#the ending of elantris makes no sense

[sedgewicke]

When you have 60+ years of supernatural fight-monk experience but suddenly find that you have no idea how to break a chokehold from some one-boned fool who doesn't even have an online certificate from Bone College and should already be dead from blood loss.

[cosmerelists]

Ranking Cosmere Planets By How Cool I Find Them

[Contains spoilers for all Cosmere! I'll list the books in the title so you can skip the ones relating to books you haven't read]

The Cosmere has some very cool planets: but which are the coolest? In this list, I will rank them by my own definition of cool, which I'm defining here as "Planets where my interest in past or future stories is chiefly driven by the nature of the world itself."

#13: UTol (From Yumi and the Nightmare Painter; this entry also contains a spoiler from The Sunlit Man)

UTol is the sky planet that Painter can see from the surface of his world, Komashi, and we get a glimpse of it just right at the end of Yumi. It's also possible we get a glimpse of the same world right at the end of The Sunlit Man, but I don't think that's confirmed. Anyway. It's an ocean world, and the inhabitants have four arms and may have originally been from Yolen. But we don't learn anything cool about the world itself, really. I guess the fact that it can always be seen even through the shroud that otherwise blankets Komashi--that's cool. But I don't know if that's UTol's doing. Maybe when we get more info, it will turn out this planet is super ultra cool and then I will look like a fool. But for now--eh. Oceans. With water? Yawn.

#12: First of Sun (From "Sixth of Dusk")

First of Sun is a hostile world with jungles and oceans and magic birds. It's cool--as all Cosmere worlds are in my opinion--but none of it had any special, extra coolness for me. I suppose I've never been much interested in parrots, and also its only feature story so far was quite short.

#11: Braize (From Stormlight Archives; this entry also contains a spoiler from The Sunlit Man)

I am legitimately curious about Braize, Roshar's "Hell" where the Fused were imprisoned by the Heralds. Like, what is Hell like in a material sense? I want someone to visit it (and I really want to know if Sigzil has been there himself, based on his mentioning a Hell visit during The Sunlit Man), and my curiosity makes it seem more cool. But not too cool, because for all we know, Braize is super boring. We just don't have enough info yet.

#10: Nalthis (From "Warbreaker")

Nalthis has some interesting things going on, planetarily. People don't always properly die, which anyone who cheated and already looked at my #1 planet already knows is something I enjoy. It has some unique cultures, which is also something I enjoy in a Sanderson world, although the differences are painted in pretty broad strokes. It's colorful. I don't know. I'm not super into Nalthis, but it definitely has some cool aspects.

#9: Taldain (From White Sand)

I have a shocking confession that I forgot to include in my authorial confessions list: I haven't actually read White Sand. At least, not more than a few pages before I got frustrated with how hard it was to read it on my phone, which is where I had access to it. Anyway. I do think the general set up of this planet is legitimately cool: tidal-locked, I think, with a Dayside and a Nightside which each have their own magic system. There's a lot of sand. Water matters. I think there are magic tattoos. So I can't rank this too highly myself simply because I don't actually know much about it, but it does seem "Top 10" cool.

#8: Scadrial (From Mistborn)

Scadrial has an advantage because it has Time Periods, and really is a pretty different world in Era 1 vs. Era 2. I have a dark fascination with Era 1 Scadrial: the ashfalls, the mist, the slow but inevitable apocalypse constantly creeping closer...would NOT want to visit, but it's cool to read about. Era 2 Scadrial is bright and shiny in comparison. I'm not much of a Wild West gal myself, but there are giraffes, and that ups any planet's coolness, even if it has lost its brooding volcanos. Oh! And I hope we hear more about the Southern Scadrians too.

#7: Sel (From Elantris and The Emperor's Soul)

I've been trying to judge these planets based on the planets themselves rather than on their magic systems...but on Sel, can you really separate those? The magic is based on geography, after all! Anyway, I like Sel because of the wild things going on with its pooled investiture. I don't understand computer programming and so I may or may not really get its magic, but I like the fact that it ranges from the stately, sometimes assholish Elantrians to Soul Stamping. It's all very cool.

#6: Lumar (From Tress of the Emerald Sea)

Lumar is very cool. Like, color-based aether seas that each react differently to water? Rain as a deadly but necessary thing? The color borders where one aether sea meets another? Sailing on something other than water?? I ate it all up. Tress's world is wild and creative and definitely lots of fun.

#5: Roshar (From Stormlight Archives)

It's hard to separate Roshar the planet from the people and stories there, as I think it's the Cosmere planet I've spent the most time on, metaphorically speaking. But I gotta say, the idea of a constant, world-spanning storm that spits out magic and death--that's cool. A whole world that's inhabited only by crab-versions of things? Well, I hesitate to call that cool exactly, but it is...something. Plus, so many different cultures and religions and ideas on Roshar, which I really enjoy.

#4: Canticle (From The Sunlit Man)

Listen, I love Threnodites. Wherever they pop up, they are doing wild things and refusing to properly die and having names that are...let's say unique. And Canticle is quite the interesting planet. Imagine--not being able to stay in one place because you're constantly fleeing from the deadly sun while trying not to get too far ahead lest to stray into the constant fire tornado. Imagine powering your ships with dead-people batteries and doing engineering with your captive ghost engineers. The place is tiny and super invested and also an incandescent lightbulb or something. Again, I would NOT want to visit but that world is damn cool.

#3: Komashi (From Yumi and the Nightmare Painter)

I think my love of Threnody really affects these top picks. Komashi doesn't have Threnodites, but it does have the weird creepy shadow monsters which I apparently...love? (Learning much about myself writing this.) But in all seriousness, I really like Komashi and I am so curious about it. The idea of Virtuosity and how she manifests as both magical paintings and magical rock stacking. I am so curious about the magenta and cyan coloring and how Sanderson says its based on printers somehow and that yes there is one color missing (what??). The way the inhabitants just lived in a thick shadow sludge with lights creating small habitable zones...like, again, horrifying but such a cool and creative world to explore.

