Gamma Fiend

The Inquisitors spiked Sherlock Holmes and had him working on the case, duh. "Alamantary, my Dear Watson"

Crazy how you've held off reading for so long while browsing the forums. Has to be a unique perspective, knowing all the Cosmere and spoiler-y stuff, but actually reading it for the first time. Definitely wouldn't mind hearing some of your thoughts or insights you get from the read-through.

Ediited: Put in spoiler tags, just in case. Don't wanna ruin any WoT goodness for anyone.

Anyone else find it odd that Moash kind of ninja'd this thread from Sigzil?

Yeah, it was a bit of a letdown that it took Rand one chapter to get over 12 books worth of horrible things happening to him, and being pushed to the brink of madness. But I guess Lews Therin was just like, "Dude snap out of it. Gotta get going to the Last Battle,yo" There was just too much other stuff that needed to happen, there wasn't any room left to write about Rand wallowing in his despair.

If Superman grew up in our generation/era, he'd totally be a fratboy perv. But that aside, I have a question. How do you guys get your friends to start reading Way of Kings? How do you hype it to them? A problem I had was I told my friend to pick up WoK for his first Sanderson book, and he said it was just a bit too much to start on. I have another friend starting on Mistborn, so I'm hoping that will be an easier transition into Cosmere stuff.

Since we don't know how storing Identity Feruchemically exactly works, my baseless speculation would be, get into a fight with somebody, then start storing your identity until the person you're fighting doesn't recognize you as the person they were fighting with anymore. ...might work... Edit: also, The Author of the Thread(s) IS the Shard of Choice. Maybe he was just giving us the option of which thread to post in?

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that absolutely fantastic worldbuilding going on in this series. Roshar is by far one of the most distinct fantasy worlds I've ever heard about. The imagery is beautiful, the adjusted eco-system and how he's created these unique plant and wildlife characteristics that are logical and consistent. And not to mention the Spren. Those little suckers, just dominating the landscape, lighting up all the visual descriptions and giving us a great understanding of this world. It just works, and it's very ambitious, and I can't wait to see more. Just think about how Rotspren and all those things work, how those have helped shape the cultures and understanding of the world, in this case allowing for advanced medical knowledge. You can just tell Brandon has put so much thought and time and planning into this series, these intricacies are just very grand in scope, and I appreciate the hell out of it.

I'm not trying to defend incest, it's obviously gross and weird. And that's the only thing twisted about their love. If Jamie and Cersei were any two other people, everyone would accept it and understand that they were deeply in love. At least Jamie loved her. He threw a 9-year-old out of a window for her, for christsakes. But what he actually felt for her, when you read his chapters later on when he starts to change, you understand he deeply and truly cared for Cersei. He loved her. Cersei was just the power hungry crazy lady who always wanted a penis, basically. So I won't say that she loved him back in the same, thats just cause she was a cold-hearted wench. And hey, the Targyreans did it for hundreds of years, so it's not like they were the first people to bang their siblings ever. They even had precedent. Jamie is just one of my favorite characters, and just the development you see him go through the books is amazing. But I think it's just kind of silly to disclaim a certain characters emotions just because of your judgment of their situation. You don't like it? That's fine. Doesn't mean it isn't real.

If hair can be used as Awakening fuel, then that offers great potential for assassins. Sneak a maid in to an important place, maybe give her one or two extra breaths, not enough to be really noticed but enough to make sure the awakening is strong enough. But one should suffice. But either way, sneak in, have her long hair braided tightly, very tightly, she chops it off and wraps it around the unsuspecting noble (or returned's?) neck, give the command "Choke". Might work? Depending on the Realmatic, cognitive aspect of hair. Maybe a question to ask Brandon?

Oh definitely agree, I can't wait to see how he progresses. There were a few problems I had with consistency of things, some characters just seemed flat, and yeah the fast pace was very distracting sometimes. Big events happen and people just shrug it off and don't really talk about it, gets a little annoying. And this is a series that spends too much time on sex. Everybody just instantly falls in love and wants to ravenously tear eachothers' clothes off in a frenzy of lust. But it was still a very interesting world, the characters that did have depth were great. Durzo Blint of course being the over-powered Mentor Archetype, but he was still fun to read. Have his next series waiting for me at the library so can't wait to read.

I really hope Ferro comes back in future books. Seems like she might have a grudge with Bayaz. Her and Bloody Nine team up one last time.

Brandon's nightmares of showing up to book signings in his underwear will give him unlimited power!

So on my recent re-read of WoK I noticed something, or maybe noticed something, I could be wrong. But during all of the Dalinar flashbacks (at least the ones in Way of Kings) I don't think I noticed any Spren. Now there is one line where Dalinar thinks that if it weren't so dark, he's sure he'd see Fearspren around the people around him, but it doesn't mention him directly seeing Spren (IIRC) Now this may just be nothing, or coincidence, but I know we love our Theories here. So my theory is: Dalinar's flashbacks are before the Shattering of Honor, or something along those lines. I'm not sure what the exact implications are here, but I do think it's interesting. And this is a half-assed, crackpot theory/idea so feel free to blow holes in it if you think I am way off base.

