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This is my reaction blog for Wind and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Title: Nobility Probably a reference to Kaladin’s respect for Dalinar and possibly Navani. Icon: Ishar Because that's his task, and also possibly for Dalinar's bondsmithliness. Oh and maybe Navani's too Epigraph: Okay, this is starting to sound like it's Jasnah speaking. She's doing her historian veristitalian thing by tracking down primary sources. Presumably Kaladin’s mission will result in what she refers to here as the “cleansing of Shinovar,” which given that this whole epigraph text is about the Wind means that both Kaladin and the Wind will be involved in it directly. My presumption is that the cleansing is another exorcism of an unmade, whichever one has taken up residence there. However, the title Wind and Truth makes me think there could well be some cleansing of the stone shamans to correct malicious falsehoods in their teachings. The use of cleansing in that sense is very concerning because it brings to mind real-world genocidal language. Also importantly, this text is being written at a time when the Wind and the heralds have both vanished. A previous epigraph noted the Wind's departure, but the loss of all of the heralds is a big surprise. How and why that will occur will be a big question through to the climax of the book, I expect. We know that at least Ash and Taln are going to be part of the back five, possibly as viewpoint characters, which means that any vanishing will be strictly temporary at least for some of the individuals. Kaladin is not happy about Szeth being a traveling companion. I'm not sure what he expected maybe it's readership bias with having extra information, but he's the natural person to send as the only person that they have access to who has first hand understanding of Shinovar. Uh, yep, Szeth is speaking of “cleansing evil” in Shinivar. With Nightblood at his side that is a very concerning turn of phrase and makes me get ominous shivers for whatever coming event was referenced in the epigraph. This is Szeth’s fourth ideal quest on his skybreaker journey, and apparently he wanted to go alone. He is not happy about Kaladin being a traveling companion. And Kaladin just twigged to the fact that he's being sent as Szeth's therapist / attending physician. Not only does he have to try to heal Ishar, which Wit told him wasn't possible, he now has a second patient in Szeth, who's got a very enabling friend in sword-nimi. Just a friendly reminder that Szeth is super cray cray. I had honestly forgotten about the voices still being part of his psyche at this point. They've been lessening slightly since Edgedancer I believe, though I do need to take another look at it, but obviously the voices haven't disappeared. They got the climate controls up and working again all throughout the tower thanks to Navani. Aww, Syll says that Kaladin is her home. That's very sweet. Interesting to note that the climate effects don't have a sharp cutoff between the Tower and the surroundings, but rather a gradual transition. Fascinating that the human body can't hold Towerlight except in close proximity to the tower itself. I wonder why that's different from stormlight and whether warlight would be the same He's apparently been adjusting the cabin pressure automatically when he flies, as part of his surgebinding abilities related to pressure and air. He's trying to be more deliberate in using and controlling that part of his power. There are definitely martial applications for that, not to mention medical ones that could come in very convenient for use in his hands as a surgeon going forward. Magical hyperbaric chamber anyone? Woah, this is huge. Dalinar is questioning the wisdom of autocracy. Jasnah’s ideas truly are infectious “ like a cremling wintering in the heart of a plant” In the last book Dalinar was a committed tyrant. This openness to having the fate of the world decided not by him or another single monarch is a stark departure from his long-held beliefs. Nice to see Kaladin being open with Dalinar about everything Wit told him and what he's experiencing with the Wind. It speaks to a high degree of trust between the two of them that is promising, especially given the genre’s tendency to rely on hidden knowledge and secrets among teammates for plot-driving misunderstandings. A great vote of confidence for Dalinar to say he can count on Kaladin for both nuance and strong decision making. You go Dadlinar! I like that Syl was the one to speak up and accept the mission. Especially given how daunted Kaladin felt. I don't remember which cloak Kaladin is talking about here, though it sounds like a significant moment after he became Dalinar’s bodyguard. However, the idea of House Stormblessed being a new institution as part of the light-eyed power structure forced me to double take. It's got to be throwing Kaladin for an even bigger loop. Is Dalinar about to adopt Kaladin? Shallan’s musings on the topic in the previous chapter in context of her marriage to Adolin were very sweet in that her assumption of the Kholin name was an indicator of her feeling wanted by a family for the first time. That's not the case with Kaladin, but Shallan’s experience does indicate that inheritance and family lines are something Dalinar is thinking about. I hadn't realized that Renarin and Adolin had made such categorical refusals. Interesting distinction that Jasnah is only queen of Alethkar.. Dalinar is looking for an heir to the throne of the tower. Dalinar: “Renarin saw the future and noped right out of the kingship. So there's an open position for you that's definitely not burdened with any red flags. Probably no drawbacks at all, despite the precogs reacting with previously strong aversion.” There's the title drop. Nobility, as in that thing Kaladin hates but is being elevated to anyway to become the heir apparent to Urithiru and leadership of the Knights Radiant. Dami is someone we've never seen onscreen before, I'm pretty certain. A stoneward from Rira, who is apparently now the third person to reach the fourth ideal. Apparently a good dude, to be next in line after Kaladin. Kal says no, Dalinar says “sure, that's fine, but let's not make that choice official yet. Think about it until you get back.” Because he knows how this goes.

This is my reaction blog for Wind and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Note: I just realized that I’ve been calling the book Winds and Truth (plural) when it’s really just Wind. That’s important given what we have learned about Wind the being, so I’ll adjust going forward and correct the overall blog title. Title: What Might Still Be First thought is a reference to Testament, second thought is something to do with Shallan’s aspects. Probably it’s none of those. Icons: Ash We got lightweaving to do. Epigraph: The author considers herself both a historian and a philosopher. It doesn’t sound like Jasnah, though (to whatever extent I remember her tone after however long it’s been). A surrealist drawing of the vertiginous experience of Lasting Integrity’s impossible architecture? Yes please! I doubt we’ll actually get that sketchbook page, but I’ll hold out hope. Strange faces are sneaking into her art. The last time that happened she ended up faking a suicide attempt as she fled from Pattern and the other cryptics surrounding her. But now she’s in Shadesmar, so what could she be seeing? One unlikely alternative is the way faces showed up all over the place in the landscape of the White Sand graphic novels, which would indicate an influence from Autonomy or one of her avatars. I would be surprised if that were the case here, though. Not that Bavadin wouldn’t have a strong motivation to push on events here, but it would require an overextension of power and high risk of being caught and injured if she involved herself so directly in Odium’s affairs. Hm, the first face she mentions is a singer with a crown-like carapace, similar to the face I identified as an unhappy honorspren in the mandra sketch. Now that’s interesting. It’s the same face repeated across multiple drawings, not a variety of faces showing up. And she mentions the warping of her drawing at Urithiru when Re-Shephir was infesting the tower. I sadly don’t remember the details of how that manifested in her drawings outside of the vortex sucking in the tower in the one image we got from the sketchbook. I ought to go reread those sections at some point soon. The rest of their party, or at least Shallan’s agents have been granted access to Lasting Integrity. That's not entirely a surprise, but it speaks to a shift in the politics of the city, and also I had been under the impression that the rest of the envoy had moved on rather than simply waiting outside the walls. You know, it hadn't occurred to me that the windrunners coming to Lasting Integrity would be bringing honorspren in direct opposition to the locals who are arguing to remain unbonded. Not the most politically delicate of choices, but with the skybreakers working in opposition, there really wasn't another option for fast travel. At least not without using elsecallers who don't seem to be a well-used resource at this point. Perhaps their numbers are too low? Shallan is bemoaning the low turnout of volunteer honorspren convinced by Adolin’s arguments. I personally am surprised they got any. Twelve is a decent start, especially given that it’s unreasonable to expect every member of a population to sign up for the war. Your entire people cannot be warriors, presumably even if you are cognitive entities. Even the perpetually warring Alethi need support staff and camp followers and all the infrastructure that enables warfare. Does Radiant emerge here because Notum addressed her as Radiant Kholin, or because they're speaking of warfare which is one of Radiant’s areas of excellence? Some other reason? It doesn't make sense to me why the honorspren who are willing to be bonded are passing to the physical realm here at Lasting Integrity when they could instead join the group about to return to Urithiru where most of the candidate squires are present. Why risk the extra time and distance on a journey through the physical realm where they might forget themselves? Notum has decided to join the candidate spren. However, he loathes the idea of bonding with a human. Does that mean we'll get a singer windrunner, or rather a listener windrunner, from Venli’s people? Oh, looks like Shallan has talked him into staying at Lasting Integrity to argue the cause of cooperation, rather than pursuing a bond he doesn't want. Smart to leave an edgedancer as the designated ambassador. Their listening skills will be a boon for that task. I'm curious about Shallan’s choice to leave a lightweaver agent. What would she task them with in this case? And who would she pick? Why can't the seon travel (well/quickly)? Is it because of the injury it sustained from being trapped inside Mraize’s radio box? Or is it something intrinsic to the seon’s nature? When Shallan says that she'll bring Mishram back to “The Bondsmith” it's interesting to me that she uses the singular. Well, maybe not. Navani’s bond is recent enough that even assuming they've heard about it from Wit, it won't be natural yet for her to automatically think of Navani as a second Bondsmith. I'm interested to see how having multiple active bondsmiths plays out in the leadership of the Radiant community. That is complicated by the fact that two of them are currently married, but the dynamics will be interesting anyway. The creationspren looking like lights on the cognitive side feels off to me. Have we seen them before? I'm pretty sure we did at the lighthouse, but I don't recall their description. Little floating lights are less physical than I have come to expect of Spren in shadesmar. That they can apparently still change shape on this side, even if that’s not their usual behavior, is interesting to note as well. Huh. According to Kelek, Shallan’s drawing ability where she captures an aspect of a person as they could be, their potential, is a result of drawing on Fortune. Presumably that's similar to what's done by feruchemists. That's something she did with the mercenaries way back in book two and has repeated several times, though I don't recall all the instances. While I'm interested in this, it also starts to set a concerning pattern. Kaladin has an extra connection to the Wind, a power and entity that were barely hinted at in the earlier books but now shows up to mark him as additionally super special. Shallan now has an extra connection to Fortune with the same result. Too many of these sorts of reveals will start to annoy me with questions like “why was this deliberately hidden in the world building up to this point?” So far it hasn’t reached problematic levels, and I do generally love when another layer of lore is folded back to reveal more beneath, but at some point you have to ask why certain aspects remained obscure despite all of the exploration that came before. Whoowee that's a useful word. “Imbricated.” I like it. Presumably that's the same effect that occurs between twinborn with paired metal abilities on Scadrial: there's two separate abilities and then the resonance that results from their interaction. In that case Shallan’s bonding of two spren creates an extra affinity through the overlap of those bonds. It makes me wonder if we'll see multiple bonds to disparate spring types in the future back five books. The face she's drawing is Mishram. I had thought that she got different faces on different days, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Neat that she has some sort of guide to or understanding of the spiritual realm. That will become essential as she continues her quest to find the unmade. It’s possible that this is because both her bonds are to the same type of spren. Rather than imbrication giving her an extra power, as one might expect from the interaction of distinct power sets, her dual cryptic bonds give her a deeper connection to the spiritual realm. Kelek suggests that Shallan talk to Wit, who he names as Midius, because he's an expert in drawing on Fortune–which I now recall is the same force that tells Wit where and when he's supposed to be for narrative significance. Also, the archaic word fantdodic is an interesting one. Not one I've encountered before, but the dictionary confirms it's real and archaic in English. This lends some verisimilitude to the skillful translation of rosharan languages. Shiosak is an interesting name, I wonder where it's from? Oh he's Veden. Good reminder that the squires are being drawn from across the allied nations at the tower. Haha, Adolin is making them carry Gallant all the way to Urithiru.