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Do we know who the POV is in Stormlight 5's prologue? gently caress I'm so excited and it's so far away
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Jan 10, 2022 18:50
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:08 |
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It's Gavilar. Should be a big lore dump.
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Jan 10, 2022 18:55
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Ah, he did say that in the video but I wasn't sure if he just meant in the sense that the prologue is about his assassination ultimately
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Jan 10, 2022 19:11
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i wasn't initially sold on the prologue gimmick but honestly it's worked really well for me in oathbringer and RoW, it's a fun structural conceit to play with
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Jan 10, 2022 19:29
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Sanderson working half day during the holidays is not a break. Especially if you then do a marathon to "catch up" with work.
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Jan 10, 2022 19:41
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eke out posted:i wasn't initially sold on the prologue gimmick but honestly it's worked really well for me in oathbringer and RoW, it's a fun structural conceit to play with I really like Pulp Fiction, 22 Short Films about Springfield, Momento and other things that just play with narrative structure in general so I've been really into the prologue thing since WoR 
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Jan 10, 2022 20:28
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SA5 will feature Gavilar's PoV in the prologue, and Szeth's PoV in the flashbacks, and I can't possibly wait to read those bits. And after that setup in RoW, I'm also super pumped to read the conclusion of the first half of the series.
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Jan 10, 2022 21:21
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At the very least Szeth's flashbacks won't be a retread of what we mostly already know like Venli/Eshonai was.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:15
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socialsecurity posted:At the very least Szeth's flashbacks won't be a retread of what we mostly already know like Venli/Eshonai was. Watch the shin be a loving secret space age wakanda society.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:53
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External Organs posted:Watch the shin be a loving secret space age wakanda society. Yuuussss. I canno wait for the shin!
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Jan 11, 2022 02:12
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We know they trained with the Honorblades so they're probably capable of some pretty crazy poo poo
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Jan 11, 2022 02:58
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External Organs posted:Watch the shin be a loving secret space age wakanda society. They absolutely know things nobody else on Roshar knows, considering they've had and used the honor blades for so long. There's also the fact that Shinovar is the only(?) place on that world that has soil and grass, so their environment is radically different than anywhere else.
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Jan 11, 2022 15:55
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Evil Fluffy posted:There's also the fact that Shinovar is the only(?) place on that world that has soil and grass, so their environment is radically different than anywhere else. Stone isn't for walking on 
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Jan 11, 2022 16:53
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Sab669 posted:Stone isn't for walking on A hipster shirt in shinovar, circa mistborn era 3
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Jan 11, 2022 17:05
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BananaNutkins posted:I loved Skyward. Now I'm listening to Starsight and not enjoying it that much. DarkHorse posted:As someone who had many of the same complaints you did, I eventually came to like it at the end. Nothing else in Cytoverse is quite as good as Skyward, which imo is even better than Emperor's Soul, because it's just so tightly plotted and Spensa goes through so much growth. Starsight and Cytonic for me felt like just when Spensa was going to have to face some more interesting challenges, she took a left turn to have more solo adventures. We keep starting over and over in new locations with new characters and while Sanderson is good enough with characters that we don't have David Eddings level of substitutable characters, there's just so much similarity that making each story feel distinct is very hard and ultimately it feels like "same kind of story, different setting" with the setting being the draw instead of the characters. And even though Spensa does have distinct character arcs in both sequels she never shows quite as much character growth or has to overcome her flaws in the same way she did in Skyward. But now that she's back on Detritus and Evershore spoilers not only is Jorgen in charge at the DDF now, but he can also MOVE THE ENTIRE PLANET, plus they've made their relationship official I think Defiant is gonna be a return to form and an awesome ending to the series.
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Jan 11, 2022 21:37
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpcdGJgVDeAquote:Reading from the unpublished—and very rough—first draft from Kingmaker. A story set on First of the Sun.
