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Jorenko
Jun 6, 2004

I think you're just mad 'cause you're single.

Fezz posted:

Yeah, it was great. Engaging action, new answers as well as new questions. The government reminds me of Twoflower's home in the Discworld books. Obviously taken from the same real world source

If you haven't yet, read Sixth of the Dusk.. If the rest of it is like the excerpt, it will be on par with the Emperor's Soul.

Do we know which book the Sixth is from? I haven't heard anything about that one, but it sounds like a pretty interesting setting.

All the others were pretty amazeballs, especially Lift. Can't bloody wait for WoR.

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VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice
Sixth of the Dusk is crazy. Between that, Legion, and Steelheart Brandon is showing us he's not going to get stuck in a rut in any of his writing.

Fezz
Aug 31, 2001

You should feel ashamed.

Jorenko posted:

Do we know which book the Sixth is from? I haven't heard anything about that one, but it sounds like a pretty interesting setting.

All the others were pretty amazeballs, especially Lift. Can't bloody wait for WoR.

In his state of the Sanderson he mentions that it's a novella on an as of yet unrevealed shard world.

Hopeford
Oct 15, 2010

Eh, why not?
I think Sanderson's sense of humor can be...a bit off most of the times, but (in my opinion at least) he's really good at writing funny characters who are openly dickish. For example, Lightsong in Warbreaker seems genuinely amusing when trying to be funny. Like he wasn't so much trying to be funny as he was just going on about whatever came to his head because he very clearly didn't care, and that seemed funnier than...you know, metaphors.

Then again pretty much everything in Warbreaker is a bit different from Sanderson's usual style. It felt more Robert Jordanish than Sandersonish in way, if that makes any sense.

Fezz posted:

Yeah, it was great. Engaging action, new answers as well as new questions. The government reminds me of Twoflower's home in the Discworld books. Obviously taken from the same real world source

If you haven't yet, read Sixth of the Dusk.. If the rest of it is like the excerpt, it will be on par with the Emperor's Soul.

Is Sixth of the Dusk that one story he came up with after brainstorming during one of his podcasts? If so, I can't wait to read it. I remember listening to that podcast and going "This sounds absolutely insane and I really want to read it like right now."

Fezz
Aug 31, 2001

You should feel ashamed.

Sherringford posted:

Is Sixth of the Dusk that one story he came up with after brainstorming during one of his podcasts? If so, I can't wait to read it. I remember listening to that podcast and going "This sounds absolutely insane and I really want to read it like right now."
That's what it says in the State of the Sanderson blog post. Do you happen to know the episode. I'd be interested in hearing that.

Hopeford
Oct 15, 2010

Eh, why not?

Fezz posted:

That's what it says in the State of the Sanderson blog post. Do you happen to know the episode. I'd be interested in hearing that.

Yup, this one.

Jorenko
Jun 6, 2004

I think you're just mad 'cause you're single.

Sherringford posted:

I think Sanderson's sense of humor can be...a bit off most of the times, but (in my opinion at least) he's really good at writing funny characters who are openly dickish. For example, Lightsong in Warbreaker seems genuinely amusing when trying to be funny. Like he wasn't so much trying to be funny as he was just going on about whatever came to his head because he very clearly didn't care, and that seemed funnier than...you know, metaphors.

Then again pretty much everything in Warbreaker is a bit different from Sanderson's usual style. It felt more Robert Jordanish than Sandersonish in way, if that makes any sense.

That was one thing about both the Shadows excerpt and Lift: I think he's getting a lot better at this. There were a few purposefully lame things with Wayne of course, but nothing as tone-deaf as has been the norm for him before, and some really good moments, too. I am optimistic.

wallaka
Jun 8, 2010

Least it wasn't a fucking red shell

I think he is aware of his lameness, and used Steelheart as a giant inside joke. It seemed to be very self-aware or ironic or what have you, unlike every Shallan chapter when he thought he actually was witty.

Quantum Toast
Feb 13, 2012

wallaka posted:

I think he is aware of his lameness, and used Steelheart as a giant inside joke. It seemed to be very self-aware or ironic or what have you, unlike every Shallan chapter when he thought he actually was witty.
Honestly, I thought Shallan's deal was that she was the only one who thought she was witty. We never heard her from anyone else's POV.

bowmore
Oct 6, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
When you think your own jokes are funny and you don't care if other people do that tends to say something about you.

