Iredomi

I wish you luck on your search they are truly great books and definitely something different.

Yeah well I've been thinking about becoming involved in MBI and I've read heaps of stuff but still don't really understand what one has to do and the such so any clarification would be nice =) thanks!

Thanks for commenting =) Just have a question for the sake of detail and interest. Where would you say the books were lacking? What aspects in particular?

Yeah that is something that would probably stick out at me reading them again. But I don't know... Lyra is crazy like that lol.

What do people think of this series? Should of stayed a trilogy? Good how it was? Haven't heard of it? Any comments welcome =)

I feel Northern Lights or the Golden Compass could be read just by itself as it is the best one. Yes, you would get huge plot threads left hanging but I'm a fan of very open 'endings' to stories. That being said, I do feel that characters being maybe not completely realistic were still engaging enough for me. And I was fine with that because the whole story has the feel of a out of place fairy tale. I do really love the way he blends prose with poetic language. But I feel that maybe his ideas got a bit too big for the story and took control of the books in an unruly fashion. That's why I think the first book excels as it has all the ideas but they all compliment the world. As soon as Pullman brings us back to reality with Will's story I think some of the magic is lost.

I just wanted to start this topic because I believe these books are brilliant, and should be discussed. And yeah, just wanted to know how many other people on here feel the same or even better, the opposite.

This is just a start, lacks proper formatting and maybe too much exposition and telling instead of showing but just wondering if anyone finds it agreeable in certain aspects but yeah... Etarmis Pertinax son of Prium Pertinax, leader of the First squadron of the Impiran Octus, one of the greatest armies of the Twelve Lands, now wandered up the road of Otium alone and wounded. His hair normally tied back into a top knot now hung lankly about his face. Sweat and blood clung unremittingly to his face as his head wound throbbed. Etarmis’ dark eyes drifted from side to side belying the swift intelligence they once held. His long cape clasped at the neck by a metal clip, shaped in the sigil of his House; an eagle, - once a fine blue- now bunched up underneath the load he was currying on his back. The cape was muddied and tattered like its owner. The leather bag he carried had only room for a day-or if pushing it a few days- supplies and it had been a week since Etarmis had fled the battle field in fear for his life. His shame only enhanced his memory of the day. He had rode down against the Ignots at the head of a fifty thousand strong army, when the earth had shook; the horses terrified by the moving earth had begun to bolt in all directions. The Octus soon lost rank and the Ignots- all on foot- had only been stunned for a moment, at the chaos that had disrupted the Octus’s order, took advantage of the situation. The Octus fell all too quickly before the barbarians’ crude weaponry. Etarmis had expected the enemy to be routed by sunset, but he had not stayed to fight for so long. By the time the sun was in its zenith almost half of the army had been killed and the rest were wounded fighting for an honourable death in battle. This was when the horror had taken Etarmis, he was not as young as others at the age of twenty four, but he fled took the only supplies that he could find and ran towards the hills. He was the Great and Noble son of the Honourable Domina Iussum Lord Pertinax of the ancient House of the Eagle, and he had run scared for his life like a child. The Octus had remained undefeated for centuries and he- the responsibility was all his- had let it fall to, to what? A group of inbred savages. He would have died of the shame had his wounds not of been killing him already. His bloodied- once deep blue- shirt and breeches clung tightly to his form intended as underclothes for the plate armour he had abandoned a few days back he had fled with them hoping to sell them to a smith or a mercenary once he found a town. But any need for money had diminished with his fading life. Even if he had wanted to sell them he had seen no towns besides a few farms since fleeing. He knew that if any man in these parts recognised him they would do very little to help. Men of violence were frowned upon on the Otium. The road was little more than the absence of growth, a thin - perhaps three metres wide – track of dirt and gravel. His leather soled boats now worn by the gravel did little to stop the dig of any particularly sharp stones. His ankle ached from having been twisted when he had fallen in the night. This did not bother him really, Etarmis limped but more for the wound in his thigh from an arrow than the twist in his ankle. His heart pumped harder as his pace slowed. The grassland seemed to grow thicker as he approached the city of Otium the colour of his surroundings growing into a richer emerald, the tussock giving way to a fine grass. In the distance more and more farms lay on either side of the road, dozens of cattle grazing unconcerned under a blazing golden sun. Etarmis chuckled to himself; the son of one of the greatest war lords ever known, descendants of countless military leaders was going to die in the land of Otium known well for its disgusted attitude to any sort of violence between human beings. Despite his slow pace Etarmis would come to the first houses soon as the road transformed from gravel to stone pavement. The houses were humble buildings but stout in dependable brick and wood. Few people seemed to be out and about this day and the few people he did come across, a woman with blue eyes and dark hair in a yellow dress and her child with a inquisitive look in her eyes in a white shirt and a skirt of the same colour seemed to avoid him like the plague. They knew what he was, a soldier, a killer. Etarmis felt laughter well up in him once again, at the irony of the situation. He would die amongst those who did no violence; the much loved Octus Primus would die amongst people who found him abhorrent. But he had to get his message to Prium he was sure that there would be one willing messenger in Otium that would do him this last kindness. He held tightly the last message he would ever send. He opened it up once again to glance at what he had written it was untidy and in script not of the First but a much weaker speech, he had had not the time to perfect it but it would have to do. He looked down the road at the imminent White Wall of Innocence. It was the wall surrounding the city Otium, proper. It provided a good defence but with no gate just an open archway with the inscription bring only peace carved on its face, any army could take this place, if any dared do such an abhorrent thing. The fickle sorcerers the fabled Assembly would annihilate any invading force. As a spasm of pain erupted in the dying man’s chest he stopped still only just preventing himself from falling to his knees. With his last message in hand he pressed onwards biting his lower lip in resistance to the pain. After struggling for another hundred metres, Etarmis made his way through the great arch of Otium. As he staggered forward step by step more and more people appeared from increasingly lavish buildings. Their clothing was not so elaborate but nor was it standard, they carried their modest garbs with a supine grace. The Peaceful Ones, they seemed to ignore him. However their disgust in what he was was much less obvious. He smiled thinking how his life would have turned out if he had been born among such people. At that moment the pain became too strong to bear bringing him to the stone pavement. And in Otium the most peaceful city in all the Twelve Lands, Etarmis, a man of violence, met his end.

