Argent

That's more or less how I interpreted it. I had a small theory a while back about how I believe death propagates itself through the Three Realms - under normal circumstances the body dies first, followed by the mind, followed by the soul (though maybe the soul comes before the mind). Nalan had to catch the moment before Szeth's last aspect, be it mind or soul, was gone - I am going to guess that the soul had to go after the mind, so Szeth's spiritual connections to things like Shardblades would be severed, but his mind, his sense of self, would be intact.

Yea, it's a pretty solid Dalinar. And considering what a pivotal scene they chose for the Words of Radiance cover, Sadeas' betrayal makes sense for The Way of Kings'.

For the past day or two I've been participating in an interesting discussion on /r/fantasy about the nature of magic in the fantasy genre, and the... progression, I would call it, from a Tolkien model to a Sanderson model (i.e. from soft magic to hard magic). I think it's interesting, so if anyone wants to offer thoughts either here or there...

Hmm. I don't have anything cohesive for now, just a few comments: The Ones Above instantly made me think of Scadrial as well. But we can't know, there could be plenty of space-faring races throughout the Cosmere. Emerald pool - Splinterpool is what came to mind as well. Probably not a Shardpool, not with First of the Sun being a secondary Shardworld, and not without an active magic system (the parasitic worms felt like residual magic, much like the shades from Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell). The Splinter itself? We have seen a shielding / hiding / protecting power from Kokrelii and warning / time-warping from Sak. If I were to guess, I would probably go with something along the lines of Protection Splinter; but that sounds too similar to Preservation, so I don't know. I remember, from the Writing Excuses brainstorming sessions (this may be included in the book, haven't read the supplementary materials yet), Brandon wanted to toy around with the idea of other species acquiring powers the same way Aviars do (e.g. what happens if an animal eats an Aviar that has already acquired its powers?). In the light of this, the Shard whose Splinter(s) hypothetically gives the parasitic worms their mojo might be something like Symbiosis. Mind senses and telepathy both seem big themes in the magic system too, so maybe that too. I keep thinking Empathy, but I can't justify it. I like the names. First of the Sun probably implies that the planet is closest to its star - though the name could also be just a cultural thing, similar to the geocentric model of our own solar system. +1 for the Prime Directive.

Avatars is actually a pretty solid interpretation, though obviously not even close to the direction meaning. Aspects might have been better. That is, if we are talking about the Shards of Adonalsium.

Only one - apparently the daleks are on a pretty tight budget... It is only mildly less ridiculous.

You know, I keep trying to jump on that bandwagon, and it doesn't really work for me. I watched everything since the 2005 (?) reboot, I fought some heathens who insisted that their favorite Doctor was somebody other than David Tennant, and I still don't feel the show. It's just... I don't know, too cheesy? The villains don't feel interesting (I will not talk about plungers, I will not talk about plungers, I will not ta-- oh, for the love of all that is holy, who came with the brilliant idea that the scariest race in the universe will have a bloody plunger sticking out of its armor?!), the Doctor has deus ex-ed far too many episodes for my taste, and the plots are usually too discontinuous for my taste. I keep watching it, I guess because I hope I'll get another arc similar in quality to my favorites', but it's not a show I hold my breath for.

I did not need more ways to waste my time...

Write.

The Emperor's Soul takes place about 30 years after Elantris, so it's way before The Stormlight Archive (Brandon even teased - trolled? - that we might be seeing Shai in SA). See the Chronology page on the Coppermind for reference - though I wouldn't read the details below the table on top, some of them are spoilery. To answer the original question, however, the order doesn't actually matter, as long as you don't read series backwards or something. The only thing that changes is the quality of Brandon's writing - it is generally accepted (though not by me) that each book he writes is better than the previous ones; so Elantris would be his worst. I've never felt that way, to me they are all wonderful books, and the only statement of quality I can make is that The Stormlight Archive is his best series, and that Words of Radiance is better than The Way of Kings; the rest is more or less the same to me. Oh, and while we are on the topic of reading order - as you learn more about the cosmere and stalk the forums extensively, you will find out that a number of characters hop between books. It is usually difficult to spot them (The Way of Kings features at least four worldhoppers, three of which we have seen in previously published books), so not reading the books in the order they were published can technically diminish your experience by a tiny amount. But it's a very tiny amount, as even in the category of Easter eggs, those are small ones.

sha-LAN sounds, in my head, closer to what he says. He could probably have a fan-maintained pronunciation guide based on how Brandon says things - I figure that's as close to official as we are going to get.

