[Blend]

Abyss, on 12 January 2018 - 03:11 PM, said:

I was grinning ear to ear listening to that scene.

Ah, you're listening to the book! I was freaking out wondering why the hell you were misspelling so many names, but it totally makes sense if you aren't seeing the actual words as you read them!

[Abyss]

Blend, on 18 January 2018 - 03:43 PM, said:

Abyss, on 12 January 2018 - 03:11 PM, said:

I was grinning ear to ear listening to that scene.

Ah, you're listening to the book! I was freaking out wondering why the hell you were misspelling so many names, but it totally makes sense if you aren't seeing the actual words as you read them!

Guiltie.



Onwords...


Ok, Dalinar, getting stabbed thru the chest is definitely an effective diplomacy technique.

Whoa... shit is fucked in Kolinar.

Look at Dalinar with all the diplomacy power-ups... that's a twist fort a guy who was all about the stabby.

Ah Adolin... "i took us to someone i trust absolutely... my tailor." Heh. I laughed.

[Abyss]

End Part 3....

Wow. That went ugly for the goodguys. For a minute there i thought i had finished the book, was massively relieved to see i'm just about halfway.

Am enjoying the chapter opener quotes from the memory gems Renarin found. Really fun world-building technique that.

DALINAR - It's sad that the Rift deal was just a ploy... i was really happy for a minute there when he seemed to negotiate the surrender/alliance.
Fighting his way out of that ambush was impressive. 'The walk home was just one more battle for the Thrill'. Dude is hardcore.
Dalinar having lunch with Lift while the Azish debate the alliance was one of those perfect little side moments Brandon manages to nail again and again in most things he writes.
Aw... for a kinute there the whole alliance thing was looking so nice and cooperative and Dalinar was al happy and then his stupid memories had to come crashing back and fuck him all up.


It was clear early on that he killed Evi, but exactly how that went down... i can't quite decide about this part. As a starting point the fact that large chunks of the Rift city were built on wood and vulnerable to fire was fairly silly. I get it, they had a wall, and the 'city on stilts' trope is hardly novel, but even so, when they started rolling barrels of oil down onto the city a part of me was rolling my eyes. Then the Evi thing... i'll have to think about that one... 'how could you know, you killed our messengers' ..geez dude, maybe you could have had one shout really loud from out of bow range or something? ...it's not ruining the plotline for me, i'm really enjoying Dalinar's story, flashbacks and al, but something about the denoument here felt a bit contrived.


That said, between the memories and the apparent failure at Kholinar, i am VERY curious to see what happens to Dalinar next because he is in a dark dark place just when the alliance is coming together.




SHALLAN - Yay, Shallan's sidekicks are becoming Squires!!! I was hoping that wasn't just a Windrunner thing.
I'm a little split on Shallan's identity issues. It's a good plotline, that flows logically from the character's story to date and the power she got, but parts of it started to feel repetitious.
That said i still enjoy Veil's capers quite a bit. Still, hopefully her conversation with Wit will move things along.


KALADIN - Of course Kal needs something to whine about each book... his running inner monologue about the Light Eyes Are Awful No They're Just People Too starts to feel trite after his experience with the Parshmen.
I enjoyed him joining the Wall Guard and steadily taking over. Azure was an interesting mystery... the 'broken' Shardblade, the soldier-woman thing and how it messes with the Alethi...
The flying fight with the Fused during the raid was pretty awesome.
I liked when he just sat down at dinner and started quizzing Azure while all the other soldiers freaked out.


ADOLIN - still fun. I liked his friendship with Skar and Drehy.
His apology to his sword was a nice touch.


ELHOKAR - I'm not going to say it was particularly subtle, but the various POVs of King Elhokar becoming competent were enjoyable, in a predictable/solid way....


All of which takes us to that last action sequence when they try to take the palace and open the Oathgate...


Damn.




DAAAAAMMMMMNNN.




That was. INTENSE.


I mean, it shouldn't be a surprise, Brandon can nail a large scale action sequence, but i really really liked how this played out,...


....with one exception - Kal finding himself right smack in the middle of his Wall gaurd squad and old Parshmen friends was just a leeeetle too conveeeeeeeeenient. I see why it happened, it made sense, but involved entirely too many pieces coming together just just so. For plot purposes i get it, but it built on Kal's whine-du-jour and that just leaves me annoyed. Didn't detract from my enjoyment of the entire sequence, but i wish it had gone down a little differently...


