#sanderson likes adolin way too much to kill him

[shouldprobablybereading]

So Adolin just got crushed by a thunderclast but Taln also had a sudden recovery so I’m assuming he unknowingly powered up to radiant and will be just fine

[mistywitcher]

finished wind and truth about 2 hours ago and I have just finished crying enough to compose some thoughts.

my heart is broken for Dalinar, and watching everyone grieve for him. I kinda felt like it was coming, but I refused to believe it, and when it did happen, I don't think I've sobbed like that over a book since Mistborn era 1.

I take back what I said about Adolin being angry in a different post. I still agree he got to be angry and that was valid, but never seeing Dalinar again and his last interaction with him being so awful absolutely killed me and oh fuck I'm crying while writing this. I'D ONLY JUST MANAGED TO CALM MYSELF.

Kaladin. KALADIN. that hurt too, In a bittersweet way. I fucking bawled at the idea of everyone thinking he's dead, and Szeth burying him. ruined, I won't recover from this for a long time.

I am beyond pleased he got such a wonderful ending and set up for the next arc, cannot wait to see everyone's faces when he fucking shows up as a HERALD!!!

Adolin fucking princeling wonderful human best guy Kholin was probably my favourite part of this book. His stunning relationship to Maya. His whole arc was incredible, his courage, his acceptance and realisation, FORMING THE UNOATHED. What a fucking baller move, so proud of my pretty boy, I didn't think it was possible to love him more but I do.

Shallan was brilliant as well, although she didn't feel like as bigger part as I expected for this ending, I feel like she was set up brilliantly for Arc 2 and I cannot WAIT to see how she escapes Shademar.

Also I could be so so so wrong, but I feel like, maybe, just maybe, she may, perhaps, could be... pregnant???? idk why I get this feeling but I do. only time will tell.

Renarin and Rlain absolutely shone in this book. I loved every second of it. Was so glad to see how much time they both got! As a neurodivergent, gay person, it was a fucking honour to see myself represented so much and so well in Renarin's chapters. beautiful, stunning, can't wait to see what happens next with my fave gay boys.

Poor Jasnah, those last chapters of hers were so rough. I felt so sad for her, and also so taken with how Sanderson wrote her failure, in such a compelling, tragic way. I can't wait to see what she does next.

Szeth, oh my sweet man Szeth. I wasn't that bothered about Szeth before this book but now I would die for him. I LOVED his chapters and flashbacks, I loved his journey, I simply loved him.

GAVINOR!!!! that twist at the end, with him being a grown man now, I look forward to seeing more of him, and honestly I found his child character to be massively entertaining and so so lovely.

there is so much more I could say, but I am so tired, I read for 7 hours straight with no breaks and then cried for 2 hours, and my head hurts.

so in conclusion, I am slightly broken right now, intimidated by the huge wait we all have, grieving for Dalinar, but ultimately, incredibly satisfied with that ending to Arc 1.

Life before Death

Strength before Weakness

JOURNEY BEFORE DESTINATION

[sebarial-the-economist]

Lines from the Words of Radiance chasm sequence that made me think I was reading a bodice ripper romance ahem different genre:

They range in intensity from "yeah that belongs in a romance" to "out of context that sentence would not be safe for work" to "I cannot believe Sanderson wrote that"

She looked disheveled, her blue dress scuffed and her hair a mess

He stared into her eyes. So intense. She felt a shiver meeting that expression. This was a man of passion.

She stumbled toward him in the darkness

She turned back to him, then looked down. Inadvertently, he’d grabbed her by the safehand. He let go immediately.

I doubt you’d look good in the traditional short trousers and open vest. Or, rather, you’d probably look too good. It might be a little distracting for the other bridgemen.

“Storms,” Kaladin said. “You’re not drawing a picture of you wearing one of those outfits . . .”

“Yes, of course,” she said. “I’m drawing salacious pictures of myself for you after only a few hours together in the chasm.” She scratched at a line. “You have quite the imagination, bridgeboy.”

She sat up and stretched sore limbs, checking to make sure her sleeve hadn’t come unbuttoned in the night or anything equally embarrassing.

She blushed deeply.

There was a sort of rugged handsomeness to the fellow. Like the beauty of a natural rock formation

But Kaladin’s intensity, that frightened her.

This bridgeman was proving himself different. The way he watched her, the way he thought.

Perhaps she should spend as much time wondering about this man’s motives as he apparently fretted about hers.

Why did he lose control when talking with her?

She sat back on her knees, holding up her sketch. She brushed aside an unruly lock of red hair.

Well, onward, then.” She took a deep breath. “Through soreness and exhaustion we go. You wouldn’t be willing to carry me a little ways . . .” He glared at her. She shrugged with a smile. “Think how grand it would be! I could even get a reed to whip you with.

"when we get out, everyone will cheer me for being a hero for rescuing you.” “Better,” Shallan said. “Except for the fact that I do believe that I am the one rescuing you.”

Shallan smiled, and they continued on, keeping a brisk pace. “I am glad we’re down here,” she said, “because by now, Adolin will be worried sick about me—so when we get back, he’ll be ecstatic. He might even let me kiss him in public.” Adolin. Right. That dampened his mood.

He whipped Shallan in front of him and thrust her into a fissure in the wall.

The chasm fell silent. Kaladin could hear only Shallan’s panting and his own heartbeat.

Slowly, Kaladin twisted about, putting his back to Shallan. She held him from behind, and he could feel her tremble. Stormfather. He trembled himself.

He was suddenly aware of her pressed against his back. Holding him, breath warm on his neck. She trembled, and he thought he could hear in her voice both terror and fascination at their situation.

He clung to Shallan, but their wet hands started to slip.

Kaladin pulled against the wall of the alcove, his injured leg smarting like nothing else, Shallan clinging to him. She was a warmth in his arms, and he held to her as much as she did him

He continued on, talking of his days as a slave, of his attempts to escape. Of the men he’d gotten killed for trusting him. It gushed from him, a story he’d never told.

When he finished, they both let the silence settle on them, and shared warmth. (This makes it on the list for what it sounds like, but even more importantly it comes from a place of emotional intimacy after he bared his soul to her)

Kaladin looked toward her. In a flash of light, he saw her eyes as she looked up from where her head had been resting against his chest, beads of water on her eyelashes. With his hands around her waist, hers around him, it was as close as he’d held a woman since Tarah.

“And so,” she continued, pressing her head back against his chest

For now, he wanted to think—though he was still glad for her presence. And aware of it in more ways than one, pushed against him and wearing the wet, increasingly tattered dress.

He shifted to move to climb down, but realized that Shallan, curled up against him, had fallen asleep.

This list is incomplete because at least half of the lines in the chasm sequence are open flirting and also I didn't include all of the mentions of Shallan’s dress tearing (or of her removing parts of it to make bandages). And all the blushing.

[cosmerelists]

The Rules of the Cosmere

And by “rules,” I mean tropes that crop up repeatedly in Sanderson’s books, that one could consider “rules” in a nonserious, please-don’t-take-this-too-seriously type way. 

Spoilers for pretty much all of the Cosmere!

1. Don’t feed the children

As seen in: Elantris, Oathbringer, Warbreaker

If you see a hungry, homeless child in a Sanderson book and you’re tempted to, say, give them food--don’t! Raoden tried that. And the poor child was horribly mangled by the men who wanted that food. Shallan tried it. And it turned out the child was being coerced into accepting the food by gang leaders--who ended up killing the child. Vivenna didn’t exactly feed them willingly, but the urchins did, like, beat her and steal her food while she was living on the street. So that wasn’t great.

Exception that proves the rule: Stump. She fed lots of orphaned children, and she was only almost killed. So the message is: if you want to feed the children, have a Lift around to protect you.

2. Once Marriage is On The Table, Breakups Don’t Really Happen

As seen in: Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Stormlight Achives, Elantris, Warbreaker

Once characters get to the point of marriage, be they engaged or in an arranged marriage or just solidly A Thing, it is rare for them to break up. Sometimes a breakup is floated--like when Adolin told Shallan she could go ahead and leave him for Kaladin or when there was Wax/Steris tension or when Zane tried to break up Vin and Elend--but in the end, the original relationship tends to hold strong. Siri and Susebron were married before they had even met, but they ended up happy together. Even “death” couldn’t stop Sarene and Raoden’s engagement--Sarene did try to marry someone else, to be fair, but that second marriage did not actually happen and the original marriage reigned supreme.

Exception that proves the rule: Elend’s first engagement did not work out. Vin killed the fiancée. So it is slightly riskier to be engaged if you’re not a viewpoint character, if you’re secretly evil...or if you’re in Vin’s way.

Although...did Elend and Shan actually break up, or was their engagement only canceled by Shan’s death? I guess either way, it didn’t work out!

3. Your enemy will save you...if the sexual tension is high enough

As seen in: Elantris, Rhythm of War

Perhaps appearing in two books isn’t quite enough to call this a rule...but if I had a nickel, etc. Hrathen was Sarene’s enemy...but in the end, he kinda fell for her and ended up killing himself to save her. And in a strangely similar manner, Raboniel used her dying moments to save Navani...after Navani was the one to kill her. Then there’s Lewshi and Kaladin--neither sacrificed themselves to save the other, thank goodness, but Lewshi does help save Kaladin and/or his men on several occasions and their romantic tension is off the charts.

Exception that proves the rule: Even sexual tension doesn’t seem to be enough for Moash to not try to drive Kaladin to suicide. 

4. Your fave is (accidentally) queer

As seen in: Stormlight Archive, Mistborn

Sanderson has a tendency to write characters that he innocently believes to be straight...until readers point out how incredibly not-straight they are. Take Shallan, who is as bi as the day is long--which Sanderson admitted, I believe, once it was pointed out to him. Veil is canonically into women, at any rate. And Sanderson has said that both Shallan & Adolin would be open to adding Kaladin as a third, so Adolin is presumably bi as well, to no one’s surprise. Many readers--me included--read Kaladin as some flavor of ace, although again, that seems to be unintentional, canonically speaking. There’s also Lewshi, a woman inhabiting a male body, whose transness is not really talked about as such but is very present. And in Mistborn, there’s Wayne and his gender-fluid SO MeLaan, a queer relationship that I don’t think is ever really identified as such. 

And yes, there are also canonical queer characters in actual queer relationships, but so many more seem to be accidentally queer.

Exception that proves the rule: Sanderson insists that Moash is canonically straight...somehow.

5. Don’t trust the underling priest!

As seen in: Way of Kings, Warbreaker, Elantris

If there are suspicious things going on, look no further than your nearest, seemingly loyal underling priest. In Way of Kings it was Kabsal, who turned out to be an assassin. In Warbreaker, the seemingly helpful and awkward Bluefingers tried to sacrifice Siri on an altar. And in Elantris, while Hrathen never exactly trusted Dilaf, he did believe that he had him handled...which turned out to be a mistake, and Dilaf ended up being one of the big bads. The big bad? It’s been a while since I read Elantris.

Exception that prove the rule: Kadash seems like a good dude. I will be genuinely shocked if he tries to, like, murder Dalinar or something.

6. Hoid is there

As seen in: All of them.

