All things Brandon Sanderson

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slippery

slippery

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I finished it last night, and I'm definitely not as critical as you guys. I would rate it 3rd of the 4 in the series (book 3 being the worst). I found a lot of the information interesting, though I enjoy seeing where he is taking the cosmere as a whole. I liked the tower stuff going on, and I think the anti light stuff will be pretty important. Jasnah/Wit was great. I was waiting for the stuff with Maya, and I think that will come to be pretty important.

I get that it was a very slow action book, but I still think there was a lot of good story. Though I will agree the Venli story was not great, and we could have done with a different character perspective.

I would imagine the 5th book, and last book of this part before a time jump, will just be the 10 days and maybe a short time after for consequences. I don't think we deal with the consequences after the 10 days for a large portion of the book, I think that's the very end.

Just wait, Dalinar is going to lose and Taravangien is going to own his soul, but let him just keep being himself. That's his way to save humanity
 
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Springbok

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I'm about 20% in, when does this book turn terrible? It's not his best work so far, but it's interesting enough and still lightyears better than 80% of the WOT stuff. It's not as good as Malazan or GOT, but what is? I'm enjoying it well enough.
 
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Furry

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Springbok said:
I'm about 20% in, when does this book turn terrible? It's not his best work so far, but it's interesting enough and still lightyears better than 80% of the WOT stuff. It's not as good as Malazan or GOT, but what is? I'm enjoying it well enough.
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A simple mind has a simple time. When everything is a wonder, why even worry. Nothing wrong with finding an adventure on every page my friend. Won't hate on you for things you can't fix.
 
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ubiquitrips

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The middle of the book was a bit of a slog for me. One of the more interesting storylines I liked was Adolin / Maya and that was dropped in the middle and picked up later. It also depends on how much you like the Navani / Raboniel arc as well. I understand how that could be tough but I enjoyed it. I wasn't very attached to the Venli / Eshonai arcs either and those seemed to be brought into focus much more.
 
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slippery

slippery

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ubiquitrips said:
The middle of the book was a bit of a slog for me. One of the more interesting storylines I liked was Adolin / Maya and that was dropped in the middle and picked up later. It also depends on how much you like the Navani / Raboniel arc as well. I understand how that could be tough but I enjoyed it. I wasn't very attached to the Venli / Eshonai arcs either and those seemed to be brought into focus much more.
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This lines up with the arcs I liked as well. It was really only the Venli stuff that felt overly bad, and even then it was only about half of it. The her trying to figure out powers and what she's doing was okay, basically the present time stuff for her. The flashbacks for her did feel lacking.
 
Arative

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I just finished it. I enjoyed it more than I did oathbringer. Middle was a bit of slog. I like that we're learning more about the cosmere.
 
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Mazim

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This book, up to about halfway, is a lot better than Oathbringer.

I will forever claim BS as the best writer ever if both Kaladin and Shallan are a matter of them changing themselves.
 
chaos

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The only parts I just didn't like were the flashbacks with the Singers and the Venli/Eshonai shit. Flashbacks are fine, but flashing back to a period already covered in a previous book is annoying. And it really didn't add anything. Venli is a frivolous person, Eshonai is fucking Captain America, etc etc.

Maybe spoilers, does this thread do spoilers? idk I don't want to fuck up anyone's shit
The idea that the Singers are just going to accept her back at the end afte all that... I mean, Venli got played and fucked up their entire species and way of life. Whatever.

I also thought that Kaladin was hiding in the tower for too long. And the outcome was predetermined, none of us thought he was in any real danger. I feel like that time could have been better used to flesh out Leshwi and others that interact with Kaladin.

And I'd have preferred that the ending wasn't what it was. Every book can't just be "Oh man shit looks bad, I sure hope none of our burgeoning radiants levels up as they are due to do any time now.... OH NO they leveled up, we are defeated".