That aside.... that last action sequence... from Adolin and Elhokar charging the doors to the messy fight in and through the palace... that was intense. I liked the little moments of Adolin trying to instruct the soldiers on how to support shardbearers without getting killed by accident, and the other moments where the shardbearers had to step back and let ordinary soldiers fight and die because shards just aren't effective weapons all the time.
Then Shalan confronts the Unmade and it... runs away? Oh, we are fucked and getting fuckedier here people...
Meanwhile, Kal and Elhokar's fight up the stairs, confronting the Queen/Unmade, rescuing Elhokars' son, and then things just going wholly sideways... and then Holy FUCKSTARS THE KING IS GOING RADIANT MOVE KAL MOVE YOUR ASS WAIT IS THAT MOASH OH SHIT IS HE HOLY FUCK HE JUST DID THAT AHHHHHHH HEY SKAR AND DREHY TO THE RESCUE YAY OPEN THE DAMN OATHGATE SHALLAN WAIT DON'T OH FUCKIT OPEN IT BOOM.


...i love when Brandon smacks the reader with that kind of big action series of fantasy candy events. it's not so much the surprise as the way one thing just happens right on top of the next and you can't quite process each event before another happens and then another and next thing you know it's 50 pages later and you cant decide whether to reread what just happened or push forwards (pro-tip... when you get the earbook and the ebook you can do both! ).




...and they're in Sprenland. Cue Azure: "I hate this place.". Heh. I like her.


Suspect Azure and that guy Dalinar gets drunk with in the flashback are Heralds. The cloths-washer/art thief lady caught by Merise too.


Vahwatserface the Parshman Odium has on a speaker's circuit isn't that interesting but her secret pet spren definitely is.

[End of Disc One]

I agree about Shallan's multiple personality stuff being repetitive. That's my only real complaint with the book, and the fact that this page time could have been devoted to other characters. Glad you're enjoying it!

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 23 January 2018 - 04:13 PM

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 23 January 2018 - 04:53 PM, said:

Venli = Parshwoman

Yeah, her. And she made the point that gender is meaningless unless they're in mating form.
...the pervs.

Quote

Kolinar was a slogfest with some thankful Wit bits.

Really? All of it? The Fused raids? The attack at the end???

Quote

There was one Shallan bit in part 3 which made me pause and set Slogbringer down then and almost every time I would see Pattern's picture after. Shallan went through all her personalities in one paragraph and I just snapped. I hate this character so much. I hate being beat over the head that she has mental health issues. I get it Brandon.


Kaladin becomes a complete bitch with the snap of a finger and destroys any respect I started to give him in this book.

We dislike the same things, i just don't dislike them nearly as much as you did.

Quote

Of course Elokar was gonna die. Kudos to BS for making it cool though.

Yeah, it was a classic case of building a supporting character up so their death has impact, but done very effectively i thought.
That moment when Kal sees him kneeling there, clutching Shallan's picture, starting to say the Radiant words... and then spear in the head... was brutal.

Quote

Dalinar was as always fun to read.

Yep.

Quote

Glad your enjoying it. I look forward to certain things in your future.

We will speak of this again, i'm certain

Quote

Yall know my opinion. Most disappointing and expensive book I ever bought and an entry that makes me have doubts on if I will continue to pay the ever increasing $ books in the future. I will call this book SLOGBRINGER forever more in scorn and to those that get annoyed with that I don't really care a single bit.

'Most disappointing' even tho there were parts you seem to have enjoyed?
Ok, price for enjoyment level, i get the disappointment... it's not a cheap book. I didn't even pay for Tigana and i regret the time i'll never have back, but even so... 'most'?




...anyways don't you have some BACHELOR reddit threads to post to or something...

[End of Disc One]

I feel like Slothbringer works slightly better than Slogbringer

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 23 January 2018 - 06:09 PM, said:

I feel like Slothbringer works slightly better than Slogbringer

But there's no 'Sloth-of-Sloths!' in fantasy lit!

[Abyss]

Chapter ninetysomething....
Oh, we are in deep cosmere territory here...
Szeth just drew Nightblood and did something that read a lot like the colour magic from WARBREAKER.
Azure's hair is changing colour, and she's a world walker... WARBREAKER again. I'm going to laugh if she turns out to be Viv or Siri.
Azure, Adolin, and Kal all had the same sword teacher. Who may be another worldwalker.
...neat.
Also, holy crap the Skybreakers are way way ahead of the rest of the Radiants combined.

[Abyss]

Huh... with Natal gone post Edgedancer, I wonder if Brandon is setting up Szeth to take over the Skybreakers. That plus Nightblood would make for a major status shift for the character.

Also, Nightblood gets great lines.

[Abyss]

Ch late 90s early 100s, Dalinar wants to kill someone/anyone, Adolin/Shallan/Kal/Azure are stuck in Shadesmar...



Ah, Nalan is back. Free ride's over Szeth.

