king of nowhere

Yeah, I've been thinking on an equivalent of hazekillers for radiants, but there's nothing to be done. So I expect a huge powerup for odium's forces in the next book. stormforms are still on the level of ordinary soldiers, say one of them equals to two or three regular soldiers, but still littlle treaths for simple shardbearers. we'll soon see something capable of really threatening radiants.

now a few people mentioned that jasnah's corpse was missing, is it true? I don't have the book with me, but both times i read it I was sure than jasnah corpse was being stabbed over and over, it wasn't missing. after the thieves stabbed jasnah, shallan run into her cabin and soulcasted the ship, and jasnah corpse was never seen again - but because it sunk with the rest of the ship, and shallan had other concerns than looking around. I don't remember a mention that jasnah's body disappeared; if I had, I'd have reacted to the scene much differently. what did I miss? Also, for "reviving from death"; the way I understood it, regrowth cannot really resurrect; simply, after blood flow to the brain stops, the brain cells will still survive a few minutes, and if regrowth is used in that time, the person can be healed. Or, in the case of szeth, the sooul was severed but the body was still alive. Anyway, something must be still alive for regrowth to work.

despite her low profile, she's apparently well known in the right circles.

Well, that's what I would have assumed if she had died in any other way. if the body was never seen, or she was stabbed vaguely, or anything, then I'd also have at least suspected she was alive. But when she appeared on screen, apparently dead, not glowing, and was stabbed throught the heart again, when all our knowledge at the time strongy implied that stormlight healing wasn't good enough to heal that, plus the fact that the ship disappeared so even if she survived she would be stuck in freezing water at night and far from the coast, well... my genre savy told me it was brandon way of telling us "yes, she's really dead, no need to speculate about it, I'm showing you as hardly as I can that she died because I want no ambiguity about it". Well, my genre savy failed me that time, but it was a perfectly reasonable assumption Well, explaining magic after it is used is pretty much a good definition of "deus ex machina" to me. every deus ex machina is justified after it is done. Andd jasnah being stabbed, and then disappearing from the book entirely, is a pretty big plot point to me. Now, if she had just gotten up after the stab and mopped the floor with the assassins, with no long term consequences, and then explaining that stormlight can heal even that much, that would have been a perfectly good way to introduce a new ability Anyway, that's not necessarily bad. Deus ex machina is often used in a dispregiative sense, but it can actually be good, if it is done well and the explanation is convincing. In fact, I'm not complaining about jasnah surviving - in fact, after reading her released chapter, I think that was wonderfully done - I have problems with the time at with it was revealed and the general pacing of the book. Also, Vin's example is not a real deus ex machina to me, because it didn't need to happen. if brandon wanted, he could show her tear the metalminds off of tlr arms manually (i believe it was so in the first draft). So the fact that he decided instead to solve it in an unexplained way was a big hint that there was a reason for it. And anyway, it was a well executed one, with a good payoff, so no problem with it. After reading all the answers so far, I am convinced that the best time to show her surviving would be just after her apparent death, or a couple chapters later at most. First of all, it wouldn't feel like brandon is bringing her back so blatantly, if she stay dead only a few chapters. Then, she could have the chapter of her in shadesmar - that was actually a very short one, so maybe a half-chapter - to show that she's alive but isolated, and then the story wouldn't have to focus on her. The bonus is, is solves most pacing problems. additional chapters of her in shadesmar could have been added along the book without disrupting it, instead of having to cut them or publish them separately as brandon may end up doing. The main drawback I see with it is that is strongly reduces the emotional impact of shallan crying for jasnah.

in which case, they'd be justified plot shields

The only unsatisfying thing I have to say about wor is the way jasnah returned at the end. Oh, I'm realy happy that she's still alive, and that part that brandon released showing her in shadesmar makes it perfectly reasonable. I'm not talking about that. I'm sure Jasnah returning is for the best. What bothered me was the timing of the reveal. It was at the end of the book, right after the climax, with lots and lots and lots of big reveals. So my reaction to it was not much "aww, what a surprise " but rather "oh, yes, another big reveal with someone coming back from death. what next?" In general, too many big reveals crammed together strongly reduce their impact. When really overdone, it can completey ruin a good book, at least for me; if everything we know is turned on its head too often, I just stop caring about it. It's like someone tell me 'oh hear that, that's really intersting blah blah blah, but surprise! i lied to you, in truth is blah blah blah and surprise again! even that was wrong, the real fact is blah blah blah but not really, did you fall for it? ...' and I'd be all, is there even a point in listening to this? WoR didn't go that far, but it came a bit too close for my comfort. Saving jasnah reapppearence for another place would have mostly prevented that. But then, what was the right moment to announce that she was still alive? Earlier in the book, possibly in an interlude? Maybe, but it would have taken away much of the emotional impact on the reader on the scenes where shallan discuss with dalinar and navani about jasnah. At the beginning of the third book? But then, such a plot twist in the first chapter is hardly a good way to start a book. the first interlude would proobably be most approopriate. But then, inserting it out of the blue in the first part of a book that is mostly unrelated to it is also far from ideal. not to mention, regardless of how it works once the whole series is out, it would not be nice to the readers to announce jasnah death in book two and then take it back two years later. Maybe the problem with it was that there was too little foreshadowing? virtually nothing supported the idea of a live jasnah during the course of the book. unlike with moiraine death in the wheel of time where she simply disappeared through a portal, jassnah was stabbed through the heart, repeatedly, on screen. And at the time the regenerative properties of stormlight were very vague. we only saw it heal minor cuts and bruises (even when kaladin is exposed to the storm, all he had were supeficial cuts and bruises. he was dieing because he had so many of them), and szeth, in the prologue, mention that it will take him a few hours to fix a broken bone. So, all we knew pointed in the direction of stormlight being unable to heal several heart stabs. Also the fact that jasnah could elsecall wasn't really hinted. yes, it is shown in the diagram at the end of the book, if you can decipher the gliphs. Someone in the forum posted it, but it's hardly the kind of thing a reader can figure out on his own. Then again, a subtle foreshadiwing probably would still be completely missed by the casual reader, while being too obvious to the cosmere-wise reader. So, maybe, while the placement was not ideal, it was still the best that could be made? Or maybe I'm the only one who cares about too many twists it in the first place and I'm making lots of fuss for nothing?

