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Prologue, Chapters 1 & 2 (from Tor)


Argent

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Bah, how did the formatting die...

 

Tor.com just release the full prologue (To Question), as well as chapters 1 (Santhid) and 2 (Bridge Four). I am reading them right now, so I don't have anything interesting to say. I'll edit or respond when I am done.

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Edited by Argent
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Loved it, looks like they are going to go for the love triangle after all.

Doubt the relationship is going to be as smooth as the chapter makes out to be, I just hope they don't drag it on for too long.

My prediction : Willing Shallan and Unwilling Adolin at the start, Renarin will probably take to her immediately but not make his feelings known.

Shallan will notice Renarin later on just as Adolin changes his mind and thus begins the triangle :( I hope this isn't the case.

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“Spren are those ideas—the ideas of collective human experience— somehow come alive. Shadesmar is where that first happens, and it is their place. Though we created it, they shaped it. They live there; they rule there, within their own cities.”

Cities?

“Yes,” Jasnah said, looking back out over the ocean. She seemed troubled. “Spren are wild in their variety. Some are as clever as humans and create cities. Others are like fish and simply swim in the currents.”

Intriguing possibilities!  Spren create their own cities.  Gives more weight to the theory that Urithiru is in the cognitive realm, although there are still other unresolved issues with it :)

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=)

 

A day with new chapters of WOR are a good day tks for the head's up =)

 

New cover too =)

 

......

Edit: Amaram and Jasnah well,well,well. I think that Amaram will gonna have a major part in WOR indeed.

Edited by Natans
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Guest AmruthS

I liked the final cover version, Kaladin looks younger and the stance is looking good too. Also like the ripple effect spreading on the ground (Looks like Kaladin is fighting with someone and has jumped from a great distance or something). MW did a good job with the final cover.

 

As for the chapters, still taking it all in...

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Whoosh!  The prologue is incredible!  So much about Jasnah is so recent.  No reasons for the assassination, but definite acknowledgement on the part of the Parshendi.  Jasnah should be able to recognize Szeth on sight.  And the Parshendi destroyed hundreds of horses and riders which pursued them.

 

Edit: Oh, and how does one play the flute one handed?

Edited by Shardlet
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Very nice. :D
 
My own impressions:
 
Intuition as Cognitive is interesting, deals some small amount of violence to Breaths not being Cognitive, if instinctive Awakening works through intuition...
-Perhaps I'll withdraw to Commands as based on Forms to save the day?  :huh:
 
Spren stuff was intensely interesting. I'll quote the whole passage:
 

“I…” Shallan looked up at a pair of windspren spinning through the air above. They looked like tiny ribbons of light, glowing softly, dancing around one another. “[spren are] living ideas.”

Jasnah spun on her.

“What?” Shallan said, jumping. “Am I wrong?”

“No,” Jasnah said. “You’re right.” The woman narrowed her eyes. “By my best guess, spren are elements of the Cognitive Realm that have leaked into the physical world. They’re concepts that have gained a fragment of sentience, perhaps because of human intervention.

“Think of a man who gets angry often. Think of how his friends and family might start referring to that anger as a beast, as a thing that possesses him, as something external to him. Humans personify. We speak of the wind as if it has a will of its own.

“Spren are those ideas—the ideas of collective human experience— somehow come alive. Shadesmar is where that first happens, and it is their place. Though we created it, they shaped it. They live there; they rule there, within their own cities.”

 

Cities?”

 

“Yes,” Jasnah said, looking back out over the ocean. She seemed troubled. “Spren are wild in their variety. Some are as clever as humans and create cities. Others are like fish and simply swim in the currents.”

 
So I think I'll just crack open a bottle of champagne here.
 
Beyond patting myself (mightily) on the back,:  So spren come to life in the Cognitive. I'm (obviously, since I'm highly biased) going to hazard that the "ideas of collective human experience" that they're based on have their non-alive existence in the Spiritual as Forms, then.
 
This passage also locks in spren as our illusive "mostly Cognitive beings".
 

Wait. The Parshendi drummers. I thought Eshonai's viewpoint established that the Parshendi were incapable of creatinggs.
Jasnah saw her father's death and heard the Parshendi confess to the assassination. But we are no closer to learning wh
 art due to their... predicament. But what we see during the feast sure looks like something that would require a form. Did they lose their forms soon after the treaty went south?

 
Music is kind of their thing, as we saw in the Eshonai interlude and their battle-singing and all, so I doubt that Parshendi require specific forms to be musical. 
 

Huh, horses are apparently nearly priceless.

 
Have to import them from Shinovar and all. ;)

Edited by Kurkistan
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I wonder if Shallan's betrothal will ruffle some feathers, or if the Shallarin camp will see it as an oportunity for Shallan to get closer to the Kholin family? I think most will see the betrothal as an opportunity. Personally I don't really care whether there's a romance between Shallan and whomever.

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Edit: Oh, and how does one play the flute one handed?

"Hoid raised an eyebrow and lifted the flute to his lips. He played it differently from flutes Kaladin had seen - instead of holding it down in front of home, Hoid held it out to the side and blew across its top." - Pg 802

 

I though of that as well, then remembered this bit.

 

Anyway... I loved it. My favourite bit? Shallan's engagement to Adolin. We got so much cool spren stuff, cool Shadesmar stuff and cool Radiant stuff, but that character interaction is now one of my most anticipated bits of the whole book.

 

Only 58 (ish) days to go!!!!

 

EDIT: The new cover also looks amazing! Finally I think it can stand up to the first cover. And looks as good (if completely different) to the Shallan art.

