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Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers Urithiru The first Urithiru sketch already featured in Oathbringer, but the scale of this place is insane. Very worthy of its mythic stature. I do like the cutaway sketches that give a sense of the internal space as well as how it would be used. I can really imagine those inward-facing balconies becoming a thriving neighborhood community. It’s interesting to me that the main atrium at least does not close off between tiers. I’m really not up on deciphering the numeric glyphs, and decided it wasn’t worth it at this time since i don’t know what units are being used to measure things. Presumably the dimensions will be given in Rosharan feet (slightly larger than Earth’s imperial foot) but I’ll save that for when I look at the discussion threads in the 17S forums. Mistspren (image here) Those masks are really creepy, when you realize that there is no face behind them. The interesting thing here is that their physical realm form looks like glinting lights. Are they cousins to the truthwatcher spren, or are they the nahel spren themselves? The description matches what Ystim and Stump described. I guess we’ll find out shortly.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Okay, so first I want to say that the key I was using switched the L and R characters in the Alethi women’s script, which made this transliteration much more difficult to puzzle out until I’d realized the error. It is interesting to see what sounds are used phonetically and which English spellings are directly transliterated (e.g. the C in “space” uses the K/C letter, while the one in “entrance” uses an S) but we already knew that there are nonstandard spellings by comparing Jasnah and Navani’s writings, so it probably doesn’t tell us much. I will also say that when I read Alethi women’s script, I frequently mistake one height of character for another (e.g. A for O, or P for B). It makes me suspect that their language is constructed in such a way that homonym-like words in which a single vowel or consonant differs are either rare or are linguistically related to one another. Then again, that’s probably just my own outsider’s view. “Why are their letters so similar? Don’t they know that’s confusing?” “No, they handle it just fine, in the same way that you don’t get confused between a P and an R despite the similar shapes.” “Oh, okay, I’m just a dumb foreigner. Sorry.” Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the notebook pages themselves. I do think it’s cool to see that these engineering solutions are iterative as one would expect--for example, Navani’s comment about switching from two wings to four fins. As for the spren entrapment, it’s nothing that wasn’t already in the chapter (in contrast to WoK where everything was new and a cool reveal for those who took the effort to decipher the pages) but the whole thing feels much more ominous when written in a foreign script. I’m sure the translations are circulating already. Still, here’s what I deciphered: Fourth Bridge (image here) The Fourth Bridge is not as pretty as my fanciful designs but it is thrilling to see the ship coming together. The final build follows these designs with some changes my engineers suggested Cutaway showing levels below main deck for carrying people and supplies. Kaladin’s old bridge embedded in the deck. Possible design for next iteration of sky carriage. Maybe add soulcast crystal over the top. Stairs might fold up into a table to save space and weight Latest tests show we need four fins instead of two wings Main entrance works like a drawbridge. I hope the fans will lessen some of the horizontal load. The Arnist Method (image here) The Arnist Method begins with luring the spren to the gem. For example, to attract a flamespren create a fire nearby. Allow the spren to inspect the gem. Quickly drawing out the stormlight pulls the spren into the gem. The spren becomes trapped inside. Anist hoop A pewter cage surrounding the gem can be adjusted by twisting rods hooked to eyebolts. The thicker the cage the more heat the fabrial generates.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 21 (The Seething Knot) Epigraph: Oh, nope this is Sazed after all. Presumably a second letter, then. Has Hoid been contacting everyone again, or just the people he thinks are most likely to be sympathetic? Adolin is delightful. I love how he’s justifying his fashion obsession with an appeal to Alethi manliness. “Oh, yes. Picking the right outfit is exactly like fighting a duel, with the same preparation and instincts. Absolutely identical skillset, here.” Ah, here’s a good quote to encapsulate it: “I’m not fussing, I’m strategizing.” Adolin has one hour to fill before he leaves. I hope the task he’s “checking off the list” is saying goodbye to his brother. It would be a good counterpoint to their ritual before the duel in Words of Radiance, and we always need more Renarin than we are given. Oh. Well, more bromance with Kaladin is acceptable, I guess. I’ll just headcanon that goodbye to Renarin was a bigger priority and got taken care of before the fashion strategy session. Haha. All the young women are chasing Stormblessed by coming for medication. And Adolin totally called it. The Nalthian coin is cool. I wonder if it’s depicting Kalad or someone else? I also like that Adolin is allowed to see past the facade Kal puts up. Come on, Adolin. You know better than to deliver such an obvious invocation of foreshadowing. Murphy loves straight lines like that one. I love it. Shardplate can’t be transferred to Shadesmar using the Oathgate, but it can be teleported across the continent. Is that a contradiction? Oh, I guess not. In my mind the teleportation worked by traversing the Cognitive Realm, but obviously that can’t be the case for instantaneous travel. It’s a Spiritual Realm traversal, which doesn’t mess up the degree to which a spren is manifesting in the physical vs cognitive as long as the destination matches the starting point. Moving into a different realm, though, would affect the spren themselves. It’s not a function of investiture density, since they can make one trip but not the other. Beryl substituting for Stargyle at the last moment is suspicious, and I’m chalking it up to “necessary Red Herring.” It was fairly obvious when the characters were introduced that Brandon was more invested in Beryl’s story than in Stargyle’s, so I was surprised that she wasn’t selected. My assumption at the time was that she would get some screen time back at Urithiru or on the Emuli campaign, but now it seems like Stargyle was used specifically to manufacture a bit more attention for her by way of this swap. I’m not buying the spy implications, though. Are the rainbow colors in Gallant’s eyes a general Ryshadium trait? If so, are they related to the musicspren bond? Palafruit--named after the herald? Seems odd if so. Adolin has a conversation with Gallant, then says “I talk to my sword too. Funny thing is, she eventually talked back.” He is definitely Edgedancer material with all this listening. The intentional obtuseness about bringing along all those swords is entertaining, but what is the real purpose here? Are they for trading? Maybe a cultivationspren likes swords the same way Wyndle likes chairs? Zu is in Iriali name. I should have made that connection from the hair, but didn’t. Surrogate mother figure, anyone? Perhaps she knew Evi? Plus maybe we’ll actually get to know something about the Stonewards now. Zu’s people thought her cursed by a god the Alethi don’t know/worship. Is that one of the two brothers from the Reshi interlude (Vun Makak or something like that)? I’m not sure how culturally similar the Reshi and Iriali are. They’re neighbors so there ought to be some parallels. Oh, I hadn’t realized/remembered that Iri was occupied and/or defected to Odium at this point. That’s unfortunate. Felt is coming along… presumably he got here by way of Shadesmar originally, so it will be interesting to see if that comes into play during this expedition. Or if his Scadrian origins are revealed to anyone. Is his wife Malli native Rosharan? I’m pretty sure we don’t know anything about Felt’s family or lack thereof from his brief Mistborn appearance. Oh. Looks like I misread something last chapter. Stump is a Truthwatcher not an Edgedancer. Probably fits her better… actually, did we already know this from the novella? I think we did. That was her thing--healing kids and “knowing when they were lying.” I’m pretty sure at the end Lift had a conversation about what kind of spren she saw and it was different from Wyndle’s