Lightning

I usually show up an hour early, and very few people are there. I do it to play Magic the Gathering with those who are interested. It starts filling up after that. By the time they open the doors there's often a good 100-200 people lined up.

No. I'd interpret the situation like Dalinar does. Just because you were there when Adonalsium splintered, and you got some of the power, doesn't make you a god. Nor does the lack of a "tangible" deity above the Shards mean there isn't a deity above them. I totally agree, and think the voice is Tien, calling Kaladin back from darkness.

I probably will buy it, but only after it drops significantly in price.

I like giving upvotes. I don't like getting stabbed by shardblades.

The thought I kept having was Dalinar was so afraid of those eyes because they were his own eyes.

So, I finally wrote a book. More correctly, I coauthored a book. Sadly, it is not fantasy. It is a textbook for the math class I often teach. (I got tired of my students having to pay lots of money for a mediocre book, so we've made this book free.) If you'd like to take a look you can see the book here: https://math.byu.edu/~doud/fundamentals/Book.pdf Anyway, currently we have no front cover art. Just a big black page with the title and our names on it. The reason I'm writing here is I thought if people are interested in "mathy" art, and would like to send me designs, I'd be happy to consider them. Honestly, I think it would be way cool to have some sort of fractal, similar to Pattern, on the cover [without breaking copyright]. Anyway, let the fun begin.

Hmmm.... I always had the impression that forgetting his wife was the curse. It would be quite a twist for it to be the boon. I can't picture Dalinar as so weak as to deal with guilt by asking for a memory wipe though.

I strongly agree with #1 and #3. I mostly agree with #2. As for #4, I found Bands of Morning so good that I can ignore the problems from the previous book.

My daughter, who has read the entire series five times, tells me that I'm wrong, and it doesn't say anywhere that Kaz is adopted. I tend to believe her more than my memory. It must just have been my theory about why he didn't have the power.

Yes! I would have given your post 10 up votes just for that sentence. (The rest was great too!)

This topic is very dear to my heart. To give some context, I believe in God and through personal experiences have come to know him better, and I want everyone else to similarly know the joy that comes from seeking him. I also see the good many people do in varied religious or non-religious traditions. For instance, I appreciate the sentiment expressed by Calderis, which I might sum up as "Be a builder not a demolisher." I had a few further thoughts on the topic. I hope people find them helpful. 1. Calderis, you wrote: "Anti-theists anger me greatly." I understand that sentiment (believe me, I do!), but perhaps I can help turn that anger to something more productive -- understanding. With understanding comes the ability to see why people act how they do, and often this allows us to respond in more helpful ways. The key, you might be surprised, lies in what you said earlier, namely that you are "content to let others have their own beliefs as long as said beliefs are not causing direct harm." Anti-theists believe that religion is a direct harm, because they believe it is a deception. They believe it is the perpetuation of a lie. In some cases they know, from their own personal experience, of harm done to themselves and to others, and of lies taught to them. This is part of the reason they act so aggressively to tear down the institution that so harmed them, in their view. I think that's one of the key reasons people often clash about religion. They see things in such different ways. The Jew sees male circumcision of infants as a sacred ceremony commanded by God, while atheists (and some theists) see it as direct physical harm. The atheist sees teaching that there is no God as enlightening others, while the believer sees that as leading souls astray. Remembering this context can often help us see one another more clearly. And it takes a lot of work to step back since these issues are often some of the most poignant and emotional issues we deal with. To give a personal example, it hurts me every time I hear someone casually use God's name as a swear-word, because I know that if I spoke that way it would be a despicable act of desecration. I have to remember that those who do this are not me, and don't have the same experiences and beliefs that I do. That doesn't mean I still don't like it. It just means I can calmly say "Please don't use his name like that." 2. I like the Marcus Aurelius quote. It has many good points: Live a good life! God is only worthy of worship if he is a benevolent and righteous being himself. It also implicitly raises the question: Why bother seeking God in this life, if [as we hope] we will find out in the next life all about him? Let me give a few reasons I think it is a worthy goal, perhaps even the most important endeavor we can perform in this life, to seek to know God. First, it is difficult to live a good life, and we need all the help we can get. I can't tell you how many times I've been impressed to make changes in my life, sometimes being given direct advice, especially with respect to helping my children. Second, as we come to know God we can have peace and surety. As others mentioned above, the thought of ceasing to exist is terrifying. The current cosmology put forward by modern science is that the universe will eventually expand to the point where atoms cannot stick together. That's a scary thought! All human records gone. All life gone. To put it in cosmere terminology, it is as if science is saying "Ruin will eventually win." There is real hope in believing and knowing. ----------------------- To sum up: I appreciate this topic, and the desire to build stronger bonds with each other. Even if we don't agree on everything, I believe we can find important places where we do agree. And even when we don't agree on things we think are the (most!) important things, I hope we can recognize that this does not mean the other person is therefore evil.

