HydrogenAlpha

Well, here you go. Don't be afraid there won't be spoilers .. just me being a fanboy. If you thought that The Way of Kings was incredible, one of the best books you've ever read I can assure you: You will absolutley love Words of Radiance. My german teacher always said 'If you underline the whole text, you underline nothing at all !'. Mr. Sanderson made this little mistake when he wrote WoR - he just made it too awesome. He made it a pain to write a review, because if you wanted to point everything out that you loved, you would need a book of endless pages ( see what i did there ? ) But i will try anyway. The book starts strong grows even stronger and ends with an absolute explosion. The pace of the plot is such a delight - it never felt like over 1000 pages. Everytime i took my eyes from the letters i got sad, because the part left to read had shrunk by a big margin. But don't get me wrong it's not like this because there is too much action, it's because even the wordbuilding parts are just so intense. Everything is plot relevant. And i can tell you the plot is pure genius. The Sanderson Avalanche is probably going to hit you guys as hard as it hit me. The tower-part in TWoK was one of the best scenes i've ever read and it really hit a chord in me, if you feel the same - be happy ! We will get something similar. Talking about heart-wrenching .. there may will be some tears, guys. Brandon's books are the only ones that really get me emotionally attached to the characters, because he writes them so amazingly good. In WoR he has outdone himself, i can't even put into words .. he made them feel so real it's unbelievable. He always was good with character building, progress and letting them react like real people in hard situations but this timehe created real art. Apropos art - the book looks just fantastic it's almost like a painting. I'm sad that i have to put it in my booksheld, because it's feels like such a waste. Like hanging a painting with the painted side facing the wall. I'm not flattering here ! If you are familiar with G.R.R.M i will tell you that i had a pokerface while reading the red wedding. Not this time .. not this time. I could write so much more and I'm sorry for not outlining and structuring this thing well but I'm exhausted, I have to process this book. Tomorrow i will begin rereading it and this time i will savor it ! I hope we can discuss everything soon, HydrogenAlpha Edit: It amazing how many theories you guys had were actually right !

I read the whole thing in a 13 hour session .. i wish i hadn't, because I will never read a better book in my life.

I was never good with languages .. 3 year of spanish and I can only order a beer, so I guess we'd have to make our hands dirty. But would it really be a good idea to anger some shapeshifters? Imagine you talk to a pretty girl and get unexpectedly stabbed, 'cause she turns out a relative of our victim. That would be weird. I suggest using my superb language skills to start a pub brawl, trading some punches with a Aimian would do the trick, I think. On another note, if it's wealth you seek I would recommend taking hair wax with you .. Sadeas sounds like a guy who would use TONS of it, if he had the opportunity.

I'm from Germany and Amazon.de sent me an e-mail saying that my order will be delivered by tomorrow. You can imagine i'm pretty excited, but it's kinda awkward that europeans recieve a US-book even before it's released there. Well, i guess you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. But atleast you have signings .. i wish i could have my copy signed. Edit: Seems like i kickstarted german economy WoR is number 1 on trending books at amazon.de

I always tought that there's a big contrast between the two Kholin brothers. Brandon wrote a lot about how Adolin loves to duel, is a great tactician and will be leader of the familiy someday. I think it would be a very sandersonesque move if he took that away from Adolin, let him get paraplegic or something similar. He could've lost a duel .. get "a shardblade to the knee". Maybe i'm right, but that would be cruel.

I'm curious about what color aimian (?) blood is. In the prologue of WoK is a description of different colors of spilled blood, so if the aimian blood isn't mentioned we could assuse that they either weren't involed or appeared only afterwards. Would someone with an e-book be so kind and look for that ?

So many sad reactions - is Brandon going all GRRM on us ? I can surely say that time never passed as slow as it does now .. just another 13 days !

If i die before this series is finished i will be awfully pissed, i swear to Lightsong.

Well, I don't think we should put so much meaning into this quote. It's probably just referring to a dead chasmfiend and someone just doesn't want to cut out the gemheart, because whatever. I doubt that Tor would give us a really important quote ( Hoid vs. Odium or smt. ).

