I hope we get a 'Hoid explores the cosmere' series one day to tie everything together. As is, I can't keep track of the over-arching story.

 

Spoiler

ShallanXKaladin, OTP! It would be glorious for the five minutes they would last before killing each other.

But seriously, not gonna happen. Sanderson is probably putting it in there as a thinly veiled attempt at creating some future drama between Kaladin and Adolin and/or giving Shallan something to angst over.

 

Kaladin/Syl 4eva. You know it's gonna happen.

 

Spoiler

Wish it would. Prefer it to Kaladin/Shallan which has been set up in this book, rather clumsily I might add. It didn't really detract from this book, but I can only hope it doesn't detract from future books.

Still don't really like Shallan.

Really my only criticism, other than that I loved this book and then some.

dafuq is a night blood, did I miss something?

 

Night Blood is the sword from Warbreaker.

 

Nightblood is the only interesting character in Warbreaker.

Basically it's a sentient sword imbued with the personality of a happy puppy and the combined bloodlust of Ted Bundy and Norman Bates.

 

Shallan was much more interesting in this book, when I first found out she was the main character like most people I was not looking forward to it.

The main gripe that I have with this book and most of Sanderson's work is how come everyone has to end up with powers, Mistborn there was no reason for Elend to gain powers as with Dalinar, I was disappointed with yet another fake death and then him gaining the remnant of god as his powers.

It's going to be Shallan+Adolin though, in the next book or 2 there will be a saga where Adolin wonders if it should be Kaladin and Shallan however Adolin will magically become a Knight and they will live happily ever after, Adolin being king. (Somewhat sarcasm)

btw, frist post

 

I don't get the Shallan hate, people. Kaladin is a pretty meh and generic character over all, not easy to distinguish from so many other protagonists who brood a lot, are conflicted, really good at fighting and try to save their team. He was okay in the first book due to the world-building that was involved in his backstory, but without that, he really wasn't that interesting and his parts were more annoying than anything else, until he got his head out of his ass, at least.

Dalinar is okay, his POVs are interesting due to the political situation involved and the whole visions angle and how he interprets that is rather interesting.

Adolin was a character that was completely forgettable in the first book, at least to me. Never thought a second about him after I was done and I couldn't remember him until reading this one, but here, he was rather entertaining and likeable. I quite enjoyed his chapters.

Shallan had the least to do in the last book, and while she was not the breakout character there, she was certainly here, having the most, and more importantly, the best parts. Her situation and struggles were by far the most interesting. Her power-set, too, is the most fun to read about.

Spoiler

Especially the whole undercover and sneaking in stuff was awesome, trying to infiltrate various factions, taking over caravans and all, coupled with her more academic side. I really, really hope this Kaladin and Shallan baiting was just that, baiting because that romance would just be gruesome. Curiously, I didn't particularly mind the Adolin romance, partly because of its political nature and also, well, she is rather young with 17, so, understandable that she gets a bit swept up a bit, and that prevented it from becoming painful.

So yeah, her personality, skills and backstory were by far the most interesting to me, don't get why most of you hated her

As to the book, really enjoyed it, read until half past 3 in the morning. Think I enjoyed it more than the first, as it had better chapters more often, but it also had weaker chapters, mainly the Kaladin ones where he is just angsting.

The interludes, at times, were meh as well. A few were interesting, but a few were also completely jarring as they interrupted a particularly interesting development on the main character front.

Spoiler

Called that the second son was a radiant and it would really, really surprise me if Adolin wouldn't become one as well. Dalinar "becoming" one was a bit silly though, just the way it was handled. "Yeah, me too, please" was pretty much what he said to the Stormfather.

I was rather miffed at the early deathscene but I was equally miffed at her not being dead (or being in the afterlife/spirit-world of sorts, not too clear on that, was rather late when I've read it) since that seemed a bit inconsistent. Same with the "death" of the assassin, whose survival seemed pretty weak. Enjoyed Adolin killing Sadeas though.

Am really glad that this book wrapped up most of its hooks and didn't leave us on a mean cliffhanger.

Overall, really loved the book, not the best thing I have read or anything, or truly outstanding in a certain way, but a solid, good fantasy epic.

 

Just finished the book and enjoyed it a lot. Shallan's chapters were a ton better than in the first book, while Kaladin's kinda got bogged down in the middle.

Spoiler

The feeling I got from this book was that I knew what was coming hundreds of words before it happened. There was no tension in this book.

