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Tamzin Ashevai

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Posts posted by Tamzin Ashevai

  1. There aren't any other magic systems worthy of Brandon's. Of all the fantasy fiction series I've read (and those I've yet not), Brandon's systems of magic have been and remain the most innovative of any author I've read. I look forward to new plant life, new spren! I look forward to new languages and translations! I look forward to the increased explanations of controversial characters like Szeth, etc.! As I've stated previously, I can hardly wait for the next installment of The Stormlight Archive!

  2. I began reading Terry Brooks' Shannara series in early August of this year based on several years' worth of recommendations from a colleague of mine who has since retired. While I don't find these novels nearly what Tolkein's were, and as I acknowledge that there are so many common themes between them, I'm still enjoying them ... although I wish there was more solid continuity between them. I'm only on The Wishsong of Shannara (i.e.: the original Shannara #3.) Anyway, I can always hope for something better as the series progresses.

  3. I think that is what we ended up deciding, since we didn't like the term "The Battle for Scadrial" anyway. The conflict at the Pits and the Final Ascension were closely tied enough that we made them one event. I think what Voidus is getting at is a name for the whole conflict between the New Empire and the forces of Ruin. We haven't made a term for that. I don't know whether or not we should either. It could be useful sometimes, but I also have no love for non-canonical terms. I think the name The Atium War(s) was brought up for an idea for that as well. I'm not loving The Battle for Scadrial as the name for the whole war though. It was more then one battle, we know of at least three.

    I don't know that members of 17th Shard should be defining a term for the conflict between the New Empire and Ruin unless only to define it amongst ourselves. Ultimately, I think such a definition is the author's prerogative. While it might be useful amongst us, I don't like non-canonical terms either. (I'm definitely a canonical geek even if I haven't done an extensive Compendium of Key Terminology for any other of Brandon's series beyond The Stormlight Archive's, The Way of Kings.) I thought this first novel in his epic series was particularly important ... so I geeked out on it.
  4. You're all Brits? I'm in good company as a Californian then! Why? Because non of us have read the Alcatraz series! Certainly, this isn't a diss to Brandon in any way whatsoever from any one of us; it just seems like we've other Sanderson priorities. (I know I do!) Anyway, welcome and welcome back!

  5. Thanks, Chaos. Call me clueless for the moment, because I don't know just how to proceed. I mean, I clicked on Wiki above and got three different results. One was an empty Wiki with several categories; another was completely overwhelming and I wondered why any contribution was needed. So, I'm a bit confused right now. I don't know whether it's the links or my own incompetence. Believe me when I say that I'm open to any of these conclusions. I hope it's neither one, actually, and something else altogether.

    I appreciate any insight you - or any other - might offer me in this. Thank you.

  6. Shivertongue, while I'm way into this and will do whatever I can, I've never done this before. While I haven't accessed the Wiki yet, you'll probably already know that I've contributed a couple of articles to the forum. So, I'll dive in further just as soon as I'm able to do so. I hope this is okay.

  7. My thanks to you both! This was definitely a labor of love with much anticipation for The Stormlight Archive epic. I'm happy to finally share this with 17th Shard and with Brandon.

    I'll be certain to make my way to The Coppermind Wiki to learn all that's there which needs writing/editing. I'd love to help there if I can! Also, I still have one TWOK project that still needs typing and several others that are incomplete but awaiting the next installment in TSA to flesh them out more fully.

  8. SPREN

    within THE WAY OF KINGS

    ... larger spren could change shapes and sizes ... . Spren didn't use people's names. Spren weren't intelligent. The larger ones ... could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn't actually think. Many of the larger ones were invisible except to the person they were tormenting. (p. 54-55) Large spren ... could move small objects and give littlel pinches of energy. (p. 110) ... don't sleep ... . (p. 215) [Lose] interest in things quickly ... . (p. 219) Most spren don't have long memories. (p. 220) ... all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual. There's harmony in that. (p. 262) ... kind of odd and magical. (p. 340) ... could be very elusive. Sometimes, even the most common types ... would refuse to appear. ... there were ... spren you could find only during war. (p. 441) ... can feel temperature. [Though] not usually. (p. 514) Spren live in everything. Spren appear when something changes ... . They are the heart of change, and therefore the heart of all things. (p. 539) [When the living thing they inhabit is consumed or used up] they are freed. To return to wherever it is that spren live. (p. 540) There were supposed to be thousands of kinds of spren, many that people never saw or didn't know about (p. 689)

