Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Finished Words of Radiance, it's awesome. I have a question about it (I've only read the last 10 pages of the thread, so sorry if it has been asked before):

When Talenel got out of Damnation and appeared outside Kholinar, he had his honorblade with him. But when Dalinar had the "madman" and his blade brought to the warcamp to tempt Amaram, he bound it in secret. The Stormfather later demanded of Dalinar to get rid of the shardblade, and it made screams like all dead spren/shardblades. So somebody must have swapped out Talenel's honorblade with a regular shardblade, right? Hoid perhaps?


I think Brandon is an awesome author. His works are always interesting and make me want to read more of it. It's extremely fortunate that he's such a writing machine, because I really want to know what happens on Scadrial and Roshar next.

I also like that he writes "clean" fantasy. Lord of the Rings was amazing without excessive violence or sex scenes. Those have their places, and the "First Law" trilogy for example did them quite well. But I gave up on ASOIAF after book two because I found the story weak and the characters boring and that sex and violence were partly used to mask this. Of course a part of the "problem" lies with me since nearly all the sex scenes are straight sex scenes, which I don't care for as a gay man.

If you can have sex scenes that are not cringeworthy and fit the story, then there's nothing wrong with them. But if Brandon isn't comfortable with writing them, then he would probably do a bad job which won't really enhance the books. It's much better to leave them out then. I had to read around bad sex scenes, excessive violence and objectivist bullshit to get through Sword of Truth, because I found the rest of the story quite compelling. How much better would it have been if Goodkind had Brandon's attitude to sex?


As to gay characters, these are of course difficult. Again, if he isn't comfortable with them because of their religion, I don't know what kind of job he would do writing them. Making the villains gay to show how depraved they are is obviously out (though they can be a villain and gay without their sexuality reinforcing them being a villain just fine). Minor characters being gay is also a bit lame, especially if it's all an informed attribute without us seeing it in some kind. But it's better than no gay characters or only evil gay characters. Important and especially main characters being gay would be nice, but it's sadly still extremely rare in mainstream science-fiction/fantasy, especially gay male characters. But I won't hold it against Brandon if he doesn't include gay characters. His books are fun to read and that's the most important thing. The social justice warriors are just an embarrassment.

Though it's sad that financial disincentives are probably still pretty strong against writing gay main characters, because it can actually provide an interesting way out of usual gender dynamics. No problem with the action hero getting together with the demure princess and the author getting crucified by the feminists for it.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Tunicate posted:

Brandon's a tease, because
apparently Sazed has kandra secret agents in a bunch of other books

That's awesome. I can't wait until he starts bringing all the Comsere stuff together, though it will probably be at least 20 years or so until it happens :(

At least we have some tentative connections in Stormlight Archives, with the Warbreaker crossover.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
So, Shadows of Self in October next year, and Bands of Mourning in January 2016. Also, there will be a fourth and final book with Wax and Wayne, called The Lost Metal. These titles are all interesting. Shadows of Self immediately makes me think of certain allomantic powers, Bands of Mourning can be either copperminds or some application of hemalurgy, and there is one metal from the Mistborn trilogy which immediately jumps out as The Lost Metal.

Edit: He needs to do the Elantris sequels before he can write the 1980 or so Mistborn books for Cosmere reasons! That stuff will probably become more and more important as the different series progress.

Edit 2: He will do Dragonsteel (Hoid's backstory) only after he is through with Stormlight Archive, so it will probably be about 2 decades until we get it.

Torrannor fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Dec 18, 2014

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

MildShow posted:

Which one? Because I think either Atium or Lerasium could fit the bill and have interesting implications.

Lerasium was never really a thing in the first place, I don't think it really fits the description of the lost metal.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
There can never be too many books in the Mistborn setting.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Cheradenine posted:

I thought reaching the second heightening did that.

I think that was a joke.

Anyway, further proof that Harmony isn't just Sazed holding Preservation and Ruin, but that the shards have merged and created something new. And it probably makes you a Feruchemist. Lerasium makes you into a full Allomant, while hemalurgy can in principle be used by everybody without special inborn powers. Only Feruchemy is left.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

The Gardenator posted:

Another interesting thing in that above link was that Odium is afraid of Harmony.