Hoid has a supernatural ability to be present at all important moments in the Cosmere, so he can expect to find him in whatever book you’re reading. If there actually are Cosmere Rules, this would have to be one of them.

Exception that proves the rule: I don’t think he’s in all of the Arcanum Unbounded stories--like Shadow for Silence or Sixth of Dusk. So maybe if your story is short enough, you can escape Hoid?

It could be the only way.

[moash]

hello esteemed tumblr user moash. do you have thoughts on lirin and his disapproval of kaladin (until the end of row)? or lirin's character in general? you always have good character thoughts and im thinking abt lirin's line "i obey the person who holds the sword to my throat, same as i always have" bc it slaps

hiiiii i think lirin’s pacifism is potentially really interesting but kind of butchered in row. he’s made to seem almost ridiculous for his completely reasonable views. like the scene where kaladin kills the singer in the clinic i feel like most people felt lirin was being unreasonable, but i think if they imagined instead of a singer it was a human, it would feel way different. it’s actually pretty amazing that lirin readily accepts singer’s humanity much quicker than any other character! imagine you spent your early career operating on victims of the blackthorn’s conquest sorry “unification” of alethkar and then the son you raised to be a healer ended up killing, for the blackthorn, in your sanctuary. i’d be pretty distraught too. this isn’t to say i think lirin is right and kaladin is wrong, but i think lirin’s views weren’t well represented in row and he was made to look more in the wrong than he was.

i think this is maybe not a common occurrence, but it’s definitely a trap that sanderson has fallen into before that character will sort of lose their characterization in favor of fulfilling a role opposite the leads that they don’t necessarily fit. lirin in wok would not say “i obey the person who holds the sword at my throat.” that man stole from the brightlord and lied about it for years, enduring hellish conditions for him and his family to give kaladin a better future. just because he was a pacifist didn’t mean he was passive or submissive. not like a rebel either, but i feel like his character shifted significantly in row to suit the role of a passive submissive character opposite kaladin’s rebellion and action. i think this happened with sadeas in words of radiance too. in way of kings he had legitimate reasons for his betrayal of dalinar, he truly believed he was doing the right thing for alethkar, and i think even dalinar acknowledges this is the alethi way. but in wor he shifts entirely into being a villain for villainy’s sake. none of his moves are for the good of alethkar anymore, and he admits to adolin that he will continue to work against dalinar and the united alethkar if he is left alive. like that’s not really the same guy, he’s just filed down to fill a role. i think both of these characters could have filled those roles and kept consistent characterization with a little more creativity and effort, i find it just kind of lazy the way it ended up being written.

i feel like i got off course, the tldr is i like lirin a lot, especially in wok, but i feel like his character is flattened in row in a way that makes his ideals look ridiculous. which is a shame because you’re right that that line could go hard in a better context imo!! but i felt sort of letdown by his row appearances

[taravangianlistenstothebeachboys]

How'd you like Baru Cormorant?

Semi related: Is your username unironic?

Oh, I adored The Traitor Baru Cormorant. I actually cracked and got the second book already, but I've had to hide it from myself so I could get my midterms done.

As for the second question, my username is (mostly) ironic; I'm just really fascinated by versions of the "evil utilitarian" character who actually come off as nuanced and somewhat sympathetic. I feel like Sanderson is using the Stormlight Archives to explore his own feelings on consequentialist ethics in an interesting way; on the one hand we have a lot of straight-up villains who use weak utilitarian reasoning to justify self-serving behavior. Amaram tries to justify stealing Kaladin's shardblade and killing his men as necessary, saying that the right story needs to be told to keep up the army's morale, but it takes about 5 seconds of reasoning to realize his logic is bullshit. Sadeas doesn't even pretend to believe his own lies about the necessity of grabbing power, and Gavilar's musings in later life on the importance of improving and uniting Alethkar have been revealed as the grandiose myth-making of a man obsessed with legacy and eternal power. Just focusing on these characters, it would seem like utilitarians are all a bunch of power-hungry assholes who equate "the greater good" with whatever helps them get ahead.

And this type of character is probably the main representation utilitarians get in popular media. But there are more complicated depictions as well. We have Jasnah, leader of an entire radiant order whose whole philosophy is ensuring the greatest possible ends. And yeah, she's pretty goddamn ruthless. Her first pitch for strategy in Oathbreaker was pretty much just genocide. But she's consistently used her power to egalitarian ends, much more so than other, more traditionally sympathetic characters like Dalinar or Adolin. She loosened caste restrictions, is enacting an end to the Alethkar slave system, and is planning on bringing an end to the monarchy. She actually walks the walk in trying to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number, and I suspect in later books that this will extend to the Singers. While not presented as wholly "the true good," Jasnah and her worldview are presented as salient and understandable, and in my eyes, admirable. It's something we don't see a lot, which leads to occasionally weird reactions—I remember some people were convinced (and may still be) that Jasnah freeing the Alethi slaves would turn out to be part of some big evil plot of hers. And that reaction honestly makes some sense, because it a lot of stories, it would be. Way too often individual acts of kindness are depicted as the only legitimate ways of doing good, with large-scale societal reworkings either doomed to failure or part of a secret villainous scheme. It's a narrative that I think has done a lot of harm, and I'm glad to see it being challenged in a small way.

And somewhere in the middle, we have Taravangian. You could argue that his motivations are somewhat self-serving; during his high-intelligence low-empathy period in Oathbringer, he had a whole mental spiel about how his plan would show up those who thought him an idiot since birth. But for the most part that's background noise to the much more interesting problem: a man is faced with global oblivion, has a plan he all but knows will circumvent it, but will have to commit atrocities to achieve it. He knows it's possible that other strategies can win out, strategies that would sacrifice less good people. But he also knows those strategies wouldn't be certain victories. If he commits to them instead of to the diagram, he could very well be missing out on the one real shot the world has. Could he justify potentially dooming everything when a solution is right there?

Really, its the same reason I love Baru so much as a character. After all, her actions and motivations are much the same: start wars, betray close allies, burn everyone around you to keep your own flame alight until you're in a place of power high enough that you can ensure the worst won't happen. Taravangian throws nations into chaos so he can ensure some remnant of humanity will be spared by Odium, Baru breaks Aurdwynn to keep the Masquerade from doing to the world what it did to her home. I don't agree with either character, but examining why isn't a simple matter. It's fascinating and its horrifying and it brings up interesting questions about how to act when every action and inaction has massive but uncertain consequences.

[phendorana]

like the funniest thing about sanderson’s “being angwy and bitter is bad for you and wrong 🥺” message in wor is that i was reading that the whole time like damn kaladin is being so restrained right now he’s letting so much shit fly he is biting his tongue so hard kaladin wouldn’t you like to go apeshit. like his response to being called bridgeboy in the workplace is just to be a bit snarky and cold in response he even covers for adolin when adolin pulls that trick with dreamstorm, he literally continues working for dalinar after dalinar shuts down his confession about what amaram did to him. the way he’s constantly checking himself and his reactions to blatant racism. it takes sooo much for him to be like “ok we should kill elhokar” like kaladin was reacting the same way i’d react during my elementary school years where i was too shy and let racism fly left and right me now if i was kaladin and had the associated physical capabilities oooh i would’ve thrown hands at the first “bridgeboy”

[st-just]

Semi-coherent thoughts on Oathbringer

So, overall probably the most even of the series so far, I’d say? Not to say I didn’t like it – I really, really loved the finale, and there were plenty of great lines, but my god were there a lot of pages spent on nothing happening (honestly it kind of reminded me of the latter volumes of ASOIF, in that sense) – then again, I suppose that is kind of just the nature of these 1000+ page fantasy epics. There were some setting reveals that really were fascinating, and legitimately a bit surprising. Going to have to take a break from the series until the friend I got Rhythm of War for is done so I can borrow it, though I suppose that’s no huge loss compared to the however many years everyone else had to wait in between them.

So in terms of pacing it’s...bad. Or, well, that’s probably a bit unfair. There’s absolutely plenty of fat to cute, but again I do think that might just come with the territory of committing to like a dozen POVs across a tree’s worth of paper (though there were absolutely like 100+ page stretches where I’m not actually sure the plot meaningfully progressed). That said, honestly the main pacing issue isn’t so much the bloat as, like – okay, Dalinar’s arc was a pretty consistent throughline, but for Kalidan and Shallan it kind of felt like there was one whole story in Urithiru, and then from the mission to Kholinar and the journey through the Cognitive Realm felt like its own separate novel? I mean, not sure if that makes any sense, but it really did kind of feel like there was a whole additional first act of table and stakes setting once they arrived in the city.

Though, to argue in favor of bloat for a moment – I was chatting with  @lifeattomsdiner​ bit back about The City We Became, and they mentioned that the size of the cast meant that you don’t actually really get to know any of the protagonists that well on their own. And I suppose that is the advantage of the 1200-page-per-volume epic cycle – even with characters you only really meet in interludes like Szeth, Vargo and Venli (incidentally three of my favorites), you spend enough pages inside of their head that you do really get to see what makes them tick and learn to love/hate them. Speaking of – props to Sanderson as an author, really – it’s vaguely astounding that he manages to keep track of that many internal monologues and actually make them seem distinct from each other.

Breaking things down by character a bit more – this book really did actually enjoy/get invested in Dalinar way more than either of the previous two, which again I’m told is more or less the expected reaction. Given the amount of tumblr brain poison I’m voluntarily exposed myself to, it’s honestly more than a bit of a nice change to see a character on a redemption arc who is actually unambiguously in need of redemption. Because holy shit, pulled, like, exactly two punches in terms of making the guy as genuinely loathsome as possible before he starts breaking. And, well, obviously he was on a redemption arc, but there was a bit near the end there where I really did think that the book was going to cut to black on an ‘end of Act 2, maximum darkness before dawn’ moment with, like, all the Skybreakers and him kneeling before Odium as the city fell. But I suppose that would be a bit much of a cliffhanger for a series with installments this weighty.

This was pretty clearly Shallan’s ‘getting over my personal bullshit’ book, like WoR was for Kaladin and WoK was for Dalinar, though spicing things up with increasingly severe DID as the book went on did make things more interesting at least. Also, I have no idea if this is actually true, but according to the friend who pestered me into reading these when someone asked Sanderson if he’d intentionally written her as bi he just kind of shrugged and said ‘sure, why not,’ which is fun. It was more than a bit, I don’t know, forced?, to have Wit just wander in from stage left and give her a desperately needed therapy session while she was in the middle of a breakdown and propel her development for most of the rest of the book, but on the other hand she’s pretty easily the main POV I’m most invested in by now, and the live triangle the text repeatedly threatened me with never actually became a thing, so I can’t really complain too much. Honestly super curious about the Ghostbloods and what they want out of her given, well, for a shadowy murderous conspiracy, everything they’ve wanted out of her so far has been pretty much entirely benign. Like, of the three major shadowy murderous conspiracies they’re easily the least problematic for the future of humanity at the moment. She should just commit and join for real imo.

As always, Kaladin’s POV is mostly good because it means we get more Syl, who is the single best character in the entire story I’ve decided. But also, I really quite liked his whole sojourn with the newly freed Parshmen and dawning realization that ‘wait these people are basically entirely right’. Also, the delicious delicious angst of spending however many dozens of pages getting to know them and then the wall guard and then the two groups killing each other in a confused melee while he has a mental breakdown. Easily best moment in the book (but then I’m a miserable person).

Adolin is honestly significantly more entertaining to follow than I really expected, though I’m still not like especially invested in him as a character. His relationship with his tailor was quite charming, though, as was the fact that he cares enough about fashion that he learned to sew. Honestly I was rather expecting/slightly dreading his main arc this book to be, like, inadequacy or insecurity over being almost literally the only member of his family that’s not a Radiant, so it’s kind of a pleasant surprise that he seems to have just accepted that (too well-adjust, I guess?). It is however extremely funny that the fact he just straight-up murdered one of the kingdom’s most important aristocrats and the major antagonist of the first two books seems to have resulted in absolutely zero consequences of any kind for him.

In terms of minor characters, the one I’m most invested in by a pretty substantial margin at this point is Venli, as she’s getting a front row seat to all the most interesting bits of the setting, ‘cultist growing increasingly disillusioned about return of ancient and terrible eldritch god’ is a really entertaining character arc just in principle, and because as of the end of the book she represents the morally objectively correct perspective and political line I’ve decided and will fight people about. Curious what sort of superpowers she’ll get. (Vargo and Szeth are still both great though, too).

The Unmade are really fun as a worldbuilding conceit/excuse for weird fucked up monsters. And it really is kind of funny that at least a third of the God of Evil’s nine generals/children/favoured beasts are, like, at conflicted or ambivalent about the whole ‘exterminate humanity and remake the world as a monument to my glory’ thing.  

Really, on an extremely shallow and entirely aesthetic level, between the evil red crystal/lightning aesthetic, the remote mountain fortress as a stronghold of the heroes in the face of the coming apocalypse, tears into the realm of spirits, the quirky evil minibosses each handling corrupting/conquering a given center of civilization, etc, the whole thing kind of reminded me of Dragon Age Inquisition. Which reminded me of how disappointing the story to that game was, which made me like the book more by comparison, but anyway. Yeah, good book.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Rhythm of War Review

PART 1

It feels a little separate from the rest of the book to me at the moment because I read it pre-release, but I think it did a good job setting up the rest of the plot. I greatly enjoyed Navani’s perspective and ideas throughout the book, and the first section established her much more firmly as a character than any of the previous books; her couple of chapters in Oathbringer were more focused on politics and her relationship with Dalinar, so it was great yo see much more of her scientific side.

When I first read Part 1 it felt very Kaladin-heavy, but after completing the book I see how it was necessary to establish his burnout in order to set up the rest of the plot. And Chapter 12 (A Way to Help), in addition to being our only chance in the book to see our trio together, did a great job setting up Kaladin’s later work with mentally ill people, both by establishing the need and showing what kind of help was needed. I was nonetheless quite frustrated by Kaladin reacting to Shallan’s DID with “that would be nice...”. She’s having serious problems, Kal! She’s your friend and could use support, not you regarding her issues as a neat way to take a holiday from one’s own brain! Kaladin’s very kind and caring with those he chooses to protect, as we see with Bridge 4 in TWOK and the mentally ill people in Chapter 25, but sometimes I think he’s not a very good friend. I know he was not in a good place, but in Oathbringer when they were in Shadesmar Shallan had just had a complete breakdown and she still went out of her way to emotionally support Kal, so it would be nice to see his friendships become a bit more two-way. (For similar reasons, I liked seeing the moments of Shallan-to-Adolin emotional support in Shadesmar in ROW, because a lot of their relationship in OB was her relying on him; it felt balanced in ROW as both supported each other.)

PART 2

I loved the Shadesmar arc! The emotional arcs for both main characters were very strong - I had been looking forward to seeing Adolin’s reaction to (in-universe) Oathbringer, and it did not disappoint; the conflict between genuinely loving Dalinar and being unable to forgive what he’d done was well-drawn. I was so pissed off at Dalinar in that last conversation! You burned his mom to death, you do not get to take the moral high ground and lecture him. And I do see a difference between killing innocents, as Taravangian does, and killing someone who’s effectively declared war on you and has a history of treason.

I also liked Adolin’s sense of being generally at sea with his purpose in the world. He’s been trained primarily as a warrior and general, and his combat skills have been made virtually obsolete by the Radiants. And at the same time, the reader can see what makes Adolin special, and it’s not combat skills - though those do give him a big heroic moment in a pinch - it’s his care and compassion for others. The way he interacts with Maya and slowly brings her life is absolutely beautiful. Chapter 35 was such a wonderful Shadolin moment (and starspren are amazing!); he really gets her and understands what she needs. Chapter 24 was sweet too, though super cheesy.

I spent the entire Shadesmar arc side-eying Veil and Radiant, especially with Veil’s takeover stunt at the start, but in the end they genuinely were supporting and helping Shallan. So in retrospect I do like scenes like the one with Veil trying to draw Shallan out by drawing Adolin badly.

Spoeking of drawing, I love the spren art, it’s some of the best art so far, and fascianting to see how they all look!

Kaladin finding non-violent ways to protect, culminating in pioneering Rosharan therapy - and Teft insisting on staying to support him - was everything I wanted for him. His arc could have just been that, and I’d have been perfectly happy. Chapter 25 (Devotary of Mercy) is still my favourite in the entire book.

Unfortunately, then Odium’s forces had to show up and SPOIL EVERYTHING. I’m rather appalled by how quickly Urithiru fell - the enemy forces were literally in the pillar room by the time anyone noticed them.

PART 3

Part 3 was a real slog for me, partly because it is a slog and partly because I hit it at the height of my sleep deptivation. (It’s really...not a good thing to be reading on zero sleep at the literal darkest-hour-before-dawn.) Kaladin’s arc in Urithiru is just so exhausting; he’s so clearly worn to the boneand everything feels so hopeless. Kaladin’s had bad times before - Bridge 4 in TWOK, for example - but then the reader could see progress even if Kaladin couldn’t. (Kaladin: I’m getting nowhere and failing at everything! Everyone else: Kaladin, you were literally just miraculously resurrected.) Here, though - well, I genuinely spent the whole book from Part 3 through to the climax thinking that they would lose Urithiru.

Navani’s arc, and Venli’s, I did enjoy.

The other section of Part 3, in Emul, just felt rather disjointed. It had some interesting moments, but it didn’t have a sense of cohesion or of where it was going. I was entertained by Dalinar’s musings on the merits of despositism and the need to free Queen Fen from having - horrors! - a parliament. (I wonder if the Fourth Ideal will be something like “I will recognize that it can sometimes be beneficial to have people oppose my decisions.”)

PART 4

Again, adored the Shadesmar arc. Really strong character arcs for both Adolin and Shallan, combined with excellent plots and a strong sense of momentum. I was pretty sure Maya would be crucial in the trial, but that didn’t make the moment any less powerful (though Sanders probably shouldn’t have tried quite as hard to replicate his “You. Cannot. Have. My. Pain.” moment from Oathbringer). I need to put together a proper post on the theme of choice in Oathbringer, because that moment - combined with Kaladin’s fourth ideal and the conflict with Lirin over the way he’s inspiring the resistance - really crystallized it for me. To treat a person’s choice and sacrifices as something done to them is to devalue their volition, their agency. Maya is put in the horrifying situation of being used as a prop and treated as evidence of a point that she is diametrically opposed to and turned into a weapon against someone she loves, and it’s enough to drive her to regain her voice and speak for herself. I am very curious to know what specifically led the spren to agree to the Recreance!

I did not remotely guess what Shallan’s secret was, even though in retrospect the Cryptic deadeye should have made it incredibly obvious. I think her fear that she’d lose Adolin if it came out was overblown - he already knows she killed both her parents, he’s not going to be fazed by “I was so distraught over having to kill my own mother in self-defence at age ten that I broke my Radiant oaths”. But obviously it’s not something Shalkan would be able to consider duspassionately. Her arc was rather terrifying once I realized that Formless was, well, basically her, but more specifically, Shallan’s idea of the monster that she was, and her breakdown was driving her to “accept who she was” as being that monster. I like Shallan and was never that into Veil - though she was fairly good in this book and went out well - so I’m not sad to see the back of her.

I haven’t managed to work through all the espionage/mole elements. Yes, Pattern used the box to talk to Wit, and Radiant killed Ialai so Shallan wouldn’t, but who’s Mraize’s spy close to Dalinar?

This arc ended too abruptly. I think Sanderson could easily have traded a Kaladin chapter in Part 3 for an extra chapter wrapping up events in Shadesmar; maybe one where Shallan first goes to see Testament.

I enjoyed the Urithiru arc in Part 4 as well. Switching to Bridge 4 points of view other than Kaladin was a good move - we already know he’s worn to ribbons, so we don’t need to be inside his head to see it. “The Dog and the Dragon” was amazing, and the most appropriate story ever for Kaladin. (I get how Wit’s schtick of telling incredibly topical stories and then saying “no, I don’t have a point, what point?” would be really aggravating in person.) It was nice to see him be gentle with Kaladin for a change, the way he is with Shallan - his two previous encounters with Kaladin read as rather baiting, which annoyed me.

Dabbid was - I don’t know quite how to say this, but his inclusion struck an amazing balance in this book. Navani’s arc is all about two amazingly smart people doing science and making incredible breakthroughs, and that is sincerely valued and given importance by the narrative, and then you get chapters like Dabbid’s and one of Taravangian’s emphasizing that a person’s value and ability to contribute is not determined by their intelligence.

Navani’s arc continued to be excellent. All of her research, and the way the story took you through the process, and her complex relationship with Raboniel, was great.

I loved Venli’s character development, and growing willingness to take risks for the sake of others. To me, her arc parallels Dalinar’s in the last book in some ways. If we can love the story of a bloodthirsty conqueror growing to become a good person, why can’t we equally love the story of a coward coming to become a good person? There seems to be a tendency to be more drawn to strength, even in its most terrible forms, than to weakness. To me, Venli’s confession to Rlain and acceptance of his disgust at her was one of the book’s great moments. (And I can’t understand people saying her arc took up two much space. She had 5 chapters in Part 3, and 4 in Part 4. That’s not very many! I’ll grant that the flasbacks packed less punch than some earlier flashback sequences because we already knew the main events - Brandon acknowledged that even before the book came out - but I still liked them well enough, and Venli’s present-day arc was excellent.)

Anyway, the amount of space I’ve spent on this section relative to Part 3 is another strong inducation of the differences in how I feel about them!

PART 5

I should probably start this section with a discussion of Moash. I’ll try to keep it summarized. here - I could, and may, write a short essay on his development through The Stormlight Archive. The first thing that jumps out about Moash’s arc in this book is his reaction to Renarin’s vision in Part 1. I think that vision is showing Moash who he could still be, in a similar way to Shallan’s inspirational drawings of people - both use the Surge of Illumination. So it’s not that Moash is irredeemable; Renarin is specifucally holding out to him the possibility of redemption.

