#and oathbringer from the stormlight archive series

[takenbtwind]

So my best friend has told me she has no interest in reading the Stormlight Archive, but she will gladly watch me put on jank powerpoint presentations where I explain the whole series to her. In honor of finishing Oathbringer, here are some highlights from my first three presentations:

[cosmerelists]

Ranking the First Five Stormlight Novels

For the record, this is not meant to be an objectively correct ranking or anything--but it is my personal ranking. I wanted to wait to do this until Stormlight 5 came out!

And I gotta say--I like all of the books. But I can rank them by "least favorite" to "favorite," even if they're all among my favorite books in general, you know?

[Spoilers for Wind & Truth! ...And all the other Stormlight books too!]

#5: Wind and Truth

I feel bad ranking the newest book at the lowest spot...but so it goes. The thing is: I'm a simple woman. I come to Stormlight Archive looking for people with huge fantasy swords fighting each other in the sky. And while I do respect and understand Kaladin finding his place outside of battles and becoming a Therapist to the Stars, I did honestly miss him getting to duke it out against overwhelming odds.

I will say that this was probably my favorite Adolin book--his WAT arc was my favorite. I also loved the new ways that Shallan is using her powers, to say nothing of finally getting the Rlain/Renarin love story. It was also extremely gratifying to finally get a lot of the backstory about the Stormfather and Honor and the Recreance. I'm also fascinated that so many arcs involved oaths being broken framed as a good thing.

Lots of great stuff in Stormlight 5. But my monkey brain really wanted more sky fights.

#4: Oathbringer

I have to imagine that if you are a Dalinar stan, Oathbringer is probably your absolute favorite book. I'm a Dalinar fan but not a Dalinar stan, so that definitely flavors my reaction to this book.

This one does have one of my favorite Sanderlanches--the battle of Thaylen city is amazing (and Shallan single-handedly fighting an entire army does legitimately make me tear up every time). The invasion of Kholinar storyline is also great, and I loved meeting Azure.

Again, lots of good stuff, but not as much good stuff as some of the other books, at least for me.

#3: Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War was challenging for me because Kaladin is having the ABSOLUTE WORST time in his whole life and it's sometimes legitimately hard to read about it. At the same time, we get such great Kaladin fights thanks to the Pursuer, and one of the all-time great Kaladin Dramatic Entrances at the end.

Plus, I mean....Navani and Raboniel? So good! So toxic! Such an accidental toxic yuri horrifying love story. I'm such a sucker for self-sacrifice too, so Raboniel sacrificing herself to save Navani AFTER Navani killed her? That could have been created in a lab just for me.

PLUS this book had Maya and Adolin, both their kata fight and the whole "WE CHOSE" scene.

Incredible book, IMO.

#2: Way of Kings

I go back and forth about whether Way of Kings or Words of Radiance is my favorite, if I'm being honest. At the moment of writing this list, it's turned out this way.

I really love Way of Kings. The whole bridgeman plotline is horrifying but so compelling, and I love watching Kaladin build himself and his man back up. I love seeing all of the ways they manage to survive, from the side-carry to, well, war-crime armor I guess. The scene of Kaladin surviving the highstorm--with Syl in front trying to block it--is one of my all-time favorite scenes ever. The Tower Fight is fantastic all the way through. And the end with Dalinar giving up his shardblade to save the bridgemen is so earned.

On a first read I was less compelled by Shallan's narrative but it honestly gets more compelling the more often I reread which I've done...let's say a few times. She's such a great character from the first line.

#1: Words of Radiance

As I mentioned at the beginning, I am a simple woman sometimes when it comes to my fantasy series. Words of Radiance wins for me because it contains my three favorite plotlines / scenes:

The 4 v. 1 duel. So amazingly fun to read. Such a good scene for Adolin, for Kaladin, for Renarin. "Honor is dead but I'll see what I can do." Come ON.

Kaladin & Shallin fieldtrip in the chasms. I loved the way their relationship developed over the course of this scene. The end when they're huddled in the cave in the middle of the highstorm while listening to the Fused above them, telling each other their true stories--top-notch. Plus I'm a sucker for storylines where people have to both use and hide their powers, and so the fact that they're both Radiant and trying to hide that from each other makes me giggle maniacally.

The Kaladin vs. Szeth duel. This fight has EVERYTHING. They're in the sky. It's a highstorm. They literally run across enormous boulders that were RIPPED from the GROUND by the storm while said boulders are SPINNING THROUGH THE STORM. It's so over-the-top and it's my favorite fight in the whole series.

So that's me! I know there are tons of "What's your favorite Stormlight book" polls out there, but if you want to put your ranking in the tags I'd be interested to see it!

[loud-n]

What's up with Roshar's Money and Why is Sapphire so Valuable

I recently started my reread of Stormlight Archive to prepare for book 5, and coincidentally, this happened at roughly the same time the cosmere rpg started kickstarting. So, reading TWoK and the beta rules of the rpg at the same time, a few things happened to come together. For one, the rpg had this table:

I thought this was very interesting. I hadn't ever seen anything like this (though, checking coppermind, a similar chart has been available since an interview in 2018 that I wasn't aware of). It's a nice way for me to contextualize just how much money Shallan throws around at the beginning of TWoK (for example, based on remarks from Yalb in chapter 3, we know that a week's wages for a sailor is roughly one ruby mark/firemark, or 10 diamond marks/clearmarks), and while it seems like it might be simplified for gameplay purposes, it's also broadly consistent with the other sources.

So I kept reading until I got to this line:

"Emeralds were the most valuable, for they could be used by soulcasters to create food." (The Way of Kings ch. 3, pg. 72 on the trade paperback)

This line lays out explicitly that the soulcasting traits of a gem are the primary way (or at least a very significant one) that these values were assigned. This makes a lot of sense: the ability to soulcast food is the key component that allows Roshar the kind of military structures it has, and would provide an extremely valuable way to compensate for issues with harvests that might come with Roshar's 'temperamental' weather patterns.

(some major oathbringer spoilers below the cut)

I then wanted to know how this translates to the other types of gem. Many of these make a lot of sense: amethyst can be used to soulcast metal, which is important and difficult to obtain on roshar (coppermind notes that this may also be the only way to get aluminum on Roshar); ruby, smokestone, and zircon are all used as part of infrastructure for food preparation and waste management (and rubies seem especially common in the fabrials we've seen); garnet, heliodor, and topaz all provide less vital (though still useful) and less valuable materials; and diamond can be used to soulcast quartz, glass, and crystal, none of which are particularly valuable (especially given easy access to even light with stormlight and danger from highstorms making windows difficult and less valuable).

However, one gem caught my eye here.

Why is sapphire so valuable?

Sapphire's soulcasting can produce translucent gas or air, which seems a bit redundant with smokestone, a stone we know is regularly used. To my knowledge, we don't see any characters ever use soulcasting powered by a sapphire (please correct me if I'm wrong, I may be forgetting or confusing an instance with smokestone). So unless there's something we're missing or something to come, it doesn't seem like sapphire's value is because it is especially useful in soulcasting.

If this isn't the case, I can think of three possible explanations for why sapphire is worth so much:

Sapphire is less common. We know that obtaining emerald is a major part of the Rosharan economy and a significant reason for the continued occupation of the shattered plains at the start of the series. This might also be the case for sapphire: greatshells with sapphire gemhearts may be less common or more difficult to farm, making sapphire more scarce and thus more valuable.

Sapphire is especially useful in fabrials. So far, we've only seen one fabrial using sapphire that I can remember: the soul-harvesting dagger used to kill Jezrien (Oathbringer ch. 121). Even this may not be a specific trait of all sapphires, but rather due to the fact that sapphires are associated with Jezrien and the windrunners. I think it's possible and maybe even likely that sapphires are the gems used in half-shards, since none of the examples ever specify what gem is used and Taravangian states that the spren within could have graced a knight radiant (Oathbringer ch. 100) - possibly an honorspren trapped within a sapphire. This may also have been Taravangian lying, though.

The value is somehow associated with Jezrien and the Windrunners. This one seems the most far-fetched to me: at the start of the series, the knights radiant are not viewed especially fondly, and I doubt the Windrunners would have enough staying power to change the value of a gem. The idea that it may be association with Jezrien seems to me to have more merit; Jezrien seems to generally be elevated to a point beyond the other heralds.

Based on the information we have, I think that my second proposal has the highest chance of being at least partially correct. Association with Jezrien seems far-fetched, sapphire being especially scarce seems like something too far off course to get significant confirmation of in-text, and fabrials are one of the elements of the world still being developed in universe that we also don't have a lot of extra information about.

