GreyPilgrim

I finished the fifth Malazan book last week. I am still enjoying the books. My phone now recognizes random Malazan words when I type things because I take fairly exhaustive notes on the books with it. It is rather humorous. I will type the and "Tiste" or "Edur" come up as options for the next word. I started The Lies of Locke Lamora, and it is AMAZING. Almost (big stress on the "almost") Brandon good so far. Love the world, love the prose, love the story, love the characters. I just wonder if the other books can live up to the first's awesomeness. I know from reviews that the third sort of falls short, but I am optimistic. If you haven't read this, I highly suggest it.

Yeah, I stopped trying to keep up with the Words of Radiance subforum a long time ago.

Wait he is writing Rithmatist 2 already? I thought Shadows of Self was next. Does that mean that the Rithmatist sequel might come out this year?

I think you're probably right about the Shardhunt being a large factor, though I don't know if many users who joined for that have transferred into active users. If anyone is one of those, correct me!

I have made an observation recently. I don't know if this is something of which other people have made note, but I have not seen it commented on anywhere. This site has grown massively in the past months. I myself am not really part of this. I only post every now and then, in little bursts a few times a month. But many other users are quite different. When I joined the site 6 months ago, there were about 60,000 posts (based on the numbering of posts) and about 3000 members (if I recall correctly). Now, there are well over 90,000 posts and around 4500 members. That is a 50% increase in use over a 6-month period, about 1/7 of the site's duration. When I joined there was only a handful of posters with much more than a few hundred posts to their names. Now nearly all of the top 20 posters have over 1000. While site staff still dominate the high posting ranks, it should not be long before the ever-powerful Chaos is unseated from being the highest poster by the likes of non-staff such as Kurkistan or Shardlet. Within this influx of new members are many who post rabidly, myself not included. Nonetheless, I find this very interesting. Does anyone have any idea what may have caused all of this? Is it the approach of Words of Radiance? Or a general growth in our beloved Brandon Sanderson's influence as a literary figure? Am I unique in having noticed this? Because I find it really cool. Thank you to those who work exhaustively to make this site an increasingly great community!

Someone please put a detailed summary on the Coppermind!

Great point, Delightful. I had never thought of that! That said, I agree with most of the points here, mainly that it was not as well done in TFE as in HoA. I think that when one looks at the series as a whole entity, the dei ex machina (Is that the plural?) fit much more logically. It did not feel terribly out of place in TFE, at least not for me. Then again I went into the book knowing TLR died at the end, so I was kind of expecting something to come fill in the blank. Instead of forcing me away, the prospect of Vin being able to use the mists drew me in. I knew that Brandon created very well-defined magic systems, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt that this was not merely a random idea, but one that he had planned on the entire time. From a different angle, TFE is a very self-contained book for a series debut, enough so that many readers, particularly those who do not read series and/or fantasy very often, can easily step away from the book satisfied. Or rather, could, if there were not a deus ex machina at the end which basically requires that you read on. I think it may have been a better idea if Brandon had foreshadowed the ending more so that anyone who decided not to read on could be better satisfied. On the other hand, he also really wants people to read the later books, so maybe he was better to leave it as it is. Just some musings... I have similar feelings regarding Warbreaker. Namely:

TEotW was one of my first true fantasy ventures, so I tore through it. That said, I had trouble trying to reread it, so I can see where you're coming from. The Wheel of Time is an excellent work of literature, in my opinion. Many have issues with some of the later books, namely 7-11, as well as getting into the story, as you seem to, akasketch. You can read my opinion of the later books on the other topic that's active right now. Book 1 is, in retrospect, only ok (except for the ending). 2 and 3 get better. Books 4-6 are the best, IMO, barring book 12. That is the turning point; if you are not engaged at that point, then it is not worth the last 8 books. I think the audiobook suggestion is good if you are having trouble. Trust me, the series is a massive investment, but it is ultimately worth it.