#2: Yolen (No books so far)

Maybe Yolen is super boring. But it is SO mysterious that it can't help but be cool. I mean, this is where the Shattering happened! I think it's where Hoid is from. I think there are dragons. It's just gotta be cool, right?

#1: Threnody (From Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell)

But my favorite planet, for whatever reason, is Threnody. I am dying for another story set on that planet. I am so curious about what the Evil is, and I want to hear more about the people living in the literal Forests of Hell. The Shadows and the rules that you have to follow to survive them, the use of silver, the fact that Threnodites just can't catch a fucking break. I am fascinated by all of it, and I think that Threnody is the coolest planet in the Cosmere.

[tbookblurbs]

The Sunlit Man - Brandon Sanderson

4.25/5 - Classic hero epic, Sanderson manages his ambition, fun but with a sizeable amount of depression sprinkled in

SPOILERS BELOW!

I'll admit, I was shocked to read this book and not have it end in the usual pace-disaster. But that's a plus in my book! I also felt that this was a step up from Sanderson's earlier standalones, in that he is far less ambitious (positive) and is thus able to deliver a solid plotline with meaningful characters beats and interesting worldbuilding without overextending himself on any of the aforementioned. In my opinion, both Elantris and Warbreaker suffer in some degree because they're standalones. To me, Sanderson is meant to write epics. He's one of the few authors that make me go "pick the pen back up, we're not done here." Too frequently, authors overwrite and I feel the need to ask them to put the pen down. Close the laptop, if you will.

I liked the return of the Threnodites and their fun names (Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our Plight-Eventually is just hilarious to me), and their sense of faith is something that stands out in this book. As always, I think that Sanderson's plays on religion, devotion, and being the object of devotion is something that's just so fun to read because he has slightly different takes on it every time.

The detractor for this book is that I spent the entire time slightly distracted from the actual plot trying to figure out when everything happened. I knew Nomad/Zellion had to be someone from Bridge Four early on, but then figuring out how he had the time for this extensive backstory stuck in the back of my mind and piped up every time Zellion reflected on his past (which was frequent).

That said, Zellion has a delightfully realistic character journey. He's gone through a lot at this point and it made more sense for him to be unable to fully overcome his trauma (though he tried his hardest!) in just a few days with these people. Some very healing scenes, hoping and praying for Kaladin to please also be less depressed in the future.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

I have now finished with Elantris. Overall? I’d say it’s a good book. Both Raoden and Sarene were enjoyable protagonists, and Hrathen was an interesting antagonist. The ending did seem a bit rushed, and I kinda have to roll my eyes that the grand solution to Elantris’ curse was… drag a stick in the ground over here for a bit. I mean it actually does make logical sense with the right context*, but still, superpowers obtained by drawing a line in the dirt. Still, I did like how they still don’t know nearly enough about the magic system for comfort, especially since the villains have figured out their own way to tap into it, and while the Elantrians’ magic seems more powerful, that’s only while on their home turf, while the “monks” of Drakhor don’t suffer that restriction. Plus apparently there’s magic martial arts out there too? Dunno what’s up with that, but then, neither do they.

---

*And I imagine they’re going to want to make a more permanent mark of some kind there and not just a line in the dirt, like some impressive stone structure or a new road or something lest, you know, the fall happen all over again by accident. And come to think of it, would that mean that they have to keep the cities the same size as before lest one of them outgrow the Aon Rao rune and throw off the load bearing feng shui? Or is this a massive case of how the Aons created by an Elantrian can't be casually unmade by an non-Elantrian and so they don't have to worry about another city/species/magic-sub-system collapse due to erasure or growth? At least until another major quake. Or global warming changes the coastlines.

[artethdilaf]

I love elantris because I love zombies and civil unrest but also because I love when your antagonist just doesn’t make any fucking sense.

You’re a prestigious alumni of bone school, and your boss is like I need you to sit around out west for me for a bit so he sardine cans your body into a different race (even though you could just go as is and it would have been just as inconspicuous. What the fuck. What was the purpose? Who cares we aren’t going to talk about it.) You go to immerse yourself in another culture and end up in a situationship. She loves you even though you are deformed (blonde, short) and then gets sick. You assume that the guy who fucked up her healing knew that you were a dahkor spy. How would he know that? Shut the fuck up. Death to all.

[toctheyounger]

Can someone tell Sanderson that I'd rather get Warbraker 2 than Mistborn era 3 or the Elantris trilogy ?

[thewildwaffle]

Capsaicin

Combined ideas from a03 users Penguoncat about alien's reaction to humans eating extremely spicy food and Lord Elantri about aliens watching a human do something that even other humans think are weird. (I might use this one again, as it really is a fun premise.) Thanks for sharing those prompts! - and for waiting for me to finally get around to writing them...

*** *** ***

Kreechen Feeks and Human Rose watched their crewmate from across the cafeteria as he pestered anyone near him for attention. “Come on! You dare me to eat it? Yeah?”

Justin, the newest human on the crew was holding a small fruit in the air, pinching it like it was something dangerous. He was quickly getting quite a crowd around his table as fellow crewmates ambled in for their mid-cycle meal.

“This is one of the hottest peppers on Earth! It makes your yorbas root look like children’s candy in comparison!” This last bit was aimed at Garbon Milben, who usually sat with the same group Justin had gravitated toward since arriving. Milben just shook his head and muttered something that Feeks and Rose couldn’t quite make out.

Everyone seated at the table, as well as the onlookers, must have heard just fine though. There were a couple of “Oooohs,” and nodding chuckles from the crowd. Milben looked pretty smug.

“Hmmm, yeah maybe that’s spicy for you, but I’ve had some before and barely felt it. Back on Earth, we have this thing called the Scoville scale…”

Feeks noticed Rose put a hand to her face and shake her head. He caught her eye and gave her a quizzical look.

