Requiem17

Book 2 Hoid is a carriage driver, Book 3 he's a homeless man, and Book 4 he's back to a carriage driver. Is he hanging around because he wants to see how this Trell and Harmony stuff works out, and he figures Wax will be in the middle of it, or is he trying to get himself 10 feruchemical hemalurgy spikes or Malwish medallions? For the latter two though... I feel he'd have better luck if he weren't a carriage driver.

Ah, autonomy from Harmony's control / him being able to speak with them since they're spiking with more than two spikes. I agree that the weirdness Marasi and Wayne note could be explained by the Cycle having more strength stored than she expected, and gold compounding but less savanty than we saw with Miles, but then why have both characters who remember book 1 note there's something weird about the healing. And Stormlight:

As an engineer this naming convention is boggling my mind. Brando please you're killing me here.

Holy smokes I think you hit it on the head with this one, gonna use his brain to have a meeting. Despite the seriousness I keep picturing Wax standing around with his eye twitching as gods say creepy stuff at each other, and it makes me chuckle. It was really cool to see Marasi holding her own in a pretty epic fight. No more standing in someone else's shadow for her. I also continue to adore her and Wayne's dynamic and am so glad they have coded plans, and that he respected her enough to let her rest and figure out her own way back. Damsel in distress Marasi is gone and I'm 100% here for that. Trellium = Compounding-lite? Or the third regular spike was Gold Misting & the Trellium just corrupting the normal powers to act slightly differently. I'm leaning towards the latter.

I wonder if Marasi can stand on a piece of metal and activate the bomb while holding it, and it would push her away from all pieces of metal in the vicinity, effectively getting her a flying leap. I just started my reread of BoM so my facts may be off, but couldn't Wayne charge the box with healing power and thus let anyone in the area of the bomb be healed? I assume that is how that would work, wonder why they haven't prepared a bomb like that instead, that seems really useful in keeping Marasi safe.

Good to know on Wax, and that makes sense on feruchemy. So we shouldn't call Wayne's skill savanting but just regular skills increasing. Wayne's nearly 40, and Wax was 44+ for the first three books, so Wayne is just starting to see the skill increase we saw already apparent in Wax. Now I'm thinking a Marasi in her 40s could skill-increase to make a bubble that doesn't completely enclose herself, maybe just touches an eyeball or fingernail of hers. The people she chooses are in the speed bubble but not really herself. Not sure if that's really that useful if she has ettmetal bombs anyway.

What was Wax's negative side effects of savantism? I still need to reread book 3. I remember he gained the ability to really minutely push on metals in the bullet, and warp his steel bubble around what he did and didn't want, but those are benefits. For Wayne we can see that he can morph the size and shape of his bubble and reactivate it quicker than normal, and probably can shape what he heals now instead of a general healing. Negative side effect of healing is feeling pain / maybe sensation in general less (I assume, taking a cue from Miles Hundredlives).

Agreed!! Is this an Easter egg or a clue? Is the governor on the Set payroll, or the Vice Governor (Adawathwyn)? If you have the height of power in Harmony's blessed city why in the world would you risk it by turning to Trell and chaos-- what is the offer they sold out for?

So much fun to be had in these chapters! I could real whole books of Marasi and Wayne having dorky yet important for feminism conversations. Absolutely love the irony of "Bullet stopper, skull knocker, guy who occasionally gets exploded," not being what happens today and then all three happen literally the next chapter. Getting major Marasi goes to Malwish / off world long term in the epilogue vibes. These chapters prove she's learned whatever she was going to learn being around Wax and Wayne, she's equal to them now (weirdly babysitter-ish to Wayne in some ways) and ready for the next major mystery likely alongside Allik. Also really interested in the savantism from Wayne. His whole plotline is starting to give me anxiety though (don't kill him Brandon please)

I'm also trying to figure out what Brandon is broadcasting here by starting the book with Wayne's mother dying in a way outside her control, and then MeLaan potentially leaving due to something outside her control (Harmony we assume). "The people I love always leave me"? Maybe Wayne is meant to follow MeLaan this time. I think Marasi ends the story going South / going on her own crazy adventure a la Wax in the Roughs. Though rereading the books I see the Wayne/Marasi long shot angle as something I think we're maybe meant to see as this "could have happened if things were more normal around here". For reference, Book 1&2 started with Lessie prologues and Wax thinking about being forced into a marriage in high society, and end with him making steps forward with Steris.

What do y'all think of Wax's recommendation for the government (that he lost on)? More like a United Nations or EU approach right? Should half the Senate seats still be based on nobility?

