Andrew the Great

I love improv everywhere. Reading through their reports and watching videos has wasted many an hour.

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I'll agree that it felt that way for a bit. I actually was quite happy with the ending of Gardens, though, which was enough to propel me through the slow beginning of Deadhouse Gates. Once I got a couple hundred pages into that one, I was pretty much hooked on the series. I can definitely see why the Malazan books wouldn't appeal to everyone, though. I don't remember who it was that said they thought Servant of a Dark God was mediocre, but I sort of half agree, in a sense. There were some flaws with it, most notably I felt like the pacing was slightly off most of the time. Overall, though, I still felt like it was a really good read, and like you mentioned, you can see that John Brown has a lot of potential. The second book in the trilogy should be interesting. The other thing is I think I really liked his worldbuilding, so I was excited for more stories in the same world. And....wow. I sparked an Abercrombie-bashing fest. I don't think that's ever happened before that I can remember. Usually when I tell people that I didn't really care for an Abercrombie novel, they freak out at me. Nice to know I'm not the only one that feels this way. (Though I feel obligated to mention that I actually really did like the First Law trilogy. It just took me a while to get to the point where I liked it) Goodkind....yeah. Wizard's First Rule is a genuinely good book. Stone of Tears is significantly worse. I don't actually remember what the third and fourth were called. The third, I thought was better than Stone of Tears but worse than Wizards first rule, and the Fourth was the worst of the lot. I doubt I'll be reading past that point, just because I really don't care anymore. That, and I can probably predict a large portion of the story very easily. My biggest issue with Goodkind isn't his books, but Goodkind himself. As others have mentioned, he's kind of a hypocritical narcissistic jerkface. He is the only author whose books I have ever felt guilty for purchasing, knowing that I was fueling more of the same. After I finish Black Prism, I've decided to resume Prince of Nothing. I read The Darkness the Comes Before and thought it was pretty good, so we'll see how the other two in the series are.

New fun quote of the day for you: Emphasis mine, of course. This struck me while re-reading. The gist of my thoughts are the moment are in agreement with Darius. I'm thinking that it's entirely possible that Spren are either Splinters (I'd say of Honor, though other shards are possible, I suppose), or they're directly related to them. This also could go a ways toward explaining why Kaladin's bond with Syl allows him to use magic. Of course, that doesn't explain all the different types of Spren, but then, maybe they're just different aspects of Honor? Granted some of them don't really fit with honor, but I can't remember anything that would directly contradict honor on a basic level....

You misunderstand me, Silus. I'm aware that I could go at whatever pace I want to. The problem is that I'm relatively convinced that I would rather enjoy RPing, and would spend large amounts of time doing it rather than say, my Stats homework. I have no problem with RPing itself as a time investment. Instead, I just have doubts as to my own self-control. Well-founded doubts, as it turns out, since I ended up watching movies and talking to friends all day yesterday, which was supposed to be my day to do anything and everything homework. And as further evidenced by the fact that I'm currently posting here, when I should be doing my psych readings.

Starting The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. I only recently read his Night Angel trilogy and thought it was pretty good, so I thought I'd give Prism a shot. Just finished rereading John Brown's Servant of a Dark God, and I still love it. Prior to that, I read Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, which I didn't like (and I might add, it bothers me that it didn't like it, as, according to every rational reason I know of for why I like books, I should like Best Served Cold. But for whatever reason, it just didn't work for me). Hopefully this one and my few remaining unread Pratchett books will get me through until I can read The Crippled God and The Wise Man's Fear. And Republic of Thieves, should it come out in the near future like I keep hearing it's going to.

Agreed. I used to feel the same way about TWG, but lately I'm not liking it as much. I still go around every now and then, but not nearly as often as I'm here. (of course, many of the people who were around when I really enjoyed TWG are here as well, so that could have something to do with it). I've tried a whole bunch of forums over the last couple of years, but I've only stuck with a few. I still lurk on a few (mostly Dragonmount here), but for the most part I only bother scanning others every couple of weeks. The only places I ever bother to post anymore are here and TWG.

I have yet to seriously undertake any RPing, mostly because I think I'll like it and it will subsequently eat large amounts of time that I really don't have. I'll probably join up at some point in the future, but for now, I'm pushed for time enough as it is without adding another thing to the list.