Lightweaving is definitely from Yolen, if we can count Liar of Partinel to the canon. SPOILER ( I have no idea how you put spoilerbrackets in here, sorry ) :

Ages ago Odium caught a Hangoverspren that he can't get rid of. That's the reason why he want's to see the world in ruins.

Well, you should take care. After all she could be a servant of Odium, just waiting for you to make a mistake .. like reading this thread.

I call Amaram is the next Sazed.. or he ends up dying in a rather horrible manner.

I want a Wit prologue ! Since Hoid is always present at the most important happenings i guess he could be there, too. Screw it i'm want a whole Hoid book ! Well, one book clearly would'nt be enough .. there has to be a series.

I thought about this myself and would'nt it be cool if Shallan draws some main character ( preferably in the final chapters ) just to discover that the picture is actually distorted or in any way broken - hinting at Odiums champion ? I like the whole concept of giving away some plot points via the drawing, like the existence of the cryptics and thing like this. It's very Sandersonesque and thats always a good thing.

Unfortunately Brandon does never bring back the dead ( at least not in a physical way ) But you can't be mad that he kills off a character ! SPOILER: For example Lightsong and Kelsier's deaths were both heroic and necessary - Lightsong even died happy, because he finally found purpose in his existence. What i want to say is that if Jasnah dies, she won't come back, but Brandon will manage to give her a worthy death, that doesn't leave you emotionally crushed. Bittersweet endings, i guess.

I like your theory very much, i would certainly be a very sandersonesque turn of events. Shame that we won't find out about his origins and how he was involved with Adonalsium until Brandon starts with Dragonsteel/ rewrites Liar of Partinel ( although i think he said that this is unlikely) - which is years away. I sincerely hope that we'll get some major foreshadowing in the next Stormlight books.

While reading the Shallan chapter something came to my mind: If you tell somebody about a lie you simultaneously telling the truth - that you lied in the first place. So a spren that requires to confess lies is not only a Liespren, but also a truthspren.

Brandon somewhere stated that Hoid is the most powerful non-shardic being in the cosmere. I doubt that he is avoiding Darkness. I rather think he avoids members of the 17th Shard, because he doesn't want to risk a confrontation - where he could accidently hurt or kill them. I guess it's kind of a " I don't want you guys to get hurt, but if you insist i can't make any promises" - thing. So he keeps a low profile. Or he can't use a interuption.. who knows?

I like how you pointed out that he threw away his sharblade in order to be able to invest more. I always thought that summoning a blade is some form of investure and is somehow linked with the usage of stormlight ( whatever the magic systems is called ). I think thats somehow the reason that getting a shard makes you presumably a lighteye,

Jasnah wanted to assassinate his wife, i guess she had a good reason for it. He could be involved in whatever made her suspicious. Maybe they were up to something .. a coup d'état ? Considering how he handled Dalinar he maybe thought his father is unable to rule, because of the changes he went through.

It's clearly well thought out - I like it ! I always thought that Odium is called the Broken One because every other shard seemed to be a good influence in their shardworlds, creating life and such things, but Odium is the only one that seeks power and causes destruction ( except Ruin who wanted to destroy the stuff he created togheter with Preservation ). Thus being broken in the sense of not functioning correctly. But i like yours one more ! ​

What if Darkness is right and just wants to save Roshar and the visions Dalinar recieves are actually send by Odium instead of Honor .. dum dum dum plottwist. Kidding aside, i like your theory and that you put spoiler-warnings in !

I can't back up my theory with any facts but I think that humanity somehow blew up the city that was once at the Shattered Plains, somehow they also destroyed the equivalent in the cognitive realm, killing lots of sprens in their spren-city. But it's also kind of lame, I guess Mr. S will come up with something so awesome we can't even think of.

If he really wants to found the KR again, he probably intends to keep them to equip his new Soldiers with them. Probably the wrong approach, but he's got no Spren to tell him that the shards are "bad influence".