Fatling

On the subject of Thrawn, I thought I hated the Thrawn audiobooks narrated by Marc Thompson for the first chapter or so but then he really grew on me and now I love the Thrawn audiobooks

Also, Jar Jar Binks is one of my favorites. That scene in TLJ when they’re all standing in that cave and Luke shows up at first you can only see the silhouette of his long skinny legs and I got really excited and thought it was Jar Jar

Also, I just saw Avengers endgame and I was kind of disappointed because

I’ve always thought of Shallan as Shawl-un and Jasnah as Jass-naw, but neither of those seem like very popular pronunciations. Btw, why is this in the OB spoilers?

My belief has always been that people usually don’t actually know why they don’t like something, they usually just dislike it and then come up with reasons for why they don’t like it. Or they like it and then they come up with reasons why they like it. Like for me, I would actually agree with a couple of these:

Tells more than shows - it’s true that sometimes things that happen in the story seem to only be happening to serve as an explanation of what is going on rather than being a meaningful part of the story

Unoriginal - lots of the stuff Brandon writes is really original, but there are some elements that seem like they were borrowed from Lord of the Rings or WoT (don’t ask because I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but I remember a few times that I’ve been reading a Sanderson book and thought “hey that seems just like something in WoT”). Certainly not entire plots or anything, but little elements in some of the stories.

But even though I agree with some of the criticism of Brandon’s books, that hasn’t ever turned me off to them. I think really some of the reasons people don’t like his books is for more subconcious reasons they wouldn’t be able to explain (like one of the characters reminds them of their ex, or they are afraid of heights and Vin soaring around all the time makes them nervous, etc.) All they know is that they don’t really like the book, so they come up with some plausible reasons for not liking it and write a review.

Two questions after I finished rereading Oathbringer. I’m too lazy to read through all the questions before this so sorry if they are repeats

1 hour ago, IronBars said:

Sorry for putting this here but seemed the most appropriate place, why is there a one year time skip between books 3 and 4 has it been said ?

I haven’t seen any WOB on the matter, except the one where he says there will be a year time skip between 3 and 4. This does bring up the point that there was a year long gap between each of the Mistborn books, which I didn’t know, so it’s not like a totally novel thing Brandon has never done before

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sv15249
1)Flashback characters for books 4 and 5 are Eshonai and Szeth.In previous books "main" character got a role in all five parts of the book.Will it be the same for these two?Szeth and Eshonai are important, but had very little "screen time" so far.So, in their books will they get a huge role in main narrative?Or will they have flashback sequence only, but main narrative will still focus on our three main heroes(Kaladin,Dalinar,Shallan)?
2)How you deal with multiple POV's?Their amount increase with each book, which means less "screen time" for each character.I know, in series with such big cast, it's very hard to keep balance.What is your possible solution for this problem?Just don't say, you will kill some characters to free space for new ones George Martin style.
3)You said, there will be a timeskip between two parts of Stormlight.But will we have more timeskips between five books of each part?For example, between book 3 and book 4, or 4 and 5.Or between 6 and 7?I ask this, because in first Mistborn trilogy we had year long timeskips between each book.Wonder, will we have it in SA?
4)Is it possible, that main characters from first five will show up in last five books?

Brandon Sanderson
1) Having not read those books, I can't say 100%--but the original plan was to do it this way, and Book Three continues the trend. Shallan/Dalinar/Kaladin will continue to be very important, but I might pull back on side characters. We'll see.
2) This is the biggest challenge in writing epic fantasy. For me, I divided the series into two halfs (books 1-5 and books 6-10) with a focus on some characters for the first half, some for the second. But also, I do plan for certain characters to step back a little in other books. It's a balance I'm still juggling.
3) Plan is for book four to take place a year after book three, so there will be some smaller timeskips too--but the biggest is between five and six.
4) Yes, many of them will--and will still be important.


https://wob.coppermind.net/events/118/#e3708

Edit: found another semi-relevant WOB. It’s longish, so I only pasted the relevant part

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Mrrobot112

I heard it would be one year time gap(in world) between books 3 and 4, which make me think about structure of the book.Does it mean, something important could happen during this year, and then it will be explained in some form(maybe another set of flashbacks)?If so, it's hard for me to visualise the book structure: main timeline, Eshonai's flashbaks and another set of flashbacks for past year?Seems like a mess. Or it will be like Mistborn era 1 time gaps between each book?Main narrative just continues without getting stuck with one-year break, and nothing important happens off-screen. It will be nice to get some qualification from you, if possible.Cause now I'm a bit confused.