“I’m getting second-hand embarrassment,” Rose leaned in to explain. The cafeteria was getting pretty full and noisy, and Justin and the crowd weren’t making things any quieter. “New guy really thinks he needs to spell out just how tough he is, huh?”

Feeks laughed. It was true. Every so often a new crew member would do something similar to make their mark and stand out. Humans certainly weren’t the only ones to do so, but when they were, oh flarg it could get out of hand pretty quickly. In comparison, Justin eating this weird “pepper” thing seemed pretty tame. “Hey, at least he’s not trying to speed-herd Artsurian bulls like Biet Luko did.” Rose sighed and laughed as well. “Yeah, I guess you got me there.” “Still,” Feeks tried tuning his ears back to what was being said at the other table, “what he’s doing has to be something for it to be such a flex, right? I mean, eating stuff isn’t usually the go-to when one wants to show off. What’s up with the pepper he’s got?” Rose squinted at the small food item in question. “I didn’t hear what he said it was,” she paused and hummed, “but if I were to venture a guess, I’d say it looks stupid spicy.” “It looks spicy? How does something LOOK spicy?” “It just does. I’m not sure how to explain it.” Rose caught Feeks expression and laughed. “Oh don’t give me that! It’s- umm, I guess it’s just from experience. I used to help my mom keep a garden, and she would always have a few peppers. The spiciest we ever grew were jalapenos, but there’s just something about the REALLY spicy peppers that just look… dangerous somehow. I don’t know how to explain it.” “Hmmm…” Feeks wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but he knew that’s all he’d get from Rose for now. Humans did sometimes have a strange sense of otherwise undetectable dangers.

They watched a bit more in relative silence as Human Justin was hyping up the crowd even more about how high the pepper in his hand ranked so high on the Scoville scale and how he knew someone who ended up in a hospital after eating one. The more they listened, the more concerned Feeks got. “Rose, correct me if I’m wrong, but capsaicin doesn’t actually harm humans, right?” He wondered how many other crewmates were eyeing the contact for the ship’s doctor on their comm device right about now. Everyone knew humans were no strangers to sometimes eating things they really had no business ingesting. Rose shook her head. “Pure capsaicin can. It can make people sick if they eat it. It’s also definitely not good to inhale it or get it in your eyes. But eating a pepper with capsaicin in it? Ehhh… probably not?” “Probably?” Maybe Feeks should call the doctor in after all. “Well,” Rose continued, “I mean, it’s going to suck and be painful to eat. That stupid pepper of his is going to smack his pain receptors around and make them super sensitive to heat. Then his brain is going to think his own body heat is burning his mouth alive.” Feeks scrunched up his face in a look of disgust that made Rose laugh. “So why eat it?” Feeks lamented as the pair watched the human across the cafeteria lower the pepper into his mouth as the crowd around him cheered. “Why do humans do this kind of stuff?” “Dude, I’m human and even I have no idea.” The cheering reached new heights as Justin closed his mouth around the pepper and began chewing. Even from their distance, Feeks and Rose could see his face slowly start turning an alarming shade of red. “Oh my stars,” Rose’s hands came up to her face as she stared ahead. “He’s such an idiot and I can’t look away.” Feeks felt the same but didn’t say anything. He was too immersed in watching. Human Justin, to his credit, kept his composure pretty well. For a while. He started coughing and struggling with the now pulpy pepper in his mouth. Tears were mixing with sweat to pour down his face. Screams and cheers were echoing all across the cafeteria. Even though he was in pain, Justin had what he wanted- everyone’s attention. Too bad he was too busy being otherwise preoccupied to properly enjoy it. “Well,” Feeks finally broke their observational trance, “the new guy’s definitely making a name for himself with this. Everyone on the ship’s going to know who he is.” “What a name,” Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smile, “the guy who ended up in the infirmary after three cycles aboard because he nearly choked on a pepper. Oh shoot, he’s running to the garbage. Is he going to spit it out or is he going to… oh, yep. Gross.” And with that, the trance of being unable to look away was broken. “I’m a bit afraid to ask,” Feeks pushed around the last bits of his meal, not sure he felt like finishing it after that display, “but is this something a lot of humans do regularly?” Rose leaned back in her chair and thought. “I mean, some do, I guess. There’s a bunch of different spicy food competitions, and people purposefully breed pepper hybrids that are as spicy as physically possible.” She sighed and shook her head. “Personally, I’ve never understood those kinds of people. I like a bit of heat, but they take it to a completely different level. All they get is heat, there is no flavor, there’s no enjoyment in the food. All there is is burning pain. And I've heard that if it burns going in, it burns coming out.” “Thanks for that image. I’m definitely done eating now.” “Yeah, me too.” Rose scooted her chair back and picked up her and Feeks almost empty food trays. “Let’s get out of here. I still got a few more moorts of rec time to enjoy not watching Justin make a fool of himself for clout.” Feeks followed quickly behind. “Humans are so weird.” “You can say that again!”

[17th-shard]

It's Time to Come Clean

We ... have been lying to you, and it is time for us to admit the truth. We know that what we're about to say will disappoint some of you. Others will undoubtably take joy in our forced admission here, but either way, we can no longer live with this secret. And so, the time has come for us to admit the truth. We've been lying to you. Over the last nine months, we have acted with extreme irresponsibility. Because we accidentally recorded an extra podcast!

We are extremely excited to announce that at long, long last, we are starting a new series where we reread various Brandon works and talk about our thoughts! This show will be both on our YouTube channel and our podcast feed, and will be weekly! We'll be starting with Mistborn: The Final Empire starting May 7th, so if you want to read along with us, get started on that! We'll be doing a Mistborn book a month until the end of October, right before The Lost Metal's release!

This is not the typical readthrough podcast, or the typical reread show. Most shows like this would go through a set of chapters or a part of the book each week. This is what we tried in Shardcast's earliest incarnation, where we did three chapters of Elantris at a time. We felt that pace was a little slow and had some problems with us keeping up excitement and pace of recording. So, our new reread show will be different: instead of going over a few chapters a week, we will have four episodes per book where we can talk about the book in a more broad sense and hit the big highlights.