..wait.... Zahel is frikkin VASHER (Nightblood to Szeth: Vasher was fun, now he teaches people how to use a sword)????? ...it's getting ridiculous how relevant Warbreaker is becoming... i swear next thing they're all going to end up transported to Elantris...

Now is Azure after him, or Nightblood?

I like the implications that flow from the chapter opener quotes about the Unmade... like one may be responsible for the Alethi 'thrill', and another is probably behind all those dying people predicting the future that The Diagram people are obsessing over.

SooOOOooo... Dalinar is a recovering sociopath, Shallan has multiple personalities, and Kaladin is manic depressive with PTSD. Oh, and Adolin is probably a narcissict.

I like how the spren in Roshar are just little pieces of much bigger critters back in Shademar. It makes the near random shapes of most of them more logical.

[End of Disc One]

Briar King, on 26 January 2018 - 04:25 AM, said:

Pretty sure I told you he was Vasher back in WoR thread or someone else did? Though it was much harder to tell then.

Yeah I don't think I personally figured out Vasher back in WoR, but a lot of people acted like it was obvious. It was definitely one of those theories that everyone accepted as true.

[Abyss]

Briar King, on 26 January 2018 - 04:25 AM, said:

Pretty sure I told you he was Vasher back in WoR thread or someone else did? Though it was much harder to tell then.

Briar King, on 26 January 2018 - 04:40 AM, said:

This may jog some memory of it. In WoR he was playing some game that Lightsong and what's her face played in Warbreaker and he spoke a bit about colors. Easy to miss compared with the straight up info in this book.

You mentioned in spoilers he was a world walker but not who specifically, and I hadn’t read Warbreaker at that point so the hints were lost on me.

[Gabriele]

Abyss, on 26 January 2018 - 04:18 AM, said:

..wait.... Zahel is frikkin VASHER (Nightblood to Szeth: Vasher was fun, now he teaches people how to use a sword)????? ...it's getting ridiculous how relevant Warbreaker is becoming... i swear next thing they're all going to end up transported to Elantris...

I tried to read Warbreaker three times and could not get past those stupid girls. If they're going to play a larger role in the Cosmere, I'm outta there. Shallan is bad enough.

[Abyss]

Gabriele, on 29 January 2018 - 12:16 PM, said:

Abyss, on 26 January 2018 - 04:18 AM, said:

..wait.... Zahel is frikkin VASHER (Nightblood to Szeth: Vasher was fun, now he teaches people how to use a sword)????? ...it's getting ridiculous how relevant Warbreaker is becoming... i swear next thing they're all going to end up transported to Elantris...

I tried to read Warbreaker three times and could not get past those stupid girls. If they're going to play a larger role in the Cosmere, I'm outta there. Shallan is bad enough.

I found WARBREAKER just barely ok. The best I could really say about it is that it was better than ELANTRIS, most of the time.

You could easily read the summaries of the main characters (Viv, Siri, Vasher, Nightblood) from the Coppermind (tho note the coppermind has stormlight spoilers on it now right thru OATH including re these characters) and skip the book, or skim-read it. And that just to know the context for when the characters show up in STORMLIGHT. They aren't the focus of the story by any means, at least not so far. I wouldn't think it's worth pitching the Cosmere for.

[Abyss]

ch 110ish...




Wow... Taravagian and the Diagramettes didn't just fuck with Dalinar. They well and truly fucked him over on every conceivable political level. All at once. So completely and simultaneously that its kind of stunning. Also kind of silly when even the characters themselves point out 'hey, doesn't anyone find it just a leeeetle suspicious that ALL this awful crap is ALL coming out at EXACTLY the same time' yet they still all play entirely into the bad guy's hands, but i'll let it pass because that's about how sophisticated these books ever get. I don't expect a political thriller.

Relatedly, I think Odium is totally behind the Diagram. The revelation about the unmade and the timing of the political move with the invasion is too close to be coincidence.

Speaking of the invasion, Odium taking over Amaram's entire Sadeas army in one fell swoop was brutal.

Oh, shit, ...Renarin...

Say what one will about Kal's moral issues, when he stops whining and throws down... like, say, against four fused... he delivers.

[Gabriele]

Abyss, on 29 January 2018 - 02:26 PM, said:

Gabriele, on 29 January 2018 - 12:16 PM, said:

Abyss, on 26 January 2018 - 04:18 AM, said:

..wait.... Zahel is frikkin VASHER (Nightblood to Szeth: Vasher was fun, now he teaches people how to use a sword)????? ...it's getting ridiculous how relevant Warbreaker is becoming... i swear next thing they're all going to end up transported to Elantris...

I tried to read Warbreaker three times and could not get past those stupid girls. If they're going to play a larger role in the Cosmere, I'm outta there. Shallan is bad enough.

