Longer White Sands preview

[DSC01]

That may not necessarily be a woman in the picture, either. It's very stylized, and while it does look pretty feminine, it could be a man with long hair. 

[Chaos]

I am now moving this to our White Sand forum

[The Invested Beard]

Huzzah!

[Botanica]

Cheers! Finally a sub-forum for White Sand!

[Ari]

Exactly! Let me block most of my peripheral vision while going into combat with multiple foes. Makes perfect sense  . Only thing worse is the warlock in Destiny. There is literally absolutely no reason/use to have a hood when you are wearing a space suit complete with helmet. 

 

Hoods are a good easy to way to hide and unhide your face without looking too much like you're hiding your face. Like most options to do so, it's a trade-off between peripheral vision and stealth. For criminals, hoods make sense, and without having played Destiny, I will say that most warlocks are considered criminal mages- so if you're flinging around demonic magics and don't want to be identified, a hood *might* be a good idea, and the Destiny class might be a scifi analogy of that.

 

Hoods for priests or other types of mages only really make sense if there's an ideological reason for them, or you live in cold weather.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Ari

[Pathfinder]

Hoods are a good easy to way to hide and unhide your face without looking too much like you're hiding your face. Like most options to do so, it's a trade-off between peripheral vision and stealth. For criminals, hoods make sense, and without having played Destiny, I will say that most warlocks are considered criminal mages- so if you're flinging around demonic magics and don't want to be identified, a hood *might* be a good idea, and the Destiny class might be a scifi analogy of that.

 

Hoods for priests or other types of mages only really make sense if there's an ideological reason for them, or you live in cold weather.

I would whole heartily agree with you, except for the way they are employed in these cases. So for instance with sand mages it makes sense. You are in the blazing sun all day. The glare actually hampers your vision, so the hood would actually be a huge benefit. Keeps you cool, your vision clear. Total thumbs up on hood usage for Sanderson.

 

Assassin's Creed however is different. The hood, even the style of the hood, becomes practically a badge that screams "assassin here!". If you are working in the slums, and there are tons of shifty characters coming and going, hoods make sense. If you are identified by face already and are well known, again hoods make sense. But for any actual spy or assassin, the biggest thing you do not want to do is stand out and being the only person wearing a hood is going to be a big one. We aren't talking about quick strikes in the night. We are talking walking around, in broad daylight, infiltrating a crowd, to walk up to your target and stab them, and then flee into a crowd. Wayne ironically would be the perfect assassin, and has shown his incredible skills as a spy. You want to be invisible? Look like everyone else. Look normal, look like you belong. I just don't buy the hood for that. 

 

Now for destiny. As it was pointed out, I recalled the wrong character class. It was the Hunter. In the game Destiny, your character goes from Earth atmosphere, to the Moon, to Mars with all the assumed changes in atmosphere. It could be argued that Mars might have one, but the way they portray the Moon, it most certainly does not. So your suit is a self contained pressurized life support suit. You wear a fully covered helmet where it is difficult to even tell on some of them where the "eye holes" are. So your face is completely covered and anonymous. The only distinguishing factor is your suit, and in the hunter's case his or her cloak. So the response could be that is the reason why. So you can know what group that Hunter belongs to, or who that Hunter is. But if that is the case, still why block your peripheral vision which is so crucial in a firefight? If you have to have one, at least wear the hood down during a fight lol. But nope, hood is up 24/7. There is absolutely no practical reason to wear a hood for a Hunter other than it looks "pretty". 

 

Now don't get me wrong, these characters do look good from an artistic standpoint. Just it feels its getting to the point where it is taking me out of the narrative, and causes me to go "why"?

Edited April 15, 2016 by Pathfinder

[Farnsworth]

Have any of you read Dune? I think a many of the themes are similar. The hoods are like Stillsuits, the Sandlings are like Worms, and water is scarce. Maybe this is inevitable in a desert themed book?

[Pathfinder]

Have any of you read Dune? I think a many of the themes are similar. The hoods are like Stillsuits, the Sandlings are like Worms, and water is scarce. Maybe this is inevitable in a desert themed book?

I feel it is a bit of both. I am sure he drew inspiration from Dune, but also there is only so much you can do with a desert world lol so I agree some things are just inevitable in such an environment. 

 

edit: just like invariably you are going to get stereotypical flora and fauna in an artic world. 

Edited April 15, 2016 by Pathfinder

[Landis963]

Something odd I noticed in the amazon preview:  "Slatrifying" sand is turning it to water, and is supposed to be a very high-caliber technique.  This fits with previously established rules, but how is it possible in the first place?  The only magic system we know of that can transmute something to water is Soulcasting, which explicitly involves getting something's Identity to change form.  Taldaini Dayside Sand is pumped full of Investiture (!) that comes from a heat source (!!) that hangs immobile in the sky 24/7 (!!!).  How is the Identity of the sand not rock-solidly against anything and everything to do with water?  (Unless the legends of previous mastrells doing so are false...)

