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Adding you to the map, but I have to admit to being largely unfamiliar with Michigan. I presume that the "better" part comes from being so close to Lake Superior? (Speaking of, do those jokes ever stop, or do people living there always maintain their Superiority complex?)

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Internal Art (Part 1) The book is out! Hooray! I imagine that all of you did the same thing I did, which was immediately open to the endpages to pore over the beautiful Herald images. This post will be my reactions to those images, as well as the sketchbook pages that accompanied the chapters I’ve already read. Before that, though, a brief note about my current plan. I will continue to liveblog Rhythm of War as I read it. I’m enjoying this a great deal. The barrier to reading is a bit higher than I was expecting--in addition to the time and coordination it takes to go through a chapter like this compared to simply cracking open the book and reading until no-sleep-o’clock in the morning, my wife thinks I’m ridiculous for taking notes while I read, so I’ve mostly been doing this on nights that she works. On top of my own work schedule picking up, that has meant that I’m progressing at a substantially slower pace than I anticipated. Still, this is helping me to pace myself a lot and is enhancing my experience of the book like I expected, so I’m planning to continue and share my reactions through to the end. In addition, I’ve finally decided what I’m going to do with Dawnshard. I received by copy over a week ago, and a small part of the delay in getting the next blog update done was debating with myself over whether to take a break from Rhythm of War to read (and probably blog about) Dawnshard. I finally decided that I’m going to hold off and read Dawnshard out of sequence after finishing Rhythm of War. So it will be a while, but once I do finish this liveblog you can expect another one to pop up where I’ll share my reactions to the novella. If it’s anything like Edgedancer was, it will have a major influence on my reading of Rhythm, and I’m curious how my take on Rhythm may change. Anyway, that’s enough business. On to the artwork! As usual, all of the internal art for this book is available on Brandon’s website, and I’ll be linking to most of the pieces there. Unfortunately, the herald endpages are not currently posted there, so instead the links will take you to the coppermind, which has been updated. First up, Pailiah! I’m slightly embarrassed to say that when I first looked at this picture I primarily noticed the vine-covered tree behind her, and assumed that this was Vedel, patron of the Edgedancers. Her earrings even reminded me of keys. As it happens, though, we already got art of Vedel. No, this is Pali, and she’s rendered gorgeously here. The obvious standout is the depiction of the associated spren. (Do we have a name for these yet? The obvious one is truthspren, for the Truthwatchers, but I don’t remember them being named so far.) This is what Glys would have looked like prior to the weirdness of Sja-Anat. They are really striking in their lightning-like appearance, and at first I didn’t notice that each one has a little wisp of cloud at its center, as a part of the spren (rather than simply mist in the environment to texture the image, as I first assumed). The glove on her safehand is a reminder that these are in-world depictions, as the Vorins would have drawn their mythic heralds. But that’s a sidenote. The real beauty of this piece is the way Pali’s book takes pride of place in the composition. You almost don’t even notice that she’s also holding an honorblade with the way its curve blends as a continuation of the lines of her dress. Yet, though she’s not brandishing it in any way the book (heraldic virtue of learned) is clearly close to her heart and her true treasure. I’m a little weirded out by the statuary in the background. A big stone face that clearly shares her features, but she’s not Shash, associated with artwork, so … oh. Oh! Because truthwatchers use their illumination surge to reveal the underlying nature of things. Pali’s spirit (or an aspect of her core, perhaps) is revealed here in stone. Symbolism! Overall, she strikes me as someone that could have a wonderful conversation with Jasnah. Except of course, that she’s now several thousand years of insanity removed from the person this art was based on. Now I’m just making myself depressed. Moving on, we have Kalak! Though it wasn’t the first thing that grabbed my attention, I should probably address the big cracked stone face behind him, since I just covered the one in Pali’s representation. But honestly? I got nuthin. His stance definitely shows off his virtue of resolute, and the associated essence of foil/metal is reflected in his pauldrons and the arc framing the stone face, but the cracking face itself? I dunno. The thing I do love about this piece though is the fluttering petals (or whatever Rosharan equivalent is depicted) that blow in the same breeze that flutters the tassels of his cloak. Why? Because it gave me the lightbulb moment of realizing that “Kelek’s Breath” as the most ubiquitous of heraldic curses is probably metaphorical. Those drifting petals evoke a “breath of life” feeling that is gentle yet energizing. We don’t know enough yet about the Willshapers and their surges to speculate much beyond that, but I will say his image here isn’t what I would immediately associate with the fabled wanderlust of that order. It makes me wonder a bit about how builder as a heraldic virtue came to be associated with that group… though with what Venli has been getting up to I can definitely see it coming through as at least a secondary attribute. I’ll also note the glyph for 8 that adorns his … drapey sash thing? I don’t know what to call it. Anyway, that’s a good example of another thing that would be added by the in-world artist, and a lovely detail that you can pick up when you pay attention to the scripts and other worldbuilding that gets built into all aspects of these books, but which can also just appear as a pleasant-looking flourish if you don’t know to look for it. It makes me wonder what else I’m missing. Anyway, it’s late and I will need to continue this tomorrow. I’ll go ahead and post this first analysis for now. Tune in next time for Darkness and the patron of Dustbringers!

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 14 (Voice) Title: I got nothing. My pie-in-the-sky hope is that this is about Maya finally having something to say, but there’s no possible way that happens until something far more dramatic on Adolin’s end plays out. It’s not Part 1 material. I guess it might be more Venli stuff? Just spitballing here. Epigraph: Come on, Navani. Don’t just give us inanities and then drop that logicspren are important without actually saying something about them. I’m calling this a wasted epigraph. (I mean, technically you did tell us definitively that stormlight isn’t necessary for keeping the spren trapped, but we could have concluded that pretty easily from what we’ve seen of fabrials so far.) I’m going to make the baseless prediction that logicspren allow you to insert Boolean operators into fabrial functions, leading to much more sophisticated devices. (No, I don’t think this is real, I’m just making a long-odds bet for the potential “called it!” bragging rights.) Huh, looks like it was Venli after all. Is Voice from the title going to be a reference to the rhythms or to Timbre? I think I need some art of this to really envision it. Isaac, where are you? (Actually, what will be his singer appellation? The Alethi artwork is attributed to Isasik Shulin. What would a singer version of his name look like?) Also, how are they making all of these major changes in construction? I understand that they have the labor to get it done, but with highstorms to stress test their work, the demands on engineering know-how are way above what I would expect the humans to be able to accomplish, much less the recently-awakened singers. Oh, duh. Voice is Venli’s title and job description, speaking for Leshwi. I totally forgot that. Need to keep up with the chapter releases better. More to the point, the idea of factions within the Fused that are divided enough to generate this kind of a reaction from Leshwi is fascinating. I had expected a diversity in approach and temperament, even individual morality and intent, but not in goals and identity to the point that a group’s awakening would “terrify” Leshwi. This meeting is going to be interesting, and I can already guess that Venli is going to be digging herself in and out of holes by trying to guess what Leshwi wants her to say. Politicking-ho! Oh, wait. Looks like it’s the soul-casting voidbinders doing all the work on remodeling the palace. “Fannahn-im”= Those Ones of Alteration. (a.k.a. “Altered Ones” so they may also succumb to side effects of frequent soul casting, similar to humans using fabrials.) I suppose I’ll accept “immortal souls doing magic” as sufficient explanation for how it’s getting done without falling over. Venli: “Can I become a Fused, maybe? That sounds cool.” Timbre: “Don’t be an idiot!” Venli: “Oh, right, Odium is in charge of that circus.” Timbre: “And…” Venli: “And most of them are completely insane. Okay, so it’s not a great idea.” The council of Nine Fused, soulcast in place in the center of the palace, is a disturbing, terrifying, and fascinating addition to this little debate-by-proxy style of government that is being developed. I can already tell I’m going to love the machinations and posturing. Fused can abandon their host bodies at will? So much for half the ideas I’d come up with for human tactics. The song is blocked from Leshwi’s interpretation by Odium. That’s not good. I do wonder, now--are all of the Voices in envoyform? Singer name for Alethkar is Avendla, which translates to “Land of the Second Advance.” Does that mean it was the second place where humans expanded out of Shinovar? Or is it something unrelated to that conflict, more internal to the listener/sleepless/(other Aimian) history prior to the incursion from Ashynn? I’m especially curious about how the “tones of the world” (which I interpret to mean the rhythms) play into the oaths and bond. Obviously they’re just teasing us with that information this early in the book. I’m hopeful that we may get more in the course of the book titled “Rhythm of War,” though. The teleporters are called “Nex-im,” “Those Ones of Husks,” which is very evocative of the shells they leave behind when they jump to new locations. Good to hear that there aren’t a ton that exist, since teleporters are always going to be hard to deal with. I’m curious why they are referred to as the ninth brand of fused. Is that simply because of the order they awakened? Or is there a hierarchy of some sort? It can’t be a realmatic sequence, as moving around the double eye for Radiants, because there’s a gap and the Nex-im shouldn’t be anywhere near that terminus. Ooo. Lezian is obviously lying, but he’s saying that Fourth Ideal Radiants won’t be susceptible to stormlight suppression? That’s very cool, and implies very interesting things about the next step of the bond. Does it take them a step closer to Heraldry/Fused mechanics being sustained by the shard directly rather than needing everything to come from environmental sources? Lezian trying to shoulder in on Leshwi’s rivalry with Kaladin is not going to end well for him. It will take a while, but Leshwi isn’t going to be happy sharing that relationship. What kind of a rhythm is Withdrawal? That is not a readily interpretable emotion for me. Well, we know what Kaladin is going to be up to for a few chapters. Crucial information! Thank you, Leshwi. I feel like we know a lot more about how Desolations worked now. Most significantly, there was no expectation for the Heralds to immediately return to Braize back at Aharietam. They could have stayed for years before going back. It’s notable that the decision was made as early on in the process as it was, rather than have them waffle about it and discuss for a long time before deciding, “You know what, it’s nice here and things are going well. Let’s stick around.” Nice parallel to the Heralds talking about getting worse in their vices and obsessions. Perhaps manias is a better word. Those are very formal words for calling dibs on your boy toy, Leshwi. I like that this is happening now. Best frenemy ship! (Should it be Kalashwi? Leshwadin? Mile High Club?) Well, Raboniel has an ambitious plan. And, knowing the way Sanderson plots things, I’m expecting it to succeed at least partially, and have Urithiru cease to be friendly territory to the humans. It seems way too early in the series to be denying them that fortress. It also is interesting that the Sibling is called “essentially a deadeye.” To be fair, any mention of the Sibling is going to be interesting because we have no actual information, but still. “Lady of Pains” is a very disturbing title for a supposed scholar. I’m not sure that “Lady of Wishes” is actually an improvement, with that context. This speech right here is very… “humanizing” is obviously the wrong word, given that this race is at war with the humans, but take it in the literary sense rather than the literal. The rhythm at the end where Leshwi is self aware is the real clincher that keeps this from feeling didactic. Why is Vyre in this meeting? What the heck? (Though I do like him sticking up for Kal, in his very very twisted way.) Looks like Venli and others are also confused about why he’s allowed in, but the higher ups are in agreement about how to use him--or at least under orders from Odium. A great framing of the stakes for the Fused, though not for the listeners/singers as a whole. Naturally, Raboniel doesn’t recognize that their own flawed immortality might be the piece that needs to give. Nice! This is the scheming and posturing I was looking forward to. Leshwi plays a longer/deeper game than I was expecting. I’m really excited to see how this “alliance” plays out. I’ll note that I was expecting a very different style of meeting, with the Voices more prominent than simply announcing their masters. This version is less intriguing and entertaining, but it does make a lot more sense and also forces any ambitious singers into opposition with the Fused rather than trying to control things in their names / under their noses. Awww! Best boss ever! Leshwi is definitely set up as the most sympathetic and promising of the Fused forces. I’m going to be heartbroken if/when Venli approaching her backfires and forces them into opposition with each other. Oh, I spoke too soon. Venli brought it up right now! And Leshwi supports her! Hooray! Definitely best boss. And here comes the comedy of errors part of the book. No, Venli, that is not how you make good plans. But I sure am going to enjoy watching you try this! Kidnapping a Willshaper (i.e. the order most focused on freedom, wanderlust, and bucking authority) can have no downsides whatsoever.