ILuvHats

I have been summoned from the depths of inactivity to post once more. Glad to know that's how I've been remembered.

Watched the first episode of Chainsaw Man today. Hoooweeee...

Ha ha yeah... RoW hit me hard. I liked it, but it didn't live up to my expectations, so I've been pretty inactive here since then. Apart from a couple of posts about the secret project sample chapters, of course. I saw you're still working on the Iconar Collective, which is awesome! I hope I can stick with this story for as long as you've stuck with your own. @CalanoCorvus Aw shucks. Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did. Guess fifteen years of reading finally paid off, huh? Edit: Ah! I see you're a writer as well. I didn't realize you were the one writing The Verdur Trilogy until I saw it in your account signature.

Guys, writing is hard. I knew it can be difficult for new writers, but I didn't realize the sheer amount of effort it takes when you've literally never written anything before. You do not want to know how long it took me to write this. But I was surprisingly pleased with how my first foray into writing fantasy turned out, and I wanted to share it. I've made world building posts about this book idea on the forum, but it's been years, so I'm sure nobody remembers them. Which is good! I don't want anyone going in with preconceived notions. I've heavily modified the world since then, and the characters have been even more radically altered. One of my concepts for a POV character got trashed and completely rebuilt from the ground up, but I've never discussed the characters before, so you won't know the difference. As always, I welcome feedback and constructive criticism, and I hope you enjoy it.

Right off the bat, I'm going to address the lie by omission in the title. Goodbye Eri is not prose, but instead a one shot manga. But wait! Before all you fantasy readers leave, you should know this is one of the best stories I've read in recent memory. There's a reason I'm recommending this on a forum not dedicated to mangas or anime, and that's because I feel like it's one of those pieces of fiction that transcends the medium, and I don't say that lightly. So please throw out any of your preconceived notions about manga. If you simply want to read a great story and you're willing to give the medium a try, Goodbye Eri only takes about an hour to read and it's free to view on Viz (this is the link). Here are my thoughts (spoilers!):

Here's another wildly speculative take. I just realized that this passage's emphasis on a command being the correct words to join the Oathpact is very reminiscent of the Dawnshards. Perhaps the Dawnshard Unite or Connect or whatever this hypothetical Dawnshard is called was integral to the formation of the Oathpact. It certainly explains how Honor was able to forcibly bind Odium to Roshar while other Shards did not do so when Odium attacked them. Not that this is the first time this idea has been suggested, but I think this passage is hinting at such a connection between the Oathpact and a Dawnshard.

I don't have my copy of RoW on me right now, so I can't pull the direct quote. But I'm pretty sure Dalinar said he is planning on being his own champion rather than designating someone else, so unless he changes his mind, the third option you listed is a moot point.

The two bolded lines in particular make me wonder whether the Ghostbloods played a role in Chana's death, assuming Chana is actually Shallan's mother.

A Silent Voice got me, so if you’re open to anime please watch this movie, it’s great. But nothing has devastated me as much as A Dog’s Purpose. For a movie that critics have decided is utterly mediocre, it has made me cry on every rewatch. What can I say, I like dogs.

The biggest fool of who all? It could be a turn of phrase, and referring to them in a broad sense. But this makes a lot of sense as the greatest fool among the Heralds if this is Ishar speaking. There are a lot of comments like this in the intro that make more sense if Ishar's speaking, but I don't really want to go through and transliterate them all.

Is this poll premature? Hell yes. We don't have SP #4 yet, and of the two cosmere projects we do have, we only have 5-6 chapters each, and those not even the final drafts. But! Based on a sample size of two of Brandon's staff (Karen and Peter), these seem to be vying for most beloved. So what's your favorite secret project? And no takesy backsies after SP #4 sample chapters are released, or the full books come out . At this point, I definitely prefer SP #1, mostly because I loved the modern fairy tail tone, and it legitimately made me laugh on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, SP #3 is a return to normalcy in terms of tone, which is still enjoyable but obviously lacks novelty. SP #1 also possesses the advantage that we actually get to see enjoyable character interactions throughout the excerpt. In SP #3, so far the focus has been on world-building and developing the two lead character's internal conflicts, which by necessity takes more time seeing as us readers are split between 2 protagonists and 2 worlds. So, SP #3 is more of a slow burn, and it's unfair to expect it to progress as quickly as SP #1. That doesn't mean it's still less engaging, considering Yumi and Nikaro (I refuse to call him Painter) are both very isolated socially. I also want to say that while I preferred the tone of SP #1, I think it can be improved. During the first couple of chapters in particular, the witticisms and jovial attitude felt slightly forced simply because the meta commentary and jokes were so concentrated. It felt like Brandon was looking for every opportunity to stick a one-liner in rather than allowing the reader to breathe a bit. In later chapters, there was a significant drop in the prevalence of the tone, which I think is a definite improvement. But IMO, you can tell Brandon was experimenting in this novel.

Just speculation at this point, but I'm assuming that on Painter's world, the darkness only absorbs energy in the visible spectrum, so the temperature is still regulated by the sun with relative normalcy. Any deficits in heat caused by the absorption of that particular sub-spectrum of energy could be accounted for by a denser atmosphere.