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You're looking at the two dimensional projection of the three dimensional space - the Z axis is completely missing from this map and you can't accurately estimate distances between stars. While Roshar and Scadrial might look fairly close on the XY axes, on the Z axis they might be separated by dozens or hundreds of light years and the opposite might be true when considering their distance to the Drominad system. And while we know this image represents a real sky visible from some location in Cosmere, we don't know where it is and how far away from other stars is that place.

Book too big. Make book smaller. It's hard to review because it's so big and has so many different storylines. I enjoyed the lore dumps of the new visions and Tanavast POVs. Kaladin's mission felt too videogamey go defeat the guardians of the temple to unlock the triforce type of thing. I felt like we didn't get enough of where people lived in Shinovar. The big loophole in the contract being capturing the capitals was a little disappointing. It was confusing how Taravangian can kind of fudge things in that regard, but Hoid is like "we can't change the laws that would be cheating". El didn't do much after a big buildup. BAM literally didn't do anything after a big build up. Rhlain and Renarin freeing her was a nice touch calling back to when she was trapped. I thought the ending worked well. Having Shallan playing Hide and Seek in the Visions felt a little redundant. We see the visions through Dalinar and then we see them through Shallan. I was definitely poisoned by Brandon saying the book would wrap up the front 5 arc and it didn't except for Dalinar. Looking forward to the Voidlight archives (Warlight whatever). Dismayed that it might be another 6.5 years before the new release.

Had to make this one before @Ironwill2112 could get to it. (And hopefully the poll works out well, because it has been a while since I’ve made one and I’m doing it on mobile) So, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. The best secret project, and my favorite non-Stormlight book that Brandon Sanderson has written. Why? Well despite this book having moments that make me cringe extremely hard (Yumi’s first meeting with Akane, I’m looking at you) Yumi and Painter’s relationship hits hard for me, and the book’s high moments are incredibly strong. Yumi and Painter at the fair, Painter protecting Yumi from the stable nightmare, and the penultimate scene of Painter painting Yumi are all incredible, emotionally resonant scenes. I don’t want this to be too long, though there’s a lot more I could talk about, but I’ll add this: despite what Hoid might think about the matter, this book getting a happy ending makes it a better story.

Not at all. There are plenty of works that I think are not very good but still enjoy. There are works that I think are well done, meticulously crafted and just what the creator wished, but that I don't enjoy. The group that disliked the book has been pretty vocal about why, and the sum of their complaints (voiced or not) is what leads to the assessment of the book's quality. I have a difficult time seeing it as a sign of respect to immediately reject someone's stated reason for why they disliked something, and then assert a totally different reason they never expressed as the reason that is unquestionably correct. Rejecting a view out of hand is the opposite of taking it seriously. It doesn't seem like you're engaging in any inquiry about people's opinions (in this thread at least, which obviously isn't the only one and isn't necessarily representative), instead saying that a variety of expressed opinions can only be wrong both as descriptions of the book and also as description of their own preferences. And it's not like you're raising those points when people say they liked the book because the fight scenes were great or Kaladin is soo coooool or subverting structure necessarily produces great works or whatever. It's only the people who feel differently than you about the book that are told to justify their feelings and rationales to you, or else have them dismissed as false and irrelevant. As I read your posts in this thread I come away with the impression that you think people who disliked WaT mainly felt that way because they are addicted to the narrative structure used in the first three SA books, are incapable of appreciating or enduring that structural change, are incapable of expressing (or even knowing) that that change is what they disliked, and so blindly grasp at an arbitrary (and invalid) detail and wrongly identify it as the explanation, then utterly commit to it anyways in some sort of fumbling, belligerent ignorance. It's a description of someone foolish and shallow. Comments like "most people are very bad at understanding why like certain things over others beyond the purely superficial: if people find the plot boring, or are disappointed by the ending, the real question is why they feel these things" and "Naturally, this is going to upset the people, who feel attached to ideals being deconstructed, which happens to be a substantial part of the fandom. But since these people are not truly capable of the literary analysis to articulate why WaT discomforts them, they randomly latch on to superficial details that they did not like and fetishize them as being the reason why they feel this way" really radiate contempt and denigration, especially when dismissing those people's opinions (both their evaluation of the book as well as why they evaluated it that way). Maybe that's not your actual sentiment and we're dealing with forum-induced lack of clarity or poor articulation. I don't want to assert the contents of your own mind to you, but I suspect most people will read what was written as an intentional, proudly-delivered insult rather than a gambit in an open, good-faith discussion.