( I haven't read Stormlight yet btw )

Subvisual Haze
Nov 22, 2003

The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault.
Sanderson seems to love groan-inducing, lame, Dad humor. It's an acquired taste.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Indeed. I've just started rereading Alloy of Law, and it's taken me this long (having first read it nigh on two years ago, I think) to notice that the main characters are called Wax and Wa(y)ne

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

keiran_helcyan posted:

Sanderson seems to love groan-inducing, lame, Dad humor. It's an acquired taste.

He used to put lame puns of the week up on his blog ( http://mistborn.livejournal.com/ )

Gamesguy
Sep 7, 2010

Are you still giving out codes? If so, I'd love to get one.

Mahlertov Cocktail
Mar 1, 2010

I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Gamesguy posted:

Are you still giving out codes? If so, I'd love to get one.

I would also like this.

Steelheart was pretty good. The writing was less interesting than his other recent books and the characters were mostly kinda one-note/undeveloped, but the action was really cool and the story was fun. Nice fluff inbetween bigger (Stormlight) and better (Emperor's Soul) things.

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

Wait what's the Sixth of Dusk thing? Sanderson has so much going on that it can be hard to keep up with.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Democratic Pirate posted:

Wait what's the Sixth of Dusk thing? Sanderson has so much going on that it can be hard to keep up with.

Some story with magic birds. From a prompt on his writing blog apparently. A fragment of it is up on steelhunt.

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice
Somebody said it's supposed to be an as-yet-unvisited world in the Shardverse.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

INSERT QUACK TO CONTINUE


Taco Defender
Blerg. I ended up staying a lot later at work than I intended, so by the time I got out of there, I wouldn't have been able to get to Sanderson's signing before 6:30 or so. Last time I showed up that late, I didn't get out until after midnight, so I'm gonna have to catch him the next time he's in town. :(

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Kreeblah posted:

Blerg. I ended up staying a lot later at work than I intended, so by the time I got out of there, I wouldn't have been able to get to Sanderson's signing before 6:30 or so. Last time I showed up that late, I didn't get out until after midnight, so I'm gonna have to catch him the next time he's in town. :(

Darn. You're still a great dude for offering, though!

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Dang, I just reread Alloy of Law, and it reaises such interesting questions about Scadrial and its magicians. It is just such a cool world, and I desperately want to see it develop further. Plus, the afterword, presumably intended as an excerpt from Harmony's book on the world and the abilities of the people, really does make for interesting thoughts about the Comere as a whole (rumour has it that Hoyd has a nugget of Lerasium from the Well of Ascension. The metal that makes people into mega-powerful Mistborn...). As does thinking about what other powerful Compounders could be out there. Miles was really, really, stupidly powerful (though I thought right through, the way to kill him would be decapitation, unfortunately we'll never know whether that would have worked), and it got me thinking that the Chromium/Chromium compounder (burn Feruchemical reserves to wildly increase your own luck almost indefinitely) could be hilarious, as could the pewter/pewter (more in the melee beatstick vein, but still. Similarly, a Thug/Bloodmaker would be tough as nails - Wayne is already super-hard to kill and able to go against Thugs on his own... Most of the Feruchemical powers are a bit less useful to be able to burn at hugely increased efficiency though.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos
For Gold compounders, any kind of dismembering attack would work well I think. A large axe plus something to keep Miles from shooting holes in you would have taken him out of action pretty rapidly as he loses enormous health reserves to regenerate body parts even as he loses the stores held in those parts.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Yeah, regenerating body parts would presumably take a lot out of him, but he has to store very little to get a lot back, I think is the point - and I guess at the stage this is set, he's got years worth stored already, which is enough for tens of years of super-healing. And if he needs to, he could burn it all off at a go. Let's not forget, he voluntarily blew himself up at least once, and voluntarily shot himself in the head to prove how awesome he was to his men, so presumably regenerating large volumes of flesh wouldn't be TOO troubling.

I'm not wild on the whole regenerating body parts thing though. I prefer healing factors like this where they simply accelerate normal healing, rather than giving regenerative abilities. but that would make Miles a lot, lot less good as a villain though...