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Jan 11, 2022 22:28
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I really was meh about Cytonic as a book. Definitely was re-hashed it seems. I definitely really enjoyed the 3 novellas though. They were a lot of fun and advanced the story I felt. I'm definitely excited for Defiant
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Jan 12, 2022 21:54
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I'm on the 4th book of the Stormlight series and I'm really turned off by how mentally broken some of these people are. It's getting difficult to read, not because it upsets me but it distracts from the story. I guess I don't like my characters to have major mental issues. Dalinar makes sense to me, even Kaladin to some extent. But Shallan is just way too out there for me and is making me question continuing to read the story without skipping sections/chapters with them in it. I don't think it has anything to do with grimdark in fantasy as I love warhammer 40k and have read a bunch of the novels. Maybe it's the reaction of other characters to those with mental issues in the series. They seem to completely ignore things like multiple personality disorder and treat it like a personality quirk.
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Jan 13, 2022 19:41
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Shallan works better in the audiobooks, for obvious reasons. I think a fair number of readers have the same opinion as you.
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Jan 13, 2022 20:38
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I think Shallan and her issues are generally most peoples least favorite character, so you're not alone
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Jan 13, 2022 20:41
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I think my biggest issue with Shallan is the radical change between book 2 and 3 where that stuff suddenly comes to the forefront in a way that really jars with the previous two books.
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Jan 13, 2022 20:58
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I don't mind Shallan as much as some but yeah I'm exhausted of the split.
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Jan 14, 2022 06:11
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A few months back I was making my way through the Stormlight books, and I got off track at the beginning of "Oathbringer" and put it down until a few weeks ago. I recently finished it off. Great book, Dalinar is the best character, the ending was amazing. But after that I immediately plowed into "Rhythm of War." My brother has already caught up on the Stormlight books and is racing me through the Wax and Wayne books, which I already read. Tonight I finished up RoW and I have some thoughts. -The Navani chapters were the best parts of the book. They were the equivalent of the Dalinar chapters from Oathbringer to me. I'm a Neal Stephenson fan, I love long dives into nerdy science poo poo, and these chapters were a better version of that, because they were relatively constrained but still managed to deliver that scientific process goodness. Also the relationship that forms between Navani and Raboniel was a huge part of the book to me and the way it culminates in Raboniel achieving her true purpose of showing mercy to her daughter was, to me, the emotional climax of the book -Second to that were the Adolin chapters. I was very interested in the things happening between him and Maya and the implications it had for the Deadeyes as a whole. I had predicted way back when that the spren had agreed to the Recreance, so it was nice to have that confirmed. I was hooting and hollering for Maya to speak at the trial, and it was such an excellent moment -Kaladin and Shallan are the weakest parts of the book. How many times is Kaladin going to be driven down into the deepest pits of despair only to bounce back stronger than before? How many times can Shallan have to wrestle with hidden memories of her past? It's old hat now, get new arcs. I did enjoy the parts of the book where Kaladin is desperately resisting the occupation of the Tower, those were neat. I didn't care so much for Shallan's spy hunting paranoia, but her story got interesting when Kaladin's didn't. I liked the scene with Formless and Kelek and her ultimate rejection of the Ghostbloods. That has very interesting implications going forward. -I absoluetely did not see the swerve with Taravangian killing Odium and becoming him coming. That was pretty wild. I was thinking at some point "man they gotta kill off Odium in the next book, right?" Well lol to that -It was nice to see Wit finally suffer a consequence. Dude's been untouchable for way too long -The interlude with Chiri-Chiri was pretty wild, I liked getting the perspective of a weird bug with a very catlike personality -I eventually came to like the Venli chapters. I was shaky on them at first, and I'm still not sure I like Venli as a character, but it really did lead to some very interesting insight into the Listener/Singer culture and I enjoyed learning more about their internal politics