Argent

This has become one of Brandon's signature moves, actually - he likes doing it more than most other authors I've read. Ever since Mistborn I try to keep an open mind about everything authoritative figures in Brandon's writing say.

Tor has only released the first 5 chapters, the prologue, and Lift's interlude.

I was under the impression that it's more of a... normal light. We refer to it as "white light," but that's a language issue.

We don't know whether they have spren. And we don't really know anything about the Truthless of Shinnovar. We don't even know if all Truthless have a Blade and/or if all of them can channel bind surges.

Further strength is provided by a WoB telling us Shallash is Jezrien's - the Stormfather's - daughter. Matches the "daughter of kings and winds" requirement.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, Jasnah referring to the Cryptics as "liespren" makes sense. They demanded a "powerful truth" from Shallan, and if you think about it, the power of a truth depends on the lies we tell around it. The revelation that Shallan killed her own father is a powerful truth precisely because she has been hiding the fact and lying about it. If, instead, she had said something along the lines of "my family is in trouble," I suspect the Cryptics would've been much less satisfied, because while true, it's not something Shallan has been actively concealing. Not as much, at least.

I've never seen Tor release more than 10 chapters of any book. Given the length of Words of Radiance, that's about how many I would expect. I too like the potentially intentional ambiguity of the writing. It could be a red herring though - it is entirely possible that whoever wrote - drew? - this was just not very good at it. Roshar is a world where the ability to draw glyphpairs is limited to only a fraction of the population.

I thought of a puppy, but yes. Awesomesauce.

Chapter 3: Pattern The Knights Radiant and Shadesmar are somehow linked study subjects? Drawing the pattern - which sounds related to the spren somehow - draws hundreds of creationspren. This is significant, but I don't know how. Huh. Shallan's "pattern" sounds like her spren, the same way Jasnah's man of darkness is. But the pattern is an approximation of the symbolheads, of the Cryptics. Let's see where this will take us... "A silvery sword. A pattern of light." - this has to refer to Shallan's father's death, but the pattern of light doesn't fit anything we've seen from Shardblades. I wonder if it's just an environmental detail (e.g. pattern of light cast on the floor by a window frame) or something significant. Aaah, so the Cryptics look like what we saw in The Way of Kings when they are in Shadesmar, but have a much... simpler form in the Physical Realm. I have to wonder - how does Syl look in Shadesmar, and how did Shallan see the Cryptics "true" form in Kharbranth? Her ability to take Memories is becoming more and more interesting. Cryptics have fearful reputation? Teehee, Jasnah's spren is called Ivory. Because of course it would. He is male though, which adds a little support to that theory about how Surgebinders and their spren have different genders. What Ivory has done is considered a betrayal by the others of his kind? What, binding with a human again? That's interesting, Wyndle was chosen to do just that - maybe different types of spren, or different factions of spren, view humans and the Recreance differently? Huh, liespren? That's, um... way off from truthspren. And yet it isn't. So, Cryptics are like the rulers of Shadesmar? And they are in some sort of a conflict with the honorspren? Oh, my. Two categories of spren - those that react to emotions and those that react to forces. Think there was a theory here that used similar categorization. Woah, Jasnah knows of Honor and Cultivation? Oh, but she treats them like man-made deities. That's funny.So, Honor - emotions & emotionspren, Cultivation - nature & naturespren. Okay. Bam, Voidspren! Third category, obviously of Odium. It sounds like the Stormfather is treated differently by different cultures - I might be wrong here, but it's possible that some tie him to Odium as much as Vorinism ties him to Honor. Aaaand Shallan gets bored and distracted. Way to go, girl, just when we started getting some serious info. Grrr... Chapter 4: Taker of Secrets Ah, Dalinar's vision chapter. There has to be some juicy stuff here. But then, every chapter so far (except for Kaladin) has been loaded with information related to the Cosmere and Realmatics. Man, am I going to love this book or what? Sja-anat - another one of the Unmade / anti-Radiants? If so, the fact that it can affect random spren is disturbing. Heh, Radiants used to have cell phones. I wonder if all Thunderclasts look like humanoids, or if they assume the shape of the spren that animated them. The latter seems more likely. The Radiant moves a little too easily through water - I wonder if one of her surges is friction. So... Honor gave the Heralds power over the surges, and the spren decided to imitate this, ultimately resulting in the Knights Radiant? Odium appointing a champion is somehow safer for him than defeat during a Desolation? Sounds like maybe the Heralds are Honor's equivalent to Odium's champion - a buffer of some sort. The champion(s) takes the hit if their Shardholder's side loses, so the Shardholder himself doesn't have to... die? But then, Odium has suffered defeat many times - so how does choosing a champion reduce his risk / consequences? Hmm, the other soldiers glowed with Stormlight? Would that make them candidate-Radiants, Knights in training? Recruits who have some control over their surges, but haven't discovered all the Ideals? "Renarin and Adolin waited out the storm nearby, in another room of Dalinar’s quarters and under the watchful eyes of Captain Kaladin and his bridgeman bodyguards." - wow, reading Kaladin's title like this felt weird. "Sixty-two days. Death follows." - I don't even know how to react to this. Dalinar so has a mancrush on Kaladin. 62 days until the Last Desolation? That's awfully specific. If true, it also means that the Desolations, or at least the Everstorm, are pretty specific events, not a continuation of things happening. Almost like eclipses, or equinoxes. Maybe my cosmic alignment idea wasn't all that bad? Chapter 5: Ideals Aww, Teft calls Kaladin Kal. Sigzil is awesome. Man, everyone is so aware of the Cosmere all of a sudden. Torol Sadeas? With a name like that no wonder nobody likes him. Oh, woah - Sadeas viewpoint? Let's see what's going on in that head of his... Eh, nothing much apparently. I am only mildly surprised that he wants to take over the world. I hope we see more of him though, right now he is kind of a boring villain. Aaand we are back to Kaladin. I am kind of glad he is still struggling with the whole solder vs. surgeon problem. And while his mood and attitude makes sense from a character development standpoint, I wish to see him a little more cheerful... Moash also calls him Kal. When did that happen? "The king himself paced back and forth beside the room’s desk. His nose was larger than the paintings of him showed." - teehee Heh, of course Elhokar is going to like the extra security. Man, Adolin is not a happy panda around Kaladin. This could end up being interesting if it escalates quietly. Kaladin - not undermining highprinces' metaphores since 1174. Aaand, the end. Kaladin is, right now, my least interesting character. I am sure things will change, and soon, but he doesn't swing enough lore or magic around to keep me on my toes.