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 13 (Another Hunt) Title: Is this a Ghostblood chapter? I want a Ghostblood chapter. Epigraph: Did we see any flamespren in their shadesmar forms? Did they appear more divisible, either by being composed of multiple parts or by being more symmetric? I wonder what happens to spren that aren’t susceptible to splitting in this fashion. Does the attempt to do so injure them at all? Have the artifabrians left a trail of disgruntled, dismembered spren in their wake? (EDIT: checked the coppermind. Flamespren were not described in shadesmar yet) Okay, so it’s been three or four weeks since I read the previous chapter (sorry for the delay, if there is anyone actually anticipating new posts), and I initially forgot about the context here. I thought this was referring back to Shallan’s own wedding, and while I loved the image there I was rather confused. Why would Veil be participating at Shallan’s own wedding party!? Obviously, that’s not the case here, though. Just a callback to what will have been the previous page in the published version. Moving on… Okay, the politics are interesting here. I’d forgotten that they’d parceled out Urithiru to the various highprinces, but it makes sense for an initial rough agreement. HOWEVER, it’s been over a year now, and Urithiru is hardly an Alethi-only emplacement. Are allies from Thaylenah and Azir getting regions of the tower for their embassies or colonists? Are there ambassadors and colonists on location, or do they just use the oathgates to travel for all of the meetings? In addition, we’ve heard about several assassinations of highprinces. Are there still ten functional divisions of Alethi, or have some of those houses devolved into a defunct state? Um, how blatantly does she shift personas? What are the rumors surrounding the newest Brightness Kholin? Well, that message is successfully foreboding. I feel like I have way too little context to speculate on who that is from or what they have done to arrange this mysterious deal. (Still holding out for Ghostbloods, but I’m not confident.) Shallan visiting her brothers to draw and pretend she’s just the little sister again is pretty adorable. That is next level artistry right there. I’m not aware of any artists that can actually do that. Hmm. That’s interesting. There’s something exploitable there in the realmatic sense, but I’m not coming up with anything at the moment. (Also, way to change the mood of the scene in just two sentences! Charming nostalgia and wistfulness to creeping fear and sorrow.) Dun dun dun! Yes, Shallan. All three of you are just fine. Yup, absolutely fine! Yes, that’s interesting, but look at the bolding. “A Urithiru room,” not “an” ? Have I been saying it wrong? Oo-ree-thee-roo, the way I say it (yes, I have no idea how to properly denote pronunciation, sorry) would require “an” here. Please tell me it isn’t supposed to be You-ree-thee-roo. Adolin, your wife is thinking about you! I’m glad she made that connection in her mind, at least. The slaves and servants have been taken for granted for a long time, and that’s part of what’s causing this war. Better to acknowledge it than start putting blame on modern conveniences. I love the shift in body language and priorities, in attention and comfort, when she becomes Veil. These really are unique personalities, not just partitions of expertise. And Mraize is right there, waiting for her to figure out his plan. He’s so slimy and competent and such an awesome antagonist--especially since we don’t even know his actual goals yet (though Shallan has some good ideas in this chapter that are at least partially on track). It’s hard to remember sometimes that Iyatil is his babsk, and may be in place to outmaneuver Shallan if she ever does get the better of Mraize. I think this is the first instance of coldspren? Upside down icicles, I guess? (EDIT: checked the coppermind--we saw them previously in OB) Mraize’s cover name is Gobby? I hope he gets mocked for it. Hmm, Mraize has some sort of investiture or life-sense. I wonder which system it uses. I’m going to speculate it’s a Heightening from Breath, but there are a lot of possibilities. Mraize’s chicken is trained. I guess I should have expected that, but I was focused in on whatever benefit (shielding, probably?) it provides rather than an actual functional resource beyond what could be gained from an inanimate fabrial, for example. (Aside: Thinking of fabrials and if that was actually an option for Mraize given the nascent state of the industry, I remembered that the Ire in Secret History had one that was impressively advanced even for modern Roshar, and that was a few hundred years ago. It didn’t match what we would have expected from the old style of fabrial, like soulcasters, so someone has been doing fabrial research independent of the current Rosharans. How does this timeline square with the various factions being active on Roshar, or with the mysterious threat that Navani received a few chapters ago? We probably won’t know for a long time, unfortunately.) Wow, Mraize was working really hard for that “are you a mole?” line. Send your chicken to catch a specific type of rodent and return in time for a dramatic delivery. That has got to be more work than it’s worth, especially since Veil already noted that he’s not as good at presentation and inhabiting a role as she is. His little theater is probably wasted on her. I do think it’s interesting how much Mraize grasps of the dynamic between Shallan’s multiple personas. Has she told him any of it, or is everything from close observation and his elusive spy network? I’m disturbed by how he’s using that knowledge to manipulate her, tempting out different aspects to deal with them because the current aspect isn’t giving him what he wants. The mole metaphor works for a lot more than spying. Humans being transplants to Roshar; Shallan’s vulnerability in the Ghostbloods; promises of hidden knowledge. Good grief there are conversations with layers, and then there is this. Mraize is so delicious in his threats and temptations! I do note that Mraize didn’t realize that Veil had switched to Shallan, (at least he hasn’t yet… we’ll see what happens in the rest of the conversation). So she has at least a little bit of an edge still. I believe Mraize when he says their immediate goal is securing Stormlight for treks through Shadesmar, but he is very frustratingly obfuscating what they will do when they have that supply line of investiture. Huh. He is explaining a lot more than I thought he would, at this point. Let’s see what else he reveals. I’m intrigued that the stormlight itself is bound by its connection to Greater Roshar. We knew from various WoB extant as of the last book that spren would have difficulty traveling away from the planetary system, and we saw that with the character in Secret History, but he was much more heavily tied to the world he came from. I would have thought that the light itself would be more portable, to use Mraize’s term. He’s already solved the problem? What the heck!? That span-reed message was from Sja-anat? How did she send it? What was the chain of messengers that led to that communication? I am baffled. Given Mraize’s insistence on finding a (corrupted) spren to bond with, I presume his solution is to have an individual with attunement to multiple types of investiture manually convert one flavor to another (e.g. Stormlight to Voidlight to Breath), and being the person with that ability would allow him to personally control the traffic. Gavilar physically went to Braize in order to carry it back? When did he possibly find the time to do that? It must have been while Dalinar was fighting in Herdaz, I guess? How did Gavilar get the clues and the ideas needed to make that trek? We think he was getting the same visions that Dalinar did and just interpreted them differently, and we know that at some point the Heralds were working with him, but he was misguided enough (exhibit A: Sons of Honor) that he can’t have actually been trusting the Heralds much. Also, who was close to him that is still around and isn’t a herald? It’s not Vargo, is it? Because he’s capitulated by this point and isn’t pursuing anything with respect to cornering the stormlight economy, so far as I can tell. Ah, Restares. Looks like we will get some Shallan backstory for sure. Helaran drama and memories inbound! The fortress Lasting Integrity--I guess now we know what the tower in the cover art is! At least it’s home to the honorspren, not the highspren. That would be a lot more awkward. I’m not sure why the honorspren are harboring someone who founded the movement to bring back Odium and the Unmade, though. Seems like a failure in judgement to me. Good job, Mraize. “This is your last job. Succeed, and I give you everything!” That’s not a red flag at all. Wow, that may be the biggest lie Shallan has told herself yet. The only reason Pattern didn’t break in with “Mmmm, delicious lies” is because she didn’t actually say it out loud.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 12 (A Way to Help) Title: Kal looks for a new job. Epigraph: Yeah, industrialization is not going to work as well when everything is locked up in trade secrets and fabrials are designed specifically to make reverse engineering them more difficult. Then again, without a system of intellectual property protection you may have a hard time encouraging artifabrians to contribute to the Kholin war machine. Because that’s what this plea is going to look like to anyone without all of the insight we get as readers. --- Rock has moved on to “something else” that even Kal doesn’t know about. I want the secrets of the Unkalaki! I wonder what that means with Rock’s daughter serving as Windrunner ground support. Are there familial associations to be avoided due to Rock’s (alleged) birth order? Or do his children get their own roles and taboos independent of him? That is a kind of sad moment, where he realizes (or at least reflects on the fact that) with everyone graduating to other groups “Bridge Four” doesn’t really exist any more. They all still belong to it in name, but it isn’t a cohesive group so much as a memory of what they were before. The major hallways have (locked) sphere lanterns. Kaladin is definitely seeing a different side of the tower city than Veil. Kal is wondering what he could do when he’s retired from being highmarshal. I want to say “Go be a surgeon!” but that’s not going to satisfy him any more, and it doesn’t use his nahel-granted abilities. With Edgedancers and Truthwatchers being able to heal, a Windrunner surgeon would be a sad Radiant. Kal just had his breakdown, which summons exhaustionspren (we’ve seen these before) and agonyspren (these are new). First, agonyspren being “upside-down faces carved from stone” is fascinating with the cultural association of Taln, patron of the Stonewards, being the “bearer of agonies.” Did the appearance of agonyspren change after Aharietam? I’m going to guess yes. Second, Kal remarked earlier that Rock usually had a better sense of Kal’s mood, and he even attributed that in part to Rock being able to see Syl and her reactions to things. But if the exhaustion and agony spren were tagging along behind Kaladin, drawn by his suppressed emotions but not yet manifesting in the physical plane, there is a very good chance that Rock could see them already and thereby judge a person’s true emotions. I wonder whether there are any indications that Horneaters are known to be particularly insightful by outside ethnic groups, or whether Unkalaki culture has a different emphasis on revealing vs suppressing emotions. We already know that the existence of spren that respond to emotions has impacted cultural norms across Roshar, but the Unkalaki have the potential to be an extreme case. Then again, Rock’s ability, while not rare, is hardly ubiquitous among his people. I don’t remember what he called it, but I got the impression that it made him special. Syl to the rescue with Best Bud Adolin! That’s not how I was expecting this scene to go, but it’s awesome. The similarity to “blow someone off” is uncanny valley levels of similar to our idiom. It makes sense, and I can see how it’s different in meaning, at least in nuance, but still. Brightlord Master Highmarshal Stormface is a great nickname. Has he been talking to Lift? Probably not, she’d have thrown in something quite a bit less complimentary. Surely there are more than the three Kholins who are immune to Kaladin’s intimidation factor? Maybe not. Nice of Syl to not bother Jasnah and get Kal killed. --- Interesting that the regulated market of the Ten Rings is strictly middle class establishments, since the high class ones didn’t want oversight any more than the seedy places. As obvious as it seems, I’m not sure I would have thought to predict that outcome. I’m fairly surprised that the winehouse named itself “Jez’s Duty.” That casual name for the Herald seems a strange fit for a reputable but not upscale shop. Maybe I’m just attributing too much reverence to the Alethi culture. ...drinking Horneater mudbeer. MUDBEER? Please come up with a more appetizing name for that. Who’s idea was this? And Veil is here. This should be fun. Kal’s grass-is-greener moment of envying Shallan’s multiple aspects is cringe-inducing. First for the obvious lack of understanding, but second for the horrible image of Kaladin trying to deal with the split personality thing. He would be even worse at it than Shallan, and everything would be on fire. Veil sticking up for Kaladin to the waitress is a nice way to show their friendship. I like it. Oh, but apparently Kal isn’t happy about it. ..oh, wait, it’s Kal. Of course he isn’t happy. About anything. Ever. Radiant tells Kaladin about the unformed personas waiting to cause problems because he’s Shallan’s friend. That is so sweet and affirming, while also being creepy and concerning. I am so glad that the Three are a thing in this story. As I said before, I am super invested in their progress. Pattern’s crack about birthing children almost killed me. That is the best joke in the book so far. Way to flip the dynamic, Pattern! I can’t stop laughing at this, especially at the idea that he’s being serious. I figured the liespren would have picked up on some of this stuff after hanging out with Veil for over a year. I sympathise with Kaladin’s discomfort during the matchmaking. I’m going to want an explanation for that. Veil’s back and forth with Adolin about Dakhnah’s figure is hilarious. “I’d have to eat six chulls” indeed. The relationship dynamic is, once again, awesome. Adolin and Kaladin talking frankly about mental health issues? This is something that needed to happen and I’m really glad it did. Good to see they are looking out for each other and for Shallan. Wit is still around? I’d have expected him to gallivant off somewhere by now. With Veil, Radiant, and Shallan swapping around in public like this, and talking about each other openly, I wonder how widely their situation has spread by gossip or spy ring, and how it is misrepresented. We just heard that the whole city is talking about Dalinar’s book Oathbringer, even though it’s not finished yet. These people are the celebrities and political powerhouses of the world, so they will be the focus of both social observation and targeted surveillance. Is Veil still sneaky at all, or unexpected? Rock is going back to get his punishment for taking up a weapon. I’m very unsure about how that is supposed to work, since we all know that Rock was not born in the order her claims, and I’m pretty sure that deception/rejection was part of why he was selected for the group that went to the Shattered Plains. Be that as it may, we’ve had ample foreshadowing in this conversation that Rock’s “punishment” will be to get thrown in the lake. The one conveniently sitting on top of a singularity leading to Shadesmar. I don’t know whether we’ll see him again in this book, but we will absolutely be seeing more of him. I can’t decide if he’s destined to be part of a worldhopper envoy or if he’ll be arriving to save the day with knowledge and recipes learned from the spren.