Unlike Odium, Harmony is composed of two Shards and is supposed to be stronger than Odium. Harmony's intent is balance right? So that could mean at some point Harmony could be persuaded to help balance Roshar.


He apparently has Kandra agents all over the Cosmere, scouting out what's happening elsewhere. I'm pretty sure he will play a role on Roshar, even if he won't directly fight against Odium.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Mortanis posted:

Somewhere right before Alloy of Law dropped I swear I read that Sazed/Harmony was slowly corrupting under the influence of the shards he held - either the fact that shards themselves subsume hosts due to their semi-divine nature, or due to the fact that he's holding Ruin. We didn't see any evidence of that in Alloy of Law that I noticed, so I'm wondering if that was just a rumor and not something Sanderson said somewhere though.

I have read that as a fan theory somewhere as well but I have never seen any evidence in the books or confirmation by Brandon, so I doubt that this is happening for now.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Xtanstic posted:

So I just finished Elantris. I found it fine but dull. It had it's moments but for the most part I just plodded along. Certainly I can cut him some slack because it's his first published novel. I'm also not sure if it suffered because I listened to the audiobook and it had a lot of made up words and names, as well as being my first audiobook experience (I mainly listen to podcasts). I really enjoyed the Mistborn trilogy and the steampunk spinoff though. So where do I go from here? Jump into Stomrlight Archive? I kind of want to "save it" so maybe something else first?

You can get the Warbreaker e-book for free from his site, and the book is a nice read, though many people feel that his humor is at his worst in it. Reading Warbreaker before Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) is a good idea since a few characters from the former have a cameo in the latter. It's not obvious right now how important they are, but at least to me it seems as if the Stormligh Archive series will be the first time that stuff from other Cosmere books will be important to the story.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

theghostpt posted:

I'm still a bit confused with the Ghostbloods and Sons of Honor faction, they both seem to be heading towards the same goal? They both want the Heralds back and the way they were doing it was to make the voidbringers return. So what exactly do they win by trying to murder Amaram?

That's not quite how I understood it. The Sons of Honor want to bring about the return of the Voidbringers, because that would also mean the return of the Heralds. The intentions of the Ghostbloods are less clear, but they don't seem to have the same religious fervor. Also, Galivar thought that Szeth was sent by the Ghostbloods, and that it was too late (to prevent the return of the Voidbringers). If Galivar thought that they would kill him, then they are presumably not interested in the return of the Voidbringers, which may also be the reason for the attempt on Amaram's life.

theghostpt posted:

I have no idea where the Heralds will fit in all of this, aren't they supposed to be the gods, representative of each section of the Knights Radiant? At least Justice didn't seem very interested in joining up with the rest of the Radiants, up to now at least. Also wtf is up with War? He seems to think he is too late to stop the voidbringers yet from everything said the Heralds are returning because the voidbringers returned themselves.

Did you not read the prologue of Way of Kings? All Heralds save Talenel (War as you call him) survived the last Desolation and did not return to Damnation. They abandoned their oaths, left their Knights Radiants behind and just chilled out incognito. They are also not god, since God in the Vorin religion is the Almighty (Honor), and they are simply his heralds

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
The Kelewan books were my favorites actually.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
I made up new numbers, but here are some very interesting quotes from that AMA. Beware of spoilers, I guess:

quote:

1. Can an Awakened form a nahel bond with a spren on Roshar?

2. Are spren bound to Roshar or can they travel to other worlds? Could they do so if they were bound to someone that traveled to other worlds?

3. Are the Unmade Splinters of Odium?

4. Is the Well of Ascension Preservation’s Perpendicularity? Or at least related to it (i.e. one is in the Physical Realm but the other is in the Cognitive but are still essentially different aspects of the same “thing”)?

Brandon Sanderson posted:

1. Depends on the spren!

2.RAFO. Excellent question, though.

3. Yes. Good guess.

4. You're on the right track.

I'm off to bed, will take a stab at interpreting these tomorrow.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

The Ninth Layer posted:

It's one of the reasons I am not more of a fan. If you didn't follow all the Q&A stuff Sanderson does you would never know that these worlds are interconnected at all. I hope that's something he corrects in the third Stormlight book.

Mistborn, Elantris, Warbreaker and Stormlight Archives spoilers following.

