Treamayne

None of the above - Jorgen = jɔɹ ɡɛn (Y sounding J - hard G - (rhyme with yen)) - like Jørgen Ingmann

Here goes - more of a "Full reaction to the Series" since the ending of Starsight made me decide I would not read any more Cytoverse until all books were out (cliffhanger endings are one thing - cliffhangar unresolved endings are quite another. . . and if you feel the need to repeat a chapter (cyto 1 was the same scene as the end of Starsight) then you know something went wrong). So, now that Defiant is out, I re-read from the beginning - DE, SW, SS, SR, RD, ES, C, D. Since the thread is Defiant focused, I'll be brief: DE - Still enjoyed this story, but reading it again after having read SW and SS once each, I was better able to track what Jason was doing, with one major exception (more on this later re: Gran Gran). Still a good story, and I like the implications that prior to the Rim developing enough to have large Fragments, the Superiority was using "lesser worlds" as their "exile" location. They were creepy and morally bankrupt long before Winzik came along. SW - Still the best of the books, by far. I honestly almost would have preferred this to be a stand-alone than a series. Not much else to say. SS - Not bad for a sequel, but seeing how we eventually got Alt POV novellas, mixed POV book 4 and interludes - the lack of Skyward Flight POVs seems like a missed opportunity. I feel like there was a desire to remain single POV because of book one, but the story needed to be multiple POV. The fact that the novellas can be chopped up and have their chapters mixed with books 2 and 3 shows that the after Skyward the story was about the Flight, not just Spensa, and really should have been treated as such. Really? I thought this was not only foreshadowed, but almost too obvious by the end of Starsight (really, Brade using the Rocket launcher was what "confirmed" in my mind that Winzik was a puppet and Brade was manipulating him - but not until the second read-through, I missed it the first time). The repeated references to "Brade being manipulative" in books 3 and 4 just seemed, to me, to make this more obvious and less foreshadowy. It was like being slapped in the face with "Brade's the Villain" over and over again. For example (SS Ch 36): The body language and pacing make it clear this is a calculated act. Listen, pause , slowly open visor while deciding if she would better off manipulating rebel humans or her current pawns, malicious smile. . . freak out? (way too over the top) SR - FM Rocks. This novella changed my entire perception of the character. That said, the new flight memebers (especially T-Stall and Catnip) never feel fleshed out (even by the end of the series) with only Sadie getting some cursory characterization - which goes back to SS should have been multi-POV so they could "introduce" those characters and some DDF changes as interludes in book 2, which would have helped the novellas feel more coherent. RD - I feel like the fact that ReDawn is a gas giant should have come up long before that was explained - which would have made the "miasma" and the whole setting understandable from chapter 1 instead of it not becoming clear until humans were "told" half way through the story. While I like Alanik as a character, I felt the mental dissonance (here and in Defiant) of "she impersonated me" but "I asked her to do it" just did not work (or not well). Probably my least favorite of the novellas overall. ES - Flashback was great, and Jorgen "losing it" at VAdm Stroff was great. However, the whole "Two other Vice Admirals planetside" bit really threw off the willing suspension of disbelief because 1) two of three ranking members when their Adm was absent would never have left only one behind 2) Even if they had departed because of the broadcast, they would have been recalled as soon as Skyward Flight returned - and would have been in-place long before the "two days later we still had not heard from Cobb) - which made the whole subplot of "coward officer willing to look the other way" feel like dees ex machinae (DEM). That was not nearly as bad as "Cobb promotes Jorgen" which is entirely DEM - since we've already seen Sanderson known how to handle such things (Stormlight Archive Spoilers): Really, the whole novella can be summed up as "characterization was great, plotting was awful." Cytonic - And here is where the "Spensa only, with interludes" outline glares the most wrong. I'm working on parsing out the Novella chapters so I can modify my e-books to spread those chapters amongst books two and three (see below) because if I should read the series again - I really think it will work better mixed into the main story than going backward and forward for each start and finish. Notes: One consideration about reading ES before Cytonic means that the "reveal" that the reality icon was Doomslug is spoiled - but I am not sure that is a bad thing. The impact is more that Spensa cannot identify for herself why a "fake of my Father's pin" Feels so important to her - and I think it might even read better for the reader to know while Spensa dies not. Defiant - Not bad, not great. +s: Taynix, helping the delvers change, Gran gran (everything about her) Jorgen -s: Taynix, pacing, etc., Alternate POVs all reserved for Part 3 (discussed above - should have become the norm since Spensa left for Starsight in book 2) I feel like if the "Sanderlanch" had been handled like Oathbringer's (without a chapter break for each viewpoint change) then the book could have been 30ish chapters instead of 59+ and would not have read in such a disjointed fashion (ref Oathbringer Chs 117-120ish). I liked Spensa's early arc, but felt the "reveal" that the "tantrums" were Chet should have come much sooner, since it was so obvious to everybody but Spensa. The "I need to be separate to protect everybody" just kind-of fades after Gran gran makes her take a wingmate (or three) for that mission but doesn't really feel "resolved" until Hesho joins them in cleaning ships - but just seems forgotten in the interim, rather than actually dealt with. However, my biggest issues with Defiant aren't really the story. The tease of "seven more species of Taynix" as the very first image for the book implied we would at least see them on screen (likely on a rescue) even if we don't learn what each does. Instead it's a broken promise teaser that says "oh, we only put this here so you might buy the follow-on series" Even if they didn't find the slugs themselves, they should have mentioned learning there were more varieties "somewhere" from the stolen data. . . Formatting. The E-book formatting had been consistent through all seven previous parts. Images as chapter and part ID, graphics on their own "page." Font and paragraph formatting. All of that changed for this book. While I love the "image description" appendix - I loath that the formattign does not match. I bought them all at the same time, so even if they decided to change formatting later, the previous books shouls have been updated to match (just like buying Elantris eBook now yields the 10th anniversay edition, not the un-fixed original). It's like those malicious publishers that lazily compile an omnibus by slapping the individual books together without unifying the formatting, so as you change from section to section you have to keep increasing or decresing the device font size because the publisher was too lazy to do their job. Not to mention having the images part of the chapter file means not all devices can show the image correctly (which is why I thought all the previous books had them separate - which works - unlike the Secret Projects that were broken the way Defiant is broken) Overall: Series is okay. Better than Alcatraz, not as good as Reckoners, to me. I would recommend Cytoverse to specific people that I think might really like the setting and characters, but I don't think I would make it blanket recommendation to just anybody.