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 11 (Passion and Courage) Title: I’m immediately looking at this as a reference to the Passions (thus a Venli chapter or a focus on the forces of Odium), but in the last chapter Dalinar very conspicuously called Kaladin passionate as a compliment. This just after Vyre’s emotional emptiness is shown to be an exploitable weakness seems to emphasize that Odium’s forces are robbed of their passion. So this could well be a reference to something else. None of the Heralds have a particular association with courage, as far as I remember, so probably not a specific order of Knights. Epigraph: Iron=pulling, is anyone surprised? This is an obvious allomancy connection, but the feruchemical association with gravity/mass could also be a worthy connection to make. The fact that the Rosharan artifabrians haven’t yet discovered the complementary metal is interesting, perhaps suggesting that they don’t have the capability of creating (the appropriate alloy of) steel. Speaking of which, have any of the metals mentioned so far in these epigraphs been alloys or have they been pure metals? I’ll go back and check … So far we’ve had zinc/brass, bronze, pewter/tin, and iron. It’s not surprising that iron is known while steel hasn’t been tried, but the odd one out here is definitely bronze. How do they discover the alloy before the base metal? Have they not dried regular copper, or have we just not gotten to the epigraph that talks about it yet? I also wonder whether the requisite alloys are as demanding/restrictive as those for the metallic arts. Do the percentages have to be exact for the fabrial to function? If so, that may be another indicator of the sort of developments that won’t occur until there is greater cross-pollination of knowledge from worldhoppers to/from Scadrial. Getting information about the exact composition needed to make fabrial cages sounds like a huge leg up on the research front. This could well be another hint of why the next Era of Mistborn needs to be written before we get the back five Stormlight books. ---- Oh, look it is Venli after all. I shouldn’t have second guessed myself on the title. See, this is where those chapter header art pieces would be useful. “The lady returns” is probably a reference to Leshwi, but I didn’t think Venli was working for her. It’s not like Brandon can’t introduce another singer/Fused character at this point, obviously, but of the people we know so far, Leshwi is pretty much the only choice. Well, that’s certainly a loaded phrase. Let’s see just how deep the layers of deception have formed in the past year, shall we? “Shanay-im” is that a word we knew before? I don’t think so. I presume it refers to Fused and/or regents. (Is that the word we used for higher forms that don’t overwrite a singer’s mind? I don’t recall. Pretty sure it started with an R.)....Ah, nope it was Regals. That sounds much better. Thanks for the reminder, Venli. Venli has a scepter. Huh. I wonder what significance has been attached to that, and whether it is a feature borrowed from a human culture or something instated by Fused with their long memories. Above the Fused in hierarchy are “mysterious creatures like the thunderclasts and the Unmade.” Looks like Venli isn’t going to infodump for us. Come on, Venli, why haven’t you been studying the fans’ questions this past year? Venli is in Kholinar. I was sort of expecting her to be on the front, or traveling around the continent to some of the disconnected populations, taking advantage of her envoyform abilities. Still, it’s been a year. She might have already done that and been recalled, or I could have just had a mistaken idea of her intended tasks. Good to know that your ruling class are all some flavor of insane. If they weren’t immortal, I expect at least one group of the singers would have cast them off by now. I’m fairly certain the process of creating an independent singer culture is going to be more difficult than that, though. (i.e. 6 books worth of difficult, including time skips). … and I just realized how that insanity comment is also applicable to the Heralds and humanity. Great. There are multiple methods of achieving longevity/immortality in the cosmere, but I think it’s safe to say that some of them come with significant drawbacks on the mental stability front. Yup, she’s serving under Leshwi. Oh, shanay-im was the word translated as “Heavenly Ones” before, rendered here as “Those Ones of the Heavens.” I’m going to have to learn a whole new set of singer and human names for the so-called “voidbinding chart” aren’t I? Wait, those topple-prone towers are individual penthouse suites for the flying Fused? That’s definitely crazy. Why would you want to do that? “I know what sounds like fun: getting right up next to the lightning and flying boulders during a highstorm! Experiencing it on the ground is just too tame.” Leshwi is uniquely sane--and she still wants the sky room. Awesome. Interesting that the Heavenly Ones are less affected by raving madness than the other “brands” of Fused. I wonder if we’ll learn a realmatic reason for that, or if it’s just a quirk to memorize? I wonder how many bodies Leshwi (and the other Fused) have gone through in the past year. Venli speaks of the transitions as something of a regular occurrence. That’s really pretty horrifying in the cultural sense, where at any moment the theological leaders may ask a random singer to sacrifice themself so that a Fused can reincarnate. It evokes the Hallandren gods in Warbreaker, but without the arguments about “it’s a privilege to give up my Breath, and it’s not really my soul so donating it doesn’t harm me anyway.” In this case, sure, you may see it as a privilege but it outright kills you. Looking into Shadesmar, huh? And that’s being attributed to the Willshaper powers here. I would have thought she could access that particular ability through her Regal form. We saw way back in WoK interludes that the listeners could see deeper into Shadesmar than humans, to the extent that spren appeared noticeably different to them. I presumed that greater degrees of investiture, such as a Regal form, would enhance that. Maybe it does, just not to the same extent? But I guess others can’t do that trick. I’m not sure why it would be visible to others when she does it, though, unless it actively consumes stormlight. As long as she doesn’t glow, she ought to be okay, right? Maybe voidspren can sense when someone uses stormlight? This does make me start to wonder how far Venli has progressed in her bond with Timbre in the past year. I hadn’t really considered that she might have spoken more ideals during the time skip. I guess we’ll find out. When she does advance in her oaths, will that alter her form at all? If not, is that because Timbre is trying to be stealthy? Will it make her more or less obvious in an investiture-sense way? When Kaladin advanced he seemed to use stormlight more efficiently, leaking less, which would be a good thing for Venli. On the other hand, it was always pretty spectacular, which would be less good. That could well be a Windrunner thing, though, since Lift was a lot more understated when she progressed. ...and Timbre immediately answers my question. Venli’s not a KR yet, not having spoken her second ideal yet. Oh no, creepiness intensifies. Is this “new recruit” being brought as a potential host for Leshwi? Ah, thankfully not. Venli is conspiring to get her own loyal network into positions of power. Interesting. I wonder what form the subversion is taking. “Stormsetter” sounds like a great job. “Your job is to clean up before the super hurricane so that nothing blows away. In the open-air penthouse. Good luck.” Hm. This whole translation business serving as Leshwi’s voice is quite cool… but it doesn’t really help sell the image of Leshwi as “super sane Fused who can talk normal.” It also makes me wonder if other Fused have an envoyform Regal to be their voice. Venli was very much a special case when she assumed this form, so I wouldn’t think so, but why waste a super rare interpreter on one of the more sane Fused who doesn’t need one? That sounds like a horrible system. This is not going to build the strongest of societies. The conversation about “did you kill your crush the evil Windrunner this time” is a lot of fun and does nothing to dissuade my shipping senses. Pursuer as a name for the teleporting Fused is fitting and ominous. A Thaylen tailor. That really just rolls off the tongue. I wonder if that’s part of what made Brandon create this character, or if he really just loves elaborate eyebrows. Oh, she doesn’t get the job. Will we see Yokska again in the story? (Is the penalty for failing the job interview getting tossed off the tower?) She picked a human for the job of “He Who Quiets,” and I really don’t know what that entails. All of my ideas from that job title are creepy. Oh, good. Yokska survives to teach the singer who will actually be Leshwi’s tailor. Leshwi floating off to meditate in the clouds really drives home that they are not limited by stormlight reserves in the way that Radiants are. She can just hang out indefinitely in the sky, and that’s all kinds of cool. Venli “thumped her scepter against the wooden floor.” How big is this scepter? I might need a description, because I was imagining something more club-sized, either along the lines of the European royal scepters that would be ~2 feet long, or the similarly sized but differently shaped items from Asia that Brandon based the Moon Scepter on for the Emperor’s Soul. Dul and Mazish following human (Alethi) marriage customs is sweet but also leaves a somewhat bitter taste. I like the metaphor Venli uses here of a cremling shedding its shell, but not until it outgrows it. It fits so well in meaning and also in context. Shumin swearing with the Alethi “Stormfather” is notable, but not surprising seeing all the other cultural absorption that has been shown. Calling Venli “Brightness” is more disconcerting to me, despite having that be the address for Abiajan back in chapter 1. That was in a town with a majority-human population, in contrast to the apparent center of singer power. I like that as a mission statement, Venli. It is the right flavor of empowerment to attract a wide base of support, and it lends itself well to spreading in the until-recently enslaved population of singers. This, on the other hand, is terminally stupid overconfidence. Good luck, Venli, if this is what you have to work with. It is good to see that I’m not the only one noticing the horror of the situation. Ayup. That’s… basically what I was thinking. Eeesh. Venli is generalizing to a disturbing degree. “All humans are the same. They and Fused only care about controlling others.” She’s doing such good work, though, I feel bad hoping that she’ll be more nuanced about it. Her position really demands a degree of absolutism. (Like the Assuredness movement! Callback!) Ooo, Venli gets to use both flavors of light. That’s almost as convenient as Lift getting to use food. More useful for the covert role Venli is taking, of course. It’s notable that voidlight can apparently fuel normal surgebinding, provided the user can invest with it. No further conversion between types appears to be required. I’d forgotten, or not really thought about, where Willshapers fall on the chart. The stone manipulation power was one I’d forgotten they had. It’s also fairly obvious that looking into Shadesmar isn’t the limit of her ability (at least eventually), though I imagine that more active use of that surge would draw secretspren when more passive use for just looking does not. Just like the Lashings vs. Lightweaving we observed in the last book. Mavset-im “Those Ones of Masks” are Fused that presumably use the illumination surge equivalent? Or do they physically take other forms through reshaping their own bodies? Workform comes from gravitationspren? That is not what I would have guessed. Time to make a new list, I suppose. Someone else will probably beat me to cataloging the forms and their associated spren, but I’ll note the ones we learn about to see if I can come up with anything useful. Preach, sister! All aboard for a road trip to Shinovar...Shadesmar...Ashyn...Braize...whole lotta nope. Scadrial maybe? Nalthis? (Silverlight?) ...First of the Sun? Oh, God Beyond that’s a terrible idea. Do not go there! You need a lot more chickens before anyone with the cognitive presence you have can possibly survive in that neck of the cosmere. Ah, here comes the nuance. Venli is recognizing the Fused are people with personalities and individuality. Does this actually mean that the Willshapers as an order will be fully or mostly composed of listeners? Is Timbre really representative of her type? Dun dun dun! Rhythm of Agony, huh? Good work, Leshwi. That’s how you make a properly ominous pronouncement.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 10 (A Single Casualty) Well, that’s an ominous title. Who’s gonna bite it in this chapter? Epigraph: Tin cage in this case is operating in its opposition to pewter, as a diminishing effect, rather than anything related to its allomantic or feruchemic properties. The next bit is also significant: This is making it sound much more complex with factors such as cage shape and contact points available to influence the outcome. This feels very much like early steps toward a computer-level fabrial device, similar to the sort of developments Brandon has foreshadowed for the Era 3 and Era 4 Scadrians. (Complete aside--do we get to use collective nouns for the various shardworld peoples in the cosmere? Because I really want to see characters talk about scads of Scadrians.) Who’s this guy? The one available honorspren that hasn’t accepted a bond yet? That’s my guess. What’s he doing hanging out on the Plains when the rest of the Windrunner contingent seem to be spending their time at Urithiru or various battlefields? I feel like this is a lost opportunity. Why couldn’t Kaladin have said this aloud so that Lopen or Teft could rib him about how unfortunate it was that he had to be familiar with that particular ugly face, while another member of Bridge Four says “why are you complaining? We’re the ones that have to look at it.” I’m just going to pretend this is a conversation that already happened sometime in the time skip. Yunfah is mad that Rlain is a supposed Windrunner candidate. I didn’t really think about that. We (the fans) have been rooting for Rlain to become the first listener Radiant since book 2, at least, but I hadn’t considered that the spren wouldn’t be on board with it. Makes sense, of course, but it’s an obstacle that I didn’t account for. I do like that Syl has to translate or relay messages from the other spren. When Yunfah first arrived I sort of expected him to just talk to Kal as the head of the Windrunners, which would have cheapened the importance of the nahel bond. Oh, wait. It says that she’s “acting as intermediary since the sound of the rushing wind was fairly loud.” So normally he could have just talked to Kal, if it were quite enough. Hmm. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how that is portrayed. At Syl’s advice, Kal just ordered Yunfah to try bonding with Rlain first. I really don’t know how I feel about that. Obviously Rlain deserves it, but he also deserves a companion who chooses him willingly. Interesting to see the ways that people are adapting to the dual storms. They still need the primary wall to the East, but the weaker Everstorm requires a bulwark as well. I’m more intrigued by the idea that lightning rods are protective against the Everstorm. Does Odium not ride the storm any more? I recall reports of unnaturally accurate lightning strikes when the Everstorm first emerged. That sort of magical aim isn’t something I would expect to be thrown off by mundane countermeasures. I feel very stupid for not realizing that Narak (you know, the place with the functioning Oathgate that is in near-constant use?) was the new center of commerce etc. at the Shattered Plains. Having Shallan’s recent infiltration taking place in the old Sadeas warcamp threw me off. Why didn’t Ialai relocate? Was it really just fear of the Ghostbloods? She was trying to stay in the fortifications she knew? According to Kaladin, Ash “dabbles” in delusion now and then. I’m not sure that’s the right word, Kal. The “showmanship” to display Dalinar’s new ability to read is interesting. Not particularly surprising, but definitely a move I wasn’t expecting. The politics have shifted. Dalinar is king of Urithiru, with no authority over other nations. No more highking business. (Still looking forward to seeing Jasnah as queen of Alethkar. Especially with the fact that most of that nation has been captured and occupied by the singers.) Dalinar: Flying is essential, so we need more Windrunners. More honorspren. Me: No, you need to convert the Skybreakers. Readymade flying army right there. Not that changing Nale’s mind will work, but Szeth might have a chance of swaying others among that group. (No, Szeth’s charisma is not his best stat. We might need to work on that.) Gasp. You are going to take Kaladin out of his role? Try to have him set down responsibility? That’s not really something he knows how to do. I am thrilled at this change/challenge for his character, but I have no idea how he will be able to move past it. Then again, it could be exactly the push he needs to be able to accept his fourth ideal about not being able to protect everyone. Seems like we’ve got the work of this book laid out for us. Harsh. That’s probably the only way to get through to him, though. And just like that Kaladin destroys his own argument. This whole exchange is just gold. Plus there’s the whole daddy issues bit at the end--Kaladin has disappointed Dadlinar just like he disappointed Lirin...so maybe it’s time to go repair the actual familial relationship and spend time with Oroden. Just a thought. Oh. Kaladin just told himself that he’ll never be ready for the fourth ideal, that he’s going to stop at three. I don’t believe him (we do have seven books left, and we know he’s a continuing character in the back five) but it hurts to see him give up and accept this as his limit. I would be a lot more inclined to cheer for Kaladin’s retirement from the front lines if it weren’t for the fact that just a few hours ago Moash told him that all of his friends were going to die. He will struggle even more with seeing them leave and fail to return, with those words ringing in his head. I’m pretty sure that this is the first instance of a native Rosharan swearing by the God Beyond. I’m curious whether this is an outgrowth of Dalinar’s anomalous visions where he sensed something beyond Honor, and he arrived at it independently, or if he has borrowed the terminology from the various worldhoppers or other cosmere-aware individuals gallivanting about. At least Kaladin is aware enough to head off that disaster before it happens. Dalinar giving Kaladin ten days to decide his next assignment is a nice parallel to the deadline Kal gave Yunfah at the beginning. I appreciate the way Kaladin is marked as the casualty of the chapter title, but that final sentence is a little too blatant for me. I feel like we would have figured that out. Well, at least anyone who reads the chapter titles would have. I’ve skipped those in the past, so maybe it’s not too much.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 9 (Contradictions) Epigraph: Pewter cages. Nothing revelatory here. I do wonder what a duralumin cage would do, since the pewter version seems to be a fast and hot expenditure of stormlight. Would it really be near-instantaneous? Is there a way to control such a device without the more mental control of allomancy or other internally directed magics? By extension to a related metal, is it possible to make a useful device using an aluminum cage? Presumably aluminum would resist the flow of investiture and be more of an insulator than a conductor. It’s most likely that it would be inert, useless in the way aluminum “gnats” are as mistings, but it’s worth considering any edge cases where the aluminum is in fact functional. --- Nice reminder that things are progressing outside of the protagonists. This depression sequence is difficult to read about, not because it’s sloggy but because it’s too close to home. Very well depicted. Nice to see that Teft is being the useful kind of supportive here, and that this family of broken people are covering each other’s weaknesses as well as they can. It’s not great, but at least everything isn’t falling to pieces. (yet) --- Is this regular engineer speak, or is there something in Alethi numerology to make evens “sublime” and/or sevens be undesirable? Evil fabrial has: four garnets, no (visible) spren, unknown metal, unfamiliar cut of gems. That’s not much to start theorycrafting. I’m going to take a stab and say that the metal is nicrosil, given that is the one that governs investedness / connection to one’s magical abilities in Feruchemy. The alternative would be duralumin, which is feruchemy for identity, since Syl reported feeling “less here.” Garnets are associated with Ash/Lightweavers, which doesn’t seem relevant, and the soulcasting element of blood, also not particularly relevant. Unless blood is symbolic here in terms of vitality? I’m unsure whether this is an indication that spren are strictly unnecessary, serving primarily as a shortcut to Rosharan developments, or whether it suggests spren that fail to manifest visibly when trapped. Hm. The cut of the garnets matches the Urithiru tower fabrial, indicating that the singers are using ancient fabrial tech rather than the modern (spren-reliant) version. We still don’t know nearly enough about the principles that differentiate the two. That’s not what I thought she was going to say. I thought “the opposite” was leading to a conclusion about localized enhancement of Radiant abilities and bonds, but a suppression of Fused would be a lot more in line with the purported reason for constructing Urithiru in the first place. Not that the two are mutually exclusive--there are a whole lot more than garnets in the tower fabrial, after all. That’s fascinating. My first thought was that maybe the Recreance didn’t just result in shardblades dropping--maybe Regrowth fabrials and Soulcaster fabrials were the dead spren of those orders. But there are plenty of reasons to think that’s not the case. We’ve seen dead blades appearing to belong to most of the orders; dead spren are pretty unmistakable in shadesmar and don’t match the soulcaster spren description; Dalinar saw Regrowth fabrials in use in his visions, so they predated the Recreance. But it is still significant that (if I’m reading this correctly) the soulcaster manifests as a single spren, despite having interchangeable gems, so it’s locked into the device in a different way. And it’s not made out of god metal in the same way that Oathgates are, unless there is a more malleable form of Cultivation’s metal that we haven’t seen. That’s an interesting parallel that I’m sure has been noted before, though--adding gems to Soulcasters to recapitulate aspects of their abilities, as compared to the addition of gems to shardblade pommels to make them summonable. The Urithiru elevators use a waterwheel for power. I don’t know why this is disappointing to me, but I feel like some of the magic has been lost. Glad to know they got upgraded though. I would definitely be more comfortable riding a Navani-certified elevator than a relic of the lost Radiants. More references to the Dawnshard novella. WHY CAN’T I READ IT YET?!?! Snerk. This is hilarious. I love your chapters, Navani. Thinking about Dalinar flying through the air-- if he tries to create a perpendicularity, does it travel with him a la highstorm mechanics, or is it anchored in place? Awww. This is a lot of helpful details. I feel like I should go start calculating travel times using the continental map of Roshar, and then extrapolate to more conventional (not Bondsmith aided) travels. But that sounds like a rabbit hole not worth diving into until it becomes specifically relevant, at which point someone else will probably have done it already. So for now I’ll just mark it for future reference. Ooo, hidden spanreed ruby. Intrigue! Suspense! Who is trying to contact Navani? Movies have trained me to expect explosions from blinking red lights. Are they really just waiting for a reply? I also admit to being intrigued by whoever thinks that Navani is the worst problem Roshar has at the moment. There are a few (hundred) other issues of the day that would easily top her on a list if I were to put one together. Oh, okay. I’ll buy the unintended disaster of magical ecology approach. Not buying that it’s an immediate threat, compared to the Everstorm, but yeah. I’ll hear you out, mystery person. Fascinating. The “not anymore” (and the ranting) makes me think of a herald, though there are other options. Running down the list: The male heralds and Ash are all accounted for. There’s a popular theory that Chana is the assassin Liss, and this doesn’t seem to match what little we know of Liss, though Chana is associated with “spark and soul” which could fit an obsession/interest in spren. Vev, patron of the Edgedancers, could have gone crazy in a “listen to the rocks” sort of way, an exacerbation of her virtues rather than a subversion of them. However, I put a little too much trust in the substance of this warning to jump to that conclusion. Pailiah is associated with the virtue of “Learned,” so stopping scientific progress might fit. Battar is patron of the Elsecallers, most able to travel to and from Shadesmar. So far I’m liking Battar as the mystery pen pal, but we really haven’t narrowed it down much at all, and there’s no reason it has to be a herald. --- Back to Shallan. She probably hasn’t managed to look at Ialai’s notebook yet, but I did realize that it is probably going to be the source of the next set of epigraphs. That should be fun. Well, a set of epigraphs. We still need to learn about the in-world Rhythm of War, which probably heads the chapters with more Venli in them. I’m betting that is part II, and possibly IV as well, so Ialai’s notebook will be III. Unless that’s where the newest letter goes, in which case the notebook might not show up until part V. Yes. Tell me more about how these aspects are affecting your relationship. Adolin won a ton of respect from me for being willing to take that on directly, largely on Shallan’s terms but imposing his own boundaries for prioritizing her over Veil and Radiant. How has that developed in the past year? Yup. Absolutely stable. Nothing going wrong. Also, gotta say that the bar keeps rising for whenever her past actually gets revealed. I’m largely expecting to be disappointed and think “that’s it? That’s the big deal?” when it finally comes out. Sanderson has his work cut out for him in making it impactful after teasing us for 4 books. Stonefalls. That’s a new one. I’m not really sure what to do with that in terms of categorization. I’ll just add it to the list for now. The capitalization makes me wonder if it’s a proper noun. Really? I got the impression from the end of OB that she planned to tell him, but not Jasnah. Maybe I’m misremembering, or maybe she went back on that idea. But it looks like she’s about to tell him after all? Adolin getting confused about all the different secret societies is kind of funny. I sympathize, and it’s good to get a recap along with this character moment. This is a great metaphor, and fits Shallan very well for the POV. Oh. A list of shard worlds in Ialai’s book. That… we already knew very definitively that they were world hoppers, but it is interesting to have that knowledge pop up right in front of one of the main characters, even if they don’t recognize it yet. It puts me in mind of some comments Brandon has made about the order in which certain series must be published, and it makes me wonder what the characters will be getting up to in the time skip between the front and back five stormlight books. If they are stumbling on the wider cosmere already, I’m going to bet that there is some world hopping that gets undertaken before book six rolls around. Looking for allies and/or magical solutions, probably? Shallan say’s they’ll give the notebook to Jasnah “eventually.” I know she’s trying to keep the Ghostblood thing secret (and I think I support that choice in this instance) but I do wonder if those place names are things Jasnah already encountered on her jaunt through Shadesmar during WoR, and she would be able to give them answers a lot more quickly. Ooo. Not good. Ha. Nice. I’m not sure that’s the correct metric to be using. You might want to figure out something else to judge yourself by. Glad to hear we’ll see Mraize soon, though. He’s always interesting. I’m particularly curious to see which aspect Shallan uses to speak to him, and which she uses for advice. My guess is that Shallan will be front and center with Veil the primary advisor, but we’ll have to see. Pretty much any of the permutations could work, since she’s displayed multiple faces and guises for him already.