rags

Wow!! That's around 35000 words of awesomeness so far!! And I haven't included the interludes we have from steel hunt and the readings and youtube videos!! If they post more chapters we are going to end up having over 20% of the book before Mar 4th!!

Is it just me or is the twitter feed down again?

Here's hoping the pile of bodies Szeth is standing on isn't Bridge Four... 

Scary thought! But if you notice there are a lot more swords and armor than spears and leather in the pile of bodies.....I think they are mostly of light-eyed soldiers in that heap......at least I hope so. It would suck if Szeth slaughtered bridge four.

Also, did anyone notice the weird sketch in Brown of the creature(?) with the strange hair(?), domed skull, angular face and rather pointy ears? Some kind of new creature or was that  an attempt at a hitherto unknown parshendi form?? 

The book still seems to revolve a lot around Shallan and Kaladin. I know this was expected but still I had hoped to see a lot more of Eshonai and Jasnah. The problem is that a lot of the important  characters are all at (or soon will be at) the Shattered plains - Kaladin, Shallan, Jasnah, Dalinar, Adolin, Szeth, Eshonai. This makes me think that unlike tWoK this book is going to be more about advancing the plot line than world-building (world-building is difficult if all characters are in the same place). But of course its possible that worldbuilding all happens in the flashback scenes.

I can't wait to get my hands on the book!

Looks like you are looking for something different from the usual fantasy fare........So you want something other than epic fantasy? Try these:

1. Guy Gavriel Kay writes brilliant historical fantasies, almost all his books are superb and different from the usual stuff

2. Watership Down by Richard Adams: Awesome book!!, The description may sound like a childrens book, and it probably is a childrens book but its well worth the read

3. You could also try Neil Gaiman, I have read only American Gods and that was quite good.

4. The Night circus by Erin Morgenstern and The magician by Lev Grossman: Both are good books with a very different setting

5. You could try Dune series if you are interested in a science fiction/fantasy (its more science fiction though)

6. If you want to try some YA: Jonathan Stroud's  Bartimaeus Trilogy is an excellent read ; Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy is one of the best fantasies I have read.

7. If you want something similar to Mistborn but in a different setting, you could try Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan.

Can anyone with better listening comprehension than me make out the (name)? For some reason, I keep hearing it as something like "Shalig-nar"

rom the text I emphasized, it looks like neither the shadow-like, red-eyed spren nor the larger spren that came after it were Odiumspren, but rather spren that were "touched" by whoever (a name) is. I think an Unmade was using Odium-based magic (Voidbinding? Something else?) to make various spren do his/her bidding.

"Shalig-nar" sounds close to "Yelig-nar" (Unmade)?? Skaa reached the conclusion that the 'name' was an Unmade without listening to the audio (that is my assumption). It might make sense.

I have been luking around on these forums for more almost year now and I did not know about this Alethi handwriting........Great idea, Kurkistan and thank you Morsk for sharing that tidbit with us......

It is possible that the Alethi-looking man is a Herald. The reason why I say this is because the Heralds are not easily identifiable as being from any part of Roshar. For example, in the interlude 7 , Baxil seems to have a difficulty identifying Shalash's race ( I am assuming that Shalash is the one vandalizing property......a reasonably good theory). We also know that more than one herald has already been seen in tWoK.

I know this is a WAG, but it sounds plausible??

Maybe there is a gateway in the shattered planes leading to urithiru? I think it is safe to assume that there is one of these mysterious "usual route" to the our annoyingly elusive city in Natanatan, given that it was one of the silver kingdoms??

Undoubtedly his best short novel so far.....The plot pacing was fantastic, on par with Jim Butcher atleast!! Finished the novel in a single sitting. And interesting tidbits on realmatic theory too. The magic system though seemed a mish-mash of other systems.....it had a bit of soulcasting, some awakening(the skeletons), some Elantrian Aon-Dor.

It's so frustrating living in the non English speaking world!! I have to wait for the e-book to read it.....I am going mad waiting for the kindle version to be released!!

You're spot on with that one, Rags. Hoid definitely has some precognition abilities.

However, I don't think being a Sliver is very useful in seeing the future. Vin was one after all and so was Rashek. They didn't seem to have any abilities of that nature (or at least not without atium). The only affects being a Sliver seems to have on a person is that they follow the Shards intent (Rashek "Preserving" the Final Empire in the same way for a millennium) and that some people can identify Slivers simply by looking at them.

Splinters on the other hand, (perhaps this is what you meant?) definitely have some future sight abilities attached to them, as evidenced by the Divine Breath, a Splinter of Endowment, giving Returned visions of the future.