If any of this is going to be answered, I honestly think it might come through the rpg: the first wave of releases will include a world guide with canon information that might shed some light on these elements less important to the actual story, and the rules will also detail a lot of information about fabrials that could answer my questions about half-shards. Until then, though, I'm just going to have to sit here and wonder (and keep a special eye out for mentions of sapphire on my reread for anything I missed).

[despondentnuzzy]

Last few weeks I've been thinking a lot about bridges in the Stormlight Archives. What they meant, what their role is and I just wanna ramble analyze again so here we go.

Bridges ARE forces of Unity and conduits of Honor. In the series I argue there is no tighter knit group, no greater camaraderie than Bridge 4. And speaking of, my mind is going to start there and with Kaladin in TWOK.

Kaladin, in his first perspective chapter, internally monologues "Honor is Dead". In the part 1 the place Kaladin and the bridgemen before him go to end their lives is called "The Honor Chasm", and when Kaladin goes right after the end of a highstorm, a fall to ones death into a large body of water invokes a lot of jumping off of bridges imagery to me.

The souls of the bridgemen, like Honor, are shattered. But we see Kaladin reforge them anew in the Chasms. It is there that they really begin to feel unity, to have shared purpose and goals. Honor is their shield, literally so with the bridge and their Side Carry. Together the broken men of Bridge 4 return from despair and helplessness to become something greater.

Their bridge, saving their lives, acting as their shield and bond then becomes the lone piece that connects Kaladin and Dalinar. In his visions the almighty tells Dalinar "Act with Honor and Honor will aid you." AND WOW THAT BRIDGE SURE DOES SAVE HIM.

Not to mention the fact that Dalinar is a living bridge between the realms, consistently "bridges the gap" between peoples and cultures in founding the coalition of Kings in Oathbringer. That bridges themselves so easily can be interpreted as THE Journey BETWEEN Destinations. But if you want one piece of lore that I think shows this as well. The shared sure of Bondsmiths and Windrunners is that of "Adhesion". Dubbed Honors truest surge, the one only of him. The surge that CONNECTS TOGETHER.

I swear I am struggling to properly convey how much this makes my brain tingle but so many elements of both how the Honor and Unity are represented in this book have such strong ties to the way bridges and those who tend to them are showcased. Please tell me I am not the only one seeing this or I will go insane. I feel like I need to make a dozen more posts about this for it to stop rotating in my skull

[avidabsurdist]

Every time a new Brandon Sanderson book is released everyone updates their suggested reading order but all you need is the patience to be uninformed and enjoy the book!

But depending on your preference the best story to start with will be different.

If you want a crash course on the basics of The Cosmere's magic physics (Aka Investiture) so you can hypothesize on how other magic works I suggest the short story "The Emperor's Soul" as a starting point, it gives a solid overview of Realmic theory and covers Identity (a rather difficult idea to communicate) very effectively. (this is the start of the PhD route)

If you want something that's more like a traditional fairy tale as an intro I suggest Tress Of the Emerald Sea, which doesn't require a PhD in the shattering to understand. (though if you're going the PhD route I suggest reading this one later because if you're questioning the magic it's a far more confusing one)

Warbreaker is a good middle ground, if you're going the PhD route I suggest this second (it covers Intention which "The Emperor's Soul" doesn't), It's not a bad starting place either, it was my first book in The Cosmere and it's up for free on The Sand-Man's website. It's also all-around an excellent book.

I'm going to be (a tad) controversial and say I enjoy Elantris, it's certainly not Brando-Sando's best work but it was his first, and it's not a bad book to start with! just keep in mind that many of the issues in the book are things he improves on in later books.

Mistborn is two (soon to be 3) series, we distinguish them by 'Era' and they should be read in order if you want to make sense of what's going on.

Mistborn Era 1 (3 books) is also an excellent place to start, it's a YA-style series so you follow a teenager in a Post-(more like perpetual)-Apocalypse, but it's also an Epic high fantasy so if you like those and don't mind romance It's a good one.

"Mistborn Secret History": read this after Mistborn Era 1 if you're going the PHD route read anytime before The Lost Metal (Era 2 Book 4) for everyone else. (PhD track: if you want the most out of it I suggest also reading White Sand first)

Mistborn Era 2 (4 books) is a high fantasy Western set in the same world much later in time, 10/10 no notes, it's excellent.

The Stormlight Archive, TheBigOne™ It is planned to be a 10-book series with accompanying Novellas. I suggest reading in chronological order including the short stories, published so far that would be:

The Way of Kings

Words of Radiance

"Edgedancer" (novella)

Oathbringer

"Dawnshard" (novella)

Rhythm of War

Start with this series if you thirst for sprawling high-fantasy novels with page counts that would make grown men weep (the Audiobook for RoW was like 48 hours long)

The entirety of Arcanum Unbounded is not required reading, (unless you're on the PhD track) but it contains both "The Emperor's Soul" and "Edgedancer", you should probably read Elantris, Mistborn Era 1, Alloy Of Law (MB Era 2 Book 1), and Stormlight (up to Words of Radiance). If you enjoy Graphic Novels and dislike spoilers/rereading stuff when you haven't finished it yet I suggest skipping the White Sand excerpt.

White Sand is also not a terrible intro, it covers a theme in B-Sandy's work that isn't directly related to the cosmere but will give you a good insight into whether you'll like his work or not: the idea that skill is developed, not just inherent. if you're like me and dislike graphic novels GraphicAudio™ (actually a company not a joke) Has an Audio rendition that has some narrative differences from the Graphic novels (iirc at least one character is a different gender) But the Graphic novels also have a random boombox on a planet with no electricity so either should be fine.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is in a similar situation to Tress of The Emerald Sea except instead of a classic European Folktale Vibe it's got a Western Interpretation of Anime Vibe, ofc it's high fantasy like all Sandon Branderson's work so it's world is inspired by Japanese culture rather than just being Japanese.

The Sunlit Man read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell (Arcanum Unbounded), and at least Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive 3) before this one, unless you like being thrown into the deep end, Mistborn Era 1 & 2 would also help.

There are other routes than Ph.D., there's also the Galactic Politics route, The Secret Society route, The Worldhopper Watcher route, The Ancient History route (Aka The Shattering route) ect

if you want specific reading route recs just tell me what you're looking for I can help!

[offonaherosjourney]

Stormlight Archive x Pokémon crossover (Part 11)

Rysn's Pokémon Team

Vibrava

Oddish

Torterra

Mega Sableye

Gimmighoul

Solgaleo

I picked each character's pokemon team by drawing inspiration from several things: spren, companions, personality, occupation, abilities/powers, story events, and last but not least... vibes.

This is part 11 of 12. This series is getting weekly updates so make sure to check the tag #Stormlight x Pokemon for any future updates.

The reasons why I chose these pokemon are under the Readmore. Beware spoilers!

Rysn might not have a spren, but she does have Chiri-Chiri! I went back and forth between Vibrava and Druddigon quite a lot, but I settled for Vibrava because, while less dragony looking than Druddigon, it is a dragon type, and I thought it captured better larkin's insectoid look better, as well as being more approximate to Chiri-Chiri's current size.

Oddish is there to represent Tyvnk, Rysn's potted plant. Torterra represents her visit to Relu-na, the giant greatshell that is also an island. Mega Sableye is carrying a giant ruby, and if you've read Oathbringer, you know what moment it's meant to represent. Gimmighoul is there because Rysn is a merchant.

Solgaleo is meant to represent the Dawnshard that Rysn currently holds. Hard to represent a Dawnshard, but Solgaleo's mane reminds me of the mural that held it, that plus Solgaleo's legendary status is why I chose it instead of a Solrock.

[smoldering-violets]

So I've had some Thoughts lately as I've been rereading Oathbringer about a post I saw at some point just after finishing reading the Stormlight Archive for the first time and starting to get into the fandom. The basic premise of the post was that both Elhokar and Jasnah would have both led better lives if they were trans and effectively switched roles.

I disagree with that in regards to Jasnah. Her problems are mostly from the strict gender roles put on her by Alethi culture and vorinism, not from just being a woman. Also, as an elsecaller her oaths are supposed to revolve around meeting her potential and becoming better, and she's shown to be at at least the fourth ideal in RoW. If she were trans I'd expect that to have come up at some point. Maybe I'm missing something because I'm transfem not transmasc but I don't see that for Jasnah.

Elhokar on the other hand, I get the argument. There's not a lot of textual evidence, but more than for Jasnah. Like Jasnah, the strict gender roles of their culture seems to cause Elhokar distress, but he's way worse at making his own place despite them than Jasnah is. Elhokar was made king after his father's death due to being the only male heir, but as is shown throughout the series he's not good at being a king. Like at all. Jasnah does a much better job ruling Alethkar and that's during the apocalypse! Anyway, being a bad king doesn't mean he's trans, but it does help illustrate that the place he's put in life doesn't fit him.

