Wolven

Very well said good sir.

I was really disappointed in the Shannara series. I read the first one, and started reading the second one several times before I gave up. The furthest that I made it was maybe a hundred pages in. I even tried again years later by rereading the first one. Made it about halfway in. My gods those books were freaking boring. Sword of Truth, well, I made it all the way through, so they were interesting enough. Dang though those books were preachy. I got annoyed a lot as well by the face that Richard was supposed to be an uber powerful war wizard and he never freaking uses it! One part of it I did like a lot though was when Richard started to play that brutal game invented by the Jagang, can't remember the name of it. That was fun. The ending though and that ridiculous speech he gives. "This is our world, you can never come back to it. Your never returning to it because this world belongs to us. Our world is great without you, because you'll never see it again". That's an exaggeration of course, but that's how that speech felt to me. I havn't read the newest book in the series and I do not intend to. Another book series that I was super disappointed in was the Anita Blake books. They started out so great. The best book in the series by far was Obsidian Butterfly, but the very next book Narcissus in Chains was just complete and utter crap. That book felt like pure smut to me, there was not even a serious plot in it until you get about three quarters through. That and the author ruins my favorite character, the werewolf dude, Richard I think his name was, because that character was based on her ex husband and they divorced. I never read any books after that but I have heard things. Such as Anita threatening some dude because he wouldn't have sex with her? Man that series still bugs me to this day. As far as urban fantasy goes 'The Hollows' stomps a mud hole in it. Can't think of anything else that I was super disappointed in.

I'm in total agreement.

I have honestly thought the same thing. He seemed so different to me as well. The second bood made him look like an old man who was having one hell of a serious mid life crisis. The only thing that gave him any joy anymore was battle. It seemed like he stopped caring about the good of Alethkar. Any talk of wanting to help his country by tearing it apart first before rebuilding it only seemed like a means to an end to fuel his desire for war. I can't help but think of what he would have done next if he had realized his desires and conquered Alethkar and became king.

I have a feeling we're going to see something really fantastic with Roshar. It's clear that we're in for a lot of surprises yet, given that we pretty much know that their religion is based off a whopper of a lie. Your right that Jordan did not just plop in a bunch of common fantasy elements, but it was still a typical medieval style world. Very rich in history yes, but at the same time, it was still didn't leap out at you as being truly unique. At least not me. A matter of taste as you said.

That good huh? I'll have to give him a read then. He has stiff competition in Salvatore though, he has always made me able to see every move. And yes...yes 'The Legacy' was very, very nioe.

I disagree. Jordan was great, don't get me wrong. But there is no one that I have ever read that makes worlds anywhere near unique as Sanderson's. They are just so different. I love how he doesn't just plop elves and dwarves and dragons in there and other commonly seen fantasy stuff.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 387973120 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 514316592 bytes) in Unknown on line 0 I am so glad I am not the only person who thinks that. I had a friend recommend those books to me, and we got into some pretty heavy arguments when I told her the entire plot felt ripped off from Star Wars. Only read to the second book and stopped there, never finished it.

So many people recommending the Malazan books. I read the first one and could not bring myself to read any more of them. It's not that it was badly written or the story wasn't good or anything. The writing was great and the story itself was interesting enough. It's just that book did not explain anything. So many things popping up and not a hint of backstory given for much of anything. And the magic system...those mage warren things...that was the biggest thing, I like to be able to understand why magic works the way that it does and that book didn't explain the magic system at all. Anyway, I can definetly understand the OP however. Brandon Sanderson swept in and just pushed all my other favorite authors off their pedestals and claimed the top of the podium. Though I can still enjoy their works, Sanderson is the new measuring stick I put up against anyone else I read. Except when it comes to fight scenes. R.A. Salvatore still blows everyone else away when it comes to that. Gonna have to read this Pratchett fellow though, guy at work keeps recommending him to me. Still, I am so hungry for the next Stormlight book that everything else I read....I would not say I am disappointed, but they feel a tad muted for me.

Except that we know that the Stormfather himself has claimed that Odium Reigns. He said this to Kaladin in one of his dreams.

I disagree. Adolin just really can't relate to Shallan in that way, at this point in his life, the way that Kaladin was able to. She knew that Kaladin had a terrible life, and her inner monologue might not have implied that connection, but I think it was there. Especially when the shared danger was taken into account. Shallan and Adolin just don't have that same ability to relate to one another. Thus far, her attraction to him seems to be entirely physical.