In this land of eternal life, it’s very easy to mix up the ghosts and the living.

A lot of the major points of contention have already been mentioned, so I'll add that there is a lot of great stuff in WaT but that the execution was poor. Lots of great individual moments but poor connections and structure between them. Especially when compared with other SA books. A lot of stuff is technically there, in a check-the-box sense, but it was a less elegantly written book than the earlier volumes (a problem I feel has been increasing across Cosmere books, generally). Judged only by itself, it's maybe a 3 star book, 4 depending on personal taste and generosity. Judged as a SA book against the other four, it's probably more firmly a 3. Judged as a SA book and the scope of expectations it set up, I'd rate it as a 2.x. "Fine" is a damning assessment of a book which caps a well-regarded flagship series. A lot of the dialogue was weak, but more significant for me was how much most characters speak in the same way now. Gaz and Shallan should speak differently, and they used to. Characterization suffered a lot, particularly in more subtle writing that the previous books had. There was filler and bloat which was mechanically imposed. People can argue about what constitutes "filler", but it became clear long before the climactic portion of the book that none of the separate plot threads were going to resolve, or even change much, before the others-- the fighting at the Shattered Plains was not going to be over any sooner nor any later than the fight in Azir, nor the spiritual realms exposition, nor anything else. It drained a lot of the tension and investment to know that none of the characters' situations were going to really change for the next few hundred pages. The buildup for plot events was enormous, but much of what actually happened was pretty flat in comparison. El's huge, game-changing stratagem for which Taravangian was willing to pay such a high price was... bring more soldiers to the front (and it failed!). The contest ended up being a pretty minor and dull event. Some of that is by design, I think, as its conclusion was meant to repudiate the cycles of violence and conquest that had governed Roshar since the Desolations began. But it also lacked a lot of strong narration-- there weren't moments like Kaladin leaping onto the Tower, or Dalinar walking alone out of Thaylenah with only a book in his hands. Exposition dumps abounded. Dalinar and Navani's stories over almost the entire book were nothing but watching a historical documentary about Roshar, and that also removed them from events. The Shinovar portion was just a tunnel, with Kaladin and Szeth moving from points A to B to C to D to E (etc.). Few, if any, decisions for the characters to make, few surprises, little suspense. The fight sequences were cool and exciting. But I really expected more than that for two of the series' most important and dynamic characters-- in terms of character development and depth of presentation, there was nothing for them on par with Way of Kings or Words of Radiance. A lot of the novelty and creativity about Radiant powers had already been used or was already reserved for future revelations, and the power inflation of characters had already reached extreme levels. That's not the book's fault, but it still makes for a rougher comparison to other SA books. And some characters were just removed from the field entirely. There is a lot to like about WaT, and I suspect I will enjoy it more on re-reads than I did during my first pass. I don't think that anyone who loves it is wrong to do so, but I don't think that it should be that shocking that others feel differently. There's quite a bit of rough around the gems, though the gems are as valuable as they ever were.

Mmmmm, Lieutenant Xabbenlumbo, an interesting detail, but I can't possibly see how this question could ever be answered given the lack of evidence. I guess the case will, sadly, go unsolved.

I agree the ending was probably the worst part of the book. And honestly I agree with @Elegy. If Brandon had committed and killed Yumi this sub-forum would be a lot more lively. The fact that I can count on one hand the number of threads made more recently than two years ago is quite telling. That's white sand levels of irrelevance.

For me, least favorite of the Cosmere Secret Projects (but still better than Frugal Wizard). Not bad, per se (on the scope of books in general), but the ending ruined it for me. Granted, I have not yet done a re-read. My Reactions Post This post explains better than I could, why the ending did not work for me. Excerpt:

I could have sworn this already exists, but since episode 9 came out I figure it’s a good idea to make this thread for enjoyers. If anyone else actually posts here, please spoiler any ep 9 stuff until it premieres on YouTube, as spoilers are dumb and ruin the show.

