Argent

Eh, sure, I meant Tyn's crew. Hired by the Ghostbloods. Even less knowledgeable about Jasnah, so my point stands.

The Ghostbloods likely don't know that Jasnah can Surgebind and therefore heal herself with Stormlight. I understand Jasnah's thoughts there as her being frustrated that the assassins didn't just let her be after what probably would've been a deadly blow for most people. In essence, she is saying "they hit me pretty hard, why couldn't they just assume I was dead or dying and let me quietly heal myself, why did they have to stick a knife in me too?"

I was mostly interested in how the two series compare in terms of the quality of writing. I enjoyed the worldbuilding of Recluse, and since the magic, the characters, and the plot were all decent, I should've been able to enjoy the series as a whole... except for the horrid writing. It's been a while, so I don't remember many details, but I recall that Modesitt loved transcribing sounds literally (e.g. he would rather write "aughchoo" or something like that instead "sneezed"). Is he still rocking this abysmal habit?

Oh, also. Even if a character is boring to you now, it doesn't mean they were boring a few years ago. You can still enjoy flashbacks of characters you don't like at the moment.

Hoid's automagic translation is really interesting. I wonder if there is a magic system out there that lets him do this thing, or if he somehow hacked the effect together from multiple systems...

Hmm, fair enough. Aon Dor is maybe not as restrictive as I thought.

Upvoted for title. The way I think about junctions, they are places in the Cognitive Realm where the physical world is "closer." Areas where, for one reason (a pesky Elsecaller drawing the two realms closer so she can escape death on a ship) or another (Honor sticking his Perpendicularity in other people's business). The classical "point where the worlds are closest."

If the next book was all about Jasnah, I wouldn't complain at all.

Have you read his Recluse books? If so, how does Imgur Imager compare?

I got similarly spoiled before the release of The Alloy of Law

Is it possible? Sure. Likely? Not so much. Occam's razor says this is a parrot, and since Earth-like birds are as rare in Eastern Roshar as pandas are in Western Europe, it is no surprise that both Shallan and Kaladin consider the animals strange. Also, the Jeksonofnone part, it's in all likelihood an Easter egg for those who have read (parts of) The Way of Kings Prime; Szeth-son-son-Vallano was known as Jeksonsonvallano there (see this blog).

Well, technically we don't have to feature each book's order in the flashback chapters. The focus character could still be Shalash, but the plot might, for example, focus on restoring the Dustbringers' order.

A couple of thoughts: Aon Tia is weird. In fact, Aons are weird. Every magic system we have seen relies at least partially on the Spiritual Ideals (~ Platonic shapes) and cognitive concepts*. When Surgebinders and Feruchemists / gFerrings heal, they restore their bodies to how they think of themselves, to their cognitive identity, if you will. When Returned come back, they assume a shape that's similar to the local idea of perfection. What I am getting at is that both of those are very flexible forms of healing - so why is Aonic healing so awfully specific? You make one small mistake and everything goes to hell. With Aon Tia, you get your numbers off by just an inch and you end up with half of your foot encased in solid rock. Why is the Dor so intolerant, why doesn't it implement the same cognitive correction mechanisms as the other magic systems? I was going to guess it is because the Selish Shards were Splintered, but Raoden's knowledge about the Aon Dor comes from the past, possibly from the time when Aona was still kicking it around - and the Dor was still unforgiving back then. So it's got to be something else (possibly even the fact that Elantris was Brandon's first published book). Also, this... weirdness might be unique to Aon Dor. Forging is also a pretty precise form of magic, but it does allow for some errors - getting a few details wrong makes the soulstamps less likely to hold, it doesn't burn your face off or anything. Aon Rao could be less of "soul" and more of "Spiritual aspect" or maybe even "Realmatic Identity," though that last one might be too much of a stretch. Or it could be something about transfer of energies / Investiture. The Cognitive Concepts is an awesome band name!

I think it's too early to feel anything about the second half. All of the characters have a way long to go, and I am certain they will become both more fleshed out and more interesting. Plus, Shalash's slot is probably the least solid one - she replaced Navani, whose position wasn't certain either. So while Lift, Jasnah, Taln, and Renarin seem certain, Ash could still get replaced (and I would be okay with that, because otherwise we'll end up with two "Lightweaver" books).

