#and a syl from oathbringer:)

[taravangians-storming-balls]

Some personal highlights from dragonsteel

- a syl cosplayer giving me a blackbane leaf and going "I think this is important?" and then running off

- the really tall load bearing stoneward at the worldhopper ball who kindly put his phone back up to record more after the group of like 10 short people behind him asked him to because viewing through his phone was the only way we could see anything. Truly was there when we needed him

- the tiny lift cosplayer who ran up to my partner and went ELEND!! and then turned to me and went VIN!! and then insisted we follow her over to meet another vin cosplayer she had collected

- being told by a friend that someone described us as an "elend and vin who were tearing it up on the dance floor" at the ball

- the gaggle of amaram cosplayers who I never saw apart from each other. They gave us some glowing spheres

- the oathbringer sword you could pose with being literally 40 pounds

- kaladin cardboard cutout. I do in fact only go up to about under boob height on kaladin.

- spinning in circles with my friend and other vin cosplayer to effectively create a car wash brush with our mistcloak tassels

- walking literally anywhere in the con and hearing card trading deals happening. If you have your cards out someone WILL ask you if you have herald 7

- pattern cosplayer asking brandon a question at the spoiler q&a. He looked really cute standing up there. You could see his little pattern silhouette over the crowd

[lamaery]

17 - forest 

Our protagonists hiking through the weird, glassy forests of Shadesmar. :) image description: image of the group travelling shadesmare in Oathbringer, hiking through a forest of weird glassy plants in various spiky and bulbous shapes and with life spren bobbing in the air around them as small green glowing lights. In the back to the left are Pattern and Syl apparently in deep conversations. Syl is carrying a long harpoon over her shoulder. In from if the walks Shallan in her white coat, throwing suspicious and interested glances at the vegetation. In front are Adolin and Kaladin, with Maya packe between them. Adolin holds her hand causally while saying something to Kaladin and looking into the direction they are heading. Kal is in uniform, carrying a second harpoon, and bag strapped over one shoulder and across his chest. Adolin wears fashionably adapted lighteyes clothes and a rucksack on his bag. Both men sport proper beginnings to a beard.

[cosmerelists]

Ranking the First Five Stormlight Novels

For the record, this is not meant to be an objectively correct ranking or anything--but it is my personal ranking. I wanted to wait to do this until Stormlight 5 came out!

And I gotta say--I like all of the books. But I can rank them by "least favorite" to "favorite," even if they're all among my favorite books in general, you know?

[Spoilers for Wind & Truth! ...And all the other Stormlight books too!]

#5: Wind and Truth

I feel bad ranking the newest book at the lowest spot...but so it goes. The thing is: I'm a simple woman. I come to Stormlight Archive looking for people with huge fantasy swords fighting each other in the sky. And while I do respect and understand Kaladin finding his place outside of battles and becoming a Therapist to the Stars, I did honestly miss him getting to duke it out against overwhelming odds.

I will say that this was probably my favorite Adolin book--his WAT arc was my favorite. I also loved the new ways that Shallan is using her powers, to say nothing of finally getting the Rlain/Renarin love story. It was also extremely gratifying to finally get a lot of the backstory about the Stormfather and Honor and the Recreance. I'm also fascinated that so many arcs involved oaths being broken framed as a good thing.

Lots of great stuff in Stormlight 5. But my monkey brain really wanted more sky fights.

#4: Oathbringer

I have to imagine that if you are a Dalinar stan, Oathbringer is probably your absolute favorite book. I'm a Dalinar fan but not a Dalinar stan, so that definitely flavors my reaction to this book.

This one does have one of my favorite Sanderlanches--the battle of Thaylen city is amazing (and Shallan single-handedly fighting an entire army does legitimately make me tear up every time). The invasion of Kholinar storyline is also great, and I loved meeting Azure.

Again, lots of good stuff, but not as much good stuff as some of the other books, at least for me.

#3: Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War was challenging for me because Kaladin is having the ABSOLUTE WORST time in his whole life and it's sometimes legitimately hard to read about it. At the same time, we get such great Kaladin fights thanks to the Pursuer, and one of the all-time great Kaladin Dramatic Entrances at the end.

Plus, I mean....Navani and Raboniel? So good! So toxic! Such an accidental toxic yuri horrifying love story. I'm such a sucker for self-sacrifice too, so Raboniel sacrificing herself to save Navani AFTER Navani killed her? That could have been created in a lab just for me.

PLUS this book had Maya and Adolin, both their kata fight and the whole "WE CHOSE" scene.

Incredible book, IMO.

#2: Way of Kings

I go back and forth about whether Way of Kings or Words of Radiance is my favorite, if I'm being honest. At the moment of writing this list, it's turned out this way.

I really love Way of Kings. The whole bridgeman plotline is horrifying but so compelling, and I love watching Kaladin build himself and his man back up. I love seeing all of the ways they manage to survive, from the side-carry to, well, war-crime armor I guess. The scene of Kaladin surviving the highstorm--with Syl in front trying to block it--is one of my all-time favorite scenes ever. The Tower Fight is fantastic all the way through. And the end with Dalinar giving up his shardblade to save the bridgemen is so earned.

On a first read I was less compelled by Shallan's narrative but it honestly gets more compelling the more often I reread which I've done...let's say a few times. She's such a great character from the first line.

#1: Words of Radiance

As I mentioned at the beginning, I am a simple woman sometimes when it comes to my fantasy series. Words of Radiance wins for me because it contains my three favorite plotlines / scenes:

The 4 v. 1 duel. So amazingly fun to read. Such a good scene for Adolin, for Kaladin, for Renarin. "Honor is dead but I'll see what I can do." Come ON.