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Title: Listening Either Edgedancers or actual Listeners make sense here, but my actual prediction is to do with Navani listening to the Sibling and working to accommodate them. Icons: Jester Worldhoppers in the house. This is most commonly Wit, but my prediction/hope is that this is going to be a surprise appearance by Zahel, since the prologue thrust his importance in our faces. Epigraph: “I have read...” means this isn’t Kaladin. If they’re Vorin it’s probably a woman, and if not then we don’t have many candidates that we’ve already met. As for the claim that the Wind often spoke to human and singer alike… where are you getting these records, lady? From the historical vaults in Urithiru, possibly, or maybe out in Shinovar. Otherwise that’s a history that hasn’t been known for a long time. The author suggests that the Wind stopped talking because she was feared, or because people worshipped the Storm instead. Note the capitalization. Is this referring to the Stormfather, a figure of worship across much of Roshar? That would lend credence to the idea that the Wind is some counterpart to him. But if it’s not him, then there’s another entity associated with Storms that we have yet to meet, and I feel like piling in more (previously unknown) super-powerful spren is going to strain credulity sooner than later. His memory of nearly falling to his hate after Teft died is painful enough to draw actual painspren. Ick. All the spren are attracted to the Sibling’s bond with Navani. Is it the Towerlight itself seeping through? Or does something else draw them? It’s Wit, not Zahel. And he’s…reading a romance novel? I mean, no judgement here, but seems an odd choice when he’s on a close deadline. Wit’s insistence on teaching Kaladin to play the flute (a wind instrument) when the Wind is speaking to him smacks of a very convenient skill. If this is how he ends up communing with his new elemental friend, I hope it’s cool enough to overcome how silly and contrived the idea feels at the moment. Navani gifting clock after clock to Dalinar in hopes of making him keep to a schedule is funny to me. Good luck reining him in, Your Highness. Why did Kaladin’s armor spren follow the Aon out of the room when Wit directed it? Were they following his instructions or just following a nearby “spren” of interest? I was about to say that rhythms must exist cosmere-wide, but this exchange actually doesn’t do anything to claim that any originate outside the Rosharan system, only that they can propagate that far. I would suppose them to be a universal phenomenon, but the fact that they haven’t appeared in any other magic systems (think aviar, kandra, aons, all of which are invested beings who ought to be sensitive to such things) suggests pretty strongly that they are local. It’s also interesting that the tones of the gods were used in the music, going back to Navani’s harmonization practice with Raboniel in the last book. I expect music could be really interesting (though also more complicated) when you live on a planet where certain notes and rhythms have supernatural significance and magical effects when they resonate through the world. Oh, Wit’s actually going to talk directly about the Wind. Wasn’t expecting him to be direct about this. The Wind is an ancient spren from before the shattering. Apparently the Nightwatcher is too, which is a surprise. I thought “Old Magic” was just talking about something obscure, not something actually older than the gods invested here. I was nearly positive that Nightwatcher was a creation of Cultivation, not an ancient spren that had been nurtured into her current form as Wit just informed us. Wit claims that the music is just for Kaladin’s own appreciation and expression of art. That can be true while also helping him to listen better to the Wind, though. Oh, he even says why it’s important a few lines later: Wit is feeling pessimistic about his chances to survive? His memory of the confrontation with Odium still has him thinking he manipulated Rayse, so i’m not sure why he thinks things aren’t going to plan. Oh, he figured out that something went wrong, but has no idea what it was. Wit is unexpectedly irate about the Passions. I mean, I agree with what he’s saying, even if that feels reductionist toward the actual Thaylen religion that has had thousands of years to grow out of the teachings Odium first gave. And yet, he’s usually so irreverent about things that it seems odd for this topic to trigger his anger so powerfully. The quickness with which he transitions from angerspren to gloryspren reminds me that he just said he’s capable with a lie. His outrage and (ironically) passion feel manufactured. He’s citing Sazed now, with great respect. I approve, except for “Hope I get to meet him someday.” Sir, you spent years on Scadrial hiding from the man. Those are not the actions of someone hoping to meet their host. We knew that Kal was revolutionizing mental healthcare, but Wit is claiming he’s actually inventing therapy for the first time on Roshar. I find that hard to believe unless you are defining therapy very narrowly. According to Wit, Ishar won’t be able to help with the Champion contest, and Kaladin won’t be coming back in time to help either, though his mission is still important. Haha! Wit was making Dalinar wait, not the other way around.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Title: The Cost of Heroism Combined with the icon of Kelek and that this is a Shallan chapter, I assume we’re getting a conversation with Restares. Icon: Kelek Epigraph: Okay, this one is pretty informative. The epigraphs are speaking of very recent events (Taravangian’s displacement of Rayse as Odium’s vessel) so the text must be a new work. THe Wind is apparently going to vanish at some point, which is a worrying bit of foreshadowing. SHe also is given feminine pronouns. Apparently she was somewhat impotent before and only regained her voice when the change in vessel occurred. The author (Kal?) speculates that the perspective of people considering the wind less of an enemy could have also accounted for the change, which strongly points at the Wind being a spren of some sort. Unmade? Something like Cusicesh? Hard to guess. Pattern is surprised that Shallan’s memories didn’t come back all at once, and he’s confused about Veil’s gone but not gone status. Apparently Shallan still hasn’t figured it all out either, but she’s got a sense for it. Veil is taking a backseat, still distinct as a viewpoint but not one who “fronts” in this plurality any more. I hesitate to say that this is hewing closer to real-world DID, because I’m not an expert there, but that’s the general gist I’m getting. Obviously Radiant is still a separate aspect with all the magical effects that implies. As usual, I’m really invested in Shallan’s mental landscape. Her healing breakthrough is apparently “I deserve understanding, not hatred,” which is a huge shift in mentality. I hope that she really does accept that deep down. In the last chapter she was expecting hatred from Testament. Hopefully the lack of condemnation there will help Shallan internalize the idea. The way Pattern savors the concept of human squishiness in body, mind, memory, and ideas, reminds me how much he loves lies. Is it the mutability he is attracted to? The potential for counterfactuals and contradictions? Or something else? The Davar family is a real mess, isn’t it. It’s tempting to blame the competing agendas of the Sons of Honor and Ghostbloods and whoever else had an interest in things, but yikes. There were problems there outside of secret societies. Shallan gives us a good high-level summary here: Mom and mystery man respond to her bonding of Testament with attempted murder, Shallan protects herself with Testament blade. In trauma she wrenches that bond and convinces herself it was a normal blade, burying her memories of her friend. She “retrieves” the Testament blade from Daddy Davar’s safe before searching out Jasnah. Ah, they’re talking to Wit, not to the Aon itself. Should have guessed that. Adolin is convinced Dalinar will be the champion, which is expected but we do have ten days for things to get complicated. The contest will take place at Urithiru, so the cover art is almost certainly of the tower. Already the most likely, but now it’s practically confirmed. And so Shallan and Adolin are getting picked up for a flight back to Urithiru. I stupidly forgot that was an option here in Shadesmar. Somehow I was expecting a trek. Especially since the map of their path in the previous book had them continuing south after Lasting Integrity. Maybe that was just the rest of the party that weren’t granted admittance? This conversation about the Ghostbloods and their expected reprisals against Shallan is a good opportunity to express my lingering bafflement about the group. The Scadrian chapter we met in Lost Metal operated very differently than Mraize and Iyatil have been running the Rosharan cell. Some of that can be blamed on the person they were recruiting: Marasi required a soft touch while Shallan is more of a secrets person so the carrot-and-stick approach was warranted. Part of it can also be attributed to the different location. Their stated mission is the protection of Scadrial, so it’s natural they would act differently on their home soil compared to behind enemy lines. However, the blackmail business Mraize has doing to recruit Shallan is still very opposed to the “we’re a crew, and crew trust each other” ethos that Kelsier tried to preach. Is Iyatil acting outside his preferred rules of engagement, or is the “crew” on war footing so their usual standards don’t apply? Shallan talks to Wit about Formless and asks for advice! That show of trust says a lot. Sure, she gets some standard platitudes about heroism and choices, which I would probably appreciate more if they didn’t sound rather cliche, but the important thing to me here is that she feels safe with Adolin, Wit, Pattern and Maya. Shallan is expecting to kill Mraize, and she’s okay with that, but she’s worried about how that will continue the pattern of killing her parents and mentor figures. Kelek, alone among the heralds, was involved in the planning and execution of the plan to capture Ba-Ado-Mishram. Supposedly he’s the only one alive who knows the details. Fortunately, Adolin is a convincing negotiator, and he’s telling us now. They made a flawless heliodor for the task. Heliodor is the gem associated with Ishar, patron of bondsmiths. Was it heliodor because of the connection to bonds? Because that’s the gap with no Voidbinding parallel? Could any polestone have worked? The prison gem is hidden in the Spiritual Realm? How did Melishi do that? I thought there were no locations there. Maya is talking! A lot! In regular conversations, even. Her recovery is going much better than I expected. Yay! Ah, so the Spiritual Realm’s weirdness full of distorted time and space was the point. In a place where causality and distance are fractured, navigating and finding something is a very daunting task. They think Mishram’s captivity is the cause of deadeyes? Without that, maybe the recreance would have been nonlethally painful? Huh. We obviously need to learn more about her and how she Connected to Roshar. I don’t buy that it’s a consequence of Honor’s death, because that should have been well after the False Desolation. The timeline doesn’t match up for that. It does bring up the possibility of vastly simplifying the recovery of the dead spren. Going Adolin’s route was never feasible at scale. If we can lower the barrier to revival, that’s worth doing for its own sake.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Title: Taking the Next Step Lots of things this could mean, I don’t have a good guess for which one it’s suggesting for this chapter Icon: Vedel Can I hope this means Lift will show up? Alternatively this could be about the attribute of healing, and Kal is going to start mending things more with Lirin and continue improving his mental health. Epigraph: Okay, the Wind is getting capital letters, and someone knows it personally. Pretty blatant after it spoke to Kaladin last chapter that this is going to be Important, and makes me think that the Wind and Truth title has a whole lot more significance that I initially gave it. While it could happen, I really don’t see Kaladin dictating a memoir, so for now I’m going to presume this is by someone else who also was chosen by the Wind. Whatever that actually means. Hm. Kaladin draws in and uses Towerlight for his surgebinding, and that light is constantly generated here in the tower. Very convenient for the defending forces, I’d say. Not a surprise that its character and intent results in a different feeling than stormlight. I expect this will be a good thing for his mental state. I do think it’s slightly odd that everything still runs on Towerlight with no involvement of Warlight after the near-complete corruption of the Sibling and all of Navani’s investigations. I buy it, but I’d have expected some lasting consequences. Kaladin being easily startled in his PTSD makes a lot of sense, but it does make me wonder if premodern warfare that doesn’t involve firearms or explosions would instill the same reaction to loud noises as we see in soldiers today. Just an idle thought. Nice, the colors are a code to show that she’s visible to everyone else. Good signal. And he has an internal Teft to grumble at him and give good advice. The real Teft would be glad of that. I suspect Oroden’s speech is just being represented as childish, but it is potentially revealing of the Alethi language. Kaladin became GaGadin, Syl come spin became Fyl come Fin. K→G is more obvious a step than L→G, though the tendency toward repeated sounds makes sense. S→F is not a shift I’d have expected. I can see it, but it’s a further stretch than I’d have thought. We know that Kh, J, and several other consonants are pronounced in ways that don’t match modern English. Maybe their S is breathier than I thought? Laughterspren. Have we seen those before? They look like “silvery minnows.” And the Tower’s revival is attracting spren of all kinds.Neat. “You are what I need” says the Wind. The blocks are floating for longer, too. Kaladin says it’s because the whole city is infused, so it makes sense that there would be less leakage from an infused item if the “air pressure” of investiture around it is high as well. Syl has adopted a glove on her safehand. Dungspren. Yes, that’s something a little kid would find interesting or funny, but do they actually exist? Syl doesn’t even answer the question. I’m assuming they don’t but maybe we’ll never know. Lirin and Hesina are working to revamp medical doctrine for Dalinar’s entire fighting force. That’s a step up in responsibility. Syl’s choice to be human-sized is an extra effort for her, in order to be treated more like a person, to be ignored less and respected more. Understandable, and something that’s probably important. Don’t really have much to unpack about it, though. The Wind is asking him to come find it wherever Dalinar is sending him, which is Shinovar. We know there’s an unmade there. What else might we find? Aw, Lirin gives Kal a hug, and they’re surrounded by joyspren. Very sweet.