Erunion

Shadolin FTW!!!! They are incredibly sweet together, and Adolin is amazing here. Working through gender bias? Win. Being incredibly thoughtful? Win. Sharing something he loves sincerely? Win. I really do hope they work out. (For all the naysayers; they've been together 50 days - cut them some slack!) However, Brightness Radiant is a concerning coping mechanism, they both have significant closet skeletons that could tear them apart or bring them closer together, and, crucially - 'don't screw this up!' is incredibly worrying from a reader perspective My prediction? They screw things up at one point - likely when Adolin gets exiled/exiles himself if/when the murder details come out - but they get back together later on. Or one of them dies. Could go either way. On Kaladin and the Parsh-People? It adds a lot to what I was thinking last week; most are normal Parsh-People (I don't call them listeners yet as we don't know about the rhthyms) but there are a few voidbringers leading/manipulating each major group. Which brings me to a key theory point and something we should be clear on: Parshendi are not voidbringers. Void-Spren turn things into voidbringers. I strongly suspect that voidbringers is the term to use for anything bonded to/possessed by a void-spren. This can include some Parsh-People who are bonded to void-spren, but would also include any bonded humans, thunderclasts, bonded greatshells or other bonded monstrosities. Thoughts?

Doesn't seem likely - the Kholinar interlude in WOR paints her as someone who surrounds herself with sycophants and is a pretty terrible ruler - or at less than an oblivious one. I'm actually very interested as to what is going on with her and her infant son. Are they dead? Alive? One of each?? How will Elhokar respond? Especially if they were killed by rioting dark eyes? Could be very, very interesting.

@maxal Great take on the Edgedancers - and on how hard the little things are. Absolutely right. Interesting take on Elhokar. I buy him being manipulative - I don't buy him having bad intentions. He just wants to get his rightful power and escape being under Dalinar's thumb all the time, while still allowing Dalinar to have authority/etc. By the way, Elhokar has sworn as a classic feudal vassal/suzerain to a higher ruler - a King swearing to an Emperor. Quite common in many times and eras.

I don't - mostly I want to see how he reacts to the current turn of events!

I really do see exile as the likeliest path for Adolin - one way or another. It might be imposed by the King, or self-imposed - hard to tell. But I am fairly confident that Adolin will have to deal with his crimes, and I can't see him getting executed by his cousin. Although that would be a twist Also, Adolin acts very edgendancer-ey. Remember the prostitute in Sadeas' warcamp? Adolin did. Remember poor Renarin, the boy on the spectrum shunned by his own society? Adolin did. Remember Sureblood, and Gallant, the brave horses who fought and one died for their masters? Adolin did. He remembers those that were forgotten. Further, the Edgedancers were famed for their grace in and out of battle, their refined bearing and their cultured attitude. Adolin fits all of that very well (his first duel in WOK Dalinar comments how watching him fight with a shardblade is like watching a dance, unlike most other fighting).

Where is Zahel? Where is he? Where is Warbreaker the Peaceful? Where is Vasher? Where is (insert other name here)? Critically, what is he up to and what role will he play? He should be in Urithiru right now, and he's in possession of a lot of useful intel.

You guys rock, and have taken my upvote limit two days in a row. On the Listeners: I suspect that they are far short on voidspren - so Odium and the Unmade have been creating armies of parshendi and seeding them with voidspren to rule/control them. On Jasnah: I think she's getting the hang of Transportation. I also really hope she shows up soon! On Adolin: his murder investigation will likely play out in a way none of us expect, and it will have plenty of good drama and interesting story @maxal - have faith in our Sanderson On Dalinar: I sincerely hope he doesn't die this book. Poor Navani if he does! But he'll have to learn to be culturally inclusive; that Urithiru cannot be Alethi, and that the Radiants must be above politics. Misc: Syl is awesome, Elhokar/Kaladin buddy cop is a fantastic idea, but I think that Elhokar will be facing tragedy in Kholinar - likely his wife or his son or both dead. Either it will crush him or he'll rise to the situation and become a great character. We shall see.

As has been repeated ad nauseum: genocide == maybe not a great plan? A much better plan would be uplift - figure out how to get the parshmen bonds ASAP to 'inoculate' them against stormspren/other voidspren.

@Argent perhaps that's the chapter title because here is where Adolin realizes he's royally screwed? (More serious - threads of the screw implies that things are getting tightened up in urithiru) Adolin investigating himself? Not what he wants to deal with right now. Poor guy, but he's got to confront his problems, his sins as it were. Murder is right there at the top of that list. I want to sit down and have a long chat with Renarin. And poor Shallan could use a break!

There's no reason to believe that he refers to Parshendi as beasts. More likely he's referring to actual beasts here (chulls).

I really like the idea that Dalinar asked for the ability to change - to become a better person. And the cost was his memories.

As ever, it's very hard to cast Stormlight. Alethi are described with Caucasian/Asian blend features, African/Northern European height, and Polynesian (or possibly North Indian?) skin. Casting actors to match will be hard. Or they could use an amazing makeup team as in Cloud Atlas, and cast for features/voice then customize them to the ethnicity through amazing makeup work. They'll need to do some of that whoever they cast or they will not be true to the books; but it's possible that they'll simply assign a rosharin ethnicity a modern equivalent for simplicities sake. So really the question is this; do we cast roles to individuals assuming amazing makeup work, or do we cast to ethnicity?

