Argent

Brian McClellan, author of Promise of Blood (The Powder Mage #1), is going to be joining (hosting?) a Google Hangout with our Glorious and Beloved Leader, Brandon Sanderson, on May 1, 2014, 2 PM CDT. I myself will most likely be unable to watch or attend the livestream (*grumble* work *grumble*), but the event description says that they will "talk about our new books, writing as a career, genre fiction, and take questions from the audience," so maybe somebody from the 17S can attend and sneak in a cosmere question somehow. My advice is to mask it as a double question - one you can ask to both authors. I haven't read Promise of Blood (yet!), so I can't be more specific, but if (for example) McClellan has developed a writing system of his own, you could get information on the SA glyphs by asking both authors to talk about ways their readers could go by deciphering those imaginary languages. You can read McClellan's post on his website and bookmark the Google+ event page (or +1 it, or confirm your attendance, or whatever).

Boring, no. But it felt like a lot of new stuff, all the way through book 10. Not only characters (from multiple time periods), events, history, lore, and magic as well.

Thank you. I guess this is a decent depiction of how I imagine lifespren (only as spheres - or motes, or specks - instead of butterflies). For Ym's spren, I guess I was thinking of this part: "It moved across the surface of the workbench, slinking closer. When it stopped, light crept upward from it, like small plants growing or climbing from their burrows. When it moved again, those withdrew." It's much more... visual. It has more special effects.

Progressing through honorspren now. Current rep: 1046. Still an honorspren.

You might be onto something here, but I can't quite put a cohesive theory together...

Pretty sure all those things can be defined and quantified. Here's an example (I would be happy to revise if you find it incomplete): a single unit of Stormlight is defined as the amount of Stormlight a single diamond icosahedron* of edge length L holds immediately after being infused by the Stormfather during a highstorm**. * Icosahderons are 20-sided polygons with (20) sides that are all equilateral triangles - therefore all of their edges are the same length, which we can be used to define the precise shape of the polygon. ** This is the moment when Kaladin sees the face in the sky - the absolute calm in the middle of the storm whose passing infuses gemstones.

I don't know about this (or the post you quoted for that matter)... I might need to find quotes to support this, but I always imagined lifespren as small green spheres*, while Ym's spren made me think of a plant made of light. Not exactly, but similar. Some indeterminate shape that leaves tendrils and roots of lights when it moves. Yea, I am going to need quotes... * It's really frustrating that I have a clear picture of them in my head, I see a bunch of wild plants with those green spheres winking in and out of existence, but I can't remember where I've seen this picture so I can Google it and give you a link...

Eh. I felt like every Malazan book was 50-75% confusing setup, followed by tying of loose ends and clarifications in the remainder of the book. Followed by another book that's equally confusing in the first 50-75%... The endings usually made it all worthwhile, but the first half of each book always felt like a drag to me.

I guess it's possible that Adonalsium is to the Shards what the Ati is to atium and Leras is to lerasium... but there are inconsistencies, so I'll file this under "cool, unlikely; keep an eye out for further evidence"

Bah, all I hear is excuses! Shallan doesn't have access to Photoshop - (nearly) infinite fractals are practically trivial with modern technology, stop being lazy, you artists you

Oh, right. That's what it was. I now wonder whether Sprenblades disappear when their "owner" loses consciousness, for example. It sounds like the regular Shardblades disappear because they require a constant... attention from the person who summoned them, the one they are bonded to. Honorblades, being the real deal, can and do exist independently of humans, they don't need a bond to assume a physical form. So if their wielder falls asleep, for example, there is no reason for them to disappear. Words of Radiance Spoilers

Knowledge, probably. Given my... affinity for books and reading (and not just literature), I would most likely choose the written word(s) as my focus. I'll need to think some more about what the Investiture actually does and who can use it.

Splinter is almost definitely capitalized, and I believe Sliver should be as well. And I agree that not capitalizing the listeners feels weird. It shouldn't - we don't capitalize humans, or orcs, or elves - but it does.

When recommending things, it's probably best if you also say something about your recommendations, or at least provide an "if you liked X, I recommend Y..." I would not recommend the Malazan series to people who like and are used to, say, young adult fiction.

This?

Eh, I always figured this was just a way of saying that this was not the first time Ivory was making her see weird things, similarly to how Syl had taken special interest in Kaladin long before they had any meaningful interaction.

Yea, a toga makes much more sense - the Court of Gods is very much the Greek (or Roman) Pantheon. So of course they would wear togas.

Ha! Little did you know that I already coined the term!

This is pretty terrifying.

Ironically.

I decided to do what I always do when I have the opportunity to ask a question, but can't let myself ask a heavy duty cosmere one - ask something a reader unaware of the cosmere could ask. In this case, I want to confirm that the spren Jasnah sees in the Words of Radiance prologue is indeed Ivory.

Heh, I love that Jasnah is distinctive enough so that everyone gets the stern face in there

The rock blades of Kholinar are windbreaks, there to mitigate the strength of highstorms.

It's kind of missing though

It's certainly a valid take, but it's not how I saw - and still see - things. You are making the argument that each Order essentially exhibits an improved version of their divine attributes - so a Windrunner would be a supernaturally good leader and protector, a Lightweaver would be... supernaturally honest and creative, and so on. Maybe that's so, but I see those things as prerequisites, not results of the Nahel bond - Kaladin had develop into an extraordinary leader and protector to attract an honorspren in the first place, and the bond that came from that attraction is what allows him to develop the actual passive magical abilities I talk about (e.g. supernatural grace, to take one example). Similarly Jasnah had to meet a certain "threshold" of wisdom and carefulness in order to begin attracting Ivory - her, and every Elsecaller's spren, cannot possibly be attracted by any person who exhibits wisdom and care; you'd have to be the equivalent of the 1%, one of the most wise and careful people, to catch the eye of an Elsecaller's spren. So once that threshold was met, Ivory could start forming the bond and interact with Jasnah. Maybe the divine attributes are both a cause and effect of the Nahel bond... both I find this somewhat boring.