The strongest evidence for Elhokar being trans is that he's attracted the attention of cryptics and if he wasn't killed he would have become a lightweaver. Lightweavers tend to be people who have deeply hidden truths about themselves that they refuse to admit even to themselves (assuming Shallan isn't a complete outlier). As someone who is trans, it's pretty easy to imagine that being a powerful truth someone would be reluctant to admit to.

Additionally, in Oathbringer when the team is infiltrating Kohlinar, Shallan suggests disguising Elhokar as a woman. Kaladin and Shallan both expect him to resist that idea, but he goes along with it eagerly and never seems uncomfortable with the experience or role while wearing that disguise. It seems like a similar thing to a lot of trans women dressing up as women for Halloween before realizing who they are/coming out because it gives them plausible deniability. I know I for one would have been delighted to have the opportunity to have an illusion that changes both my appearance and voice to be more feminine (I'm slowly working on that without the illusion, but anyways).

The last thing that's less directly evidence of being trans, but still contributes to the argument imo is that Elhokar seems to be kinda depressed most of the time. It'd be pretty easy to read the cut saddle strap situation in TWoK as a potential suicide attempt that could be explained away as trying to find assassins. In WoR after Dalinar sets off into the shattered plains Elhokar immediately starts drinking and goes to Kaladin to talk about how bad he is a being a king. On the night of the assassination attempt he's extremely drunk and moping in his rooms. In early Oathbringer he tries to abdicate the throne to Dalinar and constantly talks about how he always fails and makes a mess of things.

Anyway that's about it for my random thoughts and rambles about this that have been rattling around in my head for a while. I doubt this'll really persuade anyone, but I just wanted to put my thoughts out there

[sarah-sandwich]

Whatcha Reading?

Thanks for tagging me @writer-or-whatever! Presently I'm ignoring all else and re-reading the first arc of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (those who have been following along may recall me finishing Wind and Truth a month or so ago). I finished The Way of Kings (book 1 of 5) yesterday and am just getting going on Words of Radiance (squeeeee I love this one).

I also have some books currently checked out from the library! The Summer Skies (already auto renewed once oops lol) by Jenny Colgan (gen fic 3rd generation pilot running a tiny plane service in Scotland with her grandfather—sign me up wahoo) and Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage (cowboy romance series cowboy romance series cowboy romance series 👁️👄👁️).

The general plan is to take a break after WoR and get through my library books before moving on to Oathbringer (which may go on hold for a while longer if the cowboy romance series really grabs me 🍀🤞), which I don't own so will be needing to get that from the library... might need to put that on hold now-ish. Not sure what the wait is like now that WaT has been out 6 months. Also on my tbr are books 2 and 3 of Joe Abercrombie's Age of Madness series, which I already bought and are sitting on my nightstand because I have officially run out of room on my fantasy shelves and need to reorganize 😮‍💨 again.

Tagging @out--of--ordinary @outofmyhead-justlikeyou @monaisme @justme--emily and anyone else looking to have a good ramble about books!

[blogginsfrombagend]

i need to do more research before reading books bc i just read three books from stormlight archive and i’ve felt nonstop disappointment for the last 15 hours

like how do u go from twok to oathbringer

twok made me feel like it was setting the series up for an interesting, nuanced exploration of settler colonialism & institutionalized racism

and then oathbringer confirmed that the series is actually just about “good guys” (“reformed” colonizers) vs “evil demons” (enslaved indigenous ppl)

& kaladin they could never make me hate you.. so im just gonna have to pretend u didnt go from acab to head defender of the monarchy

[realitys-ex]

A Nerds Guide to the Cosmere Reading Order

I've seen a bunch of questions in the last 2 days about it, so I am going to give my ULTIMATE GUIDE.

First, for simplicity sake, a list of the series/books in the Cosmere, and the short forms I will use to refer to them. (square brackets refer to Novellas)

Elantris (a stand alone) Warbreaker (a stand alone):WB Mistborn Era 1 (Mistborn:The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero Of Ages):Mist1 Mistborn Era 2 (The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Morning, The Lost Metal):Mist2 The Stormlight Archive (The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance,[Edgedancer], Oathbringer, [Dawnshard], Rythym of War, Wind and Truth (Upcoming)): SA Tress of the Emerald Sea (a stand alone): Tress Yumi and the Nightmare Painter (a stand alone): Yumi The Sunlit Man (a stand alone ish): Sunlit White Sand (a anthology of the 3 white sand Graphic Novels) Arcanum Unbounded (A Short story collection with stories taking place anywhere around the previous books).

I will be kinda ignoring White Sand for the rest of this because Brandon and the fandom does as well. A new version will be coming out in a bit, wait for that.

I will also be ignoring Arcanum Unbounded, because each story starts with "Read this after you have read__" which kinda gives you a hint.

Now, you can start practically anywhere, but there are three places you shouldn't: Yumi, Mist2, and Sunlit. Yumi contains jokes aimed at long time fans which can be off putting. Mist2 completely spoils Mist1. Sunlit's Main character is a semi important side character from one of the other series, which kinda spoils the arc.

That said,

My preffered Order: (Semi) Chronological/release order.

I like this because no references will go over your head, Sanderson's writing ability improves as you go, and it's kinda how it was intended to be read!

The actual release order is here , but it is more or less: Elantris, Mist1, WB, (pick up arcanum unbounded), the First 2 SA Novels, Mist2, the Second 2 SA Novels, Tress, Yumi, Sunlit.

Next Order: "Whats the big deal with this Guy, should I even bother"? This is meant to intro you to Sanderson Feet First (ish), you get a full taste of the Cosmere, followed by a step into the lighter stuff, and then reading the rest.

Tress, WB, SA1,Mist11,SA2,Mist12,Mist13, SA3, Elantris, SA4, Yumi, Sunlit

Third: "I'll have what they're having!" (what many people seem to enjoy):

SA, Mist1, WB, Elantris, Mist2, Tress, Yumi, Sunlit.

Fourth: "I wanna be confused/ have no clue what is going on!"

Yumi, Sunlit, Tress, Mist2, SA, Mist1, WB, Elantris

[jadejedi]

Stormlight Archive Rankings

Spoilers for Stormlight Archive 1-4 plus Edgedancer and Dawnshard.

Okay, I have just finished reading the Stormlight Archive for the first time. This was my first foray into Sanderson/the cosmere, which I know isn't always recommended, but this was right up my alley and I absolutely loved it. So, before WaT comes out in a few weeks, here are my current feelings about the series, characters, etc.

Books:

The Way of Kings (5/5)- this one absolutely blew me away. The emotion of that climax is hard to beat. It is just a perfect example of epic fantasy.

Rhythm of War (5/5)- I knew going into it that this wasn't everyone's favorite, which kind of made me think I would love it. And I did. I LOVED Navani and Venli's arcs in particular. This one made me cry the most.

Oathbringer (5/5)- This one I thought was paced so well right from the jump, which is important when you have a book this long. Again, I loved reading basically every arc in this book, even for the villain characters.

Words of Radiance (4.5/5)- Okay hear me out. I know this is a lot of people's favorite, but to me the pacing just isn't as strong. It lags a bit after the duel and there was definitely a bit of a slog in the middle, at least in my opinion. It's still very good and I definitely still loved it, especially Shallan's arc.

I'm not ranking the novellas bc they're impossible to compare to the main series, but I really liked Dawnshard (4/5) and wasn't as much of a fan of Edgedancer (3/5).

Characters (I'm going to forget some characters, but oh well):

Tier 1 (Characters I would die for, kill for, and follow into battle): Kaladin, Shallan, Syl, Adolin, Navani

Tier 2A (Characters I love and give a hearty salute): Dalinar, Renarin, Rock, Teft (RIP), Pattern, Rlain, Eshonai (that final POV of hers...), Rysn

Tier 2A (Messy bitches I love to watch): VENLI, Szeth, Raboniel

Tier 3 (Still cool): Jasnah (sorry to all the Jasnah stans, I just don't feel like I've seen enough of her so far), Wit, all of Bridge 4 not mentioned in other categories, Wyndle

Tier 4 (honestly kind of annoying): Lift (sorry Lift), the Lopen (though I find him less annoying than Lift)

Tier 5 (villains I love to hate): Taravangian, Moash, Amaran

Tier 6 (boring ass villains): Saddeus, Roshone

Top Moments (Incredibly hard to narrow this down to 5):

Dalinar trades Oathbringer for the bridgemen (WoK). I burst into tears while in the car. The emotional high of all emotional highs.