We'll have an episode on general thoughts, one on characters, one on magic, and one with full-cosmere spoilers. So for Mistborn 1, the first three episodes will only have spoilers for that book until we do that fourth cosmere episode. Then, when we do Well of Ascension, that will inherently have spoilers for previous book in the series during those first three episodes, with the fourth being full-cosmere. This should hopefully be a good balance between newer readers and many of you who have read the entire cosmere. These episodes will be more around 40 minutes as well, rather than our extremely long Shardcasts!

So you can plan your own reread with us, our schedule will be:

Mistborn: The Final Empire, May 7th through May 25th

The Well of Ascension, June 1st through June 22nd

The Hero of Ages, June 29th through July 20th

Mistborn: Secret History, July 27th and August 3rd

The Alloy of Law, August 10th through August 31st

Shadows of Self, September 7th through September 28th

The Bands of Mourning, October 5th through October 26th

After that, we'll take a bit of a break and return in 2023 for more cosmere works and Stormlight!

We've really wanted to do a show like this for literal years. The deep-dives on Shardcast are still going to be very important, but we want to do more shows and videos than just Shardcast. We want to have content for every Brandon fan, so having both shorter content and content where we go through the books themselves was always something we wanted. Our founder, Mi'chelle, who hasn't been on many Shardcasts, has wanted to this for so long, and she will make her grand return in this show!

Don't fret, this is purely an addition to our content, and Shardcast will release at its usual pace. How will we record all of these while also doing Shardcast? Well, jokes on you: we've been recording these for ages in preparation! We're a well-oiled machine at this stage!

We hope to see you May 7th for Mistborn: The Final Empire, and we hope you enjoy this!

[kalessinsdaughter]

Elantris, chapter 15

kalessin reads cosmere

chapter 1 | chapter 14 | chapter 16

It's ironic that Hrathen appears to have more curiosity and concern for the Elantrians, than any Arelene we've seen so far. And he's nevertheless determined to sacrifice them, letting the end justify the means.

He seems to be honestly determined to keep bloodshed to a minimum, yet he doesn't question a creed and a system that demands it. It's as if he can't even think the thought. He's working hard to convince himself that his actions here (and earlier in Duladel) are necessary for the greater good. He sounds like a man who is clinging to the belief that the cause he's working for is good and just, not out of real religious fervour, but because if it isn't, then what does that make him?

Ooh, he's meeting with Telrii! Are we finally going to learn what their bargain is?

Hm, so Telrii has learned about Hrathen's role in Duladel? And now he wants reassurance there won't be a repeat performance. Fair. Hrathen is basically saying that Wyrn could take Arelon by force, and that Hrathen is the soft option.

Interesting bit about the monasteries training monks in martial arts and assassination. Is that why they are outside the Derethi hierarchy? And Hrathen trained at such a monastery? His memories don't seem very fond. He sounds ... afraid.

Oh, Telrii is being offered the throne, provided he supports the Derethi cause! That makes sense.

So Telrii has also seen through Sarene's ruse? I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. And now I wonder what the news was that Hrathen prevented Sarene from overhearing?

Why does Hrathen want Telrii to cultivate the Elantris Guard?

Hey, he wants the Guard to bring Elantrians to him, to study 'for theological reasons'? That doesn't sound good at all!

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Thoughts on Mistborn Era 2 (Wax & Wayne):

My main take on these was “ah, looks like Brandon’s taking some time off from his magnum opus to write pulp Western/detective/crime novels”, and I was very amused to look up Brandon’s comments and see a ton of interviews with him saying, “so, this is absolutely me having some fun writing pulp Western/crime novels”. It’s nice to have a writer who’s not too proud to - accurately - describe his own stuff as pulp yet still do a good job of it. They remind me a little of the Dresden Files in terms of the mystery aspects, the urban fantasy tone, the wit, the lack of diplomatic/political subtlety of the protagonists and, of course, the rampant property destruction. But Brandon’s a much more thoughtful author than Jim Butcher, and treats his female characters better.

On the topic of gratuitous property destruction: Wax, for goodness’ sakes, stop shooting the ground! That’s infrastructure, Wax! Fixing the streets takes work, Wax! You’re not a dusty dirt road in the middle of nowhere any more, Wax! Just drop a coin like they dud in the old days! Or a shell casing or bullet if you desperately need to be hardcore. But rampantly firing off weapons in urban areas just to get a base for your Allomancy is a terrible idea.

This was a wonderful follow-up to Mistborn because it was a lot lighter and the stakes were a lot lower, which is nice for a change. I was reading the intro to Elantris where it was talking about people in Brandon’s early writing group telling him he needed to raise the stakes, and personally, I like low stakes. Well of Ascension/Hero of Ages were a grind, much as I liked the ending, and I would be up for more stories like Dawnshard, with low stakes and the heroes resolving the plot by non-violent means.

Marasi and Steris are both very well-done characters - I was definitely shipping Wax/Marasi in the first book and had no expectations of the Wax/Steris engagement lasting, so I was quite surprised, but the switch was well done and I liked it. Marasi and Wax’s feelings were a crush/hero worship and a rebound, respectively. And it’s nice to see a relationship grow gradually like Wax and Steris’ did. What Brandon did with Steris, starting out with a portrayal readers are unlikely to lije and letting her grow on them, is risky (especially with female characters) because readers may hold to first impressions, but I thought it worked very well.

Wayne’s backstory and reaction to it hit hard and was one of the best elements in the series. Another entry in the diverse array of Sanderson redemption arcs. It’s interesting because Wayne both is and isn’t haunted by it - he takes it seriously, it affects him deeply, but he doesn’t habitually brood, and it doesn’t prevent him from being a generally lighthearted, funny, silly person most of the time.

