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Bookclub

13468942

Comments

  • edited 2012-09-11 01:01:36
    OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    So, the crazy portentous last words thing from the pre-chapter snippets just showed up in the story. Interesting.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    foreshadowing


    or not. I'm not really sure. I don't know what's up with that just yet; I suspect we need more information. Hopefully, the second book will tell us what's up with those words.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!
    Whatever it is, it's really interesting.
  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Oh, yes, it is. A lot of these things are.


    Shit, man, hurry up and read. :(


    You probably won't finish reading it by the time I finish work today, but you'd better have finished it by tomorrow >:/ All one thousand pages.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Calling it now: Kaladin is a surgebinder.


    It's really, really obvious, but don't tell me if I'm right.


    Anyway, given that I read each Kingkiller book in a day, it's not impossible that I'll finish it tomorrow.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    I won't say anything about that. Well, I will, but it's going to be hidden behind spoilermarks, so you have nobody to blame except me and yourself if you read it.


    The situation is more complicated than just Kaladin being a surgebinder. It's got to do with Syl, as well, and the Knights Radiant. Only, it's more complicated than that, as it's hinted that Dalinar may have something to do with it. It's also got to do with the resurgence of Surgebinders in the world- Kaladin is a Surgebinder, but Jasnah is also a Surgebinder, as it Shallan.


    Surgebinder is a title, you see- Kaladin is a Surgebinder, but more specifically, he is a Windrunner. Jasnah is a Surgebinder, but she is not a Windrunner.


    The spren have something to do with the process, but it's not clear what. That's why Syl's line is such a whammy- "I am honourspren." She is honourspren- she has something to do with Kaladin becoming a Windrunner, and it may have something to do with something called a Nahel Bond.


    And Dalinar is devoting his life to the Codes, and a particular book called The Way of Kings. Only, thing is, the Knights Radiant based their Ideals on the morals contained within the book. There's forty parables, and forty later Ideals- the four later Ideals were different for each Order, and there were ten Orders.


    So yes, it's obvious that Kaladin is a surgebinder, but what's not obvious is what's up with the rest of the world's connection to surgebinders.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    -resists urge to read-


    I really like Wit, both as a character and as a concept.


    Also, time travel by way of quantum leaping. Sort of. Maybe. It's kind of unclear. But I hope so.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    I just want to know how Wit travels from world to world.


    What time travel are you referring to?

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    I just want to know how Wit travels from world to world.



    Um...I think you might be referencing something past where I am.


    And I'm talking about the vision thingy where Dalinar temporarily possesses some guy from the distant past.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Um...I think you might be referencing something past where I am.



    Nope. Hoid is a character who has appeared in many of Sanderson's previous works- he's appeared in both his Mistborn series and his book Elantris, both of which explicitly take place on different worlds.


    You won't find anything on this in the book, which is why I figured it was safe enough to mention.


    As to the time travel... You'll see. It's... both sorta and sorta not that? I dunno, it's confusing.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Oh, okay.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Sanderson's works are kind of interlinked.


    See, there's the Shards. Not the Shardplates and the Shardblades and stuff, but... they're the Shards.


    Ruin and Preservation in the Mistborn trilogy are two of these Shards. In The Stormlight Archives, you have Honour/the Almighty, Cultivation, and Odium.


    Each Shard makes a magic system, I think.


    They're all a part of Sanderson's cosmere- the universe all his stories take place in. It's fairly interesting stuff, although it does rely upon you reading most of his works. Each work is still stand-alone, though- just... some elements are interlinked.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Well, I'll just have to read most of his works then.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    That is my goal currently, too.


    It'll cost me a good $200 to buy them all, though, so it's... a long-term goal. <_<

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Do you have a list or anything?

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Yeah. I've got the four Alcatraz books, the four Mistborn books (trilogy and The Alloy of Law), Elantris, and Warbreaker, plus his Wheel of Time books and the Stormlight books he's still publishing.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    So...a lot.

  • a little muffled

    So, the crazy portentous last words thing from the pre-chapter snippets just showed up in the story. Interesting.
    Does Brandon Sanderson do that in all his books or what?

  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"

    Sorry for being late to the party, but - Milos, tell us about some acknowledged piece, or a personal favourite, of SF&F from your corner of the world.

  • edited 2012-09-11 20:00:46
    If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Does Brandon Sanderson do that in all his books or what?



    I don't know. He did in Final Empire, though.



    So...a lot.



    Thus why it's so expensive.

  • a little muffled

    I don't know. He did in Final Empire, though.
    All three Mistborn books. Though in the second one the thing they were quoting showed up in like, the third chapter.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Well, he doesn't do it in his Wheel of Time books, but he's ghost-writing them. Otherwise... Fuck if I know.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    >reading TWoK
    >a chapter is called "errorgance"
    >>:/ 

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    I don't have my copy of the book, so I can't double-check that, but if it's the chapter I'm thinking of, it's the one where Jasnah tells Shallan about the Assuredness Movement, yeah?


    If so, errorgance makes a lot of sense, and it's a very descriptive title considering the contents. It's literally arrogance in error, and deliberately so.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Yeah, that's the one.


    It's just that I saw the chapter title and facepalmed.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    Brandon is, unfortunately, internet-literate. And a Redditor. He tends to do stuff like that a bit too often.


    I find it hard to blame him for doing stuff because he's such a genuinely nice guy most of the time. He does silly things like naming chapter titles that, but... Well, it's not like it really drags the story down, it's just a little silly. (And I didn't even notice that chapter name.)

  • I'm a damn twisted person
    You can also tell that he likes Magic The Gathering. Just look at how his magic systems work - lots of simple rules that can stack together into crazy effects. The way the Lord Ruler pulled off his immortality in Mistborn comes to mind.
  • a little muffled

    @Nova:

    Brandon is, unfortunately, internet-literate. And a Redditor. He tends to do stuff like that a bit too often.
    I don't think I remember anything like that in Mistborn.


    @Alkthash:

    You can also tell that he likes Magic The Gathering. Just look at how his magic systems work - lots of simple rules that can stack together into crazy effects. The way the Lord Ruler pulled off his immortality in Mistborn comes to mind.
    Now I feel like making a Mistborn theme deck.

  • If you must eat a phoenix, boil it, do not roast it. This only encourages their mischievous habits.

    I don't think I remember anything like that in Mistborn.



    Well, I'm just going off his work on The Wheel of Time and The Stormlight Archive, as I haven't read enough of Mistborn to be able to remember. But there's like... a scene in The Wheel of Time when one of the characters pulls out character sheets to compliment their disguises, and such.



    You can also tell that he likes Magic The Gathering.



    Actually, that's due to Tolkien's influence on him, and Sanderson's own law he developed.


    Tolkien had this thing about Primary and Secondary worlds. The Primary world is, well, reality, or something approximating it, while the Secondary world is a constructed world, built by the author.


    Sanderson is very skilled at constructing Secondary worlds, as can be evidenced in... well, Mistborn and The Way of Kings, primarily.


    Sanderson has also designed something he calls Sanderson's First Law of Magic:



    An author's ability to solve conflict satisfactorily with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic



    Sanderson writes a very hard form of magic, as he believes that it is much easier for him to write a satisfactory resolution when the laws of magic have very clear rules that cannot be broken.


    It allows him to experiment within the system- everything his characters do explicitly can be done, and he shows how they can be done, which allows readers to retain suspension of disbelief and not be stuck on the how's.


    This can be seen better in The Way of Kings, with Szeth's Windrunning, where he uses his gravitational abilities to great effect to absolutely destroy his opponents, but still remains consistent with the rules and shows you how it works.

  • OOOooooOoOoOOoo, I'm a ghoOooOooOOOost!

    Jasnah is a great character, but she doesn't exhibit some of her more... awesome/awful characteristics until about halfway through the book



    Well, I'm just a bit past halfway through and I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about.

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