Xenq

Can you read a Kindle version? Their customer service is usually pretty good, perhaps they would give you a Kindle copy as well if you talk to them.

You could be right but think it's more likely he is referring to humanity destroying another planet, knowledge of the first destruction leading to the Recreance. It's possible that more powerful surgebinding and ascending to herald-level might be one and the same. For a moment I thought this was going to happen in Oathbringer! Definitely with the old heralds either dying, betraying humanity or being 100% useless it opens things up for a new batch, which would be awesome

Not sure if I've excised this quote properly, but here goes. I was wondering this also. Shallan addresses it a couple of times in WoR.Calm, Shallan told herself. Be calm! Ten heartbeats. But for her, it didn’t have to be ten, did it? No. It must be. Time, I need time! (WoR ch. 34) and She stepped right up to him, ready to summon Pattern. He wasn't like other Shardblades; she acknowledged that now. He could come more quickly than the ten requisite heartbeats. He'd done that before. She hadn't been willing to admit that he was capable of it. Admitting that would have been too much. How many more of my lies, she thought, hold me back from things I could accomplish? But she needed those lies. Needed them. (WoR ch. 88) So I think we can conclude from this that she has always been able to summon her blade instantaneously, like Kaladin (although Syl said she needed to be there and ready [WoR ch. 86]) and that her constant references to ten heartbeats were down to her confusion and or madness. It does seem a little forced on Brandon's part. The blade was called "the fruit of her sin, the proceeds of her most horrific act" in TWoK. Having read WoR now, it seems that Shallan is referring to forming her shardblade for the first time to kill her mother (unless there is some other horrific event in her past we are yet to hear about). I'm not sure even an insane Shallan would refer to that as "fruit" or "proceeds". That said, the spren/blade reveal with Syl was pretty damnation awesome and writing the Shallan blade stuff any other way probably might have detracted from that, so I can let it slide.

I think Dalinar accepts that the duelling strategy breaks the Codes. Even if you want to argue that from Dalinar's perspective (and ours) the duels aren't needless, to everyone else it probably looks like Adolin is challenging people on the slightest of pretexts. That said, Dalinar realises he couldn't get the Alethi to adopt the codes voluntarily and in the current political and strategic climate he recognises he can't force people to adopt them, so he's willing to breach the codes a little bit now so that they are followed absolutely later on. I think this is all part of Dalinar's development as a character. He's realised that they do not have a lot of time and that he's going to have to bend, perhaps cut a few corners or break a few rules to get things done. I'm not sure how highly he regards the Codes anymore anyway considering he is gradually beginning to worry less about the Alethi, and more about the whole planet.

Hi all. Been reading here for awhile but with book 2 just around the corner thought I'd better get involved Shardblades definitely have the edge in indiscriminately killing unarmoured targets but as you say a spearbearer may have an advantage in one-on-one combat. You could also work as a team with spears to take down high-value targets (other shardbearers, Thunderclast etc.).