Truthless

I think we might be confusing ourselves by using these Mistborn terms to try and describe another Shardworld's magic systems. The presence of Cultivation complicates things in ways I just don't think we can anticipate right now. I mean, to my mind, Cultivation is a better analogue to Preservation than Honor, so that would make Cult. End-Positive, and Honor End-Neutral. Just confusing. My main concern is if a Shard itself call really be End-Neutral at all, or if that is only achieved by the interaction of two shards. I do love Venn diagrams, and I do love your Venn diagram. But it makes it seem simple, so I'm suspicious

I am a person who likes free stuff. Count me in

Modern Waste, from Company of Thieves' second album. So so so good A bit obscure too, which is good for my inner indie snob. Gotta throw him a bone every now and then. Otherwise he gets cranky. Nothing worse than a cranky hipster. Anyway, yes, Company of Thieves. Probably my favorite band.

WOAH THERE. "Died" is a pretty useless word right here. The Shard cannot die, it can only be splintered. Aona and Skai have been splintered, and all signs point to Honor being likewise splintered. Ruin and Preservation, however, are still completely whole. All of those shards original Shardholders have died, yes, and if that's what you mean, you need to be really specific and say it that way.

Yeah, I've been watching it every week ever since the Escapist picked it up last year. I have some differences with the writer of the show over his approach to many of the topics, but it's definitely a great series. And when it moved to Penny Arcade I discovered that the LRR team had a show there too, so it was double the happy.

You're mean and I love you. Back on topic: where is it said that all the Heralds are crazy? That's not something I've heard before, although it does feel like it makes sense. But: Shalash seems angry, not crazy, and we haven't met any other (to my knowledge) in the present-day of the story for long enough to really judge their mental state.

Oh gosh, I've gone and confused myself. Is white the logic Ajah, and Gray the negotiators, or is it the other way around?

The giant breaching spren appears to be absorbing the emotions of its audience. It doesn't appear to be affecting their health, but it would explain its tremendous size - taking even a tiny bit of emotion from each person in a large group could still make a large sum. But why does the spren do this? It might be touched by Cultivation, or the make-a-wish-get-a-curse lady that wiped Dalinar's memory. Her names escapes me. Or it might have to do with the expectations of the local people, who once witnessed some some kind of water-spren doing something unusual and over time began to expect it would do that, thus binding it to that action.

Yeah, it was longer than it needed to be to tell the story, but to my mind it's embodying one of its not-so-subtle themes. It does suffer from a bit of what Robert Jordan came down with in the later books of WoT - letting beautiful storytelling get in the way of the story - but, can a novel ever really suffer for that? It depends what you're looking to get out of a book, I suppose. I definitely struggled with my interest to continue into the Wheel of Time around Winter's Heart, but Wise Man's Fear kept an uncomfortably firm grip on me all the way through. Maybe it's to do with the length of the series? From the beginning of Wise Man's Fear, you can see the end, even if it's a thousand or so pages distant. But with the Wheel of Time - at the time I was reading - I had no idea if how long the series would go on, and if I had another ten steadily-plodding books to look forward to. Sorry, rambling. Both series are fabulous. I will be getting my hands on Towers of Midnight very soon now - haven't been able to keep to my decision to wait until closer to AMoL one bit

I agree the ending was quite awful - and in the last book especially, there's some seriously unpleasant Deus Ex Machina plot twists. Like, early Terry Brooks style Deus ex Machina. Generally, though, the series is marvelous, and it has a special place in my heart. It's really what turned me on to fantasy in the first place.

Yes, this! So much this. I was actually watching Batman Begins just last weekend, and this is exactly how I picture Tillaume

Tillaume is definitely my favorite character. Brandon really nailed the demure, disapproving butler archetype. It's beautifully fitting, in my mind, for Sazed to have turned the horror of Hemalurgy into a means of prayer. Although I assume that old-fashioned Hemalurgy still exists - Ruin, although having an intrinsic knowledge of its workings, does not have direct control over it, yes? - and that we'll see villains making use of it soon or later.

Yes, it makes it both interesting and difficult to have the common people (realistically) confused about the labels of their long-dead or long-vanished deities. Without much proof to back it up, I believe that the Stormfather refers to a specific Herald, while the Almighty refers to Honor. However, with most of our theories pointing to the Highstorms being directly related to Honor some way or another, it would make sense for him to be the Stormfather, and the Almighty to be something else - perhaps Adonalsium itself, as was suggested.

