Dunkum

there is also the mistborn secret history, though I don't have that one, so not sure about its content, structure, or availability. I assume it isn't a standard novel/story, but I don't really know for sure

Finally got around to starting The Martian. been meaning to since I got it for Christmas, but had other priorities, then didn't feel like reading much for a while. so far I like it. the actual prose isn't doing much for me, but I like the story and the details he puts into the devices and such.

to add on to other responses about this: TLR was actively trying to make sure there were no more ferruchemists. so while such a plan would have theoretically been possible, it would have contradicted some of his other plans. plus I imagine it would be difficult (though I'm sure he could find a way) to get them to agree to store a bunch of age, effectively shortening their lifespans drastically. plus they still would not have been able to compound that age, so it is still probably a lot faster and easier just to handle it himself.

he pops in and out (due to the combo of reincarnation and time travel), but is never really that big of a character, fortunately.

I'd rate it higher than arrow season 3 and 4, and probably higher than the second half of flash season 2. but basically: any time Snart, Sara, or Rory are talking, Legends is entertaining (plus at least some of the times when Martin, Ray, or Rip are), but whenever Kendra, Vandal, or Carter start talking, it gets very bad very fast. Carter, in particular, is an utter black hole of charisma from which no scene can escape.

can't speak to the rest of the casting so much, but nothing about it struck me as bad, but I will second that second paragraph in its entirety. In theory, I should like Radagast, and I think they got a few parts of his personality right, but almost everything about him was wacky to the point of being irritating. I didn't bother watching the second adn 3rd movies, but the escape sequence from the goblin caves in the first one was atrocious

i do try to avoid them most of the time. that said its more that i really like the book, so I was way more disappointed in those films than I would be for something I don't care about quite so much. I do have to give htem credit for one thing: Martin Freeman was perfect casting fro Bilbo

I haven't seen it, so withholding my judgement for now, but I'm not sure anything can compete with the atrocities that are the Peter Jackson hobbit movies

Honestly, I didn't think it was. I still liked the series, but the last book might be my least favorite. the first 4 or 5 all feel like they are building to something, but the back half of the series never really felt like it fully got where it was trying to go. I'm not saying it is bad, by any stretch, but if you didn't like the first book, and are expecting the last book to make the whole trip worthwhile, then I would warn you against it. that said. the magic and the world in general does get a bit more of an explanation throughout the series, so a lot of the confusing things from the first book will get explanations later if you do give it the time.

this is true, but do we know the full extent of the returned shapeshifting ability? we see some of it in Warbreaker, but it isn't clear exactly how much they can change themselves.

exactly what I was getting at. most of the heightenings work this way, and I would add that most of the passive benefits to holding stormlight seem to as well, though that isn't as good an example, since you have a lot more conscious control there.

I mentioned it earlier, but a definite second on checking out Gil Genius. it is fantastic

is there a fourth? I wasn't aware of one off the top of my head

side note: it is hard to imagine what it would take to kill someone with that much breath. at that level, they are probably at least at the same level of investiture as someone holding the power of the Well of Ascension.

I'm going to say my main issue is with the word "conscious." there has to be intent, I feel like we have good evidence fore that, but the Vin and Elend examples make it pretty clear that it does not have to be conscious, in fact, I would say beginner allomancers (like Vin before she met Kelsier) and surgebinders (Kaladin in book 1) are another good example (I don't consider Zahel's waking up when Kaladin approaches to be a good example. the life sense was always a passive thing: a benefit of having numerous breaths, not an ability that had to be actively used). subconscious and instinctive intent seems to work just as well. in particular, instinctively burning pewter when unconscious in order to heal is definitely not a conscious decision/intent. and Vin using her "luck" to get things to go her way, especially very early on (i.e. before the beginning of the first book) is probably more subconscious/insitnctive as well.

Agree that his writing of Mat got better in the other two books. but in Gathering Storm it was probably the single most significant thing I noticed to mark the change in author, so it sticks out a lot in my mind. well that and because Mat is my favorite of the 6 main characters (honorable mention to Egwene and Perrin among the 6 mains, plus Thom and Verin among more secondary characters)

I'd actually posit that there are a couple of noticeable differences, neither of them particularly positive: 1. Brandon has a tendency to use some less archaic dialogue than Jordan did. this is fine in his own works but is a bit of a probelm when tryign to work in someone else's world. I can't come up with a concrete example off hand, but I seem to recall noticing it. 2. Brandon completely misunderstands/miswrites Mat. again, its been a while so I cant get concrete, but this was definitely an issue to me when reading gathering storm. other than those, however, I think the writing could almost be Jordan at his best (as opposed to the slower sections in the middle of the series)

A quick look at the coppermind couldn't confirm, but do we know the intended use of grandbows? if they are intended for hunting chasmfiends or killing men in armor, then they would need stronger shafts, and hollow ones might not be sufficient. if they were just meant for range against reguar soldiers, then they could maybe be weaker.

definitely, but in theory I think it probably could work

We have reason to believe that copper, bronze and aluminum would all work on foreign investiture, so there is good reason to think that duralumin (and nicrosil and chromium) would as well. as for what it would do for certain different kinds of invesiture, it is hard to say. for ferruchemy, my guess would be that it lowers the penalty for drawing a lot of an attribute all at once(sazed mentions this early on: there is some lost power when drawing a lot of a stored attribute at once), but it may also force you to draw out all of the stored attribute too (though maybe only if you were already tapping the attribute when you burned the duralumin). I assume you mean this in the way that the Kandra and Koloss can be mind controlled with a large burst of emotiional allomancy. in that case, I would guess no. that seemed to be a flaw/feature specific to hemalurgy, I doubt it would be that easily replicated in other systems.

can't speak to that book in particular, but I have definitely had it happen with one or two other books where I couldn't get into it the first time and gave up, but got a little bit further the second time around and was sucked in.

The most annoying thing for me is that I liked the original Innistrad block. the whole gothic horror theme they had going on worked for me (plus I managed to get Avacyn, Craterhoof Behemoth and Gisela in random boosters, that set was good to me). but I was unimpressed with the last set and this one isn't shaping up much better. maybe if they hadn't soured me on Eldrazi when they first came out (annhilator is up there with infect on my list of mechanics I absolutely hate) I could get behind them. the lovecraft-esque idea of creatures turning into eldrazi is kind of cool, but only if you already like eldrazi.

starting to see spoilers for Eldritch Moon and so far: not liking it. there are only about 6 cards revealed so far but one of them manages to combine 2 of my least favorite things from recent years: Eldrazi and the "control target player's turn" mechanic. to be fair the rest of the cards aren't too bad (though I still don't like werewolves very much, so that hurts another one of them some), but when the first thing I see is a card that might as well have been designed to annoy me, it doesn't leave me feeling very good about the set

I finished the main series earlier this year. should really look into the other books

Ferruchemy couldn't create the Kandra or the Koloss or the Inquisitors. that alone makes Hemalurgy a lot more interesting steelpushing/ironpulling would be fun abilities, and would definitely look cool, but from a mechanics perspective, they aren't very interesting. they just exert a force. I'll admit I had forgotten about the time-based allomancy when I made my post, they are actually pretty interesting, to an extent, but they are also fairly limited (especially if you take out Atium). emotional allomancy I could take or leave. it never did much for me, but I could see how someone else would be interested in it. Ferruchemy, on the other hand has things like breath, warmth, health, mental speed, nutrition, and memories even aside from the ones I mentioned before. I think the ability to store and tap those attributes is just a lot more conceptually interesting that allomancy is. Ferruchemy also wins for me in terms of most potentially useful in day-to-day life. still, I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree on this one