Lightning

Things I missed or didn't anticipate: Dif being Biblioden, Thesaurus, Sparkles, Otter/Odder, Attica as a curator, Attica dying. Things I caught or expected: The Mistborn book, the last page, Alcatraz being really smart and figuring out a lot of things but being fooled at least once. Thing I really want to now know about: Biblioden's backstory! I mean, sinking an entire continent of followers? Killing your brother? Berserking Brandons, I can't wait for book 6.

Granted. Your bane is that you are the wifi antenna, and you have to read all the junk everyone sends to each other. I wish for a nice gooey cheese sandwich.

So does does the amount of preservation-investiture being used to grant sentience grow and shrink with the population changes? Or did Leras only need to use a little bit more on the original people, and now it is a self-perpetuating cycle?

Are we really asking the right question?

Pun intended.

I'm going to disagree (partially) with Argent on this one. The one duty Sazed takes most seriously is helping souls in their passing. So he was certainly aware that Innate passed away. However, that's not to say that he knew the exact manner in which he died. Or that someone was masquerading as Innate. As Argent noted, Harmony has been distracted lately. If he is actively trying to protect the world, and cannot give full focus to those who are communicating with him, then there are probably a LOT of things in the world he is missing.

I too was disappointed in this book. Here are some reasons (in order of importance to me): 1. Price. I felt like I got very little for a LOT of money. 2. Artwork. As others have said, it was difficult to differentiate between some of the characters. In the first few chapters, everything was white, so it was difficult to see any beauty in the world. Not a fan of the style overall. 3. Timing. This was especially true of the last few chapters. They would jump from one scene to another, which was very confusing. 4. Lack of motivation. There were some scenes in the book that I felt I understood only because I had previously read the prose version.

Assuming b is a positive integer, then sin(a/b) satisfies a polynomial of degree b in sin(a) and cos(a). As you've already worked out, with degree bigger than 2 the formulas for the roots of such polynomials are (in general) quite complicated. However, when b is just a power of 2, you can use the half-angle formula recursively (just do it over and over), and it only involves repeated square-roots. [The fact that sin(a/3) cannot be written using only square-roots is used to show that trisection of angles is impossible with a straight-edge and compass.] Chaos, didn't know there was another math professor on this site! That's cool.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say: Read "Mistborn: A Secret History". (It was written by Brandon Sanderson to fill in some of the secret reasons for things like this!) You might want to read the "Alloy" mistborn books first.

Wow, looks like I'm the old guy at 38. :-p

hafje, it was my impression that the person had to use it to save someone else while claiming the power for themselves. Megan's intention in going into the burning building was indeed to save David, which means that she faced her fear. But she didn't use her powers to save him, or claim them as her own. It was only later that she claimed them as her own, faced her fear, and used them to help save others, that the corruption left completely. At least, I think that is David's conclusion to the whole matter. It was a bit murky for me as well.

Twi, I felt much the same way. I don't know that Brandon intended Obliteration to be insane in every parallel dimension, but the reveal at the end that he had overcome the darkness five years previously certainly minimized (in my mind) the impact Calamity was having! To find out that one of the *very worst* epics, the one going around destroying entire cities on purpose, was doing so of his own free-will was distressing. After that revelation Obliteration wasn't an interesting character to me. He was no longer someone struggling against magical darkness thinking it was based around his faith (which, as you pointed out, seemed to be a central theme in Firefight). He was simply an insane rabid dog, needing to be put down. That sort of story, while important on occasion, was not what I was expecting.

Prof has no issue lying about being an epic to the rest of the crew, so why not lie about where the "tech" comes from?

Nova, I wonder if Prof was just lying at that point.

After reading the Secret History and Bands of Mourning, I'm less convinced that Rust is a piece of Ruin. However, I did have an interesting thought. What if Rust is not a part of Adonalsium at all? What if it is just one of the pieces of the universe which wasn't part of Adonalsium? After the shattering, Ruin went exploring the universe and found someone of a similar mindset. However, wouldn't it be funny if they parted enemies because Ruin tried to ruin Rust?

Does his healing power work against organic infections? He might be able to heal damage, but I'm not sure he could use his healing powers to kill off, say, an amoeba. But I guess he could probably use his force fields to tear off pieces of himself until all amoebas were destroyed.

I read the book too fast to remember everything, but wasn't there a scene after the train accident where Wax almost puts the earring in?

So if the bands were created by Kelsier, and not the Lord Ruler, why did he have his servants freeze to death after they built the temple? Or were the servants' bodies just fakes as well?

I don't know. Being blown up after not cracking for 2 weeks might make him want a little revenge.

Anyone think about what it would be like for Harmony to greet Edwarn after his death? You would think that he would be able to get at least some information about Trell from those who pass on.

From what I understood, the Ire built their fortress at a place that meets many different planets. If the Shades of Threnody are anything like Kelsier, then they could potentially get to the Ire, but they couldn't get much farther due to their connection to their own planet pulling them back.

Okay, I admit to bawling a few times during this book. LOVED IT! Here are my reactions:

Thanks Seonid!

Okay, I'll be near the foodcourt at about 7:30. As I said, I'll have 3 decks, so if you want to play Magic just show up.

I'll ask the question about Nightblood's sheath.