I found WARBREAKER just barely ok. The best I could really say about it is that it was better than ELANTRIS, most of the time.

You could easily read the summaries of the main characters (Viv, Siri, Vasher, Nightblood) from the Coppermind (tho note the coppermind has stormlight spoilers on it now right thru OATH including re these characters) and skip the book, or skim-read it. And that just to know the context for when the characters show up in STORMLIGHT. They aren't the focus of the story by any means, at least not so far. I wouldn't think it's worth pitching the Cosmere for.

Elantris was a tad better than Warbreaker because of that priest - there was at least an interesting character.

I've read Oathbringer, so I'm not going to pitch the Cosmere. Yet. But my tolerance for unconvincing characters (esp. female ones tend to be an issue) and silly YA romance is not unlimited, and Sanderson is straining it. I never finished WoT for the same reason.

[Abyss]

Gabriele, on 29 January 2018 - 04:28 PM, said:

Abyss, on 29 January 2018 - 02:26 PM, said:

Gabriele, on 29 January 2018 - 12:16 PM, said:

Abyss, on 26 January 2018 - 04:18 AM, said:

..wait.... Zahel is frikkin VASHER (Nightblood to Szeth: Vasher was fun, now he teaches people how to use a sword)????? ...it's getting ridiculous how relevant Warbreaker is becoming... i swear next thing they're all going to end up transported to Elantris...

I tried to read Warbreaker three times and could not get past those stupid girls. If they're going to play a larger role in the Cosmere, I'm outta there. Shallan is bad enough.

I found WARBREAKER just barely ok. The best I could really say about it is that it was better than ELANTRIS, most of the time.

You could easily read the summaries of the main characters (Viv, Siri, Vasher, Nightblood) from the Coppermind (tho note the coppermind has stormlight spoilers on it now right thru OATH including re these characters) and skip the book, or skim-read it. And that just to know the context for when the characters show up in STORMLIGHT. They aren't the focus of the story by any means, at least not so far. I wouldn't think it's worth pitching the Cosmere for.

Elantris was a tad better than Warbreaker because of that priest - there was at least an interesting character.

I've read Oathbringer, so I'm not going to pitch the Cosmere. Yet. But my tolerance for unconvincing characters (esp. female ones tend to be an issue) and silly YA romance is not unlimited, and Sanderson is straining it. I never finished WoT for the same reason.

ELANTRIS started on the wrong foot with me when I figured out the 'big twist' from the map on the first page. WARBREAKER mostly held my interest, mostly, but the ending was weak.

I found most character arcs in both books were predictable, trite even. Neither book was my intro to Sanderson... WoT was, and on the strength of his work there and recos here I read MISTBORN. By the time I got around to Elantris I was already a fan so I can't hold the author's early work against him.

That said, I'm not bothered by the Cosmere or SLA including these works/characters because I'm certain whatever Brandon does with the world/characters now will be radically better than he did then. Azure/Viv and Nightblood in OATHBRINGER both being great examples.

[Abyss]

Dalinar walking, alone, unarmed, unarmoured, into the wall breach to confront the voidbringer army, possessed Alethi and Odium, epic.

Lift popping up next to him, saying 'So... what's the plan?' ... PERFECT.

[Abyss]

Adolin"s deadeye jumping in to save him was a nice touch.

I liked that Kal actually couldn't say the next Ideal, even to save their lives. It was a swerve from the obvious last second save.

Lift... takes on a frikkin army.... by kneeboarding. I think I love her.

Odium revealing Dalinar was groomed to be his champion. True Oh Shit Moment.
Dalinar accepting his shitty history and telling Odium to go fuck himself. Awesome.
Dalinar takes a level in awesome, binds the three realms (or whatever), brings Kal n co home, and repowers all the good guys... EPIC FANTASY AWESOME.

Oh hey look at Navani ... so THAT's what a painrial does!

I could almost roll my eyes at Szeth's heel-face shift except that it does make sense for the character. And I liked how Nale, more or less a bad guy but not quite, effectively supported the move.
Also, when he drops in, saves Lift, and used Nightblood the massacre the fuck out of the Sadeas troops, I can forgive a lot.

Dalinar marshalling the Radiants (including two frikkin Heralds!) was like an episode of Justice League Unlimited where Superman rallies the superheroes to go save the world. It was cheesy and contrived and ridiculous and absolutely gloriously epic fantasy lit perfection.

Whoa, Jasnah, taking a level in asskickery. So that's what combat soulcasting looks like.

[Abyss]

Oh ouch, Adolin... that had to hurt. And that too. And that too. And that....

Wooo, go Teft!

Wooooo, go Renarin!!!

Woo. Go Shallan's emo issues.