Brandon Sanderson

Right now, I've got it like Mistborn--we're checking back in a year, as I need to give some things time to progress in world. We'll see when I actually write it, though.

 

On 3/4/2018 at 9:41 AM, The One Who Connects said:

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I was under the impression that Miles had swallowed some small Goldminds. They couldn't be taken from him, so he'd still have them when on the chopping block.

It's not confirmed(iirc), but it's the prevailing theory.

I agree that that’s definitely the most likely explanation, I just wanted to raise this as another possiblity, ‘cause, you know, there’s always another secret 

On 2/20/2018 at 10:01 PM, Jofwu said:

Very much this. Definitely not Skathan.

I feel very strongly that it's the guy indicated in @teknopathetic's post above. Random dude with a musical instrument who seems to be around when something interesting happens? Very Hoid-like. Brandon didn't say that he would be playing a big role in the graphic novels--just that he would have a bigger spot. And considering his spot in the prose is practically non-existent, that's not saying much.

But anyways...

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This guy showed up again at the Lord Artisan's place, creeping on the main characters pretty hard. Got a picture. He's in two or three other panels around here as well. 

He may show up elsewhere in volume 2, but I happened to spot him in this scene.

 

He shows up a couple pages before before too where Khriss says she’s been waiting for Kenton. And in the panel above the one in your picture. I looked fairly specifically for him throught the book, but those three and the one @ShatteringEchoes posted are the only ones I could find.

On an unrelated note, the faces in the clouds pretty much disappear altogether in volume 2, I only found one where Aarik is talking to himself in the mirror (middle of chapter 5)

So here’s a quote from Warbreaker (beginning of ch. 21) that might be semi-relevant to this discussion:

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Some said that before a man died, his BioChromatic aura flared with sudden brightness. Like a heart giving its last beat, like the final surge of a wave before the tide retreats. Vasher had seen it happen, but not with every death. The event was rare, much like a perfect sunset.

So I agree that being near-dead does weird stuff to investiture. Not sure of much beyond that.

There’s also that part at the end of AoL

Not sure, but that might be another relevant example.

Well, my general impression is that this one was slightly better than the first volume... I just read through it once, but at least in my first reading it seemed to flow a little more smoothly than the first one and it was easier to follow what was going on. So at the very least I didn’t feel disappointed after reading this one, though I will admit my expectations weren’t very high to begin with.

The thing that weirded me out the most was that the artwork totally changed in the last chapter. It’s much less sketchy, which I like, but in a few places the faces look pretty weird, so I don’t know how much of an improvement it will be. I’m hoping the new artist is here to stay, though - on the back page it says that Julius Gopez, who has been the artist up until now, “lives and works in the Phillippines.” So that might explain why it took like forever for this volume to come out. Hopefully if this new artist (Julius Otha) does volume 3 it will come out faster.

One last thing, I’m not exactly sure how Drile made it onto the cover (I’m pretty sure that’s Drile, right?). After all, he only appeared on like one page. If it were up to me I would have put someone else there, like maybe the Lord Admiral or Nilto.

So hopefully this isn’t too off topic, but this talk of fabrials imitating surges reminds me of unkeyed metalminds, and actually now that I think about it, so do shardblades and shardplate. That’s kind of an interesting parallel, like a spren bond on Roshar plays a similar role to Identity on Scadrial

Finished OB a few days ago. Mixed feelings. Dalinar’s flashback scenes were good. Never really loved Shallan to begin with, and she didn’t really grow on me at all in this book, it was mostly like she just became less and less relatable. Wish there was more Szeth in this book, I liked his parts, and also Venli. I was amused that Renarin turned out to be a bad guy. Shadesmar was kind of boring. I was also greatly pleased that Adolin didn’t gain any powers. Seemed like everyone was making a huge deal about the everstorm in WoR, but it was rather underwhelming. Was hoping for more interesting interludes. None of them really stuck out to me except Rysn. I guess the one with Mem was good too. Sorry if the thoughts seem kind of scattered. If I were to rate it I would say 6.5/10

On 12/29/2017 at 6:24 PM, StrikerEZ said:

The first is that Brandon has "revived" far too many characters in his books (in my opinion), so he needed to let some characters die for good

Agreed - I realize now that it’s ironic that I was more surprised about Eshonai dying than I would have been about her reviving (which would be the more typical plot twist). 