appearance. Man, I’m forgetting all kinds of stuff. A cache of soulcasters discovered in Aimia? More Dawnshard clues! Is Shallan’s inability to master soulcasting an effect of her inability to confront her truths? Or is it just an aspect at which she is less talented? This conversation with Dalinar finally brings out some deep feelings from Adolin--about Evi, in particular. I am glad to get to see this, and to see that Adolin is not forgiving about what was revealed in the autobiography. It’s also neat that he managed to turn the confrontation into a meta moment, with Adolin rejecting the dichotomy between Journey vs. Destination as personified in Dalinar vs. Taravangian. So much of the book looks to be about that philosophical debate, it’s interesting to have the premise questioned at this early stage in the book. Much more nuanced treatment than one might expect from a book featuring “personifications of morality” as the arbiters of magical power. Dalinar’s expectation that Adolin become a Radiant makes me feel bad about rooting so hard for him to awaken his blade. No pressure, dude! (Although you definitely have to revive her. Yeah, I lied. Lots of pressure, I’ll just feel guilty about it.) It will be interesting to eventually see what role he takes. Despite his dueling and other combat ability, I expect Maya will be uninterested in returning to battle. I’m getting way ahead of myself, but I do wonder what he will do to further mend that relationship once she awakens. Wait, Why are there dedicated oathgates to each of the ten dawn cities? As far as I can tell they each allow the user to select from a choice of destinations. Is it simply a matter of organization so that incoming and outgoing transfers can be coordinated safely when many are in use? Or is there something about the construction of the oathgates at Urithiru that only permits each one to transfer to a specified target? Swinging the whole thing upside down by moving along a different axis, in order to dump them into shadesmar, is cool, though.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 20 (The Unseen Court) Epigraph: A letter! Who is this one from? Relative youth, but not Sazed since we heard from him in the last book. So I’m guessing this one isn’t a Vessel. The first letters were to/from Frost, also not a vessel, so that’s not unprecedented. Without knowing more I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is the president of Silverlight University. Seems as likely as anything else I could guess. Header: Taln and Ash. Do they appear in this chapter? Is it an association with Shallan and Adolin? Hoping for the former (especially since we’re all hoping for Adolin to go the edgedancer route when he awakens his blade.) As you know by now, I am very much here for the internal conflict of Shallan’s aspects, so this chapter opening is fun for me. It does make me wonder, though--how much of the harmony she’s achieved so far is dependent on her radiant abilities? Either through actual magic or through the ritual reinforcing her divisions of personality, she actively transitions between the three aspects, accompanied by visible lightweavings each time (if the scene at the tavern is any indication). That’s not strictly necessary, since we saw her shift personas while talking to Ialai without compromising her disguise, but it makes me wonder what would happen if Shallan were deprived of stormlight. Would she have difficulty shifting? Would Radiant and Veil start to fade (less likely) or merge (more likely) as the barriers between her selves broke down? The Veden version of the takama is the vakama? That’s original. And the only difference is pleats in the skirt? I can see why that would be an important distinction to the over-militarized cultures of Alethkar and Vedenar, but it comes across as very silly to me. This frames it in a very understandable way. Given Shallan’s mother turned on her to the extreme that she did, and Shallan was forced to murder her father, she’s got trust issues to an incredible depth. I also think it’s fascinating that the two personas Shallan has created to inhabit and help buffer her from the world are both lacking the fear of betrayal that is at her core and is presumably her final truth to confront. That means that her Shallan persona retains all of it, possibly at an enhanced intensity. Yeah, I’m very amused by Radiant giving advice about staying in control of your illusions rather than letting them control you. Nice to see the order expanding, though twenty is still fewer than I would have expected after a year. I guess my expectations go thrown off by the “strength of squires” Windrunners. Oh, the Unseen Court is the Lightweaver group? I was expecting that to be a spren reference. Stump joined? Really? I am shocked she didn’t stay at her orphanage, or at least her city. I’m excited to see she’s an Edgedancer now, though. I look forward to seeing her interact with the rest of the cast. She’ll be an interesting contrast to Lift. I kind of hope that there really is a spy among Shallan’s people. If there isn’t and Ialai was assassinated at range by someone else, this is going to be a frustrating mole hunt with no payoff. I’m not entirely sure what to suspect, but I’m leaning towards this being misdirection by Mraize to keep her occupied. What is this attack of nausea? Oh, no. Veil forced herself to the surface? And did so to countermand Shallan’s decision after Veil and Radiant had both asked her to be in charge on this matter? Eeek. That will definitely disrupt their balance. At the same time, I’m glad it has an obvious cause and isn’t an unrecognized attack. Oh dear. Radiant was acting as peacekeeper to preserve the compact, but in practice she abetted Veil in taking over for a full day and keeping Shallan suppressed. Looks like those trust issues aren’t going away any time soon. I wonder where Mraize’s inter-realm radio comes from. It’s inconveniently bulky, too. I misread it the first time and was imagining something substantially smaller.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. A Portion of the Southern Sea of Souls Map image here. I want to reiterate that Nazh is a gem. He’s much more present on this map than some of the others, with lots of annotations. I love it. First of all, what is that creature in the top left?! It looks reminiscent of a larkin but is clearly a creature of the Cognitive Realm and looks awesome. A less fanciful rendition of this absolutely has to appear in one of Shallan’s sketchbook entries in the future. I will petition for this. The city names are great, and you can guess which spren might have founded each one. Oathbound Spires, Justice Untarnished, Lasting Integrity, Brilliance Eternal… and of course Perpetual Sobriety. I would have predicted Nazh’s reaction, but to have it spelled out on the page is delightful. I do wonder if there is anything to be gleaned about the spatial arrangement of the spren locations and how they are analogous to physical realm cultures. Do cryptics congregate where they do because of something on the other side? How far back do you have to go in human/listener history to see the seeds of spren cities and the divisions that have formed there? Is the influence of spren on people and singers now strong enough to perpetuate those cultural differences? I also really like the idea of a spren settlement called “Nameless.” That has some fascinating realmatic consequences that I want to see explored, even if only in an interlude. ...actually, Shallan’s path passes directly through that location, so it looks like we’ll get it in-story. Woot! I am also particularly enthused by the label of Nohadon’s stairway. It’s been speculated that these were a feature in Shadesmar, but we haven’t gotten to see them yet. From what we saw of Navani’s researchers, they regularly visit the cognitive realm around Urithiru so these will have been known by now. I’m slightly disappointed that we don’t get to see Dalinar’s reaction to learning about them for the first time, with his focus on Nohadon, but seeing Shallan and Adolin descend them to start their journey should be just as good. I will note that even in Shadesmar it is impossible to walk to Urithiru, given the fact that it is isolated in the bead ocean. So he was still exaggerating with poetic turns of phrase even if part of it was literally possible.