Iarwainiel I

Gotta agree re: Rand al'Thor in WoT ... actually, the only WoT character I didn't find irritating was the wolf Hopper ("To soar!") I didn't like either Siri or Vivenna in Warbreaker on my first read-through, nor Sarene in Elantris; after loving Vin so much in Mistborn, I guess they just paled in comparison. But on my 2nd/3rd read-throughs I do like those 3 female characters better (still not as much as Vin though). Huh ... I can't think of any other ones. I have successfully purged whoever it was from my memory!

I'll say it right up front: Captain Marvel is a really good movie. Really, really good. I agree with Orlion's ranking it #3 after Black Panther & Guardians v1. I don't see enough movies or follow popular culture closely enough to know what people have against Brie Larson, nor do I care. She's a good choice for this character and plays the part well. Is she as amazingly perfect in the role as Gal Gadot is as Wonder Woman? No - miracles don't happen that frequently. But IMO Larson gives a solid performance as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, and this origin story for the character fits well into the Marvel universe portrayed in the movies. No spoilers - there's time enough to dissect CM later. But there's one thing I gotta say: Do NOT miss the very start!! -- the part where the "Marvel Studios" logo comes up at the beginning. If you do, sneak into another theater playing CM when your movie is done and see the beginning. You'll be glad you did.

I know absolutely nothing about MTG other than that I'd probably like it a lot & that it would probably turn into a huge time-consuming habit if I ever got into it. But it's Brandon, so of course I had to read "CotN." What an amazing story! On his blog, he says you don't have to know anything about the game or the worldbuilding and he's 100% right. He also compares the story's tone to "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell," and "CotN" did indeed remind me of that particular Cosmere piece. I'm gonna tweet about the story - I've got a bunch of professional connections who are into MTG but have never read Brandon (despite my urging!) - - fantastic opportunity to gain some new Sander-fans!

Not quite - I can imagine all those things as being separate - like pieces of a mosaic that Brandon can include or not include however he wants. I.e., I don't think we can assume anything about which pieces "have to" go with others, whether or not they always have before.

Thanks for clarifying! I don't read nearly as much sci-fi as I do fantasy. I guess I see intelligence and consciousness as two different and distinct things because I can imagine a character (or a society) where each is present without the other - entities that are intelligent but not conscious and vice-versa. In that vein, thinking would also be separate (i.e., not the same as intelligence), reasoning would be different from thinking ... you get the idea. Sentience, "having a soul, being "alive" (a "living being") - - all are different and distinct, and so could potentially be parsed out in this series. (I think we can count on Brandon to not be limited by what "generally" occurs in fiction.)

@Journey Before Pancakes - It's Brandon: we'll all be very wrong, AND be happy about it, LOL. ;-)

@Scion of the Mists - It sounds like you're equating AI (artificial intelligence) with "machines that can think;" I wonder if that's where Brandon will go? Because to me those 2 things aren't necessarily the same. Interesting. :-) @Journey Before Pancakes - It sounds like you didn't sense a discontinuity where I did - cool.

Like many of you, I spotted Spin & Jorgen (I'm pronouncing it like Robert Jordan's last name, but with "genn" instead of "dan") as a couple pretty early on, and guessed about halfway through that Detritus was a prison. I'm here because I'd like your insights on something that seemed ... off to me. In chapter 55 (bottom of page 501 in the US print edition), there's this sentence: "And ... and the minds of thinking machines somehow relied upon the same technology to process quickly." When I read that, it was a "Wait - what?!?" moment for me. I didn't feel that Spensa had enough context to jump to that conclusion, and I as a reader felt left behind and/or blindsided by it. Other than M-Bot, what "thinking machines" does Spensa know about? Where prior to this, including in "Defending Elysium," do we run across thinking machines? What did I miss? Can you all help me? This point has got me wondering if the "eyes" aren't the consciousnesses of thinking machines - that they somehow found a plane to exist on, apart from the living beings who made them. And if that's the case, what if cytonic ability is an invasion of their plane? ... and since maybe machines wouldn't accommodate dissent very well, Primary Intelligence would be something they impose on living beings who use cytonics? BTW, my theories are ALWAYS wrong, & I don't expect to be right here either, but speculation is so much fun!

I voted "Somebody else" - I'm thinking it was the "eyes."

it's not just humans vs. an alien coalition - there's another group to consider: the "eyes" in cytospace. What if neither the humans nor the aliens really started the war, but the "eyes" set the conflict in motion from behind the scenes, like puppet masters? Since it's Brandon, we can be assured that nothing will turn out quite the way anyone would expect.

Agree that they "eyes" will be a main point ultimately. What if there are beings in the cyto/nothingness, and what if humans were using their space in a way that hurt them somehow - caused them pain or even death? - a different way from how the other species did? I'm thinking about other stories where magical abilities were harmful, but greedy people ignored the harm they were causing (e.g., "The Tangled Lands" by Buckell & Bacigalupi). Another thing I'm noticing on my 2nd readthrough: The way FM describes the government sounds an awful lot like the Prime Intelligence that the aliens were directing Jason towards in "Defending Elysium" - that can't be an accident. Maybe the alien coalition's ultimate goal on Detritus is to create that kind of humanity. One more thing: I'm really hoping that M-Bot will do a deep scan of the whole planet and find other stuff that will help the cause - other ships, improved technology, whatever. I'm glad book 2 is alredy completed!

One more thing: The way Grindlewald is able to sound so reasonable & talk people into agreeing with him reminds me a WHOLE LOT of Saruman in TLotR - specifically, the chapter named "The Voice of Saruman." Anyone else notice that?