That's a very reasonable theory. Which, disturbingly, would give them the ability to turn anything into a nuclear reactor...

Most languages can't do compound words as easily as English can. Sometimes you get lucky and you can find a couple of synonyms that don't sound horrid when you squish them together; most of the time you end up having phrases instead of names (e.g. Gatekeeper turns into Keeper of the Gates) and that's just all sorts of weird usually. Bottom line, translations suck.

The Way of Kings one is kind of meh, especially compared to the others, but Words of Radiance steals the show.

So. Apparently Words of Radiance is being translated and released in that cesspool I call homeland (there were some concerns it wouldn't happen). And in spite of some of the abysmal translations from The Way of Kings, I have to acknowledge that somebody from Artline Studios knows how to do cover art. Because it's sweet (and potentially mildly spoilery). For reference, here are some of the other covers they've done: The Way of Kings The Rithmatist Steelheart

Aaand showtime!

Eh. Magician: Apprentice & Master are good, and so are Silverthorn & Darkness at Sethanon. The next two are not bad, but they are not as good as the first four. And after that it's pretty much all downhill (though the Serpentwar Saga is not yet bad). The ones about Jimmy the Hand are kind of fun to read because of Jimmy alone, the plot is abysmal. By all means, do get back into the series, but don't prioritize it too much.

Uh. Tough one. My personality best fits the Elsecallers, and I wouldn't mind their Surges at all, though obviously none of the others are bad choices. I don't see myself as a Skybreaker though, not at all. Releaser / Dustbringer and Edgedancer are equally unlikely.

Indeed.

It's a theory I entertained briefly, but I don't think it will end up being the case. Brandon's left me with the impression that we rely on symmetry when we talk about (Greater) Roshar far too much, and turning Ashyn into the Tranquiline Halls would make far too many things far too symmetrical in my eyes.

Hmm, I guess an update it due. I finished A Crown Imperiled (and found it better than its prequel, A Kingdom Besieged), and am now reading the final book of the last series in the Riftwar world, Magician's End. For those of you who have read Feist in the past, this book resembles that first few in terms of quality (something the 10-15 books before it failed to do). It doesn't rival them, but it's at least pleasant to read.

The thing is, even what we consider canonical pronunciation is usually not the most correct version. The most correct version would be the in-world one, and in most cases we don't know what that is. Kaladin? Pretty straightforward. Kelsier? Even Brandon doesn't say his name like it's supposed to sound. And that's okay - this is one of those things that make up Brandon's "25% of writing left to the readers." In other words, Brandon's books are 75% his, and 25% yours, and those 25% are what make the book an experience personal to you - how certain names sound, how certain characters look, what the vaguer parts of the world look like, and so on. Back the audio books, though. In some cases the narrators have some kind of a pronunciation guide from the author, but not in all of them. Plus, even when they do use a pronunciation guide, it doesn't have all the names. So yeah, it's a little weird to hear familiar names pronounced differently (I've been listening the The Black Prism on Graphic Audio, and the voice actors decided, for some reason, that Garadul should be pronounced Haradul...), but there isn't much you can do about it.

How would you define "better" though? Stormform seems specifically suited for battle - listeners who embrace this form are faster and stronger than any other form we've seen, including warform (though they lack its armor). Their ability to shoot lightning is probably best suited for combat too. So, judging by the few voidforms we've seen the songs of, stormform would the default battle form - which suggests it was designed (by Odium?) to do just that. The other forms are better at different things - scholarship, disguise, concealment, confusion, hiding - but none of them have the same battle feel. If stormform was indeed meant to only allow the listeners to summon the Everstorm, its combat capabilities would've been unnecessary. Moreover, it is strongly suggested that the Everstorm is linked specifically to the Last Desolation. For this to be true, stormform must have been unavailable to the listeners during past Desolations, otherwise they would've summoned an anti-highstorm before every Desolation. Eshonai and Venli, however, do recognize Eshonai's new form, they have knowledge of it, so it must have been present in the past. Which leads me to believe that there is something else that made the Everstorm possible during Words of Radiance, it's not just about the form.

Furthermore, Adolin's Shardplate looked designed to counter the powers of Stormform specifically. This suggests that the Radiants of old considered Stormform - or something very similar to it - a more persistent threat.

Aye, Nalan's reasoning - in his own words - is that even small criminals, who are also Surgebinders, are much more dangerous than, say, crime lords because their Surgebindings (or something related to them) can bring back the Desolations.