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The obvious answer is they all are the best because this is a trick question. Its like picking between which of your kids you love more, and you just can't do it. Also this is like reading only the first two Harry Potter books before we got the rest and asking the same question. For me the first two were great, but then I read and found Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire the best of the books. I think we can anticipate Oathbringer will get even better, mainly because the more Brandon writes the better at writing he becomes. I agree with the others that this is hard to do with only 2 books and one Novella. They are all excellent in their own way. As stated WOK introduced me to this whole new world that just felt fresh and unlike anything i had ever read. So it was amazing for that. Though it was a lot slower to me because it was setting up the world, the characters, and the plot for this massive 10 book series. I had several friends who normally love fantasy who just couldn't get into the series because of the slower pace or the weird unearth like world that was being created. However, i did get a couple of other friends and i am glad because i have folks to theorize with. WOR was great because it had a lot more action and it left us with even more questions to answer and more theorizing to do. I loved the dueling scenes and seeing characters start to embrace their powers was awesome. I would lean a little more towards this one so far, even if you include Edgedancer into the question. I did like Edgedancer, it was a short read but entertaining and helped us delve more into the world and what is going on. Also it gave us more Lift and i like her character. So again, everything is the best!

Can you please post the WOB you are talking about? I am curious if it clearly specifies all Oaths are open to interpretation or if it is more like the Oaths that apply to the specific order are open to interpretation which is why you could have the two windrunners disagreeing on a particular oath and maybe their disagreement relates to an oath that applies to their order. I have some thoughts on the arguments for Taravangian becoming a Radiant. I don't have an electronic copy of WOK so i am relying on the summary of the first ideal from Coppermind and Stormlight Archive Wikia. I believe they are using the in book description and explanation from when Teft discusses the first ideal with Kaladin. Life before death The Radiant seeks to defend life, always. He never kills unnecessarily, and never risks his own life for frivolous reasons. Living is harder than dying. The Radiant's duty is to live. Strength before weakness All men are weak at some time in their lives. The Radiant protects those who are weak, and uses his strength for others. Strength does not make one capable of rule; it makes one capable of service. Journey before destination There are always several ways to achieve a goal. Failure is preferable to winning through unjust means. Protecting ten innocents is not worth killing one. In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished. From the description that Teft gives it seems to me like Taravangian wouldn't meet the in book description of the first ideal. It seems hard to reconcile his actions with the in book description of the first ideal. I would say similar issues apply to Amaram becoming a radiant. I am not sure belief in doing what is right is what will get you to becoming a Radiant. You have to live the right way. Taravangian and Amaram know they are doing bad things and they are trying to say the ends justify the means, but i feel like the in book description of the first ideal kind of argue Radiants can't use the ends to justify the means (especially Journey before Destination). I am curious to see what you think. feel free to poke holes in my logic. i know you are well versed in the books and in the WOB so there is probably stuff i am missing that you can point out.

Hmmm...given it could make an important scene less powerful i might hold off on reading them. By future scene do you mean a scene that will happen in Oathbringer? Or one that already happened in WOK or WOR and the flashback will shed light on it and make it more meaningful in hindsight (since technically a scene in WOK or WOR could be considered in the future compared to a flashback scene)?

Thanks for the clarification. it is sometimes hard to keep track of what everything means for Brandon's planning when it comes to character viewpoints.

Dang! there are 3 more chapters i need to read. Now i need to decide if i go buy Unfettered II or wait until Oathbringer comes out. Decisions decisions!

I think what it means is that in his head each stormlight archive book is essentially 3 books. each stormlight arhive book is broken into 5 parts and 1-2 parts will combine to make each book (for the 3 he keeps them ordered into in his head). The diagram shows how he orders it in his head with how much viewpoint time main characters, secondary characters, etc. get. The interludes i believe are the short story collections noted in the diagram. I think a Novellete is when a non-main character gets significant viewpoint time. For instance, I believe Eshonai was a Novellete in WOR (But someone can correct me on that). So part of the discussion here was the idea that Moash might be considered the Novellete character in Part 2 of Oathbringer.