Shallan reveals the truth of what actually happened to her mother (WoR). I GASPED. I was shook. It puts her killing her father in a totally different light. Honestly, it was the moment that put her up with Kaladin in my favorite characters, because it just makes her so interesting and complicated.

Kaladin survives the highstorm (WoK). I mean. Come on.

Kaladin saves Adolin in the duel (WoR). So incredibly epic. Sanderson isn't really an author who generates quotable lines like some of my other favorite authors, but "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do." absolutely slaps.

Navani and Raboniel combine the tones of Honor and Odium. This moment was surprisingly epic and very cool. And also very gay.

[dramalove247]

Getting to Know Your Mutuals

Thanks for the tag @hughungrybear!

Favorite Color

🐠 Green - different colors bring me joy for different reasons. I tend to gravitate to green because of plants and nature.

🐈 SPARKLY. I like bright colors in general. But every time I settle on a “favorite” it changes.

Last Song

🐠🐈 Like the bestest of besties we are, we are actually driving together right now. We’re listening to 🐠’s KPop playlist, and as I type this 0X1=Lovesong by Tomorrow X Together was wrapping up and LMM by Hwasa has just started.

Currently Reading

🐠 Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive Book 3)

🐈 Just finished Da Ge (Big Brother) by Priest, on my 8 thousandth reread of South: Beside Sky (because my hyperfixation is not done with the Fourever You series and Typhoon hurts my soul so good) while deciding what to start next.

Currently Watching

EVERYTHING.

🐠🐈: Currently watching together- When Life Gives You Tangerines, Study Group, Leap Day, My Stubborn, Eye Contact, Fight for You, The Next Prince, Boys in Love (we’re trying to ration it!). We just finished My Golden Blood last night.

🐠 Rewatching Tokyo in April Is…

🐈 Pit Babe 2, Sweet Tooth Good Dentist

Currently Craving

For context, both 🐠 and 🐈 are generally gluten free. 🐈 figured out gluten didn’t do her body good, and 🐠 spent a couple of years eating gluten RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER SALAD and then karma caught up with her and 🐠 had to stop eating gluten too. Misery loves company, and now they work to keep each other on the straight and narrow, except when they dive into a gluten binge together and cry about it not being worth it. They have started one such gluten bender this morning…

🐠 Jimmy John’s Cubano sandwich

🐈 Sushi, the kind with tempura and all the sauces not usually allowed

Tea / Coffee

🐠 COFFEE. Dark Roast, black, and hot all year around

🐈 Tea - with milk and sugar when she is being indulgent. Except when she’s looking for drive thru dopamine, and then it’s usually an oatmilk latte, hot when it’s cold and iced when it’s hot.

We love our tumblr peeps, so consider yourself tagged and please play along if it tickles your fancy. Feel free to tag us so we can see your answers! We don’t think we saw posts from @my-rose-tinted-glasses, @watchthisqqq, or @heretherebedork if you feel inclined to play.

[hahahahawk]

A Pattern

Words of Radiance re-read

I feel dumb as a cremling for not realizing until now that every book in the stormlight archive series is named after a literal book that exists in-world.

I’ve previously been annoyed that book 1 is called Way of Kings even though Kaladin’s story would make more sense titled “words of radiance”.

At the moment I’m having trouble remembering the supposed contents of both (in-universe) Words of Radiance and Oathbringer. Truthfully, I’m not 100% sure Oathbringer *is* an in-universe book. I thought it was Dalinar’s shardblade.

*checks the wiki* ok, it’s both his shardblade and his memoir. If pressed, that’s what I would have guessed.

And I suppose we’ll circle back to the contents of (in-universe) WoR soon enough in the book. Overall, the idea is cute and quirky, but I wish that WoK had a better connection to Kaladin. Though I guess that RoW isn’t Navani’s book either. It just feels out of step since WoR and Shallan are directly associated, as are Oathbringer and Dalinar.

***

I’m also bummed that the Book of Endless pages disappeared from the story.

Though I did think it was a magic book that Jasnah was giving to Shallan for her to sketch in, not anything (mundane and) religious.

***

When Syl (I think) talked about being uncomfortable with Cryptic spren, I thought she was just being snotty, that calling them liespren was a mild slur. (Or am I thinking of Jasnah talking to Shallan about Shadesmar/types of spren? Anyway, *someone* expressed those ideas)

But in this chapter it really struck me how Pattern *does* lie and engage in deceitful behavior. At several points he hides information from Shallan about her own past. In this chapter Pattern tries to hide his belief that Shallan will kill him, and they have a meta-conversation about him trying/learning to lie. And in RoW he executed the huge deception of communicating with Hoid behind Shallan’s back while they’re in Shadesmar.

It’s a shocking situation, since you’d think the Nahel bond would join beings so purely that lying between human and spren would be unthinkable. Adding on to that the contrast with Syl, who makes honesty a strict condition of her bond with Kaladin.

Sure, Syl is an honor spren and Patten is vehemently not, but it just seems like the nahel bond is a kind of intimacy that would preclude deception.

mmmmmmmmm! Fascinating!!

Does being a lightweaver mean you have to build a completely different kind of trust with your spren than most Radiants?

***

I have other thought about what Shallan is getting up to, but seems like it happens in her next (contemporary) chapter, so I’ll withhold my commentary until then.

[imgunnagetyou]

Stormlight Archive review of all 5 books + 2 novellas (Brandon Sanderson)

i dont know how to start this

i got a pran, a pran of cingles

stormlight archive fuckin sucks and im going to try to explain why

actually, a small disclaimer. an interesting thing i learned about brandon was that in 2019 he visited shitrael as he was invited to some ‘con. now, one could argue, for example, he didnt know what shitrael was doing to Palestine. unfortunately, i also learned that his fans had protested and told him not to go, to which brandon responded with something along the lines of “i dont believe in boycotting” or “boycotting doesnt work” or some shit. “Another lesser-known issue is Sanderson’s visit to Israel in 2019 as a guest of honor for the science fiction and fantasy convention, ICon. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Sanderson expressed that the invitation was one that some asked him to declined stating, “My general inclination is I don’t generally boycott no matter what. I don’t think it’s an effective way to cause social change. I think there are other and better ways. So I didn’t agree with these requests.”” from expertbooksmuggler. now, i literally had to google if brandon is american. he is, he was born in nebraska in like 1970s or something. one of the most famous boycotts of all time in this country is the Rosa Parks Bus Boycott. which worked. to claim boycotting doesnt work is profoundly stupid thing to say. so either brandon is horrifically ignorant and doesnt know of the hundreds of boycotts that have worked and are working today, or he supports shitrael. i cant buy that he just doesnt know. all of this is to say, i no longer wish to support this author for this reason and also multiple reasons of genuinely problematic things i found in these books. its also to let you know that i know, and i can let you know.

this review is not very well organised at all. so if you thought youd read the review until i said “ok spoilers for oathbringer” then stop, dont do that. im going to be spoiling all 5 books plus novellas all over the place during this review, this is only suitable to read if you dont care for spoilers or have already read the books.

SOME MATH: Those last two hundred or so pages are usually great, but I have to ask myself if the rest of the book can stand on equal footing. if only the end of a book is the good part, why should i read any of it? im not going to play a game for 50 hours because "it gets good at max level" or some shit, it should be good IMMEDIATELY. same goes for books. if someone recommends me a 1k page book and says "it gets good at 800 pages in" im not reading that shit. this the entirety of StAr reading experience. i did a little bit of fucked up math. lets claim the average reading speed 200 words per minute, 400 words on the page. 3-4 mins on a page. average time spent on reading a day, 15-20m. 4500 words a day. 320,000 words in 800 pages. 71 days or 1700 hours. math is probably wrong, but you get the point..

