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I don't have my copy yet, so I'm just assuming that there's a character named Zoidberg.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:42
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I'm so glad the sequel is coming out next year. That wasn't so much an Avalanche as a "grab you by the balls 25% in and not let go until you're done"-alance.
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Sep 25, 2013 03:54
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Just finished it, another excellent work by Sanderson. Regarding Steelheart's weakness, for most of the book I believed that being reminded of the hero he should've been or could've been would be his weakness. I think it might've tied into to the whole "only evil people have powers/powers make people evil" premise. But hey, being tricked into blowing yourself up works just as well.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:59
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Steelheart was amazing. Holy poo poo.
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Sep 26, 2013 08:57
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ConfusedUs posted:Steelheart was amazing. Holy poo poo. A thousand times, this. I am quite happy there's going to be a sequel. I wasn't able to mainline the book like I wanted to, but it's still easily one of his best books in my head. Now if only he'd get over the made up curse words thing.
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Sep 26, 2013 11:50
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I may need to pay double price to get the UK version so that the cover matches the rest of my Sandersons. 
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Sep 26, 2013 12:06
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I like how Steelheart almost seems custom written for people who thought his magic systems were too scientifically based or well defined before. In this book people have superpowers, don't try to understand how they work scientifically or your brain will explode.
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Sep 26, 2013 12:41
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Antti posted:I may need to pay double price to get the UK version so that the cover matches the rest of my Sandersons. I just wish the UK versions had Hardcovers for most of them 
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Sep 26, 2013 15:35
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I'm only a chapter in at the moment, and I'm already enjoying it immensely.
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Sep 26, 2013 15:41
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Well, I guess I know what book I'm going to burn through this weekend.
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Sep 26, 2013 16:02
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Troll Bridgington posted:I'm only a chapter in at the moment, and I'm already enjoying it immensely. I picked up my copy from the Post Office before work today, read the prologue in the car, now it's killing me to not just read it.
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Sep 26, 2013 16:38
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So yesterday on Twitter Brandon mentioned that there were four store-exclusive versions, with the BN variant having a bonus annotated chapter. Is there some listing of the other three or what?
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Sep 26, 2013 16:52
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More Steelheart! Big spoilers so don't read if you haven't finished it. I actually suspected Steelheart's weakness almost immediately after Fortuity's weakness was exposed. If one's attitude could affect an Epic, well, the most standout thing from the prologue was the dad's absolute lack of fear. Sanderson did a reasonable good job obscuring it, but none of the other ideas really held up to logic. I couldn't believe that Steelheart had NEVER been in a crossfire, or shot at by the Faithful, or whatever. I also had confirmed suspicions about Prof and Megan. I knew Prof was a gifter as soon as he said to try the broken tensor. I didn't call Megan as the illusionist, but I pegged her as some sort of Epic pretty early. I thought maybe a latent one, if such a thing was possible. Speculation time! Prof's backstory: He mentioned that an Epic wrecked his school. Do you think that Epic might have been himself? And that's why he hates his powers so much? He wouldn't hate them if he weren't horrified about what he'd done with them. I had one problem with the book: Newcago. What a stupid loving name. Goddamn. Other than that, it was very, very good.
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Sep 26, 2013 18:21
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I'm sure it will be explained later in the series, but it doesn't make a ton of sense that Epics using their power turns them evil. There's got to be a hard ceiling somewhere or Epics that constantly use their power would be gibbering, insane psychopaths. Conflux must have always had his power active and he was mild to the point of meekness so there may be some unrevealed subclass of Epics who are able to use their power without going batshit insane. e: quote:I had one problem with the book: Newcago. What a stupid loving name. Goddamn. Some of the Epic's names were pretty bad as well--chalk it up to the book being YA fiction. snooman fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 19:16
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snooman posted:I'm sure it will be explained later in the series, but it doesn't make a ton of sense that Epics using their power turns them evil. There's got to be a hard ceiling somewhere or Epics that constantly use their power would be gibbering, insane psychopaths. Conflux must have always had his power active and he was mild to the point of meekness so there may be some unrevealed subclass of Epics who are able to use their power without going batshit insane. The Epic's names were perfectly cartoonish for their cartoonish evil. Newcago is just stupid.
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Sep 26, 2013 19:28
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ConfusedUs posted:I had one problem with the book: Newcago. What a stupid loving name. Goddamn. Still haven't finished it (forgot my kindle at home this morning  ) but I just took this to mean steelheart is poo poo at naming things. It's not like he's the sort to allow dissent.
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Sep 26, 2013 19:29
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snooman posted:I'm sure it will be explained later in the series, but it doesn't make a ton of sense that Epics using their power turns them evil. There's got to be a hard ceiling somewhere or Epics that constantly use their power would be gibbering, insane psychopaths. Conflux must have always had his power active and he was mild to the point of meekness so there may be some unrevealed subclass of Epics who are able to use their power without going batshit insane.
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Sep 26, 2013 21:10
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snooman posted:I'm sure it will be explained later in the series, but it doesn't make a ton of sense that Epics using their power turns them evil. There's got to be a hard ceiling somewhere or Epics that constantly use their power would be gibbering, insane psychopaths. Conflux must have always had his power active and he was mild to the point of meekness so there may be some unrevealed subclass of Epics who are able to use their power without going batshit insane. From what I understood Gifters can get around this because they spread their power to other people/things, and lessen the effect. The Prof only got affected when he started personally using his powers. edit: Though does this mean that some Epics have completely passive effects that would cause them to never have the personality issues? Drewford fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 21:14
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SO looking forward to Steelheart. Just got my copy today. Mega-stoked.
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Sep 26, 2013 21:21
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Drewford posted:edit: Though does this mean that some Epics have completely passive effects that would cause them to never have the personality issues? I'd say it'd be more the opposite really, their powers are always on and they can't give them away to lessen the effect. Also yeah, I took Newcago to be Steelheart being bad at names than anything else.
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Sep 26, 2013 22:11
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Really enjoyed this one, though I'm usually a champion of Sanderson's works, so that came as no surprise to me. None of the twists were hard to spot, but they worked - which was important when they're not based on "Hard Magic" like Sanderson usually sticks to. Having a Soft Magic style where anything could be made up on the fly and yet still piece together logically really shows how well he does at plotting. Really hoping we get some full backstory next book. I'm certain that Prof trashed his own school, but I'd really like to know about Calamity, even though it's mostly incidental to the real plot, unless he goes with a "destroy it to depower all Epics" plot.
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Sep 26, 2013 22:28
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Hint to UK/EU goons who are ebook impaired: I just discovered that The Emperor's Soul and Legion have been put together in an omnibus paperback edition!
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Sep 26, 2013 22:50
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Mortanis posted:Really enjoyed this one, though I'm usually a champion of Sanderson's works, so that came as no surprise to me. None of the twists were hard to spot, but they worked - which was important when they're not based on "Hard Magic" like Sanderson usually sticks to. Having a Soft Magic style where anything could be made up on the fly and yet still piece together logically really shows how well he does at plotting. This is totally based in hard magic, it's just not known to the reader, or the characters. I guarantee it.
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Sep 26, 2013 22:57
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Antti posted:Hint to UK/EU goons who are ebook impaired: I just discovered that The Emperor's Soul and Legion have been put together in an omnibus paperback edition! Yeah, I saw that in Waterstone's myself today. Cool cover, but I'm really not sure those two books actually go together...
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Sep 26, 2013 23:23
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What I kind of don't like about the Prof reveal is that it makes the Reckoners really just another Epic's Enforcers in a war between Epics instead of the advertised premise of humans grouping up to take down Epics. Also, putting money on the opening line of Firefight being I've seen Firefight cry. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 23:33
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Cicero posted:I thought this was explained by Prof at the end. Gifting your powers reverses the effect. Conflux was gifting more or less constantly. How would that work with Conflux constantly powering Newcago's electrical grid? Maybe the gift is to an inanimate object but that's unlikely, the fuel cell for the gauss rifle had limited charges. Also, Nightwielder maintained constant darkness somehow.
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Sep 26, 2013 23:54
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snooman posted:How would that work with Conflux constantly powering Newcago's electrical grid? Maybe the gift is to an inanimate object but that's unlikely, the fuel cell for the gauss rifle had limited charges. Also, Nightwielder maintained constant darkness somehow. Conflux was forced into gifting his electricity making powers to normal people and they in turn powered the city. Conflux wasn't personally using his power at all.
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Sep 26, 2013 23:59
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I was convinced it was going to be that (Stealheart ending spoilers)His dad was trying to save Stealheart, rather than it being fear related. That works too, I suppose. I completely guessed the Prof was a gifter early on, when they said Megan couldn't use his stuff for some reason. That said, I was pretty sure that Megan was going to be some sort of anti-Epic (internally using the term 'Angel'), rather than an infiltrator. So I enjoyed that reveal a lot. Overall a good book, if a bit short.
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Sep 27, 2013 01:06
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thespaceinvader posted:Yeah, I saw that in Waterstone's myself today. Cool cover, but I'm really not sure those two books actually go together... Publishing them as separate 100 page paperbacks would be a bit silly, I think it's just economical.
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Sep 27, 2013 06:02
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I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Steelheart, and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I figured out what Steelheart's weakness is, although I was pretty sure I had it figured out after reading the first chapter a few months ago, so we'll see if I'm right. I feel like this book would translate really well into a movie.