I have read the Kaladin returning home chapter and the Dalinar battle in the town chapter that were released a while ago. I read the first 8-9 chapters of WOR that were released early because i couldn't contain myself. I pretend like I will not read until the whole book is available but I know that resolve will crack once more chapters start coming out early. I thought i would hold off on reading Edgedancer until it came out in its standalone form but 2 weeks ago i bough Arcanum Unbounded just to read it . It is all fun to me because i can read a few chapters early and skim/skip those chapters once the whole book comes out. The first time i read the books it is for the story, then i reread again trying to find more details. Though after being on the forums again for a while and seeing what all the awesome people on the forums find I realize how many details i miss even on a reread. Is the "Thrill" different from the Dalinar chapter that shows the battle in the town that was released earlier? I ask because i remember a point in that battle chapter where Dalinar experiences "The Thrill." and it seemed pretty emphasized so i was wondering if they were the same chapter. If not then more to look forward to!

Maxal is this what you were referring to? Where Brandon breaks down the books into parts, and maps out viewpoints for various characters (granted this is about 18 months old so not sure if this outline changed since)? This diagram shows Novelletes which i think are basically smaller stories for characters tied into the larger story. This one in part 2 contains pretty much all the story for that character, until it looks like a small piece in part 5.

My apologies, it has been a while since i read the book and apparently my mind is remembering the details incorrectly. I believe when i thought of the 2nd hit i was thinking of this part where he was getting ready to finish off Kaladin with another hit only Kaladin said the words for his 3rd oath. This is kind of what it boils down to for me when it comes to Moash. I get the heat of the moment and not expecting Kaladin to be there then getting manipulated by Graves argument to why he did it, but personally it is just a big betrayal of loyalty for me that he nearly killed Kaladin. I know he beats himself up and thinks about it a lot in that scene near the end of the book. That is the only reason i am open to him redeeming himself in some way.

*Facepalm* Got my secret societies mixed up there. Thanks for the correction. I understand where you are coming from on your comments about Moash. That is why i felt like i would be ok with him redeeming himself in someway. But i am also a big on loyalty person and Moash hurting Kaladin was something i felt was crossing a line when it comes to friends. IIRC he hits Kaladin at least 2 times so he would have realized he hurt Kaladin bad after the 1st time and so even though he is not used to his plate he still hits him again knowing he hurt Kaladin with his 1st hit. That is something hard for me to swallow when he is doing it to his friend.

I feel you here. Pretty much crosses the line for me when you choose your hatred of someone else over your friend and would have killed your friend for getting in the way if not for the fact he turned out to say the next oath on his road to becoming a KR. I might be open to him redeeming himself to Kaladin somehow, like saving Kaladin by turning against the Diagram and dying in the attempt. It is possible for him to become a KR if he starts living by the ideals. I mean Dalinar was not exactly KR material in his youth but started living by a code after Gavilar's death and that set him on his path to becoming a KR, so it is possible if Moash changes that he could become one too.

I can get on board with either of them playing Shallan. I always just took the artwork in Words of Radiance and thought of Shallan as looking like the artwork. I guess i used artwork from the books to help picture the ethnicities of the characters and so i never thought of the Kholin's as Asian since the artwork doesn't seem to portray the Alethi as Asian from my recollections.

I just finished Wax and Wayne about 2 weeks ago (Which, silly me, I was not intending to read because i am not big on western themes but got because Alloy of Law was on sale...I need to apologize to Mr. Sanderson because that series was fantastic!), I am currently reading Arcanum Unbounded (I couldn't wait until October to get the stand alone Edgedancer Novella, i needed me some Lift!). Once i am done with the rest of Arcanum i am going to begin rereading WOK, WOR, and Edgedancer to get me fully prepared for Oathbringer.

Who is this lopan you were referring to? Any relation to lopen? Hey on the forums? Anyone? People are in this thread and they’re making bad puns. Please save them from themselves!

Wouldn't that have been the best scene? Shallan "you are fire!" Stick "I am Groot!"

Need to be careful there Flash. There is a significant cult of the stick on the forums and to those folks them be fighting words.