Eeehhh... This has been a popular but far from confirmed theory for a very long time. Really, the only evidence for it we have is that mural in Elantris and Hoid emerging from something that might be a Shardpool. Where it is also possible that he went for a swim (e.g. looking for something, diving, instead of emerging from the pool). So I would stay away from this conclusion.

We know less about Shardpools than we pretend we do, and the presence or absence of a Shard doesn't change the fact that Shadesmar is still a viable, if slow and potentially dangerous way to worldhop.

The question about religion, I love how he's like "Yeah, I'm a Mormon, I am religious, HERE IS ALL THIS COOL STUFF ABOUT STORYTELLING, AND FANTASY, AND SCIENCE FICTION, AND JUST EPIC STUFF"

Not necessarily. Bacteria and wild animals are dangerous, it's not necessary for everything harmful to also be evil. Exhaustionspren look a little like giant vultures, if I recall correctly. And Soulcasting, I imagine force of will is a part of it, but Jasnah has also had much more experience with it than Shallan. She knows what she wants, she knows she must give up a certain amount of Light, she knows the process. I suspect the conversations she and Shallan are having with the objects they want to Soulcast are less of a negotiation and more a way for their minds to translate the cognitive interactions between their own mind and those of the surroundings.

White Sand conversations, unless they are very generic, belong to the private PM thread.

Oh, Ivory. Spren are rapidly and irrevocably becoming my favorite fictional creatures. I do love Soulcasting of the ropes. A nod, perhaps, to Stick's popularity, but without repeating the exact same thing (which would've been annoying).

Plus, it's possible that an entire population (especially in a post-industrial age era) of Mistborn would actually be enough to drain Preservation's power pretty heavily, so each individual Mistborn might end up being weaker than people like Vin and Elend, who became Mistborn in a time when their powers were extremely rare.

Hopefully.

The Shards' presence in the Physical Realm being explained as a sort of "Spiritual humidity" is actually pretty neat, it's an apt metaphor I think .Distilling lerasium from the mists sounds like an interesting prospect too, but I don't expect Scadrial to have the technology to influence the Spiritual and Cognitive Realms for quite some time.

Don't get me wrong, cinematic scenes are absolutely wonderful, and I believe every book that has any sort of action should also have one or two majestic cinematic... displays of skill, because it doesn't have to be fighting. But said scenes should also serve a storytelling purpose. Kaladin vs. Szeth obviously advanced the plot. Kvothe vs. the fake troupers revealed what kind of a man he is (loyal to and protective of the Ruh traditions) and has become (very dangerous and skilled). I don't know about Gorst vs. Whirrun, haven't read (seen?) The Heroes. Vaelin vs. the Valorians, though - no purpose. He had plot before the fight (though not much), and he had plot after the fight (both in limbo and after, having found out he has lost the blood song), but the fight itself was there only because he had to get from one end of the army to the other, and no peaceful resolution made sense. The entire sequence could've been replaced by "And Vaelin fought his way through the army, bleeding like a pig from all the blood singing he had just done" and the story would've easily held together.

But we had already established that he was a total badass when the he was singing (that's what his duel against the Shield was all about), and we had already established that using the Dark has its consequences - the stronger the gift, the greater the price; and we were told a few times that the Blood Song is a pretty powerful gift. So that scene where Vaelin finally fights doesn't serve any purpose to me, other than to maybe create a cinematic image of him wading through the Volasian (?) army. Which, okay, it's kind of cinematic, but I can't justify it as a climax. Lyrna was a much more interesting character. In fact, I can hardly think of a complaint to voice against her. Frentis (whose name annoys me, because I keep thinking Frentis > 'prentice > apprentice...) was alright, I guess, but the fact that he practically never spoke during the first half of his arc was irritating. Yeah, we got to see some world with him, we got to see parts of the enemy's plan, but his journey with whatshername felt too much like a scene where the Villain just reveals his plans to the Hero because he thinks the game is his. If you've lived for however long that woman has been alive, you should've picked up some caution along the way. Instead she (kind of) falls in love. With a man she doesn't really know because he doesn't tell her anything and he also keeps his more interesting thoughts private (as in, he doesn't think them at all). I could justify taking Frentis on her little field trip, he did look the perfect tool for the job - theoretically perfectly obedient and really skilled, - but revealing so much to him... eh.