FILLER: lets be real, the way of kings is just a giant prologue... 1k pages of set up. id argue someone could start the series at words of radiance and treat way of kings as a .5 prequel and theyd be completely fine tbh. theres an insane amount of filler in these books, considering if they were edited by someone with a brain, theyd still be 500-700+ page books. length of book =/ epic... compare to lotr: its considered the greatest epic fantasy of all time (i think) and tolkien achieved that in... about 1500 pages. or the hobbit, which is barely 300 pages..

filler is a horrible problem in these books, as ive already noted. now i cant remember when this particular interlude happened, but its not a spoiler anyway lol. either in radiance or oathbringer, we get a random pov from some herdazian man who is about to get executed and the judge or wtv gives him the option to get beheaded or get "the hog" while oiled up. the hog turns out to be some giant sea creature or something. the interlude chapter ends. it never comes up again... at first i thought lopen, being herdazian, would make some sort of joke about the hog and we'd be like ahh i saw that. but no. and its like, are you fucking serious? this book is 1k pages long and we still get this random ass filler? ??? im so confused..

for a bunch of 1k+ books with filler, why the fuck are we missing giant, pivotal moments that we shouldve seen? for example: in oathbringer, jasnah just. coming back. people thought she was dead for months, and we dont get any scenes with her reuniting with her family and shallan???? what lol??? when her death is revealed by shallan to navani and dalinar, navani mopes for a bit, then forgors when shallan almost dies (doesnt unfortunately) but her death goes strangely unmentioned for the rest of the book... elhokar literally started a war over the murder of his father, yet when his sister is murdered he doesnt give a shit? what?

in rhythm, I kept wondering how many more chapters filled with science experiments I could endure before I would officially give up. theres no way anybody , even die hard fans, give enough of a shit about the science of this world to read multiple page long chapters that go on and on about the fucking fabrials. like, its great that you have this information as a writer of fantasy. however, WE DONT NEED ALL THE FUCKIN DETAILS!!!! if I wanted to read about this many god damn experiments I would have majored in a fucking science. the only good part of those chapters were raboniel, and of course the manipulative navani kills her, giving me another reason to hate her..

taravangian: why yes, do please tell me again (for the 100th time!) that Tara is dumb/smart depending on the day. you did not make this point very clear in the previous novel, so do please repeat it every other sentence when it is a Tara chapter. every. single. time. this is actually a little bit of this telling not showing thing that happens a lot in these books. couldve just SHOWN us he was stupid or smart that day with his tests or thoughts or whatever but nah you had to just tell us directly

adolin: in wind and truth, I cannot figure out why every single Adolin chapter has to rehash his feelings towards his father. We heard about them 30 pages ago, we don't need it again, I have memory. the worst part of this book is just how little of a real story is present. For each of the ten "days" very little actually happens. Adolin, for instance, starts the book making a forlorn last stand at a fortress. by day eight, 900 pages later, he's still there doing the same thing. Kaladin starts off on an epic fetch quest, in which he visits about a dozen essentially identical locations (including recursive versions in flashbacks) with no sense of unravelling mystery or significance. by the end of the book, he's still doing the same thing.

for a book with 1.3k pages, there is insane amount of filler, "balanced" by completely ignoring massive events that happen in the book. kaladin finally getting his bridge four tattoo: like one sentence. taln waking up and fighting his way through multiple fused to defend people and dying: literally off screen. fuck even dalinars death is off screen. and i really wouldve loved to see him die. he didnt burn alive like he deserved to but I DESERVED TO WATCH HIM FUCKING DIE!!! also: shallans mom being chana, oh who cares i didnt either... gavinor being 20 years older, nobody cares about that, he kinda just disappears at the end. youd think he’d be hanging around dalinars body and people would be like who the fuck is this guy but nah and last, the issues of how the 10 day format caused the plot to be static and stall for 1k pages lol. first 100-200 pages, ok, last 100-200 pages, ok, inbetween? why am i still here.... just to suffer...

ROMANCE: brandon, i believe has said he hates writing romance and it shows... im gone say it: if navani was a man, you would hate her. IF NAVANI WAS A MAN YOUD HATE HER!!! she literally coerces dalinar into getting with her like 3 times, he constantly saying no every single time, practically begging her to leave him alone until he finally gives in and gets with her. how do yall like her? if their roles were swapped, you would fucking hate dalinar for constantly harassing navani, but since the woman did it, i guess its fine.. the hypocrisy is fucking crazy

the fucking betrothal... apparently this is a unpopular opinion, but frankly i dont give a fuck if your book takes place in a fantasy world with 0 concept of pedophilia*... as the author, you have the choice to make your characters ages the way they are... why the fuck is shallan 17 and adolin 25 grown ass man? if this was real world, hes be in jail bruh. and its supposed to be romantic... his CONTINUED SEXISM!!! which shallan literally notices but AGAIN is not mentioned or confronted. wtf? note its like when i read a classic from 1800s and its racist as fuck and i go i dont like this book its racist as fuck then every fucker and his mother come to tell me noooo its from the 1800s it was ok to be racist then. ok? i dont give a fuck racism is bad now it was bad then.. i dont care whats normal for the time lol. im going to dislike it, and again, as a fantasy writer, you literally have the option to age up or down your characters, there was no need for this straight up fucking pedophilia. idk if im reaching, but i seriously feel like a lot of authors write fantasy like theyre writing historical fiction. youre writing fantasy... youve created your own religions, cultures etc just for them to have the exact same problems we have/had in medieval times. sexism? (including child marriage apparently, with the girl kaladin had a crush on get married at 14/15 to a man who had to be 45+ and nobody gives a shit. also the thing brandon did where she ended up actually liking/loving him is kinda fuckin weird. girl no shes a fucking victim of pedophilia, forced marriage and hell, stockholm syndrome too apparently. we not doing this fuckin noooo she actually ended up loving him uwu) racism? slavery? you betcha, for everyone even. like girl write fantasy. yk what the real fantasy would be? 0 prejudice. world fuckin peace. i mean cmon get creative here..

again: terrible romance. i mildly rooted for shallan and kal to get together, because they are at least closer in age... but frankly she shouldve stayed single. this is another problem in the series that seems to come up, why it seems all main female characters are, really, FORCED to get into relationships with men, (for example jasnah and wit getting together for no reason at all). maybe i am reaching here but it just seems weird, especially considering that all the relationships suck such massive unwashed cock. NOT TO MENTION... despite shallan spending more time in oathbringer thinking about kaladin and how hot he is, (we spend time in adolin and shallan pov, they hardly think about each other??) somehow she and adolin "love" each other after 3 months of meeting. Why? Why The Fuck? not to mention AGAIN adolins BLATANT SEXISM at the end where he says "ill let him have you", shallan repeats it like she couldnt believe he said that, then adolin is like "dont make this harder :(((" then shallan goes on an unbelieveable speech about how she loves and wants to fuck adolin. wow. turns out sexism works when you use it on a 17 year old girl who has no self worth to fall back on. TAKE NOTES GUYS!!!! no wonder he DOESNT FUCKING GROW!!

rlain and renarin: while rlain and renarins relationship is great to see in a sanderson book, its not well written at all. It’s partially the fault of the fact that Sanderson didn’t know what to do with Renarin’s character, partially the fault of the fact that Sanderson has positioned Rlain as The Token Parshendi. rlain and renarin get so little screen time that when they get together i dont believe it... we’ve SEEN them interact like 3 times so we never see any sort of friendship grow at all. so i couldnt give less of a fuck about their relationship because i dont know or care about these fucking people. yay gay written by a mormon i guess guys look hes not homophobic... this literally wouldve been fixed by giving renarin or rlain or both a fucking pov in earlier books but nah. "im worried to write gay characters because im scared to mess it up" heres a hint sanderson. WRITE THEM AS PEOPLE WHO HAPPEN TO BE GAY!!!! Finally, I’ve been uncomfortable with how Sanderson handles Rlain’s character since the Bridge Four days. His role here feels very similar to that of the Listeners in the context of the war. He experiences xenophobia throughout the series, and that’s never really been addressed.

GENUINELY PROBLEMATIC THINGS:

In this book, Shallan says, "Slavery was a mercy for the lower classes." The darkeyes. Sanderson goes out of his way to highlight the different schools of thought, as though he is setting up for a rebellion.(which never happens) But Shallan is so accepting of slavery that it rubs me wrongly. Her nickname for Kaladin throughout the book is "bridgeboy," (as with adolin) which is a reference to his role as a slave. Why is a main character sympathetic to enslaving darkeyes? idk if im reaching, but if i was kaladin, i would not want to be reminded of the part of my life where i literally considered suicide as an escape. not only “bridgeman” - bridge BOY. even more disrespectful as fuck. reminding him of slavery, and also demeaning the fuck out of him, for no reason. adolin starts calling him that out of racism i guess, all because kaladin took control of a situation where adolin was an emotional bitch and couldnt get anything done. be grateful, dickhead. he saved your child killing father... (at the very least, stop calling him bridgeboy..)