A part of the epigraphs from The Way of Kings:

quote:

Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him. Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met. He holds the most frightening and terrible of all the Shards. Ponder on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence on nonintervention holds firm. Because I assure you, Rayse will not be similarly inhibited. One need only look at the aftermath of his brief visit to Sel to see proof of what I say. In case you have turned a blind eye to that disaster, know that Aona and Skai are both dead, and that which they held has been Splintered. Presumably to prevent anyone from rising up to challenge Rayse.

So, here they mention the world in which Elantris and Emperors Soul take place. The similarity between Aona and AonDor is striking. Connecting Ati (who held the shard of Ruin) to Atium is a bit more difficult, but still doable. Sazed mentioned Adonalsium and shards, which ties nicely into something in the epigraphs of Words of Radiance:

quote:

The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of Adonalsium. Our interference so far has brought nothing but pain. My path has been chosen very deliberately. Yes, I agree with everything you have said about Rayse, including the severe danger he presents. However, it seems to me that all things have been set up for a purpose, and if we—as infants—stumble through the workshop, we risk exacerbating, not preventing, a problem.
Rayse is captive. He cannot leave the system he now inhabits. His destructive potential is, therefore, inhibited. Whether this was Tanavast’s design or not, millennia have passed without Rayse taking the life of another of the sixteen.

These are all hints that these worlds are connected, though the appearance of Nightblood makes it relatively clear, at least to anybody who read Warbreaker. So you cannot say that it's impossible to know about it without Word of Brandon, though it's quite hidden until Szeth got Nightblood in Words of Radiance.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

mewse posted:

I read Sanderson's WoT books, then the stormlight archives.

Now I've started on the Reckoners books, though they seem more young adult than his other stuff.

After that I'm planning on his Mistborn series.

Will that give me the breadth of his cosmere stuff? Or are there some of his short stories/one-offs that I should read?

Reckoners isn't part of the Cosmere. None of his books that take place on some version of Earth are.

You would only be missing Warbreaker and the two novels which take place on Sel, Elantris and Emperors's Soul. You can get a free version of Warbreaker here: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/warbreaker/warbreaker/warbreaker-rights-and-downloads/

Warbreaker and Stormlight Archives 2 have the first really obvious characters in common, though the two characters from Warbreaker that appear in Words of Radiance have either a minor role, or only appear in the third to last chapter of the book.

Elantris is probably his weakest Cosmere book, while Emperor's Soul is his best book, period.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Tunicate posted:

The former herald of justice, Javert Nale.

Fixed. I cannot recall a character named Javert in Stormlight Archive at all.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Levitate posted:

You know it's going to cause all kinds of problems though

But it solved a lot of them, too. And don't forget that only broken people can become Knights Radiants, so it's just set up for Adolin's further character arc.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
What if Kaladin falls for Adolin?

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

mewse posted:

I didn't catch on to the Harmony label, thank you. I liked how the atium cache depleted Ruin's powers to match Preservation imbuing humanity.

You couldn't catch that if you did not read the fourth Mistborn book, which takes places a few centuries after the events in the trilogy.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
I skipped the Kaladin and Shallan flashback chapters, because I was too impatient to learn what happens in the "real" story to bother with the past. But I nearly always skip unimportant seeming parts of a book when I first read it, that's what rereads are for. And I reread good books nearly immediately after finishing the first read-through.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Evil Fluffy posted:

The worst part about Book 3 being Szeth-focused is that it'll likely introduce a handful of other characters and only touch on them now and then, instead of covering Kaladin and the others who are now all together and thus could move the story along in much greater detail.

Based on the excerpt of book 3 that has been released, I'm pretty sure that Kaladin will spend at most one chapter with Shallan and Dalinar before traveling to his hometown.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Ithaqua posted:

But the world is already getting smaller, much like the world got smaller in Wheel of Time once they had Traveling... Kaladin can travel pretty fast now. And other characters can apparently teleport.

WoT had traveling from book 6, and not once in the remaining 8 books do the three male main characters ever appear in a scene together.

Kaladin can travel fast when he has spheres with stormlight to drain, and during a highstorm he doesn't even need those. But the spheres don't have unlimited stormlight, so I guess he can only fly far once after each highstorm. Shallan and Dalinar won't sit still in Urithiru.

