Ryan

I'm inclined to label this as quite unlikely. In our world, the heartbeat of a creature is roughly inversely proportional to its size. A quick google shows that large whales have a rest heart rate of around 10 BPM, and mice have a rest heart rate between 500 and 600 BPM. I seem to recall that this has something to do with body heat regulation, though I can't quickly find a source for that. In fact, unless they somehow always are holding and are therefore sustained by stormlight, I'd say that this is impossible. The level of activity they're capable of requires more energy distribution than an extremely slow heart rate can deliver.

That's one of the many unfinished rough edges on the site. I've simply not had the time to do much of anything since the semester started, unfortunately. Thanks for the reminder, though; I'll get to it eventually.

Having listened to the QnA at the Towers of Midnight release party on Ustream, I can report a couple of things: 1. He said it was around 60k and still growing. 2. He's not sure what he's going to do with it. It's a little odd. I'm sure Tor would have no qualms about publishing it for him, but a whole novel outside his planned trilogy of trilogies seems like a bit much. I just hope we get to read it sooner than a decade from now.

I actually find that somewhat surprising. ;D (I was trying to cast it into an energy balance problem. This is the half-trained chemical engineer in me talking; chem-e's always try to make everything an energy (or mass) balance problem, because those are relatively straightforward to solve.)

SO! Guys! Anyone got a Kindle? They've finally gotten cheap enough that I wouldn't feel crazy for buying one. I think they look like a great piece of hardware. The main thing holding me back is DRM. Can anyone tell me, does the awesome of the hardware counterbalance the massive suck vortex that is DRM?

Just a note, recall that Galladon's Elantrian father died of heart disease. (I think. Been a while since I read the book.)

I don't think motion has anything to do with it in this case. That's just how we create relativistic time dilation in our universe. Let me preface this by saying that I am no physicist. I've taken the basic university-level course and quite a lot of chemistry, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't really understand relativity. That said, doppler shifts in our universe are observer-depenedent too. If you're moving at the same velocity as a high-speed emitter, you won't observe any shift. You're in the same relativistic, time-dilated frame of reference, so emitted radiation looks just fine to you. Observers in slower frames with less time dilation see shifts. The photons take energy from their emitter's velocity relative to the observer, but instead of kinetic energy, it is expressed as electromagnetic energy, i.e. increased (or decreased) wavelength. Now, an allomancer burning a bendalloy or cadmium would create a bubble of time-dilated space. I imagine this functions a lot like relativistic time dilation, especially with regards to electromagnetic radiation. Now imagine what happens to a photon at the boundary. To an observer outside the bubble, it stands to reason that a photon would appear to have traveled from its source to the boundary faster than the speed of light, but this is not how light works; even when dealing with light emitted from relativistically time-dilated frames of reference, all observers observe the same velocity regardless of their frame. What changes is the wavelength observed. I'm sure it has something to do with the concept of space-time, which is something I don't really understand. But if time and space are interrelated, then stretching time must also distort space. Take a photon emitted in stretched space-time and cram it into normal space-time, and it stands to reason that its wavelength is going to be compressed. Can someone who understands the physics better confirm or refute this line of reasoning?

I disagree. If it weren't for the Way of Kings, Dalinar would probably not have traded his Shardblade for the bridgemen. In fact, much of what Kaladin and the bridgemen perceive as different, better, and more honorable in Dalinar is a direct result of the influence of the Way of Kings. So, if it weren't for that storming book, they likely would not have gone back to save him either. Much of Kaladin's plotline and character are devoted to the hows and whys of his hatred and mistrust of the lighteyed. The Way of Kings is the refutation of all of that. I find the title very appropriate for a Kaladin-focused book.

That probably depends on whether or not relativity holds in the Cosmere. But, well, I'd hazard to say that yes, you're probably right. Light emitted inside the bubble would find its wavelength compressed or elongated by the different flow of time outside. Same for light entering from outside. The energy for this would have to come from the Allomancer, which begs the question: does Bendalloy burn faster on a sunny day?

I thought it was rather dark and terrible, actually. In order to use this magic system, you have to accept a portion of another person's soul. And not just a few, but a large number of people have to give you their breath before you can do even rudimentary things with the magic. I mean, at the very beginning, you find someone being tortured for their Breaths. Not for information, or punishment, or any of the traditional reasons for torture, no: they wanted a piece of his soul. This is a theme with Warbreaker, actually. It is very light in tone, and if you were to ask me which of Brandon's books is the lightest, I'd pick Warbreaker. In fact, it's so happy and lovely and witty and colorful and charming that you almost don't realize how many truly awful things are happening all the time, right under your nose. That is IMHO the most brilliant aspect of the book, and my favorite by far. Well, that and Lightsong's character climax. One of the best character climaxes I've ever seen.

I seem to recall that Brandon has said that the chasm was not caused by Odium. Does anyone else remember that, and if so, do you know where it came from? It's completely slipped my mind.

That's mostly what I'm saying. Except, I don't think "lashing an object to another object" is a wholly accurate description of what's going on, since an actual physical anchor does not appear to be required for the process to work. It's just that Szeth seems to think of things that way most of the time, since it's an intuitive way to look at it (and, in honesty, the simplest way to describe the action). We've not seen anything in the behavior of Lashings that lets us distinguish between the point attractor and altered direction theories. The only thing that lends greater weight, at least in my mind, to the point attractor is the fact that Szeth always Lashes to a point, not a direction. But again, it could just be a matter of him using points as a mental focus, and not that that is how the magic actually operates.