Kaladin & Shallin fieldtrip in the chasms. I loved the way their relationship developed over the course of this scene. The end when they're huddled in the cave in the middle of the highstorm while listening to the Fused above them, telling each other their true stories--top-notch. Plus I'm a sucker for storylines where people have to both use and hide their powers, and so the fact that they're both Radiant and trying to hide that from each other makes me giggle maniacally.

The Kaladin vs. Szeth duel. This fight has EVERYTHING. They're in the sky. It's a highstorm. They literally run across enormous boulders that were RIPPED from the GROUND by the storm while said boulders are SPINNING THROUGH THE STORM. It's so over-the-top and it's my favorite fight in the whole series.

So that's me! I know there are tons of "What's your favorite Stormlight book" polls out there, but if you want to put your ranking in the tags I'd be interested to see it!

[tenebris-lux]

Something I’ve been thinking about since Oathbringer:

~ chapter 101, Oathbringer

That was Captain Ico, the Reacher, or “light spren” as he would be called in the physical realm.

I’m wondering if his daughter is Timbre, the spren that bonded with Venli. In Rhythm of War, Venli referred to Timbre as “her” at one point (from what I’ve read so far). And their bond is an unusual one.

It would also be reminiscent of some of Syl’s story, which is revealed around this part of Oathbringer: she essentially ran away and bonded a human.

Two rebellious lady spren, chasing dreams/ideals.

[imagine-too-many-books]

Progression of my predictions thus far:

Page 38 - the in-universe book Knights of Wind and Truth is written by Kaladin

Page 48 - no nono Wit can’t say that! He’s not optimistic enough to hope ONE of them will survive?! And we know Wit lives because he’s in the Sunlit man. If this is foreshadowing it’s not boding well for Kaladin. I need him to survive!

Page 52 - maybe…maybe Wit will be wrong. He may never see Kaladin again but he may still be wrong.

In other news I’m confident The excerpts from KoWT are written by Kaladin (or orated by him - either way it’s Kaladin telling his story as instructed)

Page 53 - or not (Kal isn’t a historian or philosopher)

Page 79 - definitely not Kaladin then.

78 - pls don’t die Drehy

85 - yeah Shallan! That was a great line! Love the power

91 - Kaladin is adorable sometimes! (“book quartermaster” lol) also pls pls don’t let Syladin be a thing. I am starting to think Syl is going to be fully corporeal once the book is done…somehow idk she’s just becoming so personlike

97 - cute! I bet that musicspren/horse that went up to Adolin was Surenlood’s spirt!

also thank god everyone made it. I was nervous there 😅

Page 100 - who tf is the writer?! I guess I’ll find out

Page 114 - reality warps around Kaladin!! what does that mean? Maybe Kal has some control of his destiny?

Page 117 - I appreciate Kaladin’s confidence maybe he will meet them in the middle somehow when all of this is over?

Page 146 - oooh we’re getting Adolin’s feelings about Dalinar post-Oathbringer reveal!

Page 167 - yes! Adolin should get to feel bitter and judgemental! Obviously he should process his emotions and work through them so they don’t harm him but he should be allowed to be pissed and freeze out Dalinar if he wants to

[crowsintheforest]

it's been a few weeks, by the time I post this, since I finished wind and truth. mostly I wanted to write out my thoughts as best I can, think on it some more, because for the first 48h after I finished I mostly was just laying around like

this got out of control so putting my thoughts behind a cut. tl;dr, book good, I have lots of thoughts, can't wait for 2031 or whenever we get book 6 (and also the next mistborn trilogy, ghostblood trilogy, my guy)

overall, I really liked it! sanderson makes very breezy high fantasy books: characters who are easy to love, big world-shaking plots with strong small-scale interpersonal stuff, themes of love despite the horrors, and some of the most fascinating magic systems around. we got to see a bunch of that last one all tossed together, with all the world hopping going on.

it's been really neat seeing sanderson improve as a writer. while I don't think this is necessarily my favorite sanderson book (or my favorite stormlight, for that matter), WaT shows off how much he's grown as a writer and a storyteller. using 1400 pages to maximally show 10 days of story, across multiple perspectives, nations, and worlds, gives him a lot of room to expand to a breaking point, and he manages to hold it all together, even weaving themes of the power of collaboration and interpersonal responsibility, the false promise of acceptance without responsibility, the value of redemption through choosing over and over again to change, and how kaladin stormblessed is able to be exactly where he's needed at just the right time.

(extremely minor nitpick, but I do wish he'd lay off of using literally so often)

the plot was fine, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to keep track, even with fifteen billion things going on (if you're reading this far, you probably know what this book is about, but here's my best shot: over the course of 10 days before the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny of dalinar v odium, dalinar and navani try to figure out why Honor died and end up with the worst babysitting gig; shallan tries to do a stabby and gets sucked into said history along with rlain and renarin, who are just figuring themselves out a bit; kaladin and szeth go on a murder road trip to szeth's home of shinovar; adolin tries his best to keep azir from falling to odium's forces; and venli desperately tries to find a home for her people and herself).

that was long. so I think the easiest way for me to do this is go character by character. so let's start.

