Chaos

This review is spoiler-free for Cytonic but does contain spoilers to the end of Starsight. I like Cytonic, the third Skyward novel, but didn't love it. The book does what it does well, but I expect Cytonic to be a divisive book, even moreso than Starsight was. In fact, if you didn't like that Starsight didn't have Skyward Flight characters, this book might be even worse for you. At the end of Starsight, we see Spensa hop into the mysterious nowhere, and well, that's exactly what we get in this book. It's another Spensa adventure in a new location, where we learn more things about the world and meet a bunch of characters. For those of you who really like Spensa and delving (heh) into cytonic, magic, and lore stuff, I think you could really love this book. I liked Cytonic pretty evenly throughout the book. Brandon makes it easy to get absorbed into the story, and I cruised through the novel quickly. The worldbuilding, as usual, is fascinating, and there new mysteries introduced as well as old mysteries getting solved in very satisfactory ways. In many respects, the worldbuilding is the highlight of this book, which really carried me through it rather than the characters or plot. Those of you who watched the Starsight Reactions episode and Brandon Beefs Shardcasts know that I really liked 95% of Starsight, but I had major issues with an aspect of the ending. I felt deflated and unexcited about the future of the series. Well, Brandon did it: he actually solved one of my huge issues with Starsight, which in my opinion was sorely needed. I am genuinely surprised he pulled it off considering how much I hated that last five percent of Starsight. There is a worldbuilding decision made that even though it made sense, it lowered the tension in most of the book, which made many combat sequences weaker because of it. I don't know about you, but I loved in Skyward the existential threat and danger I felt every time Skyward Flight lifted off. For much of this book, especially in its middle, I did not feel that, so combat sequences felt off without that tension. I think this lack of tension is this book's biggest flaw. Rarely did I feel like Spensa was in actual danger, so some moments that were supposed to be big deals did not land. But the other big flaw of the book is really baked into the core premise of the book: Spensa is in the nowhere, so it can feel somewhat like a sidequest. In that sidequest, there's another objective that feels like yet another sidequest, which we spend a good chunk of the book on. This, combined with the lowered tension for most of the book, is realistically the biggest flaw of the book. Along with that, we don't get to see a lot of old cast members. It's essentially the same issue you could have had in Starsight. I love the Skyward Flight crew a lot! The interplay with them and Spensa was fantastic in Skyward, and I did miss them in Starsight, which had a different crew who I liked, but didn't like as much as the old side characters. Well, there's new side characters here, and though I also liked them, it's hard for me to get particularly invested in them when each new book it seems like the old side characters aren't really in the next volume. Will I see these in the fourth and final book in the series? Maybe Brandon can pull it all together, perhaps, but I'm skeptical. Fortunately, if you miss the Skyward Flight characters, there's a solution: three Skyward Flight novellas! The first two, Sunreach and ReDawn, are already out, with the third, Evershore, coming out December 28th. They are ebook and audio-only for now but there will be a collection of all three novellas coming eventually. I do think these novellas are mandatory reading, because otherwise this series feels disjointed. The novellas and Cytonic complement each other fantastically. Love Spensa and M-Bot? Well you get a lot of that in Cytonic. Do you miss the other side characters? The Skyward Flight novellas give you loads of that. I actually think the plotting in the novellas is superior to Cytonic and as a whole, better than this book. So, that's a lot of complaining, but don't get me wrong, I did actually like Cytonic. It's hard to go into detail because the nowhere is so mysterious, and this is spoiler-free, so it's hard to not be vague. But really: the mysteries and lore in here are fantastic, and oh man, I loved the ending. I am a very ending focused reader, and it was by far the best part of the book. I felt that tension and dread again. It was intense and emotional, and makes me incredibly excited for the next book. Considering how after Starsight I wasn't sure if I'd even like the rest of the series, I must say, Cytonic did the legwork and I'm into this. In that respect, I suppose I have to rate Cytonic above Starsight, if I was ranking the books in the series. Your mileage may differ, however, since endings do really make or break a book for me. We will have our usual reactions Shardcast on Cytonic coming December 4th, and we will get into the spoilers and more specifics about this. Having many people on the show comment on the book will be interesting, because I said, I expect this book to be divisive and different people could feel vastly differently from my view. I'm so curious how you all will feel as well, so hit up our Cytonic spoiler board and our spoiler channel in our Discord server and let us know what you felt about the book.

