thorongil

I should think that it is at least the one which probably took the most time in and of itself, but considering the quality I'm seeing in this section I'm not so sure

Thanks to both of you! Yeah, I had the basic idea floating in my head for more than a year - it was really interesting (not to mention the mentally exhausting part...) to bring the whole thing to a point.

I really didn't know where else to put this, but technically, it's a fan work and I really feel the urge to share it with someone in the world (the above picture is the title page). So, yeah, the title summarizes it pretty well: I just got my diploma thesis (which is, of course, the Austrian equivalent to a Master's thesis since we have a solid - albeit ever-decaying - tradition of doing things a bit differently than the rest of the world) graded and printed. This has been in the making for more than a year and it took me an inspirational retreat into a hut in the middle of nowhere, heavy shoulders from carrying half of our institute's library stock to my home as well as gallons of black, green and more experimental variations of tea. It also, somewhat oddly, got me into reading amazing authors not named Brandon (especially Dan Simmons, whose Hyperion-books I can wholeheartedly recommend), since I had to get away at times and also needed to broaden my by then relatively limited sf-horizon. In the end I feel immensely proud to put a work of mine in my Cosmere-shelf (see picture - it's the green one ). I'm even more proud I managed to balance my enthusiasm for the Cosmere and the constraints of scholarly writing in a way that makes me happy to have started this endeavor. I can finally say I know why I chose 'There's always another secret' as one of the inscriptions for the amazing Alethi bookmarks I ordered from Mi'chelle more than 7 years ago, which - incidentally - was also when I started my English language studies. This journey has indeed been a satisfying one. Also, for other students or scholars: Go and study Brandon's works, will you? From my own bibliographical study and subsequent work I can assure you that this barren field is ripe for plowing and cultivating. Lastly, here's the link via my university's library: https://unipub.uni-graz.at/download/pdf/5332929

This is a topic which, in my view, is very reliant on where you are coming from and what you are expecting. To me, Brandon's characters often start fairly traditional in terms of fantasy or sf tropes. They subsequently often develop in more unconventional directions. Some examples to illustrate what I mean: Vin starts out as a pretty classical fantasy hero. Urchin, somewhat mysterious background, a nobody, from zero to hero, guided by the charismatic martyr-to-be. But over the course of the series she develops in ways which challenge traditional fantasy themes, as she questions and - actively as well as inadvertently - fights or at least wrestles with some of these themes. Shallan shares similarities with Vin along the mentioned basic premises and also, as has been mentioned, develops in rather unconventional directions, especially where the fluctuating nature of her personality(ies) is concerned. The same is true for Kaladin: Ex-soldier, fallen from grace, nascent supernatural powers, troubled history, problems with aristocracy - all of this is a rather generic mixture for an aspiring hero in fantasy. And again, his own mental problems are not so standard in my view as they seem to resonate very close with people who have dealt with similar issues. I can definitely see why people would say that his characters can be flat, since many characters' basic premises (such as Sazed's gripe with religions) can be viewed as plot-driving devices. I think it is legitimate to criticize many of Brandon's characters on that basis, even though I do not share that criticisms since I feel most of his characters work and are relatable even if they are plot-driving devices. In The Stormlight Archive Brandon does an excellent job of creating main characters - Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar - with rather substantial flaws and/or questionable or outright appalling histories and make them relatable. This is not trivial (and is, just as an aside, a main factor why ASOIAF has garnered so much acclaim - for all his faults and timing problems, it is fascinating how GRRM has managed to set up antagonists like Jaime Lannister or the Hound and provide them with believable and relatable redemption arcs). Just think of Dalinar, who is basically a mass murderer with highly questionable ethical views who unified a kingdom through a campaign of terror. In terms of including real-world minorities, especially in terms of sexual orientation, Brandon definitely is more conservative than some other writers. But I'd rather have him work something into his world naturally and in a way that is comfortable for him than him including sensitive issues for the sake of it.

It's not like he is doing any of the drawings or even writing the dialogue for those, so I wouldn't assume there is a lot of pushback for his other projects timewise.