Perfect Vorin couple true, but I expect by the end of these books that Vorinism is going to be shattered beyond any hope for fixing it.

Interesting theory, but the way it's worded makes me fairly certain that reigns is the right word. 3 of 16 'ruled, but now the broken one 'reigns'. Ruled and reigns both words of similar meaning. As in it used to be someone else that ruled, but now it is the broken one. My curiosity, is what 3 of sixteen means. There are sixteen shards, we know that. So is the meaning 3 out of 16, or is it the third one of the sixteen. The Stormfather has said before that Odium Reigns, that implies that he is the broken one. If that is true, then I wonder how it is that he was broken.

I am using Internet Explorer, and Windows 8.1.

"My other hand?" Lopen said. "The one that was cut off long ago, eaten by a fearsome beast? It is making a rude gesture toward you right now. I thought you would wish to know, so that you can prepare to be insulted". Hehe, ya gotta love Lopen. It's not my absolute favorite, that would be the moment Kaladin speaks the second Ideal and Syl comes back. That, however, has already been mentioned several times, and this was my favorite Lopen line in this book. As such, it deserved mention.

I try to reply with a quote, and it never works. It will take me to the reply box, and the quote from the post that I am trying to respond to is not there. How can this be fixed?

I fully agree. I was surprised when I came here to find people really downing him. I thought he felt very real, very natural in WoR. After what he went through, I thought his reactions to things were very believable. I mean, after his life being destroyed, twice, for him to come out of slavery and be happy and content...that would have been unnatural. I liked his progression. In the end, it took meeting another person, a Lighteyes no less, who was broken in the same way as he was, for him to finally start to get over his demons, and even now I am willing to bet that they are not all worked through. There is a reason why Kaladin has moved into my top five favorite characters of all time list after all.

These are fun to listen to, and I think it could also be fun to perhaps use these threads for chapter by chapter discussion. I saw something like that way back for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. I believe that was on a site called 'The Sugar Quill'.

The possibility of Lirin being broken over losing both his sons allows for another interesting possibility. That he could end up becoming a Radiant, most likely the same as Ym. That was the fellow who could heal wasn't it?

With Dalinar's memories of his wife, I think that his boon was to take away the pain from losing his wife. The curse was that the loss of pain came with a loss of memory.

I think the really important question here is....just how the heck did that dragon manage to hold a pen in those big old claws and write a letter on, to him, an itty bitty piece of paper.

Hmm, a lot of people are saying that they hate love triangles, and...I agree. I prefer love to be straight up pure love. That being said, I just think Kaladin is a better match for Shallan than Adolin is. Though that could be because I have always enjoyed the stories of opposites attacting. Though, it almost seems to obvious for Kaladin and Shallan to be together by the end. I mean, they are opposites in a lot of aspects all the way to the fact that their Spren are not going to like each other. That and their obvious connection moment when they both realize what absolutely horrible lives the other has lived. On the other hand, Adolin seems to be leaning towards the darker side of things. Also, he is one of the characters I have pegged for death by the end of the series. I usually have a decent instinct for that sort of thing. I saw a few people talking about Jasnah and Kaladin getting together and holy crap would that ever be awesome. I like Jasnah a little more than I do Shallan. However, I have this feeling that Jasnah is not going to end up in a romance in these books. I hope she does, but it just feels like...she's going to end up dead before that can happen for her, her penchant for avoiding death not withstanding. Though, Kaladin is about to head out to rescue his parents...Jasnah is out and about in the world to...ya never know, they might just meet up.

True, but if Szeth had stopped killing people and disobeyed his Masters, it can be said that he would not have attracted Nalan in the first place. The fact that Szeth kept to his code for so long was what made him so attractive to Nalan.

Nalan to me seems a bit of a hypocrite. He's going around killing Surgebinders, using any potential crime in their past as justification as doing so. Well, he's a Herald, he broke the Oathpact. To me that doesn't really give him a leg to stand on when it comes to the law. Granted, breaking a pact might not be the same as breaking the law, but that was a pretty serious pact to be breaking. Maybe doing so and living to see the True Desolation come about anyway is what has twisted him around so much.

I feel like the Parshendi, or Listeners, are as much a victim as anyone else. It seems that they don't want to be Voidbringers. Eshonai after all tried to back out of it the moment before the change came upon her. Their story seems almost as tragic as Szeth's at this point.