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ruby idiot railed posted:Non-spoilery reviews are out there too, btw. Sounds like there's a bit of a kick to the gut coming. Wait, whats Firefight? Is it a sequel to something? I've not slept so i probably know, but im too tired to put it together.
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Jan 5, 2015 12:53
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Thyrork posted:Wait, whats Firefight? Is it a sequel to something? I've not slept so i probably know, but im too tired to put it together. Sequel to Steelheart.
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Jan 5, 2015 13:24
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ConfusedUs posted:Sequel to Steelheart. Ah, i've yet to read Steelheart. Should i get on that? I'm a big mistborn and stormlight archives fan already so. 
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Jan 5, 2015 14:27
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Thyrork posted:Ah, i've yet to read Steelheart. Should i get on that? I'm a big mistborn and stormlight archives fan already so. I think the general consensus (and my opinion, at least) is that it's probably the weakest of the Sanderson's stuff. It was competent enough, but I certainly haven't felt a pull to go back and reread it.
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Jan 5, 2015 14:36
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rafikki posted:I think the general consensus (and my opinion, at least) is that it's probably the weakest of the Sanderson's stuff. It was competent enough, but I certainly haven't felt a pull to go back and reread it. It's YA and non-cosmere. I like the reasoning for evil superpowers, but it isn't as good as Stormlight. It's better than a lot of other stuff out there though. I'm sure the Steelheart ebook will be cheap somewhere as a promotion for Firefight if you want to check it out.
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Jan 5, 2015 14:41
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Steelheart also seems to be the place where Sanderson funneled all of his terrible humor because the main character makes terrible jokes as a YA character trait.
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Jan 5, 2015 17:35
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rafikki posted:I think the general consensus (and my opinion, at least) is that it's probably the weakest of the Sanderson's stuff. It was competent enough, but I certainly haven't felt a pull to go back and reread it. I'd argue it's better than elantris, at least.
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Jan 5, 2015 19:08
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Democratic Pirate posted:Steelheart also seems to be the place where Sanderson funneled all of his terrible humor because the main character makes terrible jokes as a YA character trait. Read the Alcatraz books sometime. So much dad humor.
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Jan 5, 2015 23:52
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Firefight just became available on Audible.. this minute!!!! yea!
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Jan 6, 2015 09:06
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Just blew through the book. Felt quite short, and it didn't feel very fleshed out.
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Jan 6, 2015 10:16
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Odette posted:Just blew through the book. Felt quite short, and it didn't feel very fleshed out. 11 hours and 36 minutes of audiobook, so incredibly short. Steelheart was 12 hours and 14 minutes and felt short.
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Jan 6, 2015 10:36
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Also finished firefight. It felt a bit better than Steelheart, if only because less of the book was devoted to solving an obvious mystery. It was still fairly predictable in direction, though, and weirdly inconsistent in where it seemed to be going. Given Brandon's tendencies, I knew it was going to delve more into the basis of epic-ness and the origin/weakness of powers. It seemed really disjointed though, as if Sanderson changed where he wanted the story to go multiple times and never had it properly edited. Massive spoilers for the ending/complaints below. The big reveal is that Epics have weaknesses based on their fears, and if they face and overcome that fear then they don't turn evil when they use their powers (or that they can reject said power outright). That the second book hinges on fear again, after that was the key revelation of book one was a bit of a disappointment, but it's a secondary issue to the bigger problems with the plot. So Regalia is another city ruling epic who is Evil but not super duper Evil, and her city has some infrastructure and stuff. And she keeps trying to draw Prof to the city by trying to kill our plucky heroes, but explicitly doesn't try to attack Prof himself. What a mysterious situation! So we head to Manhattan to figure things out, and, coincidentally, Love Interest is there. At the start it looks like Regalia is at the least conflicted about killing, and clearly there are non-destructive powers being used in the city. Regalia repeatedly refuses to kill our heroes for some reason. There are all sorts of hints about the people in Manhattan being oddly passive in the face of danger, and new/changing Epic powers that I thought would be related to power-gifting or something (and possible constructive uses of powers). Or that the emotional state or intention when using powers might influence the effect on character, and that was something Regalia was trying to manipulate in Prof, or control in herself. But no, it's all a weird ploy to make Prof use too much power and turn evil, even though that already almost happened in book 1, and straight up attacking him regardless of locale might achieve the same result. Megan was specifically sought out to seduce David for handwavey reasons that aren't just contrivances to bring them into proximity. It's also devoid of reasonable motive - if she's dying, why on earth would she care about making him evil? Why not try and steal his healing power, since she's shown she can apparently manipulate and transplant epic powers? Or why not just kill all his buddies, then make him use his powers when he doesn't have help that might prevent her diabolical scheme? The idea she wants a successor to rule her city is especially hokey given the reveal that she's goatee-level evil when she tries to Epic-ise David. By now I think most of us are used to Sanderson trying to put a redemptive spin on the major villains in his stories, and this might be his lead in to retroactive redemption of Regalia when this all ends up vital to defeating Calamity. I just feel like if that's the direction he's taking things there are just way too many weird plot holes and misdirections. I'm not used to this from Sanderson, and I'm honestly quite curious as to what happened when he was writing the book.
