Brandon Sanderson

Hoid absolutely was referring to the Shattering there, yeah. That line is honestly probably the most informative thing we have about not only the Shattering but also the nature of Adonalsium itself.

I think they were saying it to the people of Yolen.

I also want to note that, by the end of The Lost Metal, Wax appears to have become a Mistborn, and it was mentioned early on that Steris had indicated that she wanted to have a third child. Meaning that said third child and any of their descendants could potentially also be a Mistborn.

I suspect that will come up in Era III. And wow, I'm actually really looking forward to Era III now.

Tress has so many wonderful callouts. "Death and the spikes in his eyes" made me stop and go back while listening to the audiobook. "Like the ships that arrived on your own planet" was a good one. And, of course: "That is probably the craziest, most reckless thing I've ever heard someone say—and I was literally part of a secret plot to kill God."

Okay, I need to read less Reddit. I was browsing a thread talking about The Sunlit Man, and one users said that because there was a group of Scadrians helping the villain, they wanted to see all of Scadriel burned to the ground. Which is certainly an interesting take, but not exactly the most well-reasoned one.

I do have to wonder where the fanbase is going in the future, especially if multiple established worlds end up in conflict with each other.

Nomad even took time to mention that most scientists are perfectly reasonable people, but groups like that self-select for a lack of empathy. Hell, the only time he made a comment about Scadrians as a whole was to roll his eyes at "their obsession with metal."

Making my way slowly through Way of Kings. I'm 700 pages in.

Kaladin's backstory is bumming me out man. Like, seriously to an almost unfair degree. XD

I get it Sanderson, Kaladin's comically tiny brother with the cherub face is going to get fucking slaughtered.

Edited by GNinja on Nov 8th 2023 at 6:06:08 PM

Defiant is out. Anyone else read it yet?

I did like the resolution of the plot, the way they had a brutal solution several times and explicitly chose something else. I do wish we got to see more of what the Superiority thought of the whole mess, though. Cuna said people would try to fight against a dictator with laws and bills, but we never actually confirmed if any of them even disagreed. I guess it's not super important, in the end, but I would have liked to hear if the average citizen called bullshit on the "criminal suspected of trying to use delvers as a weapon against humans somehow gets proven right at the perfect moment, and also he's claiming to have delvers ready as a weapon."

Crap, didn't even realize. Thanks for letting me know.

I got the remaining Stormlight Archive books for Christmas. Im nearing the end of the first book finally.

As stoked as I am, you can't imagine the dissapointment I felt when I read the blurb for the second book, only to learn that Szeth (the one character from SA so far that I really don't like) is gonna be the main antagonist of that book as well. Though to be fair, I'm not sure how his plot could possibly be resolved in the last 100 pages of this book, so I should have expected this. And I hope my opinion changes when I learn a bit more about him.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 28th 2023 at 8:20:22 PM

I don´t really remember Szeth being the main antagonist in Way of Kings. Didn´t he start the plot by killing Gavilar and then was pretty much removed from action? Could you refresh my memory what exactly his plotline was, i don´t want to risk spoiling stuff by getting the timeline mixed up.

That said from what i remember i think it´s somewhat hard to declare someone the main antagonist throughout the entire book. I mean maybe Jasnah for Shallans plotline, but Dalinars and especially Kaladins plotline (if i remember correctly) deal much more with them fighting with society/their role in society, than with any individual person.

Szeth spends a few chapters being bounced around from master to master, before ending up in the hands of some guy or organization who tasks him with killing a bunch of important people. Where I am the latest thing he did was kill the king of Jah Keved. You're right he's not so much the main antagonist. I guess I just mean I don't care about his plotline at all.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 28th 2023 at 11:23:13 AM

Well i´ll just say Szeth is/was never a particular favourite of mine, but his plotline will definitly become more interesting. There´s still a lot about him we don´t know, but (very minor spoiler for the as of yet unreleased book 5) that should change when Book 5 comes out next year and shows his backstory

I think I'm mainly waiting to see if the whole Truthless thing is purely cultural or if there's some kind of magical influence going on.

Because if it's just his culture, then that's absolute bullshit and he can go eat a dick XD. And I resent his whole woe is me routine about how it's so terrible that he needs to kill all these innocent people because someone else told him to. When he doesn't need to do this at all.

So that's why I'm really hoping there's more to it.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 28th 2023 at 11:54:25 AM

Spoiler for book 2, but since we're talking... yeah, it's purely cultural. And when Kaladin finds out about this, he's pretty much all "eat a bag of dicks, dude." Though from what we know of his backstory, the whole situation is genuinely a huge deal. He thought the Voidbringers were returning, and stole one of the most sacred weapons of his people to lead the defense. He was "proven" wrong, named Truthless, and sent out into the world as a slave-soldier with his stolen weapon. The problem being that normal Truthless don't have freaking Honorblades, so instead of getting killed in a few weeks and serving his penance that way, he cut a bloody swathe across the world.