through her. -Big shoutout to Rlain and Dabbid, finally the least-developed Bridge Four members got some love. I liked what went on with them and I was glad Rlain finally got a spren. A corrupted one, no less. -Moash is the biggest motherfucker in any of these books, holy poo poo. But I liked that, even though he killed Teft, Teft died defying him. I initially liked and agreed with Moash, but Sanderson has done a good job of making him into a truly hateable villain. -I'm guessing they're going to make this Thaidakar guy the big villain of Shallan's next arc, and El the villain for Dalinar. Since Kaladin and Szeth will be off in Shinovar. The next book is going to take place over ten days, I assume? That's pretty interesting. I'm curious to see how that will play out. -Speaking of Szeth, I really want to know more about this guy. We don't get much about Shin people lately, I'm very interested in their culture and why his family were given the Honorblades. -I do like how Warbreaker introduced Nightblood but not a single solid fact about where it came from or why it is the way it is. The sword is such a fun character and the moment where it chipped Ishar's Honorblade and freaked everyone out was great. -I didn't quite understand the bit where Lift was captured in the Tower. I guess the parrot lured her into a trap? At first I thought the guy who stepped out of the shadows was Nale, but was it Mraize? Some other Ghostblood? The way he talked made it sound like he knew Lift, but I didn't get that from the rest of the book. -Speaking of Lift: Lifelight?? That was a really interesting reveal and then suddenly there's all kinds of new Lights showing up. The plan is to wait until my brother finishes "Bands of Mourning" (he's like 70 pages off) and then read "Mistborn: Secret History" together. Serf fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Feb 1, 2022 |
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Feb 1, 2022 04:51
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Serf posted:A few months back I was making my way through the Stormlight books, and I got off track at the beginning of "Oathbringer" and put it down until a few weeks ago. I recently finished it off. Great book, Dalinar is the best character, the ending was amazing. But after that I immediately plowed into "Rhythm of War." My brother has already caught up on the Stormlight books and is racing me through the Wax and Wayne books, which I already read. Tonight I finished up RoW and I have some thoughts. Agree about Szeth, but we will obviously get our wish soon(ish), seeing as book 5 will have Szeth's flashbacks, as well as obviously being set partly in Shinovar, what with Szeth needing to fulfill his Ideal of Crusade, and Kaladin needing to play supernatural psych to Ishar. And yes, the Kaladin arc gets tiring. But I assume playing buddy cop with Szeth and helping a mentally unstable herald will be a nice change of pace for him. We knew some things about Nightblood even before Words of Radiance came out, courtesy of Words of Brandon. It's only very general info, but don't read the next bit if you don't like spoilers from out-of-text material: The Five Scholars at some point visited Roshar. Vasher and Shashara were inspired by shardblades when they created Nightblood. And please, please, please come back to the thread when you've read Secret History. It's actually surprisingly important to understand stuff in the Stormlight Archive books, too.
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Feb 1, 2022 14:46
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I'm roughly ~15% through Rhythm of War and I'm having a hell of a time getting hooked to it, which is unfortunate given the incredible ending of Oathbringer. Not to say it's bad so far, it started out strong and seems to be dragging out sections that should be much shorter. -The first three books seemed to treat time as a precious commodity, so the one year time jump was pretty jolting. Not to say it wasn't good, but later the singers complain the humans have outpaced them specific to technology, so they sat back and let the humans take a whole year to build a radiant army AND a huge flying battleship? Maybe they didn't have the large number of Fused during that time as they do now? Not sure. -Shallan is sooooooooo boring. I appreciate Sanderson taking on a thing like multiple personalities but given Stormlight loves to throw TONS of characters at you, it's really tough to keep up with them. Radiant is a non-entity, what purpose does she serve? Veil I get but Radiant, to me, is indistinguishable from Shallan. -The exposition seems especially thick so far, specifically with the singers. Maybe that's because we're learning of things through the eyes of Venli, but it still seems forced. -Yes, we get it, Kaladin is immeasurably sad, depressed and suffering from PTSD. Laboring on this fact for pages upon pages upon pages tends to get old when everything around him has changed so much and acting as more of curiosity to the reader than how Kaladin has changed. I'll definitely power through and know things will become more interesting but man, it's hard to not just speed read through some of these chapters.