when moash gets shard plate and then Kaladin becoming a full Surgebinder they both have their eyes lighten. At face value, it appears brandon is giving credence to the misguided class system. but guess what? by the end of these books, THIS DOESNT FUCKIN MATTER!!!! nobody cares!!! do you have any idea the implications of this??? its like if in this world there was some legit honest to god proof of white superiority, what the fuck would happen? it would be fucking chaos. itd probably be WAR!!! but these people just dont care, that there seems to be legit validity to light eyes being better

also .. man writing women syndrome galore lol. really none of the women in this series are likeable and written badly... just,, this quote from jasnah: “used a fetching face to make men do as you wish is no different from a man using muscle to force a woman to his will” im sorry... in what world is jasnah saying that? nobody with a brain should be saying that and we've already established that jasnah is very big brain lol. i think shallans entire character is men writing women, which is probably why people dislike her so much. and then manipulative navani

the racism/classism dropped plotline was the worst blow. you start the series off with the main focus being a slave who fights against an oppressive system. can you imagine just two books later you have him fully assimilated INTO the very system that enslaved him and he doesn’t even care? you’d imagine with the parshmen gone, darkeye oppression and slavery would be expanded greatly but Kaladin just doesn’t really care and neither does the narrative.

stormlight healing disabilies: why.. why is this a thing?? and nobody ever talks about it.. yeah sure its a society where they dont care about people with disabilities, but idk i was hoping for some commentary on this? maybe the people in question thinking, "hmm.. stormlight healed my seizures. was i not worthy of being a knight radiant with seizures and having to wear glasses?" (as much as having to wear glasses is a disability, its never explained how badly renarin actually needed his glasses, and when he suddenly stops wearing them, NEITHER HIS FATHER OR HIS BROTHER gives a shit and never asks about it.) its very strange. yk whats sad, when renarin was revealed to have seizures, i thought oh cool, ive only read one other book with a chara with seizures. oh neverfuckingmind its healed. i remember someone saying that it was cool renarin wore glasses. well thats healed too lmao. in wind and truth dabbid is followed around by a windspren before kaladin leaves. the guy near kaladin is like yeah dabbids had that for a while he hasnt noticed. then proceeds to say "you think itll fix his problem?" what is this trying to insinuate? he has a speech impediment, thats the only “problem” he has. and why was he singled out with rlain at the beginning to not be a squire anyway? because of the battle shock? or because he slurs? and wtf does that mean? it never goes anywhere and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. like constantly this shit that seems like everybody has to be healed by stormlight their disabilities and everybody agrees is really disturbing. people are like omg rysn!!! disabled rep waaaowoow like girl did you read the other fucking books? and shes such a background side character that doesnt even matter in the first 5 books that i dont understand what the fucks to be praised anyway…

dalinar, love him not being able to handle his war crimes, but i love even more manipulative navani ENABLING his alcohol addiction is insane LMFAO can we get a wife of the year award? she has the audacity to think "why are men allowed to be sad and drink and i have to do all the work" ???? what the fuck are you talking about? YOURE GIVING HIM THE ALCOHOL TO GET DRUNK ON!!! WHAT!?!?!?!? this bitches audacity fucking pisses be off the whole book. my blood pressure rises and i get dizzy with hate. i never liked her. i hope she dies horribly (unfortunately, i guess ill never know. at least she went into a coma, people can get a break from her manipulations.) on that note, gavilar was a piece of shit, but when he calls her out for marrying him for the power and wealth she has the audacity to get mad at him? wahhh my husband doesnt love and respect me wahhh you literally married him for power and then married his brother who is just as bad or arguably worse… for the power and wealth again. i like how it tried to tell me otherwise in rhythm where navani thinks to herself she doesnt want power or wealth and yet married gavinor. so did you marry him because you loved him? because you didnt… (also the part where she considers herself a good wife and mother. my pubic hairs are a better mother. fuck you mean)

dalinar: why do people suck dalinars cock so much, calling him a holy man when hes murdered children via fire and his wife and abused/neglected his own children.(granted this part nobody knows or can accept) if HES holy am i God? i mean seriously, even in this shitty society where they glorify murder, how the fuck are they okay with the burning of a city, the direct murder of children and his wife which btw he had zero remorse for? perhaps he left the remorselessness out of his little book, but in the real thing he couldnt have gave less of a shit... he just felt ah damn gavilar is going to beat my ass for this :\ also the end of part one of rhythm where hes "lamenting" on those murdered children that horns navani up so much they fuck? holy shit that child killer cock must go crazy. that power hungry vagina must be hungry. holy shit. if i fucked for power i would at least not be so god damn obvious or having a lack of morals. if the guy i was fucking for power was revealed to be a child murderer and wife killer i would be like dam that power dont taste that good no more

in rhythm of war, the sibling constantly dislikes navani for imprisoning spren to be used in fabrials. navani says that the other spren have said that the fabrial spren are mindless and therefore it is fine to use them in fabrials. thats weird. that is also the exact same argument they used for the slaveform parshmen, that they were mindless and therefore it is ok to use them as slaves...(this goes nowhere)

while the prejudice against people with differently coloured eyes is a mildly interesting concept, it kinda crashes when it seems the only people with eyes considered "dark" are brown only, and then i did some bare minimum googling and according to the top page first answer, 20-30% of caucasians have brown eyes, 70-80% of Black people have brown eyes, 80-90% of Asians have brown eyes, and 60-80% of Hispanic/Latino have brown eyes. (give or take in accuracy) why do i bring this up? because i remember distinctly that renarin in oathbringer was described as having "sapphire eyes". sapphires are almost always extremely dark blue, with some exceptions, (and also pink sapphires exist apparently). but he is considered light eyed, so do dark green and dark blue not count as DARK eyes? if only brown eyes are considered dark eyes, it kinda just falls back on racism toward brown and Black people again

bad rep with shallans personality disorder… now i dont have a lot i can say about this as i know next to nothing about personality disorders. however, one thing i can say, is that one “stereotype” of people with these disorders is they always have a personality/es that are violent and aggressive. and of course shallan has a violent personality that murdered ialai without her knowing. waaaoww…

why are victims forgiving their abusers? again, something i cant say too much on, but in oathbringer, dalinar claims he hears evi’s voice saying she forgives him. excuse the fuck out of me? she was verbally abused and therefore a victim of domestic abuse… why are we writing her forgiving him? especially after her noticing dalinar actively pretending renarin doesnt exist, and then you know, the part where he burned her alive ALONG WITH CHILDREN AND WOMEN??? on that note, in wind and truth, renarin has a fleeting thought that he has some “resentment” for his father, but doesnt expand on what. explain to me pls, the resentment. the neglect part? the part where he murdered your mother who was the only one in your family apparently to give a shit about you? do pray tell, what the resentment is for. this is never brought up again

Dalinar is as bad as the rapists in the army. in oathbringer, dalinar comes up to sadeas and there is a group of women who are 100% going to be given to soldiers for rape, as thats the only thing soldiers are good at in every reality apparently. i called dalinar a rapist, and someone said they dont think he was. ok. in brandons narrative, he isnt. realistically? yes. he is. but ok, but looks at this scene instead. as commander (i think he was… correct me if im wrong) (or at least a brother to the KING) he should be able to tell his soldiers to not be fucking horrible. He does not do this. when sadeas makes a remark about “looking forward to tonight”, dalinar doesnt even fucking blink. let me explain something to you guys. ill hold your hand. lets make a venn diagram. on the left side, there is a big circle, this circle is the normal people circle. on the right side, there is another big circle. this circle is the creatures who are rapists. these circles dont overlap/ there is another smaller circle. this circle is people who are silent, and do not speak up or stop things that are in their power to do so. where does this circle go? ill give you a hint. NOT IN THE NORMAL PEOPLE CIRCLE!!! you cannot be fucking neutral on shit like that. therefore, dalinar is just as bad as his rapist soldiers.