I thought this was what normally happened (if unconciously). If yo ulook at the lines right before that (DE Ch 19): Jason "phased" into him as well with the hyperjump. It's mentioned a few times in later novels that hyperjumping blindly risks occupying the same space as another object, but when you think about it, any normal hyperjump would require an unconcious movement of air in the destination to make space for the cytonic's arrival - and if ai can be pushed out of the way, why not other matter? Defiant Spoilers:

Welcome to the Shard. Yes, that's one appearance. If you check the White Sand Summary, each chapter he makes an appearance is listed in that chapter's character list. Example: Hope that helps

I don't think more investiture is necessarily required - after all we see Kelsier travelling from the Cognitive to the Spiritual in Secret History. However, since the SR doesn't have a "where" or "when" I don't think a being (or Shadow) can stay there for long. M:SH Part 2 Ch 1: Likely it takes Intent, and there are probably other mitigating factors about trying to travel to the Spiritual Realm

Welcome to the Shard Of course you can. Being a fan of something or somebody does not imply you like every product (book, song, movie, etc.) there is for that topic/person/group - or even that you have consumed all of that media. May I ask if you had a favorite from amongst the stories you did read? Also, may I ask if you intend to ever read any of Stormlight Archive?

Interesting theory. I would guess it wasn;t so much "I want you to do X, Y and Z" as "Hey, a possible wild-card back-up with a possibility of aiding the 'plan.' " And I would note that you might want to check out (again) what Fuzz said when Kelsier was going toward the Well in Part 1 - Ch 1: Sounds familiar to me. . .