Ah, Derp. Don't know why I thought this was Sel, that was kind of silly. But Realmatics is still at play. And I would think of your hair or blood as losing identity with you fairly quickly. I guess it depends on how attached (har-har) you are to whatever it is. If you don't view it as part of yourself anymore, then it will probably take a lot faster to get the "seperation memo" (great term, btw) in Shadesmar.

Bring this thread back! Got a new one: The Shard of Banking: It doesn't actually have any powers until you Invest into it Edit: ooh nice, 4 upvotes. Let's see if I can expand. So after you've Invested your Power into the Banking Shard, it will Squander your Investments into Risky Cosmere Loans. I knew I shouldn't of let Banking invest into Sel!

I would totally buy Stormlight Archive Graphic Novels. High quality. I don't know many exampled, but one I have read was the Dark Tower adaptation by Marvel. Their artwork was great. Also, The First Law by Joe Abercrombie is now having weekly Web Comics (good quality) being published. And there's already plenty of artwork in the books to base stuff off of. Graphic Novels are a great idea. But, I would like to see a nice animated series (maybe a couple pretty CGI scenes or some sort of hybrid). If I were a millionaire, I'd Invest.

Well we know Realmatic Theory is a heavy contender on this planet, with Forgery and all, so I guess it does depend on how the hair views itself after you cut it off. Or is it how you view the hair? Or both? But, Royal Hair can be instantly regrown too(IIRC). So that doesn't sound like a problem. Was there a drawback to growing hair back quickly? I can't remember.

Well we'd all know that info. But when we follow these characters stories, they don't come across people with Old Valyrian or Dragon info. They do have sex and all that gross stuff people do (like pooping and peeing). Which is what I think GRRM is kind of going for. People have historically done way worse and nastier things. And sex and violence have been two of the most pivotal themes is human history. We are some aggressive perverts. I just don't think a fantasy world depicting that is that much of a stretch. But I do understand that some people don't like it and would prefer it not to be there. Yes, some of the sex scenes are inconsequential overall to the whole major plots of the books, but I think it help adds that touch of realism. When all the old great war generals of the past had victories and settled down for the night, they went and banged their concubines.

New Told You So: Over 85% of all the theories in this thread will be wrong.

A full open World like Skyrim with a character with Windrunning powers would be wonderful. Bethesda could create the world of Roshar no problem. I think individually making all those spren and putting all those cool plants everywhere would be more fun than flowers and just random items. Having to take shelter from the highstorms, hunting chasmfiends on the Shattered Plains. It would be so beautiful.

Well for any complaints that there hasn't been much Wight Walker activity, it's because it's just now Winter. Can't really have the evil forces of snow and Winter doing much in the Summer/Fall. But I am positive the next book is going to give us the cold, undead army we've been waiting for. As for the sex scenes. Are they really that distracting/harmful to the book? I think the consistent tugging of braids and horribly drawn out, dry explanations of every single type of gilded inlay and fancy embroidery a characters sees is a bit more annoying than two people mashing bodies together. And I don't know about the argument that people aren't actually in love in the books. That is a little bit of a bold statement. Of course Ned loved his wife. Daenarys and Khal Drogo? Yes. That was love after a while. Let's look at their first sex scene. First impression: Okay. Crazy barbaric warlord is about to violate this poor teenager. But what happens? Khol Drogo shows a part of him that people wouldn't even think to exist. His slow, tender touches. The way he deliberately and methodically warms up Dany to his touch, the way he actually makes her feel comfortable and show that he is not just trying to have sex with her. He wanted her to want him. He asks, "No?" until she finally says Yes. Granted, I won't claim that that scene right there is love between them. But it's the first step. Yeah, GRRM could have written that as a memory. Dany fondly recalling the past nights events in the morning. But wasn't it so much stronger when it was immediate? There's no way to capture that emotion of in-the-minute as it's happening in past tense. Jamie and Cersei? Twisted. But love. At least at first. Yeah it's a bit messed up. But it's real. Sex, whether you agree or not, is one of the most important aspects of human civilization. Without it, we wouldn't exist. It is a crucial part of real life. So I don't really think it's that bad when you have time in book spend on it. Was it over done? Barely, I'd say. And it's not even that I was getting off on it or anything. It's real. It's consistent. The show does it more than the books anyway. Now that is a bit overdone.

Just started this series a couple days ago, just got book two. I like it so far. Way of Shadows was a good book. Still waiting to see the full potential of the magic system, but I like the gritty/dark fantasy genre. Kind of reminds me of Mistborn and Joe Abercrombie's The First Law Trilogy, but in good ways.

Welcome Did you also read Wheel of Time? Sanderson finished that up greatly, and I've been trying to revive the WoT discussions on here lately.