Edited by FireArcadia
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"Hoid raised an eyebrow and lifted the flute to his lips. He played it differently from flutes Kaladin had seen - instead of holding it down in front of home, Hoid held it out to the side and blew across its top." - Pg 802

 

I though of that as well, then remembered this bit.

 

Anyway... I loved it. My favourite bit? Shallan's engagement to Adolin. We got so much cool spren stuff, cool Shadesmar stuff and cool Radiant stuff, but that character interaction is now one of my most anticipated bits of the whole book.

 

Only 58 (ish) days to go!!!!

 

EDIT: The new cover also looks amazing! Finally I think it can stand up to the first cover. And looks as good (if completely different) to the Shallan art.

Nah the flute Brandon mentions requires two hands as well to play.

http://www.davidbruce.net/images/bansuri.jpg

These are quite common in India, and you do blow across the top whilst holding it sideways.

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Awesome - a roller coaster ride!

  • Jasnah's spren tests her much more harshly than asking a few questions like Shallan's and Kaladin's do.
  • Some hints at how Soulcasting at a distance could work
  • Wait - Jasnah was within a cautious impulse of having her brother's wife assassinated!  How was she a threat?
  • Gavilar and Amaram?  Maybe the Ghostbloods had a real reason to take out Amaram. 
  • Assassins find Szeth unbearably creepy. 
  • A betrayal of the spren by the humans -the Recreance presumably
Edited by hoser
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I wonder if Shallan's betrothal will ruffle some feathers, or if the Shallarin camp will see it as an oportunity for Shallan to get closer to the Kholin family? I think most will see the betrothal as an opportunity. Personally I don't really care whether there's a romance between Shallan and whomever.

 

 Ruffle some feathers I see what done here. Nice =) Upvote for the comment

 

The aswer about Renarin x Adolin X Shallan is simple love triangle ;)

 

Jasnah said that Dalinar let his sons decide in this matters, so If Renarin step up Adolin will fold for his bother =) This is a very good way to pair Renarin and Shallan and have some conflict that a good plot demands;)

Edited by Natans
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"Hoid raised an eyebrow and lifted the flute to his lips. He played it differently from flutes Kaladin had seen - instead of holding it down in front of home, Hoid held it out to the side and blew across its top." - Pg 802

 

I though of that as well, then remembered this bit.

 

Nah the flute Brandon mentions requires two hands as well to play.

http://www.davidbruce.net/images/bansuri.jpg

These are quite common in India, and you do blow across the top whilst holding it sideways.

 

Yeah, even held vertically, a one-handed flute would have a very different set of notes to work with.  Something like a pentatonic scale or similar.

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I really hope that feast scene is a constant in the prologues, and each time we see it from a different view until - in the fifth book I suppose- we get a big answer from... maybe Gavilar's perspective? One can only hope.

 

Yes, this is what will happen. We have WoB that the first five books' prologues will all be different perspectives on the night of the assassination.

Edited by Kurkistan
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Brief thoughts as I read:

 

Prologue:

  • Jasnah you are amazing I love you
  • Assassinating people is intriguing. I wonder what Elhokar's wife did.
  • Gavilar burning Jasnah hardcore. She needs a good deflating when her head gets too big. Pity Gavilar's not around anymore.
  • Her spren are amazing I love her oilshadows
  • Heralds, definitely Heralds. My lord's own blade and referring to Shallash as 'Ash' definitely puts the emphasis on the lord being Honor and the people being Heralds.
  • Jasnah was responsible for Gavilar hesitating? Didn't see that one coming.
  • The Alethi just hanged the Parshendi? No questions? Yeah, that's pretty much in line with the Alethi way of life. Idiots.

Santhid:

  • Twice now the cloud-highways leading to the not-sun-or-moon has been brought up. What is it, where do they go?
  • Shallan character development, ho!
  • Jasnah being very very helpful, and oh Shallan. Just asking for Jasnah's help with the fabrial would have been so easy.
  • Shallan and Adolin? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah okay there. Love triangles commence.
  • Shallan giving orders? I am not sure how I feel.

Kaladin we've already seen with the Steelhunt.

 

I want more, so much more. So excited!

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Interesting that the first 2 chapters focus (somewhat briefly) on betrayal of an agreement or alliance. 

  • Chapter 1 has Jasnah discuss the “ancient betrayal” that the spren feel Rosharians committed against them. 
  • Chapter 2 has Kaladin reflect on the betrayal of Sadeas against Dalinar’s men.

 

Since Jasnah goes to Shadesmar 6 years before Kaladin and Shallan’s interaction with their spren, I wonder if she was one of, if not the, first the spren reached out to.  And so the spren tested her especially …harshly due to some residue of their anger at the betrayal. 

 

I question whether other Elsecallers would go through so difficult a process.  

 

Wow.  This has led to so many more questions, so much more speculating and theorizing.  I think we'll be coming up with new stuff for days...

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  • Jasnah being very very helpful, and oh Shallan. Just asking for Jasnah's help with the fabrial would have been so easy.
  • Shallan and Adolin? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah okay there. Love triangles commence.

 

 

Thank you God the characters of Stormlight archive talk with each other sharing important information !!! 

 

Brace yourselves love tringle inbound. Time to the second son win the girl. (Dalinar would understand his young son side for sure)

 

PS: I liked the explanation way there are so many Surgebinder appearing. The spren are trying to make a last stand now that everything is close to go crazy. Make sense and explain a lot.

Edited by Natans
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