And Moash’s reaction is to run away in terror. Because he desperately wants his decision to be irrevocable. He desperately wants there to only be one possible path forward for him. Because if there are alternative paths, it means he can choose them, and that would mean facing guilt, facing the fact that his past choices were wrong, and his current choices are wrong. And that is exactly what Moash sought to avoid by giving up his pain and sense of guilt to Odium.

Moash is, nonetheless, very much Moash and not Vyre, as evidenced by his continuing obsession with Kaladin. As with his above need to not be wrong, here he needs to feel that he’s right, and the only way he can feel that he’s right is if Kaladin - whom he still deeply admires - makes the same decision as him, and if Moash can convince himself that he’s doing Kaladin a favour in driving him to that point. It’s ironic that he’s given up almost all feeling abd become almost enturely detached, but his worst actions are driven by his attitude towards the one person in the world who he still does have very strong feelings about. By the end of the book, he’s comprehensively broken, to the point that even when his ability to feel is restored he’s unable to even feel genuine remose over the cold-blooded murder of a friend. I don’t know where he’ll go from here - it would be ironic if he was only ever really appealing to Rayse-Odium, and Taravangian-Odium found Moash too much of a flat villain for his purposes and cast him off.

As the plot climaxes go, I thought the ones for Navani and Venli were excellent and very satisfying. I enjoyed Kaladin’s as well and found it cathartic, but it a was moment we all knew had to come, so it didn’t have quite the kick of some of Kaladin’s other big moments. I did love his reconciliation with Lirin. One of the themes of the book was finding common ground despite deeply felt disagreements - with Navani and Raboniel, with Navani and the Sibling, and with humans and singers/Fused more generally - and Kaladin and Lirin’s reconciliation fit well with that. I am far more favourable to Lirin than most people - if you’ve lived as a pacifist in storming Alethkar, which values the lives of its people slightly more than it does crem, you’re going to have been right a solid 95% of the time, where everyone else was wrong. I can make allowances for the other five percent, especially when Lirin’s life lesson from the last five or so years has been “resisting oppression and standing up for what you believe in will destroy everyone you love”.

And on the topic of finding common ground, Leshwi’s reaction to the revelation that Venli was a Radiant was one of the single most beautiful moments of the book, and one of my absolute favourites. It’s gorgeous and moving, and at the same time rather tragic, because - what might have bern different if Venli had revealed herself to Leshwi at the start of the book? How much of the conflict could have been avoided. Singers don’t appear to attract spren as strongly as humans do, which makes Leshwi drawing joyspren particularly powerful. And then the bittersweet note from “My soul is too long owned by someone else”. (Come to think of it, this is another inverted paralell to Moash. This is someone realizing “I was wrong about everything and I’m so glad about that because it means I have a chance to be someone better than I was.”) Oh my goodness, I would love a Leshwi chapter in a later book, just to check in on her and see how she’s doing in her new life with the Singers.

I also loved the climax of Navani’s arc, and was so relieved, because up until that very moment I wasn’t sure if the Sibling would survuve uncorrupted. I know that some people weren’t pleased because the Sibling didn’t even like her, but to me that became a core part of the story, like I said above - people who deeply disagree finding common ground and common cause. That is a key element of being a Bondsmith - the process of bringing people together in spite of their differences - and something that fits Navani so well given the rapport she found with Raboniel. (Though I was conflicted about the latter. On the one hand, she made amazing discoveries that enabled her to save Urithiru. One the other hand, she...kind of collaborated with the enemy and gave them terrible weapons out of intellectual curiosity and a desire to prove herself?) I will grant that it makes the series, and the characters with the most crucial importance to Roshar, rather Kholin-heavy.

For Taravodium, all I can say is - YIPES. I have no idea how to process the implications of that, but I feel like it will be bad. Really really bad. (Taravangian is probably my least favourite character in the entire Stormlight Archive. The attitude of “I am so brave and selfless for doing evil things and look at how wonderful I am for sacrificing my own morality for the benefit of all, you petty selfish people wanting to be good could never make such a grand sacrifice” drives me absolutely nuts. It’s a complete inversion and twisting of morality, and intensely arrogant.)

Dalinar’s encounter with Ishar was fascinating, and I’m very curious to see where this goes. The spren experiments were deeply creepy! And the way Radiant Oaths can temporarily restore a Herald’s sanity was fascinating - I’m very eager to see where this goes in the next book. I suspect that Dalinar may have made a very serious mistake with regards to this trial my combat, and I have no idea how/if they’re going to fit Szeth’s whole arc into the ten days before the duel. I’ve been eagerly anticipating Szeth’s arc ever since The Way of Kings!

[vergi1ius]

Notes on Rhythm of War

Well that had more twists and turns than the chasms of the Shattered Plains.

1. Minor note that bugged me: Gavinor talked *way* too mature for his age. Mostly in that his sentence structures were way too complex.

2. I can’t believe Sanderson managed to somehow redeem Roshone. Dude really stepped up in a crisis -- not in a way that made him suddenly perfect, but in a way that demonstrated he was clearly growing toward something better.

3. New Shard names yay

4. Fascinated by all these new Lights. I’m not quite sure where Lifelight is supposed to come from, nor Voidlight. A comment from Venli seems to say Voidlight comes from a ritual prayer, which seems to imply it’s directly bestowed by Odium, which has... implications.

5. That Raboniel thought Storm and Void Light were opposites for so long seems odd to me. Where did Lifelight fit into that? On the one hand, it seems so rare that she might have passed over it; on the other hand, given she obtains some for Navani (from where, though?) and she’s aware of its Tone, clearly it must feature somewhere in her theories.

6. I wonder precisely when Odium integrated so much into Roshar. My first guess would be around the time of the Recreance, given that’s when the Sibling is first weakened. My other guess would be when Odium first arrived, or when the Singers accepted him, though that seems rather too early. But most likely it was something building up for a long, long time.

7. While Raboniel and Navani see the implications in anti-Lights for ending the war, I think Wit foresees something terrible from this creation (as per his discussion with Jasnah on the battlefield). In particular, the explosive force of combining a Light and its anti-Light is very likely to change the scope of warfare.

8. Wit is hilarious and I will quote everything he says.

9. Ace Jasnah confirmed. (I might have prefered aroace Jasnah, but whatevs)

10. FUCK YOU MOASH YOU BASTARD.

11. RIP Teft. I’m seriously gonna miss him.

12. I love that Kaladin’s Plate has Bridge Four on it.

13. “Journey before destination, you bastard.” This book has so many good one-liners.

14. Interesting that Urithiru’s defenses don’t work on the Honorblades. Also, Moash survives again >:( At least 1) He didn’t get out in one piece and 2) The new management deals with him differently.

15. After hearing Ash’s account of Ishar, it probably shouldn’t surprise me all the shit he’s gotten up to. Perhaps one could hope that between leading the exodus to Roshar, creating the Oathpact, and leading the defense in the Desolations, he might have become a better person: but it rather seems he’s retained some of his greatest moral weaknesses or else reverted to some earlier state of mind. Given hints from Dalinar, though, there may very well be something else at play.

16. Holy shit a Herald can fight.

17. Being able to manipulate Connections is rather terrifying. But I still feel like we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg as to what Ishar (and other surges) can do.

18. It seems clear to me that Ishar is bringing radiant spren into the Physical Realm by essentially rewiring their Connection to the Physical Realm, so that they essentially *become* Physical. Thus why those whose bodies are already more realistic survive better, and why spren like Cryptics come out looking so different: in particular, translating a Cryptic’s head into something physically possible is just too difficult.

19. That being said, while I’m fairly confident on *how*, I’m still not sure on *why*. I suspect he might be trying to either 1) force bonds with spren (though why not just adjust the Connection on a spren I don’t know) 2) find a way to kill sprens or spren-like beings (such as the Fused) 3) somehow extract surge powers. But Ishar does seem to be interested in how long he can keep them alive.

20. Wow. A line I’d thought was just a throwaway lie in WoR coming back in a terrifying way. It does make me wonder whether that was a (unintentially true) falsehood from Taravangian, or if he was actually being honest.

21. Also holy shit Cultivation. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the sheer amount of planning this must have taken her.

22. Like, seriously, the amount of planning to ensure that everything’s in place at a specific day and a specific moment, is just kinda staggering. I may have to do another post just to figure out all the pieces that Cultivation had to have in use at once.

23. That being said, that Taravangian 1) took up the same name (and therefore Intent) as Rayse and 2) hasn’t apparently changed Odium’s game plan at all leaves me very, very worried. On the one hand, Taravangian seems to be much craftier than Rayse (possibly in part because he’s new to the role, though that may be a double-edged sword); on the other hand, Taravangian’s goals seem to be different than Rayse’s (I don’t think “galactic conquest” is what most people have in mind when they say “save them all”, but props for at least having the good of those he conquers in mind rather than his own ambitions). I also suspect that Taravangian would be willing to absorb the other Shards, or even leave them alive if they will cooperate with him (or if he can’t absorb them and can find a cooperative Vessel).

24. Given that Taravangian is going through all the same motions as Rayse, I’m a little curious as to what Cultivation is doing and what she thinks of this. Though perhaps now that Rayse is dead she doesn’t feel the need to intervene in the war (given how little the other Shards seem to involve themselves in the international politics on their worlds).

25. YES Adolin x Maya!!!

26. That the Radiants of the Recreance discussed things with their spren, and that the spren agreed to their plan, seems like something we really should have seen coming. I’m a little less surprised about in universe, given that 1) most humans didn’t understand the nature of the Nahel bond and 2) none of the spren bonded were able to explain their reasoning. Or that none of those involved actually knew what they were getting into by breaking their oaths (or, perhaps as they thought they were doing, *ending* their oaths).

27. Over 2000 honorspren. That’s a full level of magnitude more than what we’d been led to believe had been killed from previous books. It makes me wonder 1) what happened to the spren of those who hadn’t reached the level for a blade yet and 2) *where are all those blades*?

28. I’ve been kinda wondering this about honorium, but where does one find raysium, and what about tanavast-ium and cultivation-ium? And how exactly do all three work / interact with the world?

[velkynkarma]

So I’m suuuper late to the party, but I finally, finally finished Rhythm of War. 

I am delighted by it. Thoughts and reactions under the cut, just in case for spoilers.

OKAY SO I had a lot of feelings about this book, and I wanted to be able to sit down and read the book properly and devote time to it, instead of sneaking paragraphs here or there during work breaks. So that’s why it took me so long to read it. In a way I feel like a terrible fan for taking so long when I was so excited about reading it for over a year, but in another way I am satisfied that I did it justice.

General thoughts/reactions:

I am legitimately impressed with how well Sanderson handled Shallan’s Dissociative Identity Disorder. DID is one of those mental illnesses that gets butchered so hard in media, and carries such a stigma of being “evil” or “creepy.” But Shallan’s representation seems much more factual in terms of how we know DID works today, including but not limited to:

Created from a severe trauma at a very young age, in which the brain starts splitting itself in order to protect against traumas and form survival mechanisms

Alters exist to protect the system and handle tasks for the host that the host cannot handle. Both Veil and Radiant handle tasks/functions that Shallan can’t

Also establishing that different alters can have different skills (such as Shallan being good at drawing and Lightweaving while Veil is bad at it, or Radiant handling espionage poorly)

Establishing that actual DID treatments do include encouraging alters to learn to work together and establish communication lines between each other. I like that the three create a pact to work together and rules to stand by and enforce them on each other to the best of their ability. They mess up sometimes (Radiant killing Ialai, Veil forcibly taking over sometimes). But they try. 

