EHyde

I thought The Host was pretty good, actually. Not wonderful, but not bad either. I don't think it's really fair to say that certain authors or certain subgenres aren't valid. Romantic urban fantasy may not be appealing to most people here (including myself) but saying it doesn't count is a little insulting to the people who do enjoy it. And no one ever says anything about how certain male-dominated subgenres don't count, it's always the women who get excluded. I also don't think it's fair to dismiss one author's work as near-porn and then go on to praise Kushiel's Legacy ... I agree that those books are amazing and beautifully written but they do contain a lot of graphic, kinky sex!

Possibly! I was thinking about doing it myself but I didn't want to spend the night and I didn't think I'd be up for so much driving in one day, but if you're able to help with the drive I'd definitely be interested.

I ... I honestly can't decide if Adolin and Shallan are right for each other or not. I think right now Shallan thinks that the person that Adolin is interested in is not the person that she wants to be but I also think that Adolin would be interested in who Shallan really is if given the chance to meet her (he's caught a few glimpses). I think Kaladin and Shallan may well have a deeper connection but I don't necessarily see it as romantic. I wouldn't necessarily complain if it were but for those two, I think they would be friends for a long time before letting it develop into romance, and they would both be very surprised when it did. Unfortunately it does feel like it's being set up as a love triangle ... I really hope it doesn't turn out that way. If Shallan does end up breaking up with Adolin, I'd much rather see her end the relationship simply because it wasn't working and not for another man. There are eight more books, she can afford to spend a few of them single ;-)

Having Nightblood around might at least force Szeth to think for himself about what defines good and evil, so, there's that.

Ah crap I tried to upvote from my phone and hit down instead sorry :-( Anyway, I didn't know something like that existed, that's pretty cool! Though I suspect the fifteen-year-old graphics bother me less simply because ... well the last time I really played any computer games was aboit fifteen years ago.

Anyone play Starcraft? I am playing through the campaign of the original game right now and I'm really enjoying it. I've never been all that into computer or video games and I'll admit I only started because a) my husband is really into sc2 and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and after seeing a picture of Kerrigan I thought she'd be really awesome to cosplay but I figured I should actually familiarize myself with the source material first. But I'm really enjoying the game for its own sake right now. I think once I get to sc2 I might try out the online multiplayer stuff? Not sure yet though.

Oh yeah, I saw that in the game store, it looked intriguing! I couldn't quite tell from the box how similar it was to AH, so thanks for the summary!

I think the difference is that Sanderson's comments are generally about adding something to the world of the story, not taking back something that was established in canon. As far as Hermione goes ... I guess I don't have a problem with Rowling saying what she said, I just wish that various media outlets wouldn't change it to "she should have ended up with Harry" because as far as I can tell, Rowling never said that. I wish people would stop trying to turn things that aren't love triangles into love triangles!

Oh, I didn't know there was a version of that for android ... I played the Elder Sign boardgame over thanksgiving, it was fun but I think not as much fun as Arkham Horror.

I basically failed at converting my sister: that is, she read the entire Mistborn trilogy and then Alloy of Law, but she never stopped complaining about Sanderson's writing style. I keep telling her to try Emperor's Soul, since it's a much more compact story, but I think it's a lost cause. Ahh well, you win some, you lose some.

It may well depend on the situation. You're describing a situation in which they're working directly against each other and bartbug was talking about each of them working against some system--I think in this case, luck becomes more relevant/useful the fewer outside forces are involved.

Ahem, Feather: a challenger appears! (still not over that "best inquisitor ever" comment)

FWIW, I originally posted the lyrics here on 17S a couple years ago in the comments for the Christmas giveaway--someone else started re-writing Christmas songs with Mistborn-themed lyrics and I just jumped on the bandwagon! Feather you are really awesome for recording it.

I was going to respond to some of the posts here, but Feather said pretty much what I was going to say and more.

I'm enjoying the show so far, but I wish they'd do more with character development. Right now it seems like Skye and Coulson are the only people who have anything going for them in that field beyond a couple of superficial traits. Like ... we know that Fitz and Simmons are science types, but what's their motivation? Why are they working for SHIELD? Does the fact that their work may never make it to the world at large bother them, or are they happy with that? I realize we're only a few episodes in, and overall the show's still fun, I just expected a bit more from characters in a Joss Whedon show.

I'm not responsible for any of the downvoting, but I would assume that it's because this post comes across as pretty homophobic. It's one thing (a perfectly reasonable thing!) to read Kaladin as straight, but saying that revealing Kaladin as not straight would feel like a betrayal and would prevent people from being able to enjoy the story as much--when from everything we've seen romance is not a major part of the story at all--really makes it sound like he thinks non-straight characters are lesser/not worth his time even when their orientation doesn't affect the story at all. And saying that, were Kaladin not straight, his brotherly love for Tien would have to be reinterpreted, really has some unfortunate implications. It... really comes across like he's saying that gay people can't love their siblings without it being some incestuous pedophilic thing. I really doubt that's what Fistsofrage meant to imply, but you can see why people would find that insulting and offensive!

I went to the Birmingham signing last night and had a good time there. I only ended up asking one Cosmere-related question, but hopefully it will still be useful. I asked if assassination is common among the Parshendi, since they have a tradition of what assassins are supposed to wear. Brandon said (and I'm paraphrasing) that the Parshendi are a lot more unified than they used to be, and back when they existed as a lot of separate tribes (he didn't say how long ago this was), raids and assassinations were a fairly regular thing. Someone else asked if Adonalsium had been self-aware, and Brandon said he couldn't answer that yet. I went to the event in a Wheel of Time costume (I posted a couple of pictures in the gallery) and met up with some people I knew from Dragon*Con. I already owned all the books I was getting signed, but I did buy a couple of other books while I was there, including Dan Wells' Fragments (which isn't supposed to be published for a few more days ... exciting! ;-)

You are indeed ... and in doing so, you've almost enabled me to catch up to you in upvotes! mwahahaha

Dude, Sweetness, I should be getting upvotes for that not you :-P

My real name does have a bit of a story behind it, too. I was going to be named Helen, after one of my grandmothers, until my parents decided at the last minute that they didn't like the sound of Helen Hyde and called me Ellen instead. I sort of get their point--I mean, Helen Hyde would be a completely awesome name for a supervillain--but throughout a lot of middle and high school I sort of wished I'd been named Helen instead, until I discovered that in Alien, Ripley's first name is Ellen. Then it became cool.