well, we know hav is a good sergeant instructor, but there's nothing to set him so much apart from the group. and he surely trained thousands of recruits, he may not even remember kaladin, or just vaguely recollect a particularly good spearman.

On one of the drawings there is a not saying sometihing like "you have no idea how much trouble I went to recover this from the bottom of the ocean. you owe me a new cloak. Nazh". Also, you should avoid spoileriffic titles. that one is fully visible from the main forum page, and it tells anyone who did not read WoR epilogue that jasnah will appear in book 3, strongly implying she's still alive.

I wondered on that too, because it seems like a contradiction. on one hand, it's faiirly clear that allomancers cannot push/pull on salts. most of the ground is salt of some kind, or at least contains metal ions, and especially many materials used for constructions. so if allomancers could push on metal ions, they should be able to push more or less everywhere. But then, inquisitors can see people from the trace metals in them. and all the metal in the human body is in the form of salt. iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, all of that would actually be unstable as metal in the body, and would be oxydized spontaneously. there are other metal contaminants, mostly stuff that we assume with food, but they're generally in oxydized form too. the only metal in metallic form present in the human body would be gold, I think, but there's a fifth of a milligram of it in the whole body. that's just enough that you may be able to see it with naked eye, if you look from up close. A bit difficult to accept that an inquisitor can see a whole body in detail from such a small amount, albeit it is probably the correct explanation. It is also possible, since the terrain near luthadel contained lots of metals, that water contained a relatively high concentration of metall dust suspended in it, and so the average scadrian would have significant amounts of metal in him. maybe my estimate on how much metal ccan be in metallic form in a human body would only be true in the modern world of highly purified drinking water.

The contrast between the style of jak and that of his stweard is strangely exhilarating, in a quiet sortof way. I can't really point out why, but I can't stop laughing about it. I wonder if we'll see some of the former episodes too. I also wonder if there is a way to read the rest without buying the full rule suppplement. More in-world, I wonder how much of jak's stories are true. he certainly seems one to go for embellishment, but I'd think there would be some fundation of reality unndeneath it all.

yeah, the inquisition is firmly rooted in collective culture. those are hardly the only examples of inquisition in literature.

another factor to consider is that the chasms are not dry and barren, but green and teeming with life. For that purpose, I think the closer real-world equivalent that can be found would be the Serai gorge, in the italian alps. The link is to a photosphere on googlemaps. Problem is that the life of our planet is still prety different from that of roshar, so they'd have to modify all the plants with computer graphics. and then it would just be easier to make it all from zero anyway.

hoid do not age and the several cosmere stories are separated by a few centuries. he simply waits a lot. or maybe he burns a lot of cadmium when there's nothing to do.

If you miss sleep when reading and you are expected to do things in the morning (you could double check you contract to be sure, but it's likely it is written there somewhere that they expect you to work for the money they give you. some people are just unreasonable ) then I suggest alloy of law first. if you are the "won't put the book down until it's finished" kind of reader, then you read pretty fast, and you can read it in a weekend without problems for work. warbreaker and elantris are also relatively short (it tells something that i consider a 500 page book to be "short"), and also rithmatist and steelheart. you can read all those on the weekends with relative safety. for the stormlight archive, you should wait christmas vacation instead.

I also hhad my doubts in the beginning, and was afraid of reading other sanderson stuff for fear it would not live up to it. BUt now I've read anything he wrote (except for short stories) and I have never been disappointed, so I say, go ahead. Since no one mentioned it, I also suggest the wheel of time, although it was only finished by sanderson after the original author died

thanks peter for letting us know that it wasn't just pr talk for "we've done nothing". I am a bit more hopeful now. although I still give the game less than even chance of seeing the light of the day.