Stupid work. Distracting me. Those upvotes should've been mine!

I always thought it makes sense for them to be stored in the Spiritual. But that's about it.

You need to make with the drawing too

It really depends on what role Amaram has in the bigger story - is his betrayal of Kaladin Stormblessed and his squad a fluke, or is it how he normally operates? The former could lead to an alliance (or at least a working relationship) between him and Kaladin; the latter could lead to a spear in the guts.

God, my bookmark is so worn out... Brandon's signature is practically invisible, and the edges look like somebody tried to eat them. We should totally bully Botanica into creating bookmarks out of her Rosharan Family.

ohgod, Malazan. I was not disappointed by it, but man, was it hard to read. Even Forge of Darkness, which I had some background for (from the original Malazan series) and was written in a style more similar to standard high fantasy, was difficult.

I like the (paraphrased) idea of a region of the Spiritual Realm moving along with the highstorms, "opening" gems as it touches them, filling them as it passes through, and "closing" them as it leaves them behind.

There is a distinct difference between "gentle man" and "gentleman." The book uses the former phrase.

That's what I thought of first as well, but Maer Alveron is hardly gentle. He is a pretty harsh ruler - a little ruthless, highly efficient, and not terribly forgiving. Sim, for example, is gentle - but he is an example, not title material.

You couldn't read the book for its literary qualities alone? The Name of the Wind has some of the most beautiful prose I've read. For me it was the Recluse series by Modesitt Jr. It was very highly recommended to me by my best friend (and long time reading companion) who read a translated version of it. I absolutely hated Modesitt's style of writing, the way he felt the need to vocalize every sound literary - to the point where he wouldn't say that someone sneezed or that a horse whinnied, he would try to write the sound of it. I am sure it didn't help that at the time I was not very experienced with first person narratives either. At least the worldbuilding was okay-ish.

I was actually wondering about that a few months back. The Name of the Wind is a pretty obvious choice - must of Kvothe's journey is inspired by his desire to learn the Name of the wind and some real magic. The Wise Man's Fear is not nearly as clear. One interpretation is that Kvothe (or Kote) is the "gentle man" whose anger is to be feared by wise men. This is certainly backed up by the events around Kote, Bast, and the Chronicler - the innkeeper is a pretty gentle man, but as the proverbial shite hits the metaphorical fan, more and more of Kvothe starts to resurface. I am fairly confident he started practicing his ketan at the end of the second book. Another interpretation of the title is that Kvothe faces all the things a wise man should fear - and he does it fearlessly. Which would make him a fool, but that may or may not be besides the point. The point is that all three fears lead to big changes in Kvothe's life. His ship gets wrecked by a storm (and pirates) on the way to Vintas (?), where he does some serious growing up and even secures himself some finances; he meets Felurian during a moonless night, and that proves pretty educational in more ways than just one; the angry gentle man stumps me a little though =\

Man, Kaladin is so going to have to work with Amaram...

Not only the unsheathing, but she also sees him - and recognizes him to be one of the guests - later on. The shadowy figure also follows her in Shadesmar. And it's described as made of darkness and covered in an oily substance. Oh, and there are many of those. So no, no Darkness.

I don't know, that's not what I got out of Jasnah's lecture. It felt like her emphasis was on "Shadesmar is not a place you can just go and visit." Sounded like she was making a point that it's not a physical place. And I still feel like it's a world far more independent than what I thought of it before - maybe the spren don't haul bricks to build their cities, but I am pretty sure you can enter Shadesmar (the way Shallan and Jasnah can) and then swim/float/ride to one of the cities there - and you will actually see a cognitive city. However that looks. The Recreance does sound like a good candidate for the human-spren relationship going bad, I agree.

Meh, the face still feels a little weird to me. I do like it better than before though - his body posture looks like something that could actually be done by a human being, and he looks younger - appropriately younger.

Yea, the description of the Brandon avalanche is pretty accurate. Interestingly, one of the books the avalanche has impressed me the most in was The Rithmatist - it was a climax, and then a climax, and then things settled down, things were explained, cliffhangers were... hanged, and then another-climax-to-the-face!