Wayne is absolutely right about the value of certain goids being an arbitrary thing invented by rich people. I’ve had caviar, once (as a garnish on a nice pasta dish at a fancy restaurant). It tastes like nothing. Entirely nodescript. The sole purpose of caviar is to communicate “this dish is fancy (and so, by connection, is the person eating it)”.

I’m deeply protective of Sazed and get very affonted when characters criticize him. I think he’s done an excellent job. It’s hard to wrap my head around the sheer scale of Bleeder’s overreaction to the possibility of her boyfriend moving back to the city. Though on one level it makes sense in that the kandra are of Preservation: she is going to see maintwnance of an existing situation as inherently better and more desirable, even if a change could still turn out well and be something Wax enjoyed. And I don’t feel like Sazed telling him about Bleeder being Lessie would have helped anything - it just would have made the decision to kill her harder, not less necessary, because she was incredibly malicious, destructive, and dangerous and there was no other way of containing her.

The resolution of Shadows of Self is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see, politically: the mass protests and risk of riot over poor wages, unemployment, and mustreatment of workers is resolved by a committment to address those problems, because the workers’ anger is legitimate and their cause is just.

I’m heartily frustrated by Wax, because it is his responsibility - it is literally his job, he has employees and a Senate seat! - to address the major political and economic problems of Elendel, and he neglects them. I don’t care if you’d rather be out shooting things! You have resposibilities! The workers in your factories are the source of the money and prestige that lets you engage in your gentleman-crimefighter hobby, and you owe it to them to see that the city operates in their interests. You can do far more good in that way than by shootin’ bad guys. Do. Your. Damn. Job. Steris seems to be nudging him in that direction, at least.

In general I’m impatient with a lot of the law-enforcement attitudes. Miles is a villain for whom I have absolutely no sympathy. Oh, so you’ve turned evil because, despite your 15 years of work in law enforcement, crime still exists? Yeah, maybe that’s because your belief that crime will stop existing if you shoot and/or hang enough people was never realistic. Likewise with Wax’s skepticism regarding Marasi’s ideas on how crime can be reduced through better urban planning and social policies - no, Wax, it won’t entirely eliminate crime, there will always be people who are just plain malicious, greedy, venal, or violent, but if you can reduce it by, say, 50-70% by better social policy, that would still be a good thing, right?

The period newspapers are great fun. I want a TenSoon plushie! Come on, Brandon, you’re musding out on a fantastic marketing opportunity! The one thing that bugged me was the ‘Pewternauts’ in The Bands of Mourning. In the first place, it’s a nonsensical name - real-world dreadnaughts, of which these are obviously supposed to be the equivalent, were called that because it literally meant ‘these having nothing they should fear’. The apex predator of military warships at the time, if you will. You can’t just create a random fantasy portmanteau amd pretend that it works - it’s like calling a scandal in a fantasy novel something-gate even though the Watergate scandal doesn’t exist in that world! Secondly, dreadnaughts were part of a massive military arms race in a world where European wars had been commonplace for centuries. The Elendel basin had never had a war in 300 years - these aren’t something that someone would invent just off the bat. Having similar technology to turn-of-the-century earth doesn’t mean it will be applied in the same ways, not with a completely different political context.

In general, New Seran’s complaints seemed overblown. Yes, the transit system treating Elendel as a hub and lacking effective connections between the outlying regions in aggravating. (It’s a provlem that plagues urban public transit systems even now - most routes are either local or feed into the city centre, with relatively few goung from one suburb to another, even as trans-suburban commuting vecomes more common.) But it’s not remotely the kind of thing you fight a war over! I feel like Brandon’s trying to recall the American Revolution, a bit, but the distances are so small (Elendel and New Seran are about as far apart as Ottawa and Toronto) as to make that ludicrous. What they really need is some kind of equivalent to a regional district authority, where representatives of multiple local governments can get together to work on issues of regional planning.

[gideonthefirst]

7, 8, 9, 35 :]

7. How do you go about making a character or NPC?

Well. I go "what paladin subclass do I want to play now-"

Mostly I have a few options. Either the DM sends a piece of lore or information that really immediately hooks me and then I build the character based on what I think makes sense for connecting to that (Aegis), I see the hook for the game and identify a problem I foresee having that I want to avoid (a lot of Aa's backstory came from me going "okay how do I make a character who will be For Sure able to be functional in the context of what Elantris is going to be" (and also I'd already been assigned a class), and then third is just going mechanics first based on party comp and what kind of game it is and then building out from there.

8. What is the most memorable natural 20 you’ve ever experienced?

Man. I'm not gonna count crop for reasons of "witnessing" and "experiencing" feel different, so I think I'm gonna go with Wrenara's three-in-a-row crits to kill Brutus. Crazy. Insane. That combat was insane. And then Aegis's critting naturally against Durandal twice in session one and Alita's first crit with the sword were also delightful :]

9. Has one of your d&d characters ever died? How?

Dari's died twice and been revivified twice, one of which was because of being intentionally reckless and one of which was just because when you're the main melee guy sometimes you get killed. Gundalf died in Troika! and then got brought back with a really lucky roll. Andromeda died in Lex but only after winning; it wasn't "being killed", it was "the goal of the game was to get revenge on our killers so we could rest" and we "successfully" got revenge and then the game ended with us passing on. And then Hyacinth died a week ago when 4e TPKed to a mummy fight in the first big dungeon :) OH! AND AEGIS GOT DISINTEGRATED! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE! I highly recommend being disintegrated. It does wonders for your character development.

35. Favorite classic d&d trope

I don't know what this means even a little bit <3

[someonelookingpraediti]

Currently Reading...

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson

Day 1: Part One

This book has been sitting on my shelf for… years. Enough that I’ve lost track. I haven’t read any of Brandon’s work outside of the Cosmere, because frankly, my brain isn’t big enough to hold all of his books.

Side note: if you haven’t ventured into the Cosmere, I recommend you start with Elantris, and start immediately.

