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I just finished Elantris. It's not as bad as most people implied. It was certainly no masterpiece, but I thought the quality was about on par with the Mistborn series. The story was good and it was a fun read, so I'm happy.
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Aug 14, 2010 02:48
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I liked the structured magic system. There are other series where there are no rules or limitations to the magic, which leaves things very open for the classic Deus Ex Machina of 'a wizard did it' (I'm looking at you, Feist or Eddings). This was illustrated pretty well with the few big fights there were in the Mistborn series, where the hero can't just cast some spell that shoots green poo poo at the enemy to save the day.
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Aug 30, 2010 03:24
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I just bought Warbreaker (a few weeks back). Should I read it next, or skip it and dive straight into this? (Either way I go, I still need to finish the Joe Abercrombie book I'm reading).
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Sep 9, 2010 23:29
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What is that on the cover. Is it a prawn or something? EDIT: Giant space prawn!
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Aug 1, 2011 22:30
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arioch posted:Uh, that would be a mistborn with mistcloak. 
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Aug 2, 2011 01:33
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It started from the very beginning. I remember when this forum first started, and there were tons of arguments about the different thread icons that should be available. Lots of people argued that Fantasy and Sci-Fi wouldn't need separate icons (which is why they share one today), and some even argued that they should just fall under a regular 'fiction' icon.
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Aug 10, 2011 04:47
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To contribute a bit to the derail... Gurm may have reinforced that trend, but he didn't start it! 
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Aug 26, 2011 06:35
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Bobby Shaftoe is half the man that Half Cock Jack Shaftoe (from Baroque Cycle) was.
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Sep 16, 2011 18:15
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Yeah Kaladin's plotline slowly picks up a bit of momentum, so by about halfway through the book I was actively skipping ahead chapters so I could follow Kaladin's story through to completion.
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Nov 23, 2011 21:44
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:It must be weird at first that the characters are all absolutely different. You hardly notice as the series goes on since it happens organically over the course of 13 books, but looking back, all of them have changed enormously.
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Dec 1, 2011 18:48
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For some reason, the first battle in Alloy of Law really sucked me in, I thought it was fantastic. The Avalanche™ seemed pretty meh to me.
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Dec 5, 2011 04:59
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Vaevicti posted:
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Dec 21, 2011 21:57
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I don't quite understand the Kaladin hate (maybe 'hate' is a strong word) I'm seeing here. When reading WoK, I actually skipped the Shallan and Dalinar chapters to see what happened next with Kaladin. He was my favorite character by far! Although admittedly, I skipped some of the flashbacks parts, since the way the story was written, I knew exactly what was going to happen in them (with the exception of finding out Kaladin had a chance at a shardblade and turned it down, only to get screwed over).
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Jan 13, 2012 19:10
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I kinda figured the whole 'shattered world' thing would be fixed and the world would go back to normal, but I don't know if I'd say I saw it coming (it was just an idea bouncing around in my head after they started discussing how the world used to be).
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Jan 17, 2012 18:47
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I just finished Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and absolutely loved it. I wondered why there wasn't a thread around here about it (although I vaguely remember one in the past, maybe it got archived). I recommend that.
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Feb 8, 2012 00:45
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I agree with that one guy. I loved the first Mistborn (and REALLY loved Way of Kings) but books 2 and 3 weren't anywhere near as good.
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Mar 16, 2012 05:46
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Seriously, I loved how he poked fun at both series' *and* himself all in the space of a few paragraphs.
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Mar 27, 2012 00:21
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I suppose we're getting a bit off topic here, but I agree. The first Sword of Truth book (Wizard's First Rule) was pretty good. I mean, there's a reason a lot of us started the series, right? I can't identify exactly where the series went downhill, but it's fair to say I enjoyed it at first.
syphon fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 17:54
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The part that stuck out most for me was him being forced to live in some overly-exaggerated communist country. He was somehow able to free them from their evil socialist bonds by... building a statue? Something like that?
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Apr 13, 2012 20:46
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Aggro posted:I'm a third of the way through The Way of Kings, and I'm having the same issue with it that I did with Elantris. There are three protagonists, but one of them has a vastly more interesting story than the others. For Elantris, Raoden was way more fun to read about than Sharene or Hrathen. In The Way of Kings, Kaladin's chapters are a huge step up from those with Dalinar and his son. Like, I get frustrated when they get back-to-back chapters because I want more Kaladin.
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May 30, 2012 23:48
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I don't know if he's really gotten 'better' at that or not. In Allow of Law, he spends a lot of time explaining the magic system (which is very similar to Mistborn but altered slightly). I don't know if he views it as a flaw though, since he's said multiple times that he's a magic-system nerd and that's one of his favorite parts of writing. I have to admit I feel the same way. I remember reading an article or something by Sanderson where he basically said "wide open magic systems with no rules are boring as hell. You basically have an uber-powerful character that can satisfy any plot device with "a wizard did it" and effectively becomes an Deus Ex Macchina." I agree with him because I loved reading all of the clever ways that people used Allomancy (or being Twin Born) in his Mistborn books.
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Jun 10, 2012 23:04
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Sometimes I feel people are too harsh on Sanderson's sense of humor. Maybe way back in Elantris, I cringed a couple times at that leading female character's dumb puns (I can't remember her name), but nowadays it feels like he's dialed it in perfectly. Way of Kings and Alloy of Law were both excellent, and I felt the humor in them was just right. It's become a part of his writing, not something to criticize him for (in my opinion, at least).
