Otto Didact

You can definitely tell that Brandon writes Alcatraz, Reckoners, Rithmatist, et al. to blow off steam between the more "serious" books, but they're still really good. If you don't love YA, you could read Legion and Perfect State, which are both non-cosmere and non-YA. They're excellent, if short.

After looking at some of the previews, I am definitely going to buy it. Graphic novels are my favorite way to consume media and I'm so excited that Brandon is including them in the cosmere as original works. Plus the art looks gorgeous and I'm excited to see how Brandon has changed the story and added more cosmere easter eggs. @The Young Bard - The best place to find the graphic novel will be at your local game/comic store. Brick and mortar bookstores do a horrible job of stocking graphic novels. Just go in and ask if they have it on order and if they don't, you can get them to order it so that it'll be there when it comes out.

That's true. And I suppose that it's possible that Demoux gets atium Feruchemy through Hemalurgy or Southern Scadrial metalminds or something and compounds it for youth like TLR did. It's just weird to think that there are so many functionally immortal people running around the cosmere.

My biggest question relating to Khriss (and most worldhoppers) is how they end up living for hundreds of years. I mean, Khriss is hanging out on Classical Scadrial during Secret History, then shows up again on anteverdant Scadrial. Similarly, Demoux comes to Roshar during Way of Kings, which is also hundreds of years after the events of Hero of Ages. I'm curious whether they all just figure out the trick of immortality using their various magic systems or if somehow worldhopping lets them also hop through time.

Good points all around. Seloun, I don't think I connected that the guy at Gavilar's party with the mark was Darkness. I'll have to reread that part. I think the only other thing that makes me distrust the assumption that he is Nalan is that he was the last of the Heralds to accept association with an Order of Knights Radiant. Doesn't seem like the kind of guy who looks for recruits. In any case, maybe Brandon just has me jumping at shadows. I was just curious to see if anyone else had the same initial reaction as I did to that scene.

Was anyone else not entirely convinced that Darkness is actually Nalan? He didn't actually even say that he was--he just let Szeth draw his own conclusions. I mean, it's clear that the Heralds are capable of being selfish, giving up, and other human things, but Nalan going around and executing judgment on Surgebinders doesn't sound very Herald-ish. That along with giving Szeth (who's pretty crazy at this point) the most dangerous sword in the cosmere, just feels wrong. I have no other evidence to support my assumption, but I think Darkness is probably somebody running around with Nalan's Honorblade and delusions of grandeur (or nefarious plans of his own) or a rogue Skybreaker just pretending to be Nalan to further his own ends. Thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

Man, I loved this book. What I really like is that EVERYONE has a flaw. Some of the most important parts of the book for me were people coming to grips with their flaws or helping other people overcome theirs. Shallan working so hard to heal her brothers was just incredible. I loved the part where Wit tells her to look back at Wikim and she sees him looking at the equations she gave him. Also Balat getting control of himself. Kaladin annoyed me for most of the book because he just couldn't listen to Syl and let go of his bugbears until the whole Elkohar thing. He was freaking awesome after that, and it came from him finding peace with himself, which was cool. When Jasnah died, I was totally with Navani. Didn't believe it for a second. Then the book went on and she just didn't come back. The Epilogue made me so excited. Voidbringers? Already happened. Everstorm? Old news. Advice I got from the spren? Out of date. Crap. I loved Gaz's redemption with Shallan. That was really neat. And Rlain is just the coolest. Not a fan of the Adolin-Shallan-Kaladin love triangle thing. It's just too easy for Brandon. I'm sure he's going to invert it somehow. But really, the crowning moment of awesomeness was Shallan and Adolin's conversation (a full conversation, on a date!) about pooping in Shardplate. I've never laughed so hard in my life. The word poop is in WoR multiple times. That I did not expect.

Well, given that they try really hard to avoid chulls entering the senescent stage, I assume that they reproduce during the adult stage. This feels like one of those little things that Brandon says offhand that will be super important later on. In WoR, Shallan mentions that the Shattered Plains can't be the natural habitat for the chasmfiends--they just come there to pupate and leave afterward. Where do they live most of the time?

Has anyone tried seeing if the Ghostbloods' code from Tyn's spanreed has anything to do with decoding this? You know, the letters B Y I T S possibly being the key?

Probably the upload, since the memo was nine or so minutes long. I'll take a look.

Okay, so I finally got the WoR reading posted. Didn't know you could put sound files on Google Drive. Unfortunately, it's in m4a format because I recorded it on my iPhone.

He used the word "foci." He said that the different foci of the Shards affected their ability to read minds.

I just got an answer to the question about why Nightblood can read minds but Shards can't. Brandon said that it depends on the Shard's focus--Ruin can't read minds, but Preservation can when you're connected to Preservation in a special way. So, some Shards can read minds while some can't.

Nice catch! I hadn't seen that one up anywhere else. I think he might have gone a bit farther on, though. I'll still put up the Dalinar one from WoR. I'm not convinced that it's Marsh, though. Doesn't sound like his voice. Edit: Also, the audio file with the Dalinar sequence is about 800 KB too big to upload here. How can I get it up?

Rats! I just left the library. Edit: Actually I'm headed back in.