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Title: Unfamiliar Ground Possibly speaking about the new truce between Kaladin and the listeners under Leshwi and Venli? Icons: Pali Dare I hope for this to refer to Rlain’s new Truthwatcher status? Epigraph: Okay, first up we have the in-world book being titled Knights of Wind and Truth, but the Stormlight book is just the second half of that? I’m not complaining, but wasn’t the point to keep the palindromic initials? Why remove the K? As for the content, no real clues about the author. I presume for the moment that this is a recent book, similar to Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, and thus that the speaker is one of the new Radiants talking about the spren watching them. This is obviously a big assumption, but if it’s the case then I am very curious about the meaning behind the book’s title. Are they drawing a distinction between the Knights Radiant who followed the old pattern and the newer Knights of Truth that they want to promote? There’s an outside chance that this is authored by this book’s focus character Szeth, which… I dunno. These epigraphs are always a bit of a guessing game, and my track record is not great. And of course his first thought to being in a decent mood is that he doesn’t deserve to feel good after all the suffering in the tower that he failed to prevent. Hero/martyr complex is strong with this one. Wait a second. Kaladin already knows about the 10-day deadline? I guess the spanreeds are back to normal functionality. I wasn’t banking on instantaneous communication being available yet. Kaladin has already recused himself from the contest of champions. Good ground state to start with. There’s ten whole days for that decision to be tested, but I like his choice to relinquish responsibility. Kal in civilian clothes? That will be a switch. Just wait til Adolin gets back and can properly dress and accessorize this man. Oh, Kaladin prefers the uniform. Big surprise, that. Ha! Leyten keeps a whole rack of uniforms to replace Kaladin’s ruined ones since he gets in so many fights. That’s precious. A ten-hour lashing? Impressive. How much of that is due to the Sibling’s new bond and how much to the Fourth Ideal? Syl is getting into the fashion adventure too, now with more colors! She’s spending a lot more time at human size, which is an adjustment to my mental image. It also strikes me, after reading Dawnshard, just how much her choice to usually adopt a human form may be out of the norm. The Lopen is likely at the other end of the spectrum, but his spren Rua was constantly in the form of non-human creatures or inanimate objects, and rarely kept the same shape for long. Rua was also largely nonverbal. It was a good contrast, and a reminder now that Syl might be different from her people in a number of ways. Hm. Syl once managed to get room-sized, but that was her limit. Interesting data point. Kal is grinning? What is going on? It’s the end times! (Oh wait, it is. That joke fell flat.) That’s a good point, that if Dalinar joins Odium a lot of Radiants and other people are likely to follow him. I hadn’t considered that possible consequence. You tell him, Syl! Syl lost me with her “I’ll make silly faces at you” threat, but the “highbrow comedy” pun won me right back. His armor is apparently made of the same windspren every time, and they hang out near him. That makes sense, but I had kind of assumed it was more fluid than that. I’m even more surprised that the armor spren are described as laughing. Is it actually audible to him? Would it be to others? And the wind is still moving without them present? Is that just him having an effect? Uh, now the wind is talking to him? That’s weird. Who is this voice? Gut reaction is to say Tien, but that can’t be right, even with the whole vision and wooden horse thing from the end of the last book. The wind was pursuing Kaladin even as a child before any of the inciting incidents. And we’re being told to expect “the worst storm,” which is pretty ominous given that we already have a highstorm-everstorm clash to compare it to. I’ll also note that Syl is apparently dancing to one of the rhythms that the singers attune. She hasn’t shown an awareness or sensitivity to them in the past. Is that just a lack of it being shown, or has the strengthened bond brought her more in tune with them somehow? . . . . Oh, we get a Shallan perspective in this chapter, too. Unexpected. I can’t decide if this counts as superhero brooding. She’s standing on the top of a tower looking out across the landscape while thinking about her tragic backstory and her commitment to move forward and remake herself. It’s practically a Batman scene… except that the tone doesn’t match. It’s the otherworldly vista of Shadesmar and the esher-like architecture of Lasting Integrity below her, and this feels like a reflective, restful moment rather than an angsty one. I’m going to go with “not brooding.” She’s hanging out with Testament and Pattern together. Glad we’re following up on Testament, even if I’d forgotten that was the deadeye’s name. Pattern’s head “pulsed to a vibrant rhythm.” So soon after Syl showed her resonance with the rhythms, this sticks out. Has the movement of Pattern’s fractal lines ever been described as rhythmic or pulsing before? It’s in constant motion, but I don’t recall any time where a rhythm was noticed. Testament is physically weak, in contrast to Maya who was mentally distant. “Spren broke in different ways, it appeared. Just like people.” Pattern appreciating the little things in life. Shallan’s bond with Testament is damaged but not severed. No one knows if it can be healed because it is unprecedented. This is where the unfamiliar ground chapter title comes in, which was probably a better choice than “These numbers are perplexing…strangely irrational, in a sequence I do not understand.” As idioms go, that one is a bit awkward. A good reminder that the ancient radiants and their spren didn’t expect the Recreance to be lethal. The deadeye thing was a surprise to everyone. Shallan committing to heal Testament and to remember all the suppressed memories is sweet. I’m hoping for some clear answers about her past, and success in reviving her first friend.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Looks like we’re getting Kaladin and Shallan to start with. Not gonna lie, I’m more excited for seeing Navani in Kaladin’s sections than for the man himself. On the other hand, I am stoked to find out what’s going on with Shallan’s mental balance and with Maya. Shallan’s Sketchbook Part I And we get art right away! This feels less detailed than usual. A more hurried sketch? Or an effect of her merger with Veil? Probably just the first, but I’m madly speculating over here. It’s a madra. Mandra? Not sure I recall the correct spelling. It’s bound to come up. Such a weird physiology for this creature. Spren don’t have to follow the usual rules us physical beings do, of course. It’s nice to have an excuse for something truly fantastical. Very fun that the mandra is posing for Shallan to draw it. I don’t know what the perfect moment is. Maybe just the artful pose of the two creatures? Not likely. It’s more to be something between her and Adolin. That grumpy face in the bottom is almost certainly an honorspren from Lasting Integrity, but I couldn’t give them a name. Maybe they’ll get a mention once we get to Shallan’s perspective. That won’t be for at least a chapter though, since the icon of Chapter 1 looks to be Kaladin. This is a short entry with not much to analyze about the art, but I'll go ahead and post it separately so that the art can keep its own sections.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Alright, we’re into the book proper, now. Time for our final look at Gavilar’s final day, this time from the perspective of the man himself. It’s shocking to me how many secrets are left to reveal about the night in question after seeing so many different elements of the assassination and its participants. How much did Gavilar actually know, and what was he truly working toward? (The Sons of Honor still make very little sense to me, from the conflicting information we’ve gotten across these books.) What was the nature of his cooperation with the heralds, and why were so many of them present that night? What was up with his anti-light sphere? Honestly, my opinion of Gavilar is not positive in hardly any respect, and I totally judge the Stormfather for almost choosing him. I suspect that this prologue is going to try to make him sympathetic, but I gotta say, that’s going to be an uphill battle. Jumping into it, then: Title: To Live Yeah, love the irony. Off to a great start here. Icons: Jes Presumably a reference to the Stormfather and to Gavilar’s role as a leader, but Jezrien was also there that night and Szeth was using his blade, so there’s all sorts of reasons to put his icon at the top here. The Words will grant immortality, huh? You wanna check your notes on that? I’mma go out on a limb and suggest that you may have misinterpreted something from your visions. In fairness, if you see Aharietiam and then the Stormfather says he’s “seeking a new champion” it’s not a huge surprise that Gavilar would assume he’s talking about getting a new Herald rather than just a new Radiant. Arrogant in the extreme, but Gavilar isn’t really known for his humility. Yes, Gavilar, throwing oaths at the wall to see if they stick is the right way to interact with a being of Honor. (eyeroll) Why did Stormfather bother with this piece of work? I have a hard time believing he’s the one who resonated most with Tanavast’s intent. Gavilar secretly learning to read to heretically pursue mysteries is a surprise, but it shouldn’t be. More surprising is that he latched onto Nohadon’s work. Well, maybe not. With a title that screams “How to be a King and conquer the world,” it’s no wonder he chose it as his handbook. Gavilar casually tossing the honorblades around like junk in the vision is a great image, and a nice way to show his attitude. Interesting that Chana’s sword matches the artistic depiction with the bifurcated tuning fork blade. Oh, so he’s refrained from asking any of the important clarifying questions because they are too irreverent and he’s worried they’ll disqualify him. Makes sense, even if the perpetuated misunderstandings feel ridiculously large to have lasted as long as they seem to have done. Interesting. In order to discover the Words, he wants to find Urithiru, so he looks for an Oathgate, which takes him to the shattered plains. It is exactly backwards compared to what our protagonists have done: Kaladin and Dalinar have made their Words into a journey, taking them to all of those places, while to Gavilar the Words were the destination to which he could not find the path. A very neat and rather meta way to yet again present the fundamental premise of the series. Oh, Stormfather outright says “you’re making too many assumptions. I never said you’d get to be a herald.” Not that it dissuades Gavilar from his belief. Gavilar guesses and quotes a passage with essentially the same meaning as the first oath, but it doesn’t count. Good to know that just stumbling on the right ideal isn’t sufficient. I mean, we knew that, but I was kinda worried about how Gavilar was going about it. Gavilar’s treatment of Dalinar is so, so scummy. We already saw how his marriage to Navani was abusive, but Dalinar’s devotion to his brother led me to think that there was some real affection and camaraderie there. Maybe there was, at one point, but this interaction makes me doubt that. Gavilar is a manipulator, first to last. Interesting that Dalinar claims to feel a kinship with the parshendi. What is he sensing in these early days? Gavilar is expecting his meeting with Restares, but is also in contact with Thaidakar? He continues to be more well informed than I expect. I keep thinking that his misunderstandings mean he’s missing big pieces of the picture and therefore that he’s some sort of patsy for the other figures of the cosmere, but he’s definitely trying to wheedle everything he can out of the people around him. Ooo, the “Follow the Codes” line being a manipulation to get Dalinar drunk? Did not expect that at all. Dalinar’s guilt later is all the more tragic. Did we know that Tearim was a member of the Sons of Honor? I don’t think so, but I could well have just forgotten. Ah, and Gavilar claims to have outgrown the Sons’ plans. This is helpful in that it clarifies Gavilar was explicitly working at cross purposes with them, presumably without their knowledge. It also says that the organization likely predated him by quite a time span. Even back then Stormfather saw the potential in Dalinar. So why is he slumming about with Gavilar? Ooo, Thaidakar is in the house. I didn’t think he’d been present. “Always another secret” indeed. I can’t wait to find out if he played a role in setting up the assassination. Huh. So the Ghostbloods were after Kelek specifically for all this time. Why him, out of all the heralds? My takeaway here is that the Ghostbloods were trying to make the new Desolation more predictable so they could use it for their purposes, not just that they were trying to help it along. I will say that speaking by Aon radio is a pretty spooky trick when the person you’re calling doesn’t know how it works. It does make sense now how Kel could get here when he’s bound to Scadrial: he didn’t, he just arranged for a video chat. Interesting ordering of the names there: “Me, Ialai, Navani, and Torol.” Tell me, Gavilar, how close were you with Ialai, hm? How much does he actually know about the mechanics of the heralds and desolations? You know what, this actually makes a ton of sense now. Of course he’s encouraging people to find ways to kickstart the desolations. The more often those happen, the less time he has to spend on Braize in time out. To get the most out of immortality you just need to plunge the planet into constant warfare. Hardly even an inconvenience from an Alethi king’s perspective, especially one who despises other people. Hm. Gavilar had met with Restares before, but had never spoken to Nale and didn’t know who he was. Does he even know for sure that Restares is Kelek? “The newest incarnation of the Sons of Honor.” Okay, maybe I’m wrong. If Gavilar has known multiple iterations of the group, he’s presumably also partly behind it. My earlier conclusion about it predating him would be wrong. Ah, nope. Restares is in charge of the Sons of Honor, and until this moment Gavilar hasn’t considered him an important individual. Weird. I thought for sure he was aware. Important clarification! Restares founded the Sons of Honor to bring back the behaviors of the Knights Radiant, not their powers. He specifically does not want the powers to return because they could cause another Return. Obviously the group’s aims become confused thanks to Gavilar (and presumably others) but this starting point is a key bit of info. Oh, I see. Kelek knows where Mishram is, and she’s Kelsier’s true target. Glad to know that, finally. We’ve had a whole lot of smoke and mirrors obscuring that goal. Seems like Kelek is also one to be easily intimidated into revealing the secret if they get a chance to question him. Gavilar has a “secret scholar” from another world. This is obviously Zahel (unless there’s a sneaky bait and switch happening, which I don’t expect) but it’s a twist because I did not expect Gavilar to know of his nature, nor did I think Zahel would help with this project. He seems so placidly inactive in the background, supposedly running from his past. Is he actually working towards a goal here on Roshar? Is he yet another secret faction moving in the shadows?! Hm. Gavilar believes Restares is pretending to be a herald, and thus that Nale is also pretending. Yes, I’ll bet Thaidakar is interested in how to transport herald-like beings between planets. Interesting that Gavilar is working on this project for both Restares and Kelsier without cottoning on to their purpose. The connection to the Stormfather is strong and has progressed a long way if he’s forming avatars to speak to Gavilar willy nilly. You make it sound like this was an attempted usurpation. Restares’ phrasing was similar. Is this misleading, or was our previous understanding of the False Desolation incorrect? I had thought that she was trying to perpetuate Odium’s goals in a new way, not assume (part of) his mantle. Gavilar got his new heating fabrial from “the scholar Rushur Kris”. Surely Khriss isn’t his secret scholar from another world. I don’t doubt that she’s here, but I still think he was referring to Zahel earlier. Checked the wording, and yes, the scholar is referred to as a man from another world. Not Khriss. What do you mean “if that conniving Axindweth eluded his grasp…” I thought that if anyone was working hand-in-glove with Gavilar it would be the woman who delivered a voidspren to Venli. I guess not. More cross currents and competing interests. Yep, it’s Zahel, and Gavilar somehow knows him as Vasher. Not only that, but he’s created anti-Voidlight. Definite confirmation that the man is working on his own agenda here. That would have been enough on its own, but the fact that he hasn’t done anything with it in the last seven years? That Navani had to do an extended team-up episode with Raboniel to rediscover this thing that Vasher can apparently do without any of the tools Navani developed? Yeah, he’s got to have a good reason for keeping that to himself after he’d already shared it with Gavilar. Something is really screwy here. Imagine that. A woman actually contributing something of value. Preposterous. Surely it’s a one-off and you lose nothing by cutting her out of your life. Uhuh. I don’t buy that Gavilar was anywhere close to the Words. That is not the same Intent. Sorry Stormfather, you’ve got a broken Radiant-chooser. Vargo! And Taravangian enters the stage. I would not have thought that Mr. T was only introduced to Gavilar in these final hours. Bizarre. I got the impression they’d interacted a whole lot more than that. Fascinating that he approached Gavilar by way of the Sons of Honor, introduced through Amaram, no less. Taravangian, “a man of little consequence or aptitude.” I love how terrible Gavilar is at judging people. We obviously have the benefit of hindsight, but over and over again he refuses to see anyone’s abilities or strengths. Dalinar, Navani, Restares, the Stormfather himself, and now Taravangian. It’s a pattern of incredible hubris, and each new scene makes me more glad that Gavilar doesn’t survive to sunrise to poison the rest of the cast with his self-centered manipulations. Amaram’s apparent desire to control the singers lends a smidgen of weight to his possession by Yelig-nar in Oathbringer. If we’d gotten this bit of the storyline ahead of time and seen it developed more, I wouldn’t have been nearly as annoyed at that plot element. Amaram’s interest in Jasnah is, at least according to Gavilar, purely down to her status as heir (or rather future wife to the heir) to the throne. I can’t decide if that’s Gavilar projecting a thirst for power onto Meridas or if his advances were really as one dimensional as that. Gavilar is expecting “The Everstorm. The Night of Sorrows.” Seems like the Stormfather has been quite a bit more forthcoming to him than to Dalinar. Ooo, spooky. Those were the words of Vargo’s mother’s death rattle. Precogs are freaky, I tell you what. It’s becoming harder and harder to tease apart whose hand is moving the pieces. Cultivation, Moelach, Odium, Stormfather, all pushing over dominoes. Wow. That’s sure a phrase to inspire the future author of the Diagram…and the future Odium. Gavilar is leaving a legacy after all, even if few will attribute much of it to him. And wonder of wonders, here we have an honest conversation between Gavilar and Stormfather. Stormfather doesn’t regret choosing Gavilar, but thinks he made mistakes in how he approached the potential champion. Possible, but I still think the initial choice was weird. Gavilar freely admits to his plan to let the Desolations continue nonstop so he doesn’t have to spend any time on Braize. Who needs to honor what the Oathpact was for? Just use the effects for your own benefit. And he easily explains his Alethi glorification of war. No reason to stop one, ever. Stormfather about to explain that it’s the Intent that’s missing, not the Words, but he’s interrupted by Szeth. Wait, no. Not by Szeth. He’s somehow in pain. By the death of a Herald? Who?! How? I’m confused. My initial thought was that it was Taln’s breaking, but it wouldn’t take him literal years to reach Roshar again, and it wouldn’t be described as a death. Who could it have been? I thought we had confirmed sightings of all of the Heralds in the other books. If they died, they wouldn’t have been available for that without going to Braize and returning, which would have triggered the desolation. Unless by abandoning the Oathpact they are no longer bound? What is the Stormfather hiding? Most likely would be he’s hiding from the Heralds that they are no longer bound, if that’s true. Or he could be hiding the weakness of the Oathpact from the Fused/Unmade? Such a frustratingly vague statement! I love the first part of that simile, about mistaken assumptions being so far off from the hidden truths. It’s a good line by itself, and feels like something Brandon put in aimed at us fans. But then he loses me on the path bit. I’m not sure the cartography makes sense the way he’s said that. And suddenly the Stormfather shifts to his ALL CAPS voice to say he’s abandoning Gavilar to be assassinated. An interesting shift. You know, I don’t think Dalinar ever got the small italics version of a Stormfather conversation. It was ALL CAPS, ALL THE TIME for him. Gavilar is stunned that Restares is really a herald, that spren can lie, that there are things he doesn’t know. Why would Thaidakar killing Gavilar be “too late.” Just because he warned Restares? There was nothing else that Gavilar was denying the Ghostbloods, as far as we know. I like that he recognizes the Honorblade Szeth uses. Oh, he was trying to pass the sphere to the Stormfather, not to Szeth. That’s an unexpected misunderstanding. And Gavilar realizes how much he messed up, tries at the last moment to pass the Radiant candidacy to Dalinar. Stormfather is having none of it, though. “I’ll never trust your family again.” Well. That was indeed a jam-packed prologue full of reveals. I was expecting more about Liss and Aesudan, rather than a prolonged conversation with the Stormfather. I was surprised at how uninformed Gavilar was in some areas while having access to a lot of important information. At the end of the day, though, I’m primarily glad to finally have a better grasp on some of the undercurrents driving the Sons of Honor and the Ghostbloods.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. Endpages Wait a minute. Wait just a minute! What the what? This is the Nightwatcher standing by Cultivation. This is not a herald, this is one of the gods. Presumably then we have another one on the front. Surely not Odium, that does not match his description. Is this honor? Is this Tanavast? Checking the illustration list, yes to both. Honor and Cultivation are accompanied here by Talenel and Battah. Okay, if I’d taken a moment to think about it I would have remembered that we have had eight heralds already, so I might have expected the gods to accompany them in our portraiture, but somehow I completely forgot about that. There’s lots to say about each of these pictures, and I'm particularly excited about how much the nightwatcher resembles some of the fan art we saw after book 3. In fact, I'm going to start with Cultivation because that picture is the one I am most excited about. Cultivation Obviously the first thing I do, after getting over my initial excitement, is to look for evidence of her draconic nature. I see suggestions of it in the form of the vines trailing behind her in a shape slightly reminiscent of a tale, as well as the way the mist from the night watcher is flanking her sides in the vague suggestion of wings. It’s subtle, but unless my my own wishful thinking is getting away from me, I believe the artist chose to represent hints of her true form in this depiction. Had to quickly double check her name on the coppermind (thank you, arcanists, for the time machine feature!). The name we know for Cultivation’s vessel is Koravellium Avast, which I’ll shorten to Kora here. Looking next at the environment surrounding Kora, there are life spren dotting the page and I love the glow that they provide along with a real sense of depth. The flower petals and vines and trees all show great affinity with her domain of cultivation and life. The backlight and halo effect push that traditional depiction of divinity, while at the same time she's very physically present. Her stature is imposing while also being welcoming, in a way that she appears strong and maternal. Her hands seem to be in an act of either bestowal or creation but also offering welcome. The glowing green tinge in her eyes is eerie and contributes to the impression of otherworldliness. I like how physically real she seems with the teased hair and very human form, which contrasts prominently with the ethereal nature of the Nightwatcher in the foreground. The Nightwatcher is very spooky and other, and remains imposing on her own. Notably, Cultivation does not wear a glove to cover her safe hand. This is in direct contrast to Battah on the facing page. I will need to look at the previous artwork some of which depicted covered versus uncovered safe hands to possibly speculate about the origin of that tradition. I recall Chana did not wear one, but Vedel did. Looking again at the other female heralds, Pali and Ash both had their safehands obscured in their portraits wither with a glove or a sleeve. Looks like Chana is the exception for some reason, but not unique since Kora/Cultivation here is also not hewing to Vorin sensibilities. Battah Obviously the first thing to notice here is the string of four bird skulls pain from her belt sash. At first I was thinking the numerology matched, but no, Battah is associated with the number seven, not four. More importantly, why birds? We know that “chickens” are neither widespread nor numerous here on Roshar. As the patron of elsecallers, I wonder if images for imagery a flight and death are meaningful here. The regal pose and then diadem on her forehead definitely evoke a sense of nobility. One hand is covered in accordance with Vorin sensibilities, and as mentioned earlier may help us speculate about the origins of that cultural tradition. The other hand holds a branch of leaves with perhaps soul casting implications? More obviously appropriate to the elsecallers, the stars in her dress and cape make me think of the beads in shadesmar and the potential for travel through the cognitive realm. The moon behind her is large and prominent, I believe the purple one is Salas? Confirmation needed. I don't know what symbolic significance each moon has, but it is interesting that one of them would be associated with her particularly. Ah, yes I was right about the violet moon being Salas. Hard to believe I actually remembered that correctly. Salas is also the smallest of the moons, so the size here is even more exaggerated. Hm, I also just confirmed that the color associated with her symbol in the Double Eye chart and the 7th gas giant in the system chart are more of a turquoise hue, quite different from the violet moon behind her. The association with Salas is not a simple matter of color correspondence. (Her gem of zircon comes in many colors on earth, but presumably is also turquoise-ish in its polestone variety.) It appears she's standing on a liquid or sea. Is that intended to be the physical ocean? Or perhaps the bead ocean in the cognitive realm? Many questions. The clouds in the sky have a very physical-realm form, which limits how much cognitive symbolism should be assumed. Taln Now this is a heroic pose. The burning sword, stalwart demeanor, and determined expression fit the patron of the Stonewards, as well as the man who withstood Damnation for a thousand years. He seems to be physically emerging from the rock behind him… or perhaps it is billowing smoke? It could well be either given the surges of cohesion and tension, though the more I look at it the more I’m inclined to go with smoke. The way the shadow creeps around his feet at the bottom gives it a particularly ominous feeling, and while the texture makes it look like smoke, it could also be striations of rock. Those pillars behind him, however, are extremely disturbing. There are many bodies in apparent pain, symbolizing the torment of Braize–whether of the heralds themselves or of those they were forced to see tortured around them. Kaladin’s visions in Braize give just a few hints about what Damnation entailed. I do think it's interesting that he has a scarf or tassel of some kind descending from his pauldrons. It has the glyph of stonewards printed upon it, just like the symbol in the stone step at his feet. It's a very visually striking accent to the armor that drives home this is a man of importance, not simply a warrior. The embers dancing through the smoke around him are presumably the stoneward spren, though I don't remember what they're called at the moment. I'll have to double-check the art from book 4. Um, nope. That was wrong. Peakspren are the ones that look like stone golems in the physical realm, and have no similarity to these motes of flame. I note the glyph for number nine at his feet, which is the expected numerology. I have no idea what the other characters on the face of that step are meant to show. I suspect that these are not transliterated as we see in the other internal art, but rather intended to be genuine Rosharan language. As such it is unlikely to be decipherable, but I look forward to seeing attempts by other fans in case it is. Honor Tanavast! I shouldn't be surprised that his characteristic color is blue, but I suppose I am to an extent. Or perhaps it’s not–those are more likely wind or honor spread passing through the gem (sapphire?) in front of him. That brings up a host of questions about the interrelation between gems and spren, especially given that modern fabrials are not reflective of past technology. His clothing is very billowy, especially in the legs and sleeves. It makes me wonder whether this is a Rosharan fashion, or instead something from his homeworld with received tradition causing the art to depict it with some accuracy. He has almost elegant features, if a rather forbidding expression. The long flowing white hair seems to be blown in the wind. I'm also slightly surprised to see the lightning behind him matches in color to that of the everstorm on the front cover. Well, perhaps it's not a perfect match. This is more purple than pink or red. Of special note though, is the shattered stone beneath and around him. Is this a reference to Ashyn’s destruction, which would have been the point at which humanity first encountered him? That feels like a stretch. Is it a reference to the power of the highstorms? Or more symbolically, does it indicate the way that he and his power were shattered? Is it both? It does appear that he is surrounded by circular clouds as though in the eye of a storm or the center beat of the high storm. I'm very excited to have these depictions Of Honor and Cultivation along with their heralds. Front matter Acknowledgments Wow, that's a lot of artists! I only recognize about half of those names. I'm excited for more of the wonderful artwork that sets this series apart. Peter is “inviting” this time. I note the DID and amputee/prosthetics experts. Glad to see them acknowledged. Those are some of my favorite parts of these books, and I'm glad Brandon makes the effort to get them right. Table of contents Now this is a departure from form. We have interludes between each of the 10 days rather than the five parts as in the previous books. We'll have to wait and see whether that means more interludes or simply more spaced out. It is notable that the 10 days are so explicitly marked out from each other. This will be interesting, given the way Brandon's cast will be splitting up across many locales, and their various climaxes and development will be divorced from each other. In the past time passed faster or slower narratively for groups in different places so that the climaxes could be moved around to fit Brandon’s desired narrative flow. That will be harder to do with such strictly forced chronology. From a structure perspective it makes for some complications on the writing side, without the option to desynchronize some of those storylines. I look forward to seeing how Brandon juggles that. Map The map appears to be identical to that from the previous book. Not a surprise given that that follows directly and has not had time to skip in which borders or other features would change.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. I discovered when reviewing my previous blog that the links I created at the time to the artwork hosted on Brandon’s site are now broken. Dragonsteel continues to host the artwork from the books, but I don’t have confidence in those addresses remaining static, so I’ll refrain from linking the official art and simply trust that you have a hard copy to reference or can find it online. Cover Art Another wonderful cover by Michael Whelan. The first thing that draws my eye are the gemstones. There are obviously more than 10 polestones arranged at the circumference of the platform. At least 15 are visible, with several possibly hidden behind the rocks. This suggests an arrangement of 20 but the colors are not necessarily going in the predicted sequence to match the double-eye arrangement. Yes, after checking it seems that the colors that occur more than once are accompanied by different neighbors at their two positions, so it is nothing so simple as an ordered sequence of the herald’s numerology. (I suspect no significance to the sequence depicted beyond aesthetics.) The next thing that draws the eye is the shining path of the sun reflected along the bottom of the Everstorm. This harks to the cloudy pathways observed in Shadesmar sky, and while probably just a visual parallel, it also is possible the Dalinar is opening a singularity at this point. The pink/red colored lightning of the Everstorm is visually striking (pun only slightly intended). This is presumably taking place on top of the tower at Urithiru. If this is the case, that would necessitate artistic license as we know from book four that the storms never crest the top of the tower and if Dalinar is standing at the top of it then he would be looking down at the clouds rather than up. It could certainly be a separate location. The snowy peaks suggest the mountain range around the tower, and it seems unlikely that they would move to the Horneater Peaks. It's tempting to say it could also be the Misted Mountains east of Shinovar, given that people's reverence for bare rock. However, the rockbuds and related flora appearing in the foreground–especially across the spine of the book–make that seem very unlikely. The colors of the storm matching to the reflected sunlight across the snow and to the gems and rockbuds…it's beautiful. As for Dalinar himself, I think it's significant that he's holding a book in his hand. Could this be Nohadon’s Way of Kings? Dalinar’s own authored manuscript of Oathbringer? A separate book? Or perhaps the book’s presence is just artistic license? I do like that even when seen from behind, Dalinar’s age is shown off by the silver hair and the stance he takes. He's much less prominent in terms of size, or canvas real estate then Jasnah was in Oathbringer. I like the way that choice pushes the sense of scale to show the larger size of the problem he's confronting. I do not fully love the prominence of the Kholin glyph on his back even though it's accurate and I'm usually a big fan of the in-world iconography and the textual systems. It just visually feels slightly distracting. That’s just a knee-jerk reaction, though, and I do appreciate the accuracy. On that note, though, I presume the shoulder patch is the bondsmith symbol, yes? Would Dalinar actually wear something like that? I guess I could see him making that choice. Well done, Michael Whelan! Overall this cover does an excellent job of tying all five stormlight books into a cohesive set. I will hope for the back five books to also benefit from this same artist, but if that’s not the case I’m happy with what the front five have received. Rear cover copy Ah yes, the sleepless. As a reminder, Brandon insisted that these back cover blurbs be actual in-world text rather than publisher hype, and this is one of the few windows we have into the machinations and viewpoint of the sleepless. Opening line: “I wonder if we should have done more.” Obviously the answer is yes, because the sleepless have been extremely hands-off. Presumably they could have done a great deal more to influence events to this point, and with the benefit of an outside perspective and hindsight, it’s easy to think of key points that intervention could have made an important difference. However, we learned in Dawnshard that the importance of their mission certainly extends beyond the relatively provincial concerns of Roshar and the local planets. I can easily understand why their priorities would clash with intervening more directly. Wait. “We have what we wanted?” Since when were the sleepless pushing for the return of surgebinding? That's hardly the impression that I got from their earlier interactions. Wait a minute, I just realized that this individual is in places speaking personally with the pronoun “I” rather than “we”. All of the other back cover sections have been exclusively in the plural. So who is speaking here? We know at least one dissident has defected from the majority, and at least one is working with the Ghostbloods. This current individual says they “wished for the sword that humankind could be.” That feels closer to Odium’s words from the previous book, and it makes me wonder how the return of surgebinding might be an overlapping aim for multiple groups. I wonder whether the sleepless and the Sons of Honor share motivating goals to any degree. Ah and the next line directly brings up at least the first point: Odium and the sleepless may have been working towards same aim for competing reasons, or he may have manipulated them into seeking what he wants. Precog paranoia! The “culmination of… preparation, posturing, and prayer.” I like that phrase, and it also makes me wonder what the role of prayer is in the sleepless existence. As native Rosharans, do they have loyalty to Cultivation? We know that they have memories reaching back to the shattering, and thus predating her. And of course their mission involves knowledge and reverence of a sort for Adonalsium. This isn’t a particularly important question, I’m just wondering to whom the sleepless were praying for millennia. Dalinar leading a “people who have forgotten their past” is presumably about humankind's departure from Ashyn, which suggests we may be getting more details in this book about Ishar and the exodus he led. Dalinar is the “reimagined king” and apparently on a search for truth, prompted by Cultivation. I'm not sure why Kaladin as the “reforged spear” would be the “hope of spren,” given the events that occurred in the High Integrity surrounding Adolin and Maya. That was clearly teasing the idea that nahel bonds may not be the preferred future of this symbiotic relationship. It may be oversimplifying for the purpose of the back cover, but I'm curious to see how that hope will be portrayed. The “reformed woman” is a loaded phrase to refer to Shallan, but the idea of her “prying into the corners of a god’s mind” makes me very excited for what she will be getting up to. I wonder if that's referring to the new Odium, or more likely one of the Unmade–especially Mishram, since she was the one in contact with Restares who requested her release. And Szeth being the “reborn assassin” makes me remember that this will be primarily his book. Between the flashbacks, the expedition to Shinovar, and all the rest, Szeth’s character growth will be in overdrive to achieve more self-determination and to both explore and come to peace with the Stone Shaman’s society. I wonder though whether the “once proud people” he’s holding at knifepoint is referring to his homeland, or perhaps to the Fused and their followers. And finally the sleepless have lost their precognition; the future is clouded. And most importantly, the power of Honor (presumably the Stormfather) has “begun to question.” That means that bondsmith interactions between Dalinar and his patron will be particularly fraught. I’m super excited, and very glad that the Brandon decided to place these cryptic in-world documents for us on the backs of the books.

