Ammanas

Foundryside by Robert Bennett. Sanderson recommended it a few months ago. I really liked the first two books of his Divine Cities trilogy, but was very much dissapointed by the third one; evidently my view is the minority because a lot of other people seem to like the concluding book. This book is interesting. I think the world and magic system are unique and the main character's conversations with her enchanted key are funny! Lots of info dumps which is surprising from such a experienced author. Also Divine Cities felt more polished which is also surprising. All in all I am having fun. Only 70 pages in so I still have a lot left.

Favorite Movie: its been out for awhile but maybe "Your Name". If not that then Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds Favorite book: Lots of good ones, but either The Wolf, Deadhouse Landing, or The Ember Blade Favorite Hero: Thomas Senlin from Senlin Ascends. He starts off as uninteresting, but he really starts to grow on you Favorite Villian: Tough one...maybe the ai (forget the name) from the short story The Rise and Fall of the House of the Wizard Malkuril

@hoiditthroughthegrapevine I am curious. What age did you first read the Harry Potter books. I wonder if that factors into your view on the series? Oh a btw is your profile name a reference to the CCR song or just the expression?

I really thought Peace Talks would be done by now. The author was saying earlier this year that his life was crazy with divorce and building a new house. He said back in around June now that everything is settled that he should be able to finish Peace Talks in a couple of months. Honestly I am more excited about the Dresden book after Peace Talks called Mirror, Mirror. That's about a Dresden from a alternate universe (one where he makes a different decision in book 3 to sacrifice Susan) comes to the Harry we know for help. It looks like another long wait for that one with him writing the Aeronaughts Windlass sequel and I think something else before he will get to it.

I want to see it, but I have been hearing so many bad things I thought to wait until it comes in at the library. What did you like about it?

Now that Christmas is almost over I can get to a holiday I enjoy even more: New Years day! I personally like it more than Christmas because I feel like there is a lot of commercialism, anxiety, tension and putting on airs around it. As a religious holiday I feel that Easter works better for the average Christian (for deep contemplation and meditation). Also little kids are kind of cranky with the candy and lack of a good night's rest. Not that I'm putting down Christmas; just explaining why I enjoy New Years more. It is just a much more relaxed atmosphere for me. Does any one have traditions or anything special that they do? I don't do resolutions. I am a firm believer that anyone can decide to improve themselves and start anytime they want. I have a few traditions: 1. Make Cabbage and Black Eyed peas. It's a southern tradition that's supposed to bring money and good luck. The peas are easy to make in the slow cooker and I make a nice cabbage dish with potatoes and polish sausage. 2. Watch a lot of college football bowl games. 3. Listen to the following two songs And 4. Hang out with family.

I've seen some pretty obscure books that are surprisingly still in print. Most likely their stock is low and there is more on the way. I have no inside knowledge and am just basing this on previous instances with other books and authors. Right off to top of my head the White Sand graphic novel adaption was showing a ship time of about two months for awhile and last I checked it was regular shipping.

@Winds Alight Would impeccable fashion sense and the ability to memorize every song (from all musicals) count?

I always get frustrated by how little the used book stores offer and how picky they are. I always donate to the library; that institution has saved me countless dollars throughout the years and has always been a place of comfort for me.

Speaking of Malazan and Wheel of Time I still find it a little upsetting that Tor.com decided to green light I think literally their fifth WoT reread (where they go through every chapter and summarize and offer analysis on everything), but they canceled the Malazan reread and they haven't even gone through every malazan book the first time. I found the Malazan reread to be incredibly helpful and a great way to help first time (or veteran) readers of this series. If anyone has no idea what I am talking about here is a link: https://www.tor.com/features/series/malazan-reread-of-the-fallen/ Tor's decision to do this shows I guess just how niche Malazan still is. Good job spreading the malazan news though! Really looking forward to new Malazan in February!

First time watching one of these shardcast things and it was pretty fun! I will have to make time for them in the future. By the way @Chaos I believe you teach math? I would of loved to have you as a teacher in school. Looks like you have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Also nice to put some faces with profiles on the shard.

I like them about equally, but Brandon has said it is a much easier and faster process to write the Wax and Wayne books plus all the extra stuff they do with the Stormlight artwork etc takes almost 8 months or so. So if he focused on Wax and Wayne we would be getting more cosmere much, much sooner than a focus on Stormlight. Plus it is the ending of the series; that means lots of convergences, big revelations etc. Also not to put words in anybody's mouth, but I think Oathbringer took the wind out, just a little bit, from almost everyone's sails. It's not a bad book, and was still enjoyable, but it wasn't as good as the previous two. Also it's been a much bigger lapse of time for the Wax and Wayne books. We have been patient and thought we knew what the plan was; plans change but its still frustrating (even though all the signs were pointing towards it).