But also establishing that prior to Shallan’s realization of what was happening at the end of Oathbringer, each of these alters had their own memories and ways of handling things and did not necessarily communicate with each other

Establishing that multiple times in prior books when Shallan thought she was ‘acting’ she was actually Blending with another identity, either Veil or Radiant. This becomes more apparent when Veil or Radiant actively discuss being the ones to do things that were previously from “Shallan’s” perspective (such as Veil learning slight of hand/etc at the beginning of Words of Radiance). This stuck out to me as especially interesting since accounts of people with DID often mention not knowing they have it or are switching for years, but being semi-aware of doing things differently than normal. 

Veil being a protector-type alter and a trauma holder is extraordinarily common in DID cases and made an absolute ton of sense. It also suggests that she’s been around for YEARS longer than before Shallan ‘created’ her which, again, is not uncommon with DID cases

Veil, at least, also acts like she’s much older than Shallan, even calling her things like ‘kid.’ While Veil is, of course, no older than Shallan, this is completely accurate that alters can have different ages and even different genders to the host body in terms of how they perceive themselves

Establishing that fusions/integrations are possible, with Veil being ‘absorbed’ by Shallan at the end. This is a part of DID treatment and I like that it was handled in a way where both alters consented and the trauma was released, but it was handled. Even if Veil developed additional skills over time, it’s clear her first and foremost job was as a trauma holder alter, and once the trauma was no longer being hidden, her ‘purpose’ was done. And now Veil is a part of Shallan, and the expectation is that somewhere down the line, Radiant will join too.

Very very VERY VERY importantly, establishing Shallan’s interaction with other characters as a system with DID in a way that did not make her look like she was ‘crazy.’ DID is super serious and systems are often stigmatized. But I adored that Adolin is supportive and treats each alter on their own playing field (and even seems to be able to recognize them without Shallan changing hair color). I love that other characters like Kaladin admit they don’t exactly get it, but do their best to be respectful of it anyway. I love that nobody treats Shallan like a freak and sticks her in a padded room, and that people DO respect her wishes and treat Veil and Radiant as equally viable people. I love that it’s treated so healthily. 

Honestly my only real ‘hmm, not exactly like that’ moments were thinking back on how Shallan ‘created’ personalities. Veil being a trauma holder for Shallan’s old memories implies she’s been around for a long time, so she wasn’t really “created” in that sense, just given more of a face/name. But Radiant appears to have been created spur of the moment when Adolin was all ‘hey, let me teach you to swordfight!!!’ To the best of my knowledge people with DID don’t really have control over when they split, nor do they really get to actively ‘design’ their alters. It’s more like alters form as needed to handle something. But considering how accurate everything else is, and that possibly this is just Shallan’s way of handling her splitting in a way that makes sense to her, I’m willing to give this a cautious pass.

Also maybe lost memory moments. People with DID generally can lose time. Shallan doesn’t seem to, but then towards the end we also see she’s not a reliable narrator in her own right, since somehow Radiant managed to kill Ialai when we’re reading that passage. So it’s possible we the readers are missing things because Shallan is, too.

That said, the way DID works, it will never really go away even if Shallan does fully integrate. I’m curious if more alters could form down the line. I thought this had been happening with ‘Formless,’ but Formless didn’t turn out to be another alter so much. Oh well.

I had wondered about Shallan and Pattern’s bond for a while, and I’d been wondering if maybe she had a different spren ever since Pattern mentioned he could go away or she might kill him too back in...Oathbringer, I think it was? It seemed strange to me that Shallan wouldn’t have seen him around for a long time in his pattern form, or that she’d get chased by so many cryptics in book 1, if she’d been bonded to him this whole time. Or that she had a shardblade she could summon in book 1, but Pattern hadn’t been established as a character yet. And then when Adolin met a deadeye Cryptic in Shadesmar, I was like, ‘damn, that’s Shallan’s first spren isn’t it.’ And I was vindicated. I feel stupidly proud of myself for catching even one of Sanderson’s twists.

I think this is the first book in the series where Kaladin’s arc didn’t really grab me as much as the others to start. Not that it was bad, I still really enjoyed it, especially towards the end. But I was surprised to find when I got to Part Three and Kaladin’s name was listed but Adolin’s wasn’t that I went, ‘awww, damn,’ and used that as my break point for the night. 

I think part of this is that so much of Kaladin’s story that I love and adore is about not just Kaladin, but Kaladin’s friends and found family arcs with Bridge Four, and so much of that was taken away from him in the early part of the story. Like Kaladin, I guess I was just sad about everyone moving on and him being along. Sigzil going off to be the new Windrunner leader, Rock leaving, Rlain leaving (for a while at least), Adolin and Shallan leaving...it was hard. I felt his depression. Unfortunately, it made it a bit difficult to read, I guess.

On the flip side though, Kaladin’s ending arc in the story was A+ and I loved it. I love that his Fourth Ideal is specifically accepting that he cannot save everyone, which is something he’s struggled with from his very first appearance in the very first book. I love how this sheds so much light on that moment in Oathbringer where Syl is calling for him to speak the words and he just can’t, because at the time, he wasn’t ready to accept that he couldn’t save everyone. I love that he admits to Dalinar that he really did need help and a chance to recover, and that his setup for the next book doesn’t seem to be as Stormblessed, the soldier, but as a healer. And I love that he made up with his dad in the end, and did manage to at least save him.

ROCK. NOOOO.

TEFT. NOOOOOO! 

And yet as always, Sanderson books are the only books where I really feel...ok with character death. It’s sad, for sure, but also deaths have purpose in his stories. Nobody is killed meaninglessly. 

I think my favorite arc was Adolin’s, throughout the whole course of the book? I can’t help it. I love my enthusiastic, optimistic himbo who is just doing his best. Every time he was like ‘well I’m useless since I’m not a Radiant, but I’ll do the best I can’ I was like NO, HONEY NO, YOU’RE SO IMPORTANT, DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE REALLY? Look at all the people you help!!! Just look at them all!!! 

As stated earlier, I love that he’s just so damned supportive of Shallan’s condition. Even if they don’t have words for ‘DID’ in Roshar or even understand it in their own terms, he’s just so damn supportive. She tells him she’s got multiple alters and he’s just like ‘cool, how can I help.’ He loves his wife. He’s friendly with Radiant. He’ll share jabs with Veil. He just wants to help, always. 

I love that he’s so supportive of Kaladin too. I adored towards the beginning, where Kaladin’s going into a depressive spiral, and Syl gets Adolin because Adolin is one of the few people he can’t intimidate. And I adore that Adolin is supportive, but in a way that shows he gets it. He knows it’s not safe to leave Kaladin alone with himself and refuses to let that happen. But he also doesn’t force him to participate and acknowledges that yeah, you can feel like shit, and that’s ok, but you’re gonna feel like shit around other people, because it’ll help you. And it does. And I love that a thousand pages later Kaladin starts going into another depressive spiral and happens to mention, ‘fuck, Adolin’s not here to pull me out this time,’ recognizing what Adolin can do. I just love how much their friendship has progressed.

I love that he’s still so supportive of his brother, even if Renarin was barely in this book. I love that he even briefly defends Renarin against Shallan, even when he recognizes she doesn’t really mean any harm. 

I adore his continued arc with Maya. I love that he was so excited to go to Shadesmar so he could see her again. I love how he’s clearly had offers from spren or other Radiants to talk to spren about bonding to him, and he’s like, ‘nah,’ cause he’s loyal to her. I love how everyone keeps insisting ‘deadeyes can’t speak, deadeyes can’t feel’ and he’s just like, yes?? Yes they can??? Have you ever fucking tried??? I love that it’s his genuine connection to Maya that helps her recover enough to actually talk on her own with more clarity, and how she’s clearly coming back to herself. And what a revelation, that Maya and the others deliberately sacrificed themselves. And I love that ultimately it’s his bond with Maya that gives him success with the honorspren. He did this his own way, with his own skills, in a unique way that nobody else has ever done before, because maybe he’s not a Radiant in the shiny new sense of the word, but he’s the only person out there willing to treat his sword like a partner and show kindness to spren and that shows. 

I also really do hope he works stuff out with his dad because he’s got every right to be angry but also, I want him to be happy :( 

Ultimately I adore Adolin’s whole polarity, that he’s a masterful duelist and combatant, and has probably killed hundreds, and yet his best quality is his sheer kindness. He has really grown on me as a character since book one, honestly. I remember not liking him in book one. I still don’t, when I reread it! But in the rest, he’s probably second only to Kaladin as my favorite.

Venli. I remember not really liking Venli in earlier books. I thought Eshonai was cool, but Venli I remember just not really vibing with. Seeing her story really made her a lot more interesting to me though, especially since I love her whole gradual growth as a character. Openly admitting to herself that she’s a coward and just wanted to get attention against her sister...and then doing something about it to better herself. Doubting her abilities to do so and being uneasy about it the whole time, but ultimately doing it anyway. She’s a flawed character, but she’s a good character, and I grew to like her so much more after seeing her story. 

Also, I loved Eshonai’s mercy at the end there. Fuckin yes. Bittersweet smiles all around.

Szeth-son-son-Vallano wore white on the day he was to kill a king, because apparently white is the listener battle color, it makes SENSE now

I am also veeery curious what is going on with Szeth, who wasn’t really in this book all that much. And I’m curious if ‘Sixteen’ in Lasting Integrity is actually his dad, because they sure drew attention to a hiding Shin man and then immediately never mentioned him again. 

Raboniel. MAN. What a fucking character. I was fascinated with her from the beginning. I never knew exactly what to think of her, because we see her from so many perspectives. Leshwi, who has been established as possibly the ‘goodest’ and most sane of the Fused, openly tells us not to trust her. We learn she’s done terrible things in her lifetime, like trying to create a plague to destroy all of humanity, and one of her titles is just straight-up scary af. She learns how to really, truly, actually kill spren, which is terrifying. She tried to kill the Sibling, which is obviously Super Bad. And yet, she’s such a compelling character. She’s polite and reasonable, to a degree. Clever and enormously genre-savvy, but also blunt and to the point, knowing full well Venli is being used to spy on her and Navani is working against her and blatantly stating so. She’s so intelligent, and is willing to both respect Navani and work with her to create things together, and recognize her worth. I never fully trusted her at any point, because we know she’s done so much to be scared of, but man, I enjoyed reading her segments so freaking much. I was sad when she died, and her weird frenemy relationship with Navani was really intriguing. 

I really enjoyed Dabbid’s little segments. I’m so happy he’s comfortable talking around the others. I’m also happy to see Sanderson delving into including more autistic characters in different points on the spectrum, while also showing other people treating them well.

Taravangian. I still don’t know where to stand on this guy and I’m very nervous now that he’s basically a god and apparently smart enough to outwit everyone else again. I was excited when he actually managed to kill Rayse but fuck, we might have been better off with Rayse.

