Iarwainiel I

That is IMO kind of insane - sounds like a bunch of retailers are trying to make as much money off people as they can; kind of like lots of them do with Christmas these days, when the shops start trying to sell stuff in early October. EVERY day is a good day to tell your loved ones how you feel - no cards or trinkets required.

Welcome to the Shard! I agree this site is active & good re: discussions. To me, it's also more manageable than Reddit/sub-Reddits - - I can mentally keep track of who's proposing what theories & not feel like I might slide down the proverbial rabbit hole & get lost for hours. One other aspect about these forums (no idea if it's also true re: Reddit) is that Peter and a bunch of Dragonsteel folks prowl around here and are active. Many of Brandon's beta readers are active here too. It's a terrific resource, and IMO people are positive and encouraging here, sometimes amazingly so. Glad you're joining us!

In Mistborn: Secret History, Part 5 "Ire" Chapter 2, the Elantrians are concerned that Threnodites are there in Scadrial's CR; the Ire group's leader Alonoe says, "The powers of Threnody wish to join the main stage." So I'm guessing that these "powers" are maybe the "Deepest Ones" being discussed in this thread? [Edit: I see that @teknopathetic posted something like this above - credit where credit's due.] Gotta love the Cosmere! So many secrets!

The absolute craziest "musical instrument" ever - the Floppotron. Amazing! So creative.

This is "To-Be-Read," as it's not out till September, but I'm pre-ordering it today & wanted to share with my fellow Shard-ers: Nala's World - https://www.amazon.com/Nalas-World-Rescue-around-Globe/dp/1538718782/ If you don't already follow this Scottish guy & his cat, check them out on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/1bike1world/ [*** Note: There is some slightly spicy language occasionally, but not much; IMO it's not offensive, but I want to respect all of you.] The book should be a good distraction leading up to SA4 in November.

Agree! I re-read the first Powdermage trilogy before I read Blood of Empire because I didn't remember the backstory on well enough to get the most out of the latest/last book. I was really glad I did. McClellan has definitely improved as an author - the pacing and characterizations are better in the newer trilogy. You're in for a treat, whenever you do get hold of the book. As much as I love the Field Marshall Tamas character, Mad Ben Styke is one of my all-time favorites, & that despite the fact that all of my guesses were wrong re: how the story would end, LOL!

A couple albums by fabulous pianist Daniil Trifonov - here are some examples you can listen to online for free. The joy on his face says it all! Here's his NPR "Tiny Desk" concert - the last few minutes (start at 11:45) are stunningly awesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23gEiUwne0 Here's a very familiar (short) Bach piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng5ALDifMm8 Here's an actual music video - very creative! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAPEvEIENGo He's only in his 20s but some experts say he's the best they ever heard. And folks here in Cleveland who know him (he studied here) say he's a genuinely nice person - not arrogant at all. What a pleasure to support artists who, like Brandon, care about both their craft and their fans.

"Not you, son." - - WoR, Dalinar to Kaladin when he was confronting Amaram about all his lies & duplicity & taking away his position as head of the KR. I know this isn't a wise saying like we're looking for in this thread, but Oh, the Feels!!! I need to look back through the books for more; just finished rereading Mistborn Era 2 (what we have so far) & there are a bunch of good ones from Wax & Wayne, and Harmony too. Speaking of Mistborn, ... "There's always another secret..." - - Kelsier

Love Love Love this thread!! There are too many to list, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned this one yet: "He is mine! I claim him!" - Syl, WoR

Thanks for bringing this video to the forefront again - it is sooooooo excellent! I've been using it (with some successes!) to convince my non-reading/video-only friends to give Brandon's books a try, & the GraphicAudio version seems to appeal best to them. If you view it on YouTube and read through the comments, it's amusing how easily you can tell whether the person is a Sander-fan or not, LOL! The animator has another video where he tells how he & his team created it. You can really tell that he wanted to make it longer, but he was a student & had to meet a deadline for his class assignment. I can't imagine the amount of time & effort that went into it, and at the end he just got a grade, not any money! I hope he has gone on to a successful career.

Ep. 1 of "Star Trek: Picard" is available FREE on YouTube, at least for a while: [you know what goes here].youtube.com/watch?v=1PPm5l3o2zw (Sorry - it wouldn't let me post the actual URL.) Also, Wil Wheaton is hosting an interview show on "Picard" - seems like it's an ep-by-ep behind-the-scenes thing. Here's ep 1: [###].youtube.com/watch?v=t55gOxwVw0Y

I just finished re-reading - here's a couple more "why's" from me: Wayne's apparatus to imitate "Old Ironeyes" & how that scene played out Ranette's spheres & the creative ways Wax used them Melaan with her broken-up skeleton still standing tall at the end to accept the Bands on behalf of the kandra Choc! (I wonder if Brandon's kids love hot cocoa & that was the inspiration - ?) But best of all was (Wax's thoughts) "Those arms Those arms!!" At that point on my first read-thru, it was all I could do to not throw the book up in the air & scream "Survivor of Hathsin! Survivor of Hathsin!" Happily, I resisted the urge to destroy a lovely hardback book, but - - - wow!

@firstmurf - Thanks for the encouragement!