    The spren change when [measured]. Before [they're measured], they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when [a notation is made], they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently ... . [if the figures are erased], the spren go back to being variable ... . Length, shape, luminosity. (p. 713) It's as if it knows ... that it has been measured. As if merely defining its form traps it somehow. (p. 714) Not all spren are as discerning as honorspren. (p. 849)

    Alespren - … appear only when one is severely intoxicated. Appear as small brown bubbles clinging to objects nearby. [Potentially] … a drunken hallucination. … infrequently. (p. 441)

    Angerspren - … boiling up from the ground … like small pools of bubbling blood. (p. 234) / … bright red … . (p. 253)

    Anticipationspren - … like red streamers, growing from the ground and shipping in the wind … . (p. 106)

    Bindspren - … dark blue and shaped like little splashes of ink, clustering … . (p. 796)

    Captivityspren – (p. 442)

    Creationspren - … of medium size, as tall as one of [shallan’s] fingers, and they glowed with a faint silvery light. They transformed perpetually, taking new shapes. Usually the shapes were things they had seen recently. Always of the same silvery color, always the same diminutive height. They imitated shapes exactly, but moved them in strange ways. They weren’t substantial … . [shallan’s] drawing gathered … them, pulling them by her act of creation … . (p. 118)

    Deathspren - … hate water. It will keep them away. … mighty good at killing … . (p. 152) / … cannot be seen. (p. 153) / They were fist-size and black, with many legs and deep red eyes that glowed, leaving trails of burning light. They clustered … skittering this way and that. Their voices were whispers, scratchy sounds like paper being torn. Only the dying could see deathspren. You saw them, then died. Only the very, very lucky few survived after that. Deathspren knew when the end was close. (p. 554)

    Decayspren – (p. 258)

    Dungspren – (p. 540)

    Fearspren – (p. 26) / … shaped like gobs of purple goo … . … drawn by … terror … . (p. 27) / … wiggling and violet … in the air. (p. 108)

    Flamespren - … like insects made solely of congealed light. (p. 23) / … a bright fire would draw [them]. (p. 118) / … [one of] the most common types … . (p. 441)

    Gloryspren - … like tiny golden translucent globes of light … attracted by [a] sense of accomplishment. (p. 188) / … like hundreds of spheres of light. (p. 382)

    Groundspren - … pull … downward … everything … . (p. 688)

    Honorspren - … discerning … . (p. 849) / Spirit of oaths. Of promises. And of nobility. (p. 913)

    Hungerspren – They look like brown flies that flit … almost too small to see. (p. 49)

    Laughterspren - … minnowlike silver spirits that darted through the air in circular patterns … . (p. 213)

    Lifespren – They looked like motes of glowing green dust or swarms of tiny translucent insects. (p. 79) / … little green blips of light … small as spores … . (p. 162) / … silent … . (p. 767)

    Logicspren - … in the form of tiny stormclouds … . (p. 120)

    Musicspren - … tiny spirits taking the form of spinning translucent ribbons. (p. 22

    Nightspren - … monsters of the dark. … dreaded … . (p. 592)

    Painspren – … like small orange hands with overly long fingers … . (p. 47) / … glowing pale orange hand shapes, like stretching sinew or muscles … . (p. 254)

    Passionspren - … like tiny flakes of crystalline snow, [floating] down in the air … . (p. 863)

    Rainspren - … sat in puddles, like blue candles … . (p. 522) / … glowing with a faint blue light, shaped like ankle-high melting candles with no flame. They rarely appeared except during the Weeping. They were said to be the souls of raindrops, glowing blue rods, seeming to melt but never growing smaller, a single blue eye at their tops. (p. 620)

    Riverspren - … could mimic voices and expressions, but didn’t actually think. (p. 55)

    Rotspren - … tiny red … gathering around [a] wound. (p. 53) / … hate water. It will keep them away. (p. 152) / [lister’s] oil frightened [them] away … even better than soap and water. (p. 154) / … tended to cluster around the dead. … translucent … . (p. 394-95)

    Starspren - … tiny pinpricks of light chasing after one another, zipping around like distant, glowing insects. They were rare. (p. 574)

