Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Sorry to double post, but wow, it's been a long time since this thread of pure gold was up near the top where it deserves to be. If there was ever a thread that deserves to be immortal it's this one. For all you Moash haters out there, sorry but this is a song that has got be song I'm Your Vyre (sung to the tune of Venus by Bananananaramama Spoilered because why not

Beautiful poem @Wyndlerunner! That line above is my favorite! The rythym of the line and repeated W's mirrors the pounding of the waves, really nice! The final couplet is very sweet too. With your affinity for stones you should check out the song "A Stone" by Okkervil River from their fantastic album Black Sheep Boy (link spoilered below)

And I hate to do it because the theory is great, but: The Stormstriders we have seen onscreen have only been at most 2 in number. I think we've only seen 2 because there are only 2 existent. I think that the Stormstriders are 2 parts of the tripartite being that is The Sibling, with Cusicesh being the 3rd. That Cusicesh WOB on the face of it seems like a nail in the coffin, but this could just be a clever WOBfuscation, an apparent answer that heavilies implies a negative, but when you read it actually doesn't preclude the positive theory being suggested. The final reply of "probably not in the way you're thinking" is completely in line with my theory. Cusicesh's function in the Entity that is the Sibling probably has nothing at all to do with Urithiru. If you carefully read that WOB, Sanderson turns the question so he can give precisely that "not the way you're thinking" answer. The God of Wind Stormstrider is probably likewise more than just a mere battery for the tower city, but that is probably one of the functions it performs, a bridge from the highstorm to the Bondsmith of the Sibling, who in turn channels that power to run Urithiru. *EDIT* @GoWibble, I just noticed I never directly addressed one of your points, namely the one about Urithiru deteriorating because of the absence of the Sibling. The deterioration I believe is happening solely from the lack of power that was previously supplied by the God of Wind portion of the Sibling, who is now currently being sheltered in the eye of the Highstorm. Also, i think the Sibling's Bondsmith is a necessary conduit to channel that power to the tower city. The lack of power would affect all of Urithiru's subsystems, and just like how sections of Detroit are being reclaimed by nature, the same tendency to return to a wild yet dillipidated state would still exist for Urithiru.

This is total conjecture, but I think they would each have a separate identity as well as a shared identity, similarly to how the Christian God is a tripartite being. Each aspect is separate and distinct but also part of a larger unitary whole. The closest analogy would probably be like how a brontosaurus is an organism, but has a separate brain for it's tail and its head. The individual brains have different specific experiences and thus as identities are separate but they are both functional components of a larger composite.