SOMEBODY ACTUALLY MANAGAGED TO OUTWIT HOID AND I’M SCARED AF AT WHAT THAT MEANS

Moash. I just. Fuck. I don’t even know. I’m not even sure if this counts as him killing under his own power or not. He doesn’t really want to take responsibility for his actions, and as long as Odium takes his pain and feelings, he doesn’t have to. But that moment when he wasn’t protected, he seemed upset with what he had done. So I really have no damned clue where his story is gonna go. But fuck, it’s scary how easily he almost undid Kaladin completely. He knew exactly what buttons to press. We’re lucky the Pursuer ignored him and attacked anyway, or he really would’ve won.

I’ll admit, my Cosmere knowledge is less than stellar, so I’m still not entirely sure I understand the stuff with the Heralds and Mraize. But I am definitely curious to see where it’s going on a surface level, at least. 

LIFT USES LIFELIGHT that explains a lot. I wish she’d been in this story more because I adore her lol. 

I know Sanderson announced Ace Jasnah a while back, but I love that it’s been so firmly established in the book itself. No beating around the bush or leaving people to wonder. She just straight-up says she’s got no real interest in sexual stuff and never really got how it drove others. I love it. I love seeing that so honestly and bluntly stated. 

Anyway I’m sure there’s a lot more to be said but overall, A++++ as always, super adored, next one when???? 

[whatishoid]

Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson

“That’s the problem with your worldview. You gave up before the battle started.” 

4th book in my favorite series The Stormlight Archive. I loved this book so much and I will do this review a little differently because I have some thoughts. First part is spoiler free and under that will be thoughts that I had while reading and after finishing the book. 

Characters: I was really happy with the characters who got more page time in this book. And especially Kaladin’s journey in this book was so good. Navani is amazing. She is one of my new favorite characters for sure. There were also many interesting characters that I just wanted to follow more. It didn’t bother me that we didn’t see that much of Dalinar in this book. I do like him as a character but in this book I was interested more in the situation that was going on elsewhere. Characters are my favorite part of The Stormlight Archive and I loved the way they were written in this book also. And my favorite character list just continues to grow. 

Pacing of the book: I think that people have mixed opinions about pacing in this book but for me it worked. And well if you enjoy this series you know what you get with the pacing. The beginning was my least favorite part. I don’t even know why. There were scenes that I really liked but at that point I wasn't yet that invested in. But at the end of part 2, I was so excited because after that the stakes were high and all the scenes and characters were so interesting to me. I also liked the ending and the epilogue scares me a little. That was something I didn’t think would be possible. 

World: I love this world and I enjoyed knowing more about it. I don’t have anything more to say about it. I just love this world so much. 

I feel like this might be my favorite book in the series but I’m not sure. I love all the books in this series so much so it’s hard to decide which one is my favorite.   5/5

Some thoughts while reading. There will be spoilers. 

These might be all over the place and I apologise for that.

It was so hard to listen to all the things that Moash was saying to Kaladin and trying to break him and later how he and Odium were trying to break him more. F*ck Moash. But I loved that Renarin was the one who took Kaladin away from there.

I really loved how Kaladin is trying to improve mental health care because that is not handled very well in Roshar. And I have to say that Brandon writes depression really well and I’m really thankful for that. Sometimes it’s hard to read what’s going on with Kaladin but it’s still really important to me. Noril said it so well,  what Kaladin means to so many people. “He’s got the emptiness, bad as I do. But he still gets up. He still fights. So I figure I can too.” And I hated Lirin in this book. He is not the worst but I just don’t like him and the things he said to Kaladin. 

I loved to see Navani and Kaladin working together in Urithiru.

And about Navani, when someone was contacting her I just instantly thought they were a spren and Navani would bond with them. So yay I was right about that. And I loved how it happened. We get to see that Gavilar was telling her that she is not worthy and Sibling telling her the same thing but she just refused that. The character growth in that moment. 

And someone as amazing as Navani thinking that she is not enough or that she is a fraud. So that moment where she bonded with Sibling and faced Moash was so good.

Wit and Jasnah are something I didn’t know that I needed. I love how they work together. And the scene with Highprince Ruthar, damn. 

I love that Adolin is bringing Maya back to life through their friendship. Adoling is such a sweet and caring person. He tries so hard to help everyone and deserves so much more. Also I was a little disappointed with his arc in this book. I just want to see him show what he is capable of and I didn’t feel like we get that yet in this book. But other than that I really liked him in this book. I just want to see more of him. The scene where Maya joined in the fight with him was so cool. And winning the trial because Maya could speak for herself with the help of their friendship. I loved that scene. 

Raboniel is a really interesting character. I like the fact that no one seems to know what she’s planning. Also the fact that she is somehow so calm in certain situations and seems even amused even though her plan is interrupted. And after reading the whole book I loved Raboniel. She is one of my favorite characters now. It's a shame that we won't get to see her in the future. Also I really liked Navani’s and Raboniel's friendship in this book. Yeah I'm calling it a friendship. 

After reading the chapter with Jasnah in the battle I realised that we have usually seen her through other character’s point of view and I want to know more about her, the way she feels and thinks. I just need more Jasnah and to get to know her better. Not only others' opinions of her.

I’m so excited to see that Renarin will have a big role in solving everything. At least I hope so. And also after the ending  I'm afraid for him because Taravangian knows. 

I want to know what Taravangian's plan is if it's something Dalinar would not do, I just want to know. It’s so funny because I was such a fool. I trusted in Taravangian and really thought he would help them against Odium. Well that did not go the way I thought. 

Venli helping Rlain makes me so excited and I'm waiting to see her learning her powers and everything with that. Also the scene where Leshwi finally knows about Venli having those powers and her reaction to that was so touching. 

I hate how Shallan is acting towards Pattern. Yeah he lied about something but still it’s Pattern. Could you just listen to what he is trying to say. I like Shallan but so often she just annoys me too much and this situation with Pattern is one of them. 

Just ask and don't run away. I’m so glad that I was right about Pattern. I just hate that Shallan so quickly thought the worst of him. And he was just trying to help Shallan. I feel so bad for him. 

Rlain deserves better. I hate how everyone treats him. And even though I somehow know that Navani is the one bonding with Sibling, I really hoped that it would be with Rlain when they were talking about it. But I’m glad that Rlain is finally bonding with spren. Also when Renarin was talking about someone suitable for that I just knew he was talking about Rlain. And I’m so excited to see them possibly getting closer in the next book. 

So if Shallan will do what Mraize is telling her to do I will be so disappointed because I want to see what Adolin can do to win that trial and not this. So glad this didn’t happen. And about Shallan in this book. I didn’t love it. I think the end with this new persona Formless was too fast. And at the same time I really liked how Veil helped Shallan to get better. So I don't know how I feel about that. It was okay but it just felt too fast. 

So the chapter with Dabbid made me cry and I hope that Dabbid will bond with the same kind of spren that Renarin has.  

Teft finally thinks that he was worth saving and after that Moash kills him. That hurts so much.  

I knew that Kaladin would say the words in this book to reach the 4th ideal and I really liked how that scene went.

Taravangian killed Odium and took his place????? I did not see that coming. Also he fooled Hoid and took some of his memories, I’m scared because who can do that. What is going to happen. Part of me is so excited for this because Taravangian is such an interesting character and part of me is scared. I have no idea what is going to happen and can’t wait to read the 5th book. 

I could talk about this book so much more but I think this is already too long. Sorry about that. But yeah I enjoyed this book so much and can’t wait to reread The Stormlight Archive. 

[butwhybother]

Rhythm of War part 5 and Epilogue reactions/thoughts.

Rhythm of War spoilers!

For previous Parts, I read the whole Part through, then made notes on it as i re-read or skimmed through it again. On Part 5, I'm trying something different. I'll make notes as I go, but still read it twice (read a chapter, re- read it, make notes, then move on).

The Knights Radiant, Navani, Bridge Four, Taravangian, Vyre, Lezian, Wit. Should I be worried that Adolin isn't listed as a viewpoint character?

Chapter 98 An Unwholesome Shade

Who is El?

Horneaters fletch their arrows with "goosefeathers." It's good to know someone has a word besides "chicken" for all the birds. By the way, if Dalinar doesn't recognize what a goose feather is, what have the Alethi been using to flock their arrows? Or Listeners, for that matter?

I'll bet Emuli Radiants had Shardbows.

Of course Dalinar wouldn't like a goblet full of rubies for light. He's spent years lighting everything blue with sapphires.

Stargyle was the one who didn't go with the Shadesmar mission because his wife was sick. I hope she's better. "He began to paint with his fingers in the air." Drawing Aons?

How about this: Stargyle is not not a Radiant and has not bonded a spren. That's why he wiggled out of going on the mission to Shadesmar. Plausible?

Ishar has "frost crystallizing on the stone around him." Sounds like he's using Honorblade powers. He must've got his Blade back somehow.

Chapter 99 Not Bound

This is my jaw dropping. This is me freaking out. Back in Part 1, when Navani mentioned rumors about Wit and Jasnah, I was like 'very funny, Mr. Sanderson. We won't fall for your tricks and misdirections. I would know a red herring when I see one. Everyone knows they're not open to that. Wit is not even available, he's way too old for any of them, he said so himself.' And here I am, proven wrong. The rumors were not unfounded. The relationship is not a sham. It is real and they actually like each other. They want to have this relationship. I know Sanderson had often paired young women with older men, but this is really going too far. At the same time, I want Wit to be genuine. It would be awful if Wit is fooling Jasnah just to manipulate her.

"Without proper affection, your Wit will wilt." Like how Shallan wilts without Adolin? This is so sweet it's almost gross.

You can't trust Wit, Jasnah! This is a man who would watch your world burn if it meant Odium would be defeated that way.

So Rayse/Odium is a show-off.

Wit is not bound. Shards are bound.

I'm not sure trapping Odium to Roshar will work. I think Odium will destroy Roshar, its sun, and all the planets in its system. If the Roshar system doesn't exist, he can't stay in it, can he?

Everyone, don't forget to take a healthy dose of paranoia daily!

Chapter 100 Watchers At The Rim

Teft and Kaladin do recognize this is a trap. But I also worry that Singers are faking the Sibling's voice somehow. If they can listen in, couldn't they also speak in? Or maybe they fully corrupted Sibling and now Sibling is in on it, setting a perfect trap.

Chapter 101 Undertext

Little Gawx is all grown up and has become a proper emperor. Look at those lucky people who won the lottery and got to watch him eat.

Would Ishar really help Dalinar, though?

Raise your hand if you think Jasnah's undertext to Oathbringer will be used as epigraphs later!

Chapter 102 Highstorm Coming

The times I remember Navani burning a prayer (Adolin's duel, Gavilar's death, Dalinar's justice) something always came of it.

Ugh. I guess Moash is going around looking for excuses to murder monarchs now.

It is so not fair that Moash gets to use Stormlight and surgebinding freely.

Moash would kill Syl, and act like this hurts him, still acting like he cares about Kaladin. So. Messed. Up.

People have built up such high expectations of Kaladin and hung so much of their hope on him, regarding him like an untouchable, divine being. Like a Herald. And like a Herald, he's been worn down thin. But he won't run away. He'll make one last stand.