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Interlude I-3 Taravangian. Yes, this is definitely new header art. Title: “Into The Fire” Just going by what Odium said in the last chapter, this is probably a reference to being called up to actually do some betrayal. Dun dun dun. Is this the usual form of deviation from his initial prediction, caused by multiplied butterflies, or is it a larger divergence now that at least one Shard is actively participating? Interesting that his internal thoughts seem to show him working to quash doubts and regrets. Also interesting that he has foreseen the moment he'll be called up. Do the companions he’s sent away include the ones that are supposed to monitor his daily fluctuations? Savrahalidem? Who’s that? I’m guessing his daughter, but we haven’t seen that name before. Ah, yes, confirmed as his daughter, nickname Savri. Cool. Seeing Mrall and Adrotagia so affected by his impending death is a good, humanizing touch. These aren’t just co-conspirators but also friends and family. “It was a death sentence” to be surrounded by the coalition’s armies when his forces betrayed them. Right, that sounds like neither Taravangian nor Odium have been paying attention to the Blackthorn’s recent metamorphosis, or to the fact that Alethkar currently has a queen, not a king. Especially in light of the fact that Taravangian is apparently our throughline for the interludes this book, I’m entirely confident that he will instead be captured and interrogated--by Jasnah, no less.. I’m looking forward to those conversations. The Diagram is being dismantled? I didn’t see that coming. I like that he’s sending away his too-loyal underlings on a ‘secret quest.’ Much better than silencing everyone who knows too much. I’m also expecting that to pay off in unexpected ways before too long. “Oops, I sent an opposing force to Shadesmar to race Shallan and Adolin for their goal. Oh, and it’s lead by Danlan. Definitely no way that could have repercussions elsewhere.” At least, that’s my first guess. I wonder if the physical diagram and its (presumed) copies will also be destroyed? I like that imagery and his self-sacrificing attitude. It mirrors what he told Szeth at the end of book 1, and his views on kingship as relayed to Dalinar. Ooo, that’s cold. I didn’t think about how Vedenar was being used as patsies here. Their Highprinces are colluding knowingly with the Fused, and they will continue the rebellion after Taravangian’s removal, BUT they don’t have any actual promise from Odium that they will be spared. That’s just Kharbranth. Shallan is from Vedenar, right? I imagine she’ll have something to say about this. At least one of her will. (The Fourth?!?!) Aww, a parting gift of jams. Good work, Maben. Hm, the Diagram says that one of the Unmade is established in Shinovar. Does that mean the Shin are under its sway or is it possibly a more subtle actor? Good thing Szeth’s book is next. Confirmation (outside of WOB) that Dova is Battah. Um, I thought it was Battar--is that just an Alethi form of her name? Is Battah correct (i.e. the one she actually uses?) Oh, wait, this is that silent h thing standing in for the palindromic letter. Interesting. Is this perhaps where that idea first came from? People used “Battah” and the devout said, “No, she’s a holy herald, of course she has a mirrored name. It’s probably just an h because of modesty.” Which then evolved into the near-mirror forms of other names. This is probably too neat of an explanation for how language actually evolves, but it’s an intriguing possibility. Yes, he burned his copy of the Diagram, so no answers will be readily available to his interrogators. That’s not a guarantee that other copies won’t survive.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Interlude I-2 Sja-Anat. Huzzah! I am really excited for this one. I spent a long time during Oathbringer trying to translate the Keeper of Secrets text, and we still only got ~60% of it worked out. Plus, she’s a fascinating character that we need more insight into, and who recently accepted an offer from the Ghostbloods. Secrets, here I come! Odium trapped the Unmade in “a halfway existence” fully in neither the Cognitive nor Physical realms. I hadn’t thought of that as a possible contributor to how they were “unmade.” Actually seeing Sja-Anat requires reflected light, like the mirror Shallan used or probably puddles of water. I can’t decide how much of a weakness that would be. Is it volitional on her part? Could someone searching for her find her with a mirror if she were trying to hide? So, her children (i.e. the spren she has “corrupted” like Glys) are also trapped in this between-state. I wonder how much that will help us understand what’s going on with Glys. Frankly, not much if we never get more information! Come on, Brandon! Renarin chapter, please. Or at least Jasnah explaining what they’ve figured out in the past year. We need info! Eeee. That’s disturbing. That last is an interesting title. Especially the inclusiveness of it. Not just the useful spren who chose to follow him, or a few that were unclaimed by Honor and Cultivation. I’m curious what this adoption entails. I am glad to see that Sja-Anat has her own agenda that does not align with the Ghostbloods. She’s using them for a distraction as much as for their utility. If her child makes it to Urithiru, I wonder if he’ll end up choosing Mraize or someone else. Awww. I am also glad to see this spren at least is grateful for his “Enlightenment,” though we still have no idea what that means. So, Odium is “one of the three pure tones of Roshar” as compared to the rhythms, which are less “resonant.” I don’t think I can theorize too much on how the rhythms relate to the shards and other investiture of the planet, but that insight is a useful one. This is the sort of intrigue I like to see, and I can’t wait for the realmatic payoff. Sja-Anat’s manipulations are golden. I am eager to see how she influences Taravangian and those around him.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Interlude I-I Sylphrena! Hooray for spren interludes. (Sprenterludes?) First thing first, have to acknowledge the chapter header art with an interesting depiction of Syl. I’m pretty sure that even in Oathbringer the non-recurring characters didn’t get unique chapter art, right? With respect to this piece, it isn’t very similar to most of the fanart I’ve seen, even accounting for the consistent style across the various chapter headers. It does capture her wind affinity, with the blowing hair, and I appreciate that she gets Alethi eyes in this depiction. Her dress is patterned, which I wouldn’t have expected--generally I see/imagine her as translucent and mono-tone, with very little texture to her appearance. More intriguing, is the fact that she has some sort of massive burden on her back, in the form of a leather(?) backpack. Is this a “weight of her people’s future on her shoulders” allegory, or something more personal? (Is it the food she used to lure the rat into Kaladin’s boot?) It feels even more symbolic than most of these pieces. So, Cord’s full name is Hualinam’lunanaki’akilu. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time we’ve seen it in print. I like it. I have to say, though, this is just about the right level of weird name inclusion to have. Can you imagine a young, inexperienced Brandon trying to write a Horneater-focused book, where everyone has these long, poetic, often-skimmed names? Even better, make half the cast from Thaylenah, with their nigh-unpronounceable strings of consonants. Without nicknames like Rock and Cord from the Alethi, it would be nearly unreadable. I like the degree of worldbuilding color we get, and I’m looking forward to more Horneater characters, but we’d better meet them slowly because I have a pretty hard limit for being able to learn and remember new names of this type. Well, that’s confirmation, if any was still needed, of the deduction about plate being made of lots of so-called cousin spren. More interestingly, it suggests that the spren in dead plate are not tortured like the blades. Is it because they weren’t directly part of the Nahel bond, and so weren’t affected directly by the breaking of oaths? If so, then they would be locked into this form but not sundered by the Recreance. Alternatively, if less likely, it could merely be a function of their lower sapience. As beings of instinct rather than intellect, they don’t have a vested interest in the oaths and their status. They just keep doing what they do. Syl’s curiosity isn’t a general trait of honorspren? I wonder if that’s due to the generational differences or just a personality quirk. Intelligent spren are only 10,000 years old--how does that fit into the timeline? If I recall correctly, Aharietam was 4,000 years ago, with a cycle of desolations for centuries to possibly millenia before that, starting some time after humans arrived from Ashyn. So, that puts the appearance of sapient