And we don't know yet the exact rules of teleporting, so there can be restrictions that make travel not quite as easy as one would think.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Ithaqua posted:

You're not. Almost everything that's known about it is because Sanderson has a big mouth and won't stop talking about it in interviews.

It's not that simple. A lot of the time, he is actually only confirming fan theories that people ask him about, so someone has indeed found out about it without Sanderson telling them. The clues are there, it's just that we are a lot more certain in our knowledge since he doesn't say RAFO as often as other authors.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Tor.com has a post about Shadows of Self (Mistborn 5):

http://www.tor.com/2015/06/18/british-fiction-focus-covering-shadows-of-self-by-brandon-sanderson/

It begins with Sanderson.txt:

quote:

Once upon a time, Waxillium “Wax” Ladrian and his best mate Wayne were of precious little significance in the grand scheme of Brandon Sanderson. They had small parts to play in a creative writing exercise meant to help clear the author’s head before he completed work on The Wheel of Time series. But Sanderson’s practice blossomed into a proper short story… a short story that kept growing and growing until, before long, a whole new novel was born!

Here is the updated blurb:

quote:

It is more than 300 years after the events of the The Final Empire shaped Scadrial. The heroes of the Mistborn series are now figures of myth and legend—objects of religious veneration, even—who have long since been succeeded.

Chief among the wonderful new cast of characters introduced in The Alloy of Law, we have Waxillium ‘Wax’ Ladrian, the hereditary Lord of House Ladrian—and also, until recently, a lawman in the ungoverned frontier region known as the Roughs, where Wax worked with his eccentric but effective buddy, Wayne. They are ‘twinborn,’ meaning they are able to use both Allomantic and Feruchemical magic.

Shadows of Self shows Mistborn’s society evolving as technology and magic mix, the economy grows, democracy contends with corruption, and religion becomes a growing cultural force, with four faiths competing for converts. This bustling, optimistic, but still shaky civilisation now faces its first terrorists, who commit crimes intended to stir up labour strife and religious conflict. Assisted by the lovely, brilliant Marasi, Wax and Wayne must unravel the conspiracy before Scadrial’s progress is stopped in its tracks.

Sounds like there will be a lot more politics going on there, as well as a closer look at the competing religions (Pathism, Sliverism, probably Trellism, ...?). Also, steampunk combined with Allomancy and Ferruchemy will become more important, that aspect of their society didn't receive enough attention in Alloy of Law.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Tahirovic posted:

Sanderson's twists usually serve the story, Gurm has them to make plotlines disappear or get stuck in quicksand. The first two ASoIaF books are cool the rest is worse than WoT books 8 and 9.

Then again, I still maintain WoT would have died without Sanderson, since Jordan kinda lost track and got carried away by useless poo poo, pretty much like Gurm.

Jordan's last book "Knife of Dreams", already began to resolve plotlines. Faile was rescued and the Shaido were finished, Tuon returned to Ebou Dar, Semirhage was captured, Mat escaped the Seanchan held lands. And considering that Sanderson worked closely with Harriet, Jordan's wife and editor, with plenty of notes left over from Robert Jordan himself, I have no doubt that the series was entering it's endgame even before Sanderson took over.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
:siren: WE HAVE A SHADOW OF SELF PROLOGUE! :siren:

http://www.tor.com/2015/06/29/excerpt-brandon-sanderson-shadows-of-self-prologue/

quote:

Shadows of Self is available October 6th in the US from Tor Books, and October 9th in the UK from Gollancz. Read an excerpt below, and stay tuned for further sneak peeks at Brandon Sanderson’s latest adventure!

It's very similar to the Alloy of Law prologue. And I think it's pretty good, which supports my optimism about the book.

Torrannor fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Jun 29, 2015

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
The guys at tor.com are on a roll, now the first chapter of Shadow of Self is out as well.

http://www.tor.com/2015/06/30/excerpt-brandon-sanderson-shadows-of-self-chapter-one/

I think somebody's uncle is getting rid of the competition in his organization.

Has the cover been posted in the thread yet?

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

gently caress, you've beaten me!


Velius posted:

That chapter I've seen before, unfortunately. Still worth reading though.

I can only recall the beginning of this chapter being available a few months back. But I agree that it's still worth reading. There are so many things that I just really like about it.

