vividox

On 2/23/2018 at 8:23 AM, Who Sharded? said:

If Brandon published these as a traditional novel, we'd just have to wait longer for the next Stormlight/Mistborn/etc. book.

I don't understand why this is even an argument, to be honest. I'd like a polished White Sand Prose just as much as I'd like any other Cosmere book. And if it pushes out the Cosmere one or two more books... oh darn more Cosmere. 

23 hours ago, Rock's Stew said:

Also, worldhopper sighted?  When Dalinar went to visit the Nightwatcher one of his men was Felt, who was more 'foreign' than Dalinar.  Mentioned before in TWOK or WoR as somebody in Dalinar's army, but also the house spy from Mistborn.  I'm like 95% sure it's the same person based on his wording with Dalinar.

If this has already been mentioned, sorry.  Too many pages to go through lol.

Yeah, Felt is a confirmed (by Brandon) worldhopper.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/2-jordancon-2016/#e138

I've seen a lot of anti-Shallan comments on this book. I actually liked her story arc a lot. I think the split personalities and her struggle with them is really interesting - definitely not something you see in fantasy pretty much ever. She's teetering on the edge of legitimately crazy and being a planet-saving hero, and that dichotomy is fascinating to me. I dunno, maybe I can strangely relate some days (not that I'm going crazy or anything, just that sometimes you can feel completely overwhelmed or lost and other times you can accomplish something amazing and feel great about it).

22 minutes ago, TorchSpren said:

Moash and Taravangian how I loathe thee!! Disappointed in Malata's actions too.

Malata just feels like a really boring Taravangian pawn at this point. 

28 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

redemption is a really big theme in the SA. Pretty much every main character needs to gain redemption from something. Some achieve it, while others lose their chance. And the top contender for this is taravangian. really, near the end I was thinking he'd tell everyone to dalinar, come clean and support him. instead, he just told dalinar enough to gain his trust, and then he allied with odium. really? I mean, really? the diagram failed big time on predicting stuff. and if dalinar managed to resist odium despite vargo's best attempts to sabotage him, then maybe the rational thing to do would have been to ditch the diagram and help him. but no, he had to go and ally with odium.this is where I stop seeing him as a deeply conflicted man and start seeing him as a fanatic.

I couldn't agree with this more, and that part was incredibly frustrating to me. 

I mean, I guess you can make the case that Taravangian really thinks that despite everything Dalinar has done, it's meaningless in the face of a Shard. But to actively undermine him when he's doing such a good job of evening the score is just bewildering. I guess it does fall in line with Taravangian's smarter/crueler days (a guarantee of a city is better than a slim chance at the whole population, in sheer numerical terms), but it's kind of strange that he puts so much emphasis on the smarter/crueler days when several parts of the diagram have already been shown to be wrong and clearly the future is not set in stone.

Tangential thought: I almost wonder if he's having more dumb/empathetic days because Cultivation is trying to make him more emotionally invested in his decisions?

23 hours ago, Darvys said:

He said after swearing the 3rd oath that he felt the spren's (singular) approval though it still wouldn't show itself to him.

There's something else worth noting, at some point he tells Nightblood that he reminds him of another voice he used to hear in his head when he was younger, it is my assumption that Szeth had already bonded a spren long ago, and his bond was dormant since until he started speaking the oaths, after all we still don't know how he came by the knowledge that had him exiled as Truthless, what better source than a radiant spren warning him of a coming desolation ?

+1 to all of this. This would also make sense in light of knowing that Brandon felt the need to write all of Szeth's flashback scenes for Book 4 before finishing Oathbringer. It's a good bet that that Szeth's history with his spren is already canonized. 

On 11/14/2017 at 4:37 PM, Kalinovsky said:

That was possibly the most intense thing I've ever read. I bought this book at 10am, and now it's 5:30 pm and I'm done. 

Adolin and Shallan are perfect together, and none will ever convince me otherwise.

Totally not book related, but how is it possible to read this book in 7.5 hours? Haha. I must be a super slow reader, or maybe I just like time to digest, but I'm doing well if I can cover 400 pages in that amount of time. 

Oh my God, and I forgot to mention. Adolin and Maya was AWESOME. When he summoned her at just seven heartbeats... holy cow that was awesome. He's healing his Shardblade!