That depends on if my point attractor theory is right, or if Lashing simply changes the strength and direction of gravity. If the former, I imagine you could get an orbit going, though not inside the planet's atmosphere because the speeds required to orbit in 1G are too fast. If the latter, the object would keep flying until it either struck something, or the Stormlight ran out. In Szeth's second mass killing spree, the soldiers he lashed upward didn't stay up for very long.

In the interest of not repeating myself...

I bet the windrunners were the Radiants we saw flying about in Shardplate. You could probably fly quite effectively if you were skilled enough at Lashing.

Yes, though exclusivity is not implied. It's just that it's a Vorin depiction.

Now that you've matched the border faces to Heralds, I'm curious as to your thoughts on the woman in the middle. Who dat? Is she just an ornament, or is she as significant as the Heralds? The only non-Herald female I know of is the Nightwatcher, but does it make sense to put her there?

Lashings don't seem to require a physical anchor. What appears to be happening is that the Lashing creates a point attractor that pulls only the target towards it. A single Lashing is the equivalent of 1G of acceleration, or, in other words, Lashing one time pulls as strongly as the planet's native gravity. Slightly less certain is how specific is the target of a Lashing. If you try to Lash the planet, how thin is the Stormlight spread? In all of Szeth's Lashings, he targets a discrete object, and this affects the entire object at once, with one possible exception: the balcony. As for this entire theory: it would make for a plausible explanation of Roshar's weather patterns in the absence of magic, and it's a compelling thought. However, there are several problems with it. First, variations in axial tilt would also be accompanied by varying day length as well as the positioning of the sun. During wintertime at 40 degrees north (that's where I've lived nearly my entire life), the sun traverses an arc that is about 20 degrees above the southern horizon. It's hardly up! You could predict the onset of the seasons fairly accurately by both the length of the days as well as the inclination of the sun, and I would expect a Stormwarden to have figured this out, but we hear nothing about it. Then there's the idea the Highstorms are somehow a natural meteorological phenomenon caused by a rapidly rotating planet. Putting aside that there's no indication in the text of shorter days and nights, the Highstorms are anything but natural. They are the source of magical energy that powers most of the magic we've seen thus far. They follow a pattern in their frequency of occurrence with only slight deviations therefrom. And then there's the Weepings that happen every year like clockwork. Notably, there are no Highstorms during a Weeping. So here's an alternate explanation. The Highstorms are magical in origin, and we've yet to see how they come about, but the screwy weather is all their fault. The atmosphere is so chaotic in their wake that they throw the seasons way off. Have you ever had a 70-degree day in the middle of December, or a 60-degree day in September? Even on our planet, the seasons sometimes take a break due to the vagaries of the winds. Weepings, then, probably are the same thing as Highstorms, only more spread out. The same amount of energy that powers a mighty highstorm to pass in a matter of hours is diffused over days or weeks (I forget how long weepings are), resulting in a planet-wide perpetual drizzle. And I don't think any human could contain enough Stormlight to create a moon through Lashing. I could be wrong, but it sounds excessive based on the scale of magic use we've seen. Cool ideas though. They'd be neat if they turn out to be true.

I don't know if it was in interviews or annotations or what, but I remember Brandon stating that Kelsier, once dead, wound up in the spiritual realm. Heralds go back to the place of nightmares when they die. So, it wouldn't be too outlandish to theorize that they are kept in the spiritual realm between desolations.

Actually, that's incorrect. Here's what we know for certain: the Heralds held one end of the Oathpact. It is presumably how they got their powers and why they always have to go back to a place of torture between desolations. When they refused to go back, the Oathpact was broken. What follows involves some extrapolation/speculation on my part: The Oathpact is a deal made between the Almighty, the Heralds, and Odium. Exploiting the fact that Odium is bound to follow certain rules (I forget who said that, but I think it was the Almighty in Dalinar's last vision), it set up a system whereby the Almighty got a set of ten immortal champions with superpowers and super weapons to lead mankind against the forces of Odium (the Voidbringers and friends). The Desolations were battles pitched under the terms of the Oathpact. It is stated explicitly that Odium ("The Enemy") realized that he could not win a war of escalation

Of the places we know even a little about, it is the most likely. But Roshar is huge, with a ton of places both present and historical, that we know nothing about at all. It's hard to apply the process of elimination when you don't have all the possibilities at hand.

He mentions that he considers the use of Stormlight for illumination to be profane, but I don't recall him ever mentioning whether his own abilities are considered profane.

That was Akismet blocking the post as spam. Eventually I found all three of them in the queue, and approved this one. Fortunately, Akismet is no more. The simple expedient of a captcha on the registration form seems to have ended our spambot troubles, so I've uninstalled it.

If spren really are the remnants of the Almighty's power, then no. Ruin didn't seem hampered by the mists, which were the remnants of Preservation's power. Well, if I wanted to be pedantic, I'd say that the answer is yes. Since the Almighty is dead, of course he can't see spren. But I think you meant to say Odium.

A captcha might help. I'll see about installing recaptcha. We might also want to turn on email verification, which I don't want to do since I really hate it, but it may turn out to be a necessary evil. ...and done. We now have a recaptcha on the registration form, and it works. We'll see if that curtails anything.