    Windspren - … amorphous, vaguely translucent. … devious spirits who had a penchant for staying where they weren’t wanted. … a ribbon of light without form. … often played pranks … . (p. 49) / They were impossible to tell apart. (p. 52) … larger spren could change shapes and sizes … . (p. 54) / … could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn’t actually think. (p. 55) / … could appear to those [they] wanted to … . (p. 318)

  9. Of the WoT series, I've only read New Spring and I remember little of it. I'm going to have to read it again before I begin the WoT series in earnest. My goal is to do so next year ... in it's entirety ... from beginning to end. Given the opportunity, I'm very much this way with fantasy epics. While I might be a late-comer in most respects to the WoT, I'm still questioning just why I never knew of it when I was reading Frank Herbert's Dune series, because I first did so in the mid-1980s. I still wonder why I never knew of Robert Jordan until just a few years ago! Curiously, might it be that I grew up and lived in New England (i.e.: New Hampshire/Vermont)? Was the best of fantasy and science fiction being revealed mostly on the west coast?

  10. I find myself annoyed and a little confused at the passive aggressive tone of this post. Wouldn't a simple, "I don't care for video games" suffice? Or perhaps nothing at all really. This isn't a topic about whether or nor you like games and why, it's about what games you are playing. So by default, everyone who posts in this particular topic is going to like games. Wouldn't you be better off maybe starting a topic where you could get a lively debate going on the merits and detriments of video games? I think it would be better then posting potentially inflamatory things here.

    In addition to that, you mention "compromising my own integrity" by playing video games. It seems that you're implying that playing video games causes people to be immoral? I'd take offense at that for sure. I don't play video games extremely often but I know that they don't detract from my sense of right and wrong or make me a worse person.

    I'm not even sure where you're going with the end of this post. Have you switched from talking about games to some sort of metaphor for life? We don't play just to get "points", "merits" or level up. Sure becoming skillful at doing cool things that I can't do in real life is fun. I could never climb buildings in Constantinople with my bare hands. But Ezio sure can. It's really not all that different from reading a book, the best games have you there for the story. You never want video games to become all you do but you never really want just one activity to dominate your whole life anyway, right? If you spent all your time reading, or playing water polo, or playing chess, you really aren't any better off. It's not even about playing to win, it's playing for enjoyment. Same as any other activity.

    So maybe video games aren't your thing. It's not really necessary to deride people who enjoy them, is it? Or imply that the whole activity is shallow and immoral?

    Please allow me to apologize for the perceived tone of the post I made regarding video games, which I've since edited. I hope that you'll review it. My intent certainly wasn't at all to be passive/aggressive and/or inflammatory. Never was it my intent to deride those who enjoy gaming, nor to imply that the activity is shallow and immoral. It's just not for me; that's all. With this in mind, I have to admit that I'm a generation beyond many members here and my exposure to and experiences within the growth of technology and all that the internet has made available worldwide has been amazing; not just a given. My first computer was the very first Mac and, then, the Mac Plus. A friend of mine was instrumental in developing True Basic. So, now you know I'm old enough to be someone's mother, but I'm not. Perhaps the generational gap aids in making me seem what you perceived. Perhaps my experience/inexperience characterizes some of my responses. Please be assured that I'll be more sensitive to the responses of others on-site given these differences. In all honesty, I'm really happy to be here; to be a part of this.
  11. I'm not much of a gamer and never have been. I wasn't really drawn to gaming, despite that I was a teen when Pac-Man first came out. Perhaps this is due to the fact that my family didn't have Atari or any other comparable system of the day. However, there was a local pizza place that had some table-top games and I remember playing Centipede when I was there on occasion. Later, I played Snafu with a young boy whom I babysat. (I know well just how much I'm 'dating' myself in stating this.)

    After I joined Facebook (obviously, many years since that previous time), I played some of the Zinga games for a very short while. I got bored with their repetitiveness and, eventually, requested that all games updates from Friends be deleted from my Home page. I've also deleted all games invites from Friends since then. I think I'm just a different sort of geek.

  12. I'm actually looking forward to the resolution of the identity of David Webb/Jason Bourne and every other "active" like Aaron Cross (i.e.: Jeremy Renner.) Pamela Landy is going to have to defend the likes of Jason Bourne while refuting the lies of Noah Vosen (i.e.: David Strathairn), who remains supported by the characters portrayed by Albert Finney and Stacy Keach.