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain! You're always on point with your comments, and your profile pic is epic

So, I start a new job on Monday, and I'm pretty pumped/nervous.

So, apparently I have weird bones. Who knew?

Pet Peeve: conspiracy theories. This weekend I had a long, in-person talk with someone who was leaning towards some conspiracy theories (never been to space, fake moon landing/etc.). At the end of that convo I am fairly confident that I convinced him not to buy into that crem. Which is great. And then I go onto the internet and noticed the comment sections of a few posts, including a couple NASA related. It made my heart hurt. Seriously people. 99% of conspiracy theories are utter garbage. People are terrible at keeping secrets You can't motivate people enough to keep a conspiracy hidden unless it involves a bare handful of people (2-20) and then only for a short time (the more people, the shorter the time). People just don't work that way. You can't get hundreds of people to lie convincingly together. Let alone thousands. Let alone millions. The more people involved, and the more severe the conspiracy, the faster it'll break down. Snowden is a classic example. The NSA was monitoring people it wasn't allowed to monitor. It was allowed to monitor some people. This illegal monitoring program was also somewhat successful, it may even have saved lives! Certainly people were told it saved lives. And they were promised draconian punishments for breaking silence. And not that many people were in on it. The conspiracy still broke down, and quickly. People had an inkling it was happening. Leaks started coming out that it was happening. Some believed, some didn't. Then Snowden, at great cost to himself, blew the whole darn thing open. This particular conspiracy was much better set up to succeed than most proposed ones are, yet it still failed within, what, two years? One? If the NSA can't keep that under wraps, with incredible motivation, how do you think NASA - somehow working with their worst enemies the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War - managed to pretend that they'd made it to the moon when they hadn't? And have kept it up for 50 years. Tens of thousands of people were involved directly. Hundreds of thousands indirectly. Millions watched it happen. Hundreds of thousands were present for the rocket launches. Hundreds were present for the capsule recovery operations. Dozens went to the moon in person over the Apollo missions. Thoudands, if not hundreds of thousands, have seen the landing sites with their own eyes and their own telescopes. Meanwhile, Russia glowered in defeat, with the technology, ability and will to prove their greatest enemy a fraud they.... didn't? None of it makes sense. And don't even get me started on the flat earth. /rant over

But we have to remember that while the power is neutral, the vessels themselves were people first before they Ascended at the shattering of Adonalsium.

That's a really good question. Fingerless gloves? Those would be pretty scandalous though. And how old is Mara? Is she young enough not to have covered her hand? Or is she just amazingly good with her uncovered hand? Do they have special surgeons gloves? Or does vorinism make an exception for surgeons?

Balk on topic, I think it's likely that Lirin and Hesina have another child, but that that child is not Mara. Mara seems to be someone, likely a preteen/teen, who Lirin simply took in as an apprentice. It is entirely possible that they do have a child though. But no 4 year old will be working as an apprentice surgeon. Sorry. That doesn't happen.

SO, I am incredibly pumped for this book now, and want more. Some points - no highstorms right now because of weeping. It's also possible (as mentioned previously) that it may be longer before the next one as the one that was sent was not at the proper time. May require investiture build-up. I absolutely reject the notion of Adolin as a coward here - it's the wrong term. Indecisive? Maybe. But there's a good chance he simply doesn't know what to do next. It's not like anyone has taught him "when you finally snap and murder a highprince, while your kingdom is at it's most fragile and your father needs every shred of authority he can get, this is the right thing to do." He's got a lot to process right now. What even is the best course of action for him? Because while turning himself in may be honourable, it's not necessarily wise, or what's best for his people. Finally, Kaladin. Kaladin! I want more Kaladin! I wanna see him summon Syl, turn lighteyed and have Roshone realize that he is seriously outranked. I also want to hear him actually talk to his parents, and possibly learn that he has a new sibling!

Transubstantiation is always something that I find... interesting... about traditional Catholicism. In my practice, the bread and wine are merely considered symbols - representations of the being of Christ, but not the substance thereof. We 'do this in remembrance of Him' - a reminder and an embracement of Christ's death (and ultimately His resurrection). The wine symbolizes His blood (shed for us), the bread His body (broken for us).

Hah! Probably wise Sadly I am coming to a point in my life where my drive to better the world is overcoming my better judgement and my drive for personal peace - c'est la vie. So here I find myself hip deep in crem.

@Calderis - it's tragic, and I'm not even talking the USA, this is Canadian politics What will we have to feel good about our politics if they're not not-as-bad as yours!!? And no, it wasn't being directly operated by a politician, it is a 'Justin Trudeau Not' page.

Also, just to clarify my post there - they didn't just delete me, the deleted every moderate comment. They removed all the moderates, left or right, leaving only extremist opinions. Doesn't that strike you as profoundly sinister?

No problem The Layman's Catholicism is one big, mostly homogeneous, mass. (The pun was intentional, by the way). The monastic orders are different, and are for those who feel called to a life dedicated to service or solitude. Note - I am a Christian, but not catholic, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate .