Dru

Who has Adolin been so far in the books? -He has been the son of the blackthorn and been trying to live up to his father’s legacy and now standards. He has huge respect for his father. -He has been the older brother out of two. He has been the stronger of them supporting his younger brother with his problems and issues. -Has been and is an accomplished duelist, he is a professional athlete. -He is betrothed to a beautiful woman that he actually likes a lot, it is his first serious relationship, (maybe second he might have been betrothed before that’s what Shallan is told when she discuss him with someone in the start of WoR I think) even if it was arranged. How is his sittuation now? -His father is now a Bondsmith and a radiant something he at the moment probably feels he can never achieve no matter how much he tries. And this will be one hit on him. -His younger weaker brother is now also a radiant and “stronger/more important them him”, suddenly he is the week one in the family. -I do not think losing a duel will break him, he is professional and even if he loses and have a dip in his confidence he won’t break. Besides the dueling for shards is probably over now so no chance to duel. -His betrothed likes him but did she lie to herself that she likes him because she needed him to save her family. Now she is a radiant that saved the army, her brothers are coming to her thanks to the ghostbloods, she no longer needs him. Will her feelings for him change? Will she have time for him? I think there relationship will stagger if not break and this will be an immense hit on him. Even the ex-slave bridge boy is more important than him now which will affect his self-esteem. If the other ex-slaves start becoming radiant and squires then he will lose even more self-esteem. Adolin have gone from the cream deluxe top tier citizen to a “second rate citizen” in a matter of days this must be tuff for him. I believe Adolin will become isolated either by events or isolating himself from the others. He will spend time training recruits while he tries to find his place in this new world. He is very sentimental and I believe that he will spend more time with his blade just talking to it as a way to go thru his problems and keep himself together and when the cup overfills and he actually break there will be a chance for the spren to create the bond.

Heh what if adolins breaking was going to be shallan dumping him for bridge boy.... Now I don't really believe exactly that but he is very attached to her and "losing" her might break his "soul" .

Yes the armor glowed red in the joints. I don't necessarily see that as proof of being a dustbringer just because there glyph is red. The wiki still puts the Radiant as a likely edgedancer, but the wiki is written by fans so that is also just an opinion. http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Words_of_Radiance:_Chapter_4

Not sure if they can use surges or if they can only use storm light for strength and speed. Or if it's the radiant that "share " the storm light. But in the vision they start glowing.

One morse point speaking for Adolin reviving the spren is that he does have an edgedancer plate. In Dalinars vision where he is in the pure lake he sees and says that the radiants armor looks like Adolin only more narrow "female". That radiant have the friction ability and also seams to have Squires.

The main reason I read Sanderson is his world building, I haven't read anyone who does it better. But there are meny authors out there who writes very good stories. Some have been mentioned before here in the thread and some I haven't seen. I also try to read a lot of self published books some are a hit others a miss but I like to support the self published crowd. Just to name a few good books that I can recommend. -Blood Song by Anthony Ryan is a really good read that I enjoyed very much. -Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan is also a very good read and long was my favourite series. Her other books Age of five is almost on par (but a similar story) and the rest is not as good. -The Restorations series by Christopher Williams are an entraining read, and his space opera Long Shot is good too -Mageborn by Michael Manning, 4 first books are good the 5th(last) does not really keep it up to the same level -The Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Really good -The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman also good There are many other books that is worth the read out there and if fantasy bore you read something else, i try to read some space opera to not only read about magic and swords.

