Havoc

Of all the people in Bridge Four, why is Lopen the first to be able to absorb Stormlight? Aside from the fact that he's been the most motivated, and the only one who's really trying, I believe this passage explains it: I'm sure that Kaladin accidentally infused Lopen with some Stormlight in one of these two incidents, opening him up to be able to accept Stormlight himself. Given the timing, there's also likely a connection to Kaladin speaking the Thrid Ideal, and powering himself up.

Khriss sounds like the name of the mysterious terriswoman world hopper we've been told is in Warbreaker.

That is just a metaphor:

Another Zahel-related quote: I don't remember seeing such a place in Warbreaker. Could someone refresh my memory?

Words of Radiance has quite a few connections to other Cosmere worlds, mostly Nalthis 1. Hoid - Completely obvious 2. The letter to Hoid - Again obviously cosmere related 3. Nightblood 4. The Ghostblood's treasure trove (US Hardcover Chapter 43, Page 493) So where are each of these from? A vial of pale sand - White sand from 'White Sand' (unpublished) A couple of thick hairpins -?? A lock of golden hair - Royal Locks from 'Warbreaker' The branch of a tree with writing on it she couldn't read - ?? A silver knife - maybe from 'Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell'? An odd flower preserved in come kind of solution - Tears of Edgli from 'Warbreaker' Chunk of pale pink crystal - ?? 5. Zahel - Possibly a worldhopper from Nalthis Speaks oddly, with many colour and flower based metaphors "Repeating myself makes me eat the wrong flower" “Good,” Zahel said, settling down on the bed. “And don’t be green from the ground.” “I suppose I don’t need to toughen you up. But boy, you’ve got red on your ears like I’ve never seen.” Seems to play a similar game to what Lightsong was playing in Warbreaker. 6. A mysterious woman as old as Hoid Could be referring to either Cultivation or a female worldhopper.

It's my first time listening to an audiobook, but I absolutely cannot imagine listening to an entire book in this voice. Very monotonous and robotic. That might seem a bit rude, for which I'm sorry. I'd honestly imagined an audiobook would sound like someone telling you a story.

Is that an actual person reading? Sound like text-to-speech to me.

Thanks.

Pardon me if this has already been mentioned, but are we allowed to start discussing spoilers from the books? There are a couple of interesting cosmere links.

He's a member of the Ghostbloods. There's a decent chance they were trying to get hold of the sphere anyway (which is why Gavilar gave it to Szeth). He could have just told his bosses, "Hey, does this thing sound like that other thing we were hunting for?" After which, there was either an information leak (to Jasnah's spy?) or a rogue faction within the conspiracy.

Fantastic theory. For extra points, can you tie in this occurrence: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6124-voidsphere-speculation-i-havent-heard-before/

I really like this line of reasoning.

During my re-re-read of WoK, I noticed the following bit in Szeth's first interlude: So Szeth hid the voidsphere in Jah Keved, very shortly after the assassination of Gavilar, which was 6 years before the 'present day' events. What else happened in Jah Keved 6 years ago? http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/01/excerpt-brandon-sanderson-words-of-radiance-chapter-ten-twelve-fourteen-and-interlude-1 Could Shallan's family have found it soon after, and could that have been what triggered the events of 'Red carpet, once white'? Maybe the Ghostbloods recognized the description of the sphere from Shallan's father, and they had a falling out over who gets it? I don't think the sphere is the 'monster' that was within the safe, since that seems to give out normal light.

I'd always assumed that the barracks were formed by soulcasting the centre of a block of stone into air/smoke. Similarly for the outside.

I think there are some transcription errors that might answer the question: If those are page numbers, like I think they are, we're probably up to something like page 120 by the end of chapter 5.

Scandalous! Jasnah is walking around with her safehand uncovered. Peter, if you read this, could you confirm that this isn't an error?

I'd recommend waiting. 1. The book is notably less polished than any of his published works. 2. Sanderson tends to cannibalize his unpublished work to add characters and settings to his published works. While I don't think anything was replicated outright, some of the characters do feel derivative of some amongst the published books. 3. While the story is self-contained, there are a number of hooks for the rest of the White Sands trilogy. Reading the first book now means that it could be 10-20 years before you get to read the rest of the trilogy. That said, it is most definitely a 'Sanderson' book, and if none of the above dissuades you, go ahead and ask for it.

There's a decent chunk of the book already revealed in the Steelhunt. 1 regular chapter, 1 interlude and 1 diagram. + Obviously Rysn's interlude that Brandon streamed on Youtube. That said, I'm sure Tor will put out the first ~5 chapters in the weeks preceding releaese, just like Rithmatist or Steelheart.

Given the distinct polarity in how Szeth and Darkness dress, do you think it is possible that the Parshendi deliberately chose the all-white dress to be distinct from Darkness? Both Szeth and Darkness are going around killing, Szeth sticking to those currently in power, and Darkness those who might rise to power (potential Knights Radiant?) One weak link is that the Parshendi that decided Szeth's attire, while his current master has a completely different agenda.

Could you remind me how we know which picture corresponds to which herald? It's interesting that Nalan in the chapter header doesn't appear to have the silver scar/birthmark that serves to identify Darkness.

Pretty well hidden request Mailliw73. Subtle, yEt sufficieNT.

With something like code requests, I believe that channeling is a lot more effective than an outright ban. A legitimate way to share codes might be people posting that they have a code and others PMing them. The bit I'd like more clarity on is posts like this: this and this: Taken together, they imply that Peter or Brandon have endorsed the restrictive policies, which completely contradicts what is on the official Steelhunt page: and Isaac's email to askthepaperclip quoted above: It seems a bit disingenuous to originally claim that Brandon is the reason for all the secrecy, and then claim that it's an independent 17th Shard rule once Team Sanderson starts communicating directly.

Thanks for the balanced reply Chaos. TBH, I'm more annoyed about codes not being shared than about the lack of discussion. One idea that might have worked (and maybe still could) would be to simply have a thread where anyone with a code could post that they had a code and would share it with the first X people to PM them. Pretty soon everyone who wanted would get a code, and we could have open discussions. There's also the somewhat related idea of having a separate forum to discuss Steelhunt spoilers, which readers would need to specifically request access too. Perhaps that might lead to too much of an administrative overhead. In any case, it's your forum and you get to make the decisions you're comfortable with. You're clearly doing something right, given that this community is the best place to discuss Sanderson's works.

I agree completely with this. Everything public from Team Sanderson has encouraged sharing codes, so long as sharing remains person-to-person. I wouldn't normally have access to Steelhunt codes, and I'd be pretty pissed at being left out. Thankfully, there was a nice person on Reddit who decided to share. The way I see it, Team Sanderson expect that anyone who's even moderately active on any online community would get access to a code, eliminating any problems. To me, the current situation is the fault of over-enthusiastic moderators here, not Team Sanderson. The excerpts released could have let to some very interesting discussion, as can be seen on Reddit.

If that were the case, there would be no value to the mitochondrial DNA the Reckoners and others collect.