I know there's a thread about the Stormstriders already, but I think that this theory is novel enough and different enough that it could use it's own thread, and this is my first official prediction for a major reveal in book 4, and it would have been satisfyingly in front of our faces the whole time enough if it turns out to be right. The other Stormstrider thread has some very interesting speculation on what the Stormstriders could be. I still think the best explanation for the Stormstriders, and my official prediction for Book 4, is that they are in fact pieces of, or the entirety of the Sibling. One of the primary pieces of evidence for this theory is when Dalinar is questioning the Stormfather about God Level spren. The Stormfather, being the Cognitive Shadow of Honor, is protective of radiant Spren in general, and once again this fatherly protectiveness comes out when he shuts down Dalinar's attempt to find out about the Sibling. What better place to hide the Shadows of Gods, than in the shadow of the Cognitive Shadow of a God? What if the Stormstriders are aspects of the Sibling, and are being sheltered in the center of the High Storm to keep them from being hurt by humans again? It has been stated by Brandon in WOBs that Cusicesh is not a god level spren, but what if Cusicesh is merely part of a tripartite god level spren, one of the Singer's original Gods of Spren, Stone and Wind referred to in the Eila Stele? What if the singer's original God was in fact the Sibling, and these 3 aspects of their worship created three separate god level spren that were funcitonally one Entity? This has nice echoes of the Christian Trinity. My guess is that Cuscicesh is the God of Spren, and has obviously been damaged. This is getting into the realm surmise, but my guess is that Cusicesh was the necessary part of the Sibling that Melishi used to break the Singer's spiritual connection, but that this in turn had a reciprocal effect on Cuscicesh herself/himself, causing their mind to snap (similar to how the breaking of a Radiant Spren's oath turns them into a semi-mindless, vegetative type entity). Stiching this together with the Puuli interlude, the possible reason Cusicesh is always looking towards the origin is latent guilt about her role in severing the singer's connection, and she/he is waiting for the forces of Odium to come through the Origin with light in their pockets (voidlight most like). This would also explain her/his title of "Protector". To go further down the chain of surmise, I think one of the luminescent figures glimpsed in the High Storm is the "Lifebrother" that Taravangian mentions in The Way of Kings Interlude: My guess would be that Lifebrother is the Vorin version of a co-opted singer God, one specifically responsible for imbuing the Crem with the trace amounts of Cultivation's investiture necessary to sustain life, and that would make one of the tripartite High Storm traveling components of the Sibling the Original God of Stone. The third part, the God of Wind, I think is likewise one of the luminescent Storm Striders, and not the Stormfather as the usual speculation goes. I think the Stormfather is too specifically of Honor to have been one of the Original Gods of the Singers, and the High Storms predated the arrival of Cultivation and Honor. I think the original god of the Wind was subsumed into the storm after the arrival of humans, and furthermore I think that the god of Wind portion of the Sibling is probably the missing battery for Urithiru, and can function separately form the the other 3 pieces. In the details of the Melishi's strike force in the gem archive, no one seemed particularly concerned that Melishi's absence from Urithiru would cause all the lights to go out. This is all conjecture to be sure, but the pieces all seem to fit quite nicely and it would be very cool to have a Bondsmith that has 3 separate aspects, which can exist in 3 separate locations, and that fulfills 3 separate functions. The only way this would be better would be if Arclo the Sleepless was the one to Bond the Sibling, talk about true distribution of power, the forces of Odium wouldn't stand a chance.

@TheDwarfyOne that technique is awesome! Thanks for sharing the whole process, all the variants of The Ent are beautiful! The sonnet is my favorite, I love how it starts and ends with the bees. The first quatrain is incredibly beautiful, especially these lines: This is just totally according to my aesthetic preferences, but my favorite lines of all the variations are: I can't help but feel that this is like a mote of dust in the upper atmosphere, with the potential to form the core of the most beautiful snowflake ever to crystallize. Really nice work! @SirWolfe that's a really pretty poem, I like the parallel between a life lived and the passage of a day. Nice work!

Thus began the Big Suck. Poof!

A poem in Ketek form describing the poetic magic system, brilliant! One more level of recursion though and the universe might implode. A single atom of the concentrated, super dense matter that existed during the inflationary period of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago remained more or less unexpanded. This primordial mote of the will of creation fused with an atom of Unbiquadium after passing through the heart of a supernova. 2000 years ago this molecule fell to earth, heated by the entry into the earth's atmosphere and then cooled by its plunge into the pacific ocean, its inate expansionary potential was activated and then immediately slowed. Finally settling at the bottom of the Marianas trench, the promethean molecule with the power to form an entire universe remained in relative stasis until a tectonic event created a new fissure, and the molecule began once again to be heated by a thermal vent. The raw matter of creation began drifting in plumes from the impenetrable depths of the sea, and eventually found its most concentrated form in an isolated population of squids, specifically in their ink. On Kume Island, in Okinawa, these squid were harvested for their ink and a select few of the Shinto priests gained knowledge of the magical properties of this Sumi ink. Imbued with the power of creation by the emanations from the primordial matter of the cosmos, this ink, when used by a practitioner of sufficiently specific creativity and with crystal clear intent, can be used to create fantastical worlds. To access these created worlds two keys are necessary, a textual description of the world and a scale map of the world, both created with the world creating ink. There are inherent risks in this process, if the textual description is incomplete seemingly tangible structures in the fantasy world will fall apart into puddles of ink if examined too closely. The map must be designed with clear pathways between items of interest, otherwise a traveler to the world can find themselves trapped in the infinity between points, lost forever. Also portals that commute between the fantasy world and the real world must be both described and drawn in detail, and if they are incompatible with the spirit of the world they will not function. The gates to these imagined realms in our world look like mere decorative Shinto gates, but to the initiated they are the gateways to the manifold worlds of the mind. Also the preponderance of the town names have to have a K, an X, a Q or a Z somewhere in their name and the cardinal direction rosette that establishes the direction of north on the map has to look really cool too or else the map won't work. Coincidentally, the movie Xanadu starring Olivia Newton John is really a documentary about a rollerskating world created by a worldbuilder in the 70's. Body temperature