I can only agree with this. But As the trope acts as an release valve. Through out the book there is a build up leading to this expected moment. It is suppost to be a "Yes!" and now we "win the day" moment. It works extremely well in meny books, WoK one of the best if you ask me. But there is also books where this does not work as well and I think WoR fits in that category. For me we have Kaladins story that I got draged through the entire book, I really had to force it at times, since I found in way to long and tedious. If we compare tWoK with WoR in the case of Kaladin. I would say that WoK is a physical book, more emphasis on fighting for survival and the war in general, we see him train his "squad" etc. WoR on the other hand is more of an internal struggle book, trust, who he wants to be, and follow orders, the fighting done is more of "needs be be some action scens else it gets boring". Now since I already was annoyed with Kaladins arc and then get to the "release" valve, where Brandon uses a for me very "Physical" trope for an interna struggle book, that does not according to me fit Kaladins story to well. The "awesome" and "save the day", "Yes!! Fist pump!" turns in to a "not this again!" feeling. When I first read it I actually was disappointed on the entire scen, somehow I felt cheated/let down. Al of Kaladins scens in the book are in them self very well done and good scens, in a sens the line of progression is good and well done it is just something I do not like to read. I find it to long drawn out, I do not find the "release" valve to match the internal struggle he faces, I find the focus on his issues/hatred to be a little bit over the top for what I can stomach. The main fight scens with Kaladin, Areana, Chasmfiend and Szeth where al good in a way but for me they also have big problems and in a way is disconnected from his story, like they belong to a different book. The arena is probably the best of the 3 and it holds up very well until the end, the slap blade and spren screaming, opponent runs out felt out of place and was very anticlimax for the scen. This scen is well connected to the story and what I wrote here is nitpicking really but when adding it to the whole it have an effect in the disappointment feeling i have. The Chasmfiend, I totally understand why the Chasmfiend was there, the entire chams part of the book needs some sense of danger to the deadline that the highstorm gives. The fight it self was good no doubt but here I have Started to be very annoyed in general with Kaladin and the fight somehow provoke the feeling "Yes I know Kaladin is awesome, he is so f**king awesome that he can even kill the biggest chasmfiend ever seen even without sormlight!, you do not have to force it down my throat Brandon!", and yes he had help from Shallan and pattern but still thats the feeling I got. I actually think the fight it self was unnecessary and the sense of danger from the chasmfiend was well enough. The Szeth fight, here I was just bored and could not connect with Kaladin at al, the annoyance levels where just to high in me. For me the scen was not cool it was just a way for brandon to show what could be done by a newbe windrunner as well as give a sens of what the radiant blades can actually do. As I see it the internal struggle that is the main part of Kaldins arc does not connect with he physical parts of his arc. The fights feels forced on the storey (except arena fight). How it is now with: internal struggle, internal struggle .... does it never end.... internal struggle....coated with feeling of "wrong" release valve /trope to solve internal struggle, to finish with the "now we save they day moment" that feels disconnected and is unsatisfactory for me. Not at al of the caliber I expect Brandon to deliver.

I am a fan of trying to illustrate what i want to say with describing odd "stories" (can find the english word for it now). And i also beleve this difference in opinion on the Kaladin matter is connected to what type of person we our self are, Generalist or a "Specialist". I for one is more of a generalist, I look at what I consider to be big picture, for me pointers is quite enough and details can make things to "clogy" (I have problems with WoT and Fire and Ice due to this reason). I totally agree that Kaladins issues was not resolved at the end of tWoK and that they needed to be adressed in WoR. Here Brandon did a really good job no doubt. My problem is that it is to long drawn out and could have been handeld a bit differently. Will try to make some lose examples of what i mean so bare with me. Imagine if Kaladin had figured out his 3ed ideal at the time he is with Adolin and Shallan at the "zoo" or when they go out on the shattered plains before the chasm stuff. Now if he in these scens would have had the 3ed he would be able to focus more on the positive sides of these light eyes, he does to some degree yes but he is still moping around in the book. Now in these cases we would be able to see him deal with his trust issues in a little bit different way that would maybe feel more like some progression actually happens. Note that having the 3ed ideal for this is not really necessary but it is a turing point symbolising that he actually got somewhere and having it earlier and seeing him interact with people around him with this in mind would in my opinion yeald better results. But I guess that this will be his focus in book 3. On a nother note the chasm scen is for me a truly good example of how he progress, and this progress should have come earlier and been built upon more for my liking. Why I say that the 3ed ideal scen is a rip-off the 2ed ideal scen is maybe due to me being a generalist. I agree that the differences you point out is accurate but that is not how i read the scen. In my opinion I would attach the saying "Unique snowflake" to the differences you point out (no pun intend I respect your well thought out answer). I view it as this for both scens: Wounded tired - Check Fighting impossible odds - Check speaking Ideal - Check Power-up healing to full health - Check Stormlight saves the day - Check And this type of general repeating of scens is for me to much when it comes to Kaladin and how they are used to resolve his issues that needs to be resolved in WoR.

Depressed? We have sesonal depression here..... try living in a place where you do not see the sun for 4 months.... it does funny things to your mods and genneral well beeing.... On the story arc, ofc one can not change major parts of a book and keep the stuff behind them. In the example of the prison the reason for being there in the first place have to be rewriten too to better fit the "new" story:) I agree with this.