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 8 (Surrender) Epigraph: Bronze for the seeking fabrials makes obvious sense. Heliodor is associated with (checks the cheat sheet) Ishar and the Bondsmiths, with a soulcasting property of flesh. It’s the obvious choice if you want to be alerted to people nearby, as we saw in Rysn’s interlude in Shinovar, but this epigraph confirms that you can use other gems in the same type of cage to detect other things. Just this bit of information drastically expands the range of effects possible with fabrials, since it demonstrates things can be added combinatorially. We aren’t just looking at an effect per gem type, as the theorizing around the WoK and WoR ars arcana posited, but rather an entire system of effects that is amenable to engineering and the scientific method. This justifies the field of artifabrication and makes sense of the slow progress there. It won’t be obvious how to arrive at a viable result when you have so many degrees of freedom. --- The suppressor fabrial made Syl feel “faded. As if I wasn’t quite here.” Sounds like a forced separation between the physical and cognitive realms. Two major questions: Is it specifically tuned to Honor’s investiture (and Cultivation’s, presumably) or is it a general effect? Would a Bondsmith-created perpendicularity overcome the effect for any Radiants in range? Keepin’ it classy, Syl. This really doesn’t seem like a reliable approach to navigating dark areas. It’s the second time they’ve used it in the past three chapters. I’m not sure whether this is just an instance of Brandon exploring a mundane usage for phenomenal powers, or if he’s setting us up for a “don’t glow in the dark if you want to avoid getting eaten by a greatshell” moment. Or possibly a “you used up your stormlight battery walking around in the dark, so now you can’t do magic” moment. And here’s the Moash ambush. (Incidentally, Vyre is still a terrible name, and the renaming at the end of OB was a mistake. More complaining likely as we see more of him.) The knife isn’t glowing. Is it a normal knife, or is it the special one that killed Jez? Has Kaladin just not noticed? Moash is surrendering? Well crap. Yet another person willing to exploit the Windrunner’s sense of honor. This can not bring anything good. --- As frustrating as it is to basically have Shallan pick up where she left off, it actually makes a ton of sense that she would plateau for a while (possibly a full year, until a conveniently timed sequel could start up) before progressing again in her truths. Having Veil point this out specifically is a good move. Red and Gaz are trying to banter! Shallan really has corrupted them. Squires indeed. Gaz has two eyes now? I wonder if that has improved his mood at all. He sure seemed to focus his paranoia on that encroaching darkness back in WoK. The wine is definitely an offworld import. Adolin is identifying it as Shin, but we all know that just means foreign enough to be familiar to Earth-bound readers. Don’t we all, Pattern. Don’t we all. Oh, I was wrong. Just a Shin wine (probably) that was the key to the puzzle box of a room. Nice description of the puzzle solving without devoting too much wordcount to extraneous descriptions, though. --- I feel dumb for having forgotten Roshone’s role in what happened to Moash. In the previous scene I was reading it as a challenge to Kaladin-- “look what you should be doing; I’ll force your revenge to supersede second chances.” It wasn’t that subtle. This was Moash executing the target of his own grudge, who happens to also be someone Kal hates. He was taking his chance at revenge before Kal could rescue him to a less accessible place. Then again, it’s been a year. I have a hard time believing that Moash couldn’t have tracked Roshone down in that time. This was still a targeted message aimed at Kaladin more than it was an act for Moash’s benefit. This is scummy and insidious and exactly the right spot to hit Kaladin if you want him to stay down and out of your nihilistic way. ...or you could be going for a “join the dark side” recruitment speech. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that might be overextending a bit. This is sounding less like a recruitment now. Eeesh. Well, that sets up this character conflict pretty definitively. This light that just exploded into the room. Is that Dalinar doing Bondsmith things? Is it Syl pulling an awesome rescue? Afterimage, like Szeth’s. WAIT, IT’S RENARIN! Has to be. This has Truthwatcher written all over it. He can’t make illusions like Shallan, but he can sure illuminate underlying truths and possibilities, paths not taken. There’s a reason Glys isn’t a cryptic. So can this cut through Odium’s passion-stealing gimmick because Glys is a turncoat, or could any Truthwatcher have pulled this? Yup, it was absolutely Renarin. Called it! Not really anything else it could have been short of a Stormfather interrupt. Or maybe Herald shenanigans, since apparently they have six more books worth of abilities we don’t know about. Or… I guess there are other possibilities. But it was Renarin.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 7 (The Rarest Vintage) Just a guess that this title is hinting at my hidden larkin prediction for the Ialai scene. Endangered animal all but relegated to myth = rare vintage. Epigraph: zinc and brass as opposing metals. I wonder where I’ve seen that before… Interesting that they influence the strength of the spren’s effect, when a subset of spren are manifestations of emotions, and the metals correspond to rioting (stronger effect) and soothing (weaker effect). I do wonder how that works--nobody is burning the metal or actively pushing investiture into it a la allomancy. Does the metal channel the stormlight somehow? Or is there an inductive effect analogous to magnets and electrical current, such that the infusion or expenditure of stormlight from the gem causes a flow of investiture through the metal, resulting in the realmatic effect. Actually, I really like that explanation, and will headcanon it until further evidence arises. -- This Ialai is crafty. I want to see the bait she dangles. Everything she’s saying is carefully calculated for her actual visitor, under a deniability guise for the one she is supposed to be entertaining. I love this kind of political doublespeak and verbal maneuvering. I hope that Shallan realizes what’s being said in time, because so far she isn’t thinking about double meanings. Awww. larkin theory was wrong--it’s just wine (Unless the creature is hiding behind the bottles! There’s always another secret, right?) It’s a poor choice of terms to “infuse” wine with color, when that word is used for spheres and other important things. If I were to guess, it’s probably intentional on the part of the brewers to make the process more familiar and appealing. An “infused” wine must be more valuable, an indication of purity, just like infusing a gem. Complete manufactured desirability, but doubtless effective. I wonder if there are other uses of the term for marketing purposes. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen that formulation before as well, but I’ll add it to the list just in case. I’m unclear, though, on if this indicates anything with regard to Ialai’s loyalties and faith. I.e. regular Vorinism, Sons of Honor zealotry, etc. Okay, with a little bluntness Shallan clued in to the double speak. Pretty clumsy so far--hah. Even Veil agrees with me. Okay, the veiled discussion gets a little better. Not a lot, but a bit. Interesting phrasing. This sounds reminiscent of Elhokar’s paranoia from seeing cryptics everywhere he looked. Is Ialai on that path? Oooo, that’s fascinating! She’s not behind the deaths of the other highprinces. Who does she think is responsible? The Ghostbloods, perhaps? Did Mraize send Shallan to do this task in order to tie up loose ends and erase information? Is this Shallan’s chance to learn something Mraize doesn’t hand her? Shallan just came to the same conclusion. This is awesome! So we’ll maybe learn about the mysterious Restares soon. It sounds like the Ghostbloods are trying to monopolize interstellar travel and commerce, which doesn’t really make sense. There are other factions out there, and this group seems to be secretive, likely infiltrating other cosmere-aware groups. I’ve probably jumped to the wrong conclusion. Ialai’s “rarest vintage” comment--is she talking about an offworld import? I like that when they act in unity, they are The Three. That’s powerful, but also feels like a dangerous development with her aspects. Adolin’s first words being “which one are you” is a positive sign that they are working to make things possible in their relationship, but worrying that it is constantly necessary. Or maybe not constantly, but regularly enough to be a thing. I am having trouble remembering when we met Ishnah. If I haven’t recalled by the end of the chapter, we’re going to have to dip into the coppermind. Oh no! I was hoping that the person who murdered Ialai would be forced to expose themselves as a hidden agent of the Ghostbloods, but Shallan didn’t keep her eyes on the prisoner so now she has another murder mystery to solve. :-( So much for that potential clue. --- We’ve seen “Heralds send” before, including variants with individual heralds named, but this is the first instance of “Storms send.” I wasn’t expecting that interchangeability. The imagery here is a bit heavyhanded--Kaladin’s past going up in flames as he fights the Fused, and his powers are stolen from him. I have to say, though, the voidlight fabrial that snuffs out surges? That’s super cool. I want to know how it is done! Also, it’s not just surges that are suppressed, it forced Syl out of her shard form and back to simple spren. That is a really powerful trump card. I can’t wait to see that extrapolated to other situations. Kal fighting with just his spear powers (and stormlight boost, which apparently was not suppressed) to take down the singers and combat the Fused is a cool moment. Very fast action scene, and a demonstration of heroic competence. I like it. I think Kal made a new enemy, though. When that Fused returns in its next body, he will not be caught off guard as easily. I am curious about the limits of that suppression fabrial--it turns off active effects, but not the “passive” strengthening of stormlight. Which is a bit odd to me because that doesn’t seem like a particularly passive effect, in comparison to other passive effects we’ve seen in the past. I might have thought it would work like leeching, removing a store of investiture, but that’s not the case. I thought it might be targeting external effects, but some of Kal’s lashings are strictly internal. It must be something different than we’ve seen elsewhere. Lift stealing the hostage! Yay Lift. (I have to mention that I recently became an active participant of the Worm fandom, and one of my favorite fanfics involves Lift arriving in the world of Worm and doing Edgedancer things in that superhero setting. If that is of interest to you, I recommend checking out Leaf by Slavok.) (On a mostly unrelated note, the other cosmere-related fanfic that I highly recommend is a crossover between Era1 Mistborn and Young Justice. The main character is a Terriswoman whose backstory is more or less canon compliant and she is a delight to read. The story is by Obloquy and called Life Ore Death.) They captured the fabrial, so that’s a good thing. Navani will be very interested. Am I a little bit crazy that “an old lighteyed man in beggar’s clothing” made me immediately think of Hoid and wonder why Lift hadn’t recognized him? Turns out it was just Roshone, forcing Kal to put aside his prejudice and rescue someone he would rather not. --- Oh no. Oh no, oh no. You’re still doing this reality questioning thing? Shallan, this is a problem you would rather solve before the epic climax of Sanderlanche. Like, say, during a calm timeskip between books. Not that I would prefer that, but it would definitely be easier on you. It took us a shockingly long time to get an obscene body part referenced in one of these heraldic swears. Congrats, Nale, you get to be the first! New spren sighting: anxietyspren, “like a twisting black cross” Oh, right, that’s who Ishnah is. She volunteered herself during the tavern trip with the Horneater White incident. I’m wondering whether it would work to search all of the possible suspects in Shallan and Adolin’s retinue for the Ghostblood tattoo.That would presumably clear everyone and let her start thinking about invisible assassins or hunters with blowdarts. Not that failing to find a tattoo would reassure her, since she never actually gave herself one, as far as we know. (Not sure if she’d be able to, given Kaladin’s reaction to tattoos.) Speaking of that last, did the other Bridge Four members lose their tattoos and/or brands when they became squires or knights? I don’t remember that really being mentioned in Oathbringer, but it probably was. I seem to recall a lot of discussion about how unique Kaladin was or wasn’t in regard to viewing his brands as part of himself.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 6 (A Loose Thread) Epigraph: Confirmation that the type of metal is important to the fabrial effect. Glad that we have a term for the metallic portion of a fabrial now (“cage”). Our terminology has been seriously lacking in this department. Ooo, secret passageways inside the chasms! Sneaky, but that sounds like a real maintenance issue. Flooding would be atrocious. I hope not too many slaves died making these things or seeing to their upkeep. Something doesn’t add up. The tunnel was (according to Radiant’s speculations) constructed in the early years of the war on the Shattered Plains, as an escape route for Torol and Ialai. Yet, it was made by shardblade, something Sadeas had been wanting to acquire for decades. I don’t see him trusting anyone who had a blade to create his escape route. Maybe this is a construction by Amaram or his contingent, after arriving during the Words of Radiance events? Not sure when he would have had the time, but sure. I’ll buy that he carved some tunnels for himself to use in his pursuit of armageddon. That’s interesting. I thought that was the province of the Elsecallers. Maybe Lightweavers get a bit of it anyway, despite resonances supposedly being unique? Ialai blamed Dalinar for assassinating Thanadal? Probably prudent of Vamah to flee, whether he believed it or not. I’m betting Ialai would have made good on her “warning” either way. My money is on the hutch containing a surprise larkin that will expose Shallan’s infiltration, leaving her powerless. I’m not sure how she will get out alive in that eventuality, though she would still have Pattern if she’s to the point that summoning a Shardblade doesn’t break her psyche. --- Who is Nalma? I’m pretty positive that name has never come up before. Kaladin has an endless stream of people he thinks he’s failed, but Nalma isn’t one I recognize. Glad that the pattern of not finishing an opponent is taking shape, probably saving a ton of Bridge 4 lives in the future. I’m very glad to see that this is not a case of “let’s keep important secrets and not talk to each other.” Looking forward to seeing more about what Renarin has been up to in the past year. Reeaally? That’s interesting. I want to know more. Confirmation that only the Heavenly Ones are interested in the one-on-one duels. Other Fused apparently are happy to target civilians and less well-matched opponents. I wonder if that mirrored temperament to the Windrunners is realmatically related to the honorspren/windspren connection, and that the Fused with access to gravitation are fundamentally related? The alternative, that Leshwi and others of the Heavenly Ones faction have cultivated that culture of fair play independently of realmatic concerns. That’s possible, but I consider the parallelism more likely. I like that Rushu is being observant. I wonder what her involvement is going to be, beyond “brilliant scientist.” What was new? I can’t tell what she’s talking about. The tone was something she heard before, and she remarks on it here as an “again” thing, so she didn’t forget. What’s the new element? The Oathgates can take them to Shadesmar intentionally? That’s good to know. I wasn’t sure if the previous occurrence was simply a malfunction. Jasnah is keeping secrets from Navani about Shadesmar. I wonder what they are! So Navani is trying to connect to the Spiritual Realm, but nobody they’ve talked to (including spren) know enough to teach them about this. I wonder if they’ve tried talking to Zahel or not. (I also wonder if Zahel has moved on, trying to stay away from Azure.) Oh no! It’s Moash! Dun dun dun. Nice mutual respect moment with Leshwi, and her disgust with the brutality of the teleporting Fused is a good characterization moment. I was semi expecting her to lead him into a trap with Moash (or the other Fused) but it looks like her sense of fair play is more intact than that. Moash ambush coming up in the next engagement, though. Kal vs Mo with an interfering teleporter is going to be a difficult fight, especially since Kal was just drained of nearly all his light.