Prologue - loved a good Wayne opener. This story is such a good one to relisten on audiobook and hear all the accents. It was both sad and sweet to hear why Wayne's so good with voices Ch. 1 - Time skip! I'm a fan of the six year jump and absolutely love that Marasi and Wayne are partners in law enforcement. Will have to wait and see what MeLaans up to, but clearly this is setting up something else romantic for Wayne, but what? That he should go with MeLaan on the mission? That Wayne will go immortal too?? We'll learn something about platonic relationships with him & Marasi? Ch. 2 - I agree with y'all's thoughts. If the Set wants war though, it's gotta be a chaos thing. Maybe helps them get what they want during the chaos, or the end goal is a lack of structure. Seems like the opposite of Harmony which might weaken Sazed?

Okay let's follow this train of thought! > Spensa instead resents Gran-Gran and her mother for not taking the easy way out (where they get the upper class apartment and admit her father was a coward) > Assuming Spensa gets into Flight School in a similar way, but for more nefarious purposes... Nedd dies when he goes after his brothers. Spensa doesn't sacrifice herself to stop the life buster and the Defiant cavern / Alpha Base are destroyed. > Potentially she gets back to MBot or the ship she takes in the book and escapes the bomb. > If she lives she'd eventually join the Superiority hunting down the remnants of humanity and become another Brade. > Delver flight school would still happen, she would be Brade's Ally, and they'd likely succeed in bringing in a Delver and setting it about to destroy/threaten worlds. > She and Brade overthrow Winzik and rule this section of the Superiority. > Spensa and Brade likely have a war for power.

Arturo seems like the sci-fi / Fantasy "nerd" of the crew, so that's my vote.

Great questions! It was very wand-wavey in the book. Breathable air and gravity: How about this retcon theory? It required a particular combination of gravity / fluid temp and pressure and chemical makeup to breach into the Nowhere dimension. (Kind of a convenient theory, but the only thing that makes sense to me.) And: The Superiority only seeks out "lesser" species that have Cytonics -- and you can't have Cytonics unless you have a Nowhere gateway.

Yay let's theorize! From Gran-Gran we know there is also a "mapping" ability. From the earlier novellas there are also compression bolts. Cytonic: Unknown 1 could certainly be the compression bolts! I wonder if the teal with pink is the mapping ability? I like your idea of rainbow is multitalented, and also agree the iridescent gave me a creepy/weird vibe & that they had an ability we hadn't seen yet.

I loveddddd this novella! Of the three and the main story it was easily the best, glad I saved it for last. I love Jorgen as a character and it turns out even more as a POV character. I love how rigid he is & how he reacted to his parents death. Admiral was never so well deserved. I think my favorite bit was near the beginning, when Jorgen quotes the rulebook and uses it to not answer the assembly. In shock, avoiding FM's empathy, and taking over the DDF in such a badass way. It just set up how well the rest of the book was going to go.

I think this series works well for the young adult audience it's meant for! I can see it as a good intro to fantasy / sci fi. I think the broadcasting of the twists is appropriate for the age range it's meant for. I didn't think the twists in Skyward were all that shocking either, but the way the twists happened were super entertaining. For book 2 I think that entertainment wasn't there, but for book 3 it was good again. Character-wise it was good to see Spensa starting to recognize her faults and start verbalizing them instead of skimming over them quickly. Very coming of age. When M-Bot said "Made you look" a wave of emotion hit me. I had spent the whole book thinking when M-Bot made it to the lightburst he was going to merge and takeover the Delver(s). And then he'd be a kind and benevolent Cthulhu rather than what the delvers have going on. But instead he died! Even though it's gimmicky to "kill" him and "revive" him in two books in a row, I'm still glad he found a way to survive. I like that crazy mushroom robot character too much.

My vote is 2nd POV will be M-Bot! He's finally free of his coding, I'm interested in seeing him deal with that.

I like that time range, either 6 weeks for a book, or starting in September and doing a book a month. Since you've read them recently, is there a good way to split the books up? I also like the idea of it being spoiler free for your friend.

Anyone out there planning a reread before the releases of the novellas & Cytonic? Maybe we could plan to do certain chapters by certain dates & discuss. Regardless, I know I'll be rereading them since I need a refresh on the characters and plotlines.

Gavilar could have had Breaths: And Life sense potentially??

I did see this theory somewhere else (Todium's Champion thread?), and the second I read it it really struck home. There's a scene in Oathbringer at Gavilar's funeral, the Soulcaster says something really weird to Dalinar that could be interpreted as Gavilar lived on.

I love this! I could picture every shot, fantastic job. The voiceovers were great picks. Great job being subtle with the storyline without really giving spoilers. I want to watch your movie now.

The fact we're all saying and thinking different proves this scene was confusing, at least. I agree nearly completely with what @Leuthie says, except for the last paragraph. I'm not sold on Todium able to read the memories he excised. My opinion is Todium would have to (harmonize?) with Endowment's investiture to read the memory, and Odium wouldn't want to do that.