Khestra

I completely agree, and must re-quote this for it's awesome truth. I thought picking my fav Sanderson character would be hard, until I remembered the Chasemfiend hunt scene. When Dalinar caught the Chasemfiend's claw to save his nephew, I actually jumped out of my seat involuntarily and pumped a fist in celebration. Dalinar is badass-ery incarnate, and the best part is that he's humble and confident about that fact at the same time. I could gush on and on, but I really think the 'shopped Dos Equis pic says it all. Second fav, however, is a hard pick. Sanderson has done a good job at making characters at once endearing and yet flawed enough to keep them from being 100% bubbly and likable. Except for Syl. She's just 100% cute. I sort of have my favs from each book, but I suppose if I had to pick just ONE character to have by my side as rust goes down, it would be Sazed, pre-Harmony. Says a lot that he doesn't even need to be in god-form yet for me to pick him as my fav. His flaws become his redemption in a gradual un-forced way, and when he finally became Harmony, it felt right. Close (and I mean CLOSE) third, is Ten-Soon. Nothing chilled me more than when he told the Firsts how blind they were being, and the Seconds what idiots they were. When he pulled his Blessings free, I was proud of his certainty and marveled at his strength. Nothing like being taught the lesson of humanity by what was essentially a pile of primordial goo.

Well at least I'll have an outlet for my Cosmos mania. I tried to have a discussion about the subject with a friend who hasn't read any of Sanderson's books, and I have the distinct impression I came across as a nutball. "So okay there are these Shards--" "Shards?" "Yes and they--" "Wait, like glass shards? And so Hoid is who again?" "...just...nevermind..."

My Talent is, without a doubt, the ability to play scratch-off games very badly! This of course includes all forms of "under the cap" or "inside the candybar wrapper" games. I am NEVER a winner, unless I announce how badly I play such games, and then hand the game-piece off to another person to scratch it or twist the cap off for me. This of course means that should I ever be trapped in an evil underground library with my only way out being to play a scratch off game...all I'd have to do is hand it to a companion and we'd be scott free!

Hey there! I'm officially delurking I'm one of those funny little Jordan fans who grew bored with the series, and read The Gathering Storm out of sheer curiosity when I'd heard the series was being finished by this dude I'd never heard of... ...And then wham! I was sucker-punched by Brandon's coolness and ability to breath life back into a series I'd nearly given up! At that point I figured if this was what he turned out while under the constraint of another author's foundation, I really had to check out what he could do when turned loose on a keyboard. Someone suggested I read Mistborn first, and so I picked it up. I seriously read the line "Kelsier burned tin" three times while blinking like an idiot until I realized that this was Brandon's take on a "magic" system, and then I distinctly remember breaking into a cold sweat and eating through the rest of the book in a few short hours. Then Elantris and Warbreaker, and I about pulled my hair out when I stumbled onto this site and learned about the Cosmos. It's been all downhill from there, and I have the bad habit of re-reading his books directly after finishing them. I held off on reading WoK until he announced he'd finished the first draft of AMoL, as I figured I didn't want to get involved with his admittedly epic series which didn't yet have a sequel, and won't until after AMoL is done and released. ...Which of course means after finishing WoK, I rean through Alcatraz, then started my re-read of WoK yesterday. I think I may actually need help. Jordan who??

That's it....this settles it! I'm gonna have to read the Alcatraz thingy... While I haven't read WoK yet (trying to wait until he at least starts on the second one, so I'm not left all hanging on a cliff), I agree on a few of your choices, and differ on one. Your pick for Elantris - totally spot on. I really hated him until the PoV shift, and then Hrathen became so deep that I actually cried at Sarene's comment about him at the end. I also agree on Lightsong for Warbreaker - just a really great line. The pick of Wayne for Alloy is easy. I just loved the cadence. I will, however, differ on the Mistborn trilogy. Although Brandon managed to write Spook "the sidekick" in a nice (read: non-whiny kid) way, I really like Breeze's PoV's, particularly when he's pretending to read while Soothing a warehouse full of sick refugees in WoA, followed by him Soothing (and hiding!) at a city gate during the kloss attack.