Just finished last night.

Wow. Wow. Chaos' spoiler-free review was not wrong. That was one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Loved the lore and the double-Sanderlanche.

Notable reactions:

I had a very clear and precise moment when it finally clicked in my head that Azure = Vivenna. For some reason the name Azure didn't make it click, but the cape wrapping around her arm did. I had to put the book down, jump up and down a bit, and say WOW about sixteen times before I could get it together and read any more, I was so excited.

I really liked getting to see some extended time in Shademar and the first glimpse of spren civilization.

Dalinar's entire story arc was exceptional. His backstory was brutal, but the way it all came together and allowed him to be exactly where he needed to be to capture Nergaoul was excellent.

I also really liked the Venli story arc. When she started saying the words, oh man. The feels. I'll be really interested to see where her arc goes from here. I'm guessing the Eshonai book is going to have Eshonai flashbacks and focus mainly on Venli?

The book set up perfectly for Szeth's Book 4...

Elhokar getting killed right as he was saying the first ideal... brutal. Effing Moash. SMH.

The Battle of Thaylen City was so epic. One of the coolest battle sequences I've ever read, and that came after the Kholinar battle, which, up to that point, was one of the coolest battle sequences I've ever read.

Jasnah as Queen? Interesting.

Did... did Hoid just become a Knight Radiant?!

There is just so much to process now. Time to start going through this thread and seeing what I missed...

Less than two days to go! 

I wonder how long it's going to take me to read 900ish pages? T/W/Th is, unfortunately, the busiest part of my week.

4 hours ago, kari-no-sugata said:

Ironically, Jasnah being alive after all would remove one major reason why Shallan hates them (though there's others of course).

Agree with the majority of your post, but I'd just like to point out that a murder turning out to not be successful is no reason whatsoever for Shallan to stop hating the Ghostbloods for the attempt.

9 hours ago, retrorocket1 said:

not going to read through all the comments, but when it said syl felt pain and surprise I got the idea that the "fused" wern't using a surge like kalidin's but instead were "stealing" kalidin's powers, sort of like leech ability that can mimic any knight radiant's power that is nearby

Oooh, that's an interesting theory. And puts the Fuseds unfamiliarity with the powers in a very different light. 

I just realized the next thing I get to read is some interludes and that has me so incredibly excited.

Kaladin: Some very interesting descriptions about the Voidbringers and their dark-Stormlight. I've said this before in another thread, but I love the direction this has taken with the parshmen/Voidbringers. So much more interesting than just "the Everstorm turned them all into mindless destroyers."

Shallan: I wasn't expecting to hear from her again in Part 1, but as soon as I read her name I knew Jasnah was returning. 


Overall, pretty good start to the book. As I noted above, the parshmen/Voidbringer setup is excellent and Kaladin's POV offered a nice insight into what is going on there. There is a lot to come with Dalinar starting to remember Evi, Jasnah returning, Kaladin returning, the Re-Shephir encounter, Ialai/Adolin/Sadeas, Amaran, Taravangian, the Dustbringer, the Ghostbloods... Man. I'm so excited for next week. With Jasnah coming back and from Brandon's comments, I think there is a really good chance Part 2 is going to have a pretty significant Cosmere/Shadesmar infodump, and I am so excited for every single little morsel we can get. Just one week away!

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/11/brandon-sanderson-the-apocalypse-guard.html

Looks like Apocalypse Guard is getting scrapped for now.

1 hour ago, Chicken Feather said:

Yes, Renarin knows something he is not telling in the scene where the find the first copycat murder.  But I think it is not that Adolin kilked Sadeas, but the unmade he senses.  We know from later on he could sense it.

That's a possibility, but then why is he staring at Adolin and not the corpse? 

11 hours ago, maxal said:

While Renarin was looking at Adolin, was he seeing him? What I meant with my real-life autism example is Renarin might have been focusing on the conversation and not really seeing Adolin. In short, he might have been staring into the empty. Also, Adolin was kind of publicly freaking out during this scene and yet nobody noticed, except for Shallan. In the past, every single times Adolin had public emotional outburst, Renarin was the first to try to talk him out of it. Hence, how come, if Renarin was really, really seeing Adolin, didn't he take action? It is one of the reasons I don't believe Renarin knows anything, nothing concrete.