Sorry I don't have much to contribute to Bakker, but I have been learning a lot about Lovecraft and and the type of story is was writing. Evidently it was classified as a "Wierd Story". Here is a somewhat lengthy definition: "A “weird tale,” as defined by H.P. Lovecraft in his nonfiction writings and given early sanctuary within the pages of magazines like Weird Tales (est. 1923) is a story that has a supernatural element but does not fall into the category of traditional ghost story or Gothic tale, both popular in the 1800s. As Lovecraft wrote in 1927, the weird tale “has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains.” Instead, it represents the pursuit of some indefinable and perhaps maddeningly unreachable understanding of the world beyond the mundane — a ‘certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread” or “malign and particular suspension or defeat of…fixed laws of Nature” — through fiction that comes from the more unsettling, shadowy side of the fantastical tradition. With unease and the temporary abolition of science can also come the strangely beautiful intertwined with terror. Reverie or epiphany, yes, but dark reverie or epiphany — not the lightness of “I wandered lonely as a cloud” but the weight of, for example, seminal early twentieth‐century weird writer and artist Alfred Kubin’s sensation of being “overcome…by a dark power that conjured up before my mind strange creatures, houses, landscapes, grotesque and frightful situations.” Like what we loosely group into the genre of “horror,” The Weird can be transformative — sometimes literally — and it entertains monsters while not always see them as monstrous. It strives for a kind of understanding even when something cannot be understood, and acknowledges that failure as sign and symbol of our limitations. Usually, the characters in weird fiction have either entered into a place unfamiliar to most of us, or have received such hints of the unusual that they become obsessed with the weird. Whether It exists or not, they have fallen into dialogue with It; they may pull back from the abyss, they may decide to unsee what they saw, but still they saw it. Such stories can be terrifying, but do not always rely upon the scare central to horror fiction, nor the twist ending" Anyways i am currently reading a mammoth collection of these type of stories called The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edition by Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer. It may be of interest to you as well.

Haha I used to get really worked up with massive delays by favorite authors, but its just too exhausting being angry all the time. It's also much better, for my mental health, to have a more zen like attitude towards things that are outside my control. I am always trying to get better with that!

Honestly I am disappointed, but it's a business decision and Stormlight is now Tor's flagship series now that WoT is finished. What a novel (pun intended) concept of having other writers in your group of friends take a look at a troublesome book and offer help with another set of eyes! I know of a few authors that should give it a try... Not too much to look foward to from Sanderson in the near future but The Hod King, The Blackest Heart, and Kellanved's Reach are released in January and February by three very exciting authors so that will get me by to start the year. My nerd rage comment earlier was more of a way to make fun of myself and a reminder to not get too worked up about it. Yes, it's annoying but if the news of one of my favorite fantasy authors is delaying mistborn is the worst thing that happens to me this month, then it's been a pretty good month!

I better be getting good news today on The Lost Metal or I will be unleashing some nerd rage the likes this website has never seen before!

Hah I finall got it! Achievement unlocked! Just a small comment back in 2016 in the "If different Authors wrote Stormlight" thread. Every few months or so it gets another upvote and I have finally got enough to qualify!

Almost to the very end of A Memory of Light. To make a long story short I have been trying to finish this series for about 8 years. I believe that Brandon Sanderson closed this series in a better way than Robert Jordan ever could. Sanderson has brought both energy, and focus to this series after Jordan spent so many books just drifting and going nowhere. I kind of like the symbolism of Sanderson finishing the series. This series is about people, cities, nations, and cultures coming together to try to defeat The Dark one. The task is bigger than them. Ultimately this task turned out to be bigger than even the author himself. I honestly believe Robert Jordan didn't even know how to close the series. Yes, he had the closing scenes worked out and the fates of characters, but didn't know how to trim the fat off his writing and story so he could get there. I hope my comments are not interpreted that I somehow rejoice in Jordans death. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I just stand in awe of Brandon Sanderson. He was given a almost impossible task and really pulled it off.

Hope I get it!

I personally thought (with the Red Rising series that the first book was ok and similar to other books that are published, but it starts getting REALLY good with books 2 and 3. I also thought the Iron Gold sequel series has a promising start as well.

I am a huge fan of his work and have all five volumes that have collected them (The End of the Story through The Last Hieroglyph). If you decide to read them you can find them all for free (legally and by permission of his family) here: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/ I recommend starting with his Zothique cycle first though. You can find out more about it and a list of the stories here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zothique Clark Ashton Smith isn't for everyone, his style is very poetic, but he has this rhythm of how he writes that I find absolutely breathtaking. His two most famous stories are The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis or The City of the Singing Flame. It would be difficult for me to pick my own favorite though.

Hah I am under the protection of Mordiggian (The Charnel God, and a Great Old One). Yig has no power over me!

Malazan news is pretty slow nowadays. I did want to share something with my fellow malazan disciples though. The dubut that I am most looking forward to in 2019 is The Gutter Prayer by Hanrahan. It comes out in January and my hype is so high I almost feel that no matter how good it is it will be impossible to meet it. It looks like it will be perfect for any malazan fan. To get a idea what I mean by that check out this review in the link: https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2018/12/the-gutter-prayer-by-gareth-hanrahan-book-review/

@Briar King What particularly did you like about it? Which p.o.v was your favorite? Just finished Off Armageddon Reef btw. I loved when Merlin signaled, right before the big naval battle, "The Kingdom of Charis expects everyman to do his duty." It was a nice reference to the Battle of Trafalgur that only he knew about. I'll be getting to By Schism Rent Asunder right after Memory of Light; I've been trying to finish Wheel of Time for about 8 years and even though reading is a enjoyable hobby the series has become a bit of a monkey on my back. I dont get the small, but vocal minority that laments Sandersons contribution to the series; I believe he has (so far) given the series a better conclusion than Jordan ever could. The Sanderson contributions I have read so far have energy, focus, and a curbing of the most annoying attributes of characters that has been missing from most of the Jordan books.

Someone posts a song and the next person to comment describes a scene of the cosmere it best goes along with and then posts their own song. Here is the first one to get the ball rolling: