Iarwainiel I

@NattyBo - I know one can make bread in a dutch oven, but it looks like you're baking your bread right on a grill - ? I just got a dutch oven too & love it, but haven't used it on a grill yet. Meanwhile, I have gotten real good at WFHing (so thankful to be able to keep working full-time during this). Over the July 4th weekend, I revived an old skill and painted a room in my (new) house. So much better/brighter now! That project involved patching 3 holes in the walls, which was a new skill for me. It's not perfect, but I did pretty good for a patching-noob.

WoT is a big investment of time & attention. And there are literally hundreds of characters that you kind of need to keep track of, to know what's going on - way beyond what Brandon has in his books, at least that's my opinion at this point. There is an online WoT encyclopedia (http://www.encyclopaedia-wot.org/) where you can look things up easily, but keep in mind that it is filled with spoilers. It does have plot summaries for each chapter of each book, & you might find that helpful. There are actually a lot of wikis and fan sites, plus Tor had Leigh Butler do a reread (https://www.tor.com/features/series/wot-reread/) with chapter-by-chapter commentary. All that being said, if you don't enjoy keeping dozens of characters straight, just know that WoT is not for everybody, and it's no shame to set it aside. HTH.

Any chance this was inspired by @Goatbringer's descriptions of his wife reacting to TWoK? Those are hilarious!

This is a fantastic community, for sure! Have you read McClellan's "Gods of Blood & Powder" series yet? Near the end of the 2nd GoB&P book, I was loving Tamas even more than I did in the first trilogy, which I didn't think was possible but it was. And Mad Ben Styke! "Ride, Lancers, ride!" I find out about all kinds of great stuff here, especially in the "What are you reading/playing/watching/listening to" threads.

Whenever these books come out, I will buy them (but not the leatherbound editions - I'll leave those for folks with richer pockets, LOL). Some things are worth waiting for, and that's the case with Brandon's books, IMO. That said, I may stop buying/reading SA after book 5, especially if the first 5-book arc ends with a nice sense of closure. Reason is that I'm probably a bit older than Brandon's parents, and I may not live to see book 10. So a book-5-closure would leave me at a somewhat happy point in the story (I'm thinking, who needs any extra sadness or tension when one is in one's declining years?). Then if time goes on & I am around for book 10, I can always start up again with book 6 and go forward from there. I have told myself "No more getting invested in book series by young authors!" ... and have broken that directive numerous times already, LOL! I'm very much looking forward to the preview chapters of RoW, whenever Tor starts posting them!

Welcome to the Shard! When I saw "Adran," I immediately thought "Powder Mage" (series of novels & e-novellas by Brian McClellan who was a student of Brandon's at BYU). Is your user name a reference to that? If not, & if you've never read McClellan but would like to check out the Powder Mage world, a good place to start is with the e-novella "Ghosts of the Tristan Basin" - inexpensive & short but a great story!

(pre-ordered; release date is July 7th) "Of Mutts and Men" - - book 10 of the Chet & Bernie mystery series by Spencer Quinn Can't wait! Chet the Jet!!

Under the heading Reading Order, is there supposed to be a hyperlink in the phrase, " For an interactive reading guide, see this page."? Maybe something got missed? (Just trying to be helpful.)

In the words of Monty Python's Flying Circus (ancient British TV show) - - "And now for something completely different..." I'm currently working my way through the Chet and Bernie mystery series by Spencer Quinn, in anticipation of the next book dropping on July 7th. The narrator for these detective stories is Chet the Dog (http://www.chetthedog.com/), and if you love dogs, you'll adore Chet! "I know the case is closed when I have the perp by the pantleg." Just FYI - these are not children's books (though the author does have a kids' series too): there's a realistic (not gratuitous) amount of swearing and some fisticuffs; romance is off-camera. Bernie is flawed but a true hero. If you (or your parents, etc.) are looking for some fun mystery stories that are a pretty quick read, you can't go wrong with Chet and Bernie!

@Chaos - Have you seen this thread? Know anything about these weird words in some copies of The Emperor's Soul? I'm hoping it's not some rogue publisher trying to pirate Brandon's books. (I am NOT saying that the person who bought the book did anything wrong - quite the opposite: maybe the company who sold it to them, or maybe that company's supplier, might have been cheated by someone.) Just very weird.

For real? This is extremely weird! I hope someone here on the Shard - a Moderator maybe - can answer this for you.

Favorite: Hopper (the wolf) At the AMoL signing, I asked Brandon sign my book with a quote relating to Hopper & he did: "Foolish cub! ... [redacted re: spoilers]." Just love Hopper - - "To soar!"

We're self-reporting with the (great!) poll at the top if this thread. Does anyone know if the results of the actual quiz are being tallied anywhere? - like, of ALL the people who took it, what percentage were Windrunners, etc.? It would be interesting to compare those 2 sets of results.

Nice quiz! I got Sazed, which I kind of expected from how some of the questions went. I'm happy with it. Thanks!

I didn't screenshot or write down my percentages, but I think I got: Edgedancer - 78% Windrunner - 74% Bondsmith - 73% It surprised me a little, because I feel that my values line up best with Bondsmith - I expected that to come out on top. Plus, Dalinar is my favorite SA character, though I love all of the main characters. I do wonder what my results would have been, if I had taken this quiz before reading any of the SA books. Oh well, I'll never know. What impresses me is how many different results we all got! On some of the quizzes that have been around a while, almost everyone gets Windrunner or something. This quiz has a wide distribution amongst the answers - whoever made it did a great job!

@Goatbringer - That is too funny! Once she meets Lift, though, I bet she'll want to change to Edgedancer. :-) My KR Order, per the quiz, surprised me: Edgedancer, followed closely by Windrunner and Bondsmith. I really would have expected Bondsmith to come out on top, but there you have it. I wonder what my score would have been if I'd taken the quiz before reading any of the Stormlight Archives books - like, maybe knowing the characters and a bit about the Orders influenced my answers. I guess I'll never know.

@NattyBo - re: your last re-post from Reddit where Brandon mentioned John Scalzi - - I was thinking of Scalzi right away while reading through this thread. Politics and activism are very much part of Scalzi's makeup, and his views do come out in his books ... but he writes much shorter books and way fewer of them than Brandon does. I admire both of them for approaching issues in ways that align with the way they choose to impact the world, as well as their morality: each is unique, and both are needed, and many more - & more diverse - voices besides. Sci-fi/fantasy fans are IMO the most idealistic people on the planet, and our hopes and vision of a better world can and should be a powerful force for good.

@Orlion the Platypus, @Dunkum, & @Ammanas - - You are making me very happy because I have more confidence that, after my generation of Tolkien fans has passed beyond the confines of this world, the lore of Middle Earth will live on in good hands!

Oh that is horrible! The story deserves better - I really enjoyed all the Powder Mage books, and Mad Ben Styke is one of my heroes! I hope you can read the actual book (if you haven't already) - totally worthwhile & some great plot resolutions that were not what I expected but better!

Huh. I bought The Silmarillion (& read it, of course) when it was first published in 1977, and I had it open in front of me when I wrote my post. So maybe something got revised in a later edition, to align better with the numerous books published later? Because Sauron is clearly a Maia (equal to Gandalf and the balrog) in my copy, while Melkor and Manwe are Ainur and Valar. That made sense to me, since Sauron was "the lieutenant of Morgoth" - i.e., a lesser being. Not arguing with you - just describing my reasoning. At any rate, I had fun observing Manwe's influence on the events in the Rings, & I still intend to look for the other Valar on my next read-through.

Per The Silmarillion, Manwe is one of the Ainur who are Valar - he is both those things, but not a Maia which is a lesser being. To keep them straight, I think of the Ainur as major-angels and the Maiar as minor-angels. My theory has always been that Tom Bombadil and the River Woman (Goldberry's mother) were among the "many spirits both greater and less" who "came down into the fields of Arda [i.e., the Earth] and aided Manwe" (in my copy of The Silmarillion, this is on pg 21), but that's just a theory. Also, I realize that there are multiple versions of the same stories in the many books of Tolkien's mythology that have been published posthumously, & admittedly my knowledge ends where I stopped at the first Unfinished Tales. Such rich worldbuilding!