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Reading back over the prologue it stands out to me that Gavilar's actions imply something happening that we don't yet understand. Gavliar wants the Parshmen awakened to become a threat in order to unite the people, why would he want this? Dalinar's story seems to push us to think that the people need to unite to face the Parshemen who are no voidbringers, however Gavilar's comments make it sound like there is some other threat they need to unite against and the Parshmen threat is a useful warm up of some kind; was he mad/mislead/not understanding or could he be right? Are the problems that Dalinar is now facing just the warm up? I note also that if the Parshmen are the main threat the idea of a mid-series timeskip seems very odd - so the fact that we know there will be a gap after book 5 lends itself to this idea.

Being from the UK I always pay extra for Brandon's books to have the US versions shipped to me in part to avoid these black and red covers; though also to have whatever is on the inside covers with Stormlight Archive (e.g. the UK version of words of radiance didn't have the picture of Shallan or the coloured map of Roshar)

Well on his way somewhere with a "Diagramist" I don't think we know where they're actually going.

There seem to be two separate questions here: 1. Why was the gate from Stormseat open? 2. How did Jasnah know it was open? My guess to number 2 is that she read it in a book somewhere... As for number 1; there had to be a path for the plot to work but as for a good justification maybe it will be one of the suggestions above - it being the route the last radiants used to leave or something like that; I think this is a key mystery we don't have an answer to yet and I hope we get one but I'm not aware of any good clues.

I've just had an interesting thought - Shallan is shaping up to be quite the spy - perhaps she will investigate Mr T whilst everyone things he's an ally she won't trust him for some reason (may have a slow start on that as she had a positive impression of him back in tWoK) but could she somehow spy out his nefarious doings and bring them Dalinar?

I definitely think that something not obvious happened there but what I do not know.

Very apt comments there - hmm, I was suddenly made to think of Ardihol from Wheel of Time... That said I'm still on the fence between options 1 and 2 at the moment I think there's a good chance of Brandon taking us down option 1 for a while. Alternatively option3 is also a possibility - Mr T genuinely thinks he's doing good but he is somehow being subtly controlled by Odium/one of the unmade or something, possibly by selective provision or withholding of information or, who knows...

What if the Sphere contained the Odium equivalent of the Storm Father? (Wild slightly off the wall theory)

I agree that Odium was bound in some sense - but could he have been reaching out and influencing events in a small limited way? Also it's possible that Taln didn't appear next to Kholinar, maybe he had travelled a great distance to get to Kholinar he could have first appeared somewhere else, though there is Wit's comment at the start of the chapter about the "world having pissed itself"which implies that perhaps it was that something had happened at that very moment. But could it instead be to do with what Gavilar did? (From the Oathbringer prologue):

