Govir

@yulerule: If you haven't read Defending Elysium, I think you should. It can be found for free on Brandon's site. If you have read it, read my first spoiler section below. Spoilers for Defending Elysium: And here's my shortened reaction: I absolutely loved this book. My main question is not about Skyward though, it's about reading order. And I'm going to put this in spoiler tags too, because I'm overly cautious. Go read Defending Elysium if you haven't. It's pretty short :). The humans that were fighting in the war appear to have been enslaved, which means it doesn't make sense that the Krell can't wipe out the humans on Detritus. Editing in a quote from the spoiler free review by @Overlord Jebus When you say the answers to the major mysteries didn't pay off as well as they could, do you mean because you were able to predict them? If so, do you think that is because this is a YA novel? If not, do you have any spoilery elaboration? I personally like each of the reveals. From your spoilers above (also, spoilers for Defending Elysium):

Haven't finished (I'm on Chapter 23 atm), and haven't read any of the replies here, but I just want to say: I can't stop reading M-Bot as Mmm-Bop. Please send help.

I hate being spoiled so, I'm still going to put this in a spoiler tag to combat any type of preview feature. I'm only on chapter 17, but I was throwing around this theory in my head if the connection had been what it is. Mostly wanted to get this in writing to see how right or wrong I end up being.

Hmm, now that you mention it, I could see how the spoiler at the end of DE ties into Skyward.

I forgot to mention this in my original post. The enemy's gate is down!

Mainly that I don't trust it. If we're talking DE, then I definitely think Cyto is involved. But we haven't seen anything that ties it to DE in my opinion. There were too many alien races in DE for it to boil down to a single one now. If it's not DE, I don't know what's going on with it maybe they really are monitoring her vitals because she isn't eating in the mess / Igneous (sp?). But then why only in her helmet? Definitely seems battle related like others imply. My money is on HARRE, although I still haven't read it yet. This is based on a different thread that explained the basic plot of that novella.

He's been doing AMAs on Reddit each week since the preview chapters went up. Lucky for you, someone already asked him about it.

Defending Elysium spoilers

Wow, they're really bad at keeping a consistent schedule. I wasn't expecting this until tomorrow afternoon. And if it's just chapter 15, then it looks like we won't get chapter 17 until the book releases next Wednesday. Also, @Chaos is going to be pissed you stole his thunder! (actually I don't think he will) Edit now that I've read the chapter: Doomslug the Destroyer. If I hadn't already preorder, I'd be sold. Again, not much new to theorize on, but definitely some good sections that remind me why I enjoy Sanderson's writing.

I'm hoping we get Chapter 17 as part of the previews this week (assuming we're getting more). It would be nice to speculate from that before the full novel comes out, but I assume it is going to be fairly straight forward for anyone who has read the novella that shares a universe with Skyward.

I have not read HARRE, but from your description (and my reading of the other candidates), I agree with you. Neither Firstborn nor Defending Elysium feel like they would extend to Skyward. But from what you say of HARRE, I can definitely see the mechanical evolution of the technology. This is also based on the fact that I get the feeling that the Ships used in Skyward are not made by conventional means. I'd have to reread the preview chapters to verify that, but their manufacturing seemed odd to me. I got a "3D" printed vibe from the story. So, here's what I'm thinking. (Note: All of these are speculation) The AI suits you're talking about are the Krell. The reason there are no bodies, is because there never were. The AI either naturally evolved to work without humans (which seems to be possible based on your spoiler comment), or were programmed to by humans. Then they did what AI do...turned against humanity. Of course, this doesn't explain why no one knows this fact. Especially given that they seem to know about very old literature. The planet that the humans are on in Skyward was originally an SMRI world. Since I haven't read HARRE, I'm not sure what happened to them in that story, but I"ll assume they were defeated. I think the humans are making their ships using SMRI technology. The ship that Spensa finds is an older AI ship, from the original fight against the SMRI. The fact that you said in HARRE the AI is semi biological dovetails nicely with my theory that the slug in Skyward is the AI. Because it's an older AI, it still requires a human pilot and doesn't want to kill them. I've also been tracking down and reading the non-cosmere stories (which are just as good). I missed HARRE though, so I guess I'm going to have to go read that now.

My thought is that the slug is an artificial being, which is normally housed in the ship. Basically the brains of the AI, while being removable. With that explanation, I'm thinking similar to how in Star Wars they have droids that lock into the X-Wings as extra processing power / AI.