Sebarial raised a cup of wine toward Dalinar. “Hope you don’t mind,” Sebarial said. “We liberated your stores. They were blowing past at the time, headed for certain doom.” Dalinar stared at them. Palona even had a novel out and was reading. Most fun/unexpected thing in the book, bit cliche but dam good.

There was a lot that was realy frustation about Kaladin and his arc. Other then it was to long drawn out. Some of this I beleve tie in to what we as a reader want to read and what Fantasy is to us. Kaladins arc in wor: Yes it was realistic. Yes Brandon did an amasing job to write a "true" character but the question for me is is this something I want to read? And the asnwer is quite simply No. And I truly hope that Brandon is done with this depression/repeeting stuff now. I am actually kind of amazed on one thing though. Kaladin is supposadly a bright character, there is suppoast to be a head on his shoulders and not only an "angry" face. And not once do we she him stop and question/analyze himself and what is going on around him. We always she him eather running after someone or mopping. For me the asnwer to the question: I wish al of Kaladins worth of "progression" in WoR would be done half way through the book. He could even have done the 3ed ideal there, maybe figgure it out while he was in the cell and had time for reflections instead of mopping. That would have been much more satisfying to read then a almoast compleate rip-off from the second ideal scen in tWoK (it was cool the first time not so much the second) and would actually symbolice some character progression. After that we could have seen some more interaction with the bridgmen, I know training men only give that much story but atleast something more from them then what is in WoR today. A vissit to Lopens family that would be promption his idea to drop the king of there. More of Kaladin and Sly moments now that he have reaceh the third ideal and better understand his oaths maybe he could have some propper chats with Sly again instead of just what he beleve is right and she tells him is wong. That was just from the top of my head what could have been but in essence WoR for me lacks character progression for Kaladin and scens of him that are more diverged and not this singel-mindedness we have.

I would like to try and illustrate Kaladins arc with a real world senario...... Imagine you are living out in nowhere and you have to drive to the next city..... it is 400km through forrest, forrest and some more forrest. during this trip you will see trees some more trees and some trees, if you are extremely lucky you might see some rare animal to spice the trip like a bear or a lynx but you know beforehand that you will mostly just see trees. Now this is boring as h**l .... about 5 hours with seeing trees ... trust me this sucks i know. Now how does this compare to Kaladins arc.... well we know Kaladin have issues with lighters, his trust of them etc, we know he have suffered a lot, more then anyone should and we know he is grumpy etc. Now we knew al this even before WoR. So when we are to read and "write" Kaladins arc (journey) we have a huge benefit compared to the real life senario namely that we can choose to not write the full journey since we already know it we kan just do half of it. It is a little hard to skip 200km of that car journey in real life but with writing its different.... My issue is that we spent an entire book worth of Kalandins arc to see trees and trees and trees. Trees that we already know was there. Yes I totally agree some of this was necessary but damnation it was to much, way to much, this could have been sorted and dealt with 1/2 way through the book and the second half spent on new progression. Right now i just feel like we spent 1 book reading about Kaladin and we hardly see the outskirts of the "neighbouring city".... it feels like we are at the same place as we started..... Now that was my humble and personal opinion

One have to understand (in my opinnion) that easter eggs are a way for the author to reward the fans that have read a lot of said author and alternative give snippets for a larger story. This is also a very delicate line to walk, when is it to much or to little or to significant? And these question are up to each reader to decide what they think, ultimately the author writes what the author wants and we as readers can only have an opinion and there is no right or wrong here. When it comes to WoR (and tWoK) I am also having a feeling that Brandon have put to much easter eggs or cosmere related things in the book(s). Way of Kings was fine on its own but staring to add in WoR its getting to much. Here is some things that I find to be to much when looking at the complete picture, each point on its own is fine but al of them together is just to much. -World Hoppers (first the therm) is never in the books but totally cosmere related. Wit/Hoid is fine as a character and his quirks and antiques is nice easter eggs, mostly when he talks. I did not like the swallowing metals since that is based on a different "magic system" not in the books. -17th shard characters, these are fine on there own .... but again add all world hopper together and its to much -Zahel/Vasher, funny character with strange metaphors which is fun but this is actually the world hopper I'm most disappointed in, instead of using this character for some KR foreshadowing or something stormlight related he is cosmere related which makes me as a Stormlight Archive reader loose out on prospective story. -Ghostbloods (Marize ?, Ilyat..? how ever they where spelled) suspected of being world hoppers ...... -The ardent drawing bridge four glyphs, this character have no relevance to the story On top of this we have Hoids letter. Not part of the stormlight story. This is a nice addition in general And finally we have Nightblood, I was actually doing a big NOOOO! when I read that part of the book ( I was firstly annoyed with dead characters not staying dead and then get Nightblood dropped on me). Yes i also lowed Nighblood but in my opinion that sword have nothing to do in this series, would have been better if it was a lost honorblade instead or what ever...... Again I want to stress that hese points on there own is very much fine but when adding them al up they become to much. I find Wit/Hoid + his letter to be well enough to supply easter eggs for cosmere related things. The rest just put it over the top and almost makes me feel like i lose out on stormlight archive story (story in a sens of trying to connect al oddities to Roshar and the magic system in affect on this world just to relice they actually connect to something entirely different.)