spren roughly around the time of the Shattering, which fits what we know otherwise. I wonder how long Roshar had existed prior to that time? D’awww. Thanks for validating her, Stormfather. But seriously, don’t give Syl depression just because she asked. Adding more depression is not a helpful way to solve this problem. Interesting exchange about the expected defeat of Odium and about Kaladin’s potential to become the champion. It almost feels like Brandon needed someone with meta knowledge to step in and tell the readers that their theories might be wrong. Hm. First, I’m glad we aren’t going to get sad Syl. Second, though, this is interesting as a distinction. The lack of ability to me implies lack of knowledge. The most likely explanation here is that Stormfather himself is incapable of understanding the human condition well enough, so he can’t impart that to his children. On a separate note, I like the time dilation explanation for what we’ve seen happen in these frozen moments when the storm hits, between Kaladin’s early visions, the listener/singer form transitions, and now Syl’s conversation. So, Urithiru is halfway across the continent so it’s not a real surprise, but it’s good to note that all of the crem has precipitated by the time the storm reaches that point. Rain and snow there is pure water. Foreshadowing! Cheerfully ominous foreshadowing at that. Good work, Syl. Hm. The really intriguing part of this is that a Bondsmith “bound other Surges” in the process of leading humans from Ashyn to Roshar. Does that mean “formalized the ten surges as they now exist on Roshar” or does it mean “used the magic of Ashyn, which I am calling surges since that’s the local terminology”? Syl’s previous human was named Relador. Pretty sure we haven’t seen that name before either.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 19 (Garnets) Title: I really don’t remember what garnets do in fabrials. Are they the opposing-motion counterpart to spanreed rubies? I know they soulcast blood, but that’s not the association we care about for a Navani chapter. Epigraph: Open exchange of scientific research? Looks like Jasnah isn’t the only one shaking up cultural norms and having a huge impact on Rosharan society. Industrial Revolution, here we come! Oh, it was the suppression fabrial that had garnets in it. I’ll have to look up later if they have a known function in human-produced fabrials, though. So, the suppression fabrial has a “corrupted” spren. I wonder if it’s specifically a Sja-Anat effect or something more general that could also be termed “corruption. Hm. The oathgate spren didn’t get a lot of screen time, but they didn’t appear particularly trapped to me. I wonder if I (or the viewpoint characters) just missed something or if the Oathgates are different from other fabrials. Those spren certainly weren’t insensate. More importantly, the idea that the ancient fabrials also imprisoned their spren is a shocking one. Until now I had been operating under the assumption that ancient fabrials were constructed using the willing participation of their spren, hence the objection of Syl and others to the modern versions. Apparently that’s not correct. Assuming, then, that all fabrials utilize entrapped spren, what is the concern of the Navani’s mysterious pen pal? Merely the mass production aspect making fabrials more common? Oh, Navani is asking almost that exact question, making basically the same observation about the oathgate spren. I’m glad she isn’t actually putting the threatening letter out of her mind. She does seem to be making the same assumption I was before about ancient vs. modern fabrial techniques. I wonder if I’m jumping to unwarranted conclusions or if she’s just not seeing the question that way yet. “Masked Ones” as a name for lightweaving Fused is appropriate. Navani, the regal matron and queen mother, is getting bodily dragged around the room by experimental tech, and everyone’s just fine with it. I love this think tank lab. Wait, so the shardblade-blocking metal is pure aluminum? And they have identified it? Why not just call it aluminum earlier, then? Navani made a point about it being an unknown metal, which is what made me think it must be a different alloy. Was Brandon just having her speak in more general terms so that readers didn’t get bogged down in minutia, or is there a continuity hole here? Aluminum required investigation after the expedition to Aimia earlier in the year that I won’t get any more information about until I read Dawnshard! Aaaaaa! I’m feeling impatient here. The weights in the giant shaft are obvious, and were basically my first thought. Using highstorm-rated windmills to ratchet them back up? That’s clever and gives a sense of real progress and industrialization. I love how excited Falilar and her other scientists get when they see Navani’s big picture. She’s inspiring a lot of loyalty among her people, like a true Kholin. This naked aggression between Navani and Taravangian is unexpected. I was anticipating more of a spy thriller style deception and counter deception, but they are actually being rather open with each other. Trying to outplay Taravangian and the Diagram is essentially a losing proposition. You mostly have to hope that his loyalty to Odium and the holes in the diagram leave a loophole for you to slip through, or that he’s misunderstood something from the death rattles. The real problem is that our heroes don’t know that the Diagram exists, and they are still trying to play against him on the regular stage of politics. I expect that he’s three layers deep and twelve moves ahead, so it doesn’t really matter whether they come up with a reason why Taravangian supported their proposal. That’s delightful, but would she really take something that had been set out for her? She’s much more into stealing than just being given stuff. Maybe they specifically uninvite her from these meetings to get her to come? You go, Wyndle! Why don’t you want to send Lift as your envoy, Navani? She’d do great. She was able to reach Nale, so I have every confidence in her success with the honorspren. Oh, sad. They turned her down for real. At least they’re sending an Edgedancer--that listening is going to be crucial in making a successful gesture at mending relations. Shallan’s seeming reluctance as she volunteers herself and Adolin for the envoy--is that because she’s involving Adolin in Ghostblood business? Is it because she’s committing herself to Mraize’s mission? Or is it a calculated front for the purposes of the politicking at this meeting, trying not to appear too eager at this chance? I could see any of these being the case, and I kind of want Navani to be perceptive enough as (step)mother-in-law to see Shallan’s true emotions rather than the facade she projects for most people (a.k.a everyone, including herself). Interesting to see the greater political concerns through Navani’s eyes, everyone concerned that the Blackthorn is one step from becoming Emperor of half of Roshar. Also fascinating that Dalinar’s book has become a religious text for disaffected Vorins. Not surprising at all, just a very fast development. I do love that the primary demonstratively romantic pairings are Navani/Dalinar and Fen/Kmakl, both older couples. It’s a nice shift from the usual young love of most stories. I particularly like the comfortable chemistry between Navani and Dalinar, as seen in her unbuttoning her left sleeve here. Interesting comparison between Taravangian’s views of kingship to the ancient Radiants’ “watchers at the rim” imagery. I look forward to more engagement with Mr. T’s philosophy. Hm, so Navani is going to stay behind, along with Kaladin, while the rest of the cast is off doing army or envoy things. So it will be the two of them up against the strike team trying to turn Urithiru against them. In light of that, I’m hopeful that one of the triumphant moments of this book’s Sanderlanche will be Navani having a scientific breakthrough and powering up the right defenses in the tower. Then again, that is a very thin defense against the Fused, and I’m still expecting them to come out on top in this clash. I guess we’ll have to see if that’s something that happens in the first few parts or if it doesn’t resolve until part 5. And, that concludes Part One. I think I’ve laid out my expectations and interests enough going along that I don’t need a retrospective here. Onward and upward. (Also, since it’s the next page and I can see the interlude titles, can I just say I am absolutely stoked for Sja-Anat’s chapter? Oh, plus Syl and Taravangian? This will be a happening set of interludes. No random lighthouse keepers here. Can’t wait!)