Kaladin is going to his death.

Chapter 103 The Legend You Live

I love the way Teft and Phendorana get along.

Why? Why did Moash come for Kaladin's family first? How does gagging little Oroden help him kill Syl? You know what, nevermind, I shouldn't expect to understand Moash.

That was an epic taunt from Kaladin to the Pursuer!

Chapter 104 Full Of Hope

I don't see how anything could turn out well. Even if Kaladin kills the Pursuer, he'll still be surrounded. Rlain and Dabbid can't get to Navani. Not sure what Venli can even try here. And everyone else is so far away. Shallan in Shadesmar around Tukar, Dalinar around Emul.

No! Phendorana! TEFT!

Chapter 105 Children Of Passions

Kaladin broke the Pursuer. The whole city chanted his name. Then Moash broke Kaladin. On purpose. How dare he!

Venli is starting to see that she may be a bit sociopathic.

How does this work out in Raboniel's head? 'Yeah I reverse engineered the technology you developed and I totally stole, sorry I lied to you about that, and now I'm gonna use it to kill lots of people but I'm gonna let you escape so it's even. We good?'

Chapter 106A Hundred Discordant Rhythms

Raboniel really wanted the war to end. With Singers winning, preferably, but she really didn't care as long as it ended.

What is happening to Kaladin? It got dark and bad really fast. I'm scared. What's wing with his eyes? Is Odium going to use this moment as an excuse to make Kaladin his champion later?

Chapter 107 Uniting

Moash you lying liar! That is NOT how Elhokar died! You think you're your best self now? Well you're not! Renarin showed you your best self and you ran from it, you couldn't stand the sight of it!

Maybe Raboniel infused the crystal pillar with Stormlight-Voidlight hybrid instead of just Voidlight? Can I hope for that?

Will Venli's reveal to Leshwi work out well like Kaladin's to Dalinar did?

Please save him, Dalinar! Save Kaladin!

Chapter 107 Moments

Tien! Sweet, loving Tien. When I realized the vision was about Tien, I thought Kaladin would re-live the memories but with revisions so he could be like 'I protected him this time.' But no, this was even better. Journey before destination.

Teft, you wonderful, amazing to the last.

Chapter 109 Emulsifier

The spren...have.. forgiven them? Didn't the Singers always say that the spren betrayed them? Our understanding of history is flawed at best!

Chapter 110 Reborn

Syl! Joy! Windspren! Joy!

Sibling said before that their Bondsmith created Light through connection with them. Implying that Sibling's not making much Light, so the Bondsmith (if any bonded) wouldn't make much either. And now look at that, Navani and Tower making Light together. And lots of it.

Lirin. Kaladin. Hugs. Shash. Reconciliation. Love.

Chapter 111 Unchained

Ishar plans to unite the Shards of Adonalsium. Interesting. That is one possible way to interpret "Unite Them." I admit I thought that's what Dalinar would do eventually.

Rlain bonded a spren like Renarin's. Right? He's become a Truthwatcher. In your face, Mraize! He's seeing the future, right? This will make another blind spot in Odium's planning.

Adolin, the best duelist we've seen so far, could handle three Shardbearers. Then here is Ishar, easily handling three Shardbearers and two spearmen, and he's not even the best among Heralds.

Ishar can steal connections. But Tien said Connections can't be taken! I know we keep finding that we don't understand the rules of the Cosmere, but honestly, this rule was freshly established only twenty pages ago. *grumble grumble* *goes back twenty pages and reads* Okay, Tien said Odium cannot take the Connection away. But apparently, Ishar can. Ishar is more scary than Odium.

Nightblood chipped an Honorblade. Thank goodness it wasn't a living Blade.

Ishar can open a Perpendicularity, but whose Perpendicularity is it? It can't be Honor's, otherwise Stormfather would have felt it. He's not an Elsecaller, either, who can pop people into Shadesmar.

Ishar's moment of lucidity came from Navani being made a Bondsmith, didn't it? That means Ishar had a moment like this too when Dalinar bonded the Stormfather. And maybe when Dalinar opened a Perpendicularity for the first time. I wonder if any of the other Heralds felt anything.

I thought it would take Chiri-chiri (or at least Venli) to suck out the Voidlight from Urithiru, but nope! Navani SCIENCED it out. Yeah. Scholar powers.

Sibling sounds so excited to have someone who understands their complexities. Well, Navani has spent well over a year trying to understand the Tower. She learned a lot about the Tower before she got to know the Tower.

Stormfather is telling on Ishar to Dalinar. "I never liked him." *giggle* He can sound so petty sometimes, but he is honest.

Ishar was ambitious and he "was the one Odium first tricked into experimenting with the Surges." I sense an echo of Venli.

Did anybody else know that a living Shardplate could zip around like that? That was incredible, with attitude from Sibling and Kaladin making the perfect finish!

Spren bodies. Ishar killed the unkillable. This is a terrible misuse of Bondsmith powers. Notum could have ended up here too, if Adolin had not intervened.

Ishar=break all the rules. He is an embodiment of the Cosmere taunting you for your feeble concepts of facts and reality.

Moash feels pain, shame, and anger. But feeling guilty or feeling bad is different from saying 'I am guilty' or admitting 'I did something bad.' 'I want to stop feeling bad' is not the same as 'I want forgiveness.' *sigh* He could not even say 'I'm sorry.' "He wasn't sorry for what he'd done. He was only sorry for how his actions made him feel." There, he said it himself.

Can I say that Moash was literally blinded by Navani's awesomeness?

So. A lot happened there. Kaladin is happy. Sibling is bonded. Urithiru is saved. Moash is blinded (like a physical parallel to Deadeye spren?) Dalinar is scared. I think the rest of the book will be just the wind-down from there, with clues and preparations for the next book. We are past the danger now. Definitely no last-minute stabs in the back. (BFF: Pick up the phone. Me: Why? BFF: Because you called it. Me: Huh?)

Chapter 112 Terms

Although Dalinar tried, and Dalinar wanted to, in the end it wasn't Dalinar that saved Urithiru or pressured Odium to agree to terms. It was Navani.

Odium thinks Dalinar has been colluding with Ishar. Wow, he can be wrong so easily when he can't see the future. Just as Lezian was no soldier, Rayse was no scholar. He has limitations.

Oh. The contest of champions is in ten days, and that's what the "Final Ten Days" is about.

I see three faults in the terms agreed to. First, Odium is still free to send his armies throughout the Cosmere, which can be plenty destructive. Second, protection of Wit was not included. Third, there were no provisions in case of a draw. Wit told Jasnah earlier about how he lost terribly because he hasn't accounted for ties. Wonderful foreshadowing, yes?

Chapter 113 Emotion

When Raboniel died, a breath escaped as black smoke. Sounds a bit like Nightblood, doesn't it? If the special dagger with anti-Voidlight is a special key that destroys only with Voidlight-holding entities, Nightblood is a master key or skeleton key that can destroy any soul.

I am sick of Taravangian's constant effort at scheming.

In the end, Taravangian's "dumb," emotional day is what led him to prevail over Odium. And then, to become Odium. Is this how Cultivation intended her gift to be used? Did she see this?

Renarin saw this. Sja-Anat used Renarin to send her spren to Taravangian. And Renarin told him, "I'm sorry." Is this the pinprick of light that Renarin saw in Taravangian's future? Why didn't Renarin tell anyone else about Taravangian?

Nightblood ate up quite a bit of Rayse-Odium there. Is Nightblood going to pick up Rayse's speech patterns now?

Will Taravangian let Sja-Anat be independent?

Chapter 114 Broken Gods

With Radiants and Leshwi, I am sure Listeners have a bright future ahead of them. This will be good.

Good to hear Kaladin got some good sleep. My goodness, he needed it. I hope Moash leaves him alone for good. But just in case, I'd get Kaladin an aluminum nightcap to wear to bed.

Why won't Kaladin be ever seeing Rock again?

We all miss you, Teft.

The melding of, and separation between, a Shard and its vessel is mind-boggling to me.

Shouldn't Szeth find it suspicious that "Taravangian" left a corpse at all, even if it was just bits of bone, instead of puffinglg away into black smoke entirely?

Oh wow, Cultivation did see this. She has not been sleeping the whole time at all. She prepared Taravangian to be a vessel of Odium. She knew how to use Nightblood in her plan, too. She had been in possession of Nightblood at some point (Nightwatcher offered to give a said that bleeds black to Dalinar). Cultivation knew more than Odium. Taravangian thinks he's got her fooled, but it could still be the other way around.

Will Cultivation's Boon and Curse still affect Taravangian? Or does being Ascended (or dead) cancel that out?

Even as a Shard, Taravangian can't stop scheming. *groan* I don't trust the salvation Taravangian offers.

Chapter 115 Testament

Aww! Shallan and Adolin are trying to make her first spren better. And the spren is a she. I imagine little Shallan befriending Testament and it's so sweet.

Mraize, you evil man, how could you abuse a Seon so. Poor Ala! The Seon probably was frightened to death when Shallan opened the cube, believing destruction of self to be imminent.

Shallan truly told everything to Adolin! Her Cryptic, Ghostbloods, everything!

Wit and Pattern got one step ahead of the Ghostbloods and got Shallan'a brothers to safety. Woot!

BFF had to point out "Lord of Scars" on a different "planet" that Wit once "slapped around" and help me figure out: Kelsier!!! You meddling man, do you have any idea how much pain, suffering, and death you have caused? Do you even care? Why don't you go and pick up the Shard of Meddling or something? You'll get along SO well! (I am, generally, rather fond of Kelsier. But the fondness tends to make me forget how crazy and destructive he is. He really needs to keep a better eye on those who work for him. And try to care more about people.)

Hey! Kelsier! Your minions are abusing orphans and selling little girls to evil scientists!

Psst, Mraize! Here's Cosmere for you. You don't know who you're serving.

Listeners are wary of Venli and anything she suggests. Very good! Good for them!

Listeners had almost lost all their songs. Centuries of history and tradition, just gone.

One question about Willshaper spren. Why are they called Reachers? For a lot of other spren, the name is descriptive of their appearance (high, peak, mist, ash, cultivation, ink) or their ideal (honor), or what they like (lie/cryptic). But I can't find the tie between the name "Reacher," bronze skin, and freedom.

A chasmfiend protected the Listeners. What. How. Incredible.

We've seen people come back from the dead, rise back to life from a bloody pulp, regrow limbs, and all that magical healing. Why does the healing of Jaxlim's mind affect me more than these other miracles?

Chapter 116 Mercy

The contest is ten days away, and the book is so close to the end. ... Something's going to go wrong, isn't it? (I hadn't accounted for the Epilogue and Ars Arcanum. The book did end before the contest happened. Whew. Will see what happens in book 5.)

Meet Bondsmith and Bondsmith, Radiant power couple.

Kaladin found Wit's flute! Oh this is good.

Oh wow. The title "Defeated One" actually stuck. They let a human name a Fused.

And we finally meet this mysterious El. It sounds like El used to hold the title that is now Moash's (He Who Quiets). I didn't know a Singer could speak without rhythms. Why is El forbidden rhythms?

