Iarwainiel I

Mad Ben Styke kills Odium with his boz knife.

IIRC one of the endpapers in the hardback TWoK was supposed to be a stylized larkin? - the one with the glyphs for the Knights Radiant (brownish colors in the background; Heralds on the margins). Here's a link: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/the-stormlight-archive-series/#THEWAYOFKINGS Chiri-Chiri is defs cute. No one has mentioned Wyndle yet - he's kinda cute. I always "hear" his voice as Anthony Daniels (C3-PO) - - anyone with me on that?

I read Brian McClellan's 6th powder mage book, Blood of Empire, over the holidays. A great finish to the "Gods of Blood & Powder" trilogy and (supposedly) his last book set on that world. I had a couple ideas of what might happen, and (as per usual) every one of them was wrong, LOL. Love that!! (I didn't spoil it for myself!) It's great to see McClellan's skill as an author develop - this book was much tighter and had better flow than his first novel, Promise of Blood, and that one was very strong to begin with. BoE ends with a kind of avalanche - a McClellanche? - and good closure for all the characters. I very much wonder what little girl was his inspiration for Celine? If he ever writes more in this world, I hope Celine will be a main character!

I re-read the first trilogy (with Tamas) before reading Blood of Empire, and I'm so glad I did. I knew I didn't have good enough recall on [those 2 characters who appear at the end of Wrath of Empire] so the refresher was valuable. Also, I noticed how much better of a writer McClellan has become, between Promise of Blood and BoE - that was great to see. Did you feel that you got even more insights on Tamas in BoE? I did - - some of those journal entries, especially re: Erika, were heartbreaking.

4 (Tom Baker)

Since this list is more solid (probably correct) than anything we've had to date, has anyone rearranged it to actually be chronological, and posted that somewhere (especially here on the Shard)? That seems like it would be useful.

Glad that Brandon seems to be wise in planning his work & expectations. I love the signings, but the writing is his real work & what future generations will enjoy. We can pay it forward by supporting his focus on writing. Very excited about: SA4 date looks solid, enabling release party plans to commence! Brandon collaborating with JMS!!! A match made in heaven! Cannot tell you how happy this makes me Excited about: W&W 4 and Alcatraz 6 dates look hopeful So much to look forward to in the next several years! A bit sad about: Realizing that I'm of an age now such that I probably won't live to see Mistborn 4 #3 -- maybe not even SA10. That's OK, though, since Brandon gives so much closure even in mid-stream books. I don't mean this to be morbid; just sharing feelings. I'd be jealous of those who'll be around to read the end, if I weren't so happy for you! Now, I'm sure I've got some leftover koloss heads in the fridge to munch on... (Yes I know that's not how it goes ... but it's funny, LOL!)

Oh I am SO GLAD I didn't write more & spoil it for you!! You will recognize it when you read it, for sure.

Doubt this will happen, but ... What I would love to see is for Renarin and/or Lift to heal the dementia/alzheimer's that Venli & Eshonai's dear mother suffers from - - partly because her memories of Listener songs and traditions could have a huge impact on the conflict, but mostly because it would be such a kind and wonderful thing to do. (Yes, my mom did have dementia, and I so identified with Eshonai in WoR, her sadness in knowing her mom was there but also not there ...) (not looking for sympathy, just sharing where this wish came from) I have a lot of other S4 wishes, but this one hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread so I thought I'd add it.

I hope you like it! Mad Ben Styke is one of my fave characters in any book, so I'm looking forward to seeing where his arc goes. I love Celine too, and our powder mages of course. One unexpected thing in the last book, for me, was that I ended up admiring Field Marshall Tamas (from the 1st trilogy) even more than before. I like how McClellan - similar to Brandon - writes heroes who are all ages, even older people, and how the generations work together to defeat the big bad.

There are ... other perils. I was gonna quote a WOB, but I just deleted it - too spoiler-y. Trying to keep mySELF from too much guessing, LOL! You all deserve the same courtesy!!

