Teccam

From the Houston signing — Truthless's question, via Awesomeness Summoned: Peter confirmed the spelling a few posts down. (RShara spelled it "Khryss" in the compiled WoB thread here, though I haven't found a source contradicting Peter on the "Khriss" spelling so I'm assuming that's the right one.) We haven't heard this name before, have we? It's probably a safe assumption that s/he is from Yolen, and somehow involved in whatever events led to Hoid being present for the shattering of Adonalsium. Is Khriss the recipient of Nazh's notes (the artwork in WoR)? Or perhaps of Hoid's letter(s) in WoK and/or WoR? Do you guys think we've seen subtle references to Khriss in a cosmere book already? I don't think we have enough to go off of yet, but maybe with another question or two, we could get some decent speculation going. There were a few comments on this in the Houston signing thread, but it seemed worthy of its own thread.... One thing's for sure: Anyone whose cosmere awareness puts Hoid's to shame is worth keeping an eye on.

Well, we have WoB that (a) Nightblade is orders of magnitude more powerful than Shardblades, and (b) that something "interesting" would happen if Nightblood were to ever clash with a Shardblade. I'm inclined to believe that Brandon's idea of "interesting" in this context is a bit more extraordinary than just being able to resist the blade. I wonder if Nightblood can somehow interact directly with the semi-dead spren within the Blade? Or, in the case of a Knight Radiant with a still living spren, could Nightblood "kill" the spren?

I think Amaram's association is the Sons of Honor, isn't it? Wonder what their goals will be now that the Voidbringers are back. We leave Amaram as he sets out for Urithiru, which will certainly make for some intrigue. Not sure how he intends to get there in the first place, and even if he does make it, I can't imagine the welcome will be too cheery.... Which presumably means he'll be trying to fly under the radar. Meanwhile, the Ghostbloods have already proven capable of doing just that. Mraize is definitely in Urithiru and probably looking for things that no one else (except perhaps the Diagram) knows about. I didn't get my book until Sunday evening (Barnes & Noble cancelled my preorder!) and it took until yesterday night for me to finish it. I was up until after 4:00AM and now I'm running on fumes. But so worth it! There were so many amazing moments and sequences in this book. I can see why Shalladin is a lame ship on some level, but I can't help but root for that pairing anyway. I don't want it to get tacky though; tension for tension's sake is usually pretty easy to notice.

We see Squires in one of Dalinar's visions in WoK. I definitely remember them glowing, though I don't think we see anyone healing. But it seems kind of odd that they could draw/possess Stormlight but not actually use it (unless they also act as Stormlight reserves for the Knights to draw upon). I think maybe the Squires can draw on Stormlight for their own use in the way that Surgebinders can, possibly due to speaking the oaths of the Knights Radiant. But because they lack a bonded spren, they cannot Surgebind, nor make any other use of the Investiture beyond its innate personal benefits — healing, enhanced stamina, and the like. And possibly more abilities we haven't yet seen. I also think therefore that it's still possible for Lopen to *become* a Knight Radiant, even if he is just a Squire as of the end of WoR. It would just be a matter of bonding with a spren and speaking the remaining oaths as applicable.

Most cell phones have a voice memo utility these days. And it should continue to record even while your phone is asleep. If you charge your phone and ask for permission to record before the session starts, Brandon will likely permit you to set your phone on the desk for the duration of the event.