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos
Well, it's important to remember the era of weapons they're set in. Guns are used but they're the worst possible match for a gold compounder as they deal a lot of damage to small areas, easily healed off, and at no chance of losing gold stores. Explosives are difficult to apply sequentially without hurting yourself, and it still wouldn't kill him immediately, though he might lose a lot of his stores.

As for someone going in with an axe, unless it's a squad of armored Thugs they aren't going to win a gunfight with a melee weapon.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

In principle you could shoot him with a hemalurgic spike to steal his gold (there was a question last year about that). Problem is, aiming like that you'd basically need divine intervention to actually hit the spike point.

Presumably said divine intervention is one of the reasons the lord ruler didn't like guns. Too easy to spike people subtly.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X
Just finished Steelheart and absolutely loved it. A few of the twists were fairly predictable but I didn't think it detracted from my enjoyment of the story at all. I actually prefer Young Adult fiction a lot of the time, as it usually dispenses with literary frills (I read for plots and characters, not to challenge my brain to unwind the writing or to admire the author's artistic talent with words).

Like most my only serious complaint about the book is the using 'spark' in place of 'gently caress'. On one hand it's something Sanderson readers are well accustomed to as it's part of the peace he's made with Mormonism; on the other hand even absent that I'm pretty sure the publisher would have required a soundalike swear word because the book was aimed into the YA genre anyway. On the third hand, drat is it annoying in this particular setting. I don't mind it in fantasy novels set on fictional planets where it's kind of justifiable, but in a story set on Earth in the not-very-distant future it's not justifiable and jarring.

Edit: Okay, one more minor complaint I can think of: The pretty much instant acceptance of the protagonist by everyone on the team except Megan, especially since he's pretty much making all the plans and they're following his lead, is fantastically unrealistic for a whole mess of reasons and strains my suspension of disbelief. This is definitely the most Mary Sue-ish Sanderson protagonist yet. I understand this is kind of a tradition in the genre, but I don't like it much.

Eric the Mauve fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Oct 17, 2013

Wolpertinger
Feb 16, 2011

Eric the Mauve posted:

Just finished Steelheart and absolutely loved it. A few of the twists were fairly predictable but I didn't think it detracted from my enjoyment of the story at all. I actually prefer Young Adult fiction a lot of the time, as it usually dispenses with literary frills (I read for plots and characters, not to challenge my brain to unwind the writing or to admire the author's artistic talent with words).

Like most my only serious complaint about the book is the using 'spark' in place of 'gently caress'. On one hand it's something Sanderson readers are well accustomed to as it's part of the peace he's made with Mormonism; on the other hand even absent that I'm pretty sure the publisher would have required a soundalike swear word because the book was aimed into the YA genre anyway. On the third hand, drat is it annoying in this particular setting. I don't mind it in fantasy novels set on fictional planets where it's kind of justifiable, but in a story set on Earth in the not-very-distant future it's not justifiable and jarring.

Edit: Okay, one more minor complaint I can think of: The pretty much instant acceptance of the protagonist by everyone on the team except Megan, especially since he's pretty much making all the plans and they're following his lead, is fantastically unrealistic for a whole mess of reasons and strains my suspension of disbelief. This is definitely the most Mary Sue-ish Sanderson protagonist yet. I understand this is kind of a tradition in the genre, but I don't like it much.

To be fair, there wasn't really enough book to allow the team to accept him more slowly, so they just used him knowing something about Steelheart's weakness as an excuse

Mortanis
Dec 28, 2005

It's your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight.
College Slice

veekie posted:

For Gold compounders, any kind of dismembering attack would work well I think. A large axe plus something to keep Miles from shooting holes in you would have taken him out of action pretty rapidly as he loses enormous health reserves to regenerate body parts even as he loses the stores held in those parts.

The Lord Ruler survived decapitation supposedly. Was that likely because he also had Pewter to help with the physical healing?

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Mortanis posted:

The Lord Ruler survived decapitation supposedly. Was that likely because he also had Pewter to help with the physical healing?

Apparently he healed up so fast the blade never managed to sever the entire neck.

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X
OK, here's another gigantic plothole in Steelheart in my opinion (this is what I do, I can turn off my logic while enjoying a story but after I'm done I start thinking it through): Prof and Tia are not idiots, have well-developed survival instincts, and are aware of what illusionist Epics can do, so there is no way they wouldn't instantly strongly suspect Megan of being an Epic the instant they realized she couldn't "use" the tensors or harmsways.