[skaa]

There's an even longer preview on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Brandon-Sandersons-White-Sand-Hardcover/dp/1606908855/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459518386&sr=1-1&keywords=white+sand+brandon+sanderson

Note that in Brandon's introduction, he says that he originally conceived of Taldain as a planet

between two stars. There is an odd type of light on Darkside, coming from the other star.

Of course, we don't know if this is still the case in the latest edition.

Assuming that is still the case,

and assuming the other star never leaves the Darkside sky, it would mean that the three bodies (the binary star and Taldain) are always more or less aligned with each other, which is bizzare. A Darksider astronomer who somehow never knew about Dayside and the sun could conclude that the Darkside star is Taldain's "sun" and that the planet revolves around that star in a synchronous orbit. Heck, a geocentrist Taldanian could claim that the two stars revolve around Taldain... and if the stars' barycenter is in Taldain, he would be right!

Edited April 16, 2016 by skaa

[Samaldin]

Would it even be possible for a planet to have life (water) if it´s located between two stars (honest question)? After all White Sand was his first book so maybe he went more with rule of cool than realistic

[Landis963]

Would it even be possible for a planet to have life (water) if it´s located between two stars (honest question)? After all White Sand was his first book so maybe he went more with rule of cool than realistic

 

The second "star", if it still exists in Taldain's concept, will not be a star.  At best, it will be a thing of magic which glows just enough to give off the impression of starlight.  Occam's Razor suggests "it's just a moon", though.  

[The Ninja Yodeler]

Can't wait for this. Gonna be the first graphic novel that I've ever read. Exciting!

[Pathfinder]

Maybe slatrification is using the investiture in the sand to draw moisture from the air?

[Argent]

Maybe slatrification is using the investiture in the sand to draw moisture from the air?

 

I doubt there will be enough air humidity.

[Landis963]

Maybe slatrification is using the investiture in the sand to draw moisture from the air?

 

What moisture?

 

I doubt there will be enough air humidity.

 

Yeah, that.  Unless there's some shortcut hard-coded in, some catalyst the characters are unaware of, Slatrification could need direct Shardic involvement to work.  

[Pathfinder]

Well moisture has to exist in the air in some content otherwise life would not be possible in the desert at all. 

 

example: The Namib Desert beetle survives only on the moisture it extracts from the atmosphere

Edited April 18, 2016 by Pathfinder

[Landis963]

Well moisture has to exist in the air in some content otherwise life would not be possible in the desert at all. 

 

example: The Namib Desert beetle survives only on the moisture it extracts from the atmosphere

 

Good point.  Also, we're not given a scale for how much water slatrifying actually makes (Although who wants to bet Kenton will pull it off by the end of the graphic novel trilogy?).  All we do know is that it produces a usable amount of water.  (How much they define as "usable" is up for debate)

[Pathfinder]

Good point.  Also, we're not given a scale for how much water slatrifying actually makes (Although who wants to bet Kenton will pull it off by the end of the graphic novel trilogy?).  All we do know is that it produces a usable amount of water.  (How much they define as "usable" is up for debate)

I agree Kenton will probably find a way to do it. I think the amount of water produced when slatrifying has to at least exceed the amount of strain/dehydration it causes on the mastrell for it to be useful. 

[ZenBossanova]

Keep in mind, that all life on our planet (Earth) needs water. But there are plenty of other solvents out there. Other alien kinds of life may not need or want, water. For the early part of Earth's history, oxygen was toxic. It was only when some algae began to produce it, and killed off the anaerobic bacteria, that we started getting oxygen breathing. Water is useful for humans, but if that creatures we see are any clue, humans are as out of place here as humans on Roshar. 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Windrunner
Removing minor prose spoiler

[Orlion Blight]

The second "star", if it still exists in Taldain's concept, will not be a star. At best, it will be a thing of magic which glows just enough to give off the impression of starlight. Occam's Razor suggests "it's just a moon", though.

That's no moon...

[azninvasion99]

http://www.newsarama.com/29004-brandon-sanderson-s-fantasy-epic-comes-to-comic-books-with-white-sand-preview.html

New preview came out today, including a cover!

[Landis963]

http://www.newsarama.com/29004-brandon-sanderson-s-fantasy-epic-comes-to-comic-books-with-white-sand-preview.html

New preview came out today, including a cover!

 

And a typo: "Remind me Remind me again why I thought this was a good idea?"  

[Hemalurgist]

What I'm curious to is how people are initiated into sand mastery. What this new preview seems to suggest is its genetic. but if I remember correctly the Elantris Ars Arcanum says that the people on Taldain are initiated differently than on Scadrial where people are born with their powers so the initiation is genetic. 

Edited April 27, 2016 by Hemalurgist

[Asperity]

IIRC, I read something in another thread a little bit ago about a 'Deluxe' edition? I'm not personally preferring one over the other but how many versions of White Sand will be offered at release? I'm totally fine with the basic hardcover.