Croaker's Apprentice

Avengers: Infinity War Avengers: Endgame

Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly -

And there I was, thinking that this post was going to be about a new documentary protocol on Roshar...Forms to be completed - properly and in triplicate - before you could apply to summon a Shardblade. Perhaps the greatest foe of the KR...not Odium, but Bureaucracy !

Writing...because that's the form that Investiture takes on this particular planet !

My brother and I address each other as "Lord" in text messages; if you watch the Last Kingdom tv show on Netlfix you will understand this !

The two scenes in which Syl delivers these lines to Kaladin- WOR: "Kaladin, stretch forth thy hand !" OB: "Maybe it's time for someone to save you..." Powerful and beautiful ! I love Kaladin & Syl.

Wordplay is one of my favourite parlour games, thank you !

Actually, the new Honor is going to be Honour, Honor's British cousin (who will be played in the TV show by Anthony Head) For that matter, whilst I'm casting Shards, who wants to see Anthony Hopkins as Odium ? (Apologies if I have wandered off topic)

It's hard in any fantasy story to keep one of your central characters a Muggle when everyone else are wizards/ werewolves/ vampires etc. Buffy (the TV show) couldn't do it, and neither could Brandon in the Mistborn series (Elend, of course). So I 100% expect Adolin to revive Maya and become a Knight Radiant.

My theory is that Vivenna is "hunting" the sequel to her story that the "criminal" Brandon Sanderson promised to write and has not gotten round to. Fed up of waiting, she *perpendicularitised* herself from whatever computer files in Brandon's study contain the draft Warbreaker Sequel, into Stormlight Archive. (Melody and Joel might want to grab a handful of chalk and join them...)

I think it's fascinating to see how fantasy fandom starts to mirror the behaviour of religion...including scholarly exegesis of the text, and in the case of WOBS, the gathering of a corpus of hadith of the prophet... Unlike most religions however, this particular prophet is available for consultation at the next book signing.

Do you know, when I first saw this post I thought it was for players of a new online game called "Age of Stormlight" (I originally wrote "computer game" there, which is probably showing my age...)

Why does everyone keep saying that Honor and Odium are opposites ? Honor can cause people to get very,very, indeed murderously, angry ? I do love how long we spend drawing meanings out of single words in this Forum...if HBO televise the Cosmere series it really needs to be called "Game of Semantics"

I am an old man...one month older than that kid Brandon Sanderson, anyway. My hair is mostly grey now, but I understand that's the colour it turns when all the knowledge you have gathered runs out of space to store in your brain and starts archiving in your hair instead...

Best not to worry about this; No saga can ever properly be completed, and any which a particular author fails to 'finish' will continue in a different guise in any event; the characters you love will live again, just with other names on other worlds. The Wheel of Time turns as they say !

There are so many great moments in the final chapters of OB, but that little scene where Syl hugs Kaladin and says "Maybe it's time for someone to save you..." (as Dalinar opens the portal) is arguable my favourite. It makes me smile every time I think about it !

Don't get me started on the paperback editions in the UK; they are also split into two separate volumes for each Stormlight novel (apparently by someone just randomly sticking a finger on a page) and the back cover blurbs seem to have been written by someone who may have flicked through a few pages, but certainly hasn't read the whole story... It's a bit like the Louvre chopping the Mona Lisa in two and displaying each half on different days ... Stormlight is a work of art and each volume must not be...splintered !

Now that we are in the run-up to the 'Holiday Season' how about this - Miracle on 34th Street (1994) -

It might not help that much, but reflect on the fact that Brandon delivers *at least* 3 books for the price of one with every Stormlight novel. You still have plenty of 'story' ahead of you to make up for what has happened. Other authors would definitely have signed this novel off at the point (shortly after Elhokar's death) when our heroes become trapped in Shadesmar. At least you only have a turn of a page to find out what happens next rather than the turn of several years !

I'll leave you to it ! (He vanishes in a puff of smoke)

I don't think the end can be the reconstruction of Adonalsium, as that would just take us round in a circle which isn't very satisfying; there has to be something new, not old, at the end. Some may say the 'Wheel of Time' is a circle, but, of course, a wheel is always moving forwards...

Hi Scion; I absolutely hear what you say, I just strongly wanted to get across my own feelings on the subject ! I definitely agree it's not a case of right and wrong, though. Would also add that, though scientific analysis may be able to predict things in future books, the best predictor of future events is always going to be knowledge of the wonderful cannon that is 'human literature', and specifically here Fantastic literature - which is very much an art, not a science

Although, at the end of the day, his heroes (and villains) can do whatever the X-Men can do Please note I intended that much more as a joke than a criticism ! What I love about B's stories (in reverse order of importance) are- 1. The kinetic, super-cool imagery of his action set- pieces/ stunt- filled frenetic- balletic fight scenes 2. The humor 3. The moral wisdom 4.The great characters and emotional heft and power of their sagas I don't really care how the pseudo-science of Cosmere super-powers works; not being either a physicist or an RPG rules- lawyer, I don't feel the need to 'lift the hood' to see how they work, especially because I don't think they would stand the scrutiny (and nor should they). The 'true magic' of the stories we love lies in the interface between character journey/development, plot foreshadowing, an element of mystery, and dramatic resolution. I agree that fantasy magic having some delineation and rules is a good thing, but probably the most important thing about magical rules is that they *exist to be broken* (although as I say, the breaking must be properly earned). BS himself is hardly above employing a "Deus ex Machina" resolution where warranted - or should we say "Deus ex Caligo" ? - at the end of "Final Empire". "Magic Before System" as they say...

My answer to this topic is "The soundtrack to Season 1 of Westworld" for all of the Wax & Wayne books; it's a brilliant sci-fi/ western re-working of several pop/rock 'classics' (as well as some great original scores). Whenever I hear the music, I definitely think of the books now, not the TV show.

It's magic; don't worry about it ! All of your equations missed out one very important variable, specifically the honorable literary device known as "hand waving"