Dunkum

graduated something like 6 years ago with a major in Math and a minor in Computer Science. the saddest thing about the Math major is that, with a few exceptions, most places don't really have a use for theoretical Math. So unless you are going into Academia, or potentially into Cryptography, you really aren't going to use the more interesting parts of the major (well, the parts I found more interesting anyway)

inclined to agree. the question of tin enhancing the steel/iron sight is an interesting one, but darkness should not affect either that or touch.

my read on that is that it didn't get rid of foreign substances so much as foreign investiture (too lazy to go look it up just now). so, as an example, you might burn aluminum to get rid of some bit of hemalurgy that was affecting you. the reverse then, would be burning duralumin to supercharge that investiture, but also presumably use it up more quickly. to go back to the hemalurgy example, I suppose you might be able to burn duralumin to supercharge the effect you were getting (lets say phyiscal strength) but at the price of actually using up the hemaluric charge in the process (this is a guess, based on my understanding of the WoB answer for aluminum)

I'm personally a fan of Thallids, which are creatures that generate saproling tokens, but they are mostly time spiral block or one of the very old ones. add in Parallel lives, doubling season, and/or primal vigor, which are all enchantments that double the number of tokens you put into play, and you can end up with just obscene quantities of tokens. add in some instants and sorceries that buff all creatures you contorl (as opposed to just one) or that let you sac creatures for an effect, and you have fun times

It's been a while since I played against it, and I think he may have dismantled it, so I don't recall most of the cards. the main one that springs to mind is Timesifter, which randomizes turn order

I have a friend who would have played it. he had a deck based around chaos. it wasn't built to win, it was built to sow confusion and discord. Possibility would have fit right in

everything I have seen indicates that it was an early draft, likely the first one submitted to the publisher, and that it is being published with little or no alteration. this explains why 1. it isnt as good as mockingbird and 2. why some of the continuity isn't quite right (the robinson trial outcome, for example).

I've not read it, but one of my favorite quotes from someone who has runs "There is a good book buried somewhere deep within Go Set A Watchman, the recently unearthed manuscript by Harper Lee. And that book was To Kill A Mockingbird." I think when people read it and/or talk about it, they have to remember that it was an unpublished first draft of what eventually turned into To Kill a Mockingbird, not an actual planned sequel or anything like that. it requires a different attitude going in.

dragon reborn is my favorite, and the series doesnt really slump until book 6 or so...though it akws from then to 11 or 12 to get going again

I have to disagree with this wholeheartedly. Slow Regard is fantastic. there isn't a whole lot of action, but it is a wonderful study into Auri's life and her character. The Lightning Tree is also great, providing a similar thing for Bast. Though a day in the life of Bast is probably more interesting to the average reader than a week in Auri's. personally, I think both Slow Regard and Lightning Tree are better than the actual main series books, primarily because Bast and Auri are more interesting than Kvothe,

Flash is far and away the better of the two shows right now, though I don't think it ever quite reached the heights of Arrow season 2. Legends of Tomorrow looks pretty good, and I'll second or third or whatever the thanks that they brought back Sara. Now hopefully they can realize that they are terrible at writing love interests and maybe either stop that, or fix it. They messed up Laurel in Arrow season 1 (she was so much better this season when she wasn't a love interest), Felicity in season 3, Iris in Flash...they just have a terrible track record in that department

I played some of DotP a while back, and it annoyed the heck out of me. It wouldn't let me choose which lands were tapped (meaning in a two color deck, it would lock me out of options I would otherwise be able to play because it had tapped an island where it could have done a forest), the deck building was extremely limited, as in you could only modify the existing decks, and then only in a very limited way, and there was at least one case where a "choose any number of targets" card wouldn't let me pick my targets. it was all very frustrating, so I never bothered getting the newer versions

I want to quibble with the numenor example: Numenoreans actually are physically longer lived than standard humans (Aragorn is in his 70s or 80s during LoTR, while Boromir was around 40, but physically they would have been similar). That aside, I think the only advantages their civilization had were directly due to their close relationship with the elves, who predate mankind by some centuries. their civilization fell becuase they pissed off the gods (the Valar). all of which is to say that that isn't quite the best example of this trope. Shannara and Wheel of Time both provide more interesting versions.

I'm inclined to agree. he tends to do things like that on purpose, or at least with a fair amount of forethought. I just wanted to make sure that we weren't discounting the possibly.

there are about 8 or 9 things throughout this thread that I want to respond to, but let me just pick the one that is bothering me the most right now: I'm kind of with you on this except for one thing: if you look at our history at all, you will notice that this si exactly the sort of thing that humans are doing all the time. we go in, wreck up someone's temple/sacred tree/whatever without even thinking twice about it. so humans coming in and being warmongerers is pretty much in keeping with everything we know about humanity. that said, there is no particular reason to expect that other races wouldn't be just as bad most of the time.

There definitely could be something there, but on the other hand, there were never dragons n earth, and we have that concept. likewise so very many other things. it isn't impossible for them to have simply come up with the idea from somewhere else.

having recently re-read a bunch of stuff that I originally read in high school or middle school, I think I know exactly what you mean. There were plenty of series I enjoyed the first time through that I felt didn't really hold up on later readings

yea, I wanna look through that one, but its pretty long, and has a lot of repeats, so I'm not sure I have the patience for it. I've got a week though, so I may get around to it.

this sounds like realmatic spiritual or cognitive stuff, to me. something about a building being considered a shelter in a cognitive sense, and blocking out the mists/stormlight/etc for that reason. wonder if it continues to extend to unoccupied or abandoned buildings...

I've read through some of the foundation stuff, but it never really grabbed me. I do make sure to check and see what they have from Asimov though. I got Nightfall there a while back, and it was pretty good.

Maybe soulstamp yourself into someone who looked up the answer to that crossword clue?

A lot of Lovecraft is public domain now, so a bunch of it is available on Wikisource for free (probably other places too, maybe even google books). I read through most of what was easily and freely available a while back, and the main thing I remember is that he didn't really seem to be buidling a mythos. there were some things that were common across stories, Arkham, the Necronomicon, some of the elder god types, but for the most part the stories are not related to each other at all except for their shared themes.

I wasn't a big fan of Sword or Elfstones. Wishsong is much better, i think, but it the structure is pretty similar. doubt I'll watch the show, but the visuals do look pretty good.

I'll definitely keep an eye out, though I'm not optimistic about being able to find any specific book/series. I also plan to scan this thread when I have the time, and some of the what are you reading thread too, for suggestions there.

Looking for a couple recommendations, and I don't feel like starting a new thread, so I guess I will rez this one. there is a pretty regular used book sale in my area coming up in a bit over a week, and I am looking for any author or book recommendations. the selection is usually not great, but you can never tell what will be there. I'm primarily looking for Sci-fi and fantasy series. any suggestions?