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 18 (Surgeon) Title: I’m expecting more disappointment from Lirin this chapter. Maybe Kal will ask if he can go back to a healing role? I can imagine the response would not be encouraging. Epigraph: The Fused have a “stormlight draining” fabrial that relies on a second unknown metal (i.e. not the aluminum alloy used for blocking blades). By the analogies we’ve seen so far to the metallic arts it seems most likely to be chromium (the metal for Leecher mistings). Hm, Skar and Drehy accompanied Rock and his family back to the peaks? I wasn’t really expecting the honor guard (unless that was mentioned in the previous chapter and I’m just forgetting about it now--I really need to not leave so much time between reading sessions). More mysterious hints about Urithiru’s construction. The closed off rooms suggest actively manipulable stone, to create doorways at need. Given that we have two orders of knights that could have directly performed that function, on top of whatever responsiveness might have been inherent in the tower itself when powered by the Sibling, that much seems to be obvious. But it makes me wonder how much of the rest of the layout was permanent. Did the whole thing reformat itself at need? Or even at the whims of the Sibling? This definitely piques my interest. Was this communication? Magical symbology (i.e. to accomplish a purpose as might be done on Sel)? Or merely a side effect of some realmatic process similar to the cymatic layouts of the cities on Roshar? I’m not surprised that Jasnah has already changed up the inheritance laws to do away with patrilineal descent, but on top of her resolution to do away with slavery this is a reminder that she is actively shaking up some major mainstays of Alethi culture. Okay, this rat-in-a-boot story is hilarious. Full props to Syl for an excellent surprise. I want more of these little interactions! That Kaladin is noticing the patterns in the rock strata tells me that they really have been here for a year. It’s quite a change from when Shallan was the only one who could navigate the hallways. I’m rather enjoying the way Syl is talking to Kal’s parents. It’s a change in the dynamic from the intensely private relationship most radiants we’ve seen have with their spren, and it makes her feel more like an involved character when she can talk to more than one person. Imagining Syl making her eyes extra large just to glare at Kaladin better is a beautiful image. Thank you, Brandon. Hm. Looks like my prediction was dead wrong. Lirin is beyond thrilled to have Kaladin interested in surgery again. It will be good to see what Kaladin does with his time practicing medicine. I’m not at all sure what to expect. I’ll say again that the biggest disappointment of Words of Radiance was how fast Kaladin healed his shardblade-killed arm. At the time I really wanted to see him grapple with the prospect of being unable to wield a spear or a lancet, having both fighting and medicine taken from him. His relationship with medicine has always been important, but except for treating the wounded among the bridge crews, he hasn’t really done much on screen. I have high expectations for where this takes his character.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 17 (A Proposal) Header: Navani chapter, with kalak. Significance: someone has bad breath? Yeah, not sure why I’m even noting the herald icons. Epigraph: learnin’ about Aluminum. Or, whatever alloy of it is being used in the Fused weapons. We know from Shallan’s necklace that aluminum is a known material on Roshar, and I would have expected the scholars studying this stuff to figure out that connection if it were just the pure metal. I think we can take that as evidence that the useful combat version is some modified material. When they make the map, Navani senses a feeling of flight, freedom. Is that a connection to the Stormfather, whose passage over the land gives Dalinar the details to fill in the map, or is it something to do with the Bondsmith-Lightweaver connection? Alternatively, is it something to do with Navani herself? “By Kalak’s mighty breath”--new version of the swear. (I like that it still preserves the possible morning breath joke.) They have Zoom/Enhance on their map! Radiants are sci-fi, confirmed. I am actually very shocked that the “Queen’s Wit” has stuck around. I was not expecting him or Jasnah to put up with each other, and it’s been a year. That is a long time to be in close proximity to Hoid. Plus, he usually does his own thing and steers clear of the current protagonists outside of special moments. Odd to see him staying so close to the action here. It makes me happy that his continued presence means he’s presumably been able to continue coaching Shallan on occasion. Maybe he even got another hug at some point. Huh. So they know that the god-priest of Emul is Ishar, and that he’s insane. Honestly, it’s impressive just how many secrets the characters have uncovered. Often the readers are farther ahead than this. True to form for Sanderson, though, there are more secrets hiding all over the place. I’m still not sure how navies are supposed to work on Roshar. Highstorms and boats are not a good combination. I suspect Brandon has put sufficient thought into the logistics, though, and I’m hoping for a pirate interlude or something of the sort. So they know (or are pretty sure) of Taravangian’s treachery. That’s useful. I’m really confused about why the Skybreakers haven’t made more of an impact on the war so far. An entire order of Radiants, trained and ready, throwing in with the singers while the other orders are barely nascent. It should be a complete rout. And I’m not surprised that the Dustbringers (Releasers?) are considering following suit. I do wonder how much of that is their general attitude and how much is Taravangian’s influence through his own loyal Radiant. Um, no it’s not. Maybe the Alethi are more open, but that’s not weird at all where we come from. But don’t worry. I feel confident in telling you that Wit and Jasnah are not an item. I like this saying. It’s not one I would have thought of, as an expression of vulnerability, opportunity, and hope, but it really works. Woot! Jasnah is going to emancipate all slaves! You go, girl. On the other hand, this is not just social upheaval that is on the way. The economic structure of their society, already fractured by the loss of the parshmen, will suffer another huge blow while they are engaged in a prolonged war. This will have a lot of knock-on effects that I hope they can prepare for and mitigate. Oh, hell. The ardentia are all slaves. I hadn’t made that connection. Jasnah is really insistent on kicking all the hornet nests, isn’t she? This is going to be a disaster. A good disaster, and a smart move for Alethkar, but a disaster nonetheless. I’m not sure how the technical slavery of the ardents prevents the church from amassing political power. Sure, it’s one form of check, but I doubt it does anything to actually stymie them. Oh, I forgot that Ash was Jezrien’s daughter. More hints about the Shin. Is that just setup for Book 5’s focus on Szeth, or will we get to actually interact with them in this one? I hadn’t thought about what might be possible with Ishar’s blade. Bondsmiths are limited by their “particular” spren, but if someone could wield the honorblade… I wonder if it would give Dalinar himself any resonance. His abilities are esoteric enough that the distinction between herald and radiant might actually be enough. It’s not just the granting of a surge, but deep realmatic manipulation of connection. I doubt that’s the direction it will go, but with the focus on Emul and Ishar it does look like we’ll get more Bondsmithery soon.