of everything coming together but I just miss the adventure of seeing something only loosely connected. I loved the mistery in those short-Stories.

It's a tiny complaint. I just wanted to know if there are other people who feel like this on here.

[Goatbringer]

I love all my interludes, whether they tie back to the main plot or not

[Toaster Retribution]

I think Oathbringer worked very well in this regard: it wasn't always a complete break, and gave interesting insights in the minds of various important characters. But I also like the "lets spend five pages on this random character you won't ever see again"-interludes. They showcase Roshar, and also lead to quite a lot of interesting discussions. The three worldhoppers from Ishikks interlude, Cusicesh from Axies, larkins and Shinovar from Rysn, Shalash and the Nightwatcher from Baxil, and so on. So yeah, I miss them. 

And if we are going to have Interludes from characters we know, I prefer it to be characters we don't see POVs from otherwise. Give us a Mraize interlude. A Nale interlude. A Leshwi interlude. 

And also, bring back Axies!

[+Child of Hodor]

I did like how many non-human ones we got Syl, Sja-Anat and Chiri-Chiri. 

I agree I like the random world-building ones best. 

[Elegy]

Most interludes could have worked as normal chapters just as well. And the Jasnah chapters could have been interludes by the standards of this book. It makes sense because all the world is tied into the conflict now and the story is getting nearer to its first ending, so introducing random new things this late would feel weird. On the other hand, just dropping the interludes altogether would be weird as well, since we've come to expect them from a Stormlight book. So I understand this compromise and think it's a good way of doing it.

But what I miss is the short story format of these interludes. The only interlude that I felt worked as a coherent little story was the Syl one. All the other ones are short set-ups and hardly more than that. In Words of Radiance (hands down the best interludes by far, in my opinion), the Rysn and the Lift interludes alone were complete short stories within a larger book. And I hoped that, for example, this one's Lift interlude would do something like that and was kinda disappointed to have it end on a cliffhanger. So basically, while I have nothing against the way interludes are less independent now, I do believe that Brandon doesn't put the same amount of work into them as he did in previous books. At least I would be very surprised if he did.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Elegy

[Raven Wilder]

Yeah, I missed the short story-esque interludes that took us to all sorts of bizarre corners of Roshar. I'm kinda worried that maybe Brandon has decided to shove all that stuff into the novellas, and so it'll be left out of the main books.

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine]

On 12/10/2020 at 11:47 AM, Toaster Retribution said:

Give us a Mraize interlude.

This has my vote. Either an interlude or, dare I hope, a novella, from Mraize's POV going to talk to Thaidakar, that is the stuff of dreams right there!

I agree that I miss the old style inteludes, the snippets that we get from "An Accountability of Virtue" in Ellista's Oathbringer interlude are some of the funniest moments in all of Brandon's work.

In Memorium of the Interludes we have lost, I hold up a glass and Axies you a collective question, If you had to make Ellista all of your favorite Inerludes, could you have Rysn to this challenge? Lift your glass with me Kaza I have a Teft time drinking alone, and though Ym starting to drift in my thoughts, don't worry I'll get Baxil to the point way before you say what Zahel is this all leading to. As I was saying, and I'm not Lhan when I say this, the Interludes from Stormlight Archive have Szeth the bar very high, and I am not Pulli-ing your leg when I'm Adin the fact that I think Brandon will come back to the wider scoped interlude, because Hesina the fact that we love them dearly.

[Raven Wilder]

Well now, that's just brilliant.

Wit would approve.

[Toaster Retribution]

21 hours ago, Ookla the Mok Turtle Soup said:

In Memorium of the Interludes we have lost, I hold up a glass and Axies you a collective question, If you had to make Ellista all of your favorite Inerludes, could you have Rysn to this challenge? Lift your glass with me Kaza I have a Teft time drinking alone, and though Ym starting to drift in my thoughts, don't worry I'll get Baxil to the point way before you say what Zahel is this all leading to. As I was saying, and I'm not Lhan when I say this, the Interludes from Stormlight Archive have Szeth the bar very high, and I am not Pulli-ing your leg when I'm Adin the fact that I think Brandon will come back to the wider scoped interlude, because Hesina the fact that we love them dearly.

If it weren't against the rules, I'd create another account on here just to be able to upvote this twice.

[Kingsdaughter613]

On 12/11/2020 at 9:46 PM, Ookla the Mok Turtle Soup said:

This has my vote. Either an interlude or, dare I hope, a novella, from Mraize's POV going to talk to Thaidakar, that is the stuff of dreams right there!

I agree that I miss the old style inteludes, the snippets that we get from "An Accountability of Virtue" in Ellista's Oathbringer interlude are some of the funniest moments in all of Brandon's work.

In Memorium of the Interludes we have lost, I hold up a glass and Axies you a collective question, If you had to make Ellista all of your favorite Inerludes, could you have Rysn to this challenge? Lift your glass with me Kaza I have a Teft time drinking alone, and though Ym starting to drift in my thoughts, don't worry I'll get Baxil to the point way before you say what Zahel is this all leading to. As I was saying, and I'm not Lhan when I say this, the Interludes from Stormlight Archive have Szeth the bar very high, and I am not Pulli-ing your leg when I'm Adin the fact that I think Brandon will come back to the wider scoped interlude, because Hesina the fact that we love them dearly.

Very nice!

 

Personally, I’m half-hoping we get that described Interlude the other way: from THAIDAKAR’s perspective as one of his GBs comes to report to him on Scadrial. We’ve had Vasher’s, so we can have an offworlder interlude starring a major character without it spoiling another series. (Though seeing as Thaidakar’s identity is a major spoiler...) 

We almost certainly will get that novella though. “Mistborn Secret History 2: Ghostblood” could work as a title...

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine]

1 minute ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Personally, I’m half-hoping we get that described Interlude the other way: from THAIDAKAR’s perspective as one of his GBs comes to report to him on Scadrial. We’ve had Vasher’s, so we can have an offworlder interlude starring a major character without it spoiling another series. (Though seeing as Thaidakar’s identity is a major spoiler...) 

We almost certainly will get that novella though. “Mistborn Secret History 2: Ghostblood” could work as a title..

I like it, this has my vote too!

[Kingsdaughter613]

18 minutes ago, Ookla the Mok Turtle Soup said:

I like it, this has my vote too!

Thanks!

[GeoMantrix]

Some of my friends and relatives who read things other than Stormlight Archive got interlude fatigue to where they weren't even looking forward to another book, so I can let them go.  There's one kind of new interlude character, I guess

Spoiler

Aden?  Adin?

but since he's right there, I don't know if that counts.  

[StormingTexan]

I completely agree I miss the old interludes as well. I liked the random locations and characters much more. I used to look forward to the interludes but in RoW they just felt like extra chapters in the main book instead of the short stories of past books. 

[Honorless]

Yeah, I loved the interludes, I think the Stormlight books are where I saw them done the best. They took us around Roshar & showed us things not directly connected to the main plot. It was a nice change of pace. I actually felt like I needed them in the books and that they were perfectly placed right where I needed a break. I hope we go back to the old style in future books.

[Spectromixer]

Yeah I agree with that I preferred the world builder without being directly connected to the story like TWOK and WOR. Rysn's were a favorite of mine.

[Andy92]

I don’t expect this to change too much from RoW in the next book, but I could see the interludes being more like the first two books again once the second arc begins.