Lady_Yasha

Given the effectiveness of Bridge Four - discounting other bridges in relation to this point - it'd be interesting to see Kaladin training a contingent of bridge crews for Dalinar with instructions on using the side-carry method. Though that hinges on the idea that Kaladin trusts Dalinar and Dalinar relaxes a few of his ethical stances, neither which I see happening. Dalinar won't use bridge crews simply because he wouldn't do the job himself, and he doesn't believe in making a man do something his general wouldn't.

Given that choice I'd have to say leg since I find most things awkward with my left hand. Given no way to return would you rather travel to the past, or travel to the future, to any year you wanted?

I really don't remember this xD

I like this interpretation. It's terse but it seems to codify what some of the guys in here have been saying. I've had that problem before with a tuning circuit's harmonics cancelling out some of the base frequencies. Not so good when you're using it within a power supply converter Of course waves are not a simple topic, hence why an entire division of physics is dedicated to their phenomena. I just gave a very simple overview of what tends to happen when you have the minimal amount of waves interacting.

Phase shift and frequency both matter here. Think of two waves, one at 11kHz (f1) and one at 14kHz (f2). Draw them on a graph with the x-axis set to time in seconds. Time period = (1 / frequency), giving us 9.09e-5 seconds for f1, and 7.14e-5s for f2. This is the time required for the wave to complete one full oscillation, or 360 degrees. What you'd end up with here is two waves over-lapping, one longer than the other on the x-axis. To obtain the summation of these two waves should they be superimposed would be the instantaneous amplitude at time = x for both waves, where x is random. At the positive peak of f1, f2 will already be in its decline to zero, but it is still positive and therefore the sum of the two waves reinforces the superimposed image. However, when f1 is near zero, f2 will be negatively greater and therefore the sum of the two waves will be negative, resulting in a destructive relationship. Phase shift is useful because you can modulate when a wave starts so that you can effectively take a wave that is double the frequency of another wave and phase shift it so it produces more reinforcement than destructive interference. Your best bet is to have two waves of a similar frequency with zero phase shift between them. You can have the same frequency for destruction to occur aslong as your phase shift is not zero. Complete destructive interference occurs when f1 and f2 are the same frequency, but phase shifted by 180 degress.

That's where our opinions differ and why it's so difficult to empathise with any of the characters. Personally, I don't like stories that flit around without giving you a chance to get your bearings. I don't like stories that are hard to follow because of poor authorial choices (I like intelligent, thought-provoking stories that puzzle you, not confusingly muddled ones).

You're talking about the same as what happens with bendalloy, which I can get behind. If I had to visualize it, it'd be a spherical magnetic storm that scrambles all Allomantic signatures. I'm still going with the wave theory until I'm proven wrong, because I like to believe Brandon built Allomancy on science, and not fairies and cake. Mmm, cake. Copper can't contain the pulses, since we know Vin could penetrate Copperclouds at times. Which leads me to believe that a pulses wave signature could also be perceptually altered. A Seeker is tuned to the frequencies of Allomantic metals, and Copper attenuates out that frequency for a given metal, but leaves certain harmonics of the base frequency, which are weaker but vary around the base. Though that makes me think why it takes more effort to ping those harmonics than it does the base? I'll have to think about this some more. Feel free to rip apart my opinion

Eona is still a person motivated by emotion. Having an "extraordinary" background doesn't instantly make one "harder." People react differently to given stimuli. Some are traumatised by it, some overcome it, and some aren't affected by one event at all that others are. Humans are diverse like that. Which is why I like Eona.

You're basing your entire disappointment on a story by its end? How was the rest of the story, might I ask? How did the writer make you feel about the characters? With stories like the Belgariad, as Shiver said, it's not about the destination that matters. Whether the final fight is an epic, 100-page fight or not, the one thing that really matters is the journey we took, watching the characters develop and grow, learn from mistakes and gain knowledge, strength, support, find love(?), kindle desires out of duty they never would've thought they had. If in the course of this journey the hero discovers a weakness they can exploit it's plausible your last battle might only last minutes. Most heroes have dealt with their inner conflicts by this time (read: The Gathering Storm) and enter the conflict confidently. The fact that Skywalker took so long to defeat his opponents was because he spent more time whining about everything than actually learning something. So by the conclusion he still had unsettled feelings. And oh yeah, by the way "Luke, I am your father." Nice curveball.

