vividox

Progress bars updated... and it has me a little bit confused. Apocalypse Guard is showing 100% finished second draft. Brandon previously stated that the Apocalypse Guard bar was for the entire trilogy, not just the first book, and the first draft bar was previously at 33%. So... does this mean the entire trilogy is done, second draft too? That seems a bit crazy, even for Brandon, but he is starting on a new Mystery Project too, so I legitimately have no idea.

I think people are a little too pre-occupied with the concept of these being stand alone series. You can still have a stand alone series and have significant characters or elements from other worlds. For instance, if Vivenna showed up in the next chapter, non-Cosmere-aware people would simply see her as a new character being introduced. And I'd assume that the farther and farther we get into this, crossover will become more and more prevalent. After all, by the time we get to Mistborn 4, Hoid is going to be a main character and pretty much anything Cosmere is going to be fair game.

This made me LOL.

Am I the only person who finds Evi 99% less interesting now that I know her name? I keep reading positive reactions to her, and, the way she's been portrayed, I'm so disinterested.

And to be perfectly fair, a lot of these same arguments work for Dalinar as well. Especially if he murdered Evi and is characterizing his acquisition of Oathbringer as a murder.

That's where my mind went, too. Honestly, he hasn't even seen his wife since the beginning of Stormlight, so it makes sense.

1) The author can travel to Shadesmar. 2) "I can honestly say this book has been brewing in me since my youth." - Who else has as storied of a youth as Shallan? 3) "Perhaps my heresy stretches back to those day in my childhood." - The heresy sounds like a relatively new self-discovery. Perhaps during the events of Oathbringer. 4) The author has lots secrets to divulge. 5) "I have no doubt that you are smarter than I am. I can only relate what happened, what I have done, and then let you draw conclusions." - This one, admittedly, doesn't really fit Shallan. I could she her saying something like this directly to Jasnah, for instance, but not to an open audience. It's possible the preface to Oathbringer is an open letter from Shallan to Jasnah, but that feels like a stretch. 6) "I will confess my murders before you." - This one is big. Dalinar has killed so many people in combat, but this sounds much more personal and isolated. 7) "I have killed someone who loved me dearly." - Her father. 8) "I will confess my heresy. I do not back down from the things I have said, regardless of what the ardents demand." - Again, sounds like newfound heresy.

I feel like the epigraphs are Shallan at this point.

Sounded like it could be an allegory straight from Nalthis.

Well that was a lot more words than we're used to getting each week. No short chapters at all. Two more weeks of these before release, so we're getting pretty close to the end of part 1. Lots of interesting things going on with Shallan. Complex lightweaving play. Some rando Odium spren is doing the mime killings/violence and is seeking out people who resemble the initial target. The Blackthorn, lots of visual allusion to the Thrill being of Odium. Red eyes, destructive lust, feeling the rhythms... this very much resembles Parshendi in Stormform. I was surprised the Rhyshadium were mentioned and then Dalinar didn't get one. More Shallan, the first words from the Dustbringer and Pattern's reaction. Amaran becomes Highprince Sadeas (not much improvement over the last one). Holy Adolin dropping the Kaladin/Heleran news like it's hot. Shallan is really starting to go crazy. Just three weeks to go!

Well, that Ialai/Mraize encounter went a lot smoother than expected. Ialai really did love Sadeas, IMO. Mraize is full of teasers. Highstorms are coming back. Ooh, Voidspren conversation. Fun. YAY DALINAR FINALLY! Uh oh, Taravangian. Dustbringer. And like every week, it's over too soon.

In case you missed it, Brandon posted a pseudo-State-of-the-Sanderson update after Oathbringer was finished, here. His short term plans were: June–August: Apocalypse Guard One (Fall 2018 Release)Early September: Legion 3 (Sometime 2018 Release)Late September–December: Apocalypse Guard Two (Mid 2019 Release)Late December: Random Novella Assuming he's on schedule, he's done with Legion 3 and is on the early stages of Apocalypse Guard Two. Also, I directly asked him what the chances of the Random Novella being Silverlight was, and his response was: Link to full reddit thread.

So the Eshonai chapters (or Szeth chapters in the case of Way of Kings) are Novelette One and the rest of the interludes are the Short Story Collection.

Definitely agree with your concerns here, but I get the sense this is more just foreshadowing to Jasnah's return, since Shallan eye-witnessed her being stabbed in the chest.

One thing I'm not quite clear on: does Novelette One and Short Story Collection make up all of the interludes, or are there some other interludes that float around that aren't a part of those?