As others have said, if you have qualms, then it may not be worth it. I read pretty much all the books head-to-head, and because of that I didn't experience the slowing of the pace in books 7-10 in the same way as others did. In fact, I really enjoyed books 7, 9, and 10 almost as much as any of the other books (the climax of Winter's Heart is totally worth getting through Path of Daggers, which is actually the worst book, IMO). I won't go too deep, but the slower books get a bad rap. If read as they were released, I can totally see why one would not like them. But read together, they form a more complete arc. Those books are much more about character development than progressing the plotline. As Gamma says, Mat's story is excellent as ever. Elayne is the only one I didn't like in those books. Basically, if you want to see the characters learn to deal with everything on their own, then read these books. Brandon's contributions, and to a lesser extent Knife of Dreams, make up for these.

I figured I would edit and revive this with Words of Radiance coming, seeing as it may change some people's opinions.

Hardcover, of course! And an eBook whenever I can get it really cheap, probably when the paperback comes out.

I am pretty excited to see Shallan's history. I feel that the climax of her story in WoK leaves us wanting her story the most. While characters such as Szeth, Dalinar, and Eshonai are still very mysterious in their pasts (we know very little about the specifics, barring Dalinar), we have a lot of direct questions for Shallan's history. What is up with the Ghostbloods? What is her family's involvement? What happened to Helaran, and basically all of Shallan's brothers? How did she get her Shardblade? Why did she kill her father? Et cetera. Shallan's story requires the backstory more than anyone else at this point in the narrative. If the blanks are not filled in, I feel that we will undergo a disconnection with her. Though we have questions about Szeth, he is still a relatively minor character. The tension surrounding him needs to build before we see what is up with him. Same for Eshonai, a common name here on 17th Shard, but a character whom the casual reader will not even know exists until she is introduced formally in her interlude. As for Dalinar, while we all want to know what is up with his visit to the Nightwatcher, his present story does not yet need the backstory to be fully experienced. I personally feel that Shallan's characterization in WoK was relatively weak, at least compared to those of the other wonderful characters (Kaladin, Dalinar, Jasnah, Navani, Renarin). In fact, of major characters, I felt her characterization the most lacking except for Adolin. Hopefully her flashbacks as well as her extended time in the main narrative will make up for this and flesh her out into the character we all know she deserves to be. In all honesty, I have wondered many times about the intelligence of Brandon's decision to give us flashbacks instead of developing backstory in the normal way writers do. I fear that what I described above could happen with other characters. A balance needs to be achieved between the present and the past, lest the characters begin to feel shallow. That aside, in summary, give me Shallan's flashbacks!

Also Order of the Phoenix has way fewer words for page. I remember it being something like 250,000 words or so. WoR should be over 400,000.

We need some Mistborn, maybe Coinshots to destroy windows for Team B, as well as a Windrunner or two to Lash anyone in the room onto the walls and Lash the boxes toward the rest of the team. Maybe some Sliders for good measure.

Literally the funniest thing I've seen in weeks.

You are not alone.

That is a large book.

So is it still a regular Tor Book, or is it being published under Tor Teen like The Rithmatist? I like the cover art, although I'm not terribly fond of the "Can an evil that has ruled for one thousand years be defeated?" On another note, if it gets enough nee readers in the teen audience, it may help the movie get off the ground! No complaints there.

This pun is so bad there will be no Survivors.

BUY. MASSIVE BUY. Not every Herald will appear blatantly in the Stormlight Archive. (Meaning they may appear, but not necessarily be named as such.)

Of course, this goes without saying if you're a member here!

For some reason editing my previous post created a new one... Didn't mean to double post.

I have recently worked my way up to the fifth Malazan book. I am quite enjoying the story, though I can understand why many people don't like it. It is VERY different from Brandon's stuff, but I've found it a worthy use of my time. Currently reading The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll, a book about the Higgs boson particle and the Large Hadron Collider, intended for a public audience with no background in particle physics. Gotta read about the real world sometimes! Basically, I am just biding my time now waiting for Words of Radiance!

I am probably pretty unique in this, but I pronounce Aimia as ah-EE-mee-ah, to account for the symmetry. I don't really know if holy symmetry is only for spelling, but once I read about that I thought Aimia sounded really cool this way. I pronounce Valhav as VAL-av, with no H, for the same reason. Jesrien/Jezerezeh: YEZ-ree-en/YEZ-er-ez-eh Elhokar: EL-oh-kar Jashah: YAHZ-nah Kholin: ko-LIN