Going to start Blood of Empire soon - - trying to discern whether to reread the first 2 volumes of "Gods of Blood & Powder" first, or maybe just WoE since I've already read SoE a few times & can remember it pretty well. We are sooooooo fortunate to have this richness of great books to read!

Excellent thread OP!!! One thing I'm hoping is foreshadowing, that we'll eventually get to see played out, is when Dalinar looks at Odium and thinks, "Was he always so small?"

If you go back to "defending Elysium," which (I think) is supposed to have been hundreds of years prior to Skyward, the Superiority had access to technology that could shut down cytonic ability, and they're still using that on the Starsight station and presumably their vessels. And IIRC the way that the Krell talked when trying to take over Spensa's mind near the end of Skyward sounded like they were using technology. Of course, we just found out that the seemingly-tech "cytonic hyperdrive" is actually very organic living creatures (doomslugs), so you never know. But it still seems to me like it's related to the FTL cytonic technology used for communication - like, flooding the brain with the message they want & drowning out its own thoughts. Gotta say, this is one of the scariest things re: losing M-Bot - Spensa now has no protection against this mental influence, and as far as we know the Defiant forces never learned about the tech he had used to shield her. (Thinking about M-Bot makes me too sad ... guess that means I need to re-focus on work now, LOL.)

When you're SO excited to see that you just moved up a Reputation Level!! (thx to this thread among others...) When you've already booked vacation time off work for Nov. 16-20 2020 !!!!!!!

I hope you can come!! FYI, there were a LOT of young people at the Oathbringer release party, so if you're trying to convince your folks about it, you can use that as leverage. Brandon's children were there - really family friendly, but with epic fantasy! Srsly, it was such a positive, friendly experience - it would have surprised me, except I know how awesome we Sander-fans are!

HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!! To do: Schedule vacation time for Nov. 15-20, 2020 Research flight & hotel options, then arrange travel & accommodations Register for the release party! Create cosplay that will fit in suitcase (like last time!) Pore obsessively over preview chapters when available BE THERE!!! Finish book ASAP (since no way could I focus on anything else before I'm done) Someone PLEASE thank Brandon & Tor & everyone involved for giving us this much advance notice!! Excellent re: needing to plan vaca/travel!

I'd choose to be one of the Noldor - a clan of elves in TLotR; Galadriel, Feanor, Celebrimbor, and Finrod Felagund were Noldo. However, I would not have left Valinor, either in the stolen white ships or any other way.

Sounts a lot like the Oathbringer release party, which was beyond awesome. If I wasn't coming all the way from Ohio, I would have been there for Starsight - - I'm saving my pennies (& vacation days) for the release of Rhythm of War. One of the best things about the OB release was how, every time you were around people, everyone was SOOOOO conscientious re: spoilers. They would ask people closeby who they weren't even talking to, "Have you read ____?" and if the person said No, they'd ensure that nothing was leaked. Sanerfans are the BEST when it comes to wanting others to have the same enjoyment each of us had in reading something for the first time!

Great work! I'm also loving the Santa hats in the background, LOL!

I don't think that the Delvers and the Eyes are the same thing - I think they are 2 separate groups of beings. We'll have to wait a couple/few years to see if I'm right though.

Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan - - actually bought it yesterday on release day. It's the 6th Powder Mage novel, & the final book in the "Gods of Blood and Powder" trilogy. On Brandon's blog, his assistants Adam & Isaac just posted about it, so it seems I'm in good company. I'm looking forward to more Mad Ben Styke and his Mad Lancers! "Ride, lancers, ride!"

This is a difficult choice! Kinda apples/oranges, in a way. Spensa's character development in Starsight seems better, until I remember where she actually started out in Skyward. I liked seeing more of the universe in book 2, but I missed all the characters from Skyward Flight, and also Spensa's mom. It was nice that Gran-Gran made an appearance though. :-)