Fezz
Aug 31, 2001

You should feel ashamed.
Not a plot hole. As far as I see it:

She was already dead by the time they were told that Epics couldn't transfer powers to other Epics. Initially, and even after, they simply ascribed her inability to use the powers as a normal variance of nonpowered individuals. Also, did Tia even know that Prof was an Epic before Steelheart exploded?

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice

Fezz posted:

Also, did Tia even know that Prof was an Epic before Steelheart exploded?

I think only Tia was in on it with the Prof.

Mortanis
Dec 28, 2005

It's your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight.
College Slice
Regarding Steelheart and Prof: Only Tia was aware of Prof's Epic status. No one knew that there was an explicit limitation on Gifters not gifting to other Epics - without some serious trial and error, Prof would have no reason to believe that just like some people were able to utilize Gifted powers very well, there likely was a subset of regular humans that couldn't use Gifted powers at all. There'd be no reason to think otherwise until there was data available. As far as we know, Prof's experience with Gifting was likely limited to the Reckoners and what they knew about Conflux. Small pool to draw conclusions from.

Wolpertinger
Feb 16, 2011

Eric the Mauve posted:

OK, here's another gigantic plothole in Steelheart in my opinion (this is what I do, I can turn off my logic while enjoying a story but after I'm done I start thinking it through): Prof and Tia are not idiots, have well-developed survival instincts, and are aware of what illusionist Epics can do, so there is no way they wouldn't instantly strongly suspect Megan of being an Epic the instant they realized she couldn't "use" the tensors or harmsways.

Also, as an illusionist, she could easily 'fake' it enough to give the impression that she can in fact use them, just too poorly to bother

Eric the Mauve
May 8, 2012

Making you happy for a buck since 199X

Fezz posted:

Not a plot hole. As far as I see it:

She was already dead by the time they were told that Epics couldn't transfer powers to other Epics. Initially, and even after, they simply ascribed her inability to use the powers as a normal variance of nonpowered individuals. Also, did Tia even know that Prof was an Epic before Steelheart exploded?

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Even if they didn't explicitly know that quirk about gifting, Prof's inability to gift to Megan and only Megan would have/should have set off all kinds of alarm bells. I don't think they could stay alive as long as they already had by the time the story picks up without being both very smart and very paranoid.

Also, it's never explicitly stated but based on their interactions and Tia's reaction to Prof's apparent death I thought it was pretty obvious she is his wife. It is definitely clear she knew he was an Epic all along.

edit: or his sister or colleague from before Calamity or such is equally possible; but to me at least it's clear they have been familiar with each other for longer than they've worked together as Reckoners.

Eric the Mauve fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Oct 17, 2013

Xenix
Feb 21, 2003

api call girl posted:

I think only Tia was in on it with the Prof.

Absolutely she was. She explicitly says she and the Prof devloped or modified the piece of equipment they used to detect Epics to give a false negative reading from the Prof.

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Steelhunt just added a shallan's sketchbook. Seems to be of some sort of giant... jellyfish...island... turtle monster.

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice

Tunicate posted:

Steelhunt just added a shallan's sketchbook. Seems to be of some sort of giant... jellyfish...island... turtle monster.

What's interesting is the text on the top right.

Grundulum
Feb 28, 2006
Finally got around to reading Steelheart, and I'm disappointed with the way weaknesses were handled. It's just so vanilla and unimaginative, even though the weaknesses themselves are diverse. "Oh, I'm totally impervious to pain unless I can see the number two", or "I shoot lasers out of my nostrils until confronted with spinach".

Worm does a much better job with weaknesses because they're all limitations to the powers rather than an extra condition tacked on at the end. You control bugs and can sic a swarm of stinging insects on anything? Hope your target can't use fire to burn them out of the sky.

I figured Steelheart's weakness was the superhero on David's Dad's shirt, especially once it was mentioned that weaknesses could be symbols. How deliciously ironic for the image of Superman to be Steelheart's kryptonite. Especially since the pendants the Faithful wear seem inspired by the Superman S. I was quite wrong about it, but I do see all the hints dropped along the way; I just focused on different hints.

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platero
Sep 11, 2001

spooky, but polite, a-hole

Pillbug

keiran_helcyan posted:

Sanderson seems to love groan-inducing, lame, Dad humor. It's an acquired taste.

Dad jokes are the best jokes.

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