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Comments
Are... your eyes bleeding or something Nova?
Nnnnno...
I'm used to reading that much. I used to read a lot more than even that.
Kind of reminds me of Rand in the first WoT book.
Yeah, that was pretty thoroughly foreshadowed, but I wouldn't be surprised if people missed it.
There's one thing that's foreshadowed almost as blatantly that almost everyone misses (myself included). It never actually gets revealed within WoK, but I'll wait until you're done before telling you.
I know that feel.Halfway through Way of Kings. Kaladin just went through the trial-by-highstorm.
So, I just found this article.
I think it should be fairly obvious that I disagree with the implication that Kvothe is a Mary Sue- or, well, no; I don't disagree, but I disagree with the implication that this makes the series worse.
The very framing device of the story is that the narrator is the main character, and he is telling a biased view of his own story. This is the reason why everything seems to revolve around Kvothe; we simply do not hear of others doing anything. This probably could have been alleviated, but, well, this is Kvothe's story. It is not a story about anyone else. I think it's fairly good that the story has fleshed out characters like Elodin as much as it has.
Secondly, I very much disagree with the notion that Kvothe has no flaws. His flaws are recognized in-story, although only to a minor extent. However, from the framing device of the story, we already know that things have gone down the drain- and it's all Kvothe's fault.
Kvothe is a narcissistic, arrogant bastard, and it's precisely those faults that drive the story. Every time something goes wrong for Kvothe, the reason for this can be traced back to himself. His rivalry with Ambrose, and the subsequent consequences of this? It is due to Kvothe antagonizing Ambrose consistently throughout the book. Kvothe being thrown out of the Maer's castle? It is because Kvothe could not shut up about being Edema Ruh.
Ultimately, I feel that the story is very much supported by all of these things that the article lists. Kvothe may be a Mary Sue, but as with all things to do with writing, anything can be done well- even a Mary Sue.
Wouldn't your argument mean that Kvothe is a false Mary Sue, presenting himself that way for the sake of his ego despite reality?
No, for two reasons.
Primarily, a Mary Sue is defined by their interaction with the story. A story in which everything revolves around a character is very likely a story that features a Sue. Even a story told in first person that features the protagonist as the narrator can feature other characters and their actions. The Name of the Wind does not.
Secondly, and equally importantly, Kvothe does not present himself that way despite reality, but rather in reality. Everything he tells is the truth. It is not the facts that are disputed; it is Kvothe's manner of telling those facts, in a manner that minimizes other's roles in the actions to focus on his own. It is a case of bias, but not a case of outright lying about anything.
Yes.
The metaphor is probably even more apt in that, looking at it from another perspective, Kvothe could very well be the villain of the story after the events of the series, considering as he is the one who has brought the world to war and allowed demons to invade (again, according to the framing device).
Well, not everything.
I don't think he killed his parents or did something that lead to their deaths. They were perfectly capable of doing that themselves.
No, but wandering off like he did led to him not knowing what was going on, and the resulting trauma. It did save his life, but the shock wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he hadn't done that- and then the later shocks in the series wouldn't have affected him so badly.
Okay, so, I just finished The Blinding Knife, the second book in Brent Weeks' Lightbringer trilogy.
Fans of fantasy might remember Brent Weeks as the guy who wrote the Night Angel trilogy, one of the better dark fantasies to have come out in recent years.
Lightbringer is simultaneously better and worse than Night Angel.
The technical writing itself... I don't remember much about Night Angel's writing, but from what I remember, it was solid, interesting, had few mistakes, and flowed well. This continues on in Lightbringer; in fact, I would almost hazard to say that Brent Weeks' works are good enough to read purely on the basis of their writing.
However, they do have their downsides. Weeks has an unfortunate habit of trying to make his works very dark and gritty. This works somewhat in a series like Night Angel, where we are following an assassin in the midst of a war, but it does not work so well in Lightbringer, where most of the darkness does not arise naturally from the plot, instead being shoehorned in by elements of the plot.
Lightbringer is better than Night Angel in some respects. Although Gavin Guile himself is as morally grey as Azoth (the protagonists of Lightbringer and Night Angel, respectively), Lightbringer does feature many more morally bright characters, which is a relief when the world is this dark.
Similarly, the magic system in Lightbringer is much better, relying upon colours- or, the visible light spectrum, to be more specific. Magicians draw in power through one or more colours, which they have to be able to see to draw on. Each colour changes the mindset of the magician- blue makes the magician very orderly and rational, while green is more wild and unrestrained, and red is very passionate.
Overall, I would say that the Lightbringer trilogy is worth reading, but if you are looking for a bright series to read, or if a lot of darkness done fairly poorly in a book is enough to turn you off, then I would not recommend you pick up the trilogy.
So I just finished reading The Way of Kings.
sjbdjbcjnzkfkssnisninsfnsnisnisn
Yeah, pretty much.
Do you want me to tell you the bit you probably missed?
Anyway, what were your overall thoughts on the book?
what
i
what
are you fucking with me
how
I really, really enjoyed it. Like, enough that if it continues to be as good as it now, it might very well push past Mistborn to become my new favorite book series.
Nova: Would you recommend it based simply on the fact that I dug the hell out of Night Angel?
...Huh.
But goddamn it, I had a bunch of things all lined up to read next, but after finishing WoK and poking through a cosmere wiki for a bit, now all I want tdodo is immediately go back and reread all of Sanderson's other stuff.
Double posting because help.
I'm torn between rereading the Mistborn trilogy (because now I'm thinking about it again and ugh so many feels) and rereading The Wheel of Time.
I love Mistborn, but it's not really going anywhere. I've been planning a reread of WoT for a while now, so that I go into A Memory of Light with everything fresh in my mind (the way it should be for the very last book, I think), and the series is so fucking long to begin with and I don't want to delay that, since it would push back when I can start AMoL.
But ugh Mistborn is so goooood
aaaaaaa
help me????
I told yas.
He's not fucking with you. I posted the spoiler earlier in the thread, but here it is again:
Was there a chill in the room? Hesitantly—terrified but unable to stop herself—Shallan dropped her pencil and raised her freehand to the right.
And felt something.
She screamed then, throwing herself to her feet on her bed, dropping the pad, backing against the wall. Before she could consciously think of what she was doing, she struggling with her sleeve, trying to get the soulcaster out of her safehand pouch. It was the only thing resembling a weapon she had. Lucidity stopped her a moment later. That was stupid. She couldn’t use it. She was unarmed.
Except . . . Storms! She thought, frantic. I can’t use that. I promised myself. She began the process anyway. Ten heartbeats, to bring forth the fruit of her sin, the proceeds of her most horrific act. She was interrupted midway through by a voice, uncanny yet distinct:
There's a lot more subtle things you probably missed, though.
For example, spren being used to power fabrials- okay, I can't remember how obvious that one was, but that leads on to the hints that Shardblades and Shardplates are being powered by spren as well, and that's the reason Syl hates them.
Or, you may have missed the fact that Elhokar is a Knight Radiant- a soulcaster who doesn't need a soulcaster. He's seeing the same spren as Shallan was, only he didn't have anyone to explain to him what's going on, so it's driven him to paranoia, and is diving headlong into insanity.
I would recommend reading The Wheel of Time anyway. It's just so long that I think you will need the time.
the fuck, why won't spoilers work
... No.
It's just different enough from Night Angel that I couldn't do that in good faith.
I would say give it a shot if you liked Night Angel, but I can't say that you will like it, so I can't properly recommend it.
There are 627 chapters in The Wheel of Time.
A Memory of Light comes out in 100 days.
I need to read an 6.27 chapters a day to be prepared on the day that A Memory of Light is released.
Challenge motherfucking accepted.
you're blowing my mind right now
I started rereading the series yesterday, once I finished The Blinding Knife.
Already up to The Dragon Reborn. I think that gives me an average of like, 100 chapters a day.
Well, just consider this:
Sanderson is writing this series, after he's gained a lot more experience writing epic fantasies through finishing Mistborn and The Wheel of Time.
Chances are, this series is bound to be better than Mistborn, due to just that alone.