The reason I felt like it was more of a plot twist for the sake of a plot twist is because it seemed like Venli had a lot of the same feel as Eshonai (reluctantly questioning the justice of the Parshendi cause), so it was almost like Brandon was just taking Eshonai out and swapping Venli in.

22 hours ago, Calderis said:

I’m far more excited for next book than I ever was for Eshonai alone. 

I really liked Eshonai as a character so I’m excited about her flashbacks too, and to see how things will play out with Venli. I think one of the things that makes Brandon a great writer is how he writes characters from opposing sides and then shows how the “us and them” viewpoint is often an oversimplification

So long ago before Oathbringer had come out (in August, to be exact) and we were all speculating about what would happen in the book there was a lengthy discussion about killing off characters and I was wondering what peoples’ thoughts were on Eshonai’s death. Personally, I thought it was a little weird, and the shift to Venli was unexpected, almost like it being a plot twist just for the sake of being a plot twist. Considering that Eshonai is one of the characters that has a prologue viewpoint and flashbacks (actually now I can’t remember if that’s true or not), it seems like her arc was pretty weak. 

Here’s that discussion about disappearing characters/premature death (on most of pages 11 and 12):

Well, I was planning on buying it back when it was supposed to come out around the same time as Oathbringer. Now it’s been pushed back all the way to mid-February, so I’ll probably forget about it altogether between now and then

Sometimes when I first pick up a book at the library or something I’ll read the first chapter or so there to check it out, then add a bookmark when I get home. Or if I’m reading one chapter at a time I’ll skip the bookmark

Yeah I was thinking the same thing as shadowmancer. But now that I think about it some more, there’s what, like forty people in a normal bridge crew? So twenty on each side, maybe three feet apart from each other? It seemed like they were pretty close to each other, but any closer than that and they would be tripping over each other. If the bridge is sixty feet or so in length, and it needs to be at least twice as long as widest chasm they will regularly encounter, that means the chasm is like thirty feet across. Did it say if the Parahendi can jump across all chasms or just the shorter ones? I just looked up the world record for the long jump and it’s about 29 feet. Seems legit. Someone will have to check those assumptions for accuracy, though, since I don’t have the book with me

11 hours ago, theuntaintedchild said:

Which sadly would probably mean Sarene's name would be pronounces Sa-ree-nee. As opposed to Sa-Ray-Nay, which I personally think sounds better.

Yep, again with the audiobook, sa-ree-nee is exactly how they pronounce it

On 9/21/2017 at 6:12 AM, jofwu said:

@Fatling That's not an error. "Overmastery" is when you use up dangerous amounts of your body's water. That doesn't happen to Kenton. His sudden loss of powers in volume 1 is a mystery at this point.

Hopefully we’ll find out in volume two. In any case, I’m fairly confident that Kenton lost his powers due to overmastery. But even if it isn’t overmastery, virtually nothing occurs between the time that Kenton briefly masters sand in chapter three and when his powers are gone at the end of the chapter that could cause him to lose his powers, so this is still likely an error. The only event I see prior to this time that could lead to his lost powers is the battle with the Kerztians

6 hours ago, ryshadium90 said:

I've always rhymed it with "bye"

On that note, how to pronounce Susebron?

Is the accent on the "u" or the "e"? I put it on the "u" then I reread Siri calling him Seb, so maybe the accent is on the "e"? It kind of sounds better that way. 

In the audiobook the narrator pronounces his name “Soozibron” with the accent on the u.

I’ve always read it Shai as “shy” in my mind, I tend to imagine if a name is spelled a different way in a book than it typically is in real life, it’s meant to be pronounced differently too (if it rhymed with “hay” I would imagine would be spelled “Shay” after the normal spelling). It seems silly not to use the familiar spelling if it’s meant to be pronounced the same way

@Extesian I like that quote, there is something wrong with how Wayne sees the world, and that is a good explanation. 

