Argent

One of the most iconic figures in the lives of many geeks, Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series passed away today in his home in Los Angeles. A wonderful actor, a wonderful human (and vulcan!) being, a wonderful friend according to those who knew him, and a wonderful honorary grandfather to all who wanted or needed him. I myself don't have a personal story to share, so I'll borrow from Captain Kirk:

I am pretty excited about this. I've never read steampunk before, but I trust Butcher enough to let him be my introduction to the genre.

I played a long time ago (about two years, haven't played in over a one). I suppose I still am L7 Enlightened agent. Can't speak about badges because back in my day we didn't have badges I did submit and had approved over 50 portals, so there's that.

About as much as it is to point fingers and claim you know one's motives (e.g. "monetization" - which somehow became a dirty word when I wasn't looking) when you don't. In fact, you could argue that defending Brandon with a personal anecdote (and I will remind you that the dinner story is not the only argument Windrunner provided) and accusing him of monetization are the two sides of exactly the same offense - lack of information. So the end of the day, the best policy is Wheaton's Law. Otherwise I would be murdering George Martin all day long...

Winter takes it all, I agree. Not that Marcus is bad either. Which reminds me of another excellent thing about the book - it doesn't stretch itself to a large cast of characters. Two main characters, plus the rare side viewpoint chapter (e.g. Jaffa or Feor). It works really nicely.

Right, Malazan. It is similar, I suppose - though only partially. The Thousand Names is much more army-centric, while Malazin has more than a few viewpoint characters who are off somewhere. But you know what I like about The Thousand Names? That the people are generally competent. This is present in Malazan and The Black Company, of course, but I haven't read those in a long time, so the impression is fresh in my mind. Yes, there are some goons, but the important characters - on both sides - are generally capable of doing things and thinking on their own. I don't know why this is such a big deal for me - I can't really pinpoint a book I've read recently where this has not been the case (though I also can't pinpoint one where I've consciously noted the characters' competence).

Szeth-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-son-Kholin.

That's why she looked familiar!

<headcanon> Dalinar's wife was Kaladin's mother. Kaladin is Dalinar's stepson. </headcanon>

I finished Brian McClellan's The Autumn Republic not too long ago. It was an excellent conclusion of The Powder Mage series. There are some - mostly small - things I had problems with, but overall it not only ended well, it ended the series well. I read The Waking Engine before that, and boy do I wish I felt the same way about it... It may be one of the worst books I have ever read (it is, in fact, the second to last on my Read shelf if I sort them starting with the worst average rating). It had a lot of potential, the writing wasn't bad, the idea was clever, but I think it just failed to deliver somehow. I feel like the book would've worked much better if it was twice as big - or the number of characters that showed up in it was cut in half. At the end, I think the biggest downfall of The Waking Engine was it attempting to squeeze an epic fantasy novel's worth of worldbuilding into a regular novel's size. I am reading Django Wexler's The Thousand Names now, a little over halfway through. It reminds me a little bit of Glen Cook's Black Company series, in the sense that there is a lot of army stuff going on - camps, logistics, weapons, battles, tactics, officers, etc. The differences stop there, I think, though. It was a little confusing at first (for the first 50-70 pages, let's say), because the viewpoint characters don't explain much, and there is much going on, but it picks up from there. I am not a huge fan of battle scenes in books, and this one has more than a few, but overall it's more than bearable. We'll see how I feel when I finish it.

If anyone's been holding out, by the way, I don't feel possessive of my own questions - if you want to transcribe, go right ahead. I won't get a chance for at least another few days. Also, @Nymp, Brandon's "now you are thinking with portals" was meant to be more like "now you are starting to think about the problem in the right light". I thought he said that. Maybe it's on the audio.

Ah, don't mind me then.

I like. I am generally happy with Brandon's covers in the US, but this one rates a little higher than the average. I absolutely adore Marasi too - I didn't imagine her quite so badass (also, she looks a little older on the cover than she is supposed to be in the book, I think, but that's not unusual), and Wax's revolver looks like a thing of power.

The symbols for the extra metals seem to have gone away, I need to look them up in other places...

Probably the answer to how exactly it is that Lift turns Stormlight into Investiture. Turns out she actually metabolizes food into Investiture. So, your body, your digestive system, it takes food, it breaks it down, it breaks it down, it breaks it down, and the pretty much final product (or one of them) is sucrose, I believe, which is a very basic sugar. Your body then uses those sucrose molecules in special ways to create energy molecules - ATP - which your cells use to do everything they do. Well, in Lift's case, she doesn't get sucrose (or, rather, she can choose not to get sucrose - she can effectively tell her body "don't turn this into sugar, turn it into awesomeness!") - she gets Investiture. The example he gave was, think bread and sausage. Bread metabolizes quickly - at least white bread does - which gives you a sugar spike; so Lift would be able to get a lot of Investiture quickly if she were eating bread. On the other hand, sausage metabolizes slowly, so she would be able to kind of keep a "slow burn" of Investiture with it for a longer period of time. Oh, also. Somebody asked about the Recreance and when it had happened. I remember that off the top of my head, so you don't need to wait for the transcript. Brandon doesn't know exactly, but it is closer to the present than it is to the Last Desolation. So the Heralds abandoned their oaths 4,500 years ago. The Recreance was no more than about 2,000 years ago - probably somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 because when I asked Brandon "in the hundreds or in the thousands" he said definitely in the thousands.