I wrote so much I'm sorry

kaladin stormblessed: my emotional support bridgeboy going out there emotionally supporting the most mentally unwell people in this book. his dance with syl was a bright spot (even as szeth got kidnapped for murdering), and he's grown so much. I called him taking the herald position pretty much from the moment it opened for szeth, but that didn't make the journey he's on any less glorious. he's finally going to get a fucking break and hopefully help himself and the others heal. herald of second chances indeed.

also kudos to kal for getting tf out of the line of succession dalinar tried to en-dad him with by fucking off to a completely separate planet. maximum avoidance of lighteyed-ness through maximum acceptance of responsibility. I love him so much.

shallan davar: comparatively, not quite the depth I would have liked for shallan? but like kaladin, a lot of her emotional growth and development was in oathbringer/RoW, so getting to see her cut loose and accept herself, and use that acceptance for maximum output/knife was great. she and kelsier are going to fuck each other up and I am going to giggle with glee.

adolin kholin: I loved adolin before this book, I loved adolin during this book, and I will love adolin forever. his journey in this book is an interesting parallel to dalinar's and kaladin's, accepting his relative lack of supernatural power but also embracing his role as a leader and a helper. he helped maya! he helped his armor spren! he helped yanagawn!!! he used a candelabra in a duel!!!!! finally, he made the leap about oaths v promises before dalinar did, which strikes me as very adolin and also deeply sad because dalinar's dead and adolin never got to tell his dad about his realizations.

quick ot3 aside: I'm not okay that it's kaladin's gifts to shallan (boots to ground her) and adolin (a sword to support him) that got them both through their wedding. I'm not okay that kaladin is the first person they think about to improve themselves, after their spouse. I'm not okay that kaladin thinks of them as inspiration, and hope, and the drink with friends he's never going to get because his body's fuckin buried in shinovar and no one knows he helped to reforge the oathpact. I'm not okay about any of this.

dalinar kholin: so that oaths v promises thing? that dalinar has to accept because, as navani told him halfway through, he's gotta listen before he jumps, even when they're in agreement? yeah. breaking his oath to force a cosmere-level intervention, and make the other shards deal with odium. trading his life, his soul, his freedom, and his legacy, so that others might survive. and he dies protecting his grand-nephew. one of my favorite war criminals in fiction. I'll miss him very much.

szeth-son-neturo: did not expect him to give up his oaths in his apotheosis. in retrospect, very well foreshadowed, and I love that it is a decision that he took into himself, with hope for a future he never thought he deserved. his pokemon trainer journey through shinovar had some great fights in it, but idk, for all that he was the flashback character this time around, I don't feel like I learned anything new about him. maybe this is the end of his story, and I'm okay with that. hey sando can we meet his wife in the next books, she seems cool (and helped him bury kaladin's body for their first interaction, that's wild).

navani kholin: needed more of her. not sure how, and what we got was good, but...agh. I think she suffers the most from the condensed timescale post-RoW.

gavinor kholin: lol sanderson pulled an angel-and-conner on us. I had to put the book down for this one, I was giggling so hard for the wrong reasons. goofy ass twist my guy. based on a rugpull of navani losing the kid that I didn't entirely accept. can't wait for adolin to run into him in the future

sigzil: reading this book after reading the sunlit man was an exercise in emotional devastation and I will never get over sigzil finding himself, finally, and then willingly giving it up to save his spren and his comrades. fuck moash, seriously.

lift and vasher: what a duo. good luck with this one, vasher, you're going to train up a terror. you deserve it, after, what, Mad Sciencing your way to anti-light? for someone so smart, you're a dumbass.

hey btw where is vivenna, can't wait for that reunion (aka vivenna trying to gut vasher, which he deserves, what the fuck were you doing with gavilar my dude)

renarin kholin and rlain: much like navani, I feel like they kind of got the short shrift, although theirs feels less bad I think? navani felt like her continuation got cut short, but renarin and rlain both feel like their story is just beginning. which is probably the point? anyways, I like them both very much, more please. gay love saved the planet.

venli: really liked where we ended up with venli, who not only came to terms somewhat with her past devastation against her own people, but made the call to reach out to her enemies in order to forge peace. something about renarin and rlain's decision for a chance for the future via freedom of the imprisoned over continued oppression in the name of stability; paralleling venli and the singers' choice to reach out to jasnah, their oppressors and enemies, to mark their own space and nation? it's so good. I'm probably the most excited about this particular plot/nation-building moving forward.

thaidakar: kelsier what the fuck are you doing and why did you inquisitor one of your eyes, you know what happened to your brother (oh no now I'm sad about mistborn series 1 again)

jasnah kholin: you know what I realized, writing all this up, that led to jasnah's downfall? she hasn't really changed this whole series so far. journey before destination, you know? unlike pretty much everyone else, she thought she'd already finished her journey. she's the fourth ideal pretty much before the series even starts (maybe? I might be wrong), she's the smartest person in the world, she's taken steps to fill what she thinks is her weakness (strength on the front lines). but she never acknowledged that she could be fatally flawed, that she made terrible mistakes in what she thought was good, and never reconsidered her position as potentially hypocritical. I know we're getting jasnah flashbacks late in the series, so I'm excited to see where she goes in the future, but boy her shit got rocked by fen and odium.

hoid: lol. lololol. looooooooool.

[tanoraqui]

ALRIGHT, CRABS AND CRAB-FRIENDS, it’s time for our favorite periodic event: Tanoraqui liveblogs binge-reading the new Stormlight Archive novel!

the tag remains: #my fave horse girl books (Kaladin is the horse, Syl is the plucky teen horse girl in the made-for-tv movie…there’s a post about it somewhere in that tag).

I actually aim to be slightly less singly fixated on it, this time, because while that was super fun for Oathbringer, it was ultimately less so for Rhythms of War? But also, we all know that once I hit the like 80% mark I will no longer be sleeping.