Well that's fairly easy, if they all have the same frequency and pre-defined phase shift they'd always be in synch. But I'm ready to discount my opinions now We don't have enough to go on, true, that's why we speculate. We can build theories like this because we want to imagine the logic behind something.

Allomancy is described as showing attributes of waves. When Vin is able to determine the individual wave of a metal and know who was burning what, it's possible Allomantic metals exhibit the same behaviour that sound, or light, waves do in established science. That is, when two waves of the same or similar phase cross, they produce an greater wave from the sum of the two. If the waves are perfectly out-of-phase (ie. 180 degrees difference) they will create a destructive effect and cancel each other out (providing each wave has the same amplitude but opposite polarity). If every metal wave had the same amplitude and Copper was always in-phase then two Copperclouds would reinforce by a factor of how ever many were burning Copper in the same vicinity. Waves are the summation of peaks at a particular time, if one is negative it serves as a destructive summation (eg. 10 + (-)5 = 5). I doubt specific Allomantic metals are ever out-of-phase since Vin is able to discern the metal by the wave formation and never describes one metal as having two distinct waves. That is, I believe Copperclouds would reinforce each other. If this doesn't make sense it's because I've been drinking

I've yet to find a better book than Winter's Heart or Lord of Chaos from the Wheel of Time series. I haven't read many classics but when I have I often find myself gravitating back to the fantasy genre. Orwell's 1984 was a great read, as was Arthur C. Clarke's Rendevous With Rama, but Wheel of Time has been the only series I've been willing to re-read at a moment's notice. Eventually I might throw the Stormlight Archives into the mix, since The Way of Kings has had a great impression on me, both for Sanderson's wonderful ability to worldbuild and his writing skill.

Jason Bourne was resolved with Ultimatum, I felt. We know he's alive, and he'll most likely stay in the shadows for the rest of his life unless something comes up. Even if he was to be granted a pardon and a new identity he'd want to remain from the reaches of any intelligence organization that might exploit his talents. David Webb is just that. We know he was a Green Beret and a Captain in Delta Force before joining Treadstone. Webb is his actual name, that wasn't a cover.

I think it would have to do with Preservation's state at the time too. I believe Kelsier held the Shard before Vin and it was his will to snap people in order to fight Ruin. I have a feeling that since Kelsier is new to the Shard business he didn't know how to control the mists to snap individual people and had to include the sick and elderly aswel.

I love rogue style characters but I've made myself use others now aswel. I had Morrowind for the PC so I could just screw around with the stats and be whatever the hell I wanted whenever. So far I have a Sword/Shield Nord Warrior (+Restoration, Forging, and Enchanting), a Khajiit Battlemage (One-handed weapons, LOTS OF DESTRUCTION), and a Wood Elf rogue (+Alchemy and Archery).

Replaying. You actually have 7 characters? I wanted it for the PC so I could mod the hell out of it but I don't really care about getting another desktop. They're too clunky.

Lemme know what you think when you're done, I picked up the first book awhile back but haven't had chance to read it yet.

What you have to remember also Tamzin, is that the people here might not be of your generation, but even the younger of our members may have found technology at an early age too. I myself was playing with a ZX Spectrum in the 90's and found arcade gaming as little as 4 years old. Retro gaming was a big part of my life that I actively sought games from the 80's - old 2D side-scrollers and text-based adventures. While I know you weren't trying to insult anyone and Windrunner has already covered that, I just want to mention that games have a story too. It seems you perceive games as mere vehicles towards a digital accomplishment. True, they are that, especially in games that have a high risk-reward system. But games have come along way in three decades to the point where they are just as much a story as books. Some games I play for the sheer enjoyment, the thrill of being able to do things I'd never be able to do in reality, or to experience fantastical worlds of magic and myth. Others I like to be immersed in the story, the culture, the history. Look at the Elder Scrolls series, how much lore do you think exists in that? Sometimes I just sit around reading in-game books on the history of Tamriel, then I'll go to the wiki and read more. Some games are gateways to the level of intrigue you'd find in an epic fantasy series like Wheel of Time. They are now a medium by which to entertain and distract us from reality, where we can be absorbed by wonder and majesty. --- Playing: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier It's O.K. but don't expect to be blown away by it. I feel it's like any other action game these days that force you into situations you can't avoid. At points you're forced to kill people in your path when you're trying to be sneaky, and then thrown into firefights because, hey, why not? The "tactics" are pretty slim too. GRAW seemed more well balanced than Future Soldier is with context sensitive commands. In FS you are able to mark targets, perform synchronised shots and... that's it. The only use your team perform is in providing back-up in fire-fights, which the game recommends you avoid. Fortunately, you're not penalized for being compromised, though some sub-objectives require stealth where I see opportunities to just gun my way through. The multiplayer is fun, though I wish they had more customization a la Rainbow Six and some game modes that aren't blatantly Call of Duty.

