GreyPilgrim

Does Nightblood count? Otherwise, I will go Hoid's flute.

That's an interesting idea about Tanavast. I feel, however, that Odium would likely have taken precautions against his doing something like entering the Cognitive Realm. We have seen in Mistborn that those that do so (as you said, Kelsier), can still affect people of the Physical Realm. I feel like Odium would want to avoid that at all costs.

I feel like it will definitely take Brandon a little more than a year and a half on average between SA books; he has too many other storming projects going on to make that possible, particularly right now.

I could definitely buy that Liss is a Surgebinder. Thus far, the only Shardblades we've seen of which the history was not well-recorded is that of Shallan, Kaladin, and Helaran/Amaram (I can't at present remember if we know how Helaran got his, but if we don't I believe it was the Ghostbloods somehow. In other words, Surgebinders. The evidence, of Liss being a woman and wanting to hide her possession seem to scream to me "Surgebinder!" I will definitely keep this in mind. Now only to find out what eventually happened to her...

From the release of WoR's title: (source)

Brandon has said that he may still use Stones Unhallowed if he gets the book out before Rothfuss's Doors of Stone. Also, he has said that Highprince War will most certainly not be the title of book 5. edit: sort of ninja'd by Awesomeness. Which is really fun to say.

Well I went from a Sliver to a storming Forescout! Just wanting to get back up in my rep is making me want to post more!

I don't know if this is something other people like to do, but whenever I finish a book, I sit for a few minutes and think about how fitting the title of the book is. Does it represent the work as a whole well? How can it be interpreted? How does Words of Radiance fit as a title for the book, particularly when compared to The Book of Endless Pages? I believe it fits pretty well. In-world, Words of Radiance is a book about the Knights Radiant and their characteristics, relationships, and history. In our WoR, we focus mainly on Kaladin and Shallan and their developing Surgebinding abilities, and at the end of the book, we witness a refounding of the organization in the form of Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, and Renarin. We also learn about Jasnah's Surgebinding a bit, and watch the development of several other Surgebinders: Lift, Ym, and Szeth. We learn much more about the nature of the Knights' abilities: the Nahel bond, the nature of Shardblades, how the spren view their Knights, etc. This book is, at heart, a book about the Knights Radiant. Thus, I feel that it is well titled. Our book's heart and souls matches that of the one in-world. I don't feel that The Book of Endless Pages would have worked as well. Just didn't fit. Plus it was never even mentioned. To expand the topic a bit, what do you think of Brandon's using in-world books as titles for SA? Too restricting?

Thank you very much! That clears it up for me!

When did we first hear about Khriss and what do we know about her? I had never heard of her until my return to the site after finishing WoR.

I was wicked happy to read that SA 3 had been pushed up! Timing-wise, Firefight Draft 3 is now 100% done. I am guessing after his WoR tour is over, Brandon will tweak that up a bit more. Then Rithmatist 2 should occupy another few months for him. Let's say that he will be done with that by around September/October of this year, maybe even sooner. IIRC, WoR took him about a year and a half from the beginning of writing to publication (that might actually be totally wrong, I really have no idea), so we could conceivably see SA 3 in early 2016, as opposed to fall.

I agree that the Stormfather is the spren of highstorms or something similar. His description of himself seems to indicate that he is sort of an Honorspren, as opposed to and honorspren (personifying Honor himself and not the idea of honor). What's interesting, however, is how he is able to affect the Physical Realm so directly. From what we have seen, spren need to have a bond in order to do so, with the exclusion of the few spren who can convey basic ideas (windspren, and another that I cannot recall at the moment; on a related note, windspren we know are related to honorspren, so it makes sense that they are on the more intelligent side). Obviously, the Stormfather is now bonded to Dalinar, and per WoB has been for a some time, likely since Dalinar has started having visions. But before that, at least in the Era of Solitude, he was not bonded. Could he still have been holding a large part of Honor's power? But, if so, he wouldn't be a true sliver, not as we understand them, as he never gave up the power. So, I guess the question comes down to whether or not Brandon trying to trick us by using a word he has told us means one thing in a different way.

I don't know if any of this has been posited yet, but this idea fascinated me. I got really excited about the Stormfather in WoR. So here's my theory/speculation about him/it. He refers to himself as a sliver of Honor (well, of the Almighty, but same thing) multiple times: He also says: Now, we understand that a sliver is an entity that has held most of the power of a shard for a time then released it, examples being (spoilers for Mistborn) If the Stormfather is a sliver, then when did he hold the power of Honor? I believe that it was when Odium killed him. When Odium killed Honor, by which we really mean he killed Tanavast, the Stormfather, who was present somehow, took up the power, did something with it, then released it. I assume that Odium did something more than just kill Tanavast; it would be lazy to just let the power sit there. So maybe he and the Stormfather clashed or something, and that is when the Stormfather fled, as he said. Now, based on his name, the obvious relation between him and the storms, and what he says about it that I have quoted, I think that he threw Honor's power into the highstorm/s. I do not know when Honor was killed (before the Last Desolation, or whenever), or if the highstorm/s existed before his death. Either the Stormfather created the storm then with the power, or added it to what already existed. We have WoB that the highstorms are a combination of something meteorological and something magical (obviously, on the magic), so I guess that it is the second, that the Stormfather added the power to the already existing storms, making them much more violent, then he became the sliver, the remainder of the Almighty for humanity. There are numerous potential implications if this is all correct; about the nature of the spren, Stormlight, etc. I believe there must be a definite amount of Stormlight that is continually recycled by the highstorm/s. Is that the power of Honor himself? It would make sense. Another question is, What does this mean of spren, particularly bonding spren? They are very similar to Seons and Skaze on Sel, from what we know, splinters of Shardic power. Did they exist before the death of Honor? Could they have been part of what the Stormfather did with the power? These may all very well be questions that have been answered already, but I don't really feel like searching that hard. If all this has been posited already, feel free to ignore. If not, do you agree, or have anything to refute? Am I hopelessly wrong?