Also, Brandon just said in one of the Skyward-WoBs that Doomslug eats mushrooms and that is actually going to be important. So yeah, I agree, the mushrooms seem a bit too ominous to be purely a joke.

Oh, one more thing I forgot: Brandon's talent for inventing/choosing crucial terms is nothing short of outstanding. In that regard I hold 'Skyward' in such lofty esteem as 'Mistborn'. It (the former) is such an amazingly simple, yet elegant and beautiful title, which assimilates so much meaning and such a multitude of layers throughout the novel. In the end it synthesizes everything this book is about - Spensa's quest, the flight, striving for more - in one kickass-awesome word. And yet, that word - as is the case with 'Mistborn' - is not unecessarily bloated with meaning, but just seems to happen to have offered the possibility to be a vessel (only slight pun intended) for exactly those things all along. Outstanding linguistic sorcery, Grandwizard of Lingua Anglorum Brandon Sanderson.

That was a great read. I definitely like Spensa as a character, but also - especially, maybe - Skyward flight. The way they start out as very one-sided characters and turn out much more nuanced is amazing, as it makes so much sense as we get to experience Spin's all-or-nothing mentality crumbling away. Great read and it makes me very confident that Brandon can actually pull off the full sf-switch with later Cosmere stories.

I agree that he wasn't a monster in a universal sense. Especially within the context of Alethi society he embodied many ideals and met lofty expectations of how a great warrior should perform and behave. He didn't have any semblance of a normal civilian life going on and he didn't seem to be able to reconcile his battlefield heroics with a different peacetime personality. So he resorted to alcohol (a quite common occurance for soldiers in the real world who have - in their view - lost their purpose after a war is over too). Evi in a sense represented a chance, but I think he wasn't able to embrace that chance at that point in his life.

I would say that Evi was extremely important for Dalinar. Without her the whole arc in Oathbringer will not happen. To me this relates to real life relationships a lot in that it shows that the experience of a relationship can greatly alter people after it is over, although it is often near-impossible to make this change happen in the relationship. Because people need time to reflect, to look at their actions and thoughts from the outside and this is a perspective that is extremely hard to get into while you are emotionally attached to a situation. So in this sense: Evi (and through her Dalinar's kids) was the most important impetus for Dalinar to change in the long run, although - tragically - I don't think he could have achieved that change with her being alive and his wife. I would argue that for Evi, on the other hand, Dalinar and the whole Alethi culture are not good and nice. She gets emotionally abused by her husband, she is belittled and not taken seriously by Navani (who in this regard probably reflects the behavior of many other Alethi royalty) and the only solace she finds is in her kinds and in the futile attempts of changing her husband (who then ultimately kills her).

@Helwar To add to that: The idea is, that the wall or the table actually - to put it Shai's way - 'want' to be prettier (which makes sense to me, since being prettier makes humans perceive such items more readily, which in turn grants higher levels of cognitive presence to these items). So for the table or the wall a few good nudges in the right direction are enough, the rest is then 'filled in' by the item's soul (my guess). The Forger could make more concrete descriptions as to the nature of the alterations, which would be necessary if they wanted to achieve a specific result (e.g. a mural in the style of a certain artist), however, that would also create a wider margin of error, since the artist's life would also have to fit within the timeline of creating the item. Now, with Ashravan - in addition to the points raised by @RShara and @Ixthos - the thing is, that Shai wants/has to achieve a very, very (very) specific result. She doesn't want to recreate any human (not that that would necessarily work with Ashravan's body) but Ashravan himself. So every little thing has to be correct which exponentially amplifies the difficulty and the complexity of the task. In addition to the soul being gone this is - as far as my understanding goes - also complicated by the fact that the assassination had an immense impact on Ashravan's cognitive aspect. I think just moving the wound would not have worked since it would not have been believable to the soul itself as it would not explain a hundred days completely gone from his memory and all the rest of the political ruckus caused by the assassination attempt. Such a stamp would not have taken.

No, your not the only one. The discussion in here shows that as well, I guess.