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Jan 6, 2015 16:59
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Yeah, just finished it, and while I enjoyed it more than Steelheart, I think it was sloppier and more plot hole ridden. I did like that David's urging and enthusiasm is kind of the catalyst for Prof using his powers more, but I'm not sure how relevant that really is to Regalia's overall plan given that Prof had already used them in the fight with Steelheart, so it wasn't like he had a 100% ZERO policy before anyway. It was just a nice realization that David can't have it both ways and that his eagerness is also the downfall in some ways. I guess facing your fear makes everything peachy and okay (rather than facing your fear and dying), which feels hokey but it's YA. I thought the book picked up a lot once Megan was back on the scene at least.
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Jan 6, 2015 23:24
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Mortanis posted:Yeah, just finished it, and while I enjoyed it more than Steelheart, I think it was sloppier and more plot hole ridden. Did anyone think to ask Prof what his weakness was during Steelheart? It was a while ago when I read it so I forgot. I also haven't read Firefight, although it sounds like it'll be in there.
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Jan 7, 2015 05:51
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Finally got to see BranSan tonight at a signing. God, he's a good motivational speaker for writers. Definitely the best author tour I've been to yet.
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Jan 7, 2015 07:46
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Lobsterpillar posted:Did anyone think to ask Prof what his weakness was during Steelheart? It was a while ago when I read it so I forgot. I also haven't read Firefight, although it sounds like it'll be in there. There are implications as to how powers and weaknesses are set up. As such there's a really loving good clue as to his weakness, though it was not explicitly stated. Book #2 endgame + Book #3 speculation spoilers: Knighthawk(?) Foundries sounds gruesome when we see how some Epics can have powers 'donated' from them. I bet with the number of times they've been namedropped that we're going to see them and how they tie into Calamity and Epics. Gifting well, looks like the general consensus is correct--all epics can gift their powers under their own specific circumstances. Probably also tied into the "thematic appropriateness" that Calamity grants the boon under. I am guessing Prof looks at his cell of Reckoners as his 5th grade students. Now that the Reckoners no longer have "harmsway", "tensors", or the "jackets", they're going to have to change up their strategies a lot. I wonder how Megan will figure into all of that--or if she can gift her "respawning".
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Jan 7, 2015 19:51
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Prof's photos willing to bet the 4th person in Prof's Fantastic Four shot is Knighthawk or whatever. And if so, maybe that makes Tia a secret Epic too.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:35
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I'm guessing most of you subscribe to the newsletter? Anyone else read the excerpt yet?
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Jan 8, 2015 04:51
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ruby idiot railed posted:Prof's photos willing to bet the 4th person in Prof's Fantastic Four shot is Knighthawk or whatever. And if so, maybe that makes Tia a secret Epic too. Prof named the other two in the photo. One he said he'd killed, and the other was going by Murkwood nowadays. Other reactions: I've always suspected that gifting is more universal than we've been told, and most epics just hadn't tried it. Calamity being conscious and gifting all the powers in the first place doesn't surprise me at all either, but I like it. I'm not sure I'm buying facing his fear of the ocean as the explanation for David resisting the powers. I think it's because the powers that you get have something to do with your motivations or strengths, in the same way the weakness is tied to your fears. So I think whatever power he would have gotten would have included the ability to de-power other epics, or something like that, and he just did it to himself as he gained it.
