Riddlesinthedark

I'm wondering that myself, though it is wild mass guessing,but I am also thinking that that "corruption" can be a two way street. What if the Voidbringers (still obviously the Parshmen in my mind) have been similarly corrupted by Honor? We have shards opposing each other, so I suspect it will be more like Mistborn than Elantris, AoL, or Warbreaker, and that sort of scrabbling for an advantage is how HoA played out.

Isn't part of the book about how the "calling of farmer"(*forget the exact nomenclature of the books), is somewhat respected, an honored position just below being a soldier?

So is it Spoilers that Rand has a right hand?

I think submarine lifeforms were Sanderson's inspiration, but that the life intended to have evolved/created for the aeolian conditions. But the sky eels is an interesting thing I hadn't given much thought.

I love that Brandon Sanderson writes a sort of "Hard Fantasy", where magic systems are fairly rigid and outlined versus the more mysterious magic of Tolkein, the Narnia books, Harry Potter,co (maybe GoT?). Nothing against those, its nostalgic and traditional sort of witchcraft and wizardry realm, just diversity in the genre, imo. In that vein, past authors who have had similar systems. Le Guin, oldest laid-down magic system I've ever read. It might be because our hero is a wizard, versus other books where magic is around. David Eddings, especially in the Belgariad. I felt like the Elenium/Tamuli was much less so, but YMMV. Robert Jordan, Sex and mildly elemental based. Aethling, I think some of the lessening emphasis on elementals aspects was just power creep by the main POV characters. That was just off the top of my head, surely many more.

I actually just finished the series this week, and loved it, but I spotted this thread while lurking through the forums a few months ago. From my first and only read, I'm going with the Jensens/Maric's mother. The gardening/home-cooking/modesty matriarch is not ubiquitous or exclusive to Mormons, but it is quite common. I'm thinking probably just the mother, since it doesn't seem to pervade the family. I felt like she was the only peripheral character fleshed out with enough hints to be Mormon.

Yep, and you shouldn't have to be a philosopher to grasp the differences between theories and laws. If one remembers that science in its inherent nature falsifies things, and that the next thing science proves will be its first, you'll be of the right mind. Theories are the crowning jewel, things that have stood up many, many attempts at falsification. Next, the removal of dark matter/energy as simple placeholder values to explain the universe as we want it to work.

It took me over a year, and I finally got it yesterday and it is all MINE, mwhahahhaha /cackling But seriously. I'm about halfway done and can see where it has been robbed. It is great to have some new Sanderson, though. I am wondering if Dragonsteel is fair game here, or if there private thread for theories/spoilers related to it, similar to how Alloy of Law appears to have been set up? Does access to such a thread involve a bare minimum of spikes and related painful verbs?

People always will be. I had friends that were upset that Hermione wasn't black in the HP movies (the books are rather ambiguous about it).

Does that mean they "honor" those measurements?

I seem to remember Syl describing Spren as once being all the same being. Since Syl is an Honorspren, I'd think that a mark for all spren being splinters of Honor. Found it: "and all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual" p262 perhaps not as strong a statement as I thought. There are however different ways for Shards to manifest themselves right? Things like Leras leaving behind the mist-snapping mechanism, a sort of cognitive(lower case c) imprinted memory on the world's physics?

That is something I was thinking about. Scarcity is the name of the game, rationing to supplies. Atium and like, (just think of all the bendalloy comments from Wayne in AoL) would be scarce. So what are the easier metals to pick up. Based on Vin's childhood, probably soothing/rioting, maybe coinshots/lurchers as well.

It was a sweet action scene, one of my favorites. But the latest RDJ Sherlock had a train scene, and as nikomis pointed out, train shootouts are hardly limited to genre. It has a certain coolness factor (Trains are cool, guns are cool, thus trains+guns=cool^2). Again, my thought is that the setting of AoL really could be open for a Western(in fact I am really growing to want that book), but AoL wasn't exploring with the same story or themes Westerns typically would.

IMO going with definitely NOT Western. Look at the trope-makers of the Western genre, things like L'amour and anything starring John Wayne. Individualism, roughing it, Cowboys and Indians, showdowns, and revenge being something you take into your own hands. The last stop of the railroad or the newly arrived thorough-fare. Frontierism, pushing civilization out the boonies, no big cities or dealing or with the difficulties of urban sprawl. Now look at steampunk. New/old genre, but things like Girl Genius, the RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies as well as Victorian scifi like Frankenstein and 1000 leagues. A romaticism of Victorian Industrialism with the tech/magic pushing the envelope. Big cities, big machines, and bigger stakes(world wars and like). Escalating skyscrapers, well established industrialism, and navigating the slums. I think the timeframe is just ripe for a Western, but AoL was set in the wrong part of the world. It has some of the individualism commentary, but it come back to the city and settles in there AoL, I would argue is Steampunk/Mystery reminiscent of something like Sherlock Holmes(set in Victorian England). For instance of an actual genre blending Western, I would argue for Firefly(rip), as scifi/space opera Western. (Mal, like Wax goes by a three letter nickname and gets his hands dirty, but Mal is more likely to shoot the guy and ride fly off into the sunset)

That means that he will for sure be writing Alloy of Law sequels, specifically and not the second Mistborn trilogy? Knew about the Elantris sequels (time skip, right?) If I've got a bone to pick with Sanderson its his endings. I admire the "this is a interesting moment in time of the characters life and they live on" philosophy, but he ended the first Mistborn more conclusively than he did Alloy of Law or Elantris (Warbreaker I was fine with).