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 16 (An Unknown Song) Oh, hey. This is the first time seeing Navani’s chapter-header symbol. I like that shining gem. Incidentally, I also paged back through to look at the herald symbols gracing each chapter, and much like Oathbringer all of the chapters so far have 4 of a kind (in contrast to WoK in which usually there were two heralds per chapter). I’m not great at analyzing the heraldic attributes as relate to the chapters, especially since they are often broad enough that half the heralds could reasonably chosen for any given chapter, so I’ll probably not focus on it at all. I also haven’t blogged about the notebook and folio pages that we’ve had so far. I did look over them at the same time I was looking at the herald portraits, and it may be worth adding my thoughts about them as well, but I’m going to wait until the next one shows up. Epigraph: Not much to say. I’m curious how closely the Fused manufacture techniques match up with what the humans have developed, but it’s not a huge point of interest for me. Especially since the council meeting included several Fused saying that the humans had surpassed them. I’m much more interested in the ancient-type fabrial. If I were to guess, though, I doubt we’ll see any reveals on that front during the events of this book. (There’s a decent chance that we did get some in Dawnshard, though, just going by the title, so I’ll keep an eye out when I get to that.) Ooo voidlight inspection. To quote Mark Watney, “time to science the rust out of this!” Oh, hey, that makes sense. Voidlight glows in UV, which would absolutely look bizarre to people who’d never seen that before. There’s probably an additional magical effect to its appearance, but at least now I have a good mental image for what they’re seeing, AND an expectation that it at least somewhat conforms to the science aspect of realmatics. I do wonder if there is anything to be said about Odium from the fact that his investiture manifests in a color on the edge or outside of the visible range. Oh, so Szeth finally went and retrieved the sphere with the captured voidspren. I’m not sure why his is still infused, though. It’s been 8 years. “Assassin” That is a cold way to address him. Also, why is he in jail? That’s really stupid if they’re trying to keep him contained. Either he’s there because his code involves following Dalinar’s orders and was asked to stay there, or he requested it as a form of penance. Not sure I like either version. Navani decided “not to worry about” the mysterious person who snuck a spanreed into her private vehicle and threatened her to stop making fabrials or else. Nothing could go wrong. So the perfect gem containing Nergaoul is safely at the bottom of the ocean. The ocean constantly stirred up by supernatural hurricanes. Hurricanes that regularly blow house-sized boulders ahead of them and whip the ocean to a churning froth. Yes, that is definitely and completely out of reach and will absolutely not come back to bite you in a worse way than it did when it was passively inspiring armies to slaughter each other. Good problem solving. Dozens of spheres to illuminate his small stone cell and banish all traces of shadow. Hm. Szeth has requested tons of infused spheres. Is that to have stormlight for himself/Nightblood? Or is he still traumatized enough to request a shadowless room? A lot of people have (deservedly) bashed the Sons of Honor. This is as good an indictment of them as any. Not only were their goals abhorrent and counterproductive, their camaraderie had negative value and their scheming was just as cutthroat internally as externally. And of course Navani takes that comment as directed at her personally. O.O Well then. First, on the worldbuilding front I really like this element that would give added weight to a person’s last words or final requests. Second, this is important. Shinovar is a long way from here and from Kharbranth or the Shattered Plains, places where so far we have seen the death rattles. Is this just further evidence that Moelach wanders and spreads the effect across different parts of Roshar at different times? Or is there a separate entity present in the western part of Roshar who also causes prophetic visions at the moment of death? If it is Moelach, then I have serious reservations about a culture that has based any significant portion of itself on information gathered from the Unmade. Obviously that’s a concern with the Diagram as well, but they’re already intentionally helping Odium. I’m more worried about the extent to which the Shin may have been unknowingly subverted. I can’t tell if Navani’s nausea and revulsion is entirely due to Szeth or if she is also reacting to Nightblood’s “evil detection aura.” Navani listing the various groups that are present at Urithiru, that she can see on the Cloudwalk--she calls out there being three different Makabaki local governments represented, and I realized we don’t know anything about the diversity of the various regions. So far, what little we know of most places is monolithic, or even just vignettes. That she mentions them in the same breath as seven Alethi high princes seems like a useful equivalence until we learn more. ..and then she namedrops the Aimians. Human Aimians. I think this is the first indication we’ve had that there is a human culture with roots on those islands. So far all references have been to the Sleepless or the Siah. Little Gavinor is an actual character! Who talks! With lots of exclamation points! Seriously, though, I’m glad that he’s getting some time with Grandma Navani. It’s funny to me that Navani is weirded out by getting salutes rather than bows. It makes sense, if those are the norms, but she’s the Kholin matriarch. She’s queen mother, the wife of the Blackthorn, and she directs companies of artifabrians and other artificers on military campaigns. There are a lot of ways to show respect for that. It’s also notable that Dalinar is apparently a trend setter. He’s not the only man learning to read. What is the world coming to? These barometer measurements are interesting to me, in that I’m led to challenge the assumption. Why would pressure fall before a storm on Roshar, when the meteorology behind a highstorm is entirely unlike any of the storms we have here? Would you not perhaps expect a compression of air as the supernatural storm approaches? I mean, it’s established in this scene that that is not the case, but it makes me remember yet again that we really don’t know how highstorms work, what is at the Origin, or why they circle the planet in the way that they do. Confirmation that Szeth’s sphere has been glowing for 6+ years, along with a few interesting factoids: Voidlight drains more slowly from gems than Stormlight does; mined gems (at least some of them) have a more regular structure than gemhearts, allowing them to retain light longer. They keep commenting on the way the light looks different from Voidlight. Is it just the effect of whatever spren was trapped inside, or is this actually imported investiture from another shardworld? If the latter, then whose is it? Probably not from Sel, so Aona and Skai are out. The description doesn’t match either aspect of Harmony. The others… we just don’t know. I will wait to speculate until we get