Have you read Warbreaker? Sword-nimi's bond is different than the Nahel bond and would not interfere with his Spren Bond. Spoilers for Warbreaker: WoB: Hope that helps

Welcome to the Shard Keep in mind that the Well's pulses were Preservation's Tone and Rhythm - WoB: So, we have seen Preservation's Tone, and even heard Ruin's (Since Vin hears it every time Ruin appears in the storage cavern). Humming the tones, on Roshar, seems to have an effect on Gaseous Investiture (push and pull) or on beings infused with Investiture (push elicits a pain response) - so I would guess it might draw mists to you (like using allomancy does anyway) or push them away (like hemalurgy does). You haven't lurked long if you think this is a long post. . . Ruin's Anti-tone would likely cause a pain response similar to Raboniel touching the sphere with Anti-Voidlight. It is likely, since Seekers can hear the Rhythms of other investiture; but technically RAFOed. WoBs: Partially, yes - but also partially because the power of Preservation had chosen her at birth shortly before Ruin Corrupted the vessel it chose (same with Alendi):

But, do they really have that much more? They are transferring Allomancy and Feruchemy (so it is a Hemalurgic Charge with a big honking chunk of Preservation on the end representing that power in the spiritweb) - but we do see that while they mostly retain Sapience, they also devolve into mere Sentience in certain situations (such as Marsh's messy "birth" and all the other seen examples of "blood lust"). It's not just Violence that devolves them, any extreme emotions make them uncontrolled (by themselves or others). So, to me at least, they are more "on-the-line" than firmly Sapient. Koloss (and likely Chimerae from SoS) are geting Hemalurgic charges without that chunk of Power so the effect appears to be more pronounced.

Well, Atium is tapping into the Spiritual Realm on the very very short scale - only seconds - which is why Atium Shadows are far more likely to be correct (it fractures exponentially the further forward you are from "now") - which is also why once Vin realized this, she was able to "break" Zane's Atium to defeat him. Well, yes, but also a bit more - closer to a Thanatos Gambit + Batman Gambit + nearly a Xanatos Gambit (not quite all outcomes favoring Preservation's plan - but many possible outcomes favored the Plan since Leras accounted for his death favoring the Plan as well as factored in that Ruin would act like Ruin) Elend's Duralumin+Atium was closer to seeing the actual resolution of the Plan because, based on Atium, it was much closer to "now" and therefore much more likely to be accurate (or at least close). While I think you are spot-on for how Rashek dealt with what he learned - which is why he had so many separate (but sometimes overlapping) plans. Well, we did warn you when you first voiced your upset with Ruin after Hero of Ages - Ruin's schemes were much deeper than you could see from the viewpoints HoA was able to show. Hope you are still enjoying the journey.

Keep in mind that Allomancy is a by-product of the extra bit of Preservation. When Preservation added a bit "extra" to make humans on Scadrial it was so that they would Sapiance (HoA Ch 54 Epigraph* note - Sazed says "sentient" right before "awareness and independent thought" so he meant Sapient): Which is likely why creatures like Era 1 Koloss, who do have more Ruin than Preservation due to hemalurgy, lose Sapience and fall back to Sentience - acting and reacting based on emotion rather than reasoned thought (and Sapience starts returning - like Human - when they start reusing the spikes and their hemalurgic charge has been depleted)

The example was illustrative, not proscriptive. I really dislike the idea of fans having any vote in what gets answers - the core of the idea is Brandon being able to answer the things he thinks deserve answers and will not be covered in future Stories (RAFO). Also, that's why I said "team," For example: And I really think 20% for those first three cuts are probably very low examples. Also, it need not be tied to a Crowd-Funded project (just the easiest example I could think of to spread the word) - any "collect questions - sort - choose - answer" model would be great since it provides choice of topic(s) to discuss; lots of time (unlike signings); and the ability to wordsmith answers.

True, but you can also wish somebody a happy birthday there and @ thm to make sure they are notified of the well-wishes.