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Feb 1, 2022 17:34
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Speaking as someone with clinical, chronic major depressive disorder, I actually like that Sanderson is sticking with Kaladin's cycling through being a mopey poo poo. I totally agree that it's boring and exhausting and repetitive narratively tedious, but thats what it's like. You don't magically get an epiphany and you're all better, you keep falling in that hole and while you get better about climbing out of it and preventing it, there's no avoiding it entirely. You keep thinking this time I've finally licked it, I'm all better now and then you suddenly find yourself not bathing for a week because the prospect of getting up and standing for ten minutes is too daunting. Sanderson explicitly said he wanted to treat mental illness respectfully since broken spirits are a critical part of forming the Nahel bond in his fantasy system, and at least his depictions of depression match mine. You dont want to be a mopey sack of poo poo, you fight it off and hide it as long as you can, and sometimes you're just in a dark pit that seems to have no escape, even as you try not to show other people because you intellectually know it's all in your head. I still sympathize with people because reading about it sucks and is boring though.
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Feb 1, 2022 17:51
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100% agreed on the overall concept and it's clear Sanderson has taken lots of care to be respectful to any of the mental illnesses he writes about by working with professionals (he even says as much in his acknowledgements), it just at times doesn't make for engaging reading, or he tends to drag on scenes that could have a tighter narrative. At book 4 it's been well established where Kaladin sits, and we root for him to find peace and get well. Regardless, I'm still enjoying the book but it's needlessly wordy in many spots this time around.
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Feb 1, 2022 18:21
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Oh yeah, that reminds me, I did read Dawnshard and it really had a major issue for me personally that I'd like to talk about. Let Rysn have her legs back. All the stuff in the story is very clearly the result of talking to experts on disability issues and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is executed quite well, and is very true to life. And its also completely unsatisfying. I've got mobility issues because I lost my left foot in an accident, so I always get very interested when it is depicted in fiction by non-disabled authors. I liked Lopen because I'd consider him a accurate representation of people I've met who have lost an arm, and really amputees in general. A lot of us develop coping mechanisms that involve humor. I've met my fair share of gloomy and depressed types, don't get me wrong, but I'd say most of us take a different approach. I was pretty happy that Lopen grew his arm back because it's not something you often see. Wish fulfillment and power fantasy are often things denied to the disabled. Many authors think, for whatever reasons but I would say lately it's listening to disability experts, that we should be represented by depicting our struggles with obstacles in the real world. Rysn is a good example and good depiction of someone learning to overcome their disability in a world that exists before a lot of modern-ish aids existed. Again, this is all well and good. But I've been in a lot of support groups since I was a kid, and I worked in the prosthetics industry for a while and spoke with other patients about our experiences. What I'll say is that despite adopting a number of coping mechanisms, I haven't met anyone who wouldn't rather get magically healed and be whole again. Because the truth is that disability sucks. There's no nobility in having to put on my prosthetic leg every day, or stand on one leg in the shower or having to take the drat thing off when it fills up with sweat. It's just one more added struggle that I would rather not have to deal with. So my essential issue with Rysn's story is that she exists in a world where the potential to be healed exists, but this opportunity is denied to her. They can give her the Professor X flying chair, but that doesn't do it for me. If I want representation of my life experiences, I can read plenty of fiction that depicts it. Let me get a little wish fulfillment by seeing a person who suffers from a similar issue as me have that issue removed. I know Sanderson doesn't have to do that (and from reading his books I know that he isn't the sort of writer who overly indulges in wish fulfillment), and it's really that big of an issue, but it is one of those things where it annoys me for strictly personal reasons and I'd rather see it go a different way.
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Feb 1, 2022 18:28
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Louisgod posted:100% agreed on the overall concept and it's clear Sanderson has taken lots of care to be respectful to any of the mental illnesses he writes about by working with professionals (he even says as much in his acknowledgements), it just at times doesn't make for engaging reading, or he tends to drag on scenes that could have a tighter narrative. At book 4 it's been well established where Kaladin sits, and we root for him to find peace and get well. Regardless, I'm still enjoying the book but it's needlessly wordy in many spots this time around.