There's also a nod to The Swing, the painting by Fragonard which inspired the art direction for Tangled. It happens during the first iteration of "For the First Time in Forever" when Anna is jumping in front of a collection of paintings inside the castle. She jumps in front of the painting and seems to sit on the swing for a moment as she hangs in midair. There's some quality discourse in this thread. I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I felt compelled to add my two cents. Going into the movie, I was very skeptical of Olaf as a character. Disney has a track record for lame comic relief sidekicks, and the marketing for this movie did not instill much hope that Olaf would be amusing (at least, not to adults) nor that he would bear any significance in terms of plotting or exposition. Unlike several of you in this thread, Olaf won me over quite quickly. I found myself laughing at nearly all of his lines ("I don't have a skull... or bones" was probably my favorite). And while he had relatively few lines that weren't throwaway jokes, those were all insightful and/or informative for the story, or at least for one of the other characters. As several people have already mentioned, Olaf is important for what he represents between Elsa and Anna. That alone makes his character worthwhile — at least, compared to many other Disney sidekicks. I thought the characterization for Elsa and Anna was very good. The animators did a phenomenal job with facial expressions, posture, etc. to really bring them to life on a physical level. Menzel and Bell were both great, both in the musical numbers and the general voice acting. The others were solid as well. Since the trope subversion front has already been covered, I won't go into that except to say that I was a fan. One thing I didn't like was a few of the anachronisms. For instance, Hans uses "like" as a form of speech disfluency in the beginning of "Love is an Open Door" which really bugged me. Talking about spas, tans, etc. also irked me a bit, and just the general dialog felt too casual and contemporary. I understand the need to make it accessible to the young audiences. I'm not suggesting they write dialog like A Song of Ice and Fire or anything. Just a tad more formal and archaic words and phrases would have been nice, IMO. The music was probably in my top 3 all time for Disney movies (other contenders include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book). This thread has already seen some great analysis for "Let It Go" and "Love is an Open Door". I think it would be possible to write a similar assessment for "For the First Time in Forever", especially the reprise. That's such a pivotal sequence in the film, and the lyrics and orchestration are so delicately crafted there. I think the film could have done without the troll song though — it just seemed like a thinly veiled means of expediting the relationship between Anna and Kristoff heading into the film's finale. In fact, I wasn't a fan of the trolls throughout the movie. I see their function within the story, but the execution wasn't on par with the rest of the movie. All in all, I think this is my favorite Disney movie since The Lion King. Not sure I'd say it's a better movie than Tangled, but it resonated with me on a personal level in a way that Tangled couldn't quite match.

Ugh, I'm still waiting for Barnes & Noble to send me my copy! I haven't even received confirmation that it shipped yet, and when I preordered it I thought I was getting day one shipping. I might just have to pick up a copy in the City and have a spare on hand to give to a friend or something.... I saw that Talenelat recorded audio at the San Diego signing today. Is anyone planning on recording the signing tomorrow? If not, and if I'm able to make it out there, I definitely will record it (Brandon permitting). Though I'll probably not listen to it myself until after I've read the book, to be safe. EDIT: It's looking like I probably won't be able to make it out tonight after all. I'm trying to make it happen, but maybe someone else will be able to record it to be safe?

The stream starts at 10:00PM Utah time, correct? So 9:00PM PST, 12:00AM EST? Anyone know if the recording will be added to Brandon's YouTube or anything like that, in case I have to miss some of it?

Thanks Limelleth and karaokeang. My concerns have been assuaged. Now it's just a matter of getting out to the City. I think I can do it, though it's a bit of a trek for me, and it'll be the third time going out there this week. I'm thinking about taking a question or two from this post by Moogle from a couple weeks ago. Any thoughts?

I really want to make it for this. I've never been to a signing for Brandon before, and I'm not sure I'm experienced enough to come up with a suitably useful question for him. The other issue is, I already have a signed copy coming in the mail, and I know it's bad form not to buy a book at a signing. So then do I just buy a second copy? Man, I really don't want to miss this despite my reservations. Maybe I'll see some of you there.

Excellent, I'll definitely check those out. Thanks!

Perfect. Thank you, Moogle!

I've read Legion, The Emperor's Soul, and Mitosis. The first two are probably more novellas than short stories. I haven't read the stuff that's only available in anthologies, such as "River of Souls" or "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell". I also just realized that I forgot about the Wheel of Time books, which I haven't read. I started the series, and found it interesting, but I just had so many other things on my TBR list that I decided to shelve WoT for the time being.As for the cosmere, I like to think I'm reasonably well-informed. Definitely not an expert by any means, especially in the estimation of this site, judging by some of the threads and theories I've read. But I feel like I know enough to at least participate in some discussions, and hopefully that knowledge will continue to develop as I spend time in the forums.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but I've seen a couple references to there being WoB that Roshar's highstorms are somehow similar/related to Scadrial's mists (presumably, in that each is tied to a Shard). But I haven't been able to actually find any direct source, just allusions to Brandon supposedly confirming it. For example, this post by Gloom from last October. Does anyone have a link to the direct WoB on this?

Howdy, all! I've been lurking for a while, and finally decided to sign up and join in the discussion. I love the community here and the content you guys are producing. Can't wait to get involved! As for myself, I first started reading Brandon's stuff not long after The Wise Man's Fear came out, and I needed another fantasy kick. Started with The Way of Kings, then moved on to the Mistborn series. Re-read WoK, then gradually began working through the rest of Brandon's catalog. I've now finished everything Brandon's published except Warbreaker (which I'm currently about 20% through) and his Infinity Blade stuff. Some of my other favorite series include Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, King's Dark Tower series, and Butcher's Dresden Files. I'm sure many of you have similar tastes.