1. Marsh's journal excerpts. Is he right about hemalurgy? Does it no longer require the user to kill people to steal their powers? He couldn't let it die, does that mean he gave the Set knowledge about it?

2. The mention of Father Demoux. Demoux is a world hopper and made an appearance in The Way of Kings. I think Way of Kings is set not long after The Hero of Ages, so that's no problem. But if it's the same Demoux 300 years later, that would mean he became immortal or very long lived. Like Marsh for example. Demoux was already an Atium misting, if he somehow got ferruchemical ability to store age in Atium, he could extend his life in the same way.

3. The technological development of the world, Wax being grumpy about it and Marasi embracing it fully.

4. Wax using the metallic arts and being awesome at it.

5. The giant cliffhanger at the end.


I'm really excited about the book.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Ithaqua posted:

Wouldn't there be no more atium?

How did Marsh survive if he doesn't have access to Atium? Perhaps he had some when Sazed became Harmony, but would it have lasted 300 years? Also, remember that quite a bit of Preservation's power is bound in humans, meaning that Ruin's power is greater and would probably pose a threat to Harmony's stability. What does Sazed do with the surplus Ruin power? Perhaps he turns it into Atium? Not as much Atium as there was during the Lord Ruler's time, but it could still be enough to allow some favored humans to do incredible things with it. Like not aging.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
I feel compelled to link again to tor.com (I'm not paid by them, I swear!), because they try to reason out how to use Allomancy to create FTL travel:

http://www.tor.com/2015/07/07/how-can-we-use-mistborns-allomancy-to-travel-faster-than-light/

quote:

In the fantasy world of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn book series, magic users known as Allomancers, Feruchemists, and Hemalurgists can bounce themselves back and forth between metals, store their own luck away for a rainy day, or (bloodily) steal these powers away from others. In the first Mistborn trilogy, the characters with these powers make war in a somewhat Victorian setting and not once does an Allomancer think “what if I propelled myself so far and so fast that I left this entire planet entirely and visited another star system?”

But we do. Because an Allomancer’s magical manipulation of a fundamental aspect of the universe may hold the key to connecting ALL of Brandon Sanderson’s books!

It gets very technical very soon, which I really liked. I'm wondering if it's people from Scadrial that visit the natives in Sixth of the Dust? The third method the article proposes doesn't sound implausible.

It will probably something else entirely, some insane combination of several world's magical system. Both Ferruchemy and Hemalurgy seem to have the potential to give other world's magic powers to a person from Scadrial, so I wonder what kind of insane shenanigans you could come up with if you are both a Ferruchemist and can use Awakening? On that note, can anybody get Breaths from the people on Nalthis? In any case, what could an awakened Metalmind do with it's stored power? The possibility of combining the different magics of the Cosmere could create really amazing results.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

mewse posted:

I posted about it in here before but the reckoners books struck me as way more young adult than other stuff that was supposedly young adult like wheel of time, because of stuff like the protagonist angrily saying "I'm not a nerd!!"

In what kind of universe is the Wheel of Time young adult?

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Arrath posted:

Finished HoA, still don't know what that is. On to Alloy of Law!

It only appeared in the original trilogy, and it's a bit difficult to figure out. It's the bead of metal that Vin made Elend swallow at the end of the second book. It's the stuff that turned him into a full Mistborn.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
I feel bad that I'm mostly posting in this thread because the gals/guys at tor.com released an article about Brandon's work yet again, but this tidbit blew my mind:

http://www.tor.com/2015/08/11/lets-talk-about-the-mvps-of-brandon-sandersons-cosmere/ :siren: Spoilers for Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn trilogy and Warbreaker :siren:

quote:

It has been hinted that we’ll learn more about the Lord Ruler in Bands of Mourning, the third book in the Wax and Wayne Mistborn series, which comes out in January of 2016.

:aaaaa:

Could the Bands of Mourning be the copperminds of the Lord Ruler? Do we get access to them? That would be amazing!

I thought only the persons who stored things in metal could use it, meaning that nobody should be able to access the Lord Ruler's memories, but I'm sure Brandon has thought of that.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
^^ Thanks for that.

quote:

Question: Taravangian: On his "Special Day" where he created the Diagram, was he actually as smart as he thinks he was, or was something else going on? It seems suspicious that any level of raw intelligence would let him deduce all of that...

quote:

Answer: That sure IS suspicious, eh? Let's just say that HE believes it was rational deduction. But other theories are valid.