Exactly. Also, there are more than enough people who just die, even though they could have become Radiants given different circumstances. Elhokar, Eshonai, Tien, Ym - to name just a few prominent ones. And then there are probably hundreds or even thousands of people who have been killed by the Skybreakers since the Recreance. The thing is, The Stormlight Archive is not their series. It is a series that tells the story of how the Knights Radiant are refounded and Surgebinding returns to Roshar. So of course it makes sense to prominently feature exactly the people who are (going to be) these new Knights Radiant. In my opinion the only Deus Ex Machina-situation that could have been handled a bit better is Jasnah vanishing for a whole book, which was just required to tell the story of WoR more slowly. Shallan's stuff, on the other hand, is - while not always relatable - comprehensible to me, especially when you shift the focus away from her own motivations and to how other characters experience and view her.

Your opinion is perfectly fine and as valid as anybody's in here. But, sorry for being repetitive here, when you make statements like "we [every reader in your country] don't understand Shallan" or "i just had to explain reception of the books here [in your country]" you claim to speak for all of these other readers and you'd better be ready to prove your authority for doing so.

Again you speak as if you have the authority of millions of people, which is just what I tried to point out above. Why would your opinion be representative for that of all the other people living in your country? If you make claims like that you should back them up with a lot more substance than you are providing here.

From reading this thread it seems more like it isn't working for you. Which - as your experience - is perfectly fine, of course, but not sufficient to make a generalization out of it.

My suggestion: start getting hardcovers now. Paperbacks are sunken costs in the end since you will succumb to the superior quality of hardcovers sooner or later. Also, the quality of endpapers (magnificient artworks in OB) is amazing. No paperback will be a match in this regard.

I honestly don't think there would be too many people skipping huge chunks of the book and then joining into the discussion here. I too at times am annoyed by Shallan's actions. But the same is true for Kaladin. And Dalinar. And Adolin. And basically any other expanded viewpoint character. There are just so many decisions each of these characters have to make during the course of the books that I believe it is impossible for all of them to act to my satisfaction all the time. To me this is an asset of dynamic characters. If I want predictable stuff I'll go read fairy tales.

A pity, but as long as he stays commited to churning out Stormlight-epics I'm fine with some pauses.

Sure, I'll do so as soon as I get back home in a couple of days.

No problem - I just sent it to you attached to a message.

Should he ever come near I'll do that - Central Europe isn't on his schedule a lot, though.

After getting my girlfriend on board of the Sanderson train about half a year ago (I cunningly used The Emperor's Soul to lure her...) I had been pondering for a while on how to make her Cosmere-aware without spoiling everything. She has finished everything Mistborn as well as The Way of Kings now and I decided to create a little booklet for her. I'm quite proud how V 1.0 turned out. It's 28 A5-pages long and home-produced. Edit (Spoiler-clarification): Since I have sent the .pdf to some people I wanted to make everybody aware of the spoilers of this - let's call it 'document'. First and foremost it includes major Mistborn-spoilers. It does not make sense to give it to someone, who has not read everything Mistborn (that includes Secret History). Furthermore, there are minor spoilers for The Way of Kings, and technically also for Words of Radiance and maybe even Oathbringer. That, however, only refers to the names of Shards on Roshar. So, technically a spoiler, but as far as I remember, it was quite commonly known before WoR and OB that Cultivation, Honor and Odium were active on Roshar, so in my opinion these spoilers are hardly relevant. Anyhow, since I specifically compiled the whole thing to be read before/during Words of Radiance it probably makes most sense to give it to somebody at that point of their reading journey.

It should be noted, that it is not impossible to interact with Aluminum in Investiture-based ways, it is just not feasible in regular or even not-so-regular Cosmere-terms. I don't have the WoB at hand - it was discussed in a Shardcast a couple of weeks ago. They were talking about a WoB that basically said, that, yes, with enough Investiture you can soulcast/push on/etc. Aluminum, but the amounts of Investiture required are astronomical and just not realistically achievable within the frameworks of the Cosmere. Sounds a bit like relativistic physics to me in the sense that you can do all sorts of wacky things if you approach or maybe even reach lightspeed, but we just have no physically sensible way of doing it. (Please do not mistake that comparison as me saying that Aluminum would be less inert should one travel very fast with it, given that FTL-travelling is/will be a thing in the Cosmere.)

Kindle version?