Cracknut

Erickson's magic system is undervalued here. It is more subtle than just warrens. Later on you learn about the Holds. In addition, there are Elder Warrens which are immune to the affects of Otataral. In addition, you have the warlock based magic as first laid out in Chain of Dogs, which is really a more elemental/shamanistic/spiritbinding form of magic. The solution to keeping Chaos at bay by Anamander Purrake/Draconus is pretty elegant. Last but not least, you have the Soultaken and the D'ivers as well as the unique properties of both Icarium and Karsa Orlong.

+1 for D'ivers. Erickson's magic system is awesome but he can't be compared to Sanderson IMO. Erikson has a lot of stuff going on but he's magic systems lack exact rules and limitations.

Yeah, it wasn't book about Logen Ninefingers. I enjoyed Logen from Red Country more than Logen from trilogy. Abercrombie is getting better and better and Red Country is his best work so far(imo).

 think he is talking about Hadrian refusing to kill innocent guards and such just to escape.  That just isn't Hadrian's style.  Would you really like a protagonist that murdered anyone and everyone that got in their way?  Hadrian does lose his swords in the second book, but that is a vital part of the plot and is realistic.

Survive and save the world vs. get killed by some innocent soldier who wouldn't mind killing you. Yes, I would prefer if a man with a history like that would've been a bit hardened by life. I mean, he would've died thousand times before the story even began for acting like that and there's nothing except author's will that lets him live.

Hadrian NEVER has his sword when he needs it, and its not even funny after first 2 books... It wasn't worst but it had nothing special imo...

Mistborn and Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

Kingkiller Chronicle - Patrick Rothfuss

Warded Man - Peter V. Brett

Night Angel - Brent Weeks

Raven's Shadow - Anthony Ryan

First Law - Joe Abercrombie

Broken Empire - Mark Lawrence

Kelsier, Jasnah, Sazed, Dalinar, Kaladin

From other books:
Kruppe, Kallor, Karsa Orlong, Fiddler, Itkovian, Tool, Trull Sengar, Anomander Rake..... (Malazan Book of the Fallen)
Logen Ninefingers, San dan Glokta, Cracknut Whirrun, Craw..... (First Law)
Kvothe (Kingkiller Chronicle)
Vaelin Al Sorna (Raven's Shadow)
Kylar Stern (Night Angel)
Jorg Ancrath (The Broken Empire)

Those swords don't look like Shardblades. More like common swords used by common soldiers. It shouldn't be that hard for a skilled Surgebinder. 

You CAN read them in any order and they'll do it as a standalones but you'll have to do rereading for Cosmere stuff. Or you could read them in order of release dates to catch a bit more. Though for me best reading order is:

Mistborn Trilogy - got most info about cosmere atm

Warbreaker/Elantris - good stuff for catching crossover character/s and getting bit more clue about cosmere

Alloy of Law - you should read this only after trilogy but I think reading it right after it won't work well

Way of Kings - try reading this after Mistborn, Warbreaker and Elantris. Its standalone and you'll be able to start from here but its still first out of ten and you will miss lots of awesome stuff. You can catch them later of course but first time is always best for me.

Emperor's Soul - you'll have lots of questions about laws of Cosmere after reading them all and you'll find some answers here.

16 and 10 aren't special only on Scadrial and Roshar. There are 16 shards and if I'm not mistaken 10 planets. There can be more metals but 16 and 10 will still be special. + Ruin could've been '16th shard'.

Sixteen is a powerful number, Venture,” Yomen said, looking over some reports. “It was the number of days it took the Lord Ruler to reach the Well of Ascension, for instance. It figures prominently in Church doctrine.”

Ruin was leading him to Well of Ascension. Ruin had plans for Vin as well and having exactly 16 year old girl on 1024th year can't be coincidence. Maybe shard itself has some kind of irrational inclination to its number.

Duraluminum - Instantly uses up all burning metals for more power.

Aluminum - Instantly uses up all metals for less power.

They aren't that far from each other and they have smart uses. Aluminum and Duraluminum Mistings are just unlucky, stuff like that happens all the time in real. Though they could make some interesting alloys with godmetals and if Mistings can use godmetal alloys of their metals...

Its not multiplier. It adds strength of at least five very strong men. Otherwise Ham's physical superiority would've been obvious against Vin.

Just don't expect too much.

Changing weight didn't affect size when Sazed used it to "fly", otherwise it wouldn't work that way. Therefore size = weight is wrong assumption, at least in Cosmere.

Whuh? Storing weight makes you weigh less. Tapping weight makes you weigh more.

Yes. Storing/tapping weight changes Feruchemists weight without changing his size. So, if you tap size it won't change your weight and it'll have same effect: Wind will take you if you make yourself bigger but won't change your weight(ofc it depends on how much size you're tapping).

I like idea of storing skill. Toughness is interesting as well, would it make you more elastic when storing it or something?

well, tapping weight also prevents you from being crushed under the extra weight, so presumably tapping size would have similar effects.