700,000 years ago a divergent evolutionary path from Homo Erectus began along the clay rich soil of the Han River in Southern China. A tribe of primitive humanoids began ceremonially bathing in the dysprosium silt laden water of the river, and ritually covering themselves in the dysprosium mineral rich clay from the banks of the river. From the dark impenetrable drives of primitive superstition, this new race of humanoids was compelled to grind and eat the bones of their dead, thereby further concentrating what would become the dominant characteristic of their people, namely the incredibly high concentration of Dysprosium in their systems. From the dark primordia of prehistory, this race emerged like Achilles from the river Styx, gifted with godlike powers not possessed by mortal man. In an inaccessible valley along the banks of the Han River, they flourished but never spread, developing their own code of laws and rules, vastly divergent from human norms, while honing and perfecting their powers. Theirs was the power to make metal obey their will, to effect objects at great distance by projected fields of force, and to cause inorganic substances to luminesce at their touch. They also had the ability to anchor themselves to any object, in essence becoming part of the same inertial reference frame as the object they attached themselves to. When anchored to the ground large ballistic missiles could be pushed aside with the same effort one might shew away a fly or a gnat. Projectiles could invariably be turned back upon the aggressors. Tall of frame, narrow of shoulder and with irises that swirled like liquid metal, theirs was a race unable to blend in with the common stock of man. Being wholly ignorant of industrial processes and limited in their understanding of machines beyond the basic principles of mechanical advantage, theirs was a society on a direct collision course with Humanity. Oh, and they could operate vending machines without spending any money. But sadly they really loved New Coke, it's lack of availability is quite possible the spark that set off the Epic War. Poetry

I missed the Livestream because I was out of town, but that Shardcast was a ton of fun! I got home at 3am and was going to watch the Shardcast while I fell asleep but you guys were so funny and the episode was so good I ended up staying up til 5, and I think I woke my wife up a couple of times because I was laughing so hard. The new overlay is great, but with the screen filled with Shardcasters I can't help but feel like you should do a Brady Bunch style intro: "Here's the story of some meg-a-faans, bringing you the news and info that you need. All of them loved Works by Brandon, That's the way they all became the shardcast bunch." In our honor or your 10th anniversary, here's a quick little mod to the shardcast overlay (spoilered below): Looking forward to Part 2!

Sorry to double post, I got home late last night and didn't have time to formulate a proper reply. That is an amazing poem! This part is so good! The cadence of the first stanza and the parallelism reflected in the meter around the hinge of "Long" is really satisfying. X/XxX-xX X/XxX-xXx The small step part is perfect! The only part that was slightly uneven, in what otherwise I think is a perfect poem, are the lines "Tasting them like/The wine of gods" This is totally just my reading of it, and I could be completely off base, but the rest of the poem is so tight and fits together so well, this was the only bit that was mildly off for me. That is a fantastic poem and the ending gave me actual goosebumps. So good! Really nice work!

Oohhh, chills! That's great, I love it!