This is my reaction blog for Winds and Truth. Index post here. (No spoilers for Winds and Truth this post, but the rest of the cosmere is fair game.) This post is for my expectations and predictions. Got to get these etched in metal before I’m tainted with anything like actual content. First, I will note that unlike the other Stormlight books, I’ve only read Rhythm once so far. I ran out of time for a true reread, and when I tried to go through the audiobook I had to quit several chapters in. No shade on Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, but their delivery and embodiment of the characters was just far enough away from my own that it was an incredibly frustrating experience to try to listen to. Almost every other line I would compulsively repeat it to myself with different intonation or emphasis, in the way I wanted it to sound. And so my preparation for Winds and Truth primarily consisted of re-reading my own liveblog of Rhythm of War, which was actually a lot of fun to do and contained enough detail that I feel like I have a good grasp on most of the critical pieces. So, a brief recap of what I liked and didn’t. On the positive side, my favorite part of Rhythm of War was Navani’s relationship with Raboniel, and her whole character arc about recognizing her own achievements. I do have some complaints about that (see below), but if Navani manages to fit any more fabrial science and sprengineering (I’m sure that’s the official term) into the final ten days, I will be eager to dive into it. I am also all the way here for Shallan’s plural experience. Her interactions with Veil, Radiant, and Formless were one of the things I was most excited about throughout Rhythm. Along with that, Adolin and Maya’s relationship is top tier and the culmination of that in Lasting Integrity has to be one of the best stand-up-and-cheer moments for me out of the whole book. And, of course, I was completely blown away by Taravangian’s ascension. It blindsided me in the best way, and I have only good expectations for how that will shake up and subvert the status quo. There are many different directions things could be headed, but Vargo supplanting Rayse as Odium’s vessel makes the conflict more interesting in every way. Less enthusiastically, I also liked plenty of other elements such as Venli’s journey and the Kaladin / Leshwi totally-not-a-ship. On the negative side of things, I was disappointed by a few things, especially two of the major outcomes at the climax of the book. My complaints here are less severe than when I disliked Amaram’s possession in Oathbringer (which absolutely needed more groundwork to make it meaningful, and even then would still would have made him a more boring antagonist), but I still feel that Brandon undercut his own themes and made the wrong storytelling decisions in two places. First, Navani and the Sibling. Navani’s best feature as a character was that she didn’t have a nahel bond and still managed to be such a larger than life figure by relying on her personal strengths. Her scientific mind, her engineering acumen, and her leadership ability defined her, and her whole journey through Rhythm culminated in her recognition of those skills and valuing herself for herself. To then immediately have that success result in bonding a spren and becoming another radiant works counter to that entire narrative. Not to mention that having another Bondsmith among the Kholin family exacerbates the “Skywalker Problem” of making this one family matter more than the rest of the planet, and the Sibling’s own preference for a singer rather than a human. If I were to get my preference, I’d have the Sibling’s bond not even follow the nahel model but rather form something new like Adolin and Maya’s connection, and do so with Rlain or someone else that’s not Navani. Second, it feels very cheap that Kaladin’s fourth ideal about not being able to save everyone immediately results in him being able to save Lirin. It’s like saying the costs he paid to reach that point were unnecessary because actually he can do everything when he gets his next powerup. By putting Lirin in peril, that scene pulled the focus away from Teft, who had just had a dramatic death scene. I think Lirin’s place in that sequence confused the emotional beats and made me care a lot less about Kaladin’s success or the way Dalinar’s feat enabled it by granting him time to stabilize. I also think the first dramatic on-screen appearance of Shardplate should have been given on screen to Jasnah, rather than to Kaladin. Outside of the climax, it’s frustrating how many unnecessary secrets about Renarin continue to be withheld while he is forced into the background. I know that Brandon is saving a lot of his stuff for the back five books, and I expect that knowing too much about Glys and Renarin will spoil reveals he has planned for Winds and Truth or later books, but it feels like manufactured mystery when the characters have had a year of time-skip to explore and talk about some of these things, and they all say “Ah, and Renarin, who was special…and I won’t think any more about that now.” Anyway, those likes and dislikes will certainly play into my reactions as I get into the newest book, so this context feels important to provide. A few other things I am very curious or excited about: Nightblood! This being Szeth’s book, we know that Nightblood will feature prominently. We already saw a brief interaction with Ishar’s honorblade, and the climax with Taravangian. More shenanigans expected from sword-nimi! Secret societies! We learned a little bit about some of them, but there are still a whole lot of unknowns. Will we finally figure out what’s up with the Sons of Honor? Will we get a better explanation for why the Rosharan and Scadrian chapters of the Ghostbloods have such different styles? Unmade! Who is the unmade in Shinovar? Best candidates are Chemoarish (aka the Dustmother) and Dai-gonarthis (aka the Black Fisher) largely because we know the least about them, but it could be several others. What will they do with Ba-Ado-Mishram? Will Restares convince them to release her? What is the status of Sja-Anat’s defection from Odium, now that the Vessel has changed? Here’s hoping we get more answers here. Art and Translations! I always love the art in Stormlight books, and like to decipher the new scripts or glyphs that appear. I’m not really expecting a new writing system in this book, but would be excited if there was one.

Note: I have also discovered this coppermind page maintained by @King of Herdaz, which is a comprehensive list across cosmere books. I like to think that my organization and summary by category is helpful, but if you want individual citations and a more exhaustive catalog of variants, that is an excellent resource.

I'd like to confirm the spoiler policy for non-forum sections of the site. As with the last large Stormlight release, I'm planning to post my chapter by chapter reactions and analysis for Winds and Truth. (See RoW liveblog linked in my signature.) When I consulted staff regarding this for Rhythm of War, it was determined that the blog section of the site is visited infrequently enough that a prominent spoiler warning at the top of each post was sufficient, as that would clearly set expectations and would be the featured text in any preview potentially showing up on the other sections of the site. Does this still meet with approval? I haven't been a frequent site visitor in a few years, so I wouldn't be surprised if some combination of policies, format, and usage patterns make the new situation different. (I probably won't be ready to start posting for at least a week, so no rush on making a firm decision.) Thanks!