Ending good. And that's all I'm legally allowed to say I guess.

Spoiler period for Cosmere books is only 9 months, it's fine now.

I’ll claim the title of Ghost of Nalthis Past, since I was on Nalthis every pseudocycle but never wrote into the docs. Definitely got swindled by both Striker and coco for my breaths, and never ended up with any investiture of my own.

If they keep failing to submit the NK, I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

I am sooooo excited for episode 9!

Hey dont stress me, it hasnt been a Day and I needed to think of one, also kind of Busy. So Clues 1. This Charakter is highly invested

Yuppers that’s part of her inspiration in vibe/abilities

*gnaws on your wrist lovingly*

Well I was confused anyway so a whole lot of good that did

Yeah, I'm dead in the game right? So voting in orange was a way to differentiate that and help in not confusing you GMs. ed1t: sorry, didn't see the subsequent follow-up from wahr and also that the cycle is over >>

Simply pinging every living player, regardless of: a) if they have/have not submitted an Action b) can/can not submitt an Action as to not give any Information about Role Distribution.

There's some variation in Koloss output based on the host's attributes.

Hi! I’m bored right now, so I’ve finally gotten around to posting this thread. (It’s been months since I first thought of it.) I want to see what creative uses for soulstamps everyone can come up with, because it is the most concrete yet open ended magic system we have. If your scenario requires the magic to work a certain way, note the assumptions you’re making before you give the idea. If you can come up with a different trick that would do something similar if the assumption isn’t true, even better. 1. How to turn lead into gold. (No assumptions made) Although people appear confident that turning lead into gold is impossible, I disagree. My method requires two bars of gold, but makes three. First, you need a lead bar and two gold bars. Flip a coin to decide which bar of gold to mess with. Take your selected bar, and remove most of the gold, replacing it with lead. Keep that gold for yourself. Next, create a soulstamp, stating that you’d chosen the other bar to counterfeit. Apply it to the counterfeit bar, and cover the stamp with more gold. Sell both it and the gold you’d stolen, potentially using the money to repeat the trick. Alternatively, if you work at some sort of treasury, pocket the stolen gold and leave your fake bars. 2. Compact packing (no assumptions that I can think of.) Roll dice to assign the order you pack things into a small, cylindrical container. Among your things, include a wooden disc the minimum size required for a soulstamp. Create soulstamps that say the wooden disc was rolled instead, and use them to turn all of your items to small wooden discs. Remove the soulstamp when you want them back. I’m excited to see what everyone else comes up with.

Today I randomly learned that apparently there are exactly 10 officially recognised personality disorders Cluster A: Paranoid Personality Disorder Schizoid Personality Disorder Schizotypal Personality Disorder Cluster B: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Histrionic Personality Disorder Narcissistic Personality Disorder Cluster C : Avoidant Personality Disorder Dependent Personality Disorder Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder I wonder if they could somehow be mapped onto the heralds. I know Brandon hast clearly stated that what affects the heralds is supernatural not a normal mental illness. Still I was interesting in finding out if they somehow inspired it

Nothing extremely wordy I’ve been only writing snippets recently, but still:

That is one equation, when tau makes basically everything else easier. Do you do trig? Also, as Chaos said, it aligns well with the kinetic energy formula. That is not a good reason... geocentrism is way older than anything else...

Really quickly I wanted to dispute this - roleplay does not demand that, many RPs on the Shard (especially lately) do have frequent short posts but others have longer, substantial writings. And both kinds of roleplay are a contribution to the Shard, as much as talking about the books directly is. I think you have good intentions behind this idea, but reputation points aren't necessarily meant to indicate the most content contributed, they're meant to indicate members' favorite content. Many things don't get replies of much substance, and yet are still excellent contributions on their own. Many replies are, to many people, worth just as much if not more than the original post of a topic.

yay Self care

I think I know who it is, its that guy from the Warbreaker Prologue whos gives his Breaths to Vasher before being killed by him.

I love how this formed an almost perfect bell curve. My stats brain is very happy right now.

go put on some lofi or smth chill and make a cup of tea and go read 'a lesbiana's guide to catholic school' or 'roll for love' or some equally gay, lighthearted romance novel outside

Tau is so much better. It'd make learning the unit circle far easier. Half the circle would be tau/2. Way better! In basically every physics formula, it's always 2pi. That really should indicate that 2pi is the correct one. I mean, when the hell do we even is C = pi * d? Use the radius! The radius is the important one. You might say, "But Eric what about A = pi*r^2?" To which I'd say, A = 1/2 tau*r^2 is very symmetric with the kinetic energy formula. That 1/2 should be there anyway, due to integration. In fact, I thought that one argument against tau was that the standard normal distribution had a single sqrt(pi) rather than sqrt(2pi), but nope! It does have a 2pi. I guess the integral from -infinity to infinity of e^(-x^2) has the sqrt(pi)... So anyway, I'm a math professor who loves tau. I'm not at all a fan of pi day, and I won't stand for this pi propaganda merely because "well then we can have pie on pi day". Lame. I spend pi day in my math tutoring center explaining why tau is superior.

There’s another Video now btw. I don’t have a link right now but it’s called: “Additional Insights: Hearing God’s Voice in an Age of Artificial Intelligence” Haven’t listened to it yet(doing so right after I post this) but I expect it’ll be good. I’ll edit in my thoughts afterwards edit: I loved that. Especially the part about letting your covenants determine your relationships (sealings(Both family and marriages), covenants with god, etc) And for one, it lets you know that those are the most important relationships, with your family, with god, and your eternal companion. I’m not in a situation to do most of that, but I can still let my covenants with god define me, and help me. I can let those be what’s important to me.

Once you know how it's not hard. Independent Koloss from Era 1 can do it, and they're absolute meatheads. I suppose that's true, but I think they'd still feel a broader range of "human" emotions that would eventually lead to them breaking with sufficient losses. Unless we're also comparing to Era 2 Koloss, in which case their craziness advantage probably goes away. Why not use Rosharan humans to build your Koloss? Or transform Singers in Warform or Direform to become elite Koloss brutes?

WaT overall was decent, I'd say better than 60% of the books I've read. But most of the rest of SA was 90% or more. WaT had the potential to be good, but it had so much weighing it down that if it wasn't for the cosmere attached to it, I honestly don't know if I would be excited for SA6. The Dialogue was really bad, even for Brandon The characters all felt off, except for Shallan of all people, who is usually the worst offender for this Too many characters given PoVs that they didn't need Related to number 3 the Rlain/Renarin subplot was a lot of added bloat that didn't contribute to the story as it should have. I know Brandon was setting up for book 6 there, but it could easily have been left for book 6. The contest sucked. I remember when Gavilnor was first theorized, and thinking: that would suck. And I was right. I also remember thinking that Brandon would be too smart to do that, but I was wrong there. Massive letdown for three books of buildup. Brandon still isn't funny. A chull head? Really? Plot holes. So many plot holes. Zero consequences. Like absolutely none. Adolin loses his leg, but gets a prostetic one that's just as good, Dalinar dies, and that's it. Nothing else bad happens. The combat was really mid. Like Adolin and Szeth had some good fights, but where's the equivalent to Kaladin at the battle of the tower, or Adolin vs. Four shardbearers, or Kaladin vs. Amaram? The villains were all terrible. Stormlight never had great antagonists, but all the villains here were bad even by SA standards.

Why do you care about reputation anyways? Its only purpose is to show which posts are popular, and which are not. I understand that getting likes can be addictive but tying them to anything other than popularity, will only lead to further perverse incentives.

(The more I wrote the post, the more angrier and angrier I got because man this book really bothers me) People who love this romance... What does yumi see in painter? I can see what painter likes in yumi. Yumi is willful, responsible, assertive, duty-minded. There's a lot to respect about Yumi But painter on the other hand... He is certainly brave as a nightmare painter but yumi doesn't see that side of him till a lot later in the book. He is kind, but he doesn't really show anything much more than basic human decency? Not does Yumi ever comment on him being kind. So what does yumi see in painter? He is free-spirited sure, but again there is nothing that shows Yumi noticing this particularly and liking it. Is there any moment where she is impressed by anything that painter does? Or the type of person he is? Ven when he talks about how his creative process of making art is, painter doesn't really teach yumi to appreciate art that way. Instead he just makes her draw bamboo. Even she is disappointed by it. He is a very passive character, while yumi is very active and constantly making decisions and having full control of the flow of the story. And then the lies. Painter isn't just someone, who let's people put their hopes on him and he is too afraid to correct them. He lies through his teeth. With yumi: Why would you lie like that, painter? I get wanting to not let down a person, when they are hopeful. But actively choosing to lie and increase their expectations? This dude is a huuuge liar. What reason could you have to say this than making yourself feel important? The way this is addressed is just soooo wrong too. I mean... Um.. WHAT? That is so not the primary motivating factor for painter. He found out that he wasn't selected for the dreamwatch. At that point, his friends dreams are already crushed. It's done. If he truly cared about not hurting the people he loved, he would have told them the truth after a day or two. Because bringing their hopes up is setting them for a bigger fall. But he strings them along for A YEAR! Why does he do that? Because of his need for validation, his ego. What he did was not kind in any way, it was selfish. Now, i fully understand what painter did, because I relate hard to him. I have done what he did many times. But the truth remains he did it for validation, for their approval, for their respect. He could not bear their looks of disappointment. That needs to be acknowledged. He was a weak man, too weak to tell the truth. Everything said here is wrong. He pretended to be great, it is definitely the action of a liar. Just because he dreams of being useful to people doesnt mean he is not a liar. He did take advantage of them. Their ignorance. And his gain was being able to escape their looks of disappointment. Protecting his ego. This is wishy-washy to the extreme. I mean come on, answers are not simple? In any other story the quote would instead have been Then it would make sense. Painter genuinely trying to change is something she can appreciate, respect and fall in love with. But nope, 'answers are never simple' apparently. Rejoice everyone, no more morality! This quote would have been totally fine if NOT FOR THE LAST LINE! How is it his friends fault that he chose to give them their dreams???? If you remember There is no indication that his friends forced him to make them his companions. HE promised them. There is absolutely nothing unfair happening to Nikaro here. This dude doesn't even seem to have apologized. The way the ending apology is written, it totally looks like this is the first time he sincerely apologizes for what he did to them.(He seems to have just avoided them before this, from my guess) All in all, he isn't the worst or the spawn of Satan, but he is a very weak man till the ending of the story. And it will always confuse me what a strong person would find attractive in a weak person. If you are not tired, let's talk about Yumi too. She makes me uncomfortable, not because of her character, but because of the implications around her character. So at first, Yumi has trouble asserting herself and her needs before Liyun. Makes sense. She gets regularly emotionally abused by her after all. So ofcourse i thought she would be meek, gentle, humble, shy, pushover etc. But then the script changes, and she becomes wilful, stubborn, active, assertive while still scared of Liyun. Ok, intriguing... This isn't like yumi is special among Yoko hijo tho... Apparently, all the yoko-hijo are people with strong willpower. My question is strong-willed in what way exactly? Strong willed as in highly self-disciplined? This makes sense as they are regularly guilt-tripped into doing their work, so of course they will be good workers(stacking rocks) But how did that help them refuse to be bound to the shroud? That sounds like strong-willed as in willful, assertive, a strong sense of Identity etc. Which yoko-hijos should be low on because of their upbringing. I mean, they are regularly told that they are not a person too. They aren't even allowed to choose their dresses. How would they truly know what they want? When they have no real experiences? This also leads into the uncomfortable territory of pain(and abuse) cause strength. It's the age old question of 'should the wizarding world thank the Dursleys for emotionally torturing Harry until he became exactly the strong willed hero they needed?' Like the machine would have outright won if not for these 14 women who were treated inhumanely. Thank God for that religion. I guess if I want a son who is a wilful person, I better start pressuring him with guilt-trips and the weight of my expectations.... Good to know Phew, that was a load of my chest.