Procreator

On 06/02/2018 at 10:54 PM, CrazyRioter said:

I personally believe that spren are probably asexual and aromantic so don't see that kind of relationship happening between them.  But this is all getting off topic.

I did love the moment when he can't swear the Fourth Ideal and she hugs him. I do love their relationship platonically.

Other platonic OTP Adolin and Maya.

I should have looked more widely for comments on a Syl/Kaladin relationship. There's a lot of comment in [OB] Kaladin's love life? I won't try to summarise because there's too much there, but a surprising number of supporters for such a relationship exists.

On 06/02/2018 at 7:37 PM, Vissy said:

It's just down to Sanderson not wanting to write people like normal people. With him it's usually normal people minus sexuality.

Strange to have to admit that I'd never realised this—but I think you're right. I suppose that, given all the other complications of his worlds and characters, adding 'normal' romance would probably be a step too far!

Just now, CrazyRioter said:

I think he avoids writing it because he's not very good at it and doesn't want to write bad romance because people hate that.

Not having given it much thought while burying my head in the fantasies, the lack of simple romance hadn't properly registered with me before. I suppose I only really thought about it when Syl appeared as a person as opposed to a spren and I wondered about Kaladin's apparent lack of normal masculine reaction. I wonder how things might develop... I hope Brandon finds a way of bringing them together in some way, though I suspect that he has other plans for his principal characters.

3 hours ago, Vissy said:

It's just down to Sanderson not wanting to write people like normal people. With him it's usually normal people minus sexuality.

Strange to have to admit that I'd never realised this—but I think you're right. I suppose that, given all the other complications of his worlds and characters, adding 'normal' romance would probably be a step too far!

I've been reading fantasy novels for a long time and go back to the days of people like H G Wells and the many others who have contributed over the years. I got hooked on science fiction and then the fantasy novels started taking over—David Eddings and Robert Jordan in particular, but Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, too. When I saw Brandon's results with the Wheel of Time, I started on his cosmere series and now have Elantris, Warbreaker, Mistborn etc under my belt as well as the three SA books. I've read the latter twice each and, for the first time, embarked on audio versions of them, which I found fascinating because I got so much more out of the slower pace of the stories. I thought the readers were excellent—great diction and sensitive portrayals of the characters. I'm now following OB as a read-through. I do read other styles of fiction—crime, adventure, spies, historical romances etc—as well as military history, but it's the fantasy worlds that are addictive!

On 06/01/2018 at 1:04 PM, Vissy said:

I also really loved the scene where Dalinar came to the scribe meeting with Renarin, it was so heartwarming! 

Kaladin showing concern for Syl was also really nice to see. 

Szeth wrecking his fellow Skybreaker acolytes was a very funny moment

And Dalinar's recovery in general was very well written, it was a great arc.

The growing tenderness between Kaladin and Syl is touching, but I was somehow expecting more when he saw her as a full-grown, beautiful girl in Shadesmar, especially when she was locked up by the Honour spren. I know she's thousands of years old, but she doesn't look it, and he's a red-blooded young man!