If I remember correctly she only hears the screaming after she bonded the storm spren. I thought the screaming she heard was just "her old self" trying to fight the storm spren.

I lean towards Stoneward too. I do not think Lopen is a squire, i believe the squire have to be close to the radiant to get axess to stormlight. Lopen was noware near Kaladin and he draw storm light from a sphere himself.

sorry but laser eyes just made me remember this

i Always took Zahel as a warrior that once had a spren but made the "wrong" choses and destroyed the bond killing the spren. What in his Interlude make you believe he is Vasher?

The shardblades remain in the physical realm since when the radiants summoned them and broke the bond the spren died. But a dead spren still exist so they remind as shardblads. It also says that the early shadblands could not be summoned/dismissed they where always in the physical realm. This changed when someone put a gem on there blade and then they managed to bond the blade and thus summon it. It also says that the dead spren lives a little again when someone sync their heartbeat to them. And this is why the blade can be summoned/dismissed. When a radiant or radiant potential person feels discomfort by shardblads they feel the dead spren and if they come in physical contact whit it they hear it scream. Maybe the Sprean are looked in their "death scream". Maybe Adolin will manage to revive the spren in his blade since he treats it as something "living". And in the end when he fights Szeth he either thinks or hears a "duck" when he loose the view of Szeth. Guess it depends on the spren the blade is if it is one that would bond Adolin.

I agree a lot with you. I felt like after the dueling arena scen Kaladin stagnated totally. Thats why i think the third ideal should have come there not in the end. Selabrial was one of the best in the book, specially when he was siting there eating Dalinars provision and the misstres was reading a book. That was just a huge laugh for me.

Considering al the pain death and suffering that has been happening on Roshar over 99 desolations and in between. I think is likely that al that can give reason for the Unmade being spren feeding on those emotions. Words of Radiance: Chapter 28 Epigraph said It says gods here, who where the Parshendi gods originally. I don't for one moment believe that it was Odium and/or the Unmade. Even if those are the ones that answered their preyers in order to use them for for destruction.

Mr T says something about them in his diagram. I think they are spren but maybe they are related to al the negative feelings of humanity and maybe even Parshendi

Words of Radiance: Chapter 54 Epigraph said I read this as some group killing of the radiants that gave up their shards but who did it? the church? sky breakers? or maybe the future stone shamans?

Do we know how any spices was created. Where they all created by Andolisuom and he also created Parshendi when he was moving around. Or do we have good old Darvins theory in the cosmere?

Greetings So finally it’s Tuesday and words of radiance is here. Now for the question that everyone wants to know. What did you think about the book? I will here write my take on the book, what I think was good and bad mostly. Spoilers follow, I will not show actual text from the book but I will mention scenes so stop reading if you have not read the book and do not want to know what happens. Lets start with a general impression of the book. I think it was good it was really good, I have so far rated it a 5/5 but the more I think of it more things that really annoy me comes to mind so I will let it rest a bit and after the hype have settled read it again, maybe it will end up as a 3,5/5. There is a lot more to say and discuss but this is my main points so far. I hope we can discuss other things in this book as well, below are more heavy spoilers.

I also got my book yesterday, amazon ,de really divilvered it the day after I ordered it, i was really suppriesed at that. Been reading alot of it im coming up on the last 200 pages now. Have read everything exept what we got to preview but I skimmed them so to make sure i got the setting right and not messing things from memory. So far I have to say its a good book really good but somehow I also feel anoyed at some things, although i still have al of the ending to read My feeling at the moment with the book in the spoilertag Edit: changed a lill in the spoilertag