Thanks for pointing out the error, my bad. Maybe it has something to do with the element he is keeping safe?

Hoid time travels, which means he has to have the ability to see the future to some extent for him to arrive at important events in different planets. So either he is a sliver with the ability to divine the future (as seeing into the future is a shardic ability), or his magic (lightweaving) has other uses or like Brandon said....."He is something else".

Hi Mr Sanderson! Thanks for doing this!! I am glad you are taking time out to do this...

1. We know that there are 10 orders of Radiants and 10 different powers, with each order having access to 2 of them. Any reason why this "class restriction" exists (they are lot more combinations possible with 10 powers)?

2. How is Harmony balanced when a part of Preservation's power is expended on human sentience? Isn't that what caused all the trouble to begin with?

3. You have told us there are more than 30 magical systems on Roshar. I am assuming there are 10 surgebindings and 10 voidbindings. Do the next 10 belong to another such classification? If yes, can you give us the name for it.

4. If I used a hemalurgic spike charged with allomantic powers on a person on say Nalthis, will the focus of allomancy change because the power is being used on another planet?

There's no reason that the power of a Shard should influence the strength of it's intent, even when divested of most of his power Ruin was still Ruinous and Preservation was still... er preservationous?

Invalid argument.....Preservation was preservationous because Preservation only held Preservation.

Sazed is something else....probably the first instance when someones held two shards....so the "strength" of the intent may matter. So Harmony may be more ruinous than preservationous if he held more of Preservation than Ruin.

This topic should go to Mistborn forum ideally...

Anyways, Preservation invested some of his power in giving humans sentience, which started the whole imbalance thing in the first place....power invested in Mistborns and Misting probably also contributed to the imbalance. So in a manner of speaking sazed should be unbalanced, but Harmony's "balance" is more a balance of intent rather than just raw power. And like Cheese Ninja pointed out he could just unload some of ruins powers into atium to keep himself balanced.

B4DAVE ()

My question is, why are they called Shardblades/Shardplate? Is it because they are a splinter of the the Shard Honor, or is there something more to them than that?

BRANDON SANDERSON

You are on the right track.

Thanks a lot...

This question has probably been asked many times and I feel a little silly asking this ....but are the Rosharian elite weapon names "shard"blades and plates coincidental or is there some hidden implication in calling them "shards" given what we know about shards of adonalsium?

1. We know Hoid was alive at the time of the shattering.

2. We know that something was wrong with Yolen in Liar of partinel.(The fain)

3. Hoid (Midius) was native to Yolen.

From these three facts it is implied that something was wrong with the world even before the shattering......maybe Adonalsium was "sick" even before the shattering??

Thank you Voidus and JamesW. I have read the book twice and I can't believe I missed the shardblade reference both times! And it was so obvious.

Given what we know of Shallan's history, according to The Way of Kings, it would seem that Shallan wields a Shardblade. So, just what is her status within The Stormlight Archive?

Do we know that Shallan wields a Shardblade? Do we have evidence for this? I mean its possible she killed her dad and took his blade (provided he had a blade in the first place)....but do we have any backing for this theory?

He said that looking at it one way there's 30, looking at it a different way there's 10. Or something really close to that.

My working thoughts on that (until better information comes along) is that each surge counts as 1, then each combination of two surges counts as 1 (so each radiant order), then each way the abilities can be obtained without being on the path of becoming a radiant (what Szeth is doing). That adds up to 30. Then the way to add up to 10 is just thinking of it in power sets. Szeth and Kaladin have the same power set, even though they got it different ways. I don't actually think that what I'm thinking is correct, it's just what I'll think until better info comes (whether by other theorizing or WoB).

Onto the topic, I also believe that the Memories are related to Shallan's second surge.

He said 10?? There are 10 surges but then don't forget voidbinding....there are supposed to be 10 of those as well.....

Actually there has to be more Atium than Lerasium....much more in my opinion. why? We know that humans have a significant portion of Preservations power in them (that is what gives them sentience, this imbalance was what started all the ruin-Preservation war)

I am assuming that Sazed hasn't changed that as yet....so it makes sense that he would have to unload some of his power as Atium or risk making his intent unbalanced. So, Yes, I believe atium geodes will regenerate.

I just love wild theories!! I am bored of trying to pick holes in theories, so I am going to support this one, even though it is as likely as Hoid giving up on being cryptic.

Kaladin HATES Lighteyes = proof for Odiums influence on Kaladin.

Kaladin can ride the storms + Highstorms are likely of Odium (they are getting stronger as we approach desolation) = Kaladin is Odiums champion

But I must point out...we have no proof that Raoden was chosen by Aona. In fact it is unlikely given how she is dead and devotion splintered.