Topomouse

Well, he spent 12 books saying that the story wouldn't have an happy ending, and the reader should go read something else. The last book wasn't very good, but if he actually wrote an happy ending where everything got resolved I would have been more disappointed. At least he has been coherent.

Trust me my friend, you have yet to see how the Supergirls (Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve) will develop and who the true royal-pain-in-the-arse Aes Sedai is. Imho, after everything is said and done Nynaeve is the nicer of the three and probably the most resonable. Not to say that she isn't an hypocrite, but then there are maybe three character in the whole series who aren't. Also, if you know where too look(maybe during a future re-read) you will notice that Egwene has never been so sweet and innocent as she may appear. Last but not least, have faith that Jordan will deliver many more moment of delicious irony on par with that.

I never thought too much about it, but I also more or less thought something like that. At least, assuming our list of Windrunners abilities is complete, Gravitation is way more useful then Adhesion for them. So I kind of assumed that the other order that use that surge has at least some other abilities relative to it.

I agree with EMTrevor, the book is a bit too old to worry about spoilers in a forum dedicated to the series. There aren't spoilers in the title of the topic, so if someone comes here and gets spoilered it's his responsability. Also, you posted in EMTrevor other topic, you saw he is writing these to share is reactions to the books he has already read and theories about the following ones, and to read comments about those. And that's what I did, i commented his post trying to stick to what he knows at the end of the second book, if he feel that I said to much he just needs to say so.

I don't think Jordan was trying to be subtle in that book. We already knew from the previous book that Fain had something from Shadar Logoth inside him. I think he was more trying to horrify the reader then anything else. The same can be said about "Selene": she was obviously fishy from the start, at least form the reader point of view. Rand is veeeery weak with women, and so was Lews Therin, as you will see over the following books. I think we were just meant to see Rand making some obvious bad choices with her. And I didn't actually connect her with Lanfear till the end. I was actually a bit confused about the general picture of the world and setting at least untill the end of the third book so I didn't manage to catch any early foreshadowing until the second reading. And really there is a lot of it. Ingtar reavealing and subsequent death, and imho redemption, was one of the best moments of the book. You really start to see how insidious the Shadow is. Rand IS frustrating. Again, we readers know he is the Dragon Reborn and can't just hide from the pattern, but he doesn't. In this book he is still running from destiny, in the third he will decide to face it, and from the fourth he is actually trying to do his job. And as much as I like him as a character, Perrin actually takes longer to really man up and face reality. I mean, thei journey are different, but almost until the end Perrin doesn't try to take control of his life, Rand reaches that step much earlier. I more or less the same opinion about the Reds: "it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it". Problem is, most of those who end up doing it are This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rulesh****. Not necessary evil, but This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rulesh****. No comment about the Black in general. I think the Seanchen area actually one of the most interesting aspects of the books. When you get the whole picture about how the culture evolved on the two continents you can get some very enlightning reflections. As for the first book you got some thing very right and some very wrong, but there is something I'm curious about: What did you think of Verin? I don't think it's spoiler to say that she is a relevant character( no more the many others anyway...) but che is very abiguos at the start.

I forgot to mention, there was a bit of greek mythology reference hidden in palin sight: According to the myth Athena, goddess of wisdom and intellect, was born directly from the head of Zeus. And how was Harry and Lash child, the spirit of intellect, supposed to be born? By bursting out of Harry's head!

I was starting to think I was the only one that read Dresden FIles around here. Glad to see I'm wrong. @Argent: About the weapons from the armory, I had the same idea about the placard as soon as I read that passage, but I was stumped about the knife. Now I agree with your theory, after all it seems strange to go as far as mention the placard without using the lance of Longinus. I also feel that through the books(sometimes more and sometimes less) Christianity is has been "treated particularly well", but being a Catholic myself I can't say I find that's a problem. On a partially related note, I also like Michael's character very much. He is actully one of my favourites in all the books I read. Among other things, I think is almost the only exemple of a Paladin(in the D&D sense of the word) played completely straight I have ever seen, and I have always been fond of Paladins.