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 5 (Broken Spears) Epigraph: Oh, interesting. I thought the spren would enter the gem, then be trapped there when the stormlight ran dry. Instead, it’s more like you create a sudden vacuum, pulling the spren inside. That can’t be a pleasant process on the spren’s side. Although, I really have to wonder who first discovered this phenomenon. Was this a chance discovery when a larkin was feeding and happened to capture a spren as a side effect? Was this something known by the early Radiants, with their use of stormlight? How old is fabrial science and where are its roots? In particular, how much does what they do now resemble the ancient types of fabrial? Soulcasters, regrowth, oathgates, and Urithiru’s mysterious tower mechanisms all appear to operate on quite different principles than modern devices. Actual developments in applying trapped spren for specific effects seem to have been an entirely recent phenomenon. I hadn’t thought that Ash would really stick around to tell them much. I’m very curious about how much they actually discovered in those conversations, and in what arrangements they made for Ash and Taln. 3 flights =54 members. Where does the numerology of 18 come from? I know we’re using 9 as the number for Braize (and/or Odium?) but why double it? Is there some other organizing principle here? Rock’s kids are around and contributing. Yay Rock! Hooray for the unkalaki! 50 Windrunner Knights plus 250+ squires is pretty respectable for only a year since Lopen and Teft figured it out. Almost all of the surviving original members of Bridge Four had bonded a spren by now, as had many of the second wave—those who had joined him soon after he had moved to Dalinar’s camp. Even some of the third wave—those who had joined the Windrunners after moving to Urithiru—had found a spren to bond. The “almost” sticks out to me here. Who from the original crew (besides Shen, presumably) hasn’t formed a nahel bond? I hadn’t thought about spren being a limiting resource, but it makes sense, especially since Windrunners are apparently the most numerous due to the “strength of squires” quirk, meaning that their population was among the hardest hit during the Recreance and the demand will be highest in the current resurgence. Huh, I like that word. “Resurgence” seems like a great term for the re-emergence of surges, nahel bonds, and the association of humans with spren. I’m going to propose it on the forums as a name for the current time period on Roshar. One-on-one combat? Duels in the air? That’s not at all how I expected this to play out. I can respect the use of traditional chivalry and honor, following the singer’s history, but in a war like this I would have really expected them to try formation tactics, etc. I’m interested in this rivalry Kaladin has with Leshwi. They haven’t actually started fighting yet, but I’m getting a strong undercurrent of respect and anticipation from Kal. Is this a pseudo-date? Do they seek each other out not only to test their own skill but out of a kinship? I don’t see this becoming romantic, but definitely a bond of some sort. Might come in useful (or be devastating) when the opportunity to team up against another threat arrives. The Heavenly Ones will perform “rare” lashings. I wonder why, and how those lashings (dependent on a single surge rather than the paired surges of Windrunners) differ from what we have seen. This is a strong counter to the Radiants. I like that their abilities and gear are asymmetric, yet still mostly balanced. It bodes well for future fight scenes. Yeah, he looks forward to these. Especially since the honorable nature of the combat means bystanders are not at risk until he loses. No sudden hostage situations, no massive collateral damage, just a contest of skill with high personal stakes. This sounds almost like what Kal wants out of life. Oh, Rock. Obviously he’s not fighting, and there’s a good chance that means he hasn’t tried to bond a spren. So he may be one of the original crew who remains at squire level. Looks like it’s mutual. She enjoys it too. This is a standard construction, which I’m pretty sure we’ve seen before. (I’ll confirm with my list.) However, it does make me wonder how these references will change now that they’ve begun to encounter (and interview) the heralds. I guess we’ll see. Kal, you are a judgemental prick. Let it go. (Okay, i can recognize that this is a bigger deal than just a grudge, but all evidence points to Roshone doing a good job with things after Kal and Tien left. Laral has been good for him, too. So even if you can’t let go of the grudge, you should at least open yourself to recognizing that he isn’t Amaram or Sadeas.) At this point the question is more about whether this is as obvious to everyone else as it is to the reader. Is Kaladin obviously in denial to everyone around him, or haven’t they noticed his fixation on the opposing general? --- Back to Shallan. Radiant watching her think on her feet. Let’s see some improv. Is this the previous person who infiltrated the group? The one who wasn’t high placed enough to confirm Ialai’s involvement? (Is it Vathah?) Selling war tech. That’s a good cover. Lots of holes to poke in it, but if you’re using it to poke holes in your previous cover, that’s messy enough it might get you by. Ah, nope. It was Red, not Vathah. And Adolin rushes in with the unwanted rescue. --- How’s that for an ego boost? “You are our training dummy. Thanks Mr. Stormblessed.” Rematch with the teleporter is… not happening. Just a quick appearance. Kal is bitter about the breakup :-( Poor Kal. Yes! Lift’s vocabulary spreads. It’s interesting to consider what a meme would be like in a place where ideas gain actual physical manifestations as they spread and take root. Will we see the emergence of new spren at some point in the series? WHAT? When did anyone go to Aimia? Will this be covered in the Dawnshard novella? Will we learn more about it here? TELL ME MORE! I must know. Yeah, he’s obsessed.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 4 (Architects of the Future) Epigraph: I thought you just said these methods were secret and proprietary. I guess you’re the queen mother and the lecturer, so you can disclose what you like. It does look like the speed of stormlight consumption/removal is important for entrapping the spren. Another mention of radiant abilities, this time lightweaving, as belonging to Shallan as distinct from Veil or Radiant. Last time it was the Memories, which could have been purely an artistic association, but it seems that it really is the realmatics of surgebinding that belong to the Shallan aspect. This back and forth with the three aspects trusting each other but disagreeing about certain things is simply delicious! “Kelek’s breath!” Once again, the most popular of heraldic curses makes an appearance. I really have to wonder how bad his morning breath was to be immortalized this way. Yes, Veil, focus on the important things. Hah! It’s nice that Shallan has an audience in her own head now, since she can snark and not get looked at funny for laughing at her own jokes. “Cremling with dark purple colorings”--nice to see the sleepless are photobombing again. See, that’s the scene we need. More Mraize! I was concerned when they pulled out the fabrial, but then Shallan was like “yeah, I designed that.” The multilayered con is great. She’s got this. Honestly, I kept expecting this to be entrapment, and they would try to expose her as a spy and stab her, forcing her to break out her radiant abilities. Looks like the failure point won’t be quite yet. Yeah, I was gonna say. Trying to use oaths to trap a radiant whose bonded spren is commonly known as a liespren? That’s not gonna work. I also really like the “Oh, you sweet soft breeze” phrase. I love Veil griping about how Shallan gets if she doesn’t spend enough time with Adolin. Why bother with soap opera drama when you can do it all internally? And Shallan is the best choice for direct action? I have concerns. But that’s the end of the chapter, so I guess we’ll find out later.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 3 (The Fourth Bridge) Epigraph: So unless the stormlight is removed, the spren has an escape route. Which is interesting, because we know that fabrials must be infused to function, so it’s not an easily reversible process. I’m not sure I’m ready to speculate on the mechanics of how removing the extra investiture congeals the spren into a frozen space, but there’s some very suggestive principles there that probably translate to fascinating applications in other magic systems. It’s also noteworthy that larkin have this link to fabrial production. The Aimian wars were probably not over scientific development or industrialization in any real sense, but I’m betting they impacted on those issues. It’s interesting to think about what other processes could remove stormlight fast enough to entrap a spren (a presume that speed is the primary concern). It makes me really want to see Navani conscript Szeth for artifabrian duties just so she can get access to Nightblood and its super efficient stormlight sink. A Navani chapter! Hooray! Fabrials ahoy. The description of trees as a phalanx is more martial than I would expect from Navani, but she has been involved in war for her whole life. It shouldn’t be surprising to me that she thinks in those terms. I’m a little shocked that Navani came personally to Hearthstone. That is not something I expected Dalinar to approve of, even if it’s her flying carpet that is making the trip. Oh, wait, nevermind. He’s there too. Of course they’d go on a date like this. Dalinar’s voice is “as steady as steel, as immutable as mathematics.” Yep, she’s an engineer. They say “platform” but it’s got 3 decks, 40 feet thick compared to 60 wide and 100 long. That’s called a box. 100+ engineers to pilot the thing, plus however many are operating things on the Urithiru end, all coordinated by spanreed. Not even written messages, they’re doing morse code as they blink them on and off. This is not an easily scalable undertaking. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome before Navani’s airship sketches from Oathbringer become anything close to feasible. Yeah, hundreds of men and chulls are working the pulley system on the other end. These will not be mass produced soon. No flotilla of warships on the horizon. Ooooo. Aluminum shielding to temporarily decouple the gem halves, or do so along single axes of force. That’s crucial and brilliant, yet straightforwardly simple at the same time. Glad she mentioned that, because it was going to be my next question. That’s going to take a lot of aluminum, though. Fortunately, it’s soulcastable (at least for creation--resistant to turning into something else) so they shouldn’t need to develop industrial refining processes to make this work. Navani doubting her accomplishments, since she is more project manager and patron than direct inventor for the flying ship, harks back to Gavilar’s disparaging comments in the prologue, and points to a need for fulfillment that I hope (and expect) her work beside Dalinar to deliver eventually. At the same time, it’s an interesting contrast to the patronage system of Earth’s European Renaissance, when the patrons would absolutely stick their name on any of the art or inventions that were developed. “Highmarshal” Kaladin. That’s the first time we’ve seen that title, I think? I don’t remember him being called that in the last book. Aww, the actual Bridge #4 was incorporated into construction of the flying Fourth Bridge. Very nice tribute. I wonder what kind of speed this thing gets. Airships probably don’t handle highstorms well, if I were to guess. They will want to get back to Urithiru as quickly as feasible. It will be far faster than they would be able to move overland, but it probably won’t exceed a max of 10-15 mph, at a guess. That is a slow pace to cross a continent. Unless they only need to get to an oathgate? That would make a lot more sense in terms of travel time. Just slide over to Jah Keved, then portal back home. “A dozen Edgedancers” YAY! Lift has friends. More people listening (especially since the actual listeners are singers now.) Kmakl. Don’t you just love Thaylen names? I’m not sure I totally get the politics of naming him “prince consort” to Fen’s “queen,” especially in context of the mercantile governance of Thaylenah, but the important information is there. Average speed of 5 knots. Google says that’s just under 6 mph (and Earth to Roshar units are wonky anyway, so ballpark is fine). That’s not too far off what I was expecting. Lirin meeting Dalinar...doesn’t know about Kal’s titles and social elevation. Navani thinks he’s just as judgy as Kaladin. At least Kal comes by it honestly. I’m really looking forward to Navani meeting Hesina. Is that going to happen this chapter? “Surgeons are obsolete. We have Edgedancer healers.” --not the best way to endear yourself to Lirin, or the most foresighted approach. You don’t want to become overly reliant on that limited resource, and you certainly shouldn’t take the flighty order of Edgedancers and try to regiment them into an army hierarchy. Yeah, they’re going to be flying for several weeks to reach the Shattered Plains, which… just gonna say that a flying barge is not super defensible when your enemy includes the flying Fused. This is going to be a slog--maybe not narratively, but for the people? Definitely. Dalinar is still doing his localized perpendicularity to infuse radiants and spheres. I thought that would be a special occasion thing, but I guess he can just throw it around as needed? Do you know something about the storm striders, Navani? TELL US!!! Dalinar is getting better at reading, likes to read his wife’s notes. “Bondsmiths might be related to the tower.” Yes, we know that! Does that mean you’ll be figuring out the answer and telling us in this book? Go Navani! I’m cheering for you. Yay research! Navani knows at least as much as we do about the Sibling. I like that she’s questioning what “death” means when applied to the Sibling, since there are multiple types of death for a spren. “Some spren she interviewed said...” I like that this is a thing. The Mink does dramatic entrances too, not just disappearances. I can see him playing off of Dalinar very well. This should be fun. I wonder what Shallan will think of him if/when they meet. Hi Lyn! Good to see you. Too bad you had to bring news of… how many Fused are in a “flight” anyway? Three flights sounds like a lot. Sounds like time for a fight scene.