  13. First and foremost, Arya Stark is indeed freaking awesome! She's been my favorite character within the literary series since I first began reading. (The same goes for the HBO series.) Alternately, with regard to the ways in which sexual relations are expressed within the novels, I believe that G.R.R.M. is lacking. Why? Because there really is very little explicit sexual engagement described throughout the series unless what little between Daenerys and Khal Drogo, Cersei and Jaime, Stannis and Melisandre, Robb and Jeyne Westerling and, eventually, between Cersei and whomever.

    I think we all know that Sansa was terrified of her husband, Joffrey ... the King, with good reason. Without giving anything away, I've always been in agreement with her regarding her fear. So, maybe we should split this topic between the literary drama and the television series. I'm open to every option ... including continuing just as we've progressed upon this topic.

  14. Thank you for that, Trizee. I've enjoyed Ken Follett's The Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca, although i did so in the early '80s. I haven't read any of his works since. Would you recommend The Pillars of the Earth and anything else since then by Follett?

  15. I'm a http://vegetarian.about.com/od/glossary/g/Pescatarian.htm. In other words, for those who don't know, I'm a vegetarian who eats fish and shellfish on occasion. I love sushi and will be enjoying this next weekend in celebration of my birthday!

    EDIT: So, since I simply can't read through absolutely all of this tonight, I believe I have to start by stating that I'm a pescatarian. If you don't access the link or question just what that is, I'm predominantly a vegetarian who occasionally eats fish and shellfish. My annual birthday gift is an indulgence in sushi, provided by my RDP, who is a strict vegetarian. I'm so fortunate to be indulged thus! I enjoyed the best sushi just 1-1/2 weeks ago at the one and only restaurant in my hometown that provides the best variety in vegetarian rolls. (I enjoyed my fish, of course, but she enjoyed her maki too!)

  16. With regard to the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I read only "Wizard's First Rule" and found it to be so predictable that I couldn't stand reading further. I know there are hardcore fans of this series, but I'll never be one of them. While I appreciate T.G. as an author of my favorite genre (i.e.: fantasy fiction), I can't condone his outright predictability ... and infused attitude into the series. To me, that indicates a lack of investigation on rhe part of the author. So, ... .

  17. I think my Favorite book is The Pillars of the Earth. If you saw the TV mini-series, it pales in comparison to the book. This is a historical fiction and not a sci-fi/fantasy. That being said it is epic and is the kind of book that fantasy readers may like. My favorite author is still Robert Jordan, but that is for the series as a whole.

    Might I ask by which author? The reason I do so is because I couldn't stand Anne Bishop's, The Pillars of the Earth. Is this the same novel? Please correct me If I've erred in this assessment!
  18. I think a 'Shard Con' would be awesome, however, I can't imagine anything like this happening until The Stormlight Archive has at least received its second volume. Brandon took on a huge responsibility in completing Robert Jordan's W.o.T. series at the same time he was beginning his own epic.

    Perhaps this is an event we can all hope for in the future.

  19. Obviously, there are some very strong opinions and a lot of emotion in this thread. Foremost, I have to admit that I didn't even learn of Robert Jordan's W.o.T. series until I joined www.terredange.net and in the site's forum topic, Other Books. You might wonder just how a longtime fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert had missed the genius of Robert Jordon. Sure enough, I did ... because I ceased reading fantasy fiction during my years following The Grateful Dead (i.e.: 1981-1991), and as a performer in an 8-woman, world-beat band by the name of Pele Juju. During these years (i.e.: 1991-2000), my focus was my music ... both its creation and delivery. Once the band ceased to exist (beginning in late 2000), I returned to passions I'd set aside for the sake of music and returned to reading favorite fantasy and science fiction authors whom I'd known previously. By one of my drumming students, I'd been encouraged to read the work of Jacqueline Carey when Kushiel's Dart was brand new. I was hooked as I'd never been since Frank Herbert's Dune (despite however different the genres.) It was the subject matter that drew me in! Were it not for the writing of Jacqueline Carey, I wouldn't have learned of the writing of Brandon Sanderson (and that of Robert Jordan). So, I have several sites before 17th Shard for which to be grateful (inclusive of adonalsium.net) because each author whom I'd read and each site with which I'd become affiliated led me here in a round-a-bout way ... and I'm really glad I'm here now!

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