I have seen that in peers, especially where STEM teachers are concerned, the top students very rarely going into education. Recently read something/somewhere that said most Math teachers are recruited from like the bottom 30%, in the US. Whereas countries like South Korea and Finland pay the premiums to attract the top students. I do wonder what the teacher unions would say to a scenario like that, though, paying actual market wages. Would they allow 50k for an entry level Math/Physics teacher versus the 30k an English grad would pull private party? That type of stratification might be too much for them.

Has that ever been true? There are so many pointy-haired bosses out there. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-26-2011/weathering-fights---science---what-s-it-up-to-?xrs=share_copy "It's like surgeons being the only ones allowed to perform surgery."

Doesn't Kaladin mention a non-identified name, and then say, paraphrased, "No, not going there?" I'll keep it in mind when I next read the book, which I just barely did so it will be a while.

I think I made some useful mistakes, and I will refine it later. One is that I took for granted Hoid as the letter writer/seventeenth shard as Elantrians. I thought that so obvious, I will need to familiarize myself with those arguments. Not directly, but a few things support it. P1, Hoid has been on Roshar long enough to be a full Worldsinger, and train/promote an apprentice to full status.* P2, No one mentions Wit as being excessively old, iirc. P2, Hoid however does refer to himself as being quite experienced/old in conversation with Kaladin. For instance He might be referring just to linear time versus relative time, similar to the device used in the later Ender's Game books, where Ender outlives his siblings by a long time. Personally I think both are likely true, him being old linearly and relativistically. *In support of P1, Sanderson used in Elantris, a very Oriental* feeling style of promotion that dictated that one cannot raise others to the same rank. Wyrn to Gyorn, Gyorn to whatever, but not Gyorn to Gyorn (*I'm intuiting, rather than knowledgeable here. A similar device is used in The Ramen Girl, for instance, and it seems like I have seen it elsewhere. No such requirement exists, for instance, in Mormonism, though structurally it often happens.) Also is it WOG that Hoid was at the shattering of Adonalsium, or just speculation based on the letter/17th?

New to the board, only lurked a short time, but I think this is the place. Used the search function for Hoid and Hoid's Shard here and in the WOK forum, but didn't see a similar thought to bump. Hoid is a Sliver, right, having formerly held a Shard. Does he come out and tell Kaladin which Shard that was? WOK, hardcover, 801 "A compliment? Calling someone a thief?" "Of course. I myself am a thief." "You are? What do you steal?" "Pride," the man said, leaning forward... Contextually it might be part of his current role as King's Wit, lancing egos, which he mentions next. It would be stronger if Kaladin had asked "What did you steal?" and Hoid answered "Pride", but it seems a decent question to ask Sanderson.

Yeah, it looks like an inverse of Vedenar. Could it be the glyph of a City? Ur****?

The Dawnshards lacking reciprocating Dawnplate has me really curious. Latest reread had me wondering whether the Parshendi grow the ShardPlates, the descriptions just gives a very organic feel with how they fit together, to me. Though we have yet to see Shard Plate without a corresponding Shardblade from the Parshendi, so...

pg. 624, Hardcover, 1st printing, most of the way down the page "He's thirteen," Lirin said. Amaram glanced at him. "The surgeon. I've heard of you." He sighed, glancing back at Amaram. "I haven't the time to engage in your petty, small-town politics, cousin. Isn't there another boy that will do?" Text is a little cumbersome there, but I think it is supposed to say glancing back at Roshone.

Seems the place for the first post. Grew up mostly in Provo, and actually ran into Brandon Sanderson long before reading his books (similar story with Howard Talyer and Schlock at Dragonskeep), with a few acquaintances showing up in the acknowledgements. My Father went to LTUE again in 2008, purchasing and having a copy of Elantris personalized for a birthday gift. Though it was a while before I got around to reading it, I then quickly devoured everything else and started waiting for more. Love how he is finishing out the WOT (started reading that series the summer before Path of Daggers came out) so quickly, and am rereading all the books while I wait out the incredibly slow readers ahead of me at the BYU Library so that I can, hopefully, get my hands on Dragonsteel. (Been trying for ~18 months; between BYU losing the copy and the Library not having my correct email address on the hold request the first couple times.)