I apologize now to everyone else who has posted their thoughtful reactions. I have only read a few of them, but I will now proceed to post my own, and rudely hope you read them. I actually don't really care whether you read them or not. I just need somewhere to spew. ~~~~ Well. I am likely about the last person on this site to finish the book. Ten points to me for savoring. Initial reaction: Storm you, Brandon. You just managed to follow up one of the best books I have ever read with what may very well be the best book I've ever read. IMHO, Words of Radiance is without a doubt a better book than The Way of KIngs. As much as it loved WoK, it had some flaws in pace and structure, namely relating to the way Dalinar and Shallan, she in particular, fit in to the narrative. WoR is a much more cohesive novel. It has much more of a single plot, and that was the biggest problem with WoK, IMO. The fact that Shallan was there on the Shattered Plains for most of the book, that there was actual interaction between the main characters before the last 50 pages of the book, makes WoR feel much better. It is extremely solid, in that respect. Shallan really came into her own in this book, as did Adolin. They were my least favorite characters in WoK, but now I love them in every way. We really needed to have Shallan's past to understand her. Even though she as well lived without it up until the end of WoR, she was actively hiding from it. She knew what happened, and it was always on her mind in some form, but we were missing that piece of her. We are now able to comprehend Shallan fully and love her for it, and feel for her. Adolin's change was less profound, really I just feel Brandon got him more accurately. There was something missing in WoK, and I don't really know what, but WoR definitely got him right. I also loved the growing relationship between him and Kaladin. That was one of the best parts of the novel to experience, particularly in the relatively slow way I experienced it. I was initially sad at Dalinar's being sort of sidelined for the entire middle 800 pages or so, but now I don't really mind it. We didn't need to see everything that happened with him. I continue to love Kaladin. He is still the best character Brandon has created. This book only made him better. He has entered the ranks of of my favorite fictional characters ever. The whole sequence with him losing Syl and having to discover what was the best choice to make regarding Elhokar is perfect. I had worried that Kaladin might become a bit drier, since book 1 gave him a solid arc, but this book did even more. The line, "The king was Elhokar's Tien" really got to me. The sequence of him and Shallan trapped in the chasms was also beautiful, probably my favorite part of the book (other than the end, of course). Very emotional. Perfect. So, finally, I get to that ending. Yay Renarin! You're a Radiant! I really hope he can Lightweave himself. I suspect, however, that his form of it will be different than Shallan's. The rest of you have probably already done all the speculating on that, but I came straight here so I wouldn't know. So... Zahel... You're Vasher. That is amazing. I forgot how much I liked Vasher. And Szeth. You're a Skybreaker. That's pretty cool too. But even cooler, Nightblood. I may have had greater chills reading that scene than in any other book ever. Period. Dalinar... I don't quite get this. Is the Stormfather his spren? Because that is kind of screwed up if so. Thank you, Adolin. Sadeas is gone. Jasnah, what did you even do?????? Oh Wit, always in the right place at the right time. Gotta love The Lopen. He shall never be referred to as simply Lopen ever again. Always The Lopen. Moash! Storm you!!!! Taravangian, I really like you. You are cool. The Diagram is literally one of the coolest ideas ever. And finally, I hate Amaram. Also, is there any relation between Mraize and Braize? Also, random thing I though was wicked cool: Braize is Damnation.

Well now that Chapter 7 is public, there is no more hiding. I have not read any preview chapters besides 2 and Lift, so I can go straight through, hopefully spoiler free. I shall return in about 2 weeks.

Wow. Such excitement. Many anticipation.

It is confirmed both to be written by Hoid and also to be addressed to a dragon. Look back in the thread a bit.

Bigger twist: Renarin is actually Hoid. Hoid uses his Lightweaving to create illusions of Wit wherever they are needed. This explains why Wit makes fun of Renarin so often.

And Monday just got that much farther away... Putting Tuesday farther away as well...

It is a disease we all on this site share, but a benign one at that.

Well I don't think we have to worry about Hoid not making an appearance! In all truth, I was kind of sad when I heard that there would be two Stormlight arcs as opposed to one true massive series, but now that I understand that they still should form one sequence I don't really have a problem with it. Even if they were more like two separate series like the Mistborn trilogies are to be, they would still have almost 2 million words each, based on the lengths we've seen thus far.