But Mistborn is a trilogy that could easily be turned into a trilogy of films, and Brandon's works are gaining much more notoriety within the community, in his own right if not for being attached to WoT. The chances that a WoT movie will happen over the Mistborn movie are negligible. No studio would ever have the finances to makes 14 movies AND retain audience interest. Even the fans of WoT believe some books drag on, how would the general movie-goer feel? And I believe Brandon has already sold the film rights to Paloppa Pictures and they've drafted several screen plays already (http://brandonsanderson.com/blog/1074/Mistborn-Movie-Update-and-Hugo-Nomination).

No. The point I made about back-stories is that we don't see that development unless some other character alludes to it or we get a flashback (such as why Kaladin took up the spear in The Way of Kings). Ergo, to make a character interesting you have to develop them dynamically in the present (such as Kaladin's descent into hopelessness, to reluctant confidence, to desire and responsibility). I'm making no correlation between the exposition Erikson gave us, and the current behaviour of those characters. I was saying Malazan's characters aren't interesting enough in the books for me to care about them. Back-story or none, there was no dynamic that really pulled me in and said, "this is why you care about this guy/gal." While Erikson does develop his characters they're still often bland changes and unexciting. I was intrigued by Kaladin because he was written with depth; he felt like a person to me, a person I could identify with based on his actions I witnessed in the present of WoK. @JamesW: Yes, you're right on a lot of your points. I'm not trying to make it seem like I'm arguing for the sake of arguing, I'm trying to keep it to a debate where I can share my opinions. If people are reading malicious intent within my words I would prefer they spoke up against it. It'll help me to develop my speech more diplomatically. And you yourself say your first reading of Malazan was a task to get through. I'm of the mind that no book should ever be a chore to read. Sure, Egwene's parts in later WoT books make certain parts of my anatomy ache, but for everything going on away from her perspective is more than enough reason to keep reading.

That's not what I meant. A character is interesting as to how they react to a situation and how it affects the story and how events affect and change them. I never said you have to mention back-story for the character to be interesting. I'm going to take a guess that you're not a writer? When I create a new character I always keep tons of notes on their history, their personality, etc. Exposition helps us, the writers, to develop them better, because if we know how they reacted once before to a certain situation we can approximate how they will react to something similar. And I know how Sanderson works with stories, it's how all writers work. Mystery and Suspense are two important tools to story writing. If you don't give your reader a chance to guess, to postulate, you'll bore them with cliche and banality. Erikson is a fantastic worldbuilder but he's not as strong with his characters or his magic system - which, quite frankly, makes no sense. Like Voidbringer said, you have to re-read passages to grasp their meaning. As a reader I shouldn't be expected to have to do that; as a writer I should ensure I've explained something to the best of my abilities.