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Feb 1, 2022 19:07
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Infinite Karma posted:Agree with all of this. Depression SUCKS. As realistic as Kaladin's depiction of it is, it's also frustrating when he's the archetypal, clear-cut hero of the story. He's driven out of a selfless desire to help people, not dark impulses clashing with his heroic nature, and he's also the one with the raw physical talent to overcome the challenges of standing up to a genocidal god. In spite of the enemies being bigger and the stakes being higher every novel, it's the depression that almost beats him at every climax, not the bad guy. It's realistic, but it also means that all of his character progression is erased in every new story, which is even more frustrating because the way the bond and oaths work is that you have to truly internalize some important psychological aspect to reach the next level - character growth is baked into the physics of the universe. honestly i think kaladin was uniquely well set up to have a lot of problems with the fourth oath in particular and I don't think there's exactly a ton of regression in book 4 relative to what he's struggling with, he failed repeatedly in Oathbringer and then rapidly burnt out as a soldier and then was trapped alone in RoW, with the only way to 'level up' being to actually forgive himself for many of the above failures similarly, in the earlier books we basically see him repeatedly be outstanding and improve his station in society, only to find out that basically none of that cures his actual issues. im a shallan-liker but i feel like her narrative regression is a lot worse, while kaladin's issues feel earned, because his are going back and forth with a fundamental unsolveable problem, while hers involve a kind of literally magic amnesia necessary for the plot Brandon has designed around constantly hiding her backstory from everyone, and part of why her character can't improve as much is that she needs to keep hiding things to get to the plot reveals he wants
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Feb 1, 2022 19:34
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eke out posted:he failed repeatedly in Oathbringer and then rapidly burnt out as a soldier and then was trapped alone in RoW, with the only way to 'level up' being to actually forgive himself for many of the above failures I really do appreciate Sanderson tackled Kaladin's PTSD in the form of either being shell shocked or weathered from battle after battle as it seemed like a natural progression to explore in conjunction with his severe depression. That progression (or regression, I guess?) makes sense and is a great allegory to modern day soldiers trying to assimilate into "normal" society after only knowing death and destruction. As always though, I do keep in mind Sanderson is very good at tying all of this together within the last 10% of each book and know most of these components are a means to an end.
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Feb 1, 2022 19:47
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I think Brandon is doing a laudable thing trying to have a realistic and painstakingly respectful depiction of every iteration of neurodivergence in the same fantasy series. However RoW is the first time I thought it was starting to get very badly in the way of how enjoyable the story was. I’ve read the other books 2-4 times each, I havent returned to RoW yet because it was honestly a slog at times.
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Feb 1, 2022 20:01
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I liked Shallan in every book except RoW, where I wished it was Adolin instead of her literally every time. Kaladin owns. I'm with every other depression-haver in that it's nice to see someone struggle as I did. I wonder if he'll eventually (mostly) overcome it, as I did, or if the cycle will consume him. And I'm with the poster above who loved Navani's stuff in RoW. Gimme more magi-science please.
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Feb 1, 2022 20:29
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ConfusedUs posted:I liked Shallan in every book except RoW, where I wished it was Adolin instead of her literally every time. I wish the entirety of RoW was just 1000+ pages of Adolin because his storyline is the best and I hope he never becomes a radiant and that his work with Mayalaran results in something entirely new and unique.
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Feb 1, 2022 21:01
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I miss Vin and Elend.
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Feb 1, 2022 21:51
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Adolin is the most wholesome character in the Cosmere. I think it actually helps that he doesn't have that much screentime and PoVs, you're always glad when one of the rare Adolin chapters comes up. It's a similar deal to Steris, imho.Mordiceius posted:I miss Vin and Elend. Me too. And Sazed.
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Feb 1, 2022 22:04
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Kaladin's arc resonated pretty deeply with me as well. It was nice to see a fantasy protagonist struggle with that same miserable pit I did and I think he did a wonderful job depicting it.
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Feb 1, 2022 22:32
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Mordiceius posted:I miss Vin and Elend. I miss the whole heist team from the first Mistborn book.
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Feb 1, 2022 22:42
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+1 on the Kaladin team, as a brainworms-haver myself I laughed at the part early in RoW where Syl basically asks him, "Have you tried not being sad?" because drat if we all haven't heard that one before
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Feb 1, 2022 23:39
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Yeah, the Kaladin chapters were really strong for me too, for the same reasons. Adolin is the best though asking him if it was really safe to leave him alone that day.
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Feb 2, 2022 01:33
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