Also, @XenosHg and @WhiteLeeopard I will admit that because I am rereading and I like Steris more that does taint how I see their interaction. I already liked Steris to begin with, but after reading BoM I liked her even more.

But even if Wayne is a good guy overall, he still just totally bugs me. There seems to be almost now way to move up in his eyes by your own merits, he either likes you when you meet him or he doesn't. Look at how long it took him to shift gears on Ranette. Like, it happened eventually, but it took way long to happen and nothing was accomplished during that time except everyone being annoyed by Wayne. 

So I just wanted to see what other people on the forum thought of Wayne. Some of the stuff he says is so funny, but man do I hate that guy. I used to like him, but now that I'm rereading the Mistborn II series I've realized I really dislike him a lot. I just wish he had stayed in the Roughs and never come to Elendel. It's scenes like this that have been changing my mind about him:

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(Steris talking) "Do you hate me because of what I represent, Wayne? The responsibilities that called him back?"

"I don't hate you," Wayne said, "I find you repulsive. That there is an important distinction, it is."

"But-"

Wayne stood up. He shoved the rest of the sandwich into his mouth.

Then he walked over to the guards that were glaring at him and sat down. The implication was obvious.

I'd rather be here.

I was curious what other people had to say about Wayne. We get a lot of Wayne viewpoints, but every time I get a glimpse of him from other viewpoints I like him less and less. He kind of reminds me of Tonk Fah in Warbreaker in some ways. Like, I think if we didn't have so many Wayne viewpoints (and Wax viewpoints, because Wax likes Wayne), he would come off a lot more like Tonk Fah, a guy who sometimes says funny things, but really is just totally messed up.

15 hours ago, ccstat said:

Extesian is right. Just to be clear: there is no way to make these cities work without invoking either magic or far-future sci-fi tech that allows large-scale manipulation of gravity. Given what we've seen of the setting so far, it's got to be magic. (That includes both the ability of the cities to float in the first place, and the local gravity they exhibit that keeps everyone from falling off the upside down half.)

Agreed. Centrifugal forces was a dumb idea from the beginning and gravity is not the answer, so it has to be magic.

Now that I think about it, Ashyn's magic system seems like a weird flip-flop of Roshar's. We don't know much about the different powers Ashyn's magic grants, but if manipulation of gravity is one then that's potentially similar to powers we've seen on Roshar. The flip-flop is that where stormlight makes you stronger and heals you when you're holding it, Ashyn's magic makes you weaker and sicker. Doesn't seem very fair to me, unless Ashyn's magic is a lot more potent than stormlight

9 hours ago, SilverTiger said:

I don't know where the hourglass you mentioned came from

It's in the story:

On 9/13/2017 at 10:39 AM, SilverTiger said:

It was difficult not to feel tense however, in the rooms frenzy. Nearby a scribe turned and accidentally knocked over an hourglass, smashing it to the floor and spraying sand across it. He spared the sand a glance, it always drew his attention, but he otherwise ignored it, focussing on a set of doors at the back of the room.

And don't worry, I'm just speculating for the sake of amusement, trying to wrap my head around the floating cities. Like, are they floating because of physics or because of magic?

7 hours ago, Yata said:

The only Force Needed to a hourglass to work is gravity

My question is whether or not the force they are experiencing is gravity from the city's body or a centrifugal force from the cities orbiting Ashyn or just some magical downward force

20 hours ago, SilverTiger said:

Sunward side: Indicates that the planet may not be rotating around an axis. May or may not pre-date or have been caused by the global cataclysm.

Would an hourglass work if the planet didn't rotate around its axis? The gravity of this place seems kind of messed up to me. Like, I imagined if they were living on the upside-down side the reason they don't crash into the planet is because of centrifugal force. But then apparently there's more stuff on the sunward side, and if centrifugal force is holding the guys on the other side down, then centripetal force should be flinging the sunward guys off, right? Also, I'm not sure if I mixed up centripetal and centrifugal or not

In Khriss's notes about the Rosharan system in AU she mentions "the famous floating cities". Do we know what that's supposed to mean? Like, famous to whom? I was slightly perplexed by that