I just finished the book. It was pretty awesome, but above all:

I certainly find it very interesting to read other people's reactions the books, If you continue to write your impressions/theories as the books go by I'll be sure to comment them. As for this one: good job in noticing Rand channeling. The first time I read the books I didn't put everything toghether till the end, I wasn't even sure what the Dragon Reborn represented. As for your theories, you got a lot of things right, at least on a macrospical level. Some of your guess are wrong, but woud have been vvvery awesome if they were true. Don't worry about Mat, he takes a while to get a POV chapter and really shine but he will give you satisfaction.

I read the first three book of the Corean chronicle almost ten years ago (I actually just now discovered that there are more), and I wan't really impressed. As far as I remeber the books were not exactly bad, but they were dull and boring. At the very least I remember that the protagonist was a really boring character. Also much of the lore and stuff behind the story was never explained, wikipedia tel me that that was amended in the later books, but I still count it as a demerit.

Italy. /cross fingers and hopes there are other Italians around here.

Exactly, the key to an healthy nerd life is to find the right balacen between books and video games. If you can fit some comics in there even better. The llittle spare time you have left can be then used with your friends.

That's a very good definiton for them, I like it!

Well, I liked her as a character at least because of her fantastic conversation with Lightsong. As for her motives, we don't know much about them, but from what we saw I think she was more stupid then evil. The returned are pampered and isoleted, they aren't completely connected with reality, so it isn't strange for her to be deceived in helping Blufingers plot while thinking of protecting her country. She is probably similar to Vivenna, it's just that she didn't discover the truth until it was too late.

I don't think that is a good idea. If that's the only way for you to read WoT you should just read something else, it would be a way better use of your time.

Just for completedness sake, I'd would like to say something in favour books 7-11 that are so much mistreated by many people. I'll start by saying that this series is to be regarded as a whole, it isn't completely fair to jugde one book separeted from the others, it's like judging every ten minutes of a movie by themselves: some parts are going to be more engaging and some more transitional and boring(and even then it partially depends from personal opinions) but you can't have the former without the latter. The Eye of the World starts really slow, you see very little of the world and setting, and the viewpoint is almost always Rand, that makes it kinda boring at times. Books 2 and 3 are already a step forward, and conclude what I kind of consider the prologue of the story(a nice 1500+ pages prologue). Book 4(which is actually my favourite) is where things get interesting, the main characters start goind their separete ways, each with his own story and some don't meet again till the very end. Over the course of the following books the story slows down exactly because there are so many characters and plot lines to follow, a significative factor in the personal opinion of each book becames whether or not your favourite character/plotline is in the splotlight. For exemple I liked book 4 because Perrin is given a lot of space but wasn't really taken by book 5 since he doesn't show up at all. To conclude, this is a Brandon Sanderson forum, so it's natural that there is some bias for the books he wrote, but IMHO part of the reason they are so appreciated is that they are the end(or an end, since there ar no beginnings nor endings) and all the plotlines come to an end and all the tension created over countless pages gets resolved relatively quickly. I have the feeling that had Jordan been able to continue writing we would have ended up with a couple more books before the end. Sorry for the rant but I thought this stuff many times after reading many posts around here.

When I read the title of the topic i started thinking about similarities between the various heroines and I was starting to think you had point. Then I saw who you gave as an exemple and I think that while there are some little similarities, they are not too strong in my opinion. I say this since my opinions of(or reactions to) those three characters are very, very diffentet: I found Siri to be very likeable and fun, also kinda cute in her naivetè. On the other hand Sarene is more like someone I would like to work with. She inspire more respect then fondness from me. And last but not least, I find Shallan very annoying. I think I'm part of a minoriry in this but I don't really like her. To be fair that was in The Way of Kings, in Word of Radiance I started to appreciate her more given the whole of her story and her ordeal after the shipwreck. Still not my favourite character. Kinda like that damnation Egwene, I hated her till the last moment...