But I read the first few pages of the prologue on the train into work this morning, and as always, he had me hooked from the beginning! It’s so different from his other work, but it’s so Brandon.

I’m already trying to guess the twists that I know must be coming - and I’m sure I haven’t even come close to getting it right.

And I absolutely love this new version of Earth he’s building for me. I’m so used to him creating new and fantastic planets to explore, I never thought he could make our own so interesting! But Brandon just has a better imagination than I do, I guess.

Day 2: Part Two

Well, I'm fairly certain I know what Steelheart's weakness is... which probably means I'm completely and totally wrong.

I'm wondering which of the Reckoners I shouldn't trust, because at least one of them has to be hiding something big, and one (or all!) of them is possibly working for the enemy. I think maybe the ones I don't trust are Prof and Tia. Which obviously means they are the only ones I can trust.

And I love that David knows everything about every gun ever made, but can't come up with a single workable metaphor. Brandon always writes such intensely likable leads.

Day 3: Parts Three & Four

His writing is so clever, I just can't grasp how he manages to emphasise plot points just the right amount. You read something and think, "that's definitely going to be important", but then almost immediately forget about it because so much other stuff is going on. Then something else will happen that links in, and you'll remember the original clue with perfect clarity and think, "it's all coming together now!!"

The one thing that every one of his books has in common, the thing I love, is how everything starts to snap into place as you near the end, and all the clues fit together to reveal the picture he wants you to see, and then as you watch the minor plot points come together, the real plot twist will smash into you from the side like a speeding train. And it'll make perfect sense when you look back, but you were so caught up in the pretty story being told, you didn't even think to look for it.

The ending was perfect. It makes me want to read the rest of the books, but doesn't leave me on a cliff-hanger feeling unfulfilled; so I can take a breather and read something else for a bit. Also, the name of the next book now makes so much sense, in a way I didn't even realise I was missing out on.

Oh, and I was totally wrong about Steelheart's weakness. I think I came pretty close, though.

[mikkeneko]

Got tagged by @ushauz to do Ten Favorite Characters. This post will probably take me a couple sessions to put together, so expect lateness.

As always I am stuck on the scope of the question. Ten favorite! What does that even mean. Ten I thought were the most interesting? The most enjoyable? Characters from comfort series I read a lot, or only read once but really stuck with me? Through the years? Recently? I guess I can just pick the first ten who come to mind.

1. Ista dy Chalion from the Curse of Chalion/Paladin of Souls books. People like to talk a lot about how there should be more middle-aged matron action/adventure/fantasy heroes, well, here’s one. We meet her, at the start of the books, in a very bad place -- she had a stint as a Chosen One god-avatar in her teenage years which absolutely wrecked her life, and she never recovers from it. (Although even in the midst of her Noble Tragedy, she never loses sight of the fact that her nobility does  afford her a certain amount of privilege that other women will never have.)

Over the course of the second book she is  finally able to move on and recover from it. She starts the book as a crushingly depressed/nervous wreck of a powerless widow, and ends it as a demon-eating sorceress-paladin of a bastard god, with a sexy illegitimate trophy twink on her arm to boot. (I very much doubt that she and Illvin would ever be able to marry, all things considered, but one of the important things she learned -- as a woman whose entire social life had formerly revolved around chastity and propriety -- was to stop letting that bother her.) And she does it all without ever letting you forget that she is a highborn noble lady.

2. Wei Wuxian from The Untamed. Given how much of my mental real estate he’s taking up recently, I surrendered to the inevitable and gave him a spot on the list. I outlined a lot of the reasons I like him so much in this post, but aside from all of that there’s the fact that good (or at least good-hearted) characters who use ‘dark’ powers are magnetically appealing to me.

3, 4, 5. I almost feel like Fai Fluorite (from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles) Anders (from Dragon Age) and Caleb Widogast (from Critical Role) should all have to share a spot on my list given that they all follow the basic formula of being the Traumatized Cat-Loving Magic Man. It’s not quite  that simple -- they all have pretty distinct stories that go in different directions -- but I sort of feel like... I spent 369,149 words explaining why I love Anders, I don’t think I can do it again but tiny.

6. Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica gets a spot on this list, I think, and a spot in my heart. I don’t talk much about the series because I don’t have a lot of original things to say, but I was just reminded of this show recently and how good it was and how good she  was -- my brilliant, brave, determinator of a girl with a love as vast as the ocean. And sure, maybe she was willing to burn down the world for the sake of that love, but I sort of feel like that puts her in good company on this list.

7. I’ll go ahead and put Geralt of Rivia (from The Witcher, games and Netflix) on here; I dunno if he’d still make the list 10 years down the line, but I’ve spent a lot of time in 2019-2020 mooning over how great he is, so might as well. He’s not as firmly dead center My Type as some of the others, but he certainly fits the criteria of Unfairly Attractive, Extremely Traumatized, Surprisingly Sassy, and Tragically Good-Hearted. The good-heartedness is key! He could be as pretty and traumatized and witty as he likes but if he were fundamentally an asshole, I would not care about him.

8. Ciaphas Cain (of Warhammer 40k.) In a landscape of published fiction where heroic action characters all tend to follow very similar beats, the debonair, devious and cowardly Ciaphas Cain stands out in a way that really wormed its way into my heart. His books do tend to be a little formulaic, but sometimes that’s just what you need. And the best part about reading the entire series in one go is getting a sense of the shape of the man behind  his constant façade of self-deprecation and realizing that as much as he demurs being the brave and kind hero that his misleading reputation paints him as, he is actually pretty damn heroic on his own measures -- he cares about people, even the people under his command who he properly should be thinking of as disposable pawns, he’s way  more tolerant of (non-hostile) xenos than 99% of his countrymen, he moves time and time again to block harm and do good in a way that goes beyond his pretty flimsy excuses of ‘well I had to do it to maintain my reputation.’ 