Do anyone knows anything about the next release dates, at least approximately? I wanted to preorder firefight, but I need transoceanic shipping, so I'd rather wait a few books and order them in bulk. but if i knew there were no books for, like, half a year, I'd just get firefight right now. So, knowing when shadows of self, or calamity, or rithmatist 2, or even alcatraz 5 would come out would help me choosing (I'm not mentioning stones unhallowed cause i know that will take at least another year). thanks.

he may have simply failed at his plan. after all, the only apparent thing he does is talk to important people and encourage them to not give up in the face of overwhelming odds. as modus operandi go that's hardly foolproof. and his line about "being willing to let roshar burn" to reach his goal make me think he would not be above favoring rashek.

rand getting channeling sickness will be explained eventually, if i remember correctly. the part is so habor... it's probably my least favourite section in all the series. yes, the story would not have suffered by omitting it completely. I also was disappointed by the fact that nothing happens because of the cleansing. BY the way, it would have been nicer if rand, after the fact, had announced that the big disturbance in the power was him using the choedan kal. would have saved a lot of time and worry and allowed for better planning. but, well, that's hardly the only time someone is omitting important information from his own allies and friends. I liked the ealyne arc. Oh, I agree that after the scope of the story seeing the andor succession in such painstaking detail is anticlimatic, but I grew quite fond of elayne over time - as the only main character who is open minded enough that I could actually like talking with her - and I like seeing her interaction with the other characters, so I enjoy pretty much every arc centered on her. By the way, in later books she meet again with mat, and there are some absolutely fantastic scenes. For perrin, I never liked much all the "faile kidnapped by the shaido" arc. I have to say, however, that when he cut the shaido's hand I was thinking of similar ways to make them talk, and in fact it worked. I was furious with him but not for moral reasons (ii believe the shaido lost any right to a civil treatment with what they were doing) but because it was clearly pointless. it's obvious those five guys could not tell anything about the camp more than your scouts could already, and they certainly knew nothing of faile. I'm also quite disturbed by the amount of effort he's putting into recuing one person who's not in any immediate life danger - and may well manage to escape on her own - when the fate of the entire world is at stake. that he does it because it's her wife makes it favoritism in my book. a leader exerting his autority cannot treat his family and loved ones differently than others. he would not divert the army if one random camp follower got kidnapped, he should not divert the army if his wife get kidnapped either. Perrin himself recognizes that at some point, but I won't spoiler chull to whether he will change about it or not. For the rest, mat is awesome as always, and I don't even remember if egwene does anything meaningful except for getting captured. Yeah, it's a pity jordan died without completing wot, but I think sanderson did a wonderful job with it.

I really liked the feeling of the first quarter of it, but could not bring myself to read further. because i know that it is not the real mistborn. I know it's difficult to explain. I just... feel... wrong. reading it. Not because it's bad, as I said I was liking it. That kind of reaction is quite common in me and one of the reasons I never read fanfiction. in this case I was just curious enough to break the rule for a few minutes.

That announcement does nothing to improve my optimism. "there is a major announcement in the works (hopefully)" is just PR talk for "we have nothing to show and we may never have". it's like when you look for a job and they say "we'll call you". It's just a polite way to say no. Now, I don't want to be entirely negative - it is fully possible that they want to wait the next generation of consoles so that their game won't become outdated in a few months - but I'm just not as confident in the eventual release as I was a couple years ago. My faith in it has been pushed in the same place as my faith in the mistborn movie, or the wot movie: I will believe it when I'll be watching the end titles.

Since I choose gold feruchemy for me and my companion, I have a good way to avoid pregnancies: when she is in her fertile period, if we have sex she then put a lot of charge into her metalmind for a few hours, becoming too sick to remain pregnant. a bit uncomfortable, but better than having a child without the food to sustain him.

sadeas used horses while wearing plate, so the assumption is at least unnecessary.

just a question: the ship is called USS weathering. In real world, USS means united states ship. what does it have to do with scadrial?

20 feet*20 feet is 36 square meters. that's slightly bigger than my current apartment, and i'm not using plenty of the space. before that one, i had an 18 square meters apartment, and i fitted just fine. I don't know the exact measures of the student room I had before that, but i doubt it exceeded 5 square meters (albeit with external toilet and kitchen). in the end 20*20 feet for 2 people is just right to me. more would just make it longer to clean. in the end, all the activities i plan to make would only require a bed (a mattress on the ground is fine for that) or a pc. I have my table in front of the bed with the pc on it so that i can seat on the bed while using the pc, so the space required is minimal. I assume the holographical shooting simulator would only entail a visor, a gun and a few sensors, so space occupation is also minimal. Luckily for me, when i like something i never get tired of it, so rereading books and reusing videogames is fine. I also have a strongly non-confrontational personality, so if I can choose a companion who shares that trait we'll never have any arguments. as I'm also a huge nerd who spends most of his time indoor anyway (I go quite often to visit friends, but then I go in their homes instead). I have a few outdoor passions, but nothing I can't live without. All things considered, spending ten years closed into a 6*6 space with my best friend would actually be quite nice. If I can keep my best friend's personality and put it into a girl... that's close enough to my definition of paradise. no, if i have to spend some points for comfort, I'd spend them on a kitchen instead. I definitely prefer to cook my own food than take some premade industrial stuff. However, I wouldn't want to reduce my survival chances just for better food.