Marethyu316

Tanavast did buy Hoid drinks once, so he can't have been that bad a guy!

There's an audio clip from the audiobook. It's part of Chapter 3. It's good, but as usual it feels so slow at normal speed, since I'm used to listening at 2x. Edit: Shoot, I should have known that someone had already posted it...I did look, but not far enough down the list, I guess.

Taravangian also has shown some doubt about both his interpretation of the Diagram (having scholars work to interpret it correctly) and whether it is still a reasonable guide to his actions or if things have progressed beyond some of its recommendations.

I don't think that Shallan will keep it a secret from Jasnah. She promised to never lie to Jasnah again when she forgave her for trying to steal the soulcaster. Of course, she could break this promise, but that would mean a darker turn than I am expecting/hoping for Shallan, despite what she has been going through in Part 1. Also, I think I would actually be more afraid of Jasnah than the Ghostbloods, given that they've failed again and again to kill her, and she has managed to kill members of their organization, if Mraize is to be believed. Her family certainly throws a wrench into things, but objectively she'd be better off getting Jasnah's advice than trying to do it on her own.

That I agree with. I think he makes a conscious effort to twist things away from the standard fantasy trope. I'm not convinced though that Odium and Ruin are equivalent. For one, Ruin had a balance with Preservation and worked willing with Leras for centuries. Odium seems to have quite quickly decided that he wanted to eliminate other shards. That seems like evil on a higher level than Ruin's desire to break things down. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon gave Odium/Rayse's actions an internal logic that is beyond just "pure" evil, at least from Odium's perspective.

I feel like it's unclear what's going on with Shallan's Oath/Truths, because she regressed so much after killing her mother. It was pretty clear that Pattern remembered things that Shallan used to be able to do that she was repressing. How that all fits into which level she was at before killing her mother and where she is now is quite confusing to me.

There's been an Aimian appearance in the first two books, plus Edgedancer.

Shallan has issues, but calling her "insane" strikes me as overdoing it, and also being overly general, when a more specific diagnosis is more helpful. From a lay person's perspective, insanity can mean all sorts of things, but it covers so many different conditions and prognoses that it is likely to have wildly different meanings depending on who hears the "diagnosis." My PhD is in educational psychology, but I took enough clinical psychology classes to agree with others that Jungian psychology is not exactly the preferred method for this kind of diagnosis either. I don't claim any special expertise in proper diagnosis though, so I'd leave that to others with a better understanding of the DSM.

My impression is that the past he is seeking is at least as far back as the Recreance, but there's strong evidence that Oathbringer was written after that (e.g. gender roles.) One obvious way in which Dalinar is seeking the past is that he is getting his memories back, but I do think it will extend beyond that. If he dictated Oathbringer, it would make more sense to refer to himself as a heretic, if he found even more shocking "truths" about how wrong everyone has been, in addition to claiming that the Almighty is dead. It seems like the author had an experience looking into Shadesmar that changed them and probably led at least in part to the writing of the book. It's not 100% but it keeps pushing me toward Dalinar being the author, at least of the preface.

There have been a couple of guys that are as close to an "absolute" bad guy, though. Dilaf in Elantris had a backstory that explained a little bit of his motivation, but he was already pretty bad through and through The other story that jumps to my mind is Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. Chesterton and his gang were bad dudes, through and through and Theopolis was an awful person, with no redeeming qualities that I can think of. Regarding the other characters you mention, I generally agree that they were more complicated, and that is usually my preference, because it makes the story more interesting. The one that I don't agree with you about is Odium. I don't see much text evidence to suggest that he is anything but corrupted by his shard's intent, so at this point I don't find any redeeming qualities to make me feel any empathy toward him. Rayse as a person might not have been fully evil (we don't know), but Hoid certainly didn't like him.

I'm glad that it all turned out to be complicated than it looked when Jasnah was convincing Shallan and through her the others that the Parshman were the voidbringers, who would completely lose control once the Everstorm arrived. It seemed too simplistic, and the reality is much more complicated, which I expect will lead to a much better story.

Why does it actually look smaller than WoR? I've actually wondered why WoR is so much bigger than WoK, when it's only 80 pages longer. Did they do something different with the paper?

Brandon doesn't put DRMs on his ebooks, so I think that as things go he has one of the more liberal policies on ebooks.

I think this is more likely than Shallan agreeing to do the opposite. I don't think that Shallan is really interested in doing the Ghostbloods bidding, at least not intentionally.

Perhaps not at his current level, but there's pretty good evidence that with each new ideal the Radiant uses stormlight more efficiently and perhaps can hold more as well. I'm guessing that at some point he'll be able to do it without the storm.

Grr! Thanks! I guess I should be happy that I was right in the first place...

There's no distortion when using the Audible app, at least. It might be a personal thing about how fast to set it. I'd personally never listen to it slower than 1.5x, but 2 seems to be right for me. Much faster than that and I need the text in front of me, because it's easy to get lost if your mind wanders for a second. Even increasing it to only 1.5x would cut 16 12 16 hours off a 48 hour long audiobook.

I listen to the audiobooks at 2x speed. When I listen any slower it gets frustrating and 1x sounds like they are reading in a vat of cold molasses...that was a David from Steelheart-worthy metaphor!

Yeah, I think it means a plateau directly in front of Urithiru, not the plateau on the Shattered Plains.

We also have direct confirmation that Re-Shephir has been free for centuries, and wasn't freed by Shallan as at least some people thought. It seemed pretty clear that was the case in the previous chapter, but now it's definite.

I think Jasnah will be a POV in Part 2 and we'll only see Shallan through her eyes. I think Kaladin is the one whose plot line was spread out over the 5 parts in smaller doses, and now with Jasnah back at Urithiru we won't lose track of Shallan completely. In fact, it would be interesting to see what Jasnah makes of the changes in Shallan.

I was re-reading the other day and got completely lost in this one section, because I couldn't tell what was a typo and what wasn't. The first on I am pretty positive is a typo: In the previous paragraph, it was made pretty clear that she was aiming for a spire. The next page is the one that really stuck out to me: I think the first two "spikes" are supposed to be spires. I am pretty sure that the third one is an actual spike, but I'm not positive. I guess in theory you could call a spire a spike, but it is confusing to be switching back and forth in the same paragraph, especially when spike is used in its more normal sense in the last sentence.

Did you try "Storming" or "Kelek's Breath"?

I'd argue that it isn't entirely clear that Naln isn't broken, too. I think there's pretty good evidence that none of the Heralds currently have "full control of their morality and minds", unless you're talking about during the prelude. Edgedancer spoiler

Ask for them to give it to you early; I'm giving it to my brother-in-law at Thanksgiving as his Christmas present after getting it signed by Brandon at the Chicago signing. I can't imagine waiting that long, or asking someone I was giving a gift to wait that long, either.