Shardcast: Starsight Reactions

My only qualm with the book is that we did the “Spensa joins a flight training program and they have to learn to work together” plot again with different characters and it was a big chunk of the book.

it would be a little like SA2 being “Kaladin is in Iri and has to get Siege Tower 7 in shape!”

The discussion about the safe cytonic hyperdrives gave me a thought. @FeatherWriter mentioned a beacon in space as well as cytonic communication between bridge and ship and Shannon mentioned cytonic noise in the nowhere. This made me think of Brade's cytonic scream that drew the Delver. Theory: What Spenca assumes is the bridge is actually a beacon/space platform far out in uninhabited space where the Superiority uses brainwashed cytonic humans to project cytonic screams into the nowhere while the ship slips through. They need the cytonic communication to time the scream and the ftl jump. So, basically what Alyx said just with the nowhere added on. The slug just provides the ftl, not the scream,  therefore isn't safe in and of itself. 

My mind is always going 1000 different directions after watching Shardcast. I love it!

I liked the book once I was able to let go of my expectations and just read it for what it was. I missed Kimmalyn, though, bless her stars!

First, I think one thing that hasn't gotten enough traction is that I felt like Brandon reused a lot of scenarios he's already done. See my post here. I will re-iterate that I'm not sure this is a bad thing persay, but it is definitely something I noticed throughout.

Second, I have thoughts from the podcast. So much so, I re-listened and made some notes.

1. (I've moved this to number 1, even though it came up later. I think it's the most important) I believe it's important to remember that the Delvers aren't actually the big bad in this book. Winzik's faction is. They are attempting to use the Delvers to seize power and much of what we hear about the Delvers is Winzik's propaganda. It is unlikely that the Delvers would have entered our realm in this book without Brade actively calling them (which took some time). In that sense, I am OK with how "easily" it was turned away. I do think we are not done with the Delvers, but I think we're going to see more interaction with them while Spensa is in the Nowhere and not as much of them in our realm.
2. You mentioned how M-Bot thinks faster when the portal to the Nowhere is opened. I believe this is because the Nowhere is "where" cytonic activity takes place. M-Bot (and other advanced AI) use cytonic circuits to get their processing speeds. Therefore, I think that M-Bot is expanding into the Nowhere. Theory A: The Delvers could be ancient AI that have copied their programming to the Nowhere. This story could be a take on how AIs do not understand humans, especially their individuality.
3. I do not think there is any cytonic communication between the bridge and engineering on the Weights and Measures. Spensa thinks there is because she can hear the talk cytonicly, but we get a scene where they talk about the commands actually coming over a loudspeaker and that the slugs are *mimicking* the speech cytonicly.
4. Speaking of mimicking, I like the idea of the slugs only mimicking screaming. I mainly like this idea because it makes me feel better about the treatment of the slugs. A caveat to this is like you said, it doesn't make sense that the screaming would be coming from inside the ship. A possible solution is that the screaming is a diversion, in that they scare the slugs, which scream and cytonicly jump away (i.e. making a lot of "noise" for the Delvers), and then a Superiority cytonic does the actual jumping of the ship.
5. Spensa most definitely was the cytonic part of her hyper-jump in Skyward. I remember thinking it could have been Doomslug, but during re-reads I believe it's clear that Spensa is the one connecting to the circuits and doing the jump.
6. I like the idea that Ben had that Detritus was basically an acclivity stone mining facility that was chosen to be the shell planet because of the access to Acclivity stone. This would answer why there is the writing we see around Nowhere portals is present on Detritus.
7. This last one is just a random theory, which is not compatible with my Theory A from above. So, Theory B: The slugs are baby Delvers. There is talk in the book about the Delvers reflecting (i.e. mimicing) emotions, and we know that the slugs very much so mimic those around them. So, it's possible that the Delvers are hearing the "screaming" (which is how Spensa interprets it) that the slugs are doing as something else and that's why they leave them alone. This theory was brought up on the forums, and I think it's something that could be accurate.

Lastly, Theory C: The Delvers are just the Delvers, and don't have an origin tied to any of the existing species we know of.

Gunna be honest.  This podcast makes me want to go back and re-listen and re-evaluate the book. Grey and Feather made some points that made me rethink some of my initial reactions.  I want to like this book, and now I want to go back and give it a 2nd try.

The delvers never struck me as being the big bad, or even evil. They always seemed more like celestial beings, completely separate from the plane that these smaller beings—humans, varvax, diones, etc.—live on.

I believe the delvers’ role in future books will be more of a neutral role, or maybe they split into factions like the Superiority did. Winzik seemed to be trying to weaponize the delvers, and I believe there will be more progress on that front, with both sides manipulating this force of nature against each other to win the war.

My first reaction: Wait, Grey and Feather are in a D&D group together? Can we just get a D&D one-shot shardcast?

My second reaction: pleeeeeaaaasssseeee.

Theories: 

1. Delvers evolved from human AIs.

2. Delvers evolved from human cytonics. Look at how Spensa starts feeling when she enters the delver maze and interacts with the delvers. Everyone else becomes inferior in her mind.

3. Delvers evolved from kitsen cytonics. This one is mostly supported by the fact that a) they all disappeared at some point in the past, and b (can't put a close parenthesis after this without creating an emoji) what if a delver maze is just a fully realized hamster ball?

11 hours ago, EddyJ said:

3. Delvers evolved from kitsen cytonics. This one is mostly supported by the fact that a) they all disappeared at some point in the past, and b (can't put a close parenthesis after this without creating an emoji) what if a delver maze is just a fully realized hamster ball?

I am quite literally L-O-Ling. My dog is concerned. 

On 12/10/2019 at 11:00 AM, EddyJ said:

Theories: 

1. Delvers evolved from human AIs.

2. Delvers evolved from human cytonics. Look at how Spensa starts feeling when she enters the delver maze and interacts with the delvers. Everyone else becomes inferior in her mind.

3. Delvers evolved from kitsen cytonics. This one is mostly supported by the fact that a) they all disappeared at some point in the past, and b (can't put a close parenthesis after this without creating an emoji) what if a delver maze is just a fully realized hamster ball?

When you think of the personality of the kitsens though it doesn't match up to the hatred Spensa feels from them toward the rest of the universe.  

Though I suppose the cytonic use could have warped and twisted the kitsens to be different from their kinsman. 

I like the human cytonic theory though that seems possible.