re: Stormlight Archives - Spoilers and Discussion thread (and other Cosmere spoilers)

Yeah looking forward to the next Mistborn trilogy, little twist he did with the time warping was interesting as well

fricking Moash

This might’ve been covered already but Sanderson posted this on 12/19/24:

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Stormlight Archive

With Wind and Truth out as of a few days ago, it is finally time to move Stormlight to the back burner for a while. It was a fifteen-year-effort to get this sequence done, and I need some time off from the series. I do still love it, and consider it my opus, but writing on it is quite draining—and I’m ready for a break. That said, I have scheduled the Horneater novella (about Rock, taking place during Book Four) to be written in about eighteen months, to give us another taste of Stormlight. My plan is to finish the entire Ghostbloods trilogy, along with Elantris 2 and 3 (which will finish that series), before jumping back to Stormlight. I’ll talk a little more about timelines below, but we want to build in plenty of time for that. I think I’ll likely be faster than some of our projections, but I want to be careful to make a conservative estimate of when I’ll get back to Stormlight. So for now, enjoy Book Five, and savor it.

Mistborn

Ghostbloods (Mistborn Era Three) is up next, and will be my mainline project for the next five years or so. My goal is to write the three books straight through, with only the break for the Rock novella in the middle—then hand them off to production to do continuity and the like, giving us plenty of time to do what I did for the first trilogy so many years ago. (Back when I wasn’t as important an author to the publisher, and so they’d take two or more years to publish a book after I handed it in. That gave me a lot of time to make sure the three books had a lot of tight continuity, which I appreciated.) This series will mark the return of some familiar (somewhat spike-filled) characters from Era One, along with some new characters. It will follow, as the title indicates, the Ghostbloods and their activities on Scadrial, some fifty years or so after the end of Era Two. I’ve been planning this trilogy since 2006, and I’m very excited to finally write it.

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Listen I was worried Brandon would fall for the Moash redemption tour idea and he did a hard “frick that” went the other way. Way more interested in Moash now. Still frick Moash tho.

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Yeah there wasn't much fan service. No Moash death, no Rock. I do wonder if Rock will pop back up in the back half considering the perpendicularity and all.

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reviews seem to be mixed so far in the booktube community

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I actually gave up on it. Putting aside turning Kaladin into a therapist, it sets the stage and then devolves into a pile of bad, meandering dialogue, gay soap opera and randomness. I don't know if I've ever gone from loving a series to boredom quicker than this book. Shame.

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Yeah I just finished rhythm of war which was just ok... Based on reviews I don't believe ill read WOT, Its way too long for a sub par book.

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By WOT you mean Wind and Truth? When I see WOT I think Wheel ot Time.

If you’re not enjoying Stormlight series after 4 books then yeah, no point in continuing to book 5. I love the series. I didn’t love all the plot points of WAT (hated the Renarin shite) but overall still enjoyed it. It finally gave us a lot of insight into exactly what happened with Honor and the Heralds.

My bad typo there...I loved first two books of storm light and also mistborn, so was looking forward to WAT, I've got all the signed leather bounds. maybe ill give WAT a go

Just finished the book, what a ride!

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I thought Taravangian viewed harmony as weak because he couldn’t control the power,

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Perhaps you mean Tanavast? Remember, we have to also keep in mind that the shards themselves have some aspect of awareness and desire.

As to the point though...

Possibly, but I think the real point is that he thought Dalinar was weak (to stick with the power vs the person vein) and himself far smarter than Dalinar. Remember, he was so blinded to the Diagram that there wasn't much of an option in it for Dalinar not falling to Odium (Rayse) via the Thrill. Once Tarvangian became Odium, his hubris showed him only three real potentials as the power helped him convince himself that the only way to bring peace to all was by him ruling them all:

-One was his succeeding in making Dalinar kill Gavinor, thus crushing Dalinar's spirit to the point where Taravangian could manipulate him into becoming his general.
The other was Dalinar being killed by Gavinor (or losing by conceding the fight to Odium). In that Taravangian wins because he then gets to claim Dalinar's soul and make Dalinar his general.

-Another of his possibilities of winning was for Dalinar to succeed in winning Honor's power, then he expected him to fall prey to Honor's desire to fight Odium, thus going all "Blackthorn" and breaking the deal between Dalinar and Odium (Rayse). With that weakness, he felt he was smarter than Dalinar The other possibility was that Dalinar refused to kill Gavinor and Gavinor killed him instead, thus

These were the only options he saw because he considered Dalinar, at his core, to have the same drives that Taravangian himself has. The reason he believed that is because at one point Dalinar did (how much of that was due to The Thrill is up to debate), but Dalinar changed in a way that moved him away from that mindset whereas Taravangian's change moved him so far towards a more radical version of it that it blinded him to even the possibility that Dalinar could do anything but the same thing Taravangian did.

The other shards had been able to ignore Odium while it was locked onto Roshar with Honor and Cultivation. Taravangian's plan was to use one of the outcomes he saw as a means to put Dalinar into a position to eventually lead his armies to taking over the cosmere and defeating the other shards if/when they rose against him. Any of the options meant Taravangian had centuries to plan.

Dalinar was a master strategist though. When he refused his oaths, he did so because he realized it would expose Taravangian to the other shards centuries before Taravangian would be ready.

He also saw that all the time Honor had spent without a host had caused it to mature slightly, at least to a point where it would soon start to question its motivations and that of others. Did Dalinar know Taravangian would try to take up Honor as well? Probably, because he knew Taravangian thirsted for power as a way to force peace (ie: through control). That thirst also played into what Dalinar did by prompting Honor to start questioning things more, right before he died.

