Cortez

Also how would coinshots sink a ship just using allomancy? Sure they could have taken some kind of scuttling charges,but that would require a lot of planning and there is no indication that they were carrying anything with them. Division on the other hand would easily allow a Skybreaker to sink a ship.

I think the bigger issue is how would a coinshot, or any allomancer/feruchemist, sink a ship without explosives? Skybreakers would make a lot more sense in this regard as Division would easily allow them to sink the ships.

That's disappointing as it's completely ruined my favourite character. It somewhat spoiled Oathbringer for me and I was hoping it would quickly be resolved in this book. If it's a permanent thing then I suspect I'll just end up skipping most of Shallan's chapters, assuming I even bother buying the book.

As I thought mine just downloaded in the UK. Have fun everybody.

I seem to remember previous releases arriving at midnight or possibly one am from Amazon uk. Can't be 100% certain though

I've long thought that some kind of Fabrial based railgun or coilgun should be possible given what we've seen of Fabrial science so far. Personally I'm a fan of a coilgun version using attractor or repulsor (ok these are theoretical, but if you can attract something, the opposite is also possible) Fabrials which could then be activated in sequence to accelerate a projectile down the barrel. The only question for this weapon type is whether the control systems exist to do this correctly. (n.b. the first operational coilgun was made in 1904, so it isn't that complicated.). Fabrials would have a big advantage over current railgun/coilgun designs as they wouldn't require the large amount of power currently required in reality..

Actually they're designed to do both. Crush the joints so the enemy can't move properly and then stick a spike through it. The main reason fantasy warhammers can't work is the weight, not the crushing style attack, no normal human would be able to wield them properly (seriously try swinging a sledge hammer about in one hand, you'll be lucky if you don't snap your wrist by trying to reverse direction).

I seem to recall axes being used by heavy infantry so I would be surprised if warhammers and maces aren't also used and I think I recall halberds being used by some of the honour guards. Dalinar sees soldiers wearing bronze breastplates in his visions and mentions that they would be steel in his time. Kaladins squad are described in Chapter 1: They seem to use both short spears and long spears (although it isn't clear on the lengths). I would guess at ~6-9ft for the short spear and 12ft for the long spear (based on Greek, Roman and medieval examples such as the Welsh long spear). Half shards are described as being diamond shaped with a gemstone in the middle. The other shields aren't described but based on the l.imited description we can rule out the Hoplon (which had to be strapped to the forearm). It sounds to me like the shield would either be rectangular or oval (similar to Roman or Chinese designs) as they are used in shieldwall type formations. Round Viking style shields seems less likely to me as it doesn't really fit the other descriptions.

Are you talking about the Asian Hornets, Vespa mandarinia (and it's japonica subspecies)? They have a neurotoxin instead of just acid in their stings and kill about 40 people a year in both Japan and China (with many more needing hospital treatment). Roshar has it really lucky (these have recently been found in France and killed 4 people last year).

Lopen often refers to his missing arm as if it's still there - such as 'see that, that's my other arm making a rude gesture at you' or something like that during the Radiant training scene (I only have the audiobook so can't give a precise quote) which shows that he still views it as part of him.

Personally I tend to view the Alethi and Vedens as more of a classical, i.e. Greco-Roman society, due to the descriptions of their traditional uniforms (although the more modern uniforms sound more 18th-19th century) and relative rarity of cavalry in their armies. Their grasp of science, engineering and medicine also tends to feel more appropriate for that period rather than the middle ages as does their class system with it's distinct ranks.

I wonder if her eyes did turn red as a kid and if that was why her mother tried to kill her. Since then she could be subconsciously hiding the colour change.

It is odd that it's never been spotted (and thus it's location known). Could it be hidden from below somehow? Perhaps using some kind of lightweaving fabrial?

I don't agree that it was cheap to have Jasnah appear to be killed. I agree that Jasnah needed to be taken out of the story in order for Shallan to grow into her own character (rather than just Jasnah v2.0), however I also feel that Shallan needed to believe that Jasnah was dead in order to make that growth. She needed to feel that she was mankind's only hope, that only she could stop the Voidbringers and find Urithiru. For her there was no one else to help her or who knows the truth. This forces her to grow as a character such as learning from Tyn or investigating the Ghostbloods in order to find out what they know. I don't feel Shallan would have been forced to do any of this without believing that Jasnah was dead. Just consider the completely different reaction and amount of help that Shallan would have received from Navani if she hadn't just told her that her daughter was dead and instead that they'd merely been separated. Her relationship with Adolin would have begun differently, she'd have been staying in the Kholin warcamp and not with Sebarial and instead of investigating the Ghostbloods and Urithiru, she'd have spent the entire book waiting for Jasnah to show up and help her.