Never thought of that? Is Odium behind it? Or could it be direct help from Cultivation?

It's also interesting that the Lord Ruler had had children. Considering his eugenics program, that's a surprise.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Evil Fluffy posted:

Re-reading the Stormlight books since the first time I read them I hadn't read any Sanderson stuff yet so this time a few of the more subtle things actually make some/more sense. The final vision in the first book also looks like it's implying Odium, once done destroying Roshar, is going to repeat the process across the cosmere, shown by the lights (other shardworlds) going out. It'd also make some sense considering how long he wants to run the series and that aside from Hoid he's shown a lot more other world characters very bluntly unlike, say, Mistborn or Warbreaker (the latter of which being present).

I'd also forgotten that the king is a potential radiant of the same order as Shallan since he also sees the Cryptics watching him and that's helping fuel his paranoia.

Skipping about the first 80% of Shallan's chapters also made the book much better because holy hell her early stuff is just so loving boring and it's like he wrote it solely to make stuff like chasm duty more interesting to read.

Elantris spoiler:

It's not only implied, it's what Odium already did on Sel. The Seaons on Sel are splinters of Devotion (whose shardholder was called Aona...). Odium splintered both shards on that world, Devotion and Dominion. He then traveled to Roshard, where he splintered Honor, which somehow made him trapped in the Roshar system through some hidden machinations by Honor and perhaps Cultivation.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Hrathen makes me forgive Sanderson all the things he did wrong with the female character, whose name I can't even remember.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Kampfy Von Wafflehaus posted:

I read the Emperor's Soul and I want more.
Is Warbreaker set in the same world?

You can get Warbreaker for free somewhere on Sanderson's site, and you should definitely read it if you intend to continue with Brandon's works.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Only about two weeks before the book comes out, and this chapter makes me even more excited for it.

Interesting that there are a lot of Terris people that live in a parallel society to the more industrial era folks of Elendel. And why do they fear those that are both allomancers and ferruchemists? If they know about the Lord Ruler, it would make sense, but I have the feeling that the general populace doesn't know too much about him, on account of Ironeyes being worshiped in the Sliverism religion.


I want to complain about the German translations of the Mistborn book titles. Over a few birthdays I gifted every Mistborn book to my mother, who is just as big of a fantasy fan as I am, it's just that she prefers the books in German. And I can hardly believe how they mangled the titles.

Final Empire becomes "Children of the Mists" (Kinder des Nebels), The Well of Ascension becomes "Warriors of Fire" (Krieger des Feuers), The Hero of Ages becomes "Ruler(s) of Light" (Herrscher des Lichts), and Alloy of Law becomes "Hunters of the Power" (Jäger der Macht). Can these titles be any more generic? I found Alloy of Law especially creative, and the translators simply botched it.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

mossyfisk posted:

Unlike the stunningly original titles "Final Empire" and "The Hero Of Ages"?

I thought Final Empire was a reference to the Nazis and their "Thousand Year Reich", especially in light of what happens at the end of said book.

The Hero of Ages is certainly not very creative, but at least it was mentioned a lot in the books, with the mystery being who said hero is and what that hero is supposed to do. Contrast it with "Ruler(s) of Light", which didn't appear in the books at all. I've read the German version as well to look for differences to the English text, and detected no egregious mistranslations. Which made the pointless changes in the titles even more baffling.

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

mewse posted:

The first title (children of the mist or whatever) seems like a translation of mistborn

It's close but not quite. The proper translation is Nebelgeborene, which is the word used in the books themselves to describe the mistborn. It really, really makes no sense to use this alternative title.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Chapter six of Shadows of Self is out!

http://www.tor.com/2015/09/28/excerpts-brandon-sanderson-shadows-of-self-chapter-six/

It's strange that they are releasing so much of the book before it's launch, but it works to make me want that book right now. Fortunately, it comes out in a week (yay!).

I wonder if the assassin is wearing an earring. If Harmony tried to talk him out of shooting, it would make sense that he seemed to "talk to himself". On the other hand, that's probably more involvement than Harmony would be comfortable with. Also, Hemalurgy spotted, poo poo is getting real!

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply