deddinty

I wonder if it's only those with the Nahel bond he's going after, and we know Szeth obtained his powers in a different way so he doesn't care about him. It would reinforce the theory that it is the spren and human bonding across the three realms that hastens/causes the desolation. Personally I see Darkness coming after Shallan before anyone else, especially Kaladin. She thinks of herself as a murderer after all. I just can't see a big conflict with Darkness on the Shattered Plains happening so soon.

It makes me wonder if the dawnshards were remnants of Adolnasium, or if they were something of Honor and/or Cultivation. I agree that it feels more like a tool to me than a weapon. I wonder if they wer destroyed with Honor or if they've merely been hidden/removed from Roshar. It does seem that we be getting more information about the Dawnshards/singers soon, if Navani gets Jasnah on board with translating the dawnchant. I can only imagine how she'd tackle that project.

This is a great theory, though I think it's more applicable to shardplate personally. Most of the in world quotes about shardblades revolve around either the Almighty or the Heralds gifting them to mankind, but of course we're seeing this through the lens of new vorinism and Szeth as well. It seems more certain that the Honorblades of the heralds were given by the Almighty. It may even make more sense with Dalinar as well, if he does turn out to be a bondsmith, since he's a "natural" with the shardplate like no other man. Heh, maybe even the vision of the Almighty commanding him to "return to men the shards they once bore" would be even more prophetic.

It seems reasonable that surgebinders may be influenced more greatly by Odium, but I do wonder if being a Radiant would make people immune to that effect. Darkness obviously doesn't seem to care if they're on the way to being Radiant's or not. It seems to me that it would make sense if the existence of people who can surgebind hastens/allows the desolations to occur, that the Radiants may learn of it and thus would have chosen to abandon their powers in hope of preventing it. It makes me wonder what Honor's plan is, to reunite and recreate the Radiants, is he trying to force a conflict with Odium? It's pure speculation of course, but it would be interesting to me if that was the ultimate goal, to harm or destroy him.

I would agree with the majority that I would love to do this on a re-read, maybe starting four or five days after the book comes out. Because I know it will take me two-three days max to finish and I'll be hopping right back in to re-read.

I wouldn't want to see anyone try a live adaption unless it was a huge budget production. With such a strange world, emphasis on eye color, and so much glowing it would require a very large budget to pull off. I just can't see that kind of budget being realistically committed. The problem with saying an "anime" adaption is people always think cheaply animated kids shows, rather than well done animation. Anime like "Cowboy Bebop" style, or cartoons like "Avatar" would be more the way I would see this animated. Personally I would love to see a full CGI version rather than live action. That way there would be a better chance of the effects and things like eye color being done properly. Either that or a video game on Roshar, not necessarily this entire story. The world and the magic system as we know it now would be a great basis for an MMO or RPG. We have ten classes (the orders) who have to learn and level up their powers? If it turns out the Voidbringers are almost like anti radiants (using the same surges but in different ways or combinations) that would be even better as a basis for PvP play. I would probably want it set during a time of desolation.

It's possible that Szeth had orders to just kill whoever they appointed next, or the one appointed was a high ranking official Szeth was to kill anyway. Either that or he started taking initiative and killing leaders just because, but I can't see that.

This was from a reddit AmA a few months ago. A length for Adolin's hair is never mentioned as far as I remember, it's just the comments like "stylish mess" as it's usually described seem to me to be more of a middle length, as long hair doesn't really seem easy to go with a "messy" looking hair style. But that's personal opinion.

For the record, those numbers have to be on the NumPad, not the top row of a keyboard. ♥♦♣♠ I definitely see a close Renarin/Kaladin friendship being very possible. If nothing else I think Renarin will remind Kaladin enough of Tien that he may become somewhat more protective of him than is strictly necessary.

The "cousin" thing comes from this AmA: I can see the argument that there are many different "honorspren" and "cultivationspren", and WoB does add to that.

We have WoB on that I believe. It's very interesting that Rysn attracts a spren like that, it makes me wonder if she's also potential radiant material. In face the interludes we see definitely seem to be pointing towards showing radiant material. Now what order would a Larkin represent?

I've seen the theories of certain windspren being so called "leveled up" to being honorspren, but I just don't buy it. It seems to me there's spren for almost everything else in the world, so it makes sense that there's a type of spren attracted specifically to displays of great honor. The fact she resembles a windspren doesn't mean she was originally one, in my opinion. Where is that quote of Brandon's Ardent? I don't think I've seen that one anywhere.

Oh the part about essaying writing for succession got to me. I totally called them writing the worst possible essays in order to avoid getting appointed as soon as I read that

But Syl isn't a Windspren, but a cousin to windspren. So there are plenty of flighty real windspren, then there's Syl Honorspren/Windspren.