Mr T is a very interesting character; in a way it's hard to classify him as a "bad guy" or a "good guy". List of pertinent facts I can think of 1. He wants to save the world - this is fairly clear from his private thoughts. 2. His plans were born out of Gavilar's visions -> ostensibly a source of good ideas 3. His apparent objective is to unit the entire world under him to fight Odium -> sounds Bondsmith esque 4. He has had lots of people assassinated and has generally sown chaos across large parts of the world on face value this seems Odium esque 5. He kills invalids/poor people in order to extract information -> doesn't seem to fit with Life before death 6. He has one or more soulcasters and two or more shardbearers under his command 7. He apparently has one or more radiants working for him 8. He has conquered Jah Kavad 9. He knew that Surgebinders would be returning 10. He wants to kill Dalinar Trying to put all of this together... His basic plan appears to be: 1. I need to unite the whole world to fight Odium BUT 2. Diplomacy would take too long SO 3. Kill all the other leaders He seems to know a lot of stuff that most people don't and even with the large library in Kharbranth the level of knowledge he has (knowing new Knights are coming and how the bonds work, knowing that the parshendi were potential voidbringers, knowing what broke the Knights before) it seems suspicious implying that he has access to a privileged source of some kind, could this be a spren? Why does he want to kill Dalinar? It seems that it may just be that he wants the whole world united under him and doesn't want a rival as fighting a war (against Odium) would be harder with mixed leadership, but in that case is he about to flip? Is he now going to throw his lot in with Dalinar to unite the world or is he still worried about competition? Ultimately I see 4 possible end results for Mr T OPTION 1: Mr T the ally - Mr T allying with Dalinar working with him to save the world, most likely as a second Bondsmith bonded to the cultivation super spren -> the one thing I don't like about this idea is that as a reader it will feel quite unsatisfying if Mr T's evil actions are never publicly revealed/punished; maybe he will be a Bondsmith but will end up being killed by Dalinar for what he's done after they work together for a little while? OPTION 2: Mr T the unintentional villain - think of Pedron Niall from Wheel of Time - a very competent character trying to do bad things for good reasons but with an end game based on having misunderstood what's actually going on who ends up doing more harm than good - this version of Mr T probably tries to kill Dalinar possibly by using another assassin; he's ultimately trying to do good but is so muddled up about how to do it that it's all a disaster - this version of Mr T would most likely seriously hinder the "good guys" plans but may ultimately have some kind of redemption scene. OPTION 3: Mr T as a pure villain - Mr T is being controlled/manipulated by Odium into doing what he's doing he doesn't know this but he's preparing the world for Odium to destroy it. OPTION 4: Some kind of hybrid, two out of the above 3 or one turning into another. So, what do you think? So, what do other people think, OPTION 1? to me that seems to be where things are hinting at the moment, I did think Option 2 for a while but there are several hints that I think make Option 1 more likely, the bondsmith like characteristics and having a radiant; though with OPTION 2 the radiant could be a fake or a dupe... Or is there something I've missed that adds another option or removes one of these?

No I don't think so, Words of Radiance chapter 84, bottom of page 1015, Graves speaking: They were keeping him away from Dalinar as ordered by Mr T (so he didn't bump into Szeth) - they weren't thinking about the fact that they may accidentally push him to WindRunner level3.

This isn't necessarily the case; there could be a powerful individual forcing everyone to put them down and/or a group of such (perhaps a slightly larger group of new Knights Radiant)? I don't think this is necessarily going to happen or if it does I don't think it will be soon but it's certainly a possibility.

Seeing Adolin revive a blade and become an Edgedancer is one of the things I'm looking forward to most in the next book (I hope it doesn't take two books to happen.) Though I'd also very much like to meet a Releaser. And I'd also really like to see two or more members for several of the orders interacting with each other - if the new Knights are meant to get anything like the scale of the old ones there should be loads of them soon.

I don't think Spren revival would be quite like that. Thinking about it Sprens are personified ideas and concepts; if a spren is bound to someone I assume that bond becomes part of the "idea" hence part of the Spren; I would assume that the oaths that the bond is built on are part of the bond and so again in a way they are part of the "idea" and hence part of the Spren. So if the oaths are broken -> the idea now contains a contradiction; can a contradictory idea exist as a thing? No it's a nonsense; but they have magic keeping them semi-alive; so they probably feel like they're dying over and over. Hmm, I'm no longer sure where I'm going with this; I still want Adolin to revive his blade I think that would be awesome, and the talking to it bit did seem like a hint in that direction - I don't think it would be half dead and in agony through 4 oaths though.

That was Moash and Graves. Amaram was last seen taking the man who may be Talenelat into a coach planning to go to Urithuru after writing a letter to Restares saying that they had succeeded. He regrets the loss of Dalinar's friendship wishing that he had killed Kaladin; and one of the ghostbloods tries to kill him with a blow gun - he recognises them as a ghostblood; but they run off when he summons his Blade.

I loved the Kaladin chapter and the growth he's showing - I think it was good that he hit Roshone, not that it was necessarily a good thing to do but that it makes him seem a bit more human, characters who are perfect all the time are annoying -> also it was a completely understandable reaction considering what happened with Moash and his past history I'm almost surprised he didn't do more. It also felt very satisfying overal it seemed to tie up the loose threads and didn't leave us hanging; sure he's heading off into the night but that's a new thread now. As for the other two chapters; not so much my kind of thing but useful development nonetheless. I'm nervous where things are going with Adolin, I really hope the death of Sadeas doesn't result in him being cast out/arrested/anything else of the sort; though maybe it could be a useful plot device for him to go into exile for a year or something; I also hope that the mystery doesn't drag on all book. Regarding Renarin you all seem too suspicious, I just read it as he's seen some visions of the future that have spooked him and he's already by nature a quiet individual. It's not the same Perel - it says that this Perel who's been murdered is from Sebarial’s army whereas if you read back in WOR you'll find that the Perel Adolin was talking to was one of Adolin/Dalinar's officers.