Note: I have NOT reread anything in advance this time—aside from catching up on the Wax&Wayne books to whet my Cosmere appetite. Which worked! But these books are so long. And so full of elaborate red string theories, in a way that almost loops around to boring sometimes. I need to be pretty feral to go for one.

Which I am, now, so…

[opens to the fifth (and final?) prologue POV of the night Galivar died] [Nikki Minaj “Starships” bass-boosted & blasting on speakers] LET’S DO THIS ONE MORE TIME!

[realclaramorrow]

my (admittedly not very good or coherent) thoughts on wind and truth so far, divided by characters and kind of organized by storyline?

not all of us can read that fast, wind and truth spoilers up to chapter 80 below

- I love adolin and yanagawn's friendship, they are so important to me. he's teaching him towers and theyre genuinely friends and he got noura to begrudgingly approve and gah. I love them dearly. I would like lift to be able to talk to yanagawn again too. adolin trying to learn everyones name is so emotionally intelligent of him. I love that that one guard (hmask?) got to tell adolin that he saved his son, sweetest moment ever. me son you!!!!!! adolin is so much smarter than so many characters (and readers) seem to think he is, his head for battle strategy is almost unmatched and he's an incredible leader. may aladar is an icon and notum coming to help was very satisfying. his growing bond with maya is not only healing her but its healing my heart. I dont know if in the future they can bond like aliveEye spren and person can but that would be neat. adolin would make a fantastic edgedancer.

- sigzil the man the myth the legend himself is crushing it with an awful situation in narak. his plot is the most anxiety inducing to me because they are not getting shit for help and the everstorm is literally parked right there. the engineering being key to his strategy is very cool to me because no one else is doing anything like that. also, vienta being able to calculate the lashing force and distance needed to kill one of the new fused (forgot their names. the belt guys) is epic and theyre such a duo.

- venli and co. in the chasms is going to play into the battle for narak most definitely. chasmfiends being chill with them is so awesome and cool. chasmfiend pov chapter when. pure tones of roshar save the day? also want rlain reuniting with these listeners so he can a) see his friends and the remnants of his people and b) chew them out for letting him go be a spy with absolutely no protest

- dalinar is getting on my nerves, I understand he's under a lot of pressure but he's being such a dick to the stormfather. in character yes but MAN do I wish both of them were better at communicating. the spiritual realm storyline is very interesting and the way he's going about it is putting me in physical pain.

- loving the navani time but I low key miss the scientific toxic lovers thing she had going on with raboniel. I dont see how she puts up with dalinar, because he's a blundering ape. also, I share adolin's opinions about oathbringer's publication of the razing of rathalas.

- little gav is a revenge hungry angel but an angel nonetheless

- CHANA DAVAR CANON???????

- shallan has grown so much and I'm so proud of her :) I love getting details about her backstory and I love that formless wasnt a one and done defeat. she has to keep fighting her. just as veil was created to hold difficult memories I think radiant was created to battle shallan's imposter syndrome and self confidence issues. it would be cool if radiant was also integrated by the end of the book, but at this point its clear shallan still needs her. great investigating of the ghostbloods and ba ado mishram. it pleases me. dalinar take notes.

- rlain making a soul projection of him and renarin kissing and renarin being like holy shit we do NOT have time to address this was so funny. I love them too. my weird little autistic queers. they're so othered from their respective peoples that theyre each other's people. shallan is tired of their flirting after literally 1 second. they're meant to be. rlainarin canon I love gay people (and trans people. shout out that one trans blacksmith in azimir and that one person that desperately wanted to talk to the sibling and was immediately like "so what is not being male or female like")

- kaladin's journey of self care here sure seems like the way to swearing the fifth ideal, and syl being on her own journey that way is so so fantastic. spren learning how not to live for their radiants is very poetic to me in a way I can't explain right now because tired. nale gets on my fucking NERVES. I know people that argue like that and I hate hate hate them. whats up with the wind? want more info about the old gods of roshar, made directly from adonalsium. sequence with kaladin dancing with syl and the wind is absolutely gorgeous. kaladin's realization that szeth is like tien instead of like himself was heartbreaking and a great example of dramatic irony. the observant reader (me) sees him treating szeth as a man who chose to fight instead of a boy who was forced to (because reader gets the exact years ago and the ages and such) and goes NO KALADIN NO

- szeth is becoming one of my favorite characters. I love knowing about his backstory as well. the culture of shinovar is so interesting to me. the splashes? stone being sacred? the Farmer, their monasteries (I LOVE monasteries), the ritual of pilgrimage? adding and subtracting? love it all. also szeth being like "thank you kaladin I can finally off myself" and kaladin being like "no?????????" was kind of hilarious. his spren is a piece of shit. I really dislike that highspren. most unhelpful spren ever. also, is the voice odium or an unmade or the stones (like the wind) or a secret fourth thing? (edit: I haven't read much further but I'm an idiot, its obviously ishar because of the spren) I have such feelings about szeth but you need to just know them as I project them from my heart to yours.

- jasnah kholin the love of my life has finally broken up with my competition (Wit) and she's also figured out that the ships dont actually have soldiers in them which is so so smart. back to the scholar roots. best leaders are always academics (like sigzil) or genuinely caring people (like adolin and kaladin) (dalinar watch your back. however, I acknowledge that he cares). jasnah is the smartest person in this damn book and her pointing out her own fallacies and internally discussing the effects of her as a general and knowing how everything about her affects how she is percieved a role model for women all over eastern roshar shows it. I appreciate jasnah freeing slaves and learning from her mistakes and actually trying and stuff but its upsetting that this is definitely brandon's extent of addressing lighteyed privelage and displaying that complex relationship. I have read very very good fanfiction about this, in which it was good to see that other people agreed that "bridgeboy" is a much more offensive nickname than "princeling" (because of the power imbalance and racial connotations of "boy")

- why are we doing hemalurgy on roshar rn. (also aluminum negating investiture everywhere is cool and awesome.) moash is really only one letter away from marsh. also, I'm losing hope for a redemption arc for him. can't tell if its good or bad narrative for a story with overarching morals of second chances to have moash not be redeemed. on one hand, it's not realistic to redeem everyone. on the other, I don't think he's beyond redemption and I think it would tie up that storyline in a nice little bow. but in real life, nothing ends in a nice bow like that. teft's story ended beautifully, and its tragic he died, but he had reached the end. I think its interesting when characters are purposefully killed off before completing their arc or veer in a different direction because it leaves the audience unsatisfied and feels more empty and like a real untimely death. my feelings about moash are complex, but as someone invested in these characters I want him to be redeemed

[gal-palanaeum]

Femslash fic rec: Sylphrena/Yixli

Caught and Kept by khrossbow

This just goes to show that if you post inspiration, sometimes it pays off!! Rated Explicit, 3000 words, Oathbringer spoilers

Read an excerpt below:

With her brow furrowed and her eyes sharp as a razor, Yixli did cast an imposing figure, even Syl had to admit that. She hurried away, turning into a ribbon of light and twirling around the trunk of the tree, before flying off hoping she hadn’t been too conspicuous. She hasn’t been staring for long, right? Thinking to lay low for a while, Syl took to the skies and joined some real windspren in their flight. Unfortunately, riding the winds didn’t feel particularly fun today, not when she couldn’t pester Kaladin about the details of everything she saw. It wasn’t long before Syl was back to hiding in the foliage, trying to snoop.  It seemed she’d chosen a good time for it too, as Yixli was talking to another voidspren, one of the red stormy varieties that Syl had seen even before the everstorm began. She’d seen even more of them recently, and in ever-increasing numbers as they got closer to the major Alethi cities. The others had just kept rolling by in their little balls of red lightning, but this one seemed to have stopped by to chat.  Syl crept closer, hiding at the base of a tree just close enough to overhear their conversation.  “-the exodus from the outer provinces is nearly done, but I’ve heard some concerning rumors.” The red spren said.  “And? I don’t see why you need to hold me up about it.” Yixli replied curtly. If there was any sort of hierarchy among the voidspren Yixli certainly did not consider herself beneath this red variety.  The red spren scoffed, “You’ve got a human in your group. Villages in the direction you came from are talking about a human tromping around claiming to be Radiant, preaching about the desolation. Then a single man turns up and tags along with your group. Does that sound like a coincidence to you?” From Syl’s hiding place, she saw Yixli narrow her eyes.  “You’ve been watching the human, I assume. Have you seen anything?” The red spren prodded.  “No… he’s a model prisoner, and he’s helped this sorry lot get their act together,” Yixli said, sounding hesitant.  "Whatever. I’m not the one who’ll get unmade if this goes wrong.” That other spren said, flying off unsympathetically.  Syl frowned, it was concerning that rumors of Kaladin’s warnings had reached the voidbringers, but since they weren’t suspicious of him particularly, he could probably afford to stay a little longer. She’d need to warn him to be careful though. That wouldn’t be a problem, as they should be able to meet by second moon tonight- Syl’s train of thought came to a screeching halt as a hand slammed into her throat, pinning her to the tree. Yixli, her angular features twisted into a vicious smirk, leaned in close.  “Hello, little spy.” She hissed. 

Keep reading

Want to read more Cosmere femslash fic? Want to add your femslash to the Collection? Check out the Cosmere Femslash February Collection on ao3!

[peachdoxie]

It's clear now from the previews that it's not a coincidence Sylphrena the Ancient Daughter bonded Kaladin, nor is it a coincidence that she was the first honorspren to attempt a nahel bond. At first I thought it was her personality—that she was more carefree than other honorspren—but with the revelation that the wind itself is asking for help from Kaladin, it's clear that the wind chose Syl to bond him, specifically, as much as it probably chose him. Her personality may still have something to do with it, but I think it means that there's something metaphysically unusual about Syl. It could be she's the closest surviving honorspren to Honor, as part of the first ten children of the Stormfather, but I suspect it more has to do with her "sleeping" through the Recreance left her unchanged, somehow—like how all steel created after the nuclear testing on Earth has levels of radiation significant enough that warships suck before the 1940s are one of the best sources of radiation-free metal.

Quotes about the wind choosing Syl below

“I am the only honorspren who has come,” Syl said. “I . . .” She seemed to be stretching to remember. “I was forbidden. I came anyway. To find you.”

“You knew me?”

“No. But I knew I’d find you.” She smiled. “I spent the time with my cousins, searching.”

“The windspren.”

Words of Radiance Chapter 9

“It’s like when I first picked up a spear,” Kaladin whispered. “I was just a child. Were you with me back then? All that time ago?”

“No,” Syl said, “and yes.”

“It can’t be both.”

“It can. I knew I needed to find you. And the winds knew you. They led me to you.”

Words of Radiance Chapter 52

Syl walked up to him in the air. “They’re like I remember them.”

“Remember them?” Kaladin whispered. “Syl, you never knew me when I lived here.”

“That’s true,” she said.

“So how can you remember them?” Kaladin said, frowning.

“Because I do,” Syl said, flitting around him. “Everyone is connected, Kaladin. Everything is connected. I didn’t know you then, but the winds did, and I am of the winds.”

“You’re honorspren.”

“The winds are of Honor,” she said, laughing as if he’d said something ridiculous. “We are kindred blood.”

“You don’t have blood.”

“And you don’t have an imagination, it appears.” She landed in the air before him and became a young woman. “Besides, there was … another voice. Pure, with a song like tapped crystal, distant yet demanding…” She smiled, and zipped away.

Oathbringer Chapter 6

[honuofhawaii]

So I just finished the Stormlight Archive, and I love it! It’s awesome, great world building, interesting magic system, lovable interesting character. However, something I’ve noticed sometimes, emotional beats are skipped over and only mentioned to have been dealt with retroactively. Some examples:

Spoilers through Rhythm of War

In RoW:

We don’t see Shallan’s reunion with Testament. We only see after.

In the same chapter we find out that at some point Adolin and Shallan find out that Uratheru was invaded, occupied, and then freed.

At the trial we find out that Adolin knew about Kaladin’s near betrayal. I assume that means all the Kholin’s know, but when and how? Did Elhokar know that there was a time his hero really believed the world would be better off without him?

This one I get bc of the time jump btw Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, but Adolin and Renarin finding out that Dalinor killed their mother Evi.

Maybe it’s just me but I think Kal deserved some more awe and excitement from his friends at achieving the fourth ideal?

Again this happened in the time jump but a more full reunion btw Kaladin and his family. Bc we get one in Oathbringer, but like that’s kinda a “hi, Im alive, I’m a radiant, there’s a new desolation, gotta go”, verses where they are at the beginning of RoW. There’s definitely be a good bit of contact since then.

In Oathbringer:

Had Gavinor returned in time for the wedding, why do we only see Kal’s relief that he’s alive? I would have liked to see the Kholin’s’.

Speaking of Kholin reunion’s we only hear about. Jasna and Navani!!!

We completely skip over Kal being locked up again first with friends and then on his own, away from Syl who’s also locked up.

Oh, and I feel like we deserve a conversation between Shallan and Kaladin about Helarand.

This is not a full missing beat, but it would have been nice to see Adolin and Shallan’s wedding. We see the abbreviated heretical ceremony for Dalinor and Navani l, and I think it would have been an interesting contrast to see the tradition ceremony Adolin and Shallan probably had. (On a side note I love that Kal gave Shallan boots, that’s hilarious, but now I do want to know what he gave Adolin)

In Words of Radiance

I feel like it would have been good to see Elhokar mourn his sister.

Adolin’s POV after Shallan and Kal fall into the chasm.

Kal getting through his first proximity to Amoram unless he just avoided him…but I don’t know! We don’t see it, we aren’t even told what he did when he saw Dalinar talking to Amoram. We only know that Amoram doesn’t recognize Kal until after the duel.

Anyway I can’t remember any specific ones in TWoK, but im sure there are some.

[lamaery]

9 - shield

Kaladin (and Syl) shielding human prisoners from the storm winds through sheer, albeit magically infused willpower. More of a colour sketch really. But I wanted to make something for this scene in Oathbringer for a while now. Especially since I haven’t seen many depictions of it. But what can we do? Kaladin has heroic moments of awesomeness like other people have breakfast.

[swordgorl]

Wind and truth is an insane book and in the post-conclusion buzz I'm going to try and get out all my thoughts. And I mean All of them

General thoughts: How the fuck did Brandon manage to balance 3+ character povs per chapter for majority of an entire book that huge and keep them generally interesting and engaging? This book didn't quite reach the heights of others in the series but maintained a strong level of consistency. Character arcs were concluded satisfyingly. The ending is truly a rollercoaster in ways most sanderlanches, the sheer number of resolved plot threads is incredible.

Kaladin: I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Kaladin taking Jezrien's place. The more I think about it the more I think I like it. I liked his soup and his fluting, and I'm interested to see him return as a herald, having ten years of helping the others, I'm very curious to see how they read in the second arc (this will be a common point). His swearing the fifth was a little anticlimactic honestly, I wish he'd done a little more with it. The implications with the armor spren were interesting, I wanna see what that's about.

Dalinar: A fucking madlad. Interesting to see his continual bullheadedness catch up to him again. Gavinor being the enemy's champion was completely unsurprising but Dalinar's solution was compelling. I'm a bit disappointed his bondsmithing wasn't a bit more relevant in the climax but eh. Also fucking ooft with the blackthorn he accidentally gave form to lmfao. His relationship with Honor was interesting and I'm glad he went down fucking Taravangian's whole plan

Shallan: Glad she got more closure! Her mother being Chana feels like such a minor revelation all things considered, I can see why Brandon didn't really bother to keep it a secret. I'm sad to see Veil and Radiant taking more of a back seat, as I really enjoyed the Three's dynamic in RoW, but I'm glad they're not completely gone. The games with Mraize and Iyatil were clever. I wonder what she's gonna be up to for the next decade while stuck in shadesmar.

Szeth: Continues to be the funniest character. Wants more of Kaladin's shitty soup. Gets dragged into a fight in shadesmar while Kaladin's dancing with Syl. Has to be chaperoned by Nale because his highspren was a huge nerd (sorry Aux but it's true). Immediately breaks his oaths after attaining the fifth ideal before fighting the rest of the Honorbearers. The Shinovar roadtrip was everything I was hoping it'd be. Also on a serious note his becoming truthless was way more high stakes than I'd anticipated, I wasn't expecting a civil war. I hope those splinter Skybreakers have a good reason for not fucking doing anything during the war.

Adolin: He continues to be the best lad. Pushing Yanagawn to be a more active emperor is cool, and I was sad at how long Maya had to spend away from him (my favourite part of the book was her calling him a slut). Hope we get to see more of them as the Unoathed (I think that name kinda sucks ngl). Sad he never got to see Dalinar again but him reading Oathbringer is a really nice touch.

Renarin and Rlain: Finally, some good fucking homosexual behaviour in this books. I'm excited to see Renarin being more confident as well as controlling his visions better. Them breaking Mishram's prison was appropriate, and I want to see Rlain grow into his role as Bridger of Minds more. I wonder what Sja-anat is gonna do now lmfao.

Venli: Easily my favourite appearance of hers. I'm really glad the listeners took Narak, their plan to exploit the loophole was so funny. Their control of the perpendicularity is gonna be super interesting later on, I wonder if it has any special properties beyond typical Shardpools. I'm glad the listeners/willshapers will be more relevant in the second arc.

Taln and Ash: Sick fight scene. I was hoping to see them bonding radiant spren but oh well. Can't wait to see Taln in action again, and I'm curious how Ash's transition to Dustbringer occurs if she's maintaining her position as the Lightweaver herald

Navani: Nice to see her working through the last of her insecurities. She's going to wake up to a huge mess.

Lift and Zahel: I'm so fucking excited to see Lift learning under Zahel. I'd been wondering why he was actually in SA and I think this is it. Her going sicko mode was cool, I'm very happy that she's the first viewpoint for the second arc because competent Lift is gonna be so cool to read, such a compelling direction for her character imo. (Also Axindweth was a full feruchemist so I assume she had access to healing from goldminds, I assume that Lift made her burn though that instantly by tripping her which is hilarious)

Jasnah: Interesting arc! Taravangian completely undermining her philosophy means she'll begin the next arc from a new perspective, compounded by her losing Thaylen City. It was good for the "philosophy lesson" from Kharbranth was reexamined. Taravangian was at least partially right that she acts of Odium, but his expectations that she'll come to his side because of it is wrong; she'll grow instead.

Moash: Still a bit disappointed with how one dimensional he's been since RoW. Oh well.

El: He's interesting, I'm sure he'll be up to many shenanigans.

Tanavast: Bro fucked around and found out. Reading his chapters with the altered font was sick. He and Rayse really just made a mess of things both on Ashyn and Roshar. Really fucked himself with Mishram oof. Glad he got some redemption in the end.

Cultivation: Sis fucked around and found out LMFAO. I wonder if she expected Dalinar's decision, and also where she's headed.

Taravangian: He really made this book, Rayse would've been so lacklustre in comparison. As is a theme he also fucked around and found out, bro painted the biggest target in the cosmere on his back with no preparation while gloating at Dalinar. Retribution is gonna be scawy, I wonder what the plans to fight him will be, if it has much to do with Honor's growing awareness; will it spread to Odium? (Also his Dustbringers are chilling in fake Kharbranth I'm sure)

Wind, Stone and Night: Really cool to see these spren recontextualised as being so central to Roshar's history. I wonder if we'll see Wind will return to creating a Bondsmith. I'm intrigued to meet Night too.

Rysn: Hope she has a fun boat adventure and makes out with Cord on it

Sigzil: Bro had a rough time, and man is it gonna get way worse. Him meeting Aux was extremely funny.

Hoid: Can't believe this mother fucker. Fucked around and found out. Just has his dawnshard on him, I wonder if he had it before he was protected by the contract. I liked watching him get absolutely obliterated by Retribution, he deserved it.

Closing thoughts: Rollercoaster of a book, can't believe I have to wait 6 years to see what the fuck happens next. Kind of the ending I thought we'd see but certainly didn't get there the way I'd expected

[scienter]

Oh wow. I have so many thoughts about Wind and Truth chapters 3 & 4.

Who or what the fuck is the Wind? 🤔

“Is the wind a god?” Kaladin asked.

“When this world was created,” Wit said, long before Honor, Cultivation, or Odium arrived, Adonalsium left something behind on it. Sometimes it’s called the Old Magic. Sometimes that term is applied to the Nightwatcher, who came – with Cultivation’s efforts – from one of those ancient spren. Listen to the Wind when it speaks, Kaladin. It’s weaker than it once was, but it has seen so very much.”

Now I just want to go back through the series and note every passage mentioning Kaladin and the wind or a voice in the wind. I know there's a lot of them there.

Also, I've seen people mention this quote from the series:

"We took them in, as commanded by the gods . . . For their betrayal extended even to our gods: to spren, stone, and wind."

 So the wind is . . . a deity?

I kept thinking about Syl's explanation of the wind at the beginning of Oathbringer. She said something about honorspren being connected or related to the wind, and that the wind had been with Kaladin since his childhood. 🤨

So much to think about . . .

“Listen,” Wit said. “Everything you’ve done—Kal, everything you’ve been—has prepared you for what’s next. It’s going to be hard. Fortunately, life has been hard, so you’re working under familiar constraints.”

Kaladin glanced to the side, where Wit was staring off into space, idly spinning the red flute in his fingers. Something in his voice… his face…

“You’re talking,” Kaladin said softly, “as if one of us won’t survive this.”

“I wish I were optimistic enough to think one of us would survive.”

NO, NO, NO! 🙈🙉🙊

I hope to god all the Kaladin-is-going-to die foreshadowing is a red herring. I don't want Kaladin to die an early death. Not after he struggled so much with suicidal ideation. It'd be a shitty end to his story if he dies as a hero/martyr after overcoming his self-destructive impulse to kill himself. Please be a misdirect! 🙏

“Simply trying to give you a proper send-off,” Wit said. “We’re at the end, Kaladin, and you are needed. I want you to march off to your divine destiny with a spring in your step.”

A PROPER SEND-OFF?

A DIVINE DESTINY?

What does that mean!?

Does Kaladin die? 😭🤬

Does Kaladin ascend? 😯🫨

Does Kaladin merge and/or bond with the wind?? 🤔🤯

“You know what first drew me to you, Kaladin?” Wit asked. “You did one of the most difficult things a man can do: you gave yourself a second chance.”

Wit gets it.

“I took that second chance… maybe a third,” Kaladin admitted. “But now what? Who am I without the spear?”

“Won’t it be exciting to find out?” Wit said. “Have you ever wondered who you would be if there was no one you needed to save, no one you needed to kill? You’ve lived for others for so long, Kaladin. What happens when you try living for you?”

Oh, I am SO ready for this next step in Kaladin's journey. I'd love to find out who Kaladin is beyond the battlefield. There is more to Kaladin than just being a soldier or a hero. It's one of the reasons why I want Kaladin to survive this book. I want to see Kaladin living for himself.

And yeah, I need to go back through and give all the wind references another look. I thought it was noteworthy before, but I believed it was just connected to Kaladin being a windrunner. But it looks to be something more than just that. Is it connected to the Stormfather calling Kaladin "Son of Tanavast" or Kaladin's "divine destiny"?

[jadejedi]

Stormlight Archive Rankings

Spoilers for Stormlight Archive 1-4 plus Edgedancer and Dawnshard.

Okay, I have just finished reading the Stormlight Archive for the first time. This was my first foray into Sanderson/the cosmere, which I know isn't always recommended, but this was right up my alley and I absolutely loved it. So, before WaT comes out in a few weeks, here are my current feelings about the series, characters, etc.

Books:

The Way of Kings (5/5)- this one absolutely blew me away. The emotion of that climax is hard to beat. It is just a perfect example of epic fantasy.

Rhythm of War (5/5)- I knew going into it that this wasn't everyone's favorite, which kind of made me think I would love it. And I did. I LOVED Navani and Venli's arcs in particular. This one made me cry the most.

Oathbringer (5/5)- This one I thought was paced so well right from the jump, which is important when you have a book this long. Again, I loved reading basically every arc in this book, even for the villain characters.

Words of Radiance (4.5/5)- Okay hear me out. I know this is a lot of people's favorite, but to me the pacing just isn't as strong. It lags a bit after the duel and there was definitely a bit of a slog in the middle, at least in my opinion. It's still very good and I definitely still loved it, especially Shallan's arc.

I'm not ranking the novellas bc they're impossible to compare to the main series, but I really liked Dawnshard (4/5) and wasn't as much of a fan of Edgedancer (3/5).

Characters (I'm going to forget some characters, but oh well):

Tier 1 (Characters I would die for, kill for, and follow into battle): Kaladin, Shallan, Syl, Adolin, Navani

Tier 2A (Characters I love and give a hearty salute): Dalinar, Renarin, Rock, Teft (RIP), Pattern, Rlain, Eshonai (that final POV of hers...), Rysn

Tier 2A (Messy bitches I love to watch): VENLI, Szeth, Raboniel

Tier 3 (Still cool): Jasnah (sorry to all the Jasnah stans, I just don't feel like I've seen enough of her so far), Wit, all of Bridge 4 not mentioned in other categories, Wyndle

Tier 4 (honestly kind of annoying): Lift (sorry Lift), the Lopen (though I find him less annoying than Lift)

Tier 5 (villains I love to hate): Taravangian, Moash, Amaran

Tier 6 (boring ass villains): Saddeus, Roshone

Top Moments (Incredibly hard to narrow this down to 5):

Dalinar trades Oathbringer for the bridgemen (WoK). I burst into tears while in the car. The emotional high of all emotional highs.

Shallan reveals the truth of what actually happened to her mother (WoR). I GASPED. I was shook. It puts her killing her father in a totally different light. Honestly, it was the moment that put her up with Kaladin in my favorite characters, because it just makes her so interesting and complicated.

Kaladin survives the highstorm (WoK). I mean. Come on.

Kaladin saves Adolin in the duel (WoR). So incredibly epic. Sanderson isn't really an author who generates quotable lines like some of my other favorite authors, but "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do." absolutely slaps.

Navani and Raboniel combine the tones of Honor and Odium. This moment was surprisingly epic and very cool. And also very gay.

[imonlyhereforcrem]

“Besides, there was … another voice. Pure, with a song like tapped crystal, distant yet demanding…” She smiled, and zipped away. ~Syl, Oathbringer ch. 6

Syl brings this up to Kaladin in reference to his time in growing up in Hearthstone. She “remembers” things about Kaladin from back then even though she hadn’t actually met him yet. I think Syl is saying here that another Radiant spren was observing Kaladin back then; a memory from before she left the Cognitive Realm to seek him out.

There are 2 spren that come to mind that are related to crystal: Cultivationspren and mistspren. Both of these orders have access to Progression which fits Kaladin the surgeon. However, mistspren (and Truthwatchers) are concerned with the powerful being truthful to those they lead. Kaladin “all lighteyes are deceitful/horrible abusers of unrightful power” definitely has interest in that sort of thing.

All this to say, I believe that Surgeon!Kaladin, the Kaladin that never left Hearthstone, would have been recruited as a Truthwatcher.