another clue. As a scientist, I kind of want a side story just following the scholars as they actually make the discoveries that Navani commissions them for. Hmm. A fanfic idea to keep in mind for later. Oh. Well, Rlain’s comments on the sphere are pretty definitive. This is a non-Roshar investiture for sure: I can’t decide if the pain is simply from an incompatibility with the listener forms, which have inherently grown with honor/cultivation, and been intentionally adapted for odium’s purposes. I’m leaning toward the other possibility, that it reflects the intent of the shard it came from, which would be...none of the ones we know. If we didn’t know what Ruin looked like already, I would posit that one, but it really doesn’t fit. Possibly Autonomy, but I’m going to bet on one of the ones that has been shattered previously, that we haven’t met yet. Shallan, that “well-connected” pun was bad and you should feel bad. Also, it was a lot more honest than I would expect you to be in a one-off quip like that. “I keep finding pieces of myself lying around, forgotten” indeed. Shallan and the Mink look like they will be a fun duo. Super spy shenanigans ahoy! Adolin has… gold-trimmed boots. Three pairs of gold-trimmed boots. Good grief, man--I do love your fashion obsession, but this is getting a little excessive. You do you, Adolin. Everyone is super impressed. Especially your mom, obviously. That’s what it means when she shakes her head like that while rolling her eyes. Did Adolin just sass Dalinar? What did I miss during this timeskip? His wife is being quite the influence. Neat that they have chosen to use the singers’ own name for themselves, rather than the much more propaganda-friendly “voidbringers”. I’m impressed with that choice.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Chapter 15 (The Light and the Music) Finally! On to the next chapter! Title: This is a Kaladin chapter, so I’m guessing it’s a reference to the things other people enjoy that he can’t because his life is suffering and depression. Sorry, Kal. Epigraph: So logicspren can reproduce any Boolean operation, timing gate, or similar mechanism based on the design of the fabrial they are used in. I see computers are on the way, and logic gates are very much a thing. Presumably a single captured logicspren could fully empower a control interface, an automatic stator, or any of a variety of governors. Wait, what? “In the weeks following…” We’re already getting a timeskip? Oh, it’s only the 2 weeks he had to make a decision. It’s hard to remember sometimes that Rosharan weeks are only 5 days. I like that Syl is copying Navani’s airship without knowing what it’s for or even having one built yet. Is it just fun, or does she feel an affinity for it due to the windspren connection to its concept? Oooo, are we going to talk to Zahel? He is overdue for an appearance, and I had sort of assumed he would have made himself scarce once he knew Azure was looking for him. Syl’s take on hair is gross. Good thing she doesn’t have any. While this is funny in a “yeah, that’s a Rosharan take on a familiar concept” sort of way, that analogy is a little too specific for my liking. Do people usually keep weird relatives in the stormshelter? We already know that the treatment of those with mental deficiencies is particularly poor among the Alethi. Is it common for embarrassing family members to be hidden away? Or is this actually a comment on how humans would keep their parsh slaves, and saying that they are related in the same way? I’m probably overthinking this, but it bothers me that Syl would say this quite as glibly as she did. Hah! Zahel is doing laundry. (Does he use awakening to make it go faster, I wonder?) Lobberbeasts?! Tell me more! Woah. This is very cool. Rlain taught them the rhythm they can drum, which attunes lifespren to help their crops grow. I had assumed it was just the light and humans hadn’t bothered, but Kal’s note that someone would have noticed in the past several thousand years is a good one. The music is that missing ingredient. I wonder what other rhythms can do to manifest effects in reality. Somehow I forgot that the Everstorm was summoned by singing, not by ritual. It should have been obvious that the drums and voices of the parshendi can have more magical effects, but somehow I didn’t think of it. Hmm. I wonder what rhythm they were beating at the party before Gavilar’s assassination. That music can work with stormlight as an alternative to crude fabrial effects is fascinating, and makes me really excited for the future Rosharan starships that are powered by disco. I’m very proud of Rlain’s choice to tell Yunfah he didn’t want a forced bond. I’m really glad Brandon made that narrative choice as well. Helping disadvantaged groups is one thing, but portraying those groups as needing the majority’s charity to succeed rather than being capable of excelling on their own merits is problematic. We can predict that this will be the honor (or possibly the attribute for another order) that will attract the correct spren for Rlain. I wonder what breechtree is. Is it named for the way it grows (breech into the wind, perhaps?) or is it related to its use--harvested to make breeches? No, obviously not the latter, it’s just a funny name and I don’t remember seeing it previously. You can’t see the grin on my face, but Zahel with (possibly awakened) laundry vs Kaladin is a fight I am going to love reading. Come on, Zahel. You use an idiom involving chickens and don’t even use the local word for chicken? You know, the only kind of bird that anyone here knows? How long have you even been here? And yes, the fight was very cool. Kaladin needling him about Vivenna is funny to me. I’d forgotten that they left her in Shadesmar, though. Zahel doesn’t seem to think it will be easy for her to pass through the perpendicularity at the Horneater peaks, which is a little surprising to me. She’s had over a year to try. It also makes me a little concerned for Rock, but I’ve already made my prediction there. This doesn’t change anything. Okay, Zahel isn’t bothering to hide his awakening at this point. I wonder what Kaladin is going to conclude about it? Zahel semi-stealthily reclaiming his Breath from the laundry, and all I can think is “does he not thank them any more?” That was a defining trait for him, and it really says something about what he went through in the yet-to-be-written Warbreaker sequel if he lost his consideration for the constructs he awakens. Zahel drained a Rosharan scarf of color for his awakening, so I presume that to mean the color doesn’t have to be Nalthis derived, or more specifically Tears-of-Edgli derived. We probably already knew this, but I can’t think of a specific WoB. This whole conversation about Type Two invested entities (new model) is fascinating and far more direct than I expected Zahel to be. It’s a nice reminder that he was a scholar in his own way. I really like the fossil analogy, and I am super curious about where he got it. Presumably he would have had to travel to a pre-shattering planet, or maybe pick it up in Silverlight I suppose. But he treats it as a more precious possession than just something he collected as a souvenir. :-( This is so revealing and so sad. He considers himself a pinocchio who knows he can’t be real any more, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. I really want to get Endowment’s rebuttal or at least her perspective on this. Did Zahel ever get to actually talk to her? I don’t know if we’ll ever find out for sure.