@Chaos your proposal was so unbelievably sweet! I'm so happy for you guys and your capital c Connection! Not only is this the most intelligent fan forum on the net, but it also has the nicest people and I know that stems from the intelligent, kind and dedicated people who run it. Thanks so much for all you guys do! I'm really looking forward to the theory explosion that's coming with Rythym of War!

If you liked that song check out Carnival, it's from his second solo album Whiskey for the Holy Ghost which is, in my humble opinion, one of the best albums ever made. Here's a poem that I wrote for my wife: Close your eyes and take my hands Spin with me and see what lies In the sunlit red behind your eyes. Faster, arcing flame red strands Your hair lifts up and then it flies A fire whirl under unseen skies Ragged breathed, in grassy strands We lay and hear the finches cries And watch the sun behind our eyes Far from us, life's dull demands, Wait and duly amortize Still we choose not to arise Our languid limbs forget commands Our torpid chests barely rise The dream we dream doth tranqualize The grass grows o'er us in bands, Verdant hillocks our new disguise Lost in our love that never dies.

Fixed it, thanks brother!

It' interesting to see the syllabic breakdown, thanks! Yeah, I haven't read the whole series. I read an excerpt from the Name of the Wind that was included in an anthology, he does have a nice turn of phrase, but the whole setup with Kvothe is a bit too much for me. I can totally see why people love it though, he's an original thinker for sure. Don't know if you're a Mark Lanegan fan or not (check out his song "One Way Street"), but he just released a memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep. It's so unbelievably good, the prose is spartan, the truths are dark and he writes it like he writes his best songs, never dodging unpleasant truths and with a truly poetic soul. Also, if you listen to audio-books, Audible has it and Mark Lanegan even narrates it with his deep, smoke cured voice. So good!

I was on the shard after a bit of hiatus, and saw that you had a new poem, nice work @TheDwarfyOne! I haven't read Rothfuss, so I didn't really get the allusions, but the the meter and lyrical quality of Kvothe's Walk is really good! Here's one that I just wrote, think it's pretty good: LIKE GLASS Swallow their shallow words like glass Gnash and rend their tiny knives. Breathe deep their petty poison gas, and pity them their hateful lives. Tred lightly with your iron boot—tyrant Contempt unsheathed is a two-edged sword— Those under your heel may prove defiant And contempt like glass shall be your reward.

Ok, I think I have finally done it, here, for your general amusement and such, is a rhyming perfect Ketek which coincidentally also involves a fart joke. Classic. This Ketek was written before a live studio audience, their reactions can be seen (parenthetically) below. Will he Billy taking part, move his arm to make-a-fart? (audience murmurs) Silly Billy that's no art! (Boo boo, hiss hiss) No!!!!! (the shocked silence of anticipation) Is that Billy, silly fart-a-making? Arm—his moving part—taking.... (The terrible, fraught denouement, will he or won't he???? A terrible peal of armpit compression resounds!) Billy, he would. (The audience groans in disgust. Silly Billy that's not art)

I was just looking at the Tor website and saw that they are offering a free download of the ebook of The Way of Kings for anyone who signs up for the Tor.com ebook club! It will only be available for download on May 4th, so sign up now and grab it then! I have the hardback, the trade paperback (got it addressed to my daughter at a signing), and the audiobook, so after may 4th my collection will be complete.

We found Morels for the first time! While walking our dogs my daughter found 9 yellow Morels (Morchella esculent) alongside the trail. They are such delicious mushrooms! We tried them dry sauted, sauted in butter and sauted in olive oil. The consensus from my family was that they tasted best dry sauted, with one dissenting vote for olive oil. This is just the start of many delicious morel culinary experiments, so exciting!!

@Spock that's hauntingly beautiful! I can totally see this as the theme for Shallan's arrival to Kharbranth, and as the soundtrack of her path to becoming Jasnah's ward. It's very cinematic, and I can't help but think of the picture it paints, like Korsakov's Scheherazade. Until about 2 mins in it's both fragile yet hopeful, hence the struggle. The change at 2 mins seem a bit like character growth, like buckling down to do things in earnest, and the ending seems like a climatic conflict, maybe the conflict Shallan feels in being both proud that she's Jasnah's ward but also ashamed that she'll eventually have to betray her. Great stuff!