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Jan 8, 2015 05:55
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Jorenko posted:Prof named the other two in the photo. One he said he'd killed, and the other was going by Murkwood nowadays. Different conversation, I think. The photo I'm referring to is from towards the end of Part 2, when David visits Prof's secret hideout to check in on him to see if he would be back to the regular hideout to help plan against Obliteration. He sees a photo and only describes 4 people from it--Prof, Tia, Regalia, and a 4th person, an elderly gentleman in a chair with some kind of wacky hair thing going on. The way the photo is described makes me think there are no other people in it, which is why I've described it as a Fantastic Four family pic. Regalia at least is openly displaying her powers in it. I do vaguely remember some stuff that sounds similar to the conversation you mentioned so I'll be on the lookout for that on a skim-through. quote:Other reactions: I kind of like this, but I don't think Brandon has ever done a reversal of the takeaway from the end of a book in a series on us before. He would at least put that in the epilogue. Also we saw David feeling then rejecting his boon, which was indeed similar/same as the power from his water jetpack. So unless he also gained a secondary power to depower himself--not out of the question, mind--that section is probably close to face value. Not that I don't think there's something else going on between Regalia, Calamity, and David at that point, but I don't have enough thoughts put together coherently on this.
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Jan 8, 2015 09:18
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I like how there's no definite yes/no on whether or not David actually has powers.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:00
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Odette posted:I like how there's no definite yes/no on whether or not David actually has powers. His intuition and infectious enthusiasm are superpowers unto themselves at this point.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:03
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ruby idiot railed posted:Different conversation, I think. Ok, I did a search. That is indeed a different conversation. Yours is after mine, when Prof's locking David up. He talks about how he once teamed up with Abigail/Regalia, Lincoln/"Murkwood", and Amala. "Murkwood" went bad, and he had to kill Amala at some point. So it's 25-50% a different group of people (depends on who you think the old man in the chair is/was). It does take some of the wind out of my sails about guessing that Tia is a secret Epic too, though.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:42
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ruby idiot railed posted:Ok, I did a search. That is indeed a different conversation. Yours is after mine, when Prof's locking David up. He talks about how he once teamed up with Abigail/Regalia, Lincoln/"Murkwood", and Amala. "Murkwood" went bad, and he had to kill Amala at some point. So it's 25-50% a different group of people (depends on who you think the old man in the chair is/was). It does take some of the wind out of my sails about guessing that Tia is a secret Epic too, though. I actually do think there's a decent chance of Tia being an Epic. She probably gifts the other lorists with something that lets them communicate, or she has something to do with the other tech that's not Prof-powered. This would be the reason for having to sit out combat if you join the lorists; you only get one power set or the other.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:22
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Jorenko posted:I actually do think there's a decent chance of Tia being an Epic. She probably gifts the other lorists with something that lets them communicate, or she has something to do with the other tech that's not Prof-powered. This would be the reason for having to sit out combat if you join the lorists; you only get one power set or the other. Communications, Epic-related "lore" research, technology? Wacky theory, then: She's Knighthawk. It'd be hilarious if Reckoners are trading Epic loot (heh) to the weapons dealers who then trade it back to the labs (mostly dominated by Knighthawk Foundries as far as I can tell) who is then headed by the co-leader of the Reckoners. The circle of life. VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 23:26
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One thing I kind of found funny was the at least 2-3 times when Brandon had to (sometimes slightly awkwardly) throw in a few things to clarify/fix bits in Book 1. For example, the dowser: of COURSE it logs results. And of COURSE Megan's actual power portfolio lets her get past that.
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Jan 10, 2015 23:27
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So, was Regalia's ability to communicate with Calamity, and urge him to boon powers to new people a new mystery that was left unanswered, or did I just miss something obvious?