I'm currently at the Provo signing. There wasn't really anything new in the Q and A, BUT he did a reading from the first chapter of Shadows of Self! It was really cool and had some great tidbits about Hemalurgy, presumably left by Spook. I made a recording of the reading that I'll upload as soon as I can figure out how to upload the voice memo from my phone. Also he did a reading of some bits of WoR that he wrote this morning. Likewise, I'll put it up ASAP. Here is the Dalinar reading from WoR. Spoilerific, obviously. It's Dalinar's first chapter in the book, and he had just written it before the signing, so there will likely be big changes, but still!

I get the feeling that the Ten Fools are merely constructs of Vorin theology, meant to represent the Ten Human Failings, just as the Heralds represented the Ten Virtues. If the Unmade really are the Voidish opposites of the Heralds, I doubt the Vorin teachers would want to include that scary information as part of their theology. It's like Kabsal tells Shallan--the people don't like hearing too much even about the Voidbringers, so they concentrate on nicer, easier stuff instead.

It seems like there's an important distinction between objects and living things. The soul of an object is the ideal that it aims to emulate, filtered through its Cognitive perception of itself, whereas the soul of a person is his actual spiritweb and sDNA, which is nailed down to his physical form by identity.

I am also somewhat skeptical of Memory for the same reason, although it could be that her taking Memories isn't active Surgebinding, but just foreshadowing. Edit: The problem regarding Voidbinding and the Voidbringers is that a lot of the information that we think we know is swathed in religious mummery and mysticism. I really only trust The Ars' supposition that there are ten levels of Voidbinding.

Anybody have ideas about Voidbinding? From my (admittedly cursory) look-see through the Q&A and Theoryland responses, I didn't find any Word of Brandon relating to it. Just judging by the principles of symmetry on Roshar, I get the feeling that binding a "Void" would be kind of like the symmetrical opposite of binding a Surge. So you could have a sort of nega-Windrunner that would bind whatever Voids correspond to the opposite of Gravity and Atmospheric Pressure (Magnetic Force and Vacuum maybe?) Also, that would kind of make sense to explain why Voidbinding is associated with seeing the future. Assuming that Memory is a Surge (which is just speculation), the Void associated could be Foresight or something. Anyway, just some idle thoughts--I don't feel like it has enough basis to be called a theory necessarily. What are your opinions/any WoB that could shed light on the matter?

Just got tickets for the Provo Library signing on June 3!

I've been thinking a bit about clues in tWoK and what's likely to be revealed directly in WoR (rather than later books) and I'm curious to know what everyone thinks. I personally think that we're going to get a lowdown on Surgebinding from Jasnah. Her comments when she finds out that Shallan can Soulcast seem to indicate that she knows a lot about the different bonding-spren and the Surges that each Order can bind. I don't think, however, that we'll find out who was trying to kill Elhokar until later. What do you all think?

Haha, or to clip your toenails.

Huh, that makes a lot of sense, Satsuoni. I like the idea of severing electromagnetic bonds. However, my gut just can't quite agree that that's what's going on when a Blade cuts a rock. I have no hard evidence, just a personal inclination. But what does my gut know, anyway? I do agree that we'd have a much better idea if we knew what actually happens to a limb when it's Shardblade-severed. In answer to your question of why an arm doesnt fall off while a rock gets sliced--my idea is that an arm-slice severs a sort of cognitive "nerve" that allows the arm to see itself as part of--and be controlled by--the individual. The arm is very used to being part of the body, whereas a rock is pretty used to having its cognitive identity changed and doesnt identify itself as an integral part of any whole, so it's not as easy to physically sever the arm as it is to physically sever the rock, just by cutting the cognitive link holding the two together. Kind of like a Forgery that doesn't take--the arm has a hard time "believing" that it suddenly isn't part of its body anymore, even though that cognitive nerve has been cut. Well, that's how I explain it in the confines of my theory, anyway. I'm sure we'll all be surprised in some way when Brandon comes out and tells us what's really going on, but it's fun to extrapolate the bits tha we have and try to make it fit into Realmatics. As an aside, if Shardblades really do cut those spiritual "scientific" bonds like you theorize, wouldn't it be cool if you could cut someone's spiritual gravitational bond with a Blade? I can just see Adolin out on the Shattered Plains, sending Parshendi floating willy-nilly off into space.

To clarify/modify my earlier statements, I'm positive that there is some amount of damage done to the spirit through a Shardblade severing, although the point is that this damage is done through the severing of the Cognitive link. A body and a spirit are pretty inextricably bonded together with Identity, so severing that bond is likely to mangle both in the process to some degree. The body becomes spiritually "handicapped" (i.e. dead), and the spiritweb has chunks of it ripped off (which I interpret as the black smoke). Kurkistan, I appreciate your commentary, and I think it's pretty valid, but on the whole I don't feel like your concerns disprove my theory. Sure, they present challenges, but I don't think we know enough about Nightblood and the nature of the Spiritual Realm to say for certain. I would be all for the "Shardblades cut the spirit directly" theory, except for the difference between inanimate objects and living things. If the Blade cuts the spirit and that causes the death of a living thing without touching it physically, shouldn't it do the same thing to a rock--killing the spirit of the rock without cutting it in half? I don't know that the semantics of "soul" are terribly important. Clearly there are contradictory meanings. I mean, Soulcasting seems to involve convincing the Cognitive aspect of an object to change. Anyway, I'm glad there's room for discussion! Thanks for your responses, Kurkistan and PM. Edit: also thanks to Isomere and shardbearer!