[[[again - SPOILERS if you've not seen the "Grindlewald" movie]]] Grindlewald's whole programme reminds me of a line from The Diagram (one of the epigraphis in WoR Part 5): "Can we make a Truthless to use ...Can we craft a weapon" So I'm thinking that Credence is to Grindlewald as Szeth was to Taravangian. If G. knew he'd eventually want to destroy Albus D., what if he arranged for Dumbledore's father to have a "visitor" in Azkaban? He probably had sympathizers there who'd help him, "for the greater good." Who was that woman on the ship anyway? They showed her face quite clearly - like we were supposed to remember it later. And if G. wanted to create an obscurial, what better place to leave a child than with Barebone? Why did the half-elf Irma leave the baby with her, of all people? Who steered her there? And how did Barebone know that the baby's mother was a witch? Who told her? Maybe that series of events is what caused her to found Second Salem? And as Tina points out, Barebone seemed to hate Credence the most: maybe he was the one child who she knew positively had magical blood? It's very convenient that, at this point, everyone who knew anything about those events (Leta, Irma, & Barebone) is dead. Of course, this is the wizarding world, so there will be a way Albus D. will figure it out. The only thing that really doesn't make sense is that LeStrange never sent anyone, ever, to check up on the son he supposedly loved. At what point were they planning on bringing "Corvus" back into the LeStrange household? Weren't they concerned about his magical education? I found the prophecy of Tycho Dodonus online: Son Cruelly Banished Despair of the Daughter Return, Great Avenger With Wings from the Water In "Fantastic Beasts 1," Graves didn't seem to know whether the obscurial was a boy or a girl, nor to know the child's age. He treated Credence so badly until he found out the truth - there was no hint that he recognized Credence as a Dumbledore then. It seems like Rowling ret-conned this whole part of the story after the movie proved popular enough for sequels (she's not Brandon, after all...).

About halfway through, it dawned on me that Detritus was a prison - it had to be. I didn't get the full picture of how/why till the Sander-lanche at the end, but I was happy that for once I'd been right with a theory. :-)

Mine too, and I have time available this weekend ... not looking good for the budget. Also, compliments on your choice of a great elvish name, but gotta ask: Why the Bombadil avatar image if you're Celebrimbor? (Warms my heart to see when someone else loves Middle Earth as much as I do!)

Is it Tam al'Thor? (I've never played these types of games before, but wanted to guess. ) BTW, I probably won't check back for days, so please don't wait for me to post a "next character." OP, please go ahead with your next one and keep the game going. Thanks for starting this topic!!!

I just checked the OB chapter where Kaladin reaches Hearthstone -- when he checks out the smaller building where the parshmen had been kept, there was "a large hole ripped out of the side." Presumably Roshone would have had his parsh slaves locked in there during the storm, so they broke their way out. But maybe that structure was made of wood, not stone? Would it have had windows? Great question OP!

I sooooooo want this to be true! And since (IIRC) Book 4 will be Eshonai's flashback book, I'm really hoping we'll see her mum soon. My bigger hope is that Lift and/or Renarin will heal her poor dear brain (my own mom got dementia, so it's near to my heart), & that she can share all the Listener songs with the good guys and they'll use that wisdom to advance the cause. Can you imagine if she does get healed, and then finds out that Venli is a KR?!? ... and their reunion at some point? That would be another passage to read through one's tears. I'll also throw in my idea that the songs of the Horneaters that Rock mentions in OB are related to, or maybe the same as, the Listeners' songs. (sigh) Too long to wait!

Apparently in England they have cloud formations a LOT like in Shadesmar: Here's the story it was from: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-45296731

Wow. As a seriously old person, I am feeling pretty good that I have actually watched some of the channels you all have mentioned! - CrazyRussianHacker, Lindsay Stirling, even PewDiePie (the ep of him taking that government "Cybersecurity" test was epic, especially since I'm writing courses on that same topic for a business right now). I used to watch Geek and Sundry, especially "Tabletop" with Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day's "The Flog," but I think a lot of the content has moved to Twitch now & I'm not on that platform. Felicia's "The Guild" was the first YT show I ever watched - loved it. One channel I subscribe to is Goulet Pens (news & how-to's for us fountain pen nerds). I sometimes also watch channels that do "trailer reactions," especially for superhero movies. There's one I especially enjoy, but it has a TON of swearing so I'll be polite and not name it here. Personally I don't swear, but it seems like the guys on the show use it more for humor, not for being angry at anyone, so I just laugh along. (If the rest of you think it's OK, I will add the name to this post - just trying to be sensitive since we Shard-ers have excellent diversity in age & everything else.) Thank you all for sharing your joys! I learn something new every time I'm on the Shard! Now, I'm off to check out the Marble Olympics!!

Re: the latest, 1134 - http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1134.html Am I the only one who thinks we're supposed to imagine the last 2 panels in Chris Hemsworth's voice?

Yeah, I know, as well as the one in Edgedancer. I meant the Sleepless that we're seeing a part of in this scene - the one with the "tan" patch. Now I want to go back and see if any Alethi we've read about are described as having the kind of clothing that would accommodate a Sleepless well. Not enough hours in the day!

That's what I thought too, especially with the "strange tan pattern" in a camp filled with tan-skinned Alethi. Hopefully in SA4 we'll get to see the whole Sleepless person [what is the proper term? "being"?].

@Totally_Not_A_Worldhopper I can't believe I didn't see this until your post here (and also that no one on this thread has brought it up!), but in that scene Loki is VERY much like [Oathbringer spoiler] Wow.