It was my third time in Europe. The other two times were centered in Poland only. I do like Europe. Definitely greener than where I'm from in the U.S. (namely Utah). I also like the food. Polish food is hearty, and the Belgian/French food was nice because I don't often get fish at home. The only hard part for me is being away from my family (and my wife doesn't like to travel so she doesn't come with me!).

What part of Europe are you from? I just got back from visiting Poland, France, and Belgium for work. I know Brandon has a big following in Poland (and his books have been translated to Polish) but I don't know about some of the other languages over there.

Maybe this will help: you will certainly dislike something Brandon has written! I'm a huge Brandon Sanderson fan, but every author has stuff that just doesn't work for some people. Give something a try, and if you don't like it so be it. I'd recommend you start with the first Mistborn book. It could be that fantasy is just not your thing, but you'll never know until you try.

Let me say again, I think Biblioden should be on this list. He sunk an entire continent. He has enslaved half the planet. He is the leader of an evil cult, who themselves are afraid of him. He doesn't suffer from any mental illnesses, or as far as we know have other mitigating circumstance, to his actions. He is quite "rational" in his evil, but even his reasons for choosing evil are despicable. He quite readily will perform human sacrifice to get what he wants.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Biblioden. He's near the top of my list.

I would have sworn that was in the second book (at the part about Smedry talents passing through marriages...). I'm very sorry! At least I didn't tell you about the fact that Alcatraz is sacrificed on an altar made of encyclopedias.

Apparently my answer is not in the second book. Read at your peril.

I have a question about Ruin's body. We know that part of his body was converted into atium. Was the the well of ascension continually taking more of the body of Ruin and feeding it into the system that turned it into atium? Or was the atium limited to the part of Ruin cut off when he was initially trapped? If so, does that mean atium would have eventually been completely stored by the kandra (if Ruin had stayed trapped in the well)? Did Ruin reclaim part of his body (that wasn't yet atium) when he was released?

You missed one. Isn't it possible that Taln still has it?

There's always another secret, but you just helped us uncover a lot of them! Thanks!

I've wanted to play MTG with Brandon for some time now. Ah well... Congrats to those who got the opportunity.

This certainly can be expanded into a huge polynomial in cos(x), however there is a better way. One can express cosine in terms of the exponential function. This has many upsides (including making it easier to derive identities). The one downside is it involves the imaginary number i. The formula is: cos(x) = (e^(ix) + e^(-ix))/2. The formula for sine is: sin(x) = (e^(ix) - e^(-ix))/(2i). Thus, the quantity you are looking at is simply: cos(2^a * x) = (e^(2^a i x) + e^(-2^a i x))/2. This has only two terms; you don't want to expand it as above, because it is already quite simple. Just two exponentials.

I must be a Sanderfan, because I really liked the short story. That night I had a fun dream, where my mind filled in an end to the story. It really captured my imagination. I can understand why Brandon said it wasn't very good-- but it drew me in. Here is a possible endings I thought up that would be fun twists. The girl is really a hologram. The company can't find any real people to interact with Petr. Thoughts?

We do indeed know that some returned come back to use their breaths outside of one week. The most obvious example is Lightsong. But the story of Allmother is moving too. I highly recommend reading the Warbreaker annotations on that topic.