Storms! I just realized that I somehow neglected to actually post my updated catalog of swears after Rhythm of War released. My apologies to all for the egregious multi-year delay! This is an update on my prior iterations of this compilation of swears, most recently the Oathbringer edition. I will try to be much more timely when I've completed the Winds and Truth edition. To my knowledge, the list is exhaustive for all Stormlight books prior to Winds and Truth. Please comment with suggested additions. On attributions: In most cases, speaker attributions are omitted for the sake of clarity, but speakers are identified parenthetically if their identity adds important context to the entry. If you think a particular phrase should be attributed (or not), please make your case in a comment. Storms and Storming are universal, and people use them frequently. So far we haven’t had many scenes from people on the western half of the continent where the storms are weaker; there is a good chance that the storms are invoked far less in such regions. Notably, Taffa uses a storm-related curse in Dalinar’s Starfalls vision, indicating that it was used historically as well. Variants and related curses: Stormwinds Storms alight Storms within Blustering Storms bright and brash Storms send -- (a construction more commonly used when invoking the Heralds, see below) The Heralds, collectively and as individuals, are invoked across many Rosharan cultures. Vorin speakers most frequently swear by Kelek, but across the series Vorin speakers have invoked each of the ten Heralds at least once. As they occur in curses, the Alethi forms are: Jezerezeh, Nalan, Chana, Vev/Vedeledev, Pailiah/Pali, Ash, Battah, Kelek, Talat, Ishi. Herdazian speakers will use Kalak instead. [Herald] knows or [Herald] send are frequent formulations. ”Chana help” is a similar construction [Herald’s] [attribute] A herald is often paired with a body part or attribute. Some appear to be traditional associations, but others are most likely spontaneous variations. (e.g. Nale's nuts). Examples with traditional attributes: Kelek's breath / tongue Ash's eyes Ishar's soul Nalan's hand Pali's mind—(Adrotagia) Vev's golden keys Talat's hand / palms / nails Notable unique examples: Ash's mask Ash's brush of endless paint Kelek's own truth Sweet wisdom of Battar -- (Taffa, from Dalinar's vision) Other Variants: Living Heralds above Heralds send Heralds-forsaken What in Kelek's name Thank Kelek Azish speakers refer to the Heralds as Kadasixes and use alternate names for them, primarily invoking Yaezir (Jezrien) Variants: "for Yaezir's sake," "Yaezir help", "Yezir's own speed" Kadasixes and Stars -- the association with stars is interesting, especially considering cosmological features like Taln's scar and the gas giants shown in the star chart in Arcanum Unbounded. Tashikki speakers frequently invoke Tashi, a name for Ishar. Variants: "Tashi above," "Tashi, God of Gods and Binder of the World" Other Vorin Curses Almighty is a frequent Vorin curse, referencing Honor/Tanavast. Many variants of usage are found: "Almighty above" "by the Almighty's tenth name" Elithanathile (tenth name of the Almighty) "what in the Almighty's own eyes?" "by the names of God himself" "Almighty, cast from heaven to dwell in our hearts" Stormfather is a ubiquitous Vorin curse. NOTE: While the general usage is distinct, we should remember that Vorinism has conflated the Stormfather with Jezerezeh/Jezrien. In contrast, the Natan people conflate him with Kelek. Damnation is an especially common curse among Vorin speakers. Variants and related phrases: “What in Damnation's eleventh name?"—(Sebarial) Storms above and Damnation beyond Damnation's own device The Tranquiline Halls, frequently shortened simply to Halls holy halls Halls above Blood of my fathers - Used so far by Dalinar, Amaram, and Moash, this may be a specific feature of the violent Alethi culture, rather than the wider Vorin nations. Sometimes rendered as ancestors rather than fathers. Other Human Cultures Thaylen Passions-- Rendered "Blessed passion" on one occasion (Yokska). Thaylen speakers also say things like "I had Passion that help would come," meaning hope or expectation. Both usages are related to (but distinct from) the Passion spoken of by singers Fused, and Odium himself. The singer version so far does not appear to be used as a curse. Herdazian Flick my sparks –(Lopen), a reference to sparkflickers. Three Gods--So far only used by The Mink in modern day and Taffa from Dalinar's visions, so the association with Herdaz could be mistaken. Unkalaki Beautiful lights and fallen stars -- (Rock) Blessed gods of sea and stone -- (Rock) Kali’kalin’s ghost – (Rock) Shin Glories within—(Szeth) Stones Unhallowed -- (Szeth) Listeners/Singers Thank the purest tones -- (Rlain) Praise the ancient storms -- (Venli) Oh rhythms ancient and new-- (Venli) For Ado's sake -- (Raboniel) **as the speaker is a Fused, this might more appropriately be considered an ancient or worldhopper curse rather than a Listener one. Spren It is not yet clear how spren culture divides, so instances are noted by speaker: Wyndle: “Sweet virtue” and variants of "Mother" including “Oh blessed mother” and "Oh Mother, oh Cultivation!" Stormfather: "Why in Damnation", an apparently Vorin appropriation. Unique or Uncategorized Drynets—a sailor curse implied to be quite inappropriate. Stonefalls --(Adolin) Starving--unique curse used by food-obsessed Lift. Variants include "Starve me" Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms Above. (Lift) Originally Reshi, Lift has travelled widely, so it is difficult to assign a parent culture. frozen -- (Malata) derogatory adjective, possibly Veden Dustmother—(Ton, a Bavlander). Possibly Vorin? Starlight - (Geranid) Speaker is a Vorin ardent with extended residence in the Reshi isles By the Brightcaller's Rays -- used by Drehy, so presumably a phrase from far western Roshar (presumably Rira) Blight it all – (Axies) presumably Siah/Aimian, but Axies is a traveler and could have acquired it elsewhere This place [Urithiru] glows like Nomon’s own backside.--(Red) This reference to one of the moons is somewhat ambiguous. It could be merely descriptive, but the construction mirrors other in-world swears, and so I've included it here. Oh God of Oaths Worldhoppers Shadows—(Nazh) Threnody By purity's eye - (Nazh) Threnody Merciful Domi - (Riino) Sel Damnation--(Azure) A Vorin curse, notable because Azure uses it ungrammatically as "Damnation me" and "Damnation these creatures," betraying her incomplete command of the language Oh God. Oh Adonalsium! - (Ash) Heavens, no--(Wit) Notable only for the lack of similar phrases by native Rosharans. God Beyond --multiple worldhopping speakers, but notably Dalinar has adopted this invocation The Beyond knows --(Wit) Highlight of new/notable instances from Dawnshard and Rhythm of War, in order of appearance.

Updated to this point. Welcome, and apologies for the delay. Were you wanting to post a location for the map?

Map addition/change requests updated to this point. Apologies for the delay for anyone who had been waiting.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. Chapter 5 I only just now paid attention to the allomantic symbols heading the chapters, and it took me far too long to confirm that they are indeed just numeric. I recognize those symbols far less than I do the various glyphs and scripts of stormlight, and they are just too similar to one another for me to commit many to memory without more meaning ascribed to them than numerals. The “seal of the city” style border around them is a nice look, though. Or maybe it’s supposed to be a coin/medal of some sort? If I were to guess, I’d peg Kath the governess as a cameo of some sort, but I’ve been distanced from the fandom enough to not recognize the name as someone in particular, if she even is a name drawn from fans rather than personal friends (not to disparage those fans who have become personal friends). Max is playing with a Soonie Pup, which makes me wonder how MeLaan and others react to that cultural phenomenon not only among the general populace but also the friends and family they are close to. A personal delivery from Harmony, containing a god-communing earring? You’ve got someone’s eye on you, Wax. The ominous part for me is the need for a second earring in addition to this one. How many piercings does Harmony intend for him to have? Does this newly delivered earring replace his usual one or supplement it? And that’s not getting into the question of what metal is on its way. Presumably ettmetal since that was mentioned previously in this book and is the only one (aside from the unavailable Atium and Lerasium) that the people of Elendel wouldn’t have ready access to. However, that’s not getting into the necessity for spikes to be hemalurgically charged, so the metal’s composition and history must both be taken into account. These things are not easily fungible, especially not special ones intended for a protagonist/champion. Huh. I just realized how weird it must be for people in the know to look at the Survivorist faith, in light of what Kel is up to. Although, I don’t think we have a good sense for how long the society he leads has been active in the cosmere, so it’s distantly possible that things are still ramping up at this stage. I admit I’m not super clear on the precise timeline between this book and Stormlight. I have in mind that it’s only a handful of years between whatever happens in Lost Metal and the beginning of Way of Kings, but I don’t actually know that for sure. Yes, the amount of baggage that accumulates when you travel with young children is a whole thing. That at least is common between Earth and Scadrial. “They’re not all slag for voting against you.” I like the use of slag as a derogatory term. Nice cultural color for a place with highly prominent metalworking and mining. Nice to know that Wayne has been helping to raise Max with the appropriate accents and outlook on life. At least they don’t let him babysit unsupervised. Huh. Has Hoid been hanging around Wax for two years now? That seems like a higher level of commitment than we generally see from him. Although, that’s not necessarily true, given his various appearances in different character’s backstories on Roshar. He presumably interacted with them for months to years at a time in a consistent role. Frequtent. carriage driver for Harmony’s chosen isn’t that big a stretch. Flying piggy back rides trump the regular kind any day of the week! Does Wax carry spent bullet casings just to stay on brand when he leaps away dramatically? Most people don’t just carry those around, and he has other bits of metal he could doubtless use instead. It’s got to be part of his “Senator of the Roughs” bit. What a ham.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. Chapter 3 Ah, yes. The primary benefit of trousers. I like how Marasi’s daydream about the Survivor’s Cradle is cut short with an “oh yeah, Wax has been there.” It’s got to be a disjointed experience to live alongside the larger than life figures that are cosmere protagonists, even taking into account her own impressive accomplishments in these adventures. Wayne hasn’t even noticed the footprints? He appears to be genuine here, and not building up to a joke. I’m not super surprised, I guess, but he’s usually quite observant of details. Huh, neat development of the Malwish mask culture. “Moving the mask is like … emphasis to the Malwish. It’s not wrong to let people see under the mask, though they pretend it’s taboo.” Not gonna lie, this sounds like something Allik might have made up for his own benefit in pursuing Marasi. If there weren’t other Malwish around for the past few years to confirm this I’d have been very suspicious. Wayne: you get a lucky hat, as long as you promise to take it off before something unlucky happens. I like the logic! See, when your established currency is called a boxing, sentences like this can trip you up. Took me three tries to remember the standard (non-pugilist) meaning of the word. All this sneaking seems a bit ill-conceived. Maybe I’m jumping the gun here, but wouldn’t any self-respecting criminal enterprise employ a Tineye or two to listen for intruders? – this not being a Stormlight novel, I won’t really be collecting a comprehensive list of swears, but I’m still in the habit of noting them down. Here’s a good one. Oh, wait if this is Set-affiliated, they’ll have all sorts of off-world devices or powers that will be harder to anticipate than a simple Tineye. Marasi is gonna be in trouble. Ah, nope. They just surprised a mundane guard. I guess this gang is more patsies / cat’s paws than actual Set manpower, so they don’t get any of the good stuff. On that topic, we learn a bit about Set hierarchy: Cycle<Suit<??? Hopefully there’s more info soon. Chapter 4 I like seeing that Marasi and Wayne have good teamwork in this fight scene. It’s a development that makes their partnership feel like it’s actually been meaningful and substantive in the intervening time between books. The allomantic grenades really are a game changer in many ways, but especially so for Marasi’s cadmium. I can’t wait to see what game changers accompany the next Era’s developments! Interesting that Wayne’s affinity for bendalloy, i.e. his progression toward savant-hood, is noticeable to an outside perspective, as Marasi notes his charge time is decreasing. Presumably there are other effects as well. Hopefully the side effects are not of the tragic variety. Bendalloy and Wayne both seem to fall in the “live fast, die young” category, though. The magnitude of time speeding/slowing from bendalloy and cadmium always feels a bit excessive to me. The other allomantic abilities are powerful as well so from a balance perspective it makes sense that they would be high-end, but time powers are super useful, even without them being strong enough to reach bullet time. I’m not complaining or criticizing, just pointing out that it throws me almost every time this happens in an action scene because I expect the time dilation to be less extreme. Ah, there’s the callback to Wayne’s earlier comment about being the guy who sometimes gets blown up. Fireworks on the way! Oh, he just dropped a flash-bang grenade inside a box of explosives. That’s a bit less accidental than I was anticipating.