About last week, we got a cover for Evershore, the third Skyward Flight novella which comes out December 28th, and recently we got a cover for the Skyward Flight collection as well! Lastly, the Skyward Flight novella collection is coming out April 5th, 2022! The Evershore cover features Jorgen looking great, and the Skyward Flight collection features all three novella protagonists: FM, Alanik, and Jorgen. Both are by the usual Skyward cover artist, Charlie Bowater. We got the cover for the Skyward Flight collection from Amazon, and it wasn't clear whether the release date was confirmed--Amazon is notoriously bad with this--but literally as I was typing this, we got the official announcement that it actually April 5th, 2022. Fantastic timing. Really, the collection is a great value, because these "novellas" aren't exactly short. As a whole, I believe these will be longer than Cytonic (which comes out in just a few hours). There will also be bonus content in the collection, which according to an interview Brandon did with Elliot Brooks, will be some Skyward deleted scenes (it's at about 53 minutes in). So without any further blabbering, here are the covers: What do you think of the covers? Let us know below!

Hi everyone! Cytonic, the third Skyward novel, comes out Tuesday, November 23rd, which is just hours away! You can buy the book on Amazon, Google Play, and more! We are changing when our spoiler channels on our Discord server and spoiler forums open up for the release. Previously, we set our spoiler period to begin at midnight Eastern time. Now we will set things to open at midnight GMT, which will be 4pm PDT and 7pm EDT for you Americans. This allows us to have some earlier timezones, who may get the book earlier than the U.S. to discuss it sooner, and we'll have a higher number of staff awake to help with the transition. Our Cytonic Spoiler Board is now visible, but will open for spoilery discussion at midnight GMT, so don't go into the spoiler board until you've finished the book! Cytonic discussion will be only allowed there until the spoiler period ends, which will be about three months now in February. Please make sure you do not have spoilers in topic titles, as you can see topic titles in a variety of places in the site. Also, as usual, we have a Full Book Reactions topic for you once you've finished. In addition, we will be retiring the Sunreach and ReDawn spoiler board, so you may discuss both of these novellas in the Cytonic spoiler board untagged if you wish. On the Coppermind, Cytonic content will be allowed starting also at midnight GMT, but you can use the Time Machine to look at what the wiki looked like prior to Cytonic.

There's still so many Stormlight topics left to do (and such little time) but it's time to do a deep dive about Jasnah! We delve into her philosophy and a certain lesson, her "lunacy," and what happened with her in Rhythm of War! This episode we have Eric (Chaos), Alyx (Feather), Ian (Weiry), Jessie (Lady Lameness), Evgeni (Argent), and Shannon (Grey). Brandon's Rhythm of War Chapter 17 Annotation on Jasnah's sexuality: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/jmwe4r/last_weeks_annotation/ Today's amazing thumbnail is by Grant Hansen: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTXpUsJlBpB/ 00:00 Introductions and Show & Tell 06:46:29 Jasnah 13:27 Personality, Philosophy, and the Lesson 1:05:50 "Lunacy" 1:32:17 Jasnah and Hoid; Jasnah's Sexuality 2:23:11 Wrapping up 2:25:54 Who's That Cosmere Character If you like our content, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/17thshard For discussion, theories, games, and news, come to https://www.17thshard.com Come talk with us and the community on the 17th Shard Discord: https://discord.gg/17thshard Want to learn more about the cosmere and more? The Coppermind Wiki is where it's at: https://coppermind.net Read all Words of Brandon on Arcanum: https://wob.coppermind.net Subscribe to Shardcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:102123174/sounds.rss Send your Who's That Cosmere Characters to [email protected]

It feels like it's been ages since we've been done an extremely pedantic mechanics episode, and we reread The Bands of Mourning, so it's finally time to do one we've wanted to do for ages: what the hell is going on with the Southerner medallions? We talk about what we know, what we don't know (which is most things), as well as all the other crazy magic things we got in Bands of Mourning. Also featuring: random theories on Excisors. Not featuring: actually talking the Bands themselves. This episode we have Eric (Chaos), Ian (Weiry), Evgeni (Argent), and Ben (Overlord Jebus)! Thumbnail art is of the Bands of Mourning, by the incredible Shuravf, in one our monthly Coppermind commissions! You can vote for topics every month on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/june-2021-art-6-55054694 Chapters: 00:00 Introductions 3:41 Investiture and Identity 14:20 Unkeyed Metalminds 19:18 Primer Cubes and Airships 39:15 Unsealed Metalminds (Medallions) 59:25 Excisors and Tapping Nicrosil 1:24:34 How did the Sovereign start the Firemothers and Firefathers? 1:35:45 Blank Connection 1:52:31 Closing thoughts 2:04:55 Who's That Cosmere Character If you like our content, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/17thshard For discussion, theories, games, and news, come to https://www.17thshard.com Come talk with us and the community on the 17th Shard Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/bMAUS5c Want to learn more about the cosmere and more? The Coppermind Wiki is where it's at: https://coppermind.net Read all Words of Brandon on Arcanum: https://wob.coppermind.net Subscribe to Shardcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:102123174/sounds.rss Send your Who's That Cosmere Characters to [email protected]