So following that logic, the Prelude would also have to take place before Elantris. Of course, it never does state outright that Odium is the Him they're talking about being bound in the Prelude, but I can't think of any other significant person the Heralds would care to keep bound....But then I can definitely see Brandon throwing us that line just to mislead us and having it refer to someone else too.

And I'm back in the topic starters list as well. Silus keeps posting (blasted RP), but I am yet determined that I will catch him.

to turn to

I'll play. Sounds fun!

Well. Not necessarily. I don't think Preservation has any problem destroying Ruin, unless you're referring to the fact that Preservation by nature doesn't want to destroy anything. Though that's interesting - How would it feel about destroying destruction? Some1else, you raise an interesting point, bringing up the fact that if a person were able to pick up multiple Shards that aren't directly opposed to its nature, in time they would change and possibly be able to pick up others that might have originally been more against their nature.

The topic list itself looks good. I'm interested to see what you come up with.

It makes sense that it wouldn't be completely chronological, though. The Heralds imply that the Oathpact is somehow keeping Odium bound. If he were bound, he wouldn't have been able to make his way to Sel to Splinter Skai and Aona. Did we ever establish whether they were Splintered before or after Elantris? I know I'm inclined to believe before, but I don't know if we ever got confirmation there....

So, let's get the requisite quoting over with. So this passage is absolutely loaded with information. Just saying. First of all, up until now, I've been very firmly in the camp of "The face in the storm is Jezrien." However, examining this a little more closely, I'm not so sure. The problem is the phrase, "Child of Tanavast, Child of Honor," etc. This, at least to me, implies that the person addressing Kaladin is not a Child of Tanavast/Honor (who for now, at least, I am considering to be one and the same entity). However, Jezrien, as one of the Almighty's Heralds, most likely would be considered a Child of Honor, in that from everything we've seen, the Heralds were created by Honor. I've also thought that Child of Honor might not refer to the fact that the people of Roshar were created by Honor, but rather to the fact that Kaladin is a magic user. If you agree with me that magic users=Splinters, then Kaladin actually holds a piece of the Almighty. Even using this classification, however, the Heralds were magic users as well, albeit of a slightly different nature than the Radiants. Therefore, Jezrien would technically be considered a Child of Tanavast. I also have problems with the face itself. Kaladin describes it as like a thoughtful, aged father, as wide as the sky, with eyes full of stars. This doesn't really sound like Jezrien, though admittedly, we have pretty much no physical description of him. The other problem with this is that Jezrien abandoned the Oathpact. He really doesn't have any reason to be warning Kaladin, nor does it seem likely that he'll just be riding Highstorms on the off chance that he's going to run into someone - no one ever goes outside in highstorms. My problem is that I can't think of anyone else likely to be saying anything either. Most other Shards don't have any real motivation to say anything. So far as we know, no one in the Seventeenth Shard has the power to project their face into a storm, and how would they know to do so? Hoid could just visit Kaladin personally, as he does later, and we don't know the extent of his abilities either, though he may be able to do the storm projection thing. No one else that we know of would refer to Kaladin as a Child of Honor, though. We also run into problems of who actually knows about the Oathpact, and that it was Shattered. The 17th Shard could, conceivably know this, as could Hoid, but it seems almost beneath the notice of the other Shards. I suppose that if the Oathpact were a method of binding Odium, as seems implied in the Prelude, they might know of it as the method of binding used. Kaladin mentions having seen this face before. Does anyone remember when this is? I don't recall it, and that could be useful. My thoughts are starting to get incoherent, so I'll just leave it at that and let all of you go to town on it.

I personally have taken the position that magic users in each of the cosmere worlds we've seen are and/or hold Splinters, and I know a lot of you agree with that. Those of you that don't, bear with me for a moment and assume that I'm right. You can go back to disagreeing with me in a minute. So, assuming that this is the case, that means that Kaladin is a Splinter. Towards the end, when Kaladin and Bridge Four are rescuing Dalinar and his men, Kaladin speaks the Ideal of the Windrunners, and suddenly becomes much more powerful, and there was much rejoicing, yey. So what I'm wondering is, what exactly happened, in terms of Shards, here? This is the first instance we've had of a magic user's power level significantly altering that isn't readily explained. In fact, I think it might be the first instance we've had of a magic user's power level altering at all. Did Kaladin become better connected to his Splinter, or fully bound to it where before he had only been tenuously connected? Did speaking the Ideals somehow cause him to gain another Splinter, to augment the first? Is he receiving a direct pipeline of sorts to the Shard? I personally find the first of those three most likely, but I base that exclusively off of my opinion that it seems like of the three, that's the one the Ideal seems most likely to acheive (it is an oath - it's binding Kaladin, so why not his splinter?). I'm sure there are other explanations that I haven't thought of either, but this is what I've got as this idea is stewing in my mind. Thoughts?

