Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

I am going to make it through NoK, and I can see glimmers of the type of good writer he might develop into (there are some very well paced action sequences and there is also a certain clarity of exposition that is satisfying), but his use of language is just so clumsy in this book. The scene where the Shadow hound appears when Kiske is tied up and a prisoner, and she describes the hound as being unbelievably big, and then goes on to say it was as large as a mule, man that's some stinky writing. Metaphor should enhance not detract from the mood. One of the most epic beasts in Malazan being compared to a mule takes a lot of the punch out of the scene. All that said, I really appreciate your opinion, and will try and tone down my critical faculties and just enjoy the story. Really glad to hear this and this. Before I read Erickson's book of the Fallen, I was reading through this thread a bit, and it seems like the pay off for ICE's Novels of the Malazan Empire really comes in Orb, Scepter, Throne. Based on what you've all said I'll stick it through these books too. And I am seriously looking forward to the Path to Ascendancy books. Nice to hear that I didn't really miss something about Ruthan Gudd and that he is as mysterious a figure as he seemed during the first read through. Thanks AngelEy3 for helping to tie up the loose ends for me, looking forward to going deeper into the world of Malazan.

HOLY CRAP!! That is possibly the best ending of any series ever made. Thanks again for helping me get past the glass desert! I did re-read the prologue of Gardens of the Moon, and it's amazing. @Ammanas have you read the annotations to chapter 1 of Gardens of the Moon on Erickson's website? He uses the analogy that setting up self-referential metaphor is like the ringing of a bell, and he did this in the first scene of the siege nof Pale, which he used as a kind of self contained circular symbol to bring readers back around in just the first chapter of the book. The weather vane in context of this series is like the tolling of a massive gong, but holy crap, it SO GOOD! The rest of my comments are going to be in a spoiler tag, because they're going to be about the Crippled God and the whole Erickson series. This is non-spoilery kind of stuff, but I am listening to Night of Knives, and I have to say, it is SO BAD. I thought I would try the Novels of the Malazan Empire first, at what point does Esselmont find his own voice as an author (because this 2nd rate Erickson impersonation really is not doing it for me). As the glass desert totally attests to, I defer to your guy's expertise, but I am really having a hard time with NoK. He says something like the "Verdigris on his Brass helmet", like he's using words just because Erickson used them to establish a "Malazan" mood, even though he has no idea what the word means. He seems to have a good focus on action and info dumps, but I have been wearing out the back 30 seconds button on my audible app trying to find the point at which he says something important. I seriously can tune this audiobook out like no other that I've listened to,

Playing back the recorded experience of the heart attack caused the person reliving the memory to experience a fatal heart attack as well.

Granted. Axl Rose again, McKagan got off his Duff and Slash stitched them all back together. Now their singing such classics as: "Sweet grandchild of mine" and "Welcome to the Assisted Living Facility" Your bane is that you have to be their Roadie. I wish that I had a speed bubble that would engage when I slept so that I could sleep for 12 hours every day in the space of 1 normal hour.

Turns out this movie was already made sometime in the 70's, found the Movie Poster for it: The Nightwatcher says, "Umm, ok carry on." You say, "Wait what? You're supposed to fulfill my wish and give me a bane too, that's how it works." The Nightwatcher says, "Listen kid, you're wishing for something that you already have, but if you really want something I'll give you a lolly." Being the reasonable person you are, you take the proferred lolly. While you are unwrapping the lolly, the Nightwatcher looks like she is having a hard time supressing her laughter. You put said lolly in your mouth and are suprised that it seemingly has no flavor. The Nightwatcher bursts out laughing, and slaps you on the back and says "Hahaha, it's saliva flavored". Appreciating this touch of nonsense you start laughing too. I wish sharders would show the upvote love to @Zath for how he fulfilled my wish for Time Boots in the post above, that was AMAZING!

I think that the evidence, as the OP stated, points to Gavilar having Sja-Anat. Furthermore, I think that the black sphere that Gavilar gave to Eshonai had Sja-anat encapsulated in it. EVIDENCE: Exhibit A: Gavilar talks to Eshonai about how he can return their lost gods to them. Would Voidlight in a sphere do this? Exhibit B: The stormform spren that the Listeners bond seem an awful lot like corrupted wind spren. They flit around as visible red streaks, Syl and Kaladin both comment on them before the eve of the Everstorm. I believe that Sja-anat was corrupting wind spren to create these storm form spren. How else do explain the fact that they have enough voidspren to effect the transformation of hundreds (or is it thousands) of listeners right on the eve of the Everstorm? Exhibit C: Renarin's spren. It's fully 6 years after the death of his dad that we see renarin manifesting radiant abilities, and we know by the end of Oathbringer that Glys is a corrupted spren. This is ample time for Saj-anat to have corrupted the appropriate truthwatcher spren that was already pre-disposed to bond Renarin. The proximity probably helped, and maybe was insturmental.

I get what you are saying, but that's not entirely fair. I think the thing that they can do, which is awful don't get me wrong, is draw out the things that you would find detestable anyway. Humans are remarkably adaptable. You can screen out and or accommodate nearly anything (as Malazan attests to in heartbreaking detail). The narrator for Flow My Tears the Policeman said did one of the worst jobs I've ever heard of a man doing a woman's voice. But I screened it out because the dialogue was really good. Erickson is an amazing writer, but he does tend to go to areas that I would consider "pretentious". The problem I was having specifically was that these moments were also coupled with the pretentiousness of the narrator, and you have the endless echo effect of Pretentious writing with Pretentious narration equals pretentiousness^2. I first experienced Warbreaker as an audiobook by one of my least favorite narrators, but it's still one of my favorite books by Sanderson. I could screen out his effect over time. I think Michael Paige does a good job with Malazan, I just think book 9 is one of my least favorite books of all time. I knew that book 10 was just part 2 of book 9 going into it, and based on what I've heard on this thread, I think that that the destination will be better than the journey. Thats's so funny, I think that Erickson has a completely different view of enlightenment. It's not the inaccessible mountain to climb, rather it's the ceaseless desert. He's such a cynical bastard that of course the perpetual, unceasing journey towards a meaningless end where only stubborn obdurate endurance matters is the great keynote of life. As an aside, I hate the glass desert more than I have hated any other uncrossable desert. But I think this is a more a more a matter of the Erickson mode of upping the ante than that this desert is more intrinsically irritating. Ok, I do have to defend Roy Dotrice. With the notable exception of Jim Dale, he is (in my opinion) the best audiobook narrator of them all. Peter Dinklage does a pretty good job as Tyrion, but Roy IS the voice of tyrion Lanister. I love Michael Kramer and Kate Redding, but to be honest I have been listening to them for the last 20 years (they are great, but at what point does nostalgia tinge your opinion to the point where it isn't just a conservative bias?). *********UPDATE************* The Crippled God is starting to get REALLY good! Thanks again for helping me get past the glass desert part.Badale isn't really bothering me anymore, the long tedious wandering of the snake was what was getting to me. After the scene where Silchas Ruin meets up with Tulas Shorn, it's just been getting better and better. Kalams Back! Ganoes Paran just told off the Assail! Freaking awesome! Back to lovin' it.

We know that the concentration of Investiture on Patji was strong enough to invest the grubs before Bavadin arrived, and perpendicularities are just concentrations of investiture. Is the perpendicularity on the first of the sun a willfully created perpendicularity? In my opinion no, it's just a dense enough accumulation of investiture to make a perpendicularity. Investiture is energy (or accreted investiture) but we know that energy is convertible to mass, and I think this simple fact explains Brandon's idea of perpendicularities. Let's assume that all investiture, irrespective of it's shardic source, has a finite vector that is energy. This is easily expressible in terms of the mass of matter necessary to generate that energy. Energy (investiture) is directly proportional to mass. Investiture is a special type of energy, supposedly, but let's just say, as I think is truly the case, that it's just more concentrated. Then it simply becomes an exercise in visualizing high concentrations of investiture as warps in the space time continuum, like a massive marble placed on a stretched elastic balloon. The more massive the marble (i.e. the higher the concentration of investiture) the greater the distortion in the rubber skein of space time. There undoubtedly is a tipping point at which the concentration of investiture is high enough to create a perpendicularity, but I believe (and I think the patji example is proof of this) that these concentrations of Investiture neither have to be willfully created by a shard nor do they have to be keyed to a specific shard. The Cosmere existed before the shattering of Adonalsium. It makes sense to me that some of these concentrations of investiture are composite (like the spren on roshar are composites of Honor and Cultivation), and that therefore they are not the domain of any one specific shard. Bavadin, realizing her affinity for first of the sun, might be able to take steps to guard this particular perpendicularity, but that doesn't mean necessarily that it is "of Bavadin". That would be like saying that your loaf of french bread is of "flour" even though you need eggs, salt, and yeast to make it. It would primarily of flour, but it's still a functional composite.

There sure has been a lot of Spam on the shard lately which got me thinking.... The example uses Tanavastiums, which could be the Rosharan standard unit of measure for Investiture, but what would the Silverlight scholars say is the base unit of measure for Investiture? The adonalsium?

and That's the beauty part of the theory, he is using the vessels that are experiencing passion flavored by another shard to consume that power. Like a big steam engine, he is using a bunch of disposable vessels subject to multiple types of passion to shovel investiture that is not keyed to his intent into the void. This is pretty freaking rad in that he is burning the candle at both ends, destroying the vessel and co-opting the loose investiture simultaneously.

Hats off to you brother, and you did it in an hour. Stormlight is leaking from eyes, but it'll pass, it'll pass.

I'm a guy, but I think Shallan has the coolest resonant power (the mental snapshot ability) and that lightweaving is an amazing powerset. The OP says that you can transform into the character and back again whenever you want, so as long as the ability to keep the mental snapshot persists when I have transformed back to myself I would totally pick Shallan just for the snapshot power. If the snapshot didn't persist after transforming back to myself, then to avoid the complications of her precarious mental state (I love her as a character, but I wouldn't necessarily want to live her struggles), I would pick Arclo, based on the fact that you can transform back and forth at will. It would be incredibly interesting to experience distributed consciousness like Arclo does, probably the most different experience you could get.

Proof: Alethkar is now known as Jasmaram, and the name of the new country is so cool that Odium concedes defeat, stops the desolation, and gives the Everstorm to the new power couple to use as the engine for their perpetual wave pool that they have installed in their palace at Kholinar. This also solves one of the great riddles of Oathbringer, the fuzed were demolishing the palace in order to rebuild it with the new perpetual wave pool. Theory: The Night of sorrows, when the Destroyers emerge from the Origin of Storms with light in their pockets, is really describing another wave of immigrants, namely that of the Dead Heads that used to follow the Grateful Dead around. The light in their pockets is really just a slight error in the retelling of the prophecy, they will actually have "lighters" in their pockets. The only destroying that they will do are the acts of militant vegans and environmental extremists, destroying chouta carts, freeing chulls, and chaining themselves to Chasm fiends to stop the cruel sport hunting.

Granted, you feel your consciousness spread out from your corporeal form, and drift far above your physical body. As your consciousness drifts upwards and expands, small flickering lights begin to appear to your expanded consciousness, you know instinctively that you can focus on any of these lights and instantly project your consciousness into one of these myriad vessels. Experimenting with your new power, you find yourself in a poorly lit room, smelling of stale sweat and bad aftershave. Looking down at the hairy back of your hand, you turn your hand over and see that you are holding one of those deli counter numbered tickets, and yours say 237. On a screen immediately in front of you, you see the words "Now serving number 7". You attempt to get up and leave this shabby waiting area, but as you begin to cross the threshold of the waiting area your consciousness is kicked out of the vessel you were possessing. Looking around for another of the lights that you saw previously, another one flares brilliantly to the south. Projecting your consciousness that direction you find yourself in the body of a middle-aged woman, standing behind a column of 10 other women, all fidgeting and looking slightly agitated. Looking at the head of the column you see a ladies bathroom, and you immediately release your hold on the body and your consciousness soars once more above the trees looking for another vessel to inhabit. Unfortunately, the only vessels you can inhabit are people waiting in lines, at Dr. Offices, or in governmental office waiting rooms. And further, if you do anything other than wait while inhabiting their bodies, you are immediately kicked out of their body. And to make matters worse, when you attempt to return to your own body, you see a long ghostly line of discorporeal souls waiting their turn to posses your body, and you see why. The person currently possessing it is playing video games and eating all your ice cream. You know intuitively that the consciousness that is inhabiting your body belongs to some teenager in a waiting room somewhere in the city, who has an incredibly vacant look on his face while he waits. I wish that I had a pair of time shoes, and that when I wore them, the direction that I walked would be the direction that I would travel through the slipstream of time. Just so you get this right Nightwatcher, I mean that when I walk forward in my time shoes, I go forwards in time, when I say moonwalk, I go backwards in time. When I move to the right or left I navigate through the potential alternate universes where slightly different decisions have created entirely different time continuums.

Proof: Cultivation is heavily Invested in Roshar. Roshar requires extra investiture to make the ecology work, the ground is fundamental to the ecology of Roshar, and therefore the ground is heavily Invested by Cultivation. The Nightwatcher is a splinter of Cultivation, so what is true of Cultivation is also true of the Nightwatcher. We know from Oathbringer that the ground already loves Lopen. Therefore the Nightwatcher has already been proven to love Lopen. Also the Nightwatcher thinks it's really cool how Lopen can open a beer with one arm. I mean really cool. Theory: Amaram faked his death to get out of the lamest secret society on Roshar, namely the Sons of Honor.

Congratulations @Edgedancer Jak, your roast was awesome (as Lift would say). Thanks again for making this happen Ashspren, this was a blast. Looking forward to the next round, what a great line up!

Awwwww, he deserves it!

Kaladin looks awesome! The color looks great on that one (nice color harmony too, by the way). The Inquisitor drawing is great too! I never thought that eyespikes could look fashionable, but man that guy is rockin' em. I like how you handled the background in that sketch too. Pretty hi-lar-ious that the Cryptic spren is sayin "Sup". Nice work all around.

@Hoids Imaginary Friend I like this line of speculation a lot! Shattering other shards to access the inherent passion that would have been otherwise assigned to their shard's intent, and using that passion instrumentally to fuel a minion's hatred, while consuming that minion's passion which is keyed to another shard's investiture would seem to in net terms be a true victory for the void. This is total speculation by the way, but I really like the idea that he gets more powerful and has more means to manipulate people the more shards that he shatters. I don't have the ebook for Oathbringer, but if someone who does could quote the bit where Dalinar see's Odium and lists all of the different forms of passion he seemingly is, that would be great. These then could be compared to the intents of the shattered shards, and connections could possibly be drawn. What's interesting about that bit where Dalinar sees Odium's passion is that Odium is showing himself to Dalinar, so it's possibly a view that is being manipulated by Odium. But I do really like this idea and it's definitely worth some more thought.

@Extesian Autonomy has another Avatar: This avatar is female, and she's grumpy in the morning until she gets her Temptation treats.

@Sprinoirim great, hope you can make it! I'm going to try and get in as early as possible but it's a 6 hr drive. I'll ping you and any other sharders that are planning on being there when I get there.

One possible means of creating the army of Hemalurgic Forgery derived allomancers would be for the Ire to employ a Forger and take a page out of the TFE Inquisitor's playbook. If the Ire (disguised through forgery) did their research on the Genealogy of the Noble blooded houses (like Marisi did), and started snatching orphans from Elendel, the targets of the Forgery would be relatively young (easier to overwrite their history), have innate connection to Scadrial, and the Ire already have a system of bringing Dor juice to the outskirts of the Scadrian sub-astral if a stronger Selish connection is needed to fuel the Forgery. Obviously, this is a terrible and cold hearted way to accomplish this, but Hemalurgy's not really all about making cute and fluffy bunnies, is it. This combined with southern Scadrial technology could potentially allow the Ire to create their own bands of mourning, and they might even be able to power their unkeyed allomantic/ferechemical creations with Dor juice instead of ettmetal. I have a feeling the the Ire are going to be paying close attention to the technological developments on Scadrial, and with the their ability to bottle Selish connection, and get into the Allomancy/Feruchemy game, they might end up using Scadrian technology to acieve FTL as well.