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. BROADSHEET part 1 I’d forgotten how frustrating it was to get the broadsheet split into quadrants like this. For the moment I’ll read and comment on them individually as they appear, but it’s tempting to just wait and do the whole thing at once when it’s available. Title: The Two What?? Going by the subtitle/quote thing it’s Seasons, which I suppose means that Elendel is equatorial? I don’t really remember the geography, but Scadrial is supposed to be very Earth-analog, so it’s got to do with latitude or with coastal climate to explain the difference. I do want to know who that quote is attributed to, but I won’t until we get the next piece of the broadsheet. Unity or Division: I like the photo/portrait to show off the appearance (including fashion!) of Governor Varlance and Vice Gov. Adawathwyn. But that immediately makes me wonder: what’s the status of photography in current-day Elendel? I don’t remember it being mentioned in the prior books, but that could just be a failure of my recollection rather than an actual absence from the shown worldbuilding. Early photographic technology relied heavily on colloidal solutions of metals, which would make it thematically a likely candidate for early development on Scadrial. Until we see evidence either way, I’m going to headcanon that photography is advancing quickly. In a separate note, the use of “cronies” to describe the Governor’s political allies feels very period-appropriate and reveals the nature of the Two Seasons’ journalistic bent. Editorials and ads: What the heck is a noseball? Drug delivery system to compare with smoking? That’s my best guess, but I’m going to have to wait on the next piece of broadsheet to learn more. Soonie Pups! I forgot those were a thing in-world. And apparently controversial enough for a scandalized letter to the editor! I love it. Nicki Savage: Gotta admit, “hellguns” is a sweet name for a weapon used by a “Haunted Man”. That’s top tier theming right there. Good job, Nicki’s publisher! That is immediately forgotten, though, when we get to the meat of the episode. What devilry is this?! Dinosaur-analog fossils? Made out of aluminum? Worn by not one but two faceless who merge Voltron-style into a single dino-mount for Nicki to ride across a chasm? Allomancer Jak can’t possibly compete with this. I would tune in every single week to find out what happens next! This ornisaur does send my mind into wondering about fossils on Scadrial. We had artificially-shifted continents and mountain raising events at least twice, meaning that reconstructing the history of the planet geologically is going to be an endeavor, but also that certain things might have been exposed differently than one might expect from our experience on earth. We also had several millennia of ashfall and high volcanic activity, likely resulting in well-preserved remains from prior to Rashek’s ascension as Lord Ruler. Certainly not permineralized or anything yet, but more along the lines of mummification or the incredible preservation of Pompeii. And now I want to see the natural history museum of Era 3 Mistborn.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. Chapter 2 Steris is getting him ready using a prepared list, which matches my expectations. But from the way he’s stowing evidence for probable dramatic reveal, I get the sense he’s preparing for a courtroom, which very much does not match my expectations. He’s always been a lawman, but I didn’t think he’d ever be that sort of lawman. Oh, maybe not. He’s in “his senator’s chamber in the House of Proceedings.” Which makes him yet another type of lawman, though this one is a bit more believable development than Attorney Ladrian. I still don’t really approve of the name Maxillium. Wax should have known better than to saddle a kid with that. I like that he’s got a sister named Tindwyl, though. Wax “looming” as he’s about to address the assembly is a nice image. He comes by them naturally, but he’s also clearly taken to cultivating his presence and reputation (probably thanks to Steris’ advice). Interesting how the demographics of the cabinet or the campaign ticket play out here, with Terris administrators being trusted/fashionable. A clear parallel to how our own campaign decisions often get made, but in unique Scadrian style. I appreciate Wax’s characteristic bluntness, but it is slightly odd to me that he’s comfortable being so blunt in front of the Malwish ambassador. It makes sense, if she’s privy to all of these meetings anyway, but it still smacks of not only exposing weakness to an outsider but specifically pointing it out. I can’t help thinking that either Wax is underestimating Varlance, or Adawathyn has a lot more going on than “clever power behind the throne.” Maybe both. They seem a little too much like stereotypical set pieces to be played straight in a Sanderson novel. Then again, we may not see much of the legislative maneuvering, since Wax has to fail here for a tightly paced inciting incident. And yes, Wax’s exposure of vote-selling works, but not well enough to secure or delay the vote. War on the way, unless Wax saves the day! Sounds like we’ve got ourselves a plot, and plenty of factions to keep it interesting both before and after hostilities break out.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. Chapter 1 Yay Marasi! I’ve missed these people. And wow, that’s a good opening description because I can absolutely feel the rush of adrenaline as you almost fall–even if the consequences are only horrible and not deadly. Walking alone through the sewer with a map in one hand…is she auditioning to be Nazh’s understudy? I feel like he could use a kindred spirit (or a grad student to delegate to). Oh, wait. She’s not alone, she’s got Wayne to “help”. Poor Marasi. Except that she’s giving as good as she gets. Oh, how she’s grown. Love the spider taunting. Wait, Wax has been retired for six years? How on Scadrial did Steris get that to stick? I love their relationship, but I would not have expected her to keep him out of trouble for that long. Although, I suppose we don’t have any indication that he hasn’t been pursuing investigations as a hobby, just that he’s not doing so officially. Ah, confirmation that the rail lines are indeed expanding compared to the previous book, so the map difference is real. They seem to be going straight for subways, which is impressive. There’s a lot of engineering that goes into getting those right. Oh no! MeLaan is breaking up with Wayne? Sad day. I can see why he’d be in the dumps (metaphorically speaking, not a reference to his current location). I sometimes wonder if it’s a disadvantage to be engaged in the cosmere and have advance insight from past questions Brandon answered about things like Trell and the Set, rather than seeing the entire thing as a mystery. I am positive that I’ll be surprised many times still, but when I see the first mention in this book and think “Oh, yeah. Autonomy” it feels like the characters are playing catchup in their investigation, which isn’t a super fun feeling. (Not complaining, of course. I love the between-book theorizing and everything that goes with it.)

Done!

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. Prologue Well, that’s the Tinweight mystery solved. Baby Wayne grew up there. I was going to say that young Wayne sounds too much like adult Wayne, but after a paragraph or two, I can see the difference. He’s a bit more carefree here in his narration, or perhaps candid. At least, that’s my initial impression. “One-window home” is a clever descriptor. It gets the message across, and also hints at both the time period and the society. Ouch. That is doubly painful, and I’m not sure whether the cultural blindness or the adolescent anxiety digs harder. They feed into each other so well, and this could easily be the start of a feel-good coming of age story if it were a TV show aimed at teens. “Don’t swear like that!” →Okay, I’ll change my accent and pronunciation, but none of the words. I love it. Okay, that one got me laughing out loud. Wayne’s mom better not die in this prologue, because I’m not on board with that kind of sadfeels to kick things off. Roll around in dirt in order to think like the ground. Only Wayne. …actually, I can see Shallan saying something like that. I’m not sure if I would enjoy a scene of Wayne and Shallan trying to outdo each other, but it sure would be something. I think I’d definitely enjoy young Wayne and young Lift arguing about the thievery vs. trading, though. I have to admire a name like Blatant Barm. That’s a name to own, for sure. Not bad for villain of the week in an Allomancer Jak story. Bahaha. Bastards vs “regular old turds” is hilarious to me. Dug is teaching Wayne all kinds of great stuff. Human got a river named after him? That’s very sweet. I wonder if anyone remembers who he was? A little bit on the nose that his river separates human land from koloss land, though. Okay, I can’t spend the whole page just repeating Wayne’s jokes, but he got me again with the “shoot a fly” thing. I don’t always love Wayne’s humor, but this sequence is working for me. Um, really? That’s your superpower? Please tell me you’re obfuscating to hide your true abilities, because that’s… you know what? Fine. Color me impressed. For what it’s worth though, I’m not interested in getting that ability spiked into me. I know it’s not, but the way this story is going with the names and such, I feel like the whole thing is just Ma building up to some elaborate pun. I know she’s a better mom than that, but I would crack up if she turned out to be a jokester in a twist ending here. Well, kinda. She went for “Jak won by being a big damn pain in the ass” ending, which was almost a joke in the way she told it, but also a great teaching approach for channeling Wayne’s exuberance. I do love the back and forth of their storytelling technique, too. And yup, she’s gone. Leastways it happened offscreen at the mine instead of right in the middle of the domestic scene.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Intro post here, beware of spoilers. MAPS! We have maps, people. I don’t remember the maps super well from the previous books, but it looks like the map of the Elendel Basin hasn’t changed. The rail lines might be longer? And I don’t recognize the name Tinweight Settlement, so it and a few other locations may be newly noted. Then again, I could just be failing to recall the last version. The map of the City of Elendel definitely has new notations. I recognize that handwriting! How are you doing, Nazh? Still put-upon, I see. Khriss is driving you really hard, isn’t she? I expect we’ll learn more about these locations soon, but it does seem to me that the rail lines are more extensive than before. I’ll have to pull up the old versions to check at some point. The third map, though. Whoo-wee! We’ve got a view past the Basin, including the southern continent and beyond! Yay! …Although, is it just me? Was anyone else expecting there to be an actual ocean between the continents? It feels a little silly that everything is so connected by supposedly navigable coastline, even if those mountains and the intervening roughs appear to block easy foot travel. It’s hard to believe that nice climate and available resources is enough to preclude all exploration outside the Elendel Basin area. If the SoScads (Malwish consortium, apparently) have had time to develop airships, surely some intrepid soul would have at least sailed a boat around? Gasp! Allomancer Jack? You volunteer? Good luck, sir, and I look forward to reading of your exploits in the broadsheets I’m particularly intrigued by the presence of a landmass beyond the Malwish, here denoted only as “The Maskless.” That little detail suggests that there are a lot more populated regions of Scadrial than had been expected. Elendel may have Harmony’s blessing and attention in a lot of ways, but it’s hard not to consider them provincial when looking at this map and remembering that Scadrial is the closest thing to an Earth analog. There’s got to be a lot of room for the population to have expanded since the Catacendre, from Harmony only knows how many hidden pockets of survivors. I do wonder if the southern landmass where the Maskless live is similarly frigid to the Malwish’s tundra-like home. There are no latitude indicators on the map, and I wouldn’t know what units to use anyway. The map grid is extremely regular, with no attempt to compensate for planetary curvature. That could be an artifact of the chosen projection, or it could be an indication that these “continents” are not as large as that term would lead us to believe. The apparent size of the Elendel Basin suggests the latter to me.

Welcome to my liveblog of The Lost Metal! Join me as I make terrible predictions, overanalyze everything, geek out about magic, and generally enjoy my time on Scadrial. I’ve previously liveblogged The Rhythm of War here on 17S, and my reactions to both Oathbringer and Starsight are also available in Google Doc format. As with Rhythm of War, I’ve kept myself spoiler free for this book, so I’ll be going in with a lot less knowledge than some…especially since I ran out of time and haven’t re-read any of Era 2 like I had planned, so a lot of details are likely to have eroded from my mind. Hopefully the same isn’t true of major plot points, but no promises. Expect me to be hilariously wrong about things at least some of the time. I haven’t determined a format for this yet. I don’t expect to have as much to analyze as we do in Stormlight books, so I doubt I’ll need to do a chapter per post, but we’ll have to see. Presumably there will be a decent quota of crossover characters and magic in this book, since we’re closing out Era 2 and paving the way for the next phase of Cosmere interactions. I’ve read every published Cosmere work except for Dawnshard so far, so expect spoilers for everything when it comes to theories and connections. If I prevaricate much longer, I’m never going to get started on this book, though, so let’s jump into it. On to the good stuff!