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Jan 11, 2015 00:22
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ruby idiot railed posted:For example, the dowser: of COURSE it logs results. And of COURSE Megan's actual power portfolio lets her get past that. I seriously doubt Sanderson had not decided what her actual powers were when writing the first book
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Jan 12, 2015 18:02
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syphon posted:So, was Regalia's ability to communicate with Calamity, and urge him to boon powers to new people a new mystery that was left unanswered, or did I just miss something obvious? Yeah, I expect that'll come up in the next book. As to Davids powers, I need to re-read the last few chapters, but it seemed to me that he was being given something related to the bridge under the water, not the water itself. Controlling steel, maybe? There's no reason to think the power is related to the fear, just the weakness
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Jan 12, 2015 18:11
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senae posted:As to Davids powers, I need to re-read the last few chapters, but it seemed to me that he was being given something related to the bridge under the water, not the water itself. Controlling steel, maybe? There's no reason to think the power is related to the fear, just the weakness I got the same impression given that the boon was going to be thematically tragic. Steelslayer and enemy of Steelheart gets the power to control steel.
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Jan 12, 2015 19:38
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senae posted:Yeah, I expect that'll come up in the next book. I feel like its probably that his power is the ability to mimic the powers of other Epic's for a little while after being around them/touching them. The part where he 'explodes' and thinks that Prof's healing power saved him reads more like he used Oblivion's auto-teleport to save him. Someone obsessed with Epic's getting the power of Epic's he's around feels 'thematically appropriate' and lets him used Prof's powers when Epic's can't gift their powers to other Epic's
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Jan 12, 2015 22:05
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Going back to the first book after reading the second, the weakness revelation doesn't fully make sense to me. Fear = weakness doesn't mesh very well with most of the weaknesses we've seen so far. Fortuity's weakness is attractive women. Yet he's known for frequently "dating" attractive women, but he's still evil. Wouldn't confronting his fear of attractive women cure him? Or maybe I'm underthinking it, and his fear is something related to attractive women, but not necessarily dating them or sleeping with them, so it doesn't count as confronting his fear. Something silly like that. Steelheart's greatest fear is not being feared? I guess this one is okay, the second book states that he was a bully pre-powers, so I can see that working. Nightwielder's fear is UV light? Or just sunlight? This one seems silly. Firefight's fear is fire. That one is solid. I don't remember if we've seen other weaknesses yet, those were just the ones I remembered off the top of my head.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:20
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It seems like having the weakness not quite correct weakens powers (rather than nullifying them).
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Jan 12, 2015 22:24
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Anyone else thinking that The fact that megan leaves her body behind being rather than regenerating from the one that just died being highlighted alongside the nature of how Knighthawk gets its powers is going to lead to some plot vital devices being developed in Calamity
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Jan 12, 2015 22:33
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Alright quick question while reading through Mistborn: At some point (in this thread I think) it was mentioned that all of Sanderson's books are taking place in the same universe, just at different times/worlds. If that's the case then in Mistborn is the skaa informant Hoid that Kell talked to supposed to be the same one who shows up in the Stormlight Archives as the King's Wit, or did he simply use the same name by coincidence like Tolkien did with Glorfindel?
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Jan 12, 2015 22:36
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Evil Fluffy posted:Alright quick question while reading through Mistborn: The former. Hoid is a world-hopper
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Jan 12, 2015 22:37
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Yeroc2 posted:I feel like its probably that his power is the ability to mimic the powers of other Epic's for a little while after being around them/touching them. The part where he 'explodes' and thinks that Prof's healing power saved him reads more like he used Oblivion's auto-teleport to save him. Someone obsessed with Epic's getting the power of Epic's he's around feels 'thematically appropriate' and lets him used Prof's powers when Epic's can't gift their powers to other Epic's There's a possibility that Obliteration gifted that power to him at the end of their confrontation. He seems to have given Obliteration some level of enlightenment ... at which point Obliteration stops attacking him, helps him down, thanks him, and tells him "give Regalia my regards", before popping out. e: though ... we've never actually seen the Prof's powers in action vs. Obliteration, shouldn't David have teleported out as soon as Prof put a field around him? VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 22:45
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Ithaqua posted:The former. Hoid is a world-hopper So far, he's been in every cosmere novel, though not the short stories
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Jan 12, 2015 22:49
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Holy_Zarquon posted:I seriously doubt Sanderson had not decided what her actual powers were when writing the first book I wouldn't doubt that he has, but the point I was trying to make is that these were points that were definitely brought up by readers after book 1 was released. Another obvious one is Prof's revelation, and asked and answered by Mizzie and David: what makes the Reckoners' activities any more than a turf battle between rival High Epics?
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Jan 12, 2015 22:55
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Alright, figured that must've been the case and it wasn't just some coincidence. Thanks.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:55
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