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ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:17:59

If he couldn't save her. He would probably feel pretty horrible about it, though.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:19:25

Taravangal is right when he calls himself a monster.

Man, you know something's up when you can feel sympathy towards what is probably the most evil person in the book.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:21:35

Yep.

Well, the most evil characterized person. The Ghostbloods seem like they're kind of assholes.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:23:53

I really want to know what's up with the Ghostbloods.

Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to get complicated, as the Shardbearer who killed Kaladin's old squad was a Ghostblood, and Amaram, the man responsible for most of the terrible stuff in Kaladin's life, is working against them.

Either way, Kaladin is going to be crushed.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:24:41

the Shardbearer who killed Kaladin's old squad was a Ghostblood, and Amaram, the man responsible for most of the terrible stuff in Kaladin's life, is working against them.

Holy crap how did I miss that

Amaram is still an asshole either way though.

You know, actually, screw Taravangal. Amaram is the most evil character.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:25:58

Amaram working against the Ghostbloods is about as easy to miss as Shallan owning a Shardblade.

Amaram is definitely an asshole, and I can't wait until he gets to the Shattered Plains and has to deal with Kaladin and Dalinar.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:27:53

about as easy to miss as Shallan owning a Shardblade.

wait

what

are you just fucking with me?

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:32:05

No, I'm not.

There's two references to it within the book.

The first time is just after Jasnah kills those attempted thieves/rapists. She thinks to herself that she had a concealed weapon, but she beats herself up because she didn't even think of using it.

The next time is when she's panicked from the truthspen.

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:

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:33:08

O.O

How did I miss that

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:35:01

Well, I only noticed it because I keep rereading the book really closely, looking for a bunch of hints.

The answer is to reread the book. :P

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:35:32

Yeah, I was going to do that, but then I got Elantris and Mistborn.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:39:21

Oh, it's also hinted that we don't know all of Kaladin's backstory yet, so there's that too.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:50:17

Yeah, that's true.

There is a lot of stuff in this book.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:54:05

There'd better be, at 1001 pages

Also:

QUESTION

You've said that Shadesmar is the cognitive relam connecting all the worlds in the cosmere, and that Hoid is very good at using Shadesmar. Should we take this to mean Shadesmar is how he travels between the worlds? Do the other worlds have different ways of accessing Shadesmar than the way(s) the people of Roshar use?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:56:23

Yeah, I knew that much. What I want to know is how it works. Like, if you're there and go far enough in one direction, do you then arrive at the Shadesmar version of Sel or whatever the Mistborn world is called, or is it different? Maybe it involves the Nexus of Transition?

Also, I find it interesting that the land and sea are reversed. Clearly that has some sort of meaning, but I have no idea what.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-22 23:57:16

Regardless, since Hoid said he was born from a thought or however he phrased it, my theory is that he is actually from the Shadesmar.

Nova · 2012-09-22 23:58:45

Yeah, I knew that much.

WELL I DIDN'T

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 00:01:32

I got it from the first Google result from "Sanderson cosmere" when I was trying to find a list of the books in it.

Nova · 2012-09-23 00:13:07

I already knew which books were in it from ages ago, so I never bothered to look that stuff up.

Nova · 2012-09-23 00:45:48

So, I think Sanderson may be like, my favourite person, ever.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 00:51:13

I'm not entirely sure what I just read, but it was pretty awesome.

Nova · 2012-09-23 00:57:43

The Sword of Truth is one of the worst fantasy series out there.

On a purely technical level, I don't think it's that bad, but on every other level, it's fucking awful. Every single book, one of the women in the series gets raped, or reveals she's been raped in the past, or someone just gets raped. The main character is one of the biggest Sue's ever, and his wife is nearly the same. His elite squadron of... something, is made up of a bunch of dominatrix women who were stolen at birth, trained up do have very loose morals, and have a device called an 'Agiel' that causes pain to whoever it touches, which culminates at the end of the first book in some sort of weird sadomasochistic sex before he kills the woman.

And that's not even going into the whole stupid fucking politics angle, which gets nearly as bad as Ayn Rand sometimes, albeit it doesn't go on for quite as many chapters.

I mean, fucking hell. All you need to know is that in one of the later books, the main character cuts his way through an army of fucking pacifists to get to one of his objectives, and there are absolutely no consequences for this.

So the scene Sanderson wrote is Vin being pragmatic and just killing Zedd while he's on one of Goodkind's political rants.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 00:59:17

Wut.

Nova · 2012-09-23 01:01:43

Terry Goodkind.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 01:05:33

You know, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that's one of those series where I picked up the first book, read a few pages, got bored and put it down. Guess I didn't miss out on much.

Nova · 2012-09-23 01:07:48

It is also the only series I have ever read wherein one of the main villains for one of the books was the manifestation of all evil in chicken form.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 01:10:16

Wut.

Nova · 2012-09-23 01:11:36

The bird let out a slow chicken cackle. It sounded like a chicken, but in her heart she knew it wasn't. In that instant, she completely understood the concept of a chicken that was not a chicken. This looked like a chicken, like most of the Mud People's chickens. But this was no chicken. This was evil manifest.

ClockworkUniverse · 2012-09-23 01:25:51

...

Am I high?

Nova · 2012-09-23 01:30:19

You only wish you were high.

No, the series is just terrible.

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QUESTION

BRANDON SANDERSON