Thanks for the run down, maxal. Based on your comments and interjecting a few of my own thoughts: Flashbacks: DalinarPrimary Main Character: DalinarSecondary Main Character 1: Kaladin (or Shallan)Secondary Main Character 2: Shallan (or Kaladin) Tertiary Characters 1, 2, and 4: Adolin, Jasnah, and Szeth Tertiary Character 3: Eshonai Novelette One: Taln? Lift? Novelette Two: Moash? Venli? Klade? Elhokar?Short Story Collection: Parshendi? I combined Tertiary 1, 2, and 4 since they are all analogous to each other - Part 4 and the end of Part 5. We can make the distinction that Adolin is most likely Tertiary 1 because of Brandon's comments and the deletion of the involvement in Part 2, but the end result is the same. It's also worth noting that if the Short Story Collection is indeed Parshendi-centric, that we could get one-off Venli/Klade/Sah POVs there and Novelette Two could go to someone like Moash or Elhokar. Although if you really read into the Brandon quote I quoted above and assume Novelette Two and Short Story Collection are related, it's possible they are both Parshendi-centric. That's gotta be pretty close.

Exactly! Haha.

Overall feelings of Prologue + 1 through 21 so far: I absolutely love that the Parshendi aren't straight up Voidbringers. Having these re-born thinking Parshmen with families and feelings and want of freedom has introduced such a complex and empathetic dynamic to what everyone assumed to be a fight between good and evil. Looking back at WoR, I shouldn't have been surprised: the Parshendi were on the cusp of making a truce, but for the ill-timed discovery of the voidspren. I am not sure what I expected of the political dynamic going into Oathbringer, but it wasn't this. Alethkar itself seems just as fractured as before the Everstorm, with Thanadal and Vamah lording over the war camps instead of joining the rest of the highprinces in Urithiru. The Western nations being cautious to work with or flat out refusing to work with Dalinar despite the truth behind his warnings only makes sense in light of Dalinar's past. At the end of Words of Radiance, it seemed as though Dalinar had tackled one obstacle (Alethkar) and was well on his way to the next (Roshar), but so far that has been a very rocky road. Which is a good thing, IMO. Despite seeing huge question marks with regard to the future of the Parshendi and the political challenges, we've had several nice moments: Kaladin being reunited with his parents, Shallan and Adolin's relationship progression, Dalinar and Navani's marriage, etc. We're only 22 chapters in so far, and we're not even at a good stopping point yet, but I've really enjoyed the book so far. More than anything, though, I am so completely ready to plow through the rest of this book in a couple of long evenings on my couch. How is November 14th still so far away? P.S. One last thing, I am really chomping at the bit to read about the aftermath of Dalinar remembering Evi. I really, really wanted to pick up right there this week.

That Kaladin chapter was entirely too short. Lots and lots and lots of banter this go around. That cliffhanger at the end was quite the cliffhanger.

The second novelette is from the POV of a character that hasn't had any viewpoints yet. From the second reddit update: "Each volume, then, has a complete trilogy's worth of arcs and climaxes for the primary characters (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar) while also having a self-contained flashback sequence, at least one secondary novelette about a character that hasn't had viewpoints so far, and a related short story collection." In re-reading, that actually kind of reads like the short story collection and the secondary novelette are related to one another. Since the short story collection appears to be about the Parshendi, could the secondary novelette be about Venli? Or maybe even a flashback to Klade?

I also just noticed that with the apparent problem with my link, I'd actually been looking at the outline Brandon posted in Update #2, so my thoughts about Jasnah being TC1 and having POV chapters in both Part 2 and 4 aren't correct. If I tried to use the same logic with the newer outline, Jasnah would be TC3 and we wouldn't see any POV chapters of her after Part 2.

Hmmm, I think Kaladin has a bigger chance to disappear for part 2 if not solely because of Brandon's comments that much of Kaladin's story line he'd originally planned for Book #3 actually ended up happening in Words of Radiance. That feels like to me that Kaladin's plot is going to be quite a bit slower in this book as a result. Of course, that in and of itself is just speculation. The blue/pink thing is something I hadn't considered, but it could just be coincidence.

Ah, that tidbit about Jasnah makes sense. I hadn't seen that quote. For some reason I completely forgot about Moash when writing this up.

I've seen a few people mention this as well, I think what I had in my head was that Brandon considers the interludes to be part of Part 1 in his overall scope (which certainly doesn't mean we'll get interludes as free chapters, just explains why I was thinking it).

An afterthought since I clicked "post": If Jasnah is indeed TC1 and I am correct about her being the cliffhanger at the end of Part 1, then SMC1 is most likely Kaladin, since we'd probably hear from Shallan (being in proximity to Jasnah) a lot more. It also makes sense that Kaladin would disappear for a bit, since he's off travel-logging and wouldn't be involved in much of the lore development. (And obviously this is predicated on a cavalcade of assumptions at this point, so who knows how accurate it will be)