Hmm. It oddly felt like not much happened in these three chapters. Biggest things: Rig washed out of his own accord. Sounds like mechanics are a separate thing, so I could see him turning up as one of those. The other cadets know that Spensa doesn't have a bunk or access to the mess hall. They seemed pretty nonchalant about it. I would have expected more teasing (even though Cobb would have put the kibosh to it immediately) Spensa is definitely going to be the most adept at the light-lance. That means we have Jorgen/Jerkface specializing in flight maneuverability, Kimmalyn/Quick specializing in destructors, and Spensa/Spin specializing in the light-lance (which totally reminds me of the wire used in Ender's Game, btw). Random speculation: The slug is part of the ship. That is to say, it *is* the AI of the ship.

I'm reminded of the Oathbringer previews, although they weren't written specifically to leave cliffhangers: I'm not sure this would work. The admiral is specifically denying Spensa resources, so an empty bunk probably wouldn't be enough. Second wild speculation time! I think Spensa is going to eventually be actually kicked out, which leads her to spend more time with the ship in the caves, which leads her to flying it and doing / discovering something big. This forces the admiral to allow Spensa into the Force in order to also get the ship.

Fair. It seems trope-y though, which is probably why I won't like it. I'm kind of hoping a romance sub-plot isn't a thing. Brandon has said there is some in Skyward, but definitely not a focus: Since the Oathbringer previews, I've started to view these like TV Shows (on actual TV, not Netflix). i.e. each week of previews is like an episode in a weekly TV show. I always want to know more each week, but being able to come to these forums and make wild speculations from week to week is great fun.

Quick FYI: We already have seen another Truthwatcher: The Stump. That's how Jasnah determined that Renarin's spren had been corrupted.

On reddit, during the first week of preview chapters, Brandon said that the preview will be about a third to a half of the actual book: Source Assuming @Sandra's count is right, we're either 2/3 or 1/2 of the way through the preview. Onto random speculation time! My gut says Jerkface is going to turn out to not be as much of a Jerk. He seems to have a lot of pressures being put on him in his home life (always busy with formal events, i.e. no time for a normal childhood). He clashes with Spensa now, but I think they'll get over that at some point. I'm not going to say romance potential (because I'd probably hate it), but at least mutual respect. Spensa at least was getting over it while they were flying, but Jerkface messed it up afterwards.

I for sure think there's a reason he turned from the fight. My gut theory is that the father had some sort of "spidey-sense" that was leading him to something, and he was attempting to follow it...but it happened to be the opposite way of the battle. I'm also not sure of the pilot configuration: Mongrel was his partner, but were they in the same ship? I feel like they were in separate ships, but it seems like Mongrel was grounded (but not ostracized) around the same time. As if he played a part in his partner's running, but didn't get as harsh a penalty. New theory (literally just thought of it): Mongrel was the one who shot down the father, and Mongrel was falling the letter of the procedures. And now he refuses to fly in combat (not sure he actually is doing that at all) because he doesn't believe in the letter of the procedures anymore.

It's possible they just want presence. I'm not sure how the Krell fights normally go, but I could see wanting to have ships up in the air. The enemy won't know they are cadets in those ships, and could view them as a reserve (i.e. it's a bluff by the Humans). I agree with you that it's a terrible idea though. Either one person is going to get shot down (hopefully not Rig), or one (or more) people will be too antsy and try to engage. Them's fighting words!

I'm not sure he's actually related to so many Herdazians. I always assumed his "cousins" were just other Herdazians, with Herdazians being very communal and watching out for each other.

My immediate thought from "there may be dragons hiding among onscreen characters" was Felt... Which was immediately squashed when I searched for Felt WoBs. It says he was born on Scadrial and is a third son of a minor noble family.

What would you say about Stormlight Archive then? (Small Stormlight Archive spoilers)

In 2015, he said it was possible. No hits on Fullborn that change this, but I didn't go through every WoB hit I got from "full born" either...

I don't think anyone knows what those words mean here. I do have to admit that the reason this popped into my head as possibly being Trell's metal was because I thought Trell's metal was also not able to be pushed / pulled by Allomancy. But then I remembered that Atium was pushed and pulled all the time, so it's not a property of the "God" Metals. The spikes we see later on are hard to push / pull because they are Hemalurgic spikes. I think Calderis is right, it's an aluminium-scandium alloy, with maybe a bit of fantasy shenanigans (i.e. slightly different properties) to make it work for the whole gun.

@Calderis I think you're right. All the passages so far in this relistening have been about the gun, not the bullets. The way Wax mentioned Ekaboron made it seem like he was grasping at straws, and therefore was not likely to be true. But with real world knowledge backing up the existence of an alloy, and its usage, it seems like his hunch was right. Thanks as always for the info!