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Jul 24, 2012 19:53
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Thirding. Allow of Law was better than the original Mistborn trilogy, by a good margin I'd say.
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Aug 26, 2012 21:08
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I guess I somewhat accurately guessed Steelheart's weakness early on. I thought it had something to do with being shot by someone who admires or cares for the person. When the dad shot Steelheart, he still thought he was a GOOD epic and was actually aiming for Deathpoint. It's not exactly the same thing as what his weakness turned out to be, but it was darn close!
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Oct 3, 2013 17:18
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Shakugan posted:Calamity either won't take back the powers it gifted to standard epics because of some story reason (e.g. wanting to test humanity etc etc) or because of some handwaved power reason (his gifting is different, can't recall gifting after a certain amount of time etc) The closest I remember to this happening is when the battery epic shut down the power to Newcago. It wasn't very clear how he was doing that... did he 'drain' the batteries he had previously 'filled', or was he somehow constantly powering them and just shut off that flow?
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Oct 25, 2013 19:43
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I guess I'm at the point where I have to decide if I want to re-read Way of Kings or not. I remember the overall plot but not most of the details you guys have been discussing.
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Jan 14, 2014 19:42
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The Way of Kings Reread on tor.com still has a couple of chapters left. Seriously? They're not going to have the whole thing published before the next book comes out? Then again, I suppose the last couple of chapters were momentous enough that I mostly remember how they went. But I was pretty stoked to read about the final battle again!
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Mar 3, 2014 23:55
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This wiki page has great info on the various orders of Knights Radiant and their abilities - http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Knights_Radiant EDIT: Don't read it if you haven't finished WoR like I did. It has end-of-book spoilers, like the known members of the Orders. EDIT2: Non-spoiler explanation: The idea is that there are 10 Orders of Knights Radiant, and 10 corresponding 'Surges' (powers, basically). Each order has the ability to access 2 of the surges, and they share 1 of them with another order. Thus, each Order of Knights has a combination of two special powers and has its own clever name like 'Windrunners' or 'Stonewards'. The diagram above visually shows each Order and which Surges they have access to. All orders get their powers the same way (sucking up stormlight). syphon fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Mar 11, 2014 |
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Mar 11, 2014 22:47
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Has it been explained where the root of (WoR spoiler about Taravangian) his odd affliction is? So far, we've only been told about Surge Binding as a magic system in addition to something called 'old magic'. Has there been any more in-depth explanation?
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Mar 12, 2014 19:44
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Ah, I guess part of the problem is I have no recollection as to what that is. Was it explained in the first book, and i just forgot? A hasty googling brings up no useful Wiki entry.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:56
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edit != quote. These seem to be happening a lot lately.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:57
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In retrospect, the Szeth prologue might seem skippable. However, you have to remember that this is a brand new series and the very first thing you read about it is a somewhat boring conversation between two Heralds. The action and mystery of Szeth's prologue really helped to hook me on the series.
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Mar 13, 2014 19:25
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Really? Kelsier and Raoden (I couldn't remember who he was at first) sounded very similar to me, but Kaladin doesn't sound anything like them, mopey or not! He's much more... serious I guess.
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Mar 19, 2014 19:21
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This wiki says Roshar has a lower gravity (0.7g) and the seasons are only a few weeks long (although I don't know what their source is for that little bit) - http://stormlightarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Roshar
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Mar 21, 2014 00:26
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edit != quote. syphon == dumb.
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Mar 21, 2014 00:26
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Metropolis posted:If Jasnah is a full potential/actual Radiant, where or what is her spren buddy? Have there been any hints of her talking to one? Maybe she writes to it instead of talking out loud like the others we've seen. Maybe I just don't remember. I was gonna reread the first book, but didn't feel like it and felt like there were plenty of reminders throughout WoR.
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Mar 21, 2014 00:58
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Dravs posted:
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Mar 25, 2014 17:53
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I think I would have been ok with either (end of book spoilers for WoR) Jasnah or Szeth's revival... but not both, and not practically in back-to-back chapters! It's definitely kind of a trope that's very easily over-used, and I feel like having both of them at nearly at the same time crossed that line.
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Apr 7, 2014 20:58
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I get a little frustrated by that as well. I've read all the books, so it's frustrating when partaking in a discussion and being told "no you're wrong, the author confirmed that at a signing/convention/card game/blog post a few years back". I feel like Sanderson is taking a cue from Robert Jordan on this. I seem to remember that he loved dropping little tidbits at conventions and whatnot back when he was still writing WoT. I was reluctant to join in on any discussions, even though I'd read all the books, because there was a huge catalog of tidbits he'd released at conventions and signings that were very difficult to keep track of!
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Apr 8, 2014 18:46
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Regarding Jasnah/Shallan's shared abilities: I know we watched Shallan do it, but do they really have to travel to Shadesmar and bargain with an object every time they Soulcast something? That seems... tedious! We've seen Jasnah do it in 'real time' (she Soulcasted some stuff with Shallan in Kharbranth) so maybe time flows different in Shadesmar... or maybe she's just very persuasive! EDIT: How do people with fabrials do it? Does the captured spren do the bargaining for the person using it? syphon fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 22:54
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