Yeah, I really like the FoD narrator too, and I think the narrator for FoL is pretty far from good (the Thel Skai comedic bits are painful to get through, I kind of cringe when I'm listening to my audiobook and doing dishes and my wife comes into the kitchen when the Thel Akai crew are jabbering, kind of embarrassing really), but it's crazy how much his Grizzin Farl sounds like the narrator from FoD! I loved Ralph Lister's reading for the first 3 Malazan Books, he is the voice I hear when I read dialog by Ganoes Paran, in the same way that when I read Song of Ice and Fire I hear Tyrion speak with Roy Dotrice's voice (such a great performance that, too bad that he's passed on). Do yourself a favor and get the Lister narrated Memories of Ice, his Itkovian is phenomenal, possibly one of my favorite characters in any work of fiction, and Lister does him perfect! I really like Johnathan Banks Novels of the Malazan Empire, he's got a great voice, fun understated and with a nice range too. Michael Page is great for books 4 through 10 of MBoF, with the exception of Badal of the Rivvy snake, holy crap, it turns the pretentiousness of one of Erickson's most pretentious characters up to 11. But that said, his Karsa Orlong is absolutely perfect, and his Shadowthrone and Cotillion are great, his Kalam and Quick Ben are spot on, he really does about 90% of it right, and on subsequent listen throughs his worst characterizations are nowhere near as bad as Lister's painful, slowly articulated K-ru-p-pe of Da-ru-ji-st-an. If you have an extra Audible credit kicking around, the best deal going right now is to get The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, it's over 50 hours of Lovecraft, narrated incredibly well, and includes 74 stories, brilliant! Speaking of Audible credits, I am going to have one pretty soon, and was wondering if any of you all have Read/Listened to The Red Knight, the first book in the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. I listened to the preview, the narrator sounded good, the prose was better than average, and the author is a Medieval scholar type, and the books are supposedly very realistic but also fun to read/listen too. Also the book series if 5 books long, and is complete. Have any of you read/listened to these books and if so, what did you think? The Books of Babel series sounds fun, but I like to use my credits to get books that are 20+ hours. I like Johnathan Banks a lot though, just listening to the sample of Senlin Ascends makes me want to listen to Return of the Crimson Guard!

Yeah, I'm listening to Fall of Light, and it's definitely one that I have to rewind on occasion to get some of the nuance, eventually I'll get the book too. Did you have trouble suspending disbelief during the scenes were Skillen Droe was talking? It's kind of hard to merge the two ideas of a flying Shi'gall Assassin with the voice of Sean Connery. The closest I get is a flying dinosaur with Sean connery's head (specifically how he looks in In the Name of the Rose). "Some things in this Warren don't react to well to bullets", Skillen Droe says in his rolling Scottish brogue.