At least we know we will get those answers eventually - many of the questions that I posted in the linked thread I have no hope of ever getting answers; since there is no planned sequel that would cover the information, the chances of BS over having an event at the local military base is slim to none, I'm caring for a disabled parent so I will never get to travel to a signing or Q&A, and I'm so rural my only internet is DSL - so I can't "stream" anything to attend virtual Q&As (reddit is off the table for moral reasons). In my "magical happy christmas dream-land" Team Sanderson would add a Q&A Blog to the "Kickstarter" projects. Each backer gets to submit 1 question after the window closes (as part of the backer survey) and as part of the rewards he publishes a Blog entry answering, say, 50 non-RAFO questions from the collected submissions. It would allow him and the team time to find the questions he wants to answer and craft the answers exactly how he chooses; while offing hope to those of us that don't have much chance to ever ask a question directly. . .

Hoid is not currently a Dawnshard, he was a Dawnshard some time in the past long before the events of Stormlight Archive - WoB: Probably not: (Stormlight Archive Spoilers): But could something like this help Nomad (or csomebody else)? I think that is likely (or would at least lessen it the way Nomad did with the Sunheart).

It is possible (theoretically) to bond two spren (and technically it has already been done - details RoW Spoilers). WoBs: Most likely, if it were to happen, it would have to happen early in the Oaths, I think the Bond with the first spren would be too much at 4th or 5th oath to then try to bond a different order's spren at 1st oath. TSM Spoilers:

Yeah, I didn't bother mentioning any of the things we are already expecting to be part of future novels - and Brandon's already indicated we won't get much (or anything) from Radiants Pre-Aharietiam/Recreance until we get Herald Flashback scenes in the back five. Ditto with information about other areas of the Fjordell Empire, since that is expected to be in Elantris 2 and 3; or information on Vasher and company that's expected for Nightblood. Though, I do wonder if/when we will learn more about the Third Selish Empire (if it will be in Elantris 2/3 or a separate story). WoB

Arcanum Unbounded 2 WoBs: I would like stories that try to answer some of the questions left open:

Not quite-WoB (slight Stormlight Archive spoilers): They are not always in the form of Pools (though that is most common) - WoB: Not quite. . . You will get more on this interaction over the rest of the story. To avoid spoilers I will wait for later in case you still have questions. You will also get more information on this as the story progresses, with examples of what happens when that Connection is . . . lacking. Yes, that was the end of WoA when the Mist Spirit enticed Sazed into going to Kredik Shaw, only to have him run into Marsh preventing him from getting to Vin in time. That is the current concensus - though BS did originally plan for that the be a whisper from Kelsier (until he realized it wasn't possible) - WoB: Just to be clear, Snapping isn't something Preservation added to Allomancy - it is a fundamental part of some kinds of Investiture and similar mechanics will appear in other Cosmere stories. It sounds like you are enjoying the story so far and learning that there was, indeed, more depth to Ruin (as you had hoped) than we could see in Hero of Ages (because the viewpoints to show that depth were not available in that story). You will get even more great Ruin scenes as Secret History progresses.

Also, please don't forget we have a Birthday Thread

Keep in mind that part of that specific example is similar to what we see in Tress (spoilers for both):

Nope. it's like the Dalinar quote - What's the most important step - The Next One. My Favorite is the one that I am anticipating (and hoping to avoid spoilers about). Discussed here (don't want to take the thread off-topic)

Oathbringer is my least favorite in SA so far. On most re-reads I have to skip as many Shallan chapters as possible Warbreaker is great (especially with the annotations). Very underrated (as are White Sand and Elantris, IMO). The next one. . .

Copy all, you might update the first post to clarify ":These are things I read and enjoyed, and I would like to see if others have also read or enjoyed them" or something to that effect. But can you see the confusion? The top says "Mark the books you have read. (Even if it is just one in a series)" - PJatO and HoO are both in Riorden's extended Mythologyverse. So, as you explained, some see them as separate series - while others see them as 2 parts of 1 series (that also includes Gods of Asgard, Cane Chronicles, etc. - Just as the Cosmere can be considered a Series comprised of other series). I have no problem with the choice(s) you made, I just wanted to understand them (since there seemed to be discrepancies - e. g. Ender's Game). Also, have you seen the "What are you reading" and "Reading Recommendations" threads?