DEUS EX MACHINA GALORE: everything just conveniently good happens to the characters... in words of radiance, shallan: somehow manages to go into shadesmar just enough to set the ship on fire, survives drowning because of a FUCKING SANTHID which is NEVER EXPLAINED???? like, they know nothing about santhids. if we actually knew things about santhids, brandon could say they are like dolphins in which dolphins sometimes will randomly save a drowning person. deus ex machina? sure. believable? yes. a random nanthid which nobody knows anything about much less what they even look like? she should’ve died… and make the books slightly better! manages to persuade all those bandits or whatever into keeping her alive and they r just like aight. only one who tries to kill her is tyn who of course failed. also she becomes a master con artist so fuckin fast, especially considering how limited tyns lessons were.

kaladin: only thing i can remember is that god damn shardblade wound, which is literally supposed to be unrecoverable, but jk he drinks a healing potion from skyrim and it doesnt fuckin matter. i was like holy shit his fucking arm is fuckin gone what he gone do???? oh jk.

jasnah: somehow survives a fucking knife to the chest (can claim she used stormlight i guess), manages to teleport herself into shadesmar and proceeds to survive there for multiple months

also szeth: strangely brandon seems unable to kill characters in this series having jasnah survive impossibly bc why not, which is weird cause honestly if she died, i dont think anything fundamental wouldve changed about the books at all. shes a completely useless character… and also szeth gets approached by a fuckin god for some reason and hes like "ur cool here get resurrected like jesus. also you get an annoying sword”

dalinar randomly bonding with stormfather by just saying random words. i thought the whole point of becoming radiant was the spren in question had to really pick and choose who their knight would be and it would be about genuine intent and shit and they had to choose to possibly sacrifice themself and die but apparently u can just say some words accidentally as shown in dawnshard with lopen and the spren will go ah fuck we bonded now. not to mention, wind and truth completely just, abolished knights radiant so we go from, a spren picking a choosing and potentially sacrificing themselves all the way to... you dont even have to be bonded to have third and fourth ideals (which are apparently very difficult to achieve) swords and armour, all because adolin just talked to his fucking armour and sword sometimes. are you serious? so whats the point of radiants..probably think, oh what about their powers? well fuck what about them? truthwatcher? i dont even know what those fuckers do. elsecaller portals? who gives a shit, seems everyone can accidentally themselves into shadesmar anyway. windrunner and skybreakers seem the exact same fuckin radiant with flight... i cant even remember what the others are. they seriously seem obsolete..

no stakes: nobody can fucking die. not even a (important) minor character dies or takes a lasting injury. in oathbringer, adolin gets stabbed, and theres no way anybody worried he was going to die, no dalinar becomes god and miraculously frees them from shadesmar right where renarin is so he can heal adolin. coo. the stakes are rapidly decreasing to me in that way and reduces the fun of the action. when characters are constantly healing and battling off insurmountable odds without any failure I just lose interest. stormlight shouldve never been this powerful tbh that was a horrible decision, which couldve been solved by just not having it heal at all. or maybe keeping the cleric-like radiants (truthwatcher and edgedancer) be the healers of the group, and only they could heal other people and themselves, but nobody else can do that) good to know a character can just pause the game skyrim style and eat cheese and be fine lol

Shallan and Kaladin going through the same things they went through in the earlier books, again? Shallan has another deep dark secret? What did she do this time, drown her grandmother? Kaladin is depressed? sure do hope he snaps out of it before the big finale.. (hint, thats not how depression works… source: im depressed)

Wit becomes an insufferable vehicle of exposition and deus ex machina. Wit in the last two books is completely unlike himself in the first 3 books. I understand the stakes have changed for him, but as was the case for so many other characters, his allure was completely abandoned because his unique voice was foregone. he’s never panicked or lost his composure, but in this book, it’s like he has never been composed in his life.

kaladin becoming a "therapist" felt extremely strange to me, for the entire book. there might have been much better ways to develop this aspect of his character, but straight up calling him a therapist, and then having him "cure" Szeth and his spren after a few days of conversation. i mean szeth literally after like day 4 is like, ok kaladin ur right... im going to kill myself instead :D and then two days later somehow is convinced that kaladin is right and actually hes not going to kill himself? ok.... And then curing Nale by literally playing a tune on a flute. it was so wildly far-fetched for me that I couldn't help but feel myself cringing. NOBODY - seriously, nobody - lives through the kinds of things that Szeth lived through and then finds healing and peace after a few days of therapy. Yet not only Szeth - a 7,000 year old Herald overcomes his mental obstacles just as quickly? buddy i havent even half the traumas of those two, had 2 years of therapy (searching for a new therapist :D ) and im still depressed AND im on anti depressants. i understand that it says multiple times that it takes time, but still that nale is able to snap out of his "fog" so quickly is insane. then ishar, well at least the flute playing didnt work on him, but saying an ideal did...somehow lol. despites szeth's 5th ideal not working, kaladin says the 5th ideal, blasts ishar back with a "burst of power" and when ishar wakes up hes like Holy Shit Im A Bad Person.

UNCATEGORISED: Elhokar: he is dead. his death had no effect on the story, nor the development of any of the characters. kaladin mopes for a bit, then his little depressive episode clears up after about (checks watch) 24 hours. he is almost practically forgotten about in the same chapter he is killed in. Navani cries for like a sentence when she hears the news, but swiftly moves on, he is never brought up again. no other characters brood over his death in a meaningful capacity, we don’t even get to see any kind of funeral rite for him.

There is a frustrating lack of gravitas in many scenes. Lift appears at the tailend of what was set to be one of the better chapters in oathbringer, when Dalinar first meets Odium, seemingly only to deflate any tension by making comments about his butt and how she dislikes old people. Szeth now has a sword that talks in the same particularly childish quippy way as Syl, who already talked in the same particularly childish quippy way as Shallan. its like a gd marvel movie, a moment cant go by without a stupid joke. please... shut... on that note, nightblood i believe is an insanely old consciousness, why is it so childish? i understand why syl was childish at the beginning, but she never grows, changes or matures in any way whatsoever as she gets her memories back

sadeas got killed by Adolin at the end of Words, nothing comes of it ever. there's a cursory investigation but when the copy-cat killings are revealed to be the work of one of the Unmade, it's forgotten until Dalinar wants to make Adolin king. so Adolin admits to killing Sedeas. and then nobody cares still. i was hoping for some real complications to rise from that. adolin had some guilt but it was barely a factor. also it never comes up again and nobody cares. aight. look, did sadeas deserve to die? yeah. but why does nobody care about finding the murderer? the copy cat killings had to be based on the original murder of sadeas, therefore, to everyones knowledge, the murderer is still at large. but its ok nobody cares ig

shadesmar: this is more of a personal opinion lol.. but shadesmar is so boring!! why are the spren just humans? its like reading a faery book and they are just hot humans. give me weird shit. i dont want humanoid beings with a strange "pattern" for a head. give me fuckin weird little imps and shit. nah not only do the spren take on human forms, they are just alethi most of the time. ?? its so boring.. for example, i was imagining the honourspren being like, translucent spriggans from skyrim. crypticspren incomprehensible shit. inkspren as some sort of squid sorta thing. like wtf get creative. youre writing a FANTASY PLEASE!!!!!!!!! why are they all humanoid im bored

im not convinced that renarin and adolin give a shit about each other. there are MULTIPLE instances where renarin is COMPLTELY forgotten and its like, brandon why the fuck did you even bother writing this character? way of kings, when adolin and dalinar come back from almost being fuckin massacred, renarin gives adolin the good ol clap on the shoulder. WHAT???? BUDDY YOUR BROTHER WAS ALMOST KILLED HUG HIM???? in rhythm, adolin is going to leave for shadesmar for who knows how long and who knows what dangers lie ahead. his shitty father talks to him and gives some speech and fucks off. renarin is NOT mentioned and nowhere to be found. why wouldnt he say goodbye to his brother hes supposed to care about? again, in wind and truth, adolin goes off to azir to fight again unknowable dangers and can possibly die as he isnt a radiant to heal himself. renarin is nowhere to be found and never says goodbye. in wind and truth or rhythm, dalinar is playing with gavinor and lamenting he didnt witness more of adolins childhood. renarin is NOT mentioned. this is a huge tell not show thing because i think its mentioned a few times how adolin cares about renarin and vice versa, but i dont see any god damn proof of this.

the spiritual realm: in wind and truth, our next big disappointment was the Spiritual Realm. we were, again, led to believe that this realm is extremely dangerous: Wit and the gods were supposedly afraid of the Spiritual Realm because it was difficult to navigate, time was easy to lose, and you couldn’t know what to expect. it turned out, however, that the Spiritual Realm is just a mindscape-style place that was rather easy to navigate when you actually try for more than 2 seconds. the most difficult part of being in the Spiritual Realm is, apparently, confronting yourself/your history. we’re again in a situation where I feel like I’m supposed to be impressed or enraptured by the new setting and overlook how dreadfully boring the plot occurring there is. what a god can do in the spiritual realm is so confusing. what tara cant do: find radiants when their spren is hiding them. what he can do: recreate a fucking simulation of an entire city and its people

dalinar: he had one job and he fucked it up astronomically. and this is the most unforgivable part for me. when faced with Adult Gav, Dalinar proves he has learned nothing from his jouney of the past five books. he does not even TRY to save his grandson, or to reconcile with him. not even when adult Gav is frozen by Odiom, not even when he is visibly weeping because he knows he was deceived. Danilar doesn't even fucking try. No apologies, no "I love you's", no "we didn't know and if we had, we would have torn the whole Cosmere apart trying to find you's." The only options he sees are "Kill grandson" or "let grandson kill me." He doesn't even fucking try to find a third option. The Bondsmith doesn't even try to reinforce the most important bonds of all: those of his own damn family.* Had he been able to get through to Gav, and to in turn persuade Gav to surrender, he could have so easily won everything. *note of course this isnt surprising how shit he treats his entire family considering he hated, verbally abused and eventually murdered his wife, (who nobody forced him to marry btw) and also neglected his sons, and even when he got "better" he still had a clear favourite in adolin and continued to pretend renarin didnt exist because he had seizures i guess. the moment renarin revealed himself as truthwatcher, suddenly dalinar is like holy shit i forgot about this one. anyway, he decides to pass the entire problem on to the next generation. but not before making the absolutely batshit decision to abandon his oaths, allowing Odium to kill the Stormfather and assume true supervillain status. and, through the killing the Stormfather, he has also allowed the planet to be stripped of its most important resource, not just for the Radiants, but for the world economy. Dalinar has single-handedly undone centuries of societal progress. he makes the most self-centered decision he can possibly make, and fucks everyone else in the process. And all of Roshar is going to hail him as a hero for it. (see: wit going holy shit hes a genius just so people can continue to dick ride him is insane bruv) its literally like "wow! he made the situation worse 100x, kills himself and leaves it for the next generation! what a hero!” ????? in this world when old people leave shit for us younger generations ,we hate them usually..