The short version is that a lot of people who really should have known better are either insane, or are basing their beliefs on lies and the words of insane people. Remember: Roshar isn't really a functional society. This is a planet that doesn't realize it's still been in the middle of an apocalypse for thousands of years.

Regarding wether it´s magical or just social, remember that one of the Shards on the planet is literaly called Honor. Oaths are a huge deal on Roshar, in both the magical and cultural sense and the two can even mix. Book 2 spoiler though in this case it´s purely cultural.

Spoilers for up to book 4 I don´t believe he even stole the Honorblade. Szeth mentioned that he was trained in all Surges, at least by approximation (like ice-skating as a standin for Abrasion) and that Ishars honorblade had been wielded by his father Neturo. So he likely grew up as a kind of heir for wielding an Honorblade. Being made Truthess is also an incredibly harsh punishment (with the blame for all sins ordered being placed on the Thruthless), that relies exclusively on the punished being extremly honorable. That makes me believe it´s a punishment reserved for wielders of Honorblades and Szeth was the legitimate wielder of Jezriens.

Isn't it a religious thing as well, where being Truthless and not doing what you're ordered will damn your soul? I think I remember something like that.

I dunno, I just think it's pure heel heat that he has the gall to feel bad about slaughtering innocent people if that's not going to give him any pause in doing so whatsoever. XD

Like, he clearly has enough of a moral compass to feel bad about slaughtering people, when he could just... not slaughter people.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 29th 2023 at 12:55:25 PM

The whole core concept of the character is that his moral compass requires him to slaughter people while also telling him that slaughtering people is wrong. "It's not a big deal, he should just throw off a lifetime of cultural mores and do what I, the reader, think is morally correct" feels like deliberately missing the point.

I don't think I'm missing the point, personally.

My issue is that his moral compass DOESN'T seem to be that different from mine. Which makes his insistance on obeying his oath feel even more reprehensible.

Like, WHY is it so important that he obeys anyone who holds the stone? The thing with culture and tabboos is that even if I don't aggree with the society's values, ideally I should at least be able to see where they might have come from, or what the person fears might happen if they go against those values.

What does Szeth believe will happen if he breaks the oath? Why does that hold more consideration for him than all the innocent people he's slaughtering?

I could imagine some or even all of these questions being answered, but I just cant shake the feeling that Brandon wants me to feel bad for Szeth now, and I just don't.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 29th 2023 at 4:18:52 PM

I mean, yes. Those are the questions you're supposed to be thinking about. Those are the points that make the character interesting. Instead you're just writing it off as "that's stupid, he should just not be morally conflicted instead."

Edited by NativeJovian on Dec 29th 2023 at 11:19:44 AM

I mean, the only reason I'm tempted to write it off is because, as I said, I feel like Brandon wants me to feel bad for him.

Am I wrong about that?

Also, he mentioned earlier in the book that he can't obey an order to kill himself. It's one of the few things he can't obey. Because if he did, it would end his punishment. Which implies that being ordered to do things he doesn't want to do is the point of his punishment. In this context, being ordered to slaughter innocents is good in a way because it's a punishment. It's something that hurts him to do.

But unless I read that wrong, this means that Szeth isn't really conflicted about killing people so much as the punishment is working exactly as intended from his perspective. He's being forced to do unsavory things, and it makes him feel bad, but ultimately he thinks he deserves to feel that way because of what he did. Which means he thinks his punishment and his pain is more important than the lives of all those people. Any guilt he feels causing their deaths is an intended byproduct of his situation, which he knows and believes he deserves. Which I do find disgusting if that's the intention.

Edited by GNinja on Dec 29th 2023 at 4:52:03 PM

Minor spoiler: We're four books in now, but we still know very little about Shin society. That interlude from Way of Kings where some merchants trade with a Shin is still our only scene actually set in Shinovar. The ending of Book 4 promises some major characters will be traveling to Shinovar in Book 5, so hopefully we finally get a clearer picture of how their society works, and why fulfilling the Truthless punishment is such a big deal.

If you can't find an empathy for a good man both causing and enduring untold amounts of suffering because his society tells him that he must, then I don't know what to tell you.

Can't speak for the OP, but I'd say regardless of feeling empathy, I just found the Szeth sections to be extremely monotonous and unpleasant, though it's been a long time since I read any of this series.

I'm struggling to remember the series, but there's at least one fantasy or sci-fi series where the main character, for a perfectly legitimate reason, is deeply depressed and the writing does a good job of putting you in that mindset...and as a result, I basically just gave up because it was really, really unpleasant to read about.