I say that after AMoL they should release the notes in some form have Harriet do the encyclopaedia of WoT and leave it at that. Out of respect for RJ, from interviews it seems he never wanted others writing in his world.

Got fourth book out of school library was around twelve. Didn't read much of it put it back (didn't understand what was going on). Saw book eight at a second hand book store bought it. Read prologue, was interested (or confused) enough to get the first one. Read them straight to book seven stopped then picked them back after half a year then kept going. Loved them ever since.

Okay something I completely forgot... Elaynes crush (I'm not sure if that's what it is or what else you would call it) on Thom. Brings so many Freudian theories to my mind. Anyways interesting nonetheless. Man I just realized how much I've forgotten since the last time I've read these books.

I like this one a lot I never noticed it the first time. But I feel it's the small moments done well that make WoT so great. And especially in this book the small moments (or should I say emotional moments) are done very well. I love the wedding and how rushed it is really puts into perspective the dangerous time they live in more than any battle could I think.

I'm on book five of the re-read going at my slow leisurely pace. Can I be a part of this?

Well I got to know about Brandon Sanderson through his WoT books. In Gathering Storm there was a free bookmark which advertised his Mistborn series. After that I went and had a browse around a book store and found his books (which I wasn't prepared to buy yet, that moment came around a month ago). One of the reasons was I assumed they were all part of the same series like how the riftwar saga was because the UK covers all look really similar, at the time I wasn't ready to commit to another long series. After that I didn't take too much notice but one day around three months ago I was looking on the web about Brandon Sanderson found this site and hello Cosmere. After reading a couple of things about stuff I barely understood but which were almost definitely spoilers, (bad memory so it's okay for when I actually read the books) I glimpsed the depth of his works. And of course being a big fan of depth in fiction (what WoT fan isn't?). I then proceeded to buy the complete series of Cosmere books. I just finished Elantris and now I'm onto Mistborn, enjoying it all so far.