The main reason he’s so convinced that he’s not a real hero is that he’s been raised in a (lbr, openly fascist) empire so steeped in propaganda of glory and sacrifice that is literally impossible to live up to (since the number one tenet is dying gloriously for the Emperor.) He led an entire caravan of people from the heart of bombed-out, occupied territory in a refugee march that ended up liberating the entire damn planet, he did that,  and while he would never have survived without a healthy dose of luck it was still his leadership and skill  that took full advantage of that luck. The Imperium of Man, frankly, doesn’t deserve Ciaphas Cain.

9. Raoden and Kaladin (of Elantris  and The Stormlight Archives) both share a slot as Brandon Sanderson protagonists who occupy pretty much the same narrative role: they have lost everything, been socially and physically rejected pretty much down to the dust, tossed into a role of waiting for death to come for them in a variety of cruel forms; and instead of giving in to despair they both say no.  they both say, I do not accept this for me, and I will not accept this for them either,  and they both gather fellow outcasts around them and build themselves a kingdom out of mud and scraps. Yeah, it’s a trope he uses a lot, but it’s a trope I like. (And, come to think of it, a category that Wei Wuxian and Ciaphas Cain both fall under as well. Hm.)

10.  Skywise (of Elfquest.) Honestly, at this late date I doubt I could muster an essay explaining why he is the Best Elf. All I can tell you was that this series was super duper  important to me when I was a teen, and he was my favorite character from that series. He loved to explore, he loved new knowledge and the sky and the stars, and he loved his friends and family a whole lot.

That’s that! Hmm, who to tag? @cygnahime, @cerusee, @araglas1989, @drowningbydegrees , @jaggedcliffs, @fairandfatalasfair, @fledgling-witch, @overthinkingfeathers, if you have not already done it and are interested!

[libralita]

I'm sure you've covered this before but is there a way to read the Cosmere books to maintain the best order and actually pick up on all the details? I've looked through Brandon's website and it's hard to workout what order there can be between the different books and series. I've read through all of Mistborn and SA through Oathbringer, but I feel like I'm missing a proper way to read through it all. Appreciate it.

I’m of the philosophy that you should read the Cosmere in mostly any order that you want. It’s pretty hard to find a lot of these small details on your first read through, unless you know what to look for. Even then I’ll miss a lot of details and it’s not until the rereads that I find them. Maybe it’s just because I’m the least observant person on the planet Earth but that’s kind of how I see it, though my mindset has changed slightly.

Oathbringer has a lot of references to the Cosmere and I think the Cosmere is starting to get to that point where you need to read some books before others. I think in like 10 years when we have more of the cosmere published then the fandom and Brandon will be able to give a more definitive reading list. So, I’ll try my best.

Mistborn Era 1, Elantris, White Sand and Warbreaker - this books I’m calling “foundation books” which means that they don’t have a lot of references in the Cosmere, in the stories themselves. You’ll get a Hoid cameo, there are little hints but nothing outright talking about the Cosmere. These are going to be the books that are referenced in other Cosmere books either characters or events that have happened in them. So, I think these are good ones to start out with. They’re also pretty easy to get into. I would recommend going in Era 1, Elantris, White Sand and Warbreaker in that order.

Mistborn Era 2 - This is kind of an in-between series. There are bigger hints about the Cosmere then something like Elantris, however we’re still getting a taste. I would just recommend reading White Sand before reading Era 2. Other than that, this is a good middle one. But then there’s Mistborn Secret History

Mistborn Secret History + Arcanum Unbounded - Mistborn Secret History is a short story that was published around the time Bands of Mourning was published. Most people in the fandom agree that this should be read after Bands of Mourning. Then Arcanum Unbounded is a collection of short stories in the Cosmere. I think these should be the ones read towards the end of the Cosmere. A lot of them have spoilers for the series they’re in so it makes sense to read them after you’ve read the mainline books. The one that would wait to read is Edgedancer which takes place between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer.

Stormlight Archive - This is the big one. I’m pretty sure all of the Cosmere books have been referenced in this series. You’ve got characters from previous books popping up. You’ve got plotlines referenced. Possibly this plotline is bleeding into other stories. It’s the big one. So this should be the last series you read. Now, like I said before, you probably won’t find all the references. Like, Demoux from Mistborn is in one of the interludes for Way of Kings. And how you know that is in Hero of Ages it is mentioned that he gets a scar from one of the battles of his face. And then Thinker has a scar on his face. So like, some of the references are stupidly hard to find. But it is part of the fun!

[loopy777]

have you ever read warbreaker? and if so, what is your opinion on it?

Coincidentally, I got a copy just about a week before this Ask came in. But with the busy holiday times, I only got to start reading it recently.

Well, I just finished it yesterday. Brandon Sanderson is still reliably good at writing compelling characters, interesting settings, plots that are supported by the world-building (as opposed to the other way around), and twists manage to both shock and feel natural.

That said, this book was merely Okay. I wasn’t especially taken with ‘Elantris,’ either, so Sanderson continues to underwhelm me with his single-novel works. His series and short stories, though, have consistently impressed me. It’s weird that he needs to be too long or too short to be great. XD

I think the main problem is that two of the three main characters are mostly reactive characters who struggle to achieve agency. I liked the arcs of both Siri and Vivenna, but they spend a lot of the story developing as characters based on their experiences but not actually driving the plot in any way. Siri herself has basically no effect on the climax, yet she’s our main POV character for what’s going on in the palace. Granted, things wouldn’t have ended the way they did without her earlier influence, but by the time the climax happens, her part is done. Likewise, Vivenna at least gets to help out in a fight, but that is mainly about the confrontation between Denth and Vasher, and Vivenna’s assistance is incidental.