I do and have always hated Taravangian as a character. The concept of someone so smart that they think they have the answers to everything is not uncommon and it's fine, but if I can see the flaws in logic then why the hell can't smart Taravangian? Or any one of his people? And now the table's been flipped so who the fuck knows where it's headed in the final 10 days.
But I view these as minor complaints. I liked it overall.
 
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ubiquitrips

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chaos said:
The only parts I just didn't like were the flashbacks with the Singers and the Venli/Eshonai shit. Flashbacks are fine, but flashing back to a period already covered in a previous book is annoying. And it really didn't add anything. Venli is a frivolous person, Eshonai is fucking Captain America, etc etc.

Maybe spoilers, does this thread do spoilers? idk I don't want to fuck up anyone's shit
The idea that the Singers are just going to accept her back at the end afte all that... I mean, Venli got played and fucked up their entire species and way of life. Whatever.

I also thought that Kaladin was hiding in the tower for too long. And the outcome was predetermined, none of us thought he was in any real danger. I feel like that time could have been better used to flesh out Leshwi and others that interact with Kaladin.

And I'd have preferred that the ending wasn't what it was. Every book can't just be "Oh man shit looks bad, I sure hope none of our burgeoning radiants levels up as they are due to do any time now.... OH NO they leveled up, we are defeated".

I do and have always hated Taravangian as a character. The concept of someone so smart that they think they have the answers to everything is not uncommon and it's fine, but if I can see the flaws in logic then why the hell can't smart Taravangian? Or any one of his people? And now the table's been flipped so who the fuck knows where it's headed in the final 10 days.
But I view these as minor complaints. I liked it overall.
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Spoilery stuff...

I completely agree. I like Kaladin and his overall story. I like seeing him level up and become awesome. The Bridge Four Superman logo on his chest now is a bit much, but minor gripe. The problem is he is always just +better towards the end of most books and pressing the win button. It's still badass but there is almost no concern for his arcs working out.

I would enjoy the return of Kaladin / Leshwi interplay. The idea of both sides respecting each other and fighting honorably, etc. is great to me.

Other gripe...the next book is going to take in the span of 10 days before the duel of champions? I hope something alters that. Doesn't offer a whole lot of room for growth before that point. Perhaps a majority of the book will take place after that event.

I may be getting soft in my old age, but the one unexpected thing for me was finding the collapse of Veil into Shallan very emotional. I took that harder than I thought as I wasn't the largest Shallan fan. That event along with the Maya "We Chose!" moment / scene were the most meaningful for me.
 
Qhue

Qhue

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Part three dragged on terribly. That had the largest concentration of Venli flashbacks and quite a few chapters of treading water. Sanderson has a large writers group/editors that helps him with this stuff so I found it surprising how slow parts were.

Part 5, on the other hand, jammed like 6 major plot points into a handful of chapters in a way that made little sense. It's insane that in a 1200 page manuscript, where you go into obscene details about topics that no one could possibly care about, he managed to shortchange many aspects like Rayse and the whole Bondsmith deal.
 
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Aazrael

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I kinda paused the book but might restart it. Just curious, was there a resolution to the Maya story or just cliffhangers? I enjoyed that of the part like many others have said.
 
Furry

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Aazrael said:
I kinda paused the book but might restart it. Just curious, was there a resolution to the Maya story or just cliffhangers? I enjoyed that of the part like many others have said.
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The adolin story line was definitely the most interesting one to me in the book by a good margin, and has some of the best/funnest characters appear in it. I probably like it the most cause it was compact. The story telling was efficient and most things mattered. Unfortunately, that also means he had to leave a big gap at one point where the other chars needed to spin in circles for 300 pages. I was left turning each page hoping the retarded fop was back for quite a while.

ubiquitrips said:
Other gripe...the next book is going to take in the span of 10 days before the duel of champions? I hope something alters that. Doesn't offer a whole lot of room for growth before that point. Perhaps a majority of the book will take place after that event.
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Pretty sure he's setting it up for team goobers to lose, and the venli/kaladin aspect is setting up a potential alliance to fight the super rad Taravangian. I wouldn't be surprised if they even lose, but in a glorious way that protects the poor innocent peepols, and forms the basis for a religion in series two. He's got a fetish for religion origins, and taravangian really feels like an autofellatio self-insert type of character.
 