Here

Or we could just not discuss Pat's writing speed and focus on how awesome what he writes actually is

It is possible that my idea about what constitutes "a few" questions asked may be a little skewed... I felt the same way during the Words of Radiance tour, but the events I attended ended up being some of the beefiest in terms of number of questions asked.

Somebody asked it, it's in the Signing Line audio. Brandon's answer was vague. Two things I remember from it: 1. Shallan's eyes are already light, so no change, and 2. Some eye colors in modern Roshar are genetic mutations.

Wow, I haven't been this tired on any other signing. It was supposed to be two hours, and I - and Kurk - left after five (when Brandon left). I need to sleep, but here's what I can give you for now. First, a link to my Google Drive where I post these things. As I am writing this, the Q&A + Reading (of Perfect State) and Extra (which is when I and Kurk harrassed Brandon with our lists of questions) are already uploaded, and the Signing Line file is uploading. It will probably upload quickly, so if you don't see it, keep checking. Second, a quick recap of the event. The format shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you - Brandon opened up with a short intro about how these things go, followed up by some stories (the theme this tour has been creativity and how we can all value it a little more), then a reading from Perfect State (which should be coming out as an exclusive on, I think Minicon is what he said), and finally an open Q&A - which didn't have any Cosmere questions. Usually we get one or two, but this time nothing. 'twas a sad time. After all this, of course, we moved on to signing and personalizing people's books. Very few questions were about the Cosmere, but we did have a few interesting people. A few physics majors, as well as a few other hardcore science people were strategically dispersed throughout the line. There was a kid - can't give him more than 12 years, my guess - who came up with a list of hand-written questions that has to have had* come from 17S, they were just too poignant. This kid made me happy. Kid, if you are here, /highfive, keep on rocking. We had another kid who cosplayed... something. I am sorry, it must be an obvious thing (white robe and a walking stick), and I feel horrible for not recognizing it; Brandon is going to post a photo of him sometime. I did meet up with Kurk and (briefly) a few other Sharders. I was asked if I work at the bookshop, presumably because I hung around Brandon for the entire duration of the signing - this is becoming a theme I am mostly happy with. Somebody wrote Brandon a letter while we all waited. There were a lot of writers on this signing - kudos to all of them. Third, a couple of noteworthy questions. There were two questions Brandon asked me to pause the recording for (I asked about Renarin's visions and how they tie in with his Surges - I can't share the answer with you, but he did point me to a relevant page; I'll need to do some heavy thinking and speculating, but on my own - book #3 should be good!). Gavilar's black sphere will also be "used" (Brandon's word, before he hastily changed to something like "show up") in Book #3, so we'll find out what it is then. Also, he is working with some guys to develop a Stormlight tabletop (I think) game, the idea being that players will fight across chasms. And Obliteration from Firefight? That's Jim Butcher, if you were curious. If anyone wants to transcribe, be my guest. Outside of me, Kurk, and a couple of other people, there were almost no interesting Cosmere questions, and almost no new information on things like Brandon's life, writing, and so on. Unfortunately, I didn't think to write down the time marks when those thing happen, so somebody will have to enjoy hours of signing line to get to those bits. I probably won't have time, not in the next few-days-to-few-weeks. And finally, there are no unicorns in the Cosmere, and currently there aren't any plans to add them. I know. I asked. * The fact that I can write these last few words makes me hate the English language so much... P.S. I forgot to ask a Reckoners question, sorry guys. I went through almost all of my questions, but I hadn't written those down, so it didn't even cross my mind until it was too late...

Hotlanta. I asked Peter a few weeks ago.

Come up with a question I would like then Hint: I like figuring how things work.

Alright, here's what I plan to bring with me. I've gott a little time to make changes, if need be. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jP2EajEp7GJetyW1ZLzrF3rWwdgKAZ50rb3duU4i4y0/edit?usp=sharing

You can have this question then

Okay, going through the Ultimate List of Questions, here's what catches my eye: Confirm genders for us for the sake of clarity. Aona is a girl, Skai is a boy, and Endowment's Shardholder is a girl? Have we seen any end-negative systems besides Hemalurgy? Are there any? Out of all the shards, why did Odium go after Devotion and Dominion? Wouldn't Splintering a single Shard (e.g. Endowment) be less risky than the potential of two Shards joining forces against a common enemy? Can a Shard and its holder be separated again without dying? Could any two Shards be joined together like Ruin and Preservation? Could an object on Roshar or Scadrial be somehow invested to the point that becomes sentient, like Nightblood? Or is that an ability unique to Nalthis / Awakening? Can a Returned gain a Nahel-bond? (I would probably rephrase this to say "Lightsong" instead of "Returned" so it doesn't look like we are asking about Vasher...) Would a weapon like Nightblood pose any sort of threat to a Shard? Is the term Spirit-web the word we should be using for "spiritual DNA"? Or are they different things? I stopped at the Mistborn section, I hadn't realized how big the list has grown. I would like to ask at least one Reckoners question too, since this will be a Firefight signing, but there are only two in the list. This one is not bad, I think: Is the process that determines whether an Epic will become a Gifter completely random, does it depends on the person somehow, or is it something else? Also, a while back I asked a question and Brandon's answer mentioned Honor's "purposes" - I will probably open up with a clarification on that. I'll come back in an hour or two and try to finalize my list.