other thoughts: this is more of a personal Hot take but I believe that the Cosmere with its characters and lore that connect brandons different stories works best when it's kept as a simple framing device. as his stories have expanded to includ more and more characters from different worlds, it feel like he loses focus on the important character of those stories. it also leads to a lot more bloat and is probably the reason that this is his longest book yet.

theres also a problem i noticed in this book especially of strange modern language being used a lot, making me think perhaps an editor does not exist..? (i cant remember if the previous books had this problem) examples: "literally" (i never saw that used before) "therapy/therapist" you can claim wit introduced them to this words but idk... "alcohol" instead of wine like previous books. randomly mentioned is "200 proof alcohol" huh? when the fuck they start doin that? lift using the word "hot" to say attractive, again, has never been used in this way before. kaladin randomly says "okay", nobody has ever said okay before. there can be something said for the word “awesome” being used (100% by lift) the way it is. the first version of awesome used was to indicate horror or fear, as opposed to our modern use to indicate amazement. lift uses this modern version, and compared with nobody else using the word awesome ever, its very jarring

in wind and truth, both sigzil and child killer break their oaths and kill their spren for some greater good (?) however, in the same book and literally the same day, szeth casually releases his spren from their bond and his spren does not go deadeyed and is perfectly fine. are you telling me this entire time the radiants couldve just "i release you from your oaths" and the spren wouldve been fine? nobody tried that ever? they just immediately jumped to, "i renounce my oaths" rather than a more kinder "i release you from your bond". granted, the radiants from 4k years ago didnt know the spren would go deadeyed, but i still dont understand why they never tried that out of curiosity. not to mention, renouncing your oaths required you to genuinely believe that. also, szeth easily releasing his spren from the bond and not killing him makes sigzil and dalinars decision more stupid

correct me if im wrong, but im pretty sure may aladar isnt among the women adolin was sexist to in the first few books, so as far as i can remember shes introduced in wind and truth. why the fuck is her name may, when we already have an established character whose nickname is maya??? no joke, i literally got confused multiple times on which may/a was talking.. you are writing a fantasy book and have 74 billion options for names and you pick one thats one letter off from an established character

writing in world swear words is all well and good but i dont understand what type of swear "storms" (and other storm words) is supposed to be when everybody and their mother will say it for anything and everything, so it makes me think its a "mild" swear word like crap or frick, but then there are times when it sounds more like a "fuck" like for example in rhythm of war and lirin is trying to stop kaladin from fighting and possibily getting his family killed , kaladin says "storm you" (which first of all, kinda cringe i aint even gone lie) which SOUNDS like a "fuck you" moment, but again, everybody uses "storm" for everything and everyone so i just dont understand what type of swear word it is. take it from someone who swears like a sailor- in books (and other media) i think swears should only be used when they could have a real impact. if "storm" etc was replaced with "fuck" and "shit" etc i imagine there might even be complaints about how, perhaps, immature the characters sound when they are swearing all the time. i think "storm" shouldve been used a LOT less than it was, because it was hard to tell what kind of emotion (?) the character had when they were using it, and again idk the severity of the word in the moment when it is used

why does mayalaran talk so modernly? the last time she was alive was 4 thousand years ago, she should be speaking the equivalent of ye olde english (hell, the language the people spoke 4k years ago was described as a whole different language) and people having a hard time understanding her and vise versa, but for some reason she speaks their modern common tongue extremely well, even calling adolin a slut at some point. where did she learn to speak their modern language? shes been practically unconscious for 4 thousand years with no one teaching her that. on that note, why does everyone in the visions speak again ,perfect modern common tongue? apparently with child killers bondsmith powers he can understand them, but this doesnt explain why in other POVs they also understand them perfectly

this is a little nitpick but the pursuer was written kinda shit. so youre telling me this guy has made a tradition in hunting down humans that killed him? ...so hes been killed by humans multiple times before enough for him to make it a tradition? it doesnt make him seem competent or scary at all if hes so easily killed… instead, it wouldve been better if kaladin was the first human that killed him, and it enraged him so much that he demanded to be the only one to kill him, thus turning him into the pursuer. otherwise, i feel like i can take on this guy with a kitchen knife lol

END: im going to end this essay by quoting a review i saw on storygraph (who then quoted it from reddit) which pretty much summarises the main problem with these books: "A book needs to be able to stand on its own, not just be a vehicle to provide context for previous novels and propel future novels."

[stormblessed95]

Hi i just started way of the kings, bc that was the only book from sanderson that i found, and i really wanted to start a deep series (like i have completed both percy jackson series, all 4 shadowhunter series, sjm universe all 3 series and ofc harry potter) and they were good but i wanted a more deeper well thought out more mature series, and i heard everyone like not even one single bad review from my fav book readers that i follow. I really hope i love this (cldnt get into lor or got series idk why maybe will give a try again) but can you give a timeline or any link which will explain it and the sequence of books in each series, if you wont mind. thanks,

ps its sort of sad the low amount of effort that bighit puts into jimin releases, not even mere promotion or posters even or pre order/save links or a larger grp of sites to but from or a europe ver album (which btw all of teh above that everyone else got, all the members did and pjms (no major account or so called ot7 army) are the ones promoting or putting up fliers and posters for promoting its just sad and so hurtful to see. its just so sad when people put side by side pics of jm and other member's stores and pre order links for thier albums and see jm's being like 4 stores long just that short list, it was really just sad. people have to beg them to give the pre -release songs pre order and pre save list and got that liek 2 days before the release, is just straight up negligence and mistreatment, it was really shocking to see esp since i became an army during proof era and the chapter 2 comebacks were my real full comebacks the clear discrepancies in releases of jm and others shocking (i agree even v faced some but not to this amount sry and how the rap line projects always get the lowest amount of engagement esp hobi and his hots album/documentary) i dont like solos always but in these moments when i see real tiem engagement by pjms on insta and twt i sort of become thankful for them, bc otherwise this album would have been in the gutter and esp with geffen vp streaming head's twt/comment , its really just disgusting to see, never have i seen such blatant disregard for an album release. Its just sad just very sad. anyways, thanks for the stormverse information in your recent ask, it helped a lot!

Anon come back! Lol was the list of books in last ask not what you want? Are you asking for a timeline of all the books in the cosmere in chronological order? Or just the Stormlight Archive series? Which starts with The Way of Kings? (feel free to give me updates as you read anon!!)

Stormlight Archive series includes:

Book 1: The Way of Kings

Book 2: Words of Radiance

Book 2.5: Edgedancer (Novella)

Book 3: Oathbringer

Book 3.5: Dawnshard (Novella)

Book 4: Rhythm of War

Book 5: Wind and Truth (comes out Dec 2024)

.

As for the rest of your rant, I can agree that the effort Hybe has been putting into promotions for BTS lately have been abysmal, especially for who BTS are. They can and should be doing better in that aspect. But I don't super want to get into that honestly. Lol I just want to focus on enjoying what IS coming out and the efforts from the fandom too

[slightlybiasedbookreviews]

Books read in January 2025

The Compass Rose Ursula K le Guin 📖

How Long 'Til Black Future Month N.K. Jemisin 🎵 read by various narrators

Oathbringer Brandon Sanderson 🎵 read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading

Rhythm of War Brandon Sanderson 🎵 read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading

Continuing to work through the Stormlight Archive in order to catch up to friends. (As of writing this I am finished the series) I also spent some time reading a couple of short story collections from two of my favourite authors. The Compass Rose was delightfully weird!