I am not sure about the consequences. It is just not where the story seems to be heading.

We are talking about a straight-forward, single line here, and your interpretation is really starting to reach. 

It doesn't make sense for Adolin to get away with Sadaes' murder. This is a huge book/series where consequences don't necessarily happen right away. And just because he hasn't been immediately accused does not mean that Ialai isn't building a rock-solid case. In fact, it makes sense for Ialai to take her time to get her facts straight and to wait for the perfect opportunity to hurt the Kholins the most. Accusing Adolin right now would be justice, but accusing Adolin right after Dalinar is declared Highking and Adolin is declared Highprince is positively vengeful. I've said this to you in other threads: we are still in Part One of Five. 

19 minutes ago, The Invested Beard said:

Nope Pringles are amazing and make me happy. Obviously one of the things he was lying about.

This is the objectively correct answer. 

17 hours ago, maxal said:

I don't agree with the conclusion. Just because Shallan thinks, based on his expression, Renarin knows something does not mean he does: it just means Shallan is very uncomfortable with Renarin and finds him creepy. Besides, if Renarin knew, then he would have confronted Adolin with his knowledge, just as he did when he thought Adolin was mistrusting his guards. This isn't something Renarin would keep silent for weeks without ever trying to talk to his brother and if such talk happened, well, it didn't happened behind closed doors.

Thus no, I remain on my position: Renarin does not know.

While it is true that we are currently in the head of Shallan, who cannot be a reliable source of information when making a judgement on another person, you also have to consider that Shallan's head is a part of a book in which the author has license to use foreshadowing. Renarin staring at Adolin at the exact moment he's being charged with investigating the murder, and having that fact precisely spelled out this way, is extremely coincidental if Renarin doesn't know anything. 

Quote

I do not, for the moment, believe Adolin will suffer any consequences for his murder of Sadeas nor do I believe anyone is ever going to find out, not until a very, very long time and this may not even be within this book.

Of course Adolin will suffer consequences for murdering Sadeas.

Renarin definitely knows, IMO.

1) We've never had a Renarin POV and I think that is mostly not to give too much away with what he sees. He's also described as "impenetrable" by Dalinar and no one really understands him. His character is precisely being written as a guy who knows a lot more than he's saying.

2) From Chapter 9:

Quote

 

“You want me,” Adolin said, “to investigate who killed Sadeas.”

Dalinar nodded, squatting down beside the corpse, though Shallan had no idea what he expected to see. The fellow was very dead. “Perhaps if I put my son on the job, it will convince people I’m serious about finding the killer. Perhaps not—they might just think I’ve put someone in charge who can keep the secret. Storms, I miss Jasnah. She would have known how to spin this, to keep opinion from turning against us in court.

“Either way, son, stay on this. Make sure the remaining highprinces at least know that we consider these murders a priority, and that we are dedicated to finding the one who committed them.”

Adolin swallowed. “I understand.”

Shallan narrowed her eyes. What had gotten into him? She glanced toward Renarin, who still stood up above, on the walkway around the empty pool. He watched Adolin with unblinking sapphire eyes. He was always a little strange, but he seemed to know something she didn’t.

 

Emphasis mine. Renarin definitely, definitely knows. 

I'm guessing Dalinar flashback and Kaladin.

Wow. Those were some chapters. I think most of my thoughts have been covered by the comments so far. That turned into a very unexpected battle with an Unmade very quickly. Just three more chapters until the end of part 1 - I'm guessing one Dalinar flashback, one Dalinar real-time, and one Kaladin. Getting really close to release time!

55 minutes ago, PunSpren said:

Confirmation again that Renarin had to remove his plate gauntlet to channel stormlight

I'm guessing that's a side affect of having "dead" shardplate. I'd bet he can use Stormlight through Glys-plate. 

2 hours ago, axcellence said:

Book 1 only.

If that's the case he's gone a bit off script from what he was saying just a couple of months ago. He was planning on starting Book Two in Late September, and so far we haven't seen any progress update on it at all. Meanwhile the Mystery Project - which may or may not be the Random Novella - was supposed to be after Book Two.