I quite like this. And I really don't have many nitpicks either. However, the part about the Radiants rising again does make it a bit more likely that he's talking about Shard-blades/plate. However, they could, in his mind, all be part of the same general thing - the Radiants rising is connected to the Shards themselves or some such. "Speak again the ancient oaths and return to men the Shards they once bore" also seems more indicative of Radiants with Shard-plate/blades. However, it's possible there are other Ancient Oaths and such that apply to Shards instead of the Radiants and their ideals. I don't have much else in criticism of it, though. Overall, I think it more likely that Honor is talking about Shardblades/plate, but it is possible that he's talking about Shards, or both at the same time.

Sounds good. I like the separation. As long as we actually use it, it should work well. I've heard lots of different numbers of Shardworld books. The two that I've heard from Brandon himself most often are 34 and 37 (and he's said both on several different occasions). I've also heard 36 and 30 thrown around. This is the first time I've ever heard 32, but it's possible that you are correct. However, I doubt that the number of Shardworld books was specifically planned to be a multiple of 16.

I'm taking detailed notes as I go as well. I've got a huge file of quotes and such. None of it is at all organized, but I should have some valuable stuff by the time I'm done. I'll post up an archive file of it all when I'm done, which, granted, will likely be a couple of months down the road at my current pace of a chapter a day.

Actually, with that post, you're kind of half-disagreeing with Andrew, since before he said that he really had no problems with the idea. However, Andrew is now going to fix your problem for you by stating that after re-evaluating the situation, I agree with Eerongal. Individual topics is better.

I'm not buying that it's a nonlethal tool. The simple fact of the matter is that it's a sword. A sword is a weapon, always. If it were intended as a tool, I'm inclined to believe that we would see Shardaxes, or some other such shape, with more conventional tools. Some1else, You may have something there, though I'm not sure that I agree with the idea that the Shardblade is killing the Spren holding a person together, as I'm not at all convinced that there is a spren holding something together. However, the fact that Syl, by her nature, seems to bind things, and the Shardblade, by it's nature, seems to cut them, could possibly explain why she doesn't like it. That's slightly different, though. The quote: So the reason Kaladin doesn't take it is more because of his own personal feelings about this particular blade. It's just killed all of his friends, and in his opinion, taking it would be a betrayal of everything that he holds dear. It's not that the blade itself feels bad to him. It's the circumstances. Now, granted, there could be something about the Blade that causes him to feel differently, but I'm more inclined to think that Kaladin's revulsion is different than Syl's, and not necessarily directly because of the Shardblade. After all, Kaladin never expresses any dislike toward Dalinar or Adolin's Shardblades, not even when Syl does so.

I think prior to now, if we wanted confirmation for anything, we just created a new thread for it. My only issue with the idea of having a designated fact checking thread is that it's less likely to get noticed, and if we have other topics being discussed, it could very easily slip off of the front page of this forum. If we were going to do something like this, I think it'd have to be stickied just to stay noticed. I don't have any problems with the concept as a whole, though. Keeps everything a little more organized and consolidated.

I'm still working on the Way of Kings ones. I stopped doing them when NaNoWriMo came around, but in my free time, limited as it is, I've started posting up new ones again. Hopefully I'll get most of them done sometime in the next few weeks. I'm really trying for at least one a day, though. Aside from that, I really can't do much. Way of Kings is the only one of Brandon's books to make the journey to college with me. Though I guess I could do Warbreaker in all its electronic glory, though I'm with you on e-books.

Well, if you look at posts made in light of time spent online (posts per hour has to be the most ridiculous unit I've ever used), I beat all three of you. However, there are also probably a fairly large number of people who logged on once, made like twenty posts in an hour, and never came back, meaning I don't take top honors there either. I just can't win. Sigh.