Amazing collection!!!! Thanks for sharing! One of my big regrets is not asking Brandon for a Lightweaver pin at the Dayton stop on his tour for Words of Radiance. He was giving them out to everyone who did cosplay, but I didn't have time to 'cause I was the "tour archivist" for that stop & was busy coordinating that. (Fans wrote him personal notes on Stormlight-themed notecards, and I forwarded them to a lady who collected notes from the entire tour into a couple scrapbooks - it was awesome! I printed the cards, passed them out, collected them, etc., plus shipping them. I also made a boatload of red streamers for people to wave when Brandon arrived; at that point, none of us realized that Anticipation Spren shouldn't be waving around up in the air, but oh well - it was fun to do.) So I bet he'd have given me a pin if I'd asked. At this point, there's no way to get one (I asked Peter's wife), so my set of pins will never be complete.

@Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamon Your English is excellent - I would never have known you're Swedish. I love how Brandon's books resonate with people all over the world!

Oh wow, @S-I-B-A-H (which he is!) - I apologize!! I've read 4-5 books since Starsight and I TOTALLY FORGOT that that was a thing that was said in the book - gaaah!! Agree that it was annoying, even just to read! Looks like I need to find a new thing to type when I want to say "I'm mulling it over".

So happy you pushed through & enjoyed it! In your original post, you said that Kaladin was the only character you really liked. i'm curious - do you like Dalinar better now than you did after the first 2 books? I'll admit that Dalinar has always been my favorite, but I find that I like all the characters better, the more I get to "know" them. Hoping it's the same for you.

Back to the original post - - I think Brandon's purpose in the Brade character was to give Spensa an opportunity to learn some things - like, in Skyward Spensa learned to let others in, with Brade she learned that that's not always the best thing to do. Just as it's not accurate to see everyone as an enemy, it's (unfortunately) not accurate to think that someone will be your friend regardless of how much you have in common. Spensa learned a lot of different perspectives on this same lesson in Starsight, IMO. That said, I'm sure we will see Brade again in future books in this series. Then maybe it will be Brade's turn to learn some things, if she can. Hmmmm.......

@urrutiap - I found that the characters grew on me as I went along. Brandon is so good at building realistic characters. It's difficult for us to imagine the mental state of someone who went through what Kelsier did before we meet him in the 1st book; when you get to the part about him escaping the Pits of Hathsin, I think you'll relate to him better. There's a lot more to Kelsier than bragging & conning his targets. Enjoy the story!!

Thought of a couple more things to hope for - (More likely) Navani & Hesina becoming friends, and Gavinor & Oroden growing up as friends. (Less likely, at least in SA4) Full-on battle between Tuaka'li'na'calmi'nor (Rock's wife) & Ialai Sadeas (think Molly Weasley vs. Bellatrix LeStrange in HP:DH).

Yay! A 17th Shard thread on one of my favorite things! :-) I'm a lefty, so I always thought FPs wouldn't be possible for me, but a fellow-lefty friend encouraged me & it was love at first write, LOL! I started with a couple Pilot Metropolitans (great starter pens! cartridge/converter so you get some flexibility). Then I had my parents' old FP restored - it's a vintage Parker 51, and I'm SO glad I saved it after my mom passed: it means a lot to write with the same pen she & dad used all those years ago. Buttery-smooth writing experience. :-) My prettiest pen is a Pelikan M205 Aquamarine, which is always inked with the matching ink. I have a Platinum PTL (fine) that's always inked with Aurora Black (VERY black ink, & a real challenge to wash off if some gets on your fingers) - I use that for writing notes in meetings at work, planning in my bullet journal, & lots more tasks. I've got about 15 low- to mid-priced pens now (Japanese & German; no Italian pens yet), and I like buying ink samples so I don't get into a rut. There are thousands of colors!! some with sheening/shimmering properties too! [[Moderators, am I allowed to recommend an online retailer here? Not sure, so I won't do so, but the one I use is very well known and focuses almost exclusively on fountain pens. I'll post it if they OK it.]] If you haven't tried a FP, you should do so! It's easier than you might think. You can get a decent Japanese-made pen for $10 or less. And don't hesitate to start out using cartridges - you can always go to converters/ink later. Ask to try a friend's FP, if anyone in your circle uses one. Some cities have FP meetup groups, and there are a couple huge pen shows every year (imagine a con, but instead of scifi/fantasy, it's all about pens, LOL!). Resisting the temptation to go off on a tangent re: FP-friendly paper ... @Kasimir you have opened Pandora's box here!!

@Dorodall - first, welcome to the 17th Shard!! I agree with @RShara that your 3 points are major but far from the whole story. BTW, good job putting "Spoilers" in the title of your thread! If you hate spoilers as much as I do, IMO spend as little time as you can on the forums or Brandon's Reddit or anywhere else related to the cosmere. Everyone tries to be super-careful, but many of us read some of the books over 10 years ago & it's hard not to get excited & thus over-share. (Confession: I have even spoiled a (non-Brandon) book for MYSELF because I just couldn't stand it & opened a page near the end to scan for a character's name & the first paragraph I saw told how the whole plot resolved - arrrrggggh! I vowed, never again! )

Unstemmable (I thought of this one first, but I felt it needed "unstoppable" in between - hope it's OK that I posted 2x in a row.) (Also, I was intentionally trying to get us to "green" - hope that's not cheating, as I think this thread is brilliant!)

Unstoppable

EEEEEEK! The novella he says he might do - - want that SO bad! Thx @king of nowhere for posting that Reddit link!!!