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ubiquitrips

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Aazrael said:
I kinda paused the book but might restart it. Just curious, was there a resolution to the Maya story or just cliffhangers? I enjoyed that of the part like many others have said.
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Not sure I would call it resolution. There is a bit to play out, but definitely a mic drop. That storyline arc was hands down my favorite, no competition. The only problem is it felt sprinkled in as opposed to being a main ingredient.

Furry said:
Pretty sure he's setting it up for team goobers to lose, and the venli/kaladin aspect is setting up a potential alliance to fight the super rad Taravangian. I wouldn't be surprised if they even lose, but in a glorious way that protects the poor innocent peepols, and forms the basis for a religion in series two. He's got a fetish for religion origins, and taravangian really feels like an autofellatio self-insert type of character.
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I feel like Dalinar is going to lose as well. I was curious if Taravangian wins, Dalinar is a toy, and the end of the next book is them sailing off into the Cosmere to challenge the other super dieties like Sazed from Mistborn.

Most other books seem to generate some sort of super powerful being. Guy who gets his tongue healed (warbreaker?)
 
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Szeth

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Yeah, I could see the Rosharan system becoming a big player in the overall cosmere game. They made multiple references to how badly other worlds would want to get their hands on surges, as it would increase overall power levels significantly. Imagine a full mistborn that can also create illusions and infinitely heal themselves? Also would be shocked to see the perfect gemstones not becoming enormously important going forward.
 
Furry

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ubiquitrips said:
I feel like Dalinar is going to lose as well. I was curious if Taravangian wins, Dalinar is a toy, and the end of the next book is them sailing off into the Cosmere to challenge the other super dieties like Sazed from Mistborn.

Most other books seem to generate some sort of super powerful being. Guy who gets his tongue healed (warbreaker?)
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dalinar + taravangian in an awkward alliance against sazed was a high contender on my potentials. But what makes me doubtful is that Dalinar makes a rly good character via being glue magic and is in the right position to undo the shattering of adonalsium and reunite all the major shards and fix the cosmere. So perhaps taravangian gets glued to another god and sazed has to take on the role of guiding dalinar, more benevolently.
 
Qhue

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Yeah Stormlight Archive has been billed as the central core of the entire Cosmere storyline so there needs to be something here to truly set it apart from, for example, Mistborn.

My biggest beef with Stormlight Archive so far is that he set up a system of 10 Knights Radiant and yet we really get an overdose of Windrunner, Lightweaver and Bondsmith with a smattering of a few of the others (Edgedancer, Elsecaller, Truthwatcher, Willshaper). Hell even Bondsmith is only barely covered and no where near the detail given to the Shallan/Kalladin show.
 
Arative

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Qhue said:
Yeah Stormlight Archive has been billed as the central core of the entire Cosmere storyline so there needs to be something here to truly set it apart from, for example, Mistborn.

My biggest beef with Stormlight Archive so far is that he set up a system of 10 Knights Radiant and yet we really get an overdose of Windrunner, Lightweaver and Bondsmith with a smattering of a few of the others (Edgedancer, Elsecaller, Truthwatcher, Willshaper). Hell even Bondsmith is only barely covered and no where near the detail given to the Shallan/Kalladin show.
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I think the back 5 will delve more into other orders if I remember right from various interviews.
 
Qhue

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Fair enough. I'm also expecting the 'useless' Mistings from Scadrial will come into their own somehow when paired with some other form of investiture from Roshar.
 
Arative

Arative

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Qhue said:
Fair enough. I'm also expecting the 'useless' Mistings from Scadrial will come into their own somehow when paired with some other form of investiture from Roshar.
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I do know that lift is getting her own book in the back 5
 
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