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Sep 27, 2013 15:07
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That's some terrible metaphor abuse in there.
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Sep 27, 2013 16:25
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Terrible metaphors should have been his weakness. Totally.
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Sep 27, 2013 18:32
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Ithaqua posted:I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Steelheart, and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I figured out what Steelheart's weakness is, although I was pretty sure I had it figured out after reading the first chapter a few months ago, so we'll see if I'm right. I'm fairly sure Sanderson has been looking in that direction for some time. Legion, for instance, was explicitly written with being a TV pilot in mind.
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Sep 27, 2013 18:49
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Just finished it on my lunch break. It was pretty good, but goddamn did he have to give every one of his characters a quirk and then refer to it EVERY TIME the character was brought up? That was got more and more annoying as the book went on. And I think I'm starting to understand Brandon Sanderson's thought processes too well. Whenever he tries to drop something into the narrative all casual-like, it ends up being important x pages/books later. I called that Megan was an Epic as soon as he mentioned she couldn't use the tensors - calling a character out like that inevitably means that they're special. And you just KNOW that two books from now there's going to be some huge revelation that was foreshadowed by the weird "why did this hurt his skull but not THIS" thing when Steelheart died. I was close on Steelheart's weakness, I was so sure from the intro that it was going to be that he can only be hurt by someone who doesn't think he's evil, going back to the whole 'heroes' thing and explaining why he has a whole secret evil propaganda corps. It would have tied in nicely with the whole "Epics aren't inherently evil, their powers MAKE them evil" thing. It was pretty good, though. It reminded me a lot of the first Mistborn novel actually: a bunch of scrappy rebels putting together a Grand Plan to discover the secret weakness of a Big Bad Guy.
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Sep 27, 2013 21:21
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Ithaqua posted:I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Steelheart, and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I figured out what Steelheart's weakness is, although I was pretty sure I had it figured out after reading the first chapter a few months ago, so we'll see if I'm right. He mentions a movie deal being in the works in the books credits / acknowledgements at the end. I burned through this book in two days, would have been one if it were the weekend. Can't wait for the sequel, though the same could be said for pretty much everything Sanderson has released recently (Stormlight, Infinity Blade, and now Steelheart). Popular Human posted:It was pretty good, though. It reminded me a lot of the first Mistborn novel actually: a bunch of scrappy rebels putting together a Grand Plan to discover the secret weakness of a Big Bad Guy. I got vibes from that aspect of Mistborn as well as similar aspects of Infinity Blade (figuring out how to kill the big bad guy, apocalyptic, etc). Graphics fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 21:43
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I am glad I picked up Mistborn after reading the OP! I was still burned from buying Rothfuss and the Malazan book after hearing about them here. I was seriously thinking of just giving up on fantasy for a few years. But so far, this book is great. I love how it still feels like fantasy, but with an original feel and use of modern language that doesn't seem jarring at all. Great stuff. Thanks!
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Sep 28, 2013 01:45
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I personally suspected about the Prof quite early on, though I pegged him as a technological Epic instead. Given that Sanderson has quite stringent rules even for magic, the super-science devices don't quite make the right sense, especially the explanation of how they interface with the user and feelings that using the devices causes. I mis-pegged David as an unknowing Epic initially, since the illusion effects usually happen when he's pressured. Funny how everything is so much clearer once you know how Epics work. Megan's mood swings are so much clearer.
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Sep 28, 2013 04:06
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Alloy of Law is finally a $7 paperback, woo.
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Sep 28, 2013 04:46
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Just finished Steelheart. What a great book! It did have a lot of the elements that the first Mistborn book had, and I think that made me enjoy it even more. Unfortunately, I failed to guess Steelheart's weakness, but I was close. I knew it had something to do with his father's state of mind at the time. I didn't catch the twist of Megan being Firefight and Prof being an epic. I definitely want more, drat you Sanderson! It's pretty crazy that he is responsible most of the books I'm excited for at the moment. edit: almost hosed up with the spoiler tags. 
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Sep 28, 2013 07:02
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Yeah, I'm in the same boat as most of you guys. I guessed the following: -David was an epic, very low powered but combined with his street smarts very effective. Thinking something along the lines of stealth related since he was always getting out of tough situations. Possibly precognition as well since his improvising always worked. I knew it was him or Megan who was an epic, but I didn't see her being Firefight. Also didn't catch the Prof reveal. -Steelheart's weakness being related to David's dad's mindset. Didn't catch the fear part, even though the clues are pretty obvious looking back. I need to go back and do a reread of at least the ending, because I'm still a little confused about the Megan = Firefight connection. From what it looks like she isn't even bad, but she was working with Steelheart the whole time?
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Sep 28, 2013 07:59
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