Kaladin found Tien's horse, miraculously. And he's going out with his man without being dragged. And he's joining the meeting. I am so hopeful that he'll get better. Not cured, maybe, but better.

Yes, Dalinar, praise Navani. Praise her more. Verbally expresses how much you appreciate her. Articulate her awesomeness.

Chapter 117 One Final Gift

We got to witness Eshonai's last moments. She fought for her freedom, won that battle, and died as herself. Then, finally, she got to see the world. All of it. To her, even the Beyond is another adventure. It's making me cry.

Epilogue Dirty Tricks

This is too horrible. The one person we believed to be safe, untouchable, invulnerable, has been violated. Messing with a person's mind is THE WORST!

But Breaths cannot be stolen! It has to be given willingly with words and intent! *shakes fist at the Cosmere*

Ars Arcanum

"Stones reaching back through generations of Connection to display events, feelings, emotions, and idea from long ago." And that's why Willshapers' siren are called Reachers. They teach into the past through Connection. Curiosity satisfied.

So. Book 5 is going to be about the contest. The whole book taking place over the course of ten days. It'll be a Sanderson Avalanche, from front to back, the whole way.

We are looking at, I assume, the Last Desolation. We have seen the Everstorm. I guess we will see the Night of Sorrows in book 5. That doesn't sound happy, does it?

I've finally finished reading the book. That took a lot of emotion or of me. Much appreciation to my BFF, wonderful husband, man of my dreams, love of my life, for being patient with me while I read everything twice.

Now I can go see Tumblr without fear of spoilers.

[shinylitwick94]

Finished “Words of Radiance”, #2 in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive.

Figured since the next book is being published on the 17th and I liked the first one well enough I’d push to try to catch up to that. Sharing in optimistic fandom hype is always fun.

Spoilers ahead!

Also Long, Long Post.

Overall I think this one was better than the first one.

In terms of characters, we keep the same core, although almost all of them are now in slightly different positions.

Kaladin was...realistic up to a point, but also very annoying. Personally I would have liked the narrative to have been tougher to him on the whole Elhokar business instead of allowing him to deflect out of it with yet another power-up that allows him to play hero to everyone. He’s one of those characters I understand, but I’m growing to dislike more and more.

Shallan was a mixed bag. I really liked her development here and the exploration of her backstory, but there were a few things that fell flat. In particular I felt like her very limited reaction to a certain “death” immediately clued me in that it was a fake-out. I liked her interactions with Pattern, but got seriously irritated by her interactions with a lot of the other main characters. She’s not funny. She tries to be, but she really isn’t. In the previous book I felt like that worked well with her character and situation and it was made clear that this is a rather awkward teenaged girl trying to be funny rather than someone who actually is funny. Here, for whatever reason, everyone acts like she’s the smartest funniest person ever and it’s very very grating. It’s more noticeable in her flashbacks, but it happens at some other crucial points as well. It turned the whole Kaladin-and-Shallan-in-the-chasms episode into a really awful grind for me. But overall I did like her character better in this book.

Dalinar doesn’t change as much between the two books. He’s still doing his thing, with occasional bouts of guilt about taking power away from Elhokar, worrying about visions and dissent from the other highprinces, but again with not a lot of significant consequences. I still like him best of the main characters and love him and Navani together.

Adolin was probably at his best so far here. He’s a breath of fresh air in a cast full of mopers and he has a lot of genuinely cool moments.

From the side cast no one really stands out to me this time - I’ve grown quite a bit fonder of Elhokar and I still dislike Wit (another case of not funny, with a side dose of “I don’t care about the rest of the Cosmere”).

The Parshendi are fine, but Sanderson’s writing kills them for me. “she attuned X” = the “she burned X” Mistborn crap that had me up the walls. I really wish he’d stop relying on that way of writing these things. Just stop repeating yourself ffs, we’re not stupid and we got it the first time.

Finally, I hope I don’t have to see much more of Lift because if she’s made a central character I might actually have to put the series down. She had ONE chapter and it was torture to read.

That’s it for the characters.

As for the rest, I found the pacing overall better than in the previous book. There’s still a lot of stalling and rumination that doesn’t actually do much for the characters, but I’d only cut out about 200 pages, not 500. Globally it makes it a much less frustrating book.

I liked the plot itself fine, although I wish it had pushed the envelope a little further with regards to certain characters’ plotlines.

Unfortunately there are some things that still nag me here.

Sanderson’s writing, as I’ve mentioned several times before, is not spectacular, and follows certain trends that I find very tiring.

I really hate that fake-out death. Kill or don’t kill, just don’t be a coward about it.

I’m growing wary of the power creep in this series. It’s becoming shonen/comic-book-ish in ways I don’t like. By which I mean that people flying around like superman will always  look silly to me, no way around it.

Related to the above, there’s a lot in this book that was just too easy. Shallan’s sudden increase in social aptitude is one. Kaladin’s neverending ridiculous action stunts is another. Dalinar should probably be facing even more resistance than he is, if what we’re told of Alethkar’s history is true. A lot of secondary characters suddenly gaining powers because ??? also felt ridiculous.

However, there’s  some scenes I really liked, like the duel, some of Shallan’s flashbacks or Dalinar’s last few chapters. There were some genuinely touching moments here and there too.

So, why do I say I like this one better and then complain so much harder?

a) pacing; b) the fact that i’m willing to go into this detail at all shows you i care more; c) most of the worldbuilding being done already means less overexplaining

[puddlejumper38]

Way of Kings Prime

I’m reading Way of Kings Prime (but slowly because I’m reading as my work lunch break book) and first of all I’m really enjoying it! I can see why Brandon Sanderson would change the things he has but it’s still a solid book.

I’m not done with it yet but some general rambling below.

Dalenar is sooo much better in actual Way of Kings. We barely see anything of him here. I do miss Dalinar, in both presence and name spelling since he’s one of my favourites. There’s too much time here telling us he’s a good guy and us seeing almost nothing of him.

Interesting getting so much Jasnah. She’s not as badass, but I really like her pov chapters and the whole Awakening thing is such a good plot line.

Speaking of Awakening.... Vasher is blatantly around. Clearly Warbreaker was not yet planned. Kinda fun to watch terms from both just chillin’ in the same world.

I hate Ahven in every way possible and I’m glad he doesn’t exist in the actual series. The Shinri assault (yes yes I know she doesn’t think of it like that but let’s call a spade a spade) was disturbing. I’m glad Branderson just scrapped most of him, Taranragngianvanananan (look, I’d have to copy and paste it to get it right) is much better.

Szeth/Jek is still driving me batshit crazy though. Just.... don’t do what he asks. It’s just a stone! It’s! Just! A! Stone! He was away the day they were handing out basic independence.

Die Elhokar die. Slightly unpopular opinion in that I wanted him to die in the actual Stormlight series too (victory!) but he’s much worse here. I haven’t quite got to it yet (can’t be more than a scene or two away) but I did know going into it that Dalenar kills him. And not a moment too soon.

Kaladin>Merin. Branderson is right: Merin is boring.

No spren, no where near as much worldbuilding. In some ways, it keeps everything more concise and easier to follow but there’s something really appealing in the vastness of the published Stormlight Archive.

RIP Aredor. Though... I’m looking nervously at Adolin right now I’ve got to tell you. Although I’m pretty sure I knew he died in Way of Kings Prime before I started. The perils of reading too many interviews.

Aaaaand then there is Taln. I really really like Taln. My brain is trying to latch on to Taln but since he is a little proto-Taln and I have no idea what actual Taln will be like once he’s feeling a little better this isn’t helpful. I am looking forward to more Taln in the future... many years away... hopefully he doesn’t get stabbed by Moash as revenge for my Elhokar comment.

Oh! But the other Heralds still abandoned him! I haven’t reached the Holy City part yet (hoping they do reach it in this book...?) but I’m betting that either they are dead or he finds the abandoned Honor Blades (or... whatever they’re called in this version). The advisor guy is super shady though and he might be a Herald. Nale Mark 1? I don’t think so though. He’s not stuffy enough to be Nale.

I like Shinri, but then I like Shallan too most of the time. I do miss her illusion stuff, though. I think... while she’s not distinctly a different character its easier for me to separate them.

I’m looking forward to Renarin povs in actual Stormlight. I’m enjoying seeing more of him since he’s very much background for a lot of stuff at the moment in the general series. Seeing the future seems to be more acceptable in this version though.

Speaking of which... no Odium? Or just not yet? Are there Shards? Was the Cosmere a thing at this point? Did the Shattering happen?

It’s slightly disappointing knowing that I’m never actually going to get a complete ending for this version. Weird, since I knew that when I started reading.

I’ll probably write some more ramblings when I actually finish the thing. It’s actually pretty great though, both as an independent story and also in seeing where the Stormlight Archive started.

[moash]

i am curious to hear the other directions u didnt like about row! u have good takes ♥️

aaaaaaa thank you, idk honestly, my brain wheels are just sort of spinning tonight about different things. row for me was probably the weakest book of the series, just organizationally there was a lot going on and characters disappeared for a long time and then by the time they showed up again you had lost the forward momentum for their arc. i saw a review of row that also mentioned that none of the original main trio (kaladin, shallan, dalinar) actually really did much that was plot important. the stuff w kaladin in the tower, much of what he did didn’t actually change much, shallan didn’t really actually help adolin in the trial he plot was personal, and dalinar... well like dalinar did basically nothing except that one bit at the end where he went to see ishar and ishar was like “follow me for a plot thread for the next book ;)” thinking about dalinar especially, like we’ve talked before about how following ob dalinar in row is so colossally disappointing. i also saw a post recently about how cool it would have been if moash had had a scene where he saw what venli was doing for the singers, and acknowledged it without turning her in, bc it would fit w his character so far, and help round him out a little. and i was struck by just like.... yea.

it also doesn’t help that i have a friend who’s reading wok rn and texting me updates, and she got to the chapter where dalinar is digging the latrine (one of my favorites!!) and this is something she and i have talked a lot about wrt our dnd games, but like when he says “if they had the technology to make shardblades, why didn’t they make shard-tools to help the common people? why are there only weapons?” and it’s like that whole idea of like how do we get out of a mindset of thinking only about war and violence, and move to thinking about how we can build and make life easier. i just feel like that idea hasn’t been carried through as much as i hoped when i first read it, and being reminded of it today reminded me of where dalinar is at now and so on and so on.

also also i’m working on this fic and it’s a moash redemption arc right, but the more i get into the more i’m like, ok well so i do think there’s going to be a moash redemption arc in canon (brandon sanderson do not interact) but i bet it’s just gonna be like, so regret self-flagellating, you know? which is a mindset i (catholic) am trying to get out of more and more in my writing. i don’t think he should feel too bad about killing elhokar or roshone, but to be clear, the other stuff in row is fair game.

idk!!! im just sort of thinking about the book, and like. i think i would like to reread ob and row back to back, bc in my head there’s so much disconnect between where we left the characters in ob and where they started in row, part of that is the time skip, part of that is the way i marathoned the first three books and then had to wait for row to come out, but idk there’s just thoughts bouncing around!!!! that post about lirin was good, honestly i didn’t really know what lesson we were supposed to get out of those kaladin and lirin scenes. i’d like to reread w more of a focus on those things.