Nope, it would've been like storing weight.

"I dont know. It just feels wrong to me. I hate it. I'm glad he got rid of it. Makes him a better man."`

What if...

Captain America - Kaladin

Hawkeye - Wax

Hulk - Sazed

I didn't end up liking the First Law books themselves very much, but the two stand alones, Best Served Cold and The Heroes, rank up there with my favorite fantasy books of all time.

I feel like the First Law books had a lot of spite and vinegar in their DNA. It seemed like Abercrombie was telling a type of story he didn't want to tell and he took it out on the reader. As if telling an epic fantasy with messed up characters wasn't enough of a subversion because even the idea of an epic implies that there can be value and meaning attached to anything that humans hold dear beyond their own base or personal needs. Which was very effective, but a little strange as no one sat down and forced Joe to write an epic fantasy in the first place. Thus, you kind of eye the omnipresent resentment that's there on the page like you might eye a friend who pushes you in the mud for saying how nice the weather is.

The later two books two don't have the same chip on their shoulders and are allowed to be merely well-written engaging books in a gritty world whose bleakness, while pointed out, mirrors our own just enough to make it seem tangible. I know which I prefer.

So yes, looking forward to Red Country. I'm pre-ordering the British version along with the Alcatraz omnibus that just came out there. I'm a bit of a cover snob, but I'll also probably get it a month early since it's been delayed stateside.

I have a feeling that most of our "Yay Logen is back" feels and expectations are going to be subverted to tragic, crushing effect, though.

Heroes was best for me in series but I liked first three too. I don't know if you're right or wrong about him hating epic fantasy but whatever reason for all the non-traditional-epic-fantasy parts, it doesn't matters to me because I liked these books just for those parts, not to mention gritty humor and awesome writing style.

Well pretty much anything other than allomancy and feruchemy is useless in our universe since we don't have people with Breath, no stormlight, no elantris so I assume it's in the cosmere

$10 billion?

Breaths, Shardblades and Nightbloods. would've been useful.

I wouldn't choose Hemalurgy even in the Cosmere. Maybe earing or something like that. Even though spike eyes look awesome its still too much. Doing that to yourself for power is pathetic imo. Original Allomancy and Feruchemy would've been enough for me or Being Returned+Awakening but only if I start with 100k breaths or more.

Btw where are Elantris magics?

I know a lot people hate it here but still. One month left till Red Country's publication. Anyone waiting for legendary Logen Rip-Your-[REDACTED]-Face-Off Ninefingers' comeback?

Hemalurgy? And what would you steal in this world? Or is it 'if I were in cosmere?'

Allomancy and Feruchemy or 100k Breaths.

As far as I know Nightblood harms physical and maybe spiritual too. Shardblade cuts only spiritual if object has spiritual aspect. Nightblood would win most likely because it has radiance or something like that when activated and it would start destroying Shardblade before contact.

Nightblood is rarer than Shardblade and it needs big amount of Breaths for activation. It won't be fair Shardblade to be stronger then Nightblood.

Mistborn and Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

Kingkiller Chronicle - Patrick Rothfuss

Warded Man - Peter V. Brett

Night Angel - Brent Weeks

Dawnshards are swords too? If so I doubt Heralds would use Nightbloods.

1. They would need Breaths to activate it. Maybe they could use Stormlight though.

2. Dawnshards were before Warbreaker. Vasher's connection is unlikely.

3. Burning 'souls' to destroy 'everything' in their path isn't Herald way imo.

Most likely those would be used by Voidbringers. But binding is Honor...

"Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above."

I doubt how swords like Nightblood could bind anything.

He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!

-Dated Vevahach, 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. Subject: A prostitute. Background unknown.

---The Tower and Crown are Dalinar's symbols, and the Spear is Kaladin's weapon. Not an overly solid connection, but a working one. I suspect further investigation will reveal more from this quote.

Fallen title - Knights Radiant

Tower - 1) Big plateau where Sadeas abandoned Dalinar's army. 2) Wasn't it Tower where Knight Radiants resided?

Crown - 1) Dalinar won Elhokar's faith 2) Kaladin becomes king.

Spear - 1) Kaladin (Dalinar befriended him) 2) Kaladin picked up spear.

Thats how I see it. "The tower, the crown, and the spear!" - tower and crown referring to Kholins and Spear to Kaladin... idk I think each of them means different thing or all together something one.

Shardblades... Honorblades... I think those are same. 1) Honorblades were blades of honor, then someone(Odium) corrupted them and they became Shardblades. 2) Back then, people wielding Shardblades were honorable, now they see Honor as foolishness. 3) Both.

Windblades? What are those?

Oooh, also, water-skiing would be great fun, just pull yourself along with iron pulling (assuming we were in a world with speedboats and allomancy :S)

I'm not really in physics and stuff but would you be able to walk on water while storing weight?