Rand does not "cry" for two books about being taken from Emond's Field. In the first book he was confused, scared that things of nightmares were hunting him and his friends relentlessly. He showed courage and determination where others would have given up. The next two books he spends trying to discover himself. He reminisces about his old life, sure, but who wouldn't? I reminisce about home when I've been gone from it a week! Rand certainly doesn't cry about it. He's been told he's the Dragon, not an easy thing to process and deal with when you've been notified you're essentially the harbinger of destruction and death, destined to go mad and ruin everyone's day. He spends most of The Great Hunt trying to help Mat, with his friend's health his prime concern. It's not until The Dragon Reborn does he begin to accept what he is, after the Battle of Falme where his display of the One Power raises confidence in himself he didn't have before. Then throughout the third book it's him coming to terms with his true identity, learning about his powers and how to use them to his advantage. The problem with this is we don't actually get to witness that development, so to the reader they're flat characters with a bit of exposition tacked on. You can talk to me all day about someone's past exploits, how charming or debonair they are, what they've suffered or achieved, but it doesn't actually mean anything unless they show me evidence of causality. If they were assaulted how does that affect them now? Are they afraid of men and how do they learn to cope, adapt? Don't give me a character that comes with a personal statement, show me who he really is. Because Malazan only asks that you imagine for yourself what the character could be, not what they are based on the past, the development falls on its face. The reason why people have difficulty even caring about the characters (not whether they like them but just caring) is that they're no different to rocks: different shapes and sizes but essentially uninteresting. You only read three[?] of the books as you expressed yourself. Read up to the current books and you'll be surprised how much the characters actually change.

Really? Because they were like every other teenager to me. Their attitude can be excused on account of the burden placed on them. What would you do it you woke up one day and some stranger wanted to take you away from your family, your friends, your life, and then tell you you had terrible powers, that you would go mad and destroy the world? Or you could talk to wolves and were slowly becoming a beast yourself? Or you had a responsibility to dedicate yourself to something you never envisaged otherwise you'd die? Whether you liked them or not you can't argue that they were deftly written and accurate reactions to what a lot of us would feel and react under those same circumstances. There's plenty of other characters besides the main five that are likeable too: Thom Merrilin; Bayle Doman; The Green Man; Loial; Ingtar; Ragan; hell I even liked Ba'alzamon. What specifically annoyed you about them? I'm not telling you what to like and not, but literary fiction is written for many purposes, chief amongst which is to create characters that are instantly identifiable and are given the space to evolve. The best stories are often character driven; the plot changes accordingly to their reactions, rather than the plot deciding where the characters go and act. And yes, Malazan has flat characters because they never seem to develop, or learn anything outside of guided knowledge. WoT's characters change on account of their experiences, and that's something I want from a book.

WoT is High Fantasy... And you don't have to read WoT expecting a battle of good vs. evil. Just try reading it for what it does best and "listen" to the characters. Robert Jordan is such a marvellous writer and it is his proficiency to make us care about even the minor characters who appear for one chapter in the entire series, that enables us to say Wheel of Time is perhaps the greatest fantasy written. Of course, that's personal conjecture, and you're entitled to disagree with me, but I never read WoT anticipating the next big showdown of the good and bad guys; I was interested in the characters themselves, how they reacted, what they thought and did, and how they evolved throughout the story. Conflicts between characters were just as interesting between two "good" characters as they were between "good x evil." You claim to like fantasy and yet discriminate WoT for being exactly that. Malazan also has a magic system, it also has two-dimensional characters and a plot that only cryptologists can solve. If you want that, badass chitchat and action, go watch a Michael Bay movie. If you're reading a book and you're expecting every character to be cardboard cut-outs I've got news for you: books aren't your thing. Because identifying with characters is exactly why we read books, each and every one of us.

How the hell did I miss this? Do NOT skip Winter's Heart (book #9), it has perhaps the most pivotal storyline in the entire series, without which further books are pointless to be read if you don't experience the events in WH. Book #6, Lord of Chaos, is also a pivotal book and the second best - in my opinion - of the series. What happens in that book is crucial to the development of a lot of characters. Book #8, Path of Daggers, was slow, I'll give it that, but there's no need to skip it since it builds everything up for Winter's Heart. Book #10, Crossroads of Twilight, might seem difficult to keep attentive with at first as it doesn't advance the plot much, but it is rich in character progression and development, that allows the next book, Knife of Dreams, to drop straight into the action. There is something that can be gained from reading each book, whether it's just watching one of the characters you like the most grow. There is so much richness and vivacity in every book that it would be a shame to miss any of it. If you're a fan of fantasy then you're cheating yourself out of some wonderful, gripping, and powerful moments by skipping any one book in the WoT universe.