Interesting thought. I never looked at his use of the word "son" as anything other than an older man addressing a younger man by calling him son. My thought is that is what he was doing and isn't intending in any way to replace Adolin with Kaladin. I think he will find Kaladin is capable for a lot of tasks because he is a smart, capable person. It has been a while since i have read any of the books, but i never got the impression that his feelings for Kaladin would lead in the direction of thinking of him as his "heir." It seemed like he thought highly of him for being able to inspire the bridgemen and get them to follow him and have discipline. So those would be natural qualities in a person he wanted under his command. I always got the impression that he loved Adolin, but put a lot of expectations on him because he wanted him to be a better man than him and be a better High Prince when the time came to take over for him. I feel like i read some passages, maybe in WoK, where he starts giving Adolin more responsibility because he knows he is capable of running the army and was proud of how well he was doing that (might not be remembering that right). You could be right about all of this because I know you are very versed in the Adolin/Dalinar area of the books and often have way more insight than i do. It would shock me a bit if it happened, but if it did I would tip my cap to you for your powers of premonition.

i feel like i most identify with Windrunners. However, i have taken this test 3 times and tweaked a few answers and gotten skybreaker, dustbringer, and bondsmith. On some other tests i have gotten windrunner and skybreaker. so not sure what to think. Thanks for making the quiz. It must be hard to do when we don't really know much about many of the orders. Once we get through a few more books we should hopefully be able to make these really spot on.

He is on his way to becoming a full radiant but right now is not one. There are 5 ideals that must be said to become a full radiant. He so far has only said 3 ideals. The first Ideal is "Life Before Death, Strength Before Weakness, Journey Before Destination" and is common among all the KR orders. Then the remaining 4 ideals are different for each order. Kaladin has said 2 other ideals particular to the Windrunners. The Second Ideal was "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." and the third ideal he has said was "I will protect even those i hate, so long as it is right." He still has 2 more ideals to go to become a full radiant.

The banter between Kaladin and Shallan is fun, but you made the argument for me that they don't need a romantic relationship to have the banter. They have been doing it already without a romantic relationship and they can continue it just as friends and everything would be fine.

Interesting question, but unless the KR is like Dalinar who isn't getting a blade from the Stormfather, wouldn't there be a practical problem of 2 KR possibly needing a shardblade at the same time and only having one spren?

These two have been mentioned but i loved them. 1) When Kaladin says "Honor is dead. But I'll see what I can do." Then jumps over the wall to help Adolin in the duel. 2) the whole following exchange:

Thanks for the theory. It is interesting to consider. Maybe i am not understanding the theory completely, but it seemed like you were arguing a reciprocal relationship so that if KR giving up their bond it would cause the Parshendi to lose their bond. My only thought was if there was one order that secretly kept their bonds wouldn't that allow them to still surgebind? If that is the case then wouldn't the Parshendi who remained still be able to voidbind and still use powers? if that is the case why would they have simply stayed near the shattered plains and not been voidbinding and attacking places all over the world prior to Gavilar finding them prior to the Way of Kings? There shouldn't be anything that would have kept them from using powers. Also, it has been a while since i read the books. I never picked up on one order secretly keeping their bonds after the Recreance, can you point me to where that was referenced? I would really like to see where i missed that. Thanks.

I am right there with you on this. It is too cliché for me. I would prefer it just get left Adolin and Shallan then Kaladin finding another interest. It would be better for the story in my opinion. The only possible upside to a relationship between Kaladin and Shallan would be if their spren can interact and reading some banter between Pattern and Syl.

WOR of Radiance Posters: 1. Kaladin jumping over the wall of the Arena. One hand on the wall pushing off, his legs in the air over the wall, spear in his other hand. Adolin in the background, surrounded and facing 4 shardbearers, above Adolin you can see the other side of the arena full of spectators. to the side Renarin stumbling into the Arena shardblade in hand. Words underneath in stormlight font: "Honor is Dead. But I'll see what I can do." 2. Dalinar stares out over the shattered plains wearing his impeccable Kholin uniform. Various Alethi armies line one side while Parshendi line the other side of the scene. High Storm and Everstorm walls loom over both armies. Szeth hangs in the air between the storm walls glowing with stormlight. Words underneath in stormlight font: "Unite Them!" (I can't remember if Dalinar's visions have that phrase in them in WOR or if it was just in WOK. however if the phrase isn't in the WOR i feel it still works since he utters the sentiment in WOR).