True, my mistake. But, 3 surges and normally each pair has some kind of effect from combining them that they don't do on their own (or so we've heard). 3 would mean 3 different pairs - would this manifest as 6 abilities? Would there be some special effect of all 3 together giving you 7 abilities? Hmm I feel like this could be a very interesting area for Brandon to explore.

I'd thought of that as a possibility before too; it could make sense BUT obviously the "BondSmiths of old" didn't do that; I'd like to know what they did do, surely being linked to the "super spren" would have given them some spectacular powers... I also wonder what Dalinar could be like with 4 surges + his existing skills. Hmm, I think I'd be happy with almost anything, though if there's no Kaladin chapter Ill be annoyed - I just want to see the resolution to the immediate problem of how Kaladin's going to relate to his hometown - that feels like the key thing we've been waiting for since the last book ended.

That little tidbit has me very intrigued; something specific and special about that blade, marked with the symbol of all 10 orders. Now Bondsmiths were the order that bound everyone together but it wasn't theres. Jezrien was the king of heralds so his order, i.e. a Windrunner blade could make some sense - but there's been no mention of all of those symbols on Kaladin's blade. The next thought that comes to mind is could it be one of the herald's Blades? No one could use it to surgebind if they didn't know about such things, I'm sure we've seen mention that some of the Blades are missing from the Shin's collection other than Jezriens? At the same time this almost seems too obvious and likely wrong - could there be another order that served as "glue" for all 10? Or maybe it was a blade used by someone who was a field commander for all the Knights together hmm, idle speculation running away. I'm also very intrigued by the BondSmiths never having Blades - we've repeatedly been told that Dalinar is an excellent swordsman it seems a shame to waste that ability - also surely Bondmiths were potent on a battlefield - they must have been armed with something. Maybe their surges manifest in some destructively potent way, who knows what adhesion and tension could do together... We will learn all of these things in November methinks but the wait... Patience is a virtue...

If the knights were just getting started that could be devastating to them though - imagine a real life parallel, a troop of soldiers are completing their basic training and "Oh BTW the fuel for your tanks erm we don't know where it is, the ammunition for the guns isn't here either - we know they're somewhere but it could be a few miles away oh and the enemy will be here tomorrow"... I don't think stormlight is going away, maybe the stormfather will go and there will be a different sauce of the light - but in interviews when talking about the concept for the stormlight series one of the things that Brandon brought up was that he wanted magitech which meant he wanted a form of magical battery as a key thing in the series -> infused gems.

Stormlight rationing could be very interesting - it would make it almost impossible for any significant new radiants to train and/or practise effectively. A sustained limited supply could be a far more interesting plot device than a complete drought I think. I note that one of the early chapters mentioned them having discovered devices in Urithuru for lowering gems down into the storm - so I assume those will be used at some point.

But - at the moment the power of the surges comes form the investiture in the storms. If you either a. stop the storms OR b. remove the investiture from them the surges would go bye bye. That said I don't think there's going to be a major stormlight drought for very long; it would just be too de-habilitating, no surges for combat, and no ability to travel to or from Urithiru - Dalinar and friends would all become irrelevant; maybe there could be a brief shortage but make it long and it would be hard for that to be a fun problem to read about.

I think it should actually be 14:00 GMT, GMT is 5 hours ahead of EST, not 6 - and it was 14:00 last week.

I feel like we could easily spend 100 hours theorising about the exact situation in Hearthstone e.g. did someone else warn them? Did the Voidbringers run off? Had Roshone sold his Parshmen? Were the Voidbringers fought? Does Kaladin have another sibling? What's Kaladin going to do next? But... We'll probably have answers to all of those questions next week, looking forward to it

I intend to import the Tor version as I do for all of Brandon's Books, I don't understand Gollancz's obsession with weird washed out images that often don't tie to the book.