I don't understand your question about north/south and the equator. It's interesting that the main continent of Roshar is so far south, but I don't see why it should change anything. South always points toward the south pole, north always points toward the north pole. The location of the continent relative to the equator does not change which direction is which. Also, the directions can be relative as well as constant. A city which is north relative to the equator would be still be thought of as in the south by people who live even further north. Even on Earth, most people do not think of the world as divided into hemispheres, much less on Roshar.

Oh marvelous! Okay. So it's possible that there is a bit of Atium somewhere, but Sazed would definitely not let in fall into the hands of someone like Bloody Tan. Also, would that mean that for the moment, Preservation's power in Sazed is more than Ruin's? Also that, once all of Ruin's body regenerates, Ruin would be more influential than Preservation? Hmm. Interesting implications.

I thought Aona was a synonym for Charity? Or is it both? I dunno. Anyway, your theory seems solid. Definitely helps to make sense of AonDor and where it fits in to things.

Could Bloody Tan have been burning Atium? Does Atium even exist anymore? I'm fuzzy about the end of Mistborn. Does Ruin get his body back before Vin takes him down? I can't remember. Since the mist is still around, if only intermittently, I feel like some Atium could be kicking around as well. Oh yeah, and MARSH. Can't believe that didn't occur to me. Thank goodness there's a forum full of people with better memories than mine xD

I love how the book starts out - reminds me a lot of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, where the initial encounters seem to be with standard villains, but are really vital to the plot. You forget about them while it goes on with the story, but then they turn out to be way important later. Not to mention it's so intriguing that there are apparently Steel Inquisitors still wandering about.

Years ago I read the first 2 Dune books - Dune and Dune Messiah, then found the 4th and 5th for cheap and picked them up, thinking the 3rd would be easy to find later. Oh how wrong I was. For whatever reason, the 3rd book in the Dune series (Children of Dune) is extremely hard to find, short of ordering it on Amazon - which I was determined not to do. It would be like cheating, see? A challenge had been issued, a gauntlet thrown down, and I rose to the challenge! So yeah, years later, today, I found Children of Dune at Half-Price Books. But now I don't remember much along the line of character names and plot lines in the first two books, so it's looking like it's reread time

Brandon always describes them as "marbled", so I've been picturing like some fancy marble floor with the stones kind of organically alternating colors. Altogether, a bit hard to imagine. I'm hoping they get featured on a cover sometime.

I would love for the next book to be about Shallan - she's definitely my favorite character. Dalinar is interesting too, though - I would love to know exactly what he asked of the Nightsister or whoever the Old Magic person is. Hard to speculate details. Kaladin will definitely not be getting a Shardblade, as it's been well established that Shardblades in their current state are tools of Odium, not Honor. Dalinar and Szeth will have to have a face-off, which will be made of win. Of course, Dalinar doesn't have his Shardblade anymore, so it looks ti be quite one-sided. We'll also be finding out what on earth happened with Shallan and her father. And the Ghostbloods! And creepy King Taravangian. And the PARSHMEN. Holy crap the Parshmen. I'm inclined to think that we'll see them go nuts sooner rather than later, just because their nature has been revealed so soon. Anyway, it'll be awesome.

Amulet of Samarkand is quite good - I'm a huge fan of the whole Bartimaeus series. Stroud creates really interesting characters, never even ones as straightforward as Harry Potter who has parent issues and teenage angst but is selfless and courageous and stuff right from the start. Jonathan Stroud's characters are never like that - and if they happen to start out that way, they'll be changed by the end. Always selfish and cowardly people who eventually do the right thing anyway. So, y'know, real people. Eragon...is what it is. What it is is embarrassingly derivative, but still highly entertaining.

I discovered this a few weeks ago. It's just...so amazing. Simple dog brings me great joy.

Hmm...the Shard of Distribution? Like Adonalsium's regional manager.

I love TSA, but it's way too early for me to say if I'll end up liking it better than TFA. Mistborn is great for everything, y'know, how it introduces Allomancy and develops it and how the characters develop and interact and the gradual revelation of the real threat and how Vin and Elend's sacrifices ultimately save the world. It's a safe bet I'll love how the Stormlight Archives turn out too, but there's no way to know fors ure. TWoK has more questions than answers - it's in a funny place as the first book in an epic fantasy series. We'll just have to see. So yeah, I voted for Mistborn.