I've gone ahead and created a site blog and started posting there. The blog feature of 17S is hidden enough that I generally forget it exists, so I believe the danger of someone stumbling upon it inadvertently and seeing spoilers is minimal. However, if the mods disagree I'm willing to delete it and find another solution.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 2 (Severed Cords) Epigraph:I wonder why the gem can't be fully infused. Does the Stormlight take up too much space that the spren needs to occupy? In addition does the Stormlight sustain the spren or merely make it more comfortable? (Side note: apparently my dictation tool recognizes “Stormlight.” That will be useful.) A Kal chapter? No, a Syl chapter! Huzzah! In the first book Syl was my very favorite character. That stopped being the case in books 2 and 3 for a number of reasons but I am looking forward to seeing some more from her perspective. Wait, was I wrong? I got my hopes up based on ambiguous pov phrasing in the first two sentences. Sad day :-( Just Kal again. Oh well. He is basically the primary protagonist of the front five books, so I shouldn’t complain too much that he gets some screen time. A “trickle” of new fused types over the past year. Surely that takes us past the nine expected total by now? Since we started with four or five at Thaylen field, right? Hm. Looks like they know the upper limit (Jasnah says 10, Dalinar says 9) so probably not. Maybe my memory is off about the battle, and I’m thinking of the various other non-Fused forms. Oh, he outright says he’s fought against seven types. Oooo, teleporter! This could be fun. Initially I thought that the spren was abandoning the Fused and was going to possess a different singer. That would have been a much more attritious mode of combat. And Kal gets slammed to the ground in the opening move. Not a good look, mister super-awesome Radiant. (Speaking of, has that word spread at all in the past year of people hanging out with Lift?) I have been asking this question since book 1! I’m glad to have an answer, even if it’s kind of an underwhelming one. So the teleporting Fused leaves a body behind, an empty shell that is porous stone. I wonder if that stone association is significant. More practically speaking, fighting one of these things will leave a lot of creepy mannequin bodies all over the place to spook civilians, and I can easily see an experienced Fused (or worse a group of them) using that ability in advance to prepare a battlefield with figures to hide among in order to ambush an enemy. Super creepy. It sounds like Kaladin has used this “infuse the Fused with Stormlight” trick multiple times before, and there doesn’t appear to be any interaction other than the usual resistance of an already invested object/being. Too bad. I was hoping for some level of Stormlight vs Voidlight shenanigans. Adolin is giving Syl fashion tips! I don’t think that was enough exclamation points. Let’s try again. Syl is asking Adolin for fashion advice!!!!!! I love it! Those fashion folios are coming in handy now, aren’t they. All of you who were making fun of the foppish side of Adolin are eating your words now, I bet. He is going to singlehandedly introduce modern fashion to spren society. Not just the queen’s nephew, or married to the best Lightweaver around, he’s also famous on his own merits as the fashion forward counselor to all of Shadesmar. (He’s okay with a sword, too.) .... What a great opening line to the next section. I wasn’t expecting a Shallan POV until the next chapter at least, so this will be good. It is also worth mentioning at the outset that my favorite part of Oathbringer was the Radiant-Veil-Shallan identity interplay. Yes, I’m one of those people. So it probably goes without saying that I’m thrilled her first appearance here is in the Veil identity, whether or not there are Ghostblood happenings to discover here. Wait, I get all three of them at once! Awesome! I can tell that the past year has done wonders for our girl’s mental stability. Ah, yes. The sign of things going well: your alternate personalities get along, and sometimes blur together. Oh, she’s infiltrating Sadeas’ warcamp. Are we finding out what Ialai is up to, or something more relevant to the greater war effort? “Luckmerches” selling glyphwards and charms. I like this word. Oh. She has Adolin (or at least soldiers he sent) as backup. This is just a regular sting op against slavers (presumably, given the prominent mention of the slave pens), nothing like actual spy work. Too bad. Ialai can wait, I guess. I think it’s significant that Shallan has to come out to take the Memory of the merchant to draw later. It’s not just something that Shallan could prompt Veil to do. I wouldn’t remark on it, except that Shallan’s Memories and drawings have that link to her lightweaving. It suggests something important about her identities tying in to her Truths and radiant abilities. Hmm. Not slavery, perhaps? Anti-Kholin resistance? Otherwise her remarks make no sense as added bait. Maybe she is being too obvious, and they’ve ID’d her? Ah, Sons of Honor. A good target to hunt. (And involves Ialai, now, if I recall correctly.) Unfortunately, with them appearing in the first Shallan chapter like this, suggests that they will be a long-term issue in the book, so answers will be slow to come. On the positive side, it does hint that we will actually learn more about them. Memories crowding to the front, Veil suggesting that Shallan remember them… This is my jam! I am so excited for her development in this. …. Syl mocking Kaladin about forgetting how to sleep is nice. And about being grumpy. That is an uncanny impression. How will anyone know which one is the real Kal? Oroden! I forgot about you. How did I do that? I feel terrible. At first I thought they’d somehow placed Elhokar’s son with Hesina, which would be absolutely moronic, (i.e. not entirely impossible in much of fiction). Glad to see it’s actually the little bro. Okay, this conversation about Kal’s dating life is great. Syl spilling the beans to Hesina… I want to see them having girl talk. Also, sad for Kal that things didn’t work out with Lyn, but Lyn probably deserves someone she can make happy and who can make her happy in turn. That’s not Kal. Looks like things are more strained between Lirin and Kal than I thought. This looks like it may take quite a bit of time to heal. (Pun was not intentional, but is so appropriate.) Wow. Okay, this is big. Like, ALL CAPS big. (Did I do that right? No?) Somehow the Herdazians have retained traditions involving all three Rosharan Shards in some form. No idea yet who they’ve conflated Kaladin with--a Herald, a shard, something else, but I want to learn more about what they remember in their legends. Even if the “you” who’s returned just means the Radiants in general, that’s significant to be something they remember… except that it’s been a year since the last book. This is probably just news spreading to the people that Radiants have returned and they are bringing hope. Still, that doesn’t change the “three Gods” comment. Hahaha! The Mink doesn’t just like escape artistry, he’s a regular stage magician. This is great. Who is “The Ganlos Riera” who couldn’t catch the Mink? IT’S NAVANI’S AIRSHIP! I didn’t think it would be ready yet. This is amazing. Or, is it the airship? I’m not getting any fabrial vibes off this thing. Is it just a giant platform to carry a town of refugees on? Okay, yes, it is Navani’s thing. Maybe the Windrunners just steer, and help infuse the fabrial portions when it needs to refuel between storms?

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 1 (Calluses) Epigraph: not much of interest here, except for the word choice to “calm” the spren prior to capture with something it knows and loves. I wonder if failing to do so is really the result of agitation on the spren’s part. It’s clearly not bait, since the gem itself seems to serve that function. Maybe a matter of hypnosis/getting the spren to let its guard down? Alternatively, it may just be an odd choice of words. Incidentally, I don’t remember when the last book ended, so I can’t tell how much time has passed between then and this quoted lecture. I’m assuming it happened sometime in the (1 year?) timeskip between Oathbringer and RoW? To the Coppermind! Okay, I couldn’t find it exactly, but the Battle of Thaylen Field takes place at the end of the second month of 1174, and this is early in the first month of 1175, so a bit under a year since the end of Oathbringer. (Still not sure how that relates to the current date, though.) “Espionage” = Lirin the spy. I didn’t know I wanted this, but now I am stoked! Where is he spying? Looks like a Singer camp, under Fused control. But he and Hesina are in a position of authority, to a degree? At least as possessing valued skillsets. I wonder how they swung that introduction. Huh. Still in Hearthstone? I’m surprised. I thought everyone would have vacated. I hadn’t considered the logistics of a refugee situation when impermanent housing is by definition not something that provides shelter from a highstorm. “Sure, let me just take down my tent every three days, try to stow my stuff where it won’t blow away or get stolen, and pack in tight so none of us die.” This is an added element of stress that can’t be helping anybody. So Herdaz is falling. They held out for quite a while. “Brightness Abiajan” appears to be in charge. Is that a singer name, someone who has adopted Alethi honorifics through cultural imitation? Or is it a human who retained local authority? I’m guessing the first, because it makes more sense and because the potential cultural exchange is fascinating (even though these awakened parsh don’t have much in the way of original culture that they know about). Lirin has organized psych help and a support structure? Or, more likely, the community did that and he’s advocating for it / connecting his patients to it, but still. This is another instance of medical practice being more advanced on Roshar than its counterpart era in Earth history. Wound care etc. was a result of having rotspren give them an observable surrogate for germ theory. I wonder if spren for mental anguish or atypical thought patterns had a similar contribution on mental care. Yup. Abiajan is a singer. Wearing a havah, complete with safehand. We already knew about the cultural absorption of the newly awakened singers around the continent, but this is making me wonder. Did the Alethi require femalen parsh to wear gloves on their safehands? If not was it because they weren’t “people” or because they weren’t female enough to matter? The infamous purelake plague rears its head again. I have to reiterate how disappointed I was when Brandon revealed it was just a flu-like disease spread by worldhoppers. With the inherent good health that comes from living on such a highly invested planet, I’m not expecting this “plague” subplot to actually go anywhere. I mean, eventually all this foreshadowing may pay off, but I’m rather anticipating it to amount to a disappointing misdirection. This mysterious Herdazian general that Lirin is about to meet… is he the one from that interlude, who had the speed lockpicking competition with the loser ending as Greatshell chow? I don’t actually remember where that took place, but I am thinking Herdaz. Something tells me that Lirin still isn’t thrilled about Kaladin off doing Radiant things. They’ve “sent Kal word.” Does that mean they have hidden spanreeds? I’m not too surprised, given that the refugee population will make it very hard to effectively monitor all of the people, but it shows a degree of organization that I am glad to see. (Just checked the coppermind. The general from the “hog wrestling” interlude matches the physical description of this Mink, so I’d say that’s confirmed. Also the manacle scars. I don’t think he got those the way you are suspecting, Lirin.) Didn’t notice the cameo before. I’m assuming that Aric, the guard of Hearthstone, is Chaos? It’s ambiguous, but I like to think that Roshone is truly allied with Lirin at this point. I wasn’t one of the readers who was thrilled about Kal facing off with him in the last book. He never seemed like a worthwhile antagonist, and I think the “best enemy” trope is a much better use of him as a character. Interesting that the singers share their former masters’ blindspot to laborers. That’s a heck of an inherited cultural bias. Nice phrase. Fused and a warband searching for Kal. It’s too bad for Hearthstone that he’s not here yet. Oh, wait, never mind. It’s a big problem for Hearthstone that he is here, and all glowy. Multiple someones are about to have a bad day.