It does seem likely that the transition to the physical realm has some sort of effect on the spren's memory, but I'm not sure if that's the only reason. I don't want to attribute everything that's bad directly to Odium, as I could see the argument about Honor's death having a big part of it as well. We haven't really seen as much of the cryptics as other spren, and I'm sure we will see a lot of them, but I wonder if they're following the same pattern as well. What makes me more curious is about Shallan and Elhokar both seeing cryptics, and Shallan seeming to have bonded with them. They both are keeping secrets from their Mentors, arguably the person they respect most and want to please. Yet these secrets constitute a betrayal on both their parts. So my question would be, what attracted the cryptics? The fact that an honest person was holding a tight secret from the one they respect most? Or were they directed like Wyndle in a way, because the spren are gathering around the shattered plains and the Kholin's in particular. That's too much of a coincidence to not wonder if the "Ring" has something to do with it as well. And another question, do you think the spren will eventually regain all of their knowledge as they bond with their human? For example, if we say that Jasnah has had her spren for 5 years as of WoKs, could some of her knowledge come from her spren? And she's trying to prove what the spren has told her as much as discover new information?

Unfortunately we already have creationspren. We see them when Shallan draws, and they aren't vine like.

Since we're going on pure speculation for this, if the Ring consists of all spren, or even some, I could totally see Cusicesh, the giant Protector spren, being a part of it. The faces it flashes are people that it observes and even judges to give information to the rest of the "Ring". This spren definitely feels like it could be a great candidate for resulting more from Adolnasium than Honor or Cultivation as well. I'm wondering though, do you think the spren lost their memories when Honor died? Or was it something to do with the radiant's abandoning their power (that feeling of betrayal?). Or could it just be the general transition to the physical realm? Or some combination depending on the type of spren? I can't wait to get answers to our questions.

I like cultivationspren for Wyndle right now. I've personally been calling him growthspren, because he can grow in his unique way. I'm not personally of the opinion that there are multiple types of "Honorspren" with subsets within them. I like to cite the Dalinar's vision of the king and how he says "not all spren are as discerning as honorspren". While this can be interpreted either way, it seems to me like he's saying very few Nahal bonds are with honorspren.

I've always believed most of that as well Gloom. I also have wondered if there aren't blades designed for each order. For example we get blades described as looking like waves, and fire, blades with glowing glyphs. I agree that something changed when the blades were abandoned, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Syl reacts less harshly to a blade that's more designed for Windrunners. I'd love to find out that Radiants and their spren have unique ways of bonding with their blades that could "fix" them. Of course there's other possibilities, such as blades being somehow corrupted and the new radiants will need to rediscover how to create them rather than reclaim existing blades.

Oh now that would be an awesome twist. As well as giving us some more glimpses into the nature of the surge itself. It would be kind of like Brandon to make us think one thing very obviously happened but it turns out later that it wasn't at all as implied.

Now there's a scary thought, Szeth got his powers through hemallurgy.

I would also guess that a fabrial made to imitate powers would be far more limited than what the radiant themselves could accomplish. For example soulcasters - Jasnah and Shallan may have individual talents with soulcasting, but they could likely soulcast anything with practice. Whereas we've heard that soulcasting fabrials are often limited in what they can soulcast. I imagine that travel fabrial would be limited, perhaps something like the spanreeds, one fabrial is connected to one fabrial. Whereas having transportation as a surge would be far less limited. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if a radiant with the travel surge was required to transport the Stoneward to the Windrunner in that vision.

Not to go too off topic, but we do know the the third book is in the hands of beta readers as Rothfuss posted a picture of the manuscript for beta readers months ago on google+.

Ok, so I've been listening to the audiobook this week and things are a bit fresh in my mind. I've put my individual descriptions in spoiler text so as not to make it a giant wall. General descriptions: I've always pictured the Alethi people as East Indian types. The skin color and the general features (epicanthic fold, etc) always brought south east Asia to mind, and the bright-colored and asymmetrical dresses always remind me of a sari. As for the military uniform, it's fairly well described in the books. Kaladin - Shallan - Dalinar - Adolin - Jasnah Sadeas

My taste runs a bit more towards epic fantasy so my recommendations will reflect that. Probably not surprising for this forum, but Way of Kings has always been a favorite for me. The two narrators give great performances. I love the narrator of Michael Sullivan's Riyria books, the two newer ones a bit less than the original trilogy. The whole series is delightful, especially for listening in a car as it's something of an easier series to get into, nothing terribly complex like many series can be. I love the Lies of Locke Lamora and it's sequel, but I do warn people there's a good deal of profanity in the books, so if you're not into that stay clear. The dresdon files are a good listen as well, but I feel like I miss things if I listen in the car.