That last bit about Travangian having his family and friends in the Spiritual Realm was all about how pissed he remained for Dalinar being right and beating him (read: Tarvangian being shown to be wrong in a manner he couldn't easily hide from).

Pride goeth before a fall.



EDIT: frick Moash.

(no message)

I'm glad I wasn't the last one in this thread to finish the book. Missed out on discussions because my reading time was cut short during the holidays.

I cannot wait for the inevitable Sanderlanche. Sanderson’s ability to put you into a fight is amazing as are the rules and magic systems he’s developed. He describes and choreographs them so well you feel like you’re there. It’s brilliant art. I hope he sticks a satisfying landing for the series.

Also, just to get it in because he hasn’t really shown up yet: frick Moash


Maybe I was too hard on Kaladin in the beginning of the book. I was so excited I just wanted this book to be 1500 pages of nonstop unrestrained full radiant battle action because I’ve been waiting forever for it to come out . But like I said I’m just posting my thoughts unfiltered as I read. Kaladin learning to calm himself and only fight when he’s ready is a lesson Dalinar had to learn as well. His dance with Syl and the wind was done very well.

Pattern’s very Shallan like joke that “Shallan is good at making people who were once alive and threatening not alive and unthreatening.” Was funny

Random thought: Sazed holds two shards. What if Taravangian either takes up both Honor and Odium or gives up Odium and takes on Honor thus binding Odium like preservation once bound ruin and saving everyone. Or my worse thought is Dalinar takes up Odium and Navani takes up honor and they are some sort of married couple gods. If passion has to exist as a god, as ruin does. I assume to balance him out you’d need either another shard or a “bond” to one like a wife. Though this leaves out the singers altogether. I’ll come back to that. Is Venli still alive?

I hope Kaladin doesn’t talk Szeth into killing himself.

I love Sigzil taking the lead as general. The Sunlit man was by far my favorite secret novel.

Szeth’s father immediately stepping up to defend his son and insist he go with him is certainly a stark contrast to Lirin when Tien was drafted and Kaladin volunteered.

Shallan fails to kill Mraize. So close. I don’t even understand why she’s hesitant to kill him. Maybe I missed something in a past book. Shallan both in the raid on the hideout and in finding Mraize in the vision only failed because she wasn’t quick enough to action. She needs to quit hesitating.

The spirit realm power being unable to properly represent Witt at the first human arrival was cool.

As the history of Szeth and the Shin unfolds it only get more interesting. Sanderson is a master at world building and character arcs. We’ve been waiting 4 books and thousands of pages to get the story behind the Assassin in white and so far it has been worth the wait.

About halfway through and Szeth still carries Sword-Nimi and Zahel hasn’t been found. With the Shin’s obsession with color and addition and subtraction of life I wonder if the original world they came from was Nalthis or if Zahel played a role in their training? He did seem to be able to create a sort of invested living blade.

Adolin as a great general in Azir and mentor to Yanagawn and all around likeable guy is fun to watch. But this is a Sanderson novel. I know tragedy, death, despair, and the sanderlanche can’t be far away.

Szeth being handed a spoon by his spren and then finally finding and drawing nightblood might be my favorite moment in this series since Words of Radiance.

End of Day 4

So Moash is not only a piece of shite in the story but has now stolen a very unique trait from another of my favorite characters in the cosmere: Marsh. This dude cannot die fast enough. He better be absolutely and unmistakably dead in a satisfying way by the end of this book.

Venli’s story should unfold interestingly. Will the chasm fiends fight at some point?

Szeth’s story continues to be unfolding in a pretty awesome way. I’m sure when we get to his revelation, truthless judgement, and banishment, it will be heart breaking. But his battle with Pozen and the other bearer in shadesmare was very well done.

Day 5: an actual tranny shows up with legal recognition to change genders to be a man and she is stronger than all the men. Thankfully, Adolin respects her pronouns.

Jasnah says she can now fulfill her dream of pioneering feminism and women as leaders? I guess she just ignores all her studies where multiple Heralds were women and at least 1 god and 1 demigod are also women and also only the women in her culture can be artists and scribes and a few of them are more powerful than their husbands including at times her own mother and women already lead archer platoons, etc… Shes headed to chat with the Thaylen people and the Queen who leads them. Hahaha and she wrote Witt a Dear John letter because she wasn’t strong enough to do it in person.

Ranarin taking time to have a cute will he or won’t he gay sexual awakening romance fling in the middle of the end of the world trapped in another realm hunting for an ancient evil that wants to slaughter humanity is a cute plot line to randomly drop into the 5th book of a series every 50 pages or so.

Dropping a 4th ideal Stoneward we’ve never seen or heard before into the battle at Narak and then telling us through exposition he is renown and awesome and his ideal swearing was a great event seems like a lazy piece of writing that robbed us of a very cool scene.

Adolin embracing who he is as the Blackthorn’s son smashing his away across the battlefield, and then using broken dead Direform bodies as weapons bashing people to death with them was frickin awesome.

It is being revealed that nature was more powerful before men/ singers started worshiping Honor and Odium. Maybe that’s what we get at the end of this book. Some sort of return to nature’s natural state instead of the corrupted power men have been forcing on the planet. Or even the cosmere. We’ll see.

Again I’m confused on why Shallan hesitates and is conflicted about killing Mraize. I really must’ve missed something. Mraize hardly “made” Shallan. Renarin grabbing Rlain and abandoning Shallan knowing there is another member of the Ghostbloods somewhere and seeing that Mraize is possibly too much by himself for Shallan to fight is unforgivable.

frick MOASH. Enough said.

Szeth’s father continues to be an awesome character defending and supporting his son and family immediately and without hesitation. His mom not even looking at home or saying goodbye was rough.

The end of Day 5