Initially I didn't like Kaladin's character arc, it seemed too much of a repetion of his character development in TWoK, like he had forgotten most of what he learned between the two books(like it happens in many tv shows...), even the 3rd Ideal seemed way too similar to the 2nd. Now, after thinking about it a bit and reading others' opinions in these forums i changed my mind. As I now see it, the 3rd Ideal of the Windrunners is a necessary corollary of the 2nd, without it they could put themselves in the position of judging who deserves to live and to die without breaking the letter of the Ideal while betraying its spirit, with it they actually decide to protect everyone. In TWoK this problem didn't present itself: Kaladin and the bridgemen were obviously the oppressed, there was no conflict in the decision, Idem with Dalinar at the Tower, they had been clearly betrayed and needed help. On the other hand in WoR Kaladin scope had expanded, he now had many more options, his path was less clear so he to really find his way, earlier it was just "give up and die" or "continue trying to save everyone" maybe not easy, but surely non complicated. Also, like othes said, his chapters were heavy to read, like Rand in his most emo moments, or Frodo and Sam trudgeing through Mordor. Not bad-written, just heavy.

Monster Energy, your list is Epic, I'd would even say High Epic! (Non Cosmere, but it still counts right?)

I can agree that they are basically the same thing, but IMHO the different impostation, frame of mind, by which are justified can make a lot of difference. Most of Sanderson magic systems tens to lean toward the "superpower archetype"(Allomancy in particular could fit pretty well in a superhero comic) but somehow I still think they fall in the "magic archetype". Maybe it's just bias on my part since the book are categorized as fantasy and not sci-fi and my opinion will change in the last Mistborn trilogy ut I don't think so. To answer the OP: You are probably right, I think nowadays most books tend toward harder magic compared to Tolkiens and the like, this leads to a trend toward more "superpower archetype" magic system, but there are counter-exemple like the Black Magician and Age of the Five series by Trdu Canavan. In both series the magic is hard, but the magic users are very wizard-like. Also, I don't think it's very well known, but the two Demon Trilogies by R.A. Salvatore(the author of the Drizz books) feature very limited magic that could fit the "superhero archetype".

I also say that Szeth is actually very strong-willed, but also kind of... let's say "stupid". Thought we don't know the details of his crime I think that punishment is absolutely absurd, it create a situation where the criminal suffers only if he is a good person, and unless the oathstone comes in the hands of a very wise and illuminated person it also creates suffering for other innocents(as it actually happens). That said, IF you accept that punishment and consider it right, then sticking to it even when ordered to do something you abhor requires an iron will. you could almost say that that kind of dedication is what Kaladin learns in saying the 3rd ideal.

Of that I'm actually convinced, Nalthis is absolutely his most likely original world. I just want to be skeptical about him being specifically Vasher. @Numb: That's a good point, we also don't know how much time passed between the two books so almost everything is possible, but it still seems to radical a change to me.

When I read the book I was fairly certain that Zahel was a worldhopper, and when he mentioned voices in his head i thought about someone from Scadrial, used to hear Ruin/Harmony. Then i came hear and found out everyone thinks he is Vasher and have very good reasons to do so. But I'm still skeptical, his behaviour seems very different between the two books: in Warbreaker he was actively trying to make a difference in the world, here he seems content to laze around in a monastery training young men, it just doesn't fit to me. I'm probably wrong, but until we have an official confirmation i'm going to believe he is not Vasher.

Being able to constantly repair your armor as it gets damaged doesn't sound to bad to me, thought given how frigging powerful the rigeneration given by stormlight is, it may not be that useful. Anyway, I remember a Word of Brandon where he said that the use of gems to power Shardplates is something the modern civilitation is doing in order to make them work. Like how they have to stick a gem in the Shardblades in order to bond them because they are dead. So probably the Shardplates used by the KR were more efficent, be it because they were created by the sprens like the blades or something else.

Now that was just misleading. How can you write "darkfriend" and not make people think of WoT?