Mason Wheeler

Disagree. There's nothing particularly original in Starsight; the plot is just a retread of the original with a different cast, the "shocking twist" about Doomslug was obvious from the very start of the book even if you didn't figure it out at the end of the previous one, the characters are a bog-standard "bunch of quirky aliens" that any sci-fi fan would find familiar, and the confrontation with the Delver at the end was literally lifted directly from the end of Calamity. Cytonic's plot made very little sense and felt cobbled together. The reveal of the origin of the Delvers destroys the only explanation that makes Skyward and Defending Elysium fit together as a coherent whole, and it ended on the one thing I thought, up until just now, that literally no one wanted to see: "to be continued."

To me it's always seemed that Vorinism is written as a church in a state of apostasy. It lost its divine source of truth long ago, it established itself as a political force under the guise of religion, eventually people noticed and tried to reform it, but with no divine guidance of their own they made a big mess of it... it all fits. Though that interpretation did fail me in one point. When the early books spoke of the Vorin prohibitions on future prediction stemming from the false prophets of the Hierocracy being exposed as frauds, it seemed clear that this was a thing that was lost in the Vorin apostasy, and was going to be restored, as we saw with Renarin. Having that actually come from Odium's influence and Hoid confirming that prophecy is a bad thing that people should be very wary of was quite jarring!

Not just jokes. Just look at the ending of Rhythm of War, and a certain evil person's motivation when an unexpected change suddenly comes into his life. (Keeping this deliberately vague just in case someone hasn't read it.) And then look over that part again from a Gospel perspective, and see just how much worse this all is when you realize that Brandon has just introduced Cosmere Satan!

This almost holds up, until you remember that Mistborn Era 2 is a "something different to not get burned out project." That's literally why Brandon created The Alloy of Law in the first place; it wasn't originally part of the plan. And given the frankly mediocre quality of the Skyward sequels (the first was honestly really good, but the later ones... not so much) their prioritization irritates me.

All this talk about Sigzil and Hoid and the Dawnshard makes me think that Hoid will find out about Rysn. I like the idea that he's hidden his away on Roshar somewhere, but once he learns that a different one is active and taken up residence in Rysn, he goes, "It is not wise to keep two Dawnshards so close together." So he sends Sigzil off to take the other Dawnshard to someone else for safekeeping. " I can assure you, it will be absolutely safe here in my collection," the guy says. But of course everything goes wrong, and before he knows it poor Sigzil is on the run from someone who wants to get his hands on the whole set so he can remake the entire Cosmere with just a snap of his fingers...

This. Here's my unpopular opinion: Brandon really should not have wasted time on multiple Skyward sequels and secret projects when we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for The Lost Metal since two freaking Stormlight books ago!

Then again, he did just run the biggest Kickstarter of all time. A whole lot of people who had never heard of him last year know about him (and the Cosmere) now just because of all of the buzz around this.

That word, I do not think it means what you think it means. It is indeed quite thinkable. You thought about it when writing this. Heck, it's particularly thinkable for Brandon; his career got a massive jumpstart when he was chosen to finish up The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died. (And it'll really rust your metals when you consider just how much larger in scope and ambition the Cosmere is compared to The Wheel of Time!) Being human, Brandon will eventually die, just like you and me. And it could be sooner than we think. He has approximately the same chance of randomly dying tomorrow in a car accident as you and I have: very small, but not zero. We all hope it will be a long, long way in the future, and that he'll have plenty of time to finish up all his work first, but it's quite possible that that won't be the case.

From Bandon's latest video: Leading millions of fans, when they open them, to ask the immortal question...

Suddenly I find myself wishing I could bring a few Radiants along on the next deployment...

My brother-in-law just passed this along: "The covers of the Skyward series show us that character growth = hair product."

Never try to go meta on a trickster...

Due to limited time and restrictive rules, I only had the opportunity to ask one question this time around. It's something I'd been wondering ever since I read The Bands of Mourning and noticed some suspicious characters at the party. I immediately thought "that woman and the gossippy guy are 'not from around here.'" (This was back before I was aware of the term "worldhopper." The woman, of course, was Khriss.) So last night, I finally asked about it: Q: In Bands of Mourning, at the party, Hoid and Khriss were both there, and talked with Wax. A: Yeah. Q: Were there any other worldhoppers present, and if so how many? A: Hmm... yes, at least one. Maybe two. Also, I collected a few awesome cosplayer pics. Steris: A flock of Mistborn: A giant Doomslug. (The person wearing it was standing upright inside the inflatable Doomslug near the front.) Also, me, (on the left, not in costume,) facing off against an opponent in Shardblade Sparring. If you couldn't come, you really missed out for that alone!

Yeah, I can't promise I'll be able to ask all of them, but I'm not asking solely for myself. Go ahead and leave questions here for any of us who can attend to pick up.

Does anyone who won't be able to attend have any lore questions they'd like to have asked at the Q&A?

Very interesting. Can you see a similar pattern in the Skybreaker oaths?

The thing about redemption arcs is, they don't work particularly well unless the fall that the character needs to be redeemed from happens off-camera. Moash's didn't. We saw every detail of him giving himself over to the enemy, from his own perspective, and it made a significant fraction of the fanbase -- probably a majority -- feel that he was irredeemable. On Writing Excuses, Brandon talks a lot about "promises," about how you set up audience expectations early on in a narrative and then fulfill them later on in the story. It really doesn't feel like he's done anything to promise a Moash redemption, and he's also talked various times about how he's well-aware of the fanbase's utter hatred for the character. He's fully aware that if he does go for it, there's a lot of people who will view it as a betrayal. This makes me doubt that it will happen.

Officially confirmed to have grown more Invested over time.

Azure finally confronts Zahel. There's a tense moment as the two draw their blades, eyeing one another across several feet of open ground. "I've been waiting for you, Vasher. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master!" "Only a master of Awakening, Vivenna."

True, but then again most of the people capable of actually understanding are the Vessels. Well yeah! When there's a new Shard in town, (theoretically) twice as powerful as any of the others, what reasonable person wouldn't want to watch very carefully from afar and avoid drawing their notice until they had ascertained whether or not this one had malevolent intentions? He would only be in Hoid's way if that is Hoid's intention. You can't use your premise as evidence to support your premise. Yeah, he's what you call a "class traitor." Look at what Endowment had to say to him: you had your chance to be one of us, you turned it down, so stay out of our affairs. Maybe. From a literary perspective that makes sense, but it doesn't appear particularly well supported by the facts of this specific case. Particularly when you consider that his history with a Dawnshard forces him into a life of extreme pacifism. That doesn't seem particularly compatible with an aspiring galactic conqueror.

Oh, now there's an interesting idea! What's your line of reasoning for that?

WoK chapter 54.

This really feels like it's Hoid's ultimate goal, or somehow related to Hoid's goal. Remember his talk with Dalinar, where he name-dropped Adonalsium and just moments later talked about taking a person apart and then putting him back together slightly differently?

Good to hear!

Did we ever end up getting audio from yesterday?