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Back Cover Before jumping into this, I want to share something very cool that I learned this week. Did you know that the Coppermind has implemented a time machine function where you can access the articles as they appeared prior to the release of a particular book? That means you don’t have to avoid the wiki entirely if you are trying to stay spoiler free. Props to the Coppermind staff and contributors for making such a useful function operate (so far) in a seamless fashion. Now then, in addition to the art in the physical copy, I am also eager to get a look at the back cover. As you (probably) know, the back cover text of the Stormlight books is distinct from the publisher’s blurb. Brandon insisted on attaching in-world text to the books, and ever since Edgedancer we’ve known that these are written by the Sleepless. Speaking of which, it just occurred to me that I’ve only looked at digital copies of Edgedancer and (cursorily, since I haven’t read it yet) Dawnshard. I have no idea whether the novellas also get in-world text equivalent to the bits on the full novels. I’m going to guess no, the Sleepless commentary is exclusive to the main-sequence books, but I honestly don’t know. I’ll need to ask someone on 17S. Anyway, let’s take a look. The One Who Is Three is a great title for Shallan (and friends). She “seeks the captured soul.” Does that mean the Sibling, or something new that we don’t know about yet? I’m curious how her internal division is an obstacle to finding this knowledge. I also note that “all people” sounds a whole lot like shorthand for “humans, singers, sleepless, and Siah Aimian alike,” which means it’s something more than the whole crisis of morality that the Radiants faced when they realized humans were interlopers on Roshar. I can’t wait to find out what the next big reveal is. (Hopefully, as I haven’t been steeped in the pre-release theorycrafting this time around, it will be less anticlimactic than the last one.) The Fallen Soldier--sounds like Kal is going to have a rough time in this book. I’m curious if this is doing double duty and has literal meaning on top of the metaphor. Is Kaladin going to be cut off from Stormlight somehow? The Broken Sister--Venli’s ancestors are carrying her? Towards “that most important silence” ? I am confused. Is this a silence that stills the new (Odium-inspired) rhythms? Or is it a silence from all rhythms? Because that sounds like a dangerous repudiation of what makes a listener. I’m going to just have to read and find out on this one. The Mother of Machines--nice to see Navani get a part of the spotlight here. Especially since she’s called out as the “most important of them all.” I’m entirely unclear on how her “lies” are related to the secrets of the sleepless, but I guess that’s the point. I do wonder whether this is an indication that Navani has a nahel bond in her future, since the sleepless have been focused on proto-radiants in previous volumes of the Stormlight Archive. I suspect not--they just like the way she’s sparking the industrial revolution and changing the world--but I wouldn’t put a firm bet on that. And that's that. While I'm here looking at the cover I do want to add to my previous observations that the colors are really vibrantly beautiful in this cover art. I'm looking at the oil-sheen-like rainbow on the rocky outcropping and the shimmering spheres that make up the bead ocean. I love being able to look at all the little details up close. Thank you Michael Whelan for doing the art! You're amazing! (And as an aside I think it's hilarious that Nazrilof is credited for taking Brandon's photo.)

Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers. Internal Art (Part II) Nale. Darkness. Oh, yes. His detached expression really works for what we know about his emotionless approach to things, while at the same time that eyes-closed transcendence looks almost rapturous despite the internal focus. He’s centering himself like a completely self-assured Javert from Les Mis. Also, he’s floating in a very defying-gravity sort of way, which is appropriate. And is the pommel of his sword a skull? Hard to tell for sure. The next thing that leaps out at me is those “crows” in the background. They are so beautifully reminiscent of the hovering skybreakers from Szeths training chapters during Oathbringer. I can see them winging in, ready to swoop down and render judgement. (His sword is out, not simply held but readied, in contrast to the other herald images we’ve seen.) But I’m getting distracted. The important thing is that those aren’t just black-feathered chickens. At least one of them has a very different body plan in its silhouette. My money is on a larkin, despite the differences to the other depictions we’ve been given. And that is FASCINATING. Why would the patron of the Skybreakers be associated with larkin? He used one against Lift in her first appearance, but presumably they weren’t always hunting down Radiants. What happened in the forgotten past that linked Nale with those creatures? Also, it’s interesting to me that he apparently has the scar that has been distinctive in all of his appearances in the text. I didn’t think about it before, but surely the Heralds would be availed of the same stormlight-fueled healing as our Radiants, at the very least. So it makes sense that something as cognitively part of his identity as an unhealed scar would also be something he acquired long ago and that reappears with each incarnation. That fundamentally changes it for me from a quirk of descriptive shorthand to something central to his character, and I am now incredibly curious about the story behind it. Is it a scar he received prior to becoming a herald in the first place? Is it something acquired afterward that was meaningful enough to retain? What does it mean to him? Chana. Not gonna lie, I don’t love this one as much. Chana’s presentation here feels too European to me. Which, honestly, so did Jez in a lot of ways, but while the depiction is beautiful it doesn’t feel distinctive to me. Sort of generic fantasy warrior princess. Her sword is cool, with the empty central portion of the “bladed tuning fork” variety. Oh, actually, with all the cymatics stuff, tuning fork might not be terribly off. Especially since in my mind cymatics relate to the destruction at the shattered plains which (for some reason not actually supported by the text) I’ve associated with the Dustbringers in my mind. Okay, I’m going on ridiculous tangents here. Time to reel it back in. I’m not sure if I would have noticed the glyph for “3” in the archway over her head if I hadn’t already looked at the 8s on Kalak’s outfit. Another nice touch of internal worldbuilding. The falling leaves make me think of autumn and things dying/failing, which would be appropriate to the Dustbringers except that those seasons are meaningless outside of Shinovar. Rosharan artists wouldn’t use “fall colors” with that same intention. So I’m wondering if the orange motes are instead a depiction of spren. I don’t remember if we got a description of the dustbringer’s spren back in the urithiru meeting where she was acting dodgy. (I don’t even remember her name, and at this point the coppermind is probably updated with RoW info so I’m not going to look it up either.) The gem associated with Chana is ruby, but the orangish-red of the order glyph matches decently to the orangish-red of the foliage in the picture, so that’s probably the primary effect they’re going for. The armor is good, and I like that it’s a lighter weight appearance than what we’ve heard about shardplate elsewhere. Even Jez’s armor looked fairly bulky in his portrait. Notably, Chana is NOT wearing a covering on her safehand. Was this portrait done by someone in another part of Roshar? Does it predate the Vorin taboo of safehand exposure? I’m quite interested to know. Finally, why is Chana floating?!?! Neither of the surges she and her order had access to should allow her to float or fly, right? It doesn’t make sense to me.

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.