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Intro post here. Beware of spoilers. COVER We have cover art! Michael Whelan does it again and the release on tor.com of the new cover art for Rhythm of War means I have the impetus to go ahead and start this live blog. I know that multiple chapters have already been released, but I've been busy with other things and haven't made time to enjoy the hype. In addition I have tried to keep myself spoiler-free. It's worth noting that the artwork for the chapters that are being released as preview material will not be available prior to the release of the book, and that's disappointing to me. I'm looking forward to going in and deciphering text and enjoying the amazing artwork that Isaac and others have contributed. Once the book actually comes out you can expect that to be my first stop. Probably not the chapter headings though I don't usually get into how the Herald's contribute to or foreshadowing chapter. At least not until afterwards. So let's take a look at the art now. Obviously the sun in the sky and the highways of light make it very clear that we are in shadesmar now. The bismuth crystal type of patterning behind Shallan is very different than what I expected, and it makes me wonder if Shallan is attracting the cryptic’s cousinspren, whatever they are. I’m referring of course to the theory that windspren and honor spren are related in a realmatically significant way, and that other Radiant spren have similarly important lesser spren that (may or may not) contribute to shardplate. In addition, the surroundings are much more alive and verdant than I expected. It's reminiscent more of what I would expect in the chasms with vines and rockbuds and similar life. It's interesting that that aesthetic or ecological imprint is reflected in shadesmar. The person behind her on the back cover is obviously not Kaladin because he's not holding a spear. I'm presuming that’s Adolin, except that he's holding a sword and it's not Maya. It's possible that it's Renarin, which might make more sense if you're sending your Radiants into shadesmar, but I'm actually a Shadolin shipper, so I'm hoping that this is reflective of scenes in the book involving Shallan and her new husband. Plus, cover art is only representative, so Maya doesn’t have to be part of Whelan’s painting. Maybe she’s off to the side and he brought a mundane sword with him just in case. Moving on. That Tower in the background is very geometrically uniform, in stark contrast everything else in the area. I suspect that it's something to do with the high spren or spren society and is a construct of shadesmar rather than a reflection of something in the real world. It is on dry land which should correspond to an oceanic or watery area in the Physical Realm. The only candidate for a real world location that I can think of would be the origin which in my mind is distant enough that there's no reasonable expectation that they could see it from an easily accessible location on continental roshar. I think that’s as much analysis as I will give of the cover for now, other than to say it’s very pretty, I’m thrilled that we get a Shadesmar scene, and I’m glad that highstorms aren’t the only visual trademark of the series. Prologue Before jumping in, I think I did hear that this was going to be a Navani chapter. I'm eager to see how much she knew about Gavilar's actions and intentions. Not that I actually expect this chapter to reveal much. Okay, Navani. Let's see what you were up to the night your first husband died. WAIT, STOP! WHAT AM I THINKING?! I can't just start with the prologue. I saw the cover art, but not the back cover copy. In case you don't know, the blurbs on the back covers are written as in-world text from the perspective of the Sleepless (a.k.a Dysian Aimians, a.k.a. creepy bug swarm gestalt consciousnesses that have been on screen as every suspicious cremling in the series). So, has the cover copy for RoW been released yet? Let's go find out. Amazon: nope. B&N: nope Tor: don't see it BrandonSanderson.com: sadly, not even here. I have put in a request to the 17S discord, but unless they come through for me I'm going to have to assume it's out of my reach for the time being. I guess that's okay. I mean, I'm already skipping straight past Dawnshard, the Rysn novella that is supposed to come out right before RoW releases and will obviously involve the Aimians and (unless Brandon is even more of a massive troll than we already know him to be) the Dawnshards. So, I guess I can skip more vague interpretation of ambiguous cremling speak for now. Very well, on to the actual prologue. (I hear you. You’re saying “It's been how many paragraphs, and this guy still hasn't read any actual words from the book?” Sorry friends, this is the stream of consciousness and hype that you get. :-) Still, it’s probably about time to move on, don’t you think? ) PROLOGUE (for real this time) Title: “To pretend” There are a lot of things that could mean. I'm going to guess initially that it has to do with her relationship with Gavilar. But obviously I have to actually read the chapter to find out. First impressions bear that out. She’s peeved at not being consulted about things. Maratham. That’s a new name. Pretty sure we haven’t met her before. Ooo, burn! I’m starting to get a picture here. Hm, that bit about Navani requisitioning grain from Amaram. Or more accurately she “had been able to pry them from his grip.” It makes me wonder how much Navani was involved in trying to arrange his pairing with Jasnah and how much of that was just Gavilar. Aesudan is outside by the fountains, clearly up to something. Do we get to find out why Jasnah was about to assassinate her? (Or why she might have held off?) I like that she has no sense of style, just gaudy wealth (at least in Navani’s eyes.) Aesudan is chatting with ardents. Is that a diagram connection? A stormwarden connection? There are conspiracies everywhere, so we have plenty of options for our suspicions. (Yes, I know the diagram isn’t a thing yet, but they could still be allies of Taravangian, pointing at a future diagram connection. But, yeah, that one is a bit less likely.) Oh look! A new swear! In case you don't know, I curate a list of compiled profanity from Roshar in a thread here on 17S. I will be paying particular attention to any of those that crop up and making note of them as I go. This one is just an intensified version of the ubiquitous “Storms” but it’s got a great feel to it. Hm. Aesudan meeting with a master artifabrian… and apparently she’s not upset by Navani’s appearance. This might simply be a genuine meeting rather than something covert. That’s right, Navani. It is totally her inadequacies that are ruining your relationship, nothing to do with your judgemental attitude. Nope, not your fault at all. Bahahaha! Aesudan can’t escape the science talk fast enough. *snerk* I can see how Navani would lose patience with this woman. As vapid as she is, how was she enough of a threat for Jasnah to send Liss after her? So, Gavilar invited the master artifabrians to discuss spren capture. Definitely not suspicious. He couldn’t possibly be doing something nefarious with that. Sad day! Navani didn’t get to talk to Ardent Kris, and after tonight she probably never will :-( Drunk Dalinar strikes again! I have to say that’s pretty impressive that he would manage to drink everything set aside for this massive banquet. Gavilar’s associates are “uncommon figures,” arriving without warning, going unnamed, and (probably) looking ethnically ambiguous. You have nine guesses who might be involved. This is a repeat, but nice to see again, especially the golden keys association being confirmed. (Previous instance had the longer form Vedeledev). As the patron herald of the Truthwatchers, that’s got to be significant somehow, but for now we only have speculation. Hmm. Navani has it bad for Dalinar. She doesn’t seem conflicted in the slightest. She is pining and can’t stop herself. Glad we know it works out for them eventually. Jaw drop. WHAT? This isn’t just some random worldhopper casually talking about planetary travel through the cognitive realm, this is Gavilar demonstrating that he is very much In The Know. (And yet he is still wrong enough to want to cause the final desolation. Sheesh). Importantly, he’s talking about trying to go farther than Braize. His ambitions aren’t limited to the local system, and he has a glimpse at the wider cosmere, not just the underpinnings of Greater Roshar. Wow. I’m not sure how much there is to pull out of the wording in this little exchange, but I’m sure we’ll be coming back to pick it apart over and over. Oh. Smooth move, Gavilar, appropriating your wife’s personal space for your conspiracy meetings. That will make her happy with you. Oh, it’s these two dudes. Nale and (iirc) Kalak, yes? Clearly this conspiracy is a lot more involved than I thought. I got the impression from prior books that they were not working directly with Gavilar. Hmm. What are the heralds’ motivations here? Are they looking for ways to sever their oathpact more completely? Make a permanent escape from Greater Roshar? That’s the only thing that immediately springs to mind. I wonder what Gavilar knew about them? Yep, he definitely knows they are heralds, with that reference to Ash. How is it that the conspiracies just keep getting deeper? The layer-upon-layer of reveals is something I love, but after three books you would think that we’d have at least an idea of the goals of the obvious players. I’m not asking for a treatise on Ghostblood politics and planning, here, just an idea of who knows the big secrets. Especially since until we found out about the Skybreakers I thought the answer was “nobody.” Well, that’s interesting. Looks like I’m right about Kelek’s motivation at least. More to the point, Nale already knows that Gavilar is gonna die tonight, and I still don’t know if he’s causing it or simply permitting it. That whole business with the Listeners conveniently happening upon Szeth just in time to send him after Gavilar is pointing some serious suspicion at one or more of the heralds, but which? I don’t know. Yeah, the lack of trust Gavilar is showing here for Navani is such a stark contrast to where we left Dalinar in the previous book. All three books, really, but especially after their marriage Dalinar relied on Navani a great deal, sharing his fears and ambitions with her. This is an important narrative foil to that, and I’m expecting the next chapter (or at least the first one featuring the Kholin family) to hammer that point in even harder, since not everyone comes into these books invested enough to notice the comparison without at least having it shown in the same book. I was just about to comment on how slimy Gavilar seems, when he pulls this. I guess that answers my earlier question about who supported the match with Meridas. Glad to see that Jasnah has her mother on side. Low blow, Gavilar. Low blow. That kind of abusive relationship is not surprising in Alethi culture or in the marriage of a king, but I think you just got onto my list. I’m cheering for Szeth tonight. You have a chance to redeem yourself in book 5 when we get your perspective on the night, but I’m not expecting you to do anything but dig yourself deeper. Ominous. Does that mean he’s trying to take the place of a herald? What type of immortality has he discovered? WOW. Navani painted a prayer for Death Gift Death. She will have some complicated feelings when her prayer is answered in the most literal way possible. This whole passage with Navani’s shock and processing her feelings is very well written. Oh, smooth. Give him your jewelry to cover up the fact you just tried to rob his corpse. I like it

Hello fellow Sanderfans! When Oathbringer released I tried liveblogging my reactions (link to Google Docs), and found that it greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Since then I’ve liveblogged a few other books with similar results, including one other Sanderson work (Starsight). I’m eager to do the same thing now with Rhythm of War, and this week the first preview chapters arrived on Tor.com. In contrast to Oathbringer and Words of Radiance, I have kept myself unspoiled from all pre-release material so far, so everything will be fresh. In addition, I’ve been absent from the fandom for about 18 months, so I am woefully out of date on theories and current WoB. I expect to be hilariously wrong about a number of things as we go. I will also say that I'm going to try to slow down and take my time. I tend to binge read, finishing books quickly by pushing everything else to the side for an endless stream of "just one more chapter." One of the ways that live blogging helps to enhance my experience of the book is it forces me to slow down and actually appreciate what I'm reading instead of immediately moving on to the next scene. It lets the foreshadowing actually set in before the foreshadowed event takes place, for example. There are other factors, of course, but this is the one that impacts you as someone following along. Don't expect me to finish the book in the first week or even month. I'm planning to take even more time on Rhythm of War than I have for previous live blogs. This shouldn't matter a great deal, but I think it's important to set your expectations appropriately. With that out of the way, let’s get started! Note1: This liveblog is being composed chapter by chapter in a Google Doc. This will be a rough commentary, and errors will probably crop up frequently. I will go back and edit for clarity, but please be patient. Feedback is welcome, but grammatical corrections are probably unnecessary unless they are egregious. Note2: This is my first time using the blog feature on 17S, so I'm not sure how the organization will work. My current plan is to create an index at the bottom, spoilered if it gets too large. If something else becomes necessary, I'll try to adjust. INDEX: Cover and Prologue; Back Cover Internal Art: Herald Portraits part I and part II; Maps: Shadesmar and Emul (see ch 46); Navani's Notebook part I, part II, part III, part IV; Shallan's Sketchbook part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI, part VII, part VIII; Fashion Folios, Alethi Glyphs Book I: Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Interludes: I-1, I-2, I-3 Book II: Chapter 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 Interludes: I-4, I-5, I-6 Book III: Chapter 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 Interludes: I-7, I-8, I-9 Book IV: Chapter 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97 Interludes: I-10, I-11, I-12 Book V: Chapter 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 Epilogue Ars Arcana

I am liveblogging my reactions to the Rhythm of War preview chapters, and plan to continue doing so through the rest of the book after official release. Currently I'm doing so in a Google Doc. Would it be appropriate to start a thread in the RoW spoiler board for this, to post my chapter by chapter reactions? My reactions are fairly extensive and are not structured in a way that's especially conducive for discussion, so I would feel odd about posting them in the current chapter-by-chapter discussion threads, or in the post-release discussion threads that aren't broken out by chapter. At the same time, I'm not sure that having a thread dedicated to or centered around one user's thoughts is necessarily a good fit for 17S as a site. What do the mods think? (I will note that I also did a similar process for Starsight and Oathbringer, also currently stored on Google Docs. So if this is deemed an appropriate use of the site, I might also consider migrating those over despite not being current releases.)

@Trizee What I gather from the comments on that Reddit thread is that it will be available independently, but not before the release of RoW. So if you don't mind waiting then you can safely do so, but if you want to be sure that you read it in order, then Kickstarter is the way to go.

Thank you for the review! I'll have to pick it up soon.

Yay waffles! I swear I recognize your avatar from another forum--are you active on Space Battles or Sufficient Velocity? Speaking of which, I had somehow forgotten what a wonderful corner of the internet 17S is. I had been back on the site for all of 20 minutes when I suddenly realized that I hadn't come across a bashing post, or a troll, and I didn't expect to. Thank you once again to all of the staff who have somehow cultivated a shockingly friendly culture on this site.

Yes, this is still a thing! I've updated everyone who hadn't been added yet. I took a hiatus/sabbatical from the site, but I'm back now. Thank you to those who tagged me. If in the future I don't respond in a reasonable time, feel free to send me a PM. Those get forwarded to my email and should be able to bring my attention to the thread.