She showed her drawing skills while creating the map to the oathgate, that would be enough of a clue to point Mraize in the right direction. Figuring out that she's a Lightweaver shouldn't have been too hard from there given her skill with disguises and the fact that she revealed that she's a Radiant.

The classic uniforms do look something like classical Greek or Roman tunics - leather jerkin and knee length skirt. (WoK, ch.1, p37).

It could also be that there is more than one organisation calling itself the Skybreakers. Nalan's non-surgebinding group and the true Skybreakers who are still bonded to spren, can surgebind etc.

I'm an agnostic: maybe I'm a stick?

Illumination and progression make more sense for the Truthwatchers and their ability to see the future, so I would swap 5 and 8 around.

I don't think the Ghostbloods are linked to Taravangian's Diagramists. Their goals are similar but their methods and objectives are somewhat different. For example they seem to be focused on removing Amaram and stopping the Men of Honour and are unconcerned with Dalinar and the neo-radiants, on the other hand the Diagramist assassin Graves seems to be extremely concerned when Kaladin says the 3rd Ideal.

Amaram's Men of Honour appear to be a group that wants to restore the Vorin Heirocracy by using a desolation to bring back the heralds and restore the churches power. Gavilar was probably part of this group (not the Diagramists) which is why the Parshendi killed him. The Ghostbloods might have assumed that Jasnah was part of her Father's group, which is why they tried to eliminate her and steal her notes.

I agree that Jasnah needed to be out of the story. To put it simply she knew too much. With her around there would be much less room for Shallan to grow as a character and she certainly wouldn't have made contact with the Ghostbloods and all the fun possibilities that brings to the story. However she is also far too important to kill off at this stage, having her on her own on the other side of the continent is much more useful for the story (to find other neo-radiants, bring in other secret societies etc.) than simply killing her. This way you get the best of both worlds. Shallan and the other get to grow without her leading them down whatever route she has chosen and she [Jasnah] gets to develop in the next book, possibly along with Hoid.

I really enjoyed this book, it managed to live up to and even exceed my expectations, something which I was concerned about before reading. Would this book be as good as I wanted it to be? So many fantasy books recently have failed to live up to my high expectations (based on their previous works), that it was extremely refreshing that Brandon Sanderson managed to deliver. Kaladins character was interesting for me. He needed to work out his 'Lighteyes' issues and I thought this was done well. I loved the way his hatred and distrust of all lighteyes conflicted with his Radiant oaths and the fact that his inability to reconcile these differences nearly cost him everything. I loved the way Shallans character developed throughout the story. The way she became more confident and extroverted as she developed her skills through spying and infiltration. I liked her interaction with Pattern and the way the spren made her face the truths about herself rather than the lies she presented to the world. Her flashbacks were interesting although not really surprising as I'd figured out much of it already, although I was wrong about her Shardblade killing her father, I had figured out the rest of it from the sneak peaks and readings BS gave us. Her courtship with Adolin was well handled although I'm not happy with the love triangle thing with Kaladin, it was far too obvious for me and too much along the lines of a standard fantasy plot to really work. Jasnah's 'resurrection' was initially a surprise, although it really shouldn't have been. On my second read-through it was obvious that she wasn't dead. Golden rule of fantasy for me is usually if you don't see a corpse you can't be sure they're dead. Unfortunately on my first read-through I missed the fact that Jasnah's body had vanished from her cabin. Shallan really should have been suspicious of that too. For me though the thing that really made this story was the sheer number of different factions that are now active within the story. In addition to the Ghostbloods, Taravangian, and Kholin/neo-radiant factions we also have the Skybreakers (led by Nalan) and the descendants of the Voirin hierocracy, not to mention the voidbringers/unmade. What really makes this great is that its hard to see which side some of the various groups are on. The Ghostbloods were opposed to Amarams new hierocracy faction, who want to bring back the desolations (in order to restore church power), yet were also opposed to Jasnah, who wanted to prevent the desolations? Add to that the fact that Shallan is tied to two different (and possibly opposing groups) and the potential for exciting intrigue and betrayal in the next book is huge. There are also the wildacrds who must be taken into account, a lot more information is given about Hoid and some hints as to his nature, but what really blew my mind is that both Vasher and Nighblood are active on Roshar and not together either! In short this book was, for me, amazing. The only problem is... How long until book three?

It could also be for Szeth's benefit. He knows and understands what a Shardblade is. Explaining Nightblood to him would probably be extremely difficult.

Ah the beauty of being self-employed. If I want to take a day off to read a fantasy novel I can . Got to wait two more days for it though in the UK, for some peculiar reason.