Speaking of Denth and Vasher, they’re the ones actually driving the plot for almost all of the book (and long before, it seems). So what we seem to have in ‘Warbreaker’ is the story of these two rivals and how a war spins up around them, and briefly two princesses get swept up in it near the end. It’s certainly a viable choice to tell the story from the POV of what I call Companion Hobbits, but then the Companion Hobbits should have a bigger role in the overall climax or else pass out of the story for their own climax. Instead, Vivenna and Siri stick around but don’t really end up earning their places, as far as story construction goes. It’s a very odd oversight from someone like Sanderson, who is so meticulous with his plots, and I wonder if ‘Warbreaker’ was perhaps rushed out in an incomplete state. Did he start developing it as the story of Denth and Vasher, and then tried to retrofit it to accommodate the princess characters? Certainly, their homeland is oddly unseen considering it’s at the center of the stakes for them, getting only a brief glance in the first chapter and with only a single Quirky Cook named character representing the entire population.

Everything with Lightsong was great, though, even through the whole tunnel mystery doesn’t seem to make sense in hindsight. Something Sanderson never loses the knack for is fun comedic characters who can take on serious and even noble roles.

As far as the magic system and world-building, Sanderson does his usual good stuff, but I feel like basing the magic system around color is a weird choice for a novel. I kept reading about bright colors and mixes of shades and extravagant decorations, and all of it was limited by my own abysmal artistic imagination. It worked well enough for the story, but I feel like an opportunity was lost in not making it a comic book.

Also, this is easily the Sanderson work with the most nudity and sex in it. Not that there actually are any sex scenes, but sex is acknowledged as something that exists, that people do, and many want, and some don’t. And people actually get undressed or run around in soaked shifts ‘on-camera,’ even though nothing is described. I think the sum total of sex-mentions in his entire previous oeuvre was a hint that Vin and Elend had a brief honeymoon while fleeing the siege in the Mistborn trilogy, and a gag where Wayne and MeLaan are caught in a closet like a pair of teenagers in the second MIstborn trilogy. So that was amusingly unexpected.

So yeah, it’s an okay novel, but I could only really recommend it to Sanderson fans. I’d pick any one of his other works, ‘Elantris’ included, as a better introduction to him.

[deathvsthemaiden]

10 Favorite Characters Meme, tagged by @lissar (ty!) to list 10 of my favorite fictional characters and tag 10 ppl.

1. Jane “not your English Celine Varens” “Provoking puppet” “little bungler” “mocking changeling” “mustard seed” “Janet” Eyre of Jane Eyre I cant put it in words I just love her 🐦 <3

2. Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek. I wanna be HER when I grow up 🤩 (I’m kidding) I love her hyperbolic speech (it reminds me of how I text) and her tendency to wordlessly scREAM her feelings no shame no consequences. Her confidence is one of the best parts of the show ansbdjsnns 🌹

3. “Yes indeed, a mythological murder case...Obviously I’d appear!” (FGO)

Sherlock Holmes! 🔍💙🔎 gonna cheat and sandwich 3 separate versions of the same dude into one bullet point because they’re all endearing jokers whom I love for basically all the same reasons. The Fate Grand Order, original (Arthur Conan Doyle) and Granada editions of Sherlock Holmes are my all time favorites I’ve seen so far. Grand Order took him by the collar from 221B and quietly placed him in a universe where All Myth Is Real and was like “what if the mystery this time is to find out who ended all of humanity?” LOVE that for him. ACD canon is just cozy and fun and the fact that Doyle grew sick of Holmes just makes the books even better to me 🤭 And Brett’s passion for Holmes and accuracy are obvious while watching Granada. And it definitely doesn’t hurt that FGO seems to have taken inspiration from the show for their own Holmes.

4. “Did I hate him then? Indeed, I believe so. A love like that can grow to be nine-tenths hatred and still call itself love.”

Orual from Till We Have Faces. priorities! She has them. Star of one of my all time favorite Greek myth retellings ever. I’ll admit I don’t remember the book perfectly well but I understood her anger so well back when I was reading the book and I remember rooting for her the whole time.

5. Albert Honig the mc of Telling the Bees by Peggy Hesketh. I have a fondness for kindly old men narrators and bees. And murder mysteries. Guess what this book has? 🐝🍯🔪

6. Inho Baek of Cheese In The Trap. Long suffering piano-prodigy-delinquent-man I knowwww your story is done being translated I’m just Afraid To Look. Soon! I will revisit you soon...in the meantime stay safe and protect your hands sweet prince 😬🎹🧀

7. Adamant “this is a kind child” “crying is a defect” “I love you all” Sensei of Houseki no Kuni (he’s the strongest bc he’s LOVE INCARNATE!!) 💎🥺♟💖 Despite all common sense I maintain the hope that he will never bite the dust (unintentional and morbid pun if u know anything abt Hnk)

8. Evi Kholin from The Stormlight Archive. miss I cant think too hard about you without tearing up I have so many spoilerific teary thoughts to share but for the sake of brevity I’ll just say: everything that happened to her hit too close to home and was also just. Massively unfair. I wouldn’t change it though bc it hurts so good and had appropriate levels of nuance and complexity and whatnot. The mysteries surrounding her were worth waiting till Oathbringer (Bk #3) for. I do seriously wish jokes weren’t the thing that made up 90% of her tag though :/ maybe I’ll take pains to fix that myself one day. Perhaps. 🤕

9. Ellie Miller from Broadchurch! Another one of many altruistic fictional detectives I love.

10. Eton the Mad Prince 👑 and would be canonical older brother of Raoden had Brandon Sanderson not scrapped him from Elantris altogether. I get why he did but the deleted scenes on his website....hysterical. He would have easily made it into my top 5 favorite cosmere characters of all time if he’d made it into a published work. I love (fictional) monarchs of dubious (in)sanity and the best part is how in the deleted scenes I linked there’s no one we see him messing with more than Hrathen who, being canon, really /is/ in my top 5 favorite cosmere characters of all time. Those deleted scenes are probably safe to read if you’ve never read Elantris and intend to btw, proceed with caution.

Tagging: @pinkafropuffs @kashilascorner @kandraswithhats @makruh @iwaizuml @fruit6at @sjouno @ayuumaku @elfenana @xviicprc @howaboutswords and anyone else who wants to do this should! Tag me if you do 📚