@Ammanas Yeah, I'm reading Fall of Light right now, and I'm liking it a lot! I'm going to talk about specific things in both FoD and FoL, spoilered below. Yeah, those Malazan reading orders where they suggest reading The Kharkanus books before the Book of The Fallen are not doing new readers any favors, that's for sure. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I started reading Kharkanus, but I had a vague impression that this series would be framed around showing 3 things: The mysteries behind Sandalath Drukorlat's haunting memories and spiral into madness in TCG, the civil war where Ruin is pitted against Rake, and the Heroic stand of the Legion against the assault from Starvald Demelain. Erickson is a successful author, he should be able to write and publish whatever he wants. That said, I do get the sense that he is fragile guy, and as he dismisses accolades and praise he is really covering his eyes, feigning not to care, while still secretly peeking out through the gaps in his fingers and hoping that everyone is realizing his genius (and genius he is). To borrow a WOT term, Kharkanus is written in High Chant, and I think it's precisely because he has little to no contempt for his fans that he thought that he could publish these books. I get that they are not everybody's cup of tea, they aren't my favorite Malazan books, but there are moments in them that are some of my favorite moments in all of Malazan, and so I think they are definitely worth the journey. I know I spend a lot of time in seeming defense of Erickson, I love the ICE books, he's a great writer, but I do think that maybe Erickson doesn't really get the credit or due that he deserves. The tragedy of Kadaspala over the entire course Erickson's books stands up against anything the Greeks have done (there are definitely parts of his story that are derivative of Greek Tragedy, but the application of his particular suffering is unique). The haunting of Kadaspala by the face of the dead Denier boy, and how he will paint this face over and over and over again and force everyone to look at the true face of injustice, combined with his master work in Dragnipur is nothing short of brilliant. Don't get me wrong, I love the ICE books too. Stonewielder is probably my 7th or 8th favorite Malazan book, but I guess that if I had to pick my dog in the race it would be Erickson all the way. You guys are all great, and I respect your opinions. To get into the realm of the shallow prejudgement sort, like the High Fidelity notion of it's not who you are but what you like that counts, I am predisposed to like people that like Malazan, foraging for wild mushrooms, Philip K. Dick, Dostoevsky, Plutarch, and to a lesser extent as time goes on Brandon Sanderson (after reading Oathbringer this was much higher, but recently the formula behind it all has started to show a bit more (Skyward could have been written by Plotbot 2000). I have been told many times that I express my opinion in a somewhat offensive way, it's not my intent to offend, you guys are all great and it's incredibly fun to talk about Malazan. But that's not why he writes it, he's a griper of epic scope. Malazan could be retitled as "On the Virtue of Uncertainty and Compassion, or How I Dislike all the miserable little poops (use the swear word there instead) in the World". Does the fact that it's entertaining make the bitter pill easier to swallow? Yes, yes it does. Do I like to use rhetorical questions that I then answer myself? Yes, yes I do. Yep they are a dour bunch, and when the closest thing you have to comic relief is Dathanar and Prazek, the two heroes of legend that take 5 paragraphs of highly effusive text to tell a joke, then yep, you don't have the same mass appeal. Scorch and Leff they are not. Also, it's a fairly strange notion to have proto-gods living in squalid villages. The Azathanai are an odd bunch for sure, but it's an interesting exploration into what could true elemental power be like. The plot is, like you say, nearly non-existent. I'm half way through Fall of Light and all Urusander has done is pace around his command tent. There isn't much in the way of action, but it's also the time of foundation when the abstract is accreting into the concrete, where symbol is being clothed in flesh. Is there too much exposition/monologue/internal thinking? Only the parts that are reiterations that have been said better in other places, but this is a function of them being themes that preoccupy Erickson. Every great artist, like Kadaspala, has primary themes that they circle back to, with slightly different takes on, this is the nuance of their craft. I personally could do with a bit less of the monologues/didactic speeches, but I can make my way through them because the journey is truly worthwhile. I think the Witness books are going to be great! I thought the prologue was good, and I hope that they sell well too for Erickson's sake. I'm excited for The Jhistal too! That was one of the big shocks reading the ICE books that Mallick became the new emperor, that made me really mad at first. But he's such a good character, the kind that you love to hate, and it's very interesting to think what the Empire will look like with him at the helm. One last thing and then my mini-novella is done. I was waiting in line at Trader Joe's for 30 minutes yesterday, and had time to read the first 6 pages of Erickson's new Bauchelain and Korbral Broach novella, and it's really good, and very prescient in this time where we are being stalked by the specter of encircling death, and decisions as to how much should we pay to stave of the assault are being made. He's only gotten through 7 pages so far (it's going to be ~50,000 word novella), but it's thoroughly enjoyable, here's the first page, the rest can be found on his facebook page, so good!