As soon as Jasnah 'died' I figured that she'd soulcast a false body (blood and flesh are easily made - can anyone recall which colour gemstones she was using as a lamp the night before the assassination attempt?) and later concluded that she'd jumped to the Cognitive Realm like Hoid/Wit and the members of the Seventeenth Shard do.

I had been wondering which secondary surge she had; Elsecalling seems to be pretty interesting if it can be used for more than just visiting the Cognitive Realm. Wonder if going there in person is less intensive on Stormlight than Soulcasting is. Kinda reminds me of Tel'aran'rhiod from the Wheel of Time series.

Kaladin's storyline was predictable as hell once Moash's involvement in the Elhokar assassination became known. I did think it would take a bit longer than just one book for him to work it out though. Gotta admit, I did like the fight with Szeth, even if it reminded me quite heavily of the fight between Tavi and the Vord Queen in the final Codex Alera book.

Dalinar is still my favourite character. I like the way he's confident, but still with doubts. He's trying to be a hero but has enough human traits that make him endearing and relatable. His storyline was a bit less predictable (Everstorm aside), but he took a definite back seat in this book so it didn't really make a difference to the overall plot. Walking up to the Stormfather and demanding to be made a Radiant was cool though. He is very much the tyrant Roshar needs.

Shallan's plotline is the crowning achievement of this book. Where she was fairly lacklustre in the first one she was awesome in this. Instead of hesitating for chapters at a time we got to see her jumping in head first, consequences be damned, which made for a gripping and - most importantly - unpredictable read. I had no idea what was going to happen with the Ghostbloods and enjoyed every word of it. Still not sure what to think about Araram though.

I think the reason Shallan's story is better in this one is because Jasnah wasn't around to steal the show. All of Shallan's discoveries were her own in this book, rather than lessons learned from Jasnah. It meant that the interest and awesome was concentrated into one character rather than spread over the two of them.

The more I read of Taravangian's story the more curious I become about the Nightwatcher. Is she like the Stormfather? Is she Cultivation? It's never mentioned in the text that Cultivation is dead; only Honor. I'm halfway convinced that Cultivation has manifested on Roshar as the Nightwatcher, giving blessings to people and cursing them so that they'll be more worthy of those blessings.

Taravangian himself strikes me as an interesting character. He's got a curse that is fascinating but debilitating. He's definitely not a Radiant and likely never will be, but I think he may be capable of doing what others could not in actually uniting the world enough to weather the Voidbringers and Odium.

All in all, a good book. I'll probably read it again in a couple of months so that I can pick out those references to other Cosmere worlds that I missed.

 

I actually liked them a lot. Eshonai and Lift were especially good.

"Can I eat your dinner?"

Fuckin lol.

 

Spoiler

I actually asked Sanderson at the SF book signing about why Jasnah had to die (at the time I hadn't finished the book, although I suspected she wasn't actually dead), and this was exactly what he said. He originally had Jasnah "dying" in the third book, but moved it to where it is now so that Shallan could have better character development. IMO it was a great decision; I kind of hated Shallan in WoK, but I really liked her in WoR.

Spoiler

I very much agree. It makes a lot of sense.

 

K, forgoing the spoiler tags because they are annoying.

Finished reading it earlier today, and loved it.

WTF is up with people wanting other people to die? GRRM has been rubbing off on you guys...

Personally, I'm glad that no one really died in this book. Jasnah had to go for Shallan to come into her own, but I'm glad that was resolved by the end of the book, and Sanderson didn't pull a Moiraine as Jordan did. I wasn't worried for anyone else to die really. Dalinar is too important, Kaladin is a protagonist. Sanderson managed a super awesome storyline without relying on character deaths.

Agreed that Shallan was amazing in this one. Much much better than WoK. Kaladin's story was predicable, but it was still exciting reading his story, pulling off awesome superhero stuff. His character needs to progress though. This whole "I want to save everyone and everything and I'll sadface until I do so" is trite.

Renarin being a radiant makes some sense. He always had a "condition", and looks like he'll become a precog?

I'm curious as to what Nin's plans are. I thought all the Heralds at least, were "good", fighting against the desolation. Yet, Nin is going around killing people (including kids?) in the name of Justice. Now he recruits Szeth and apparently, the sword is sentient and evil. D:

I also don't quite get the theological hierarchy here. Almighty is different from the Stormfather, who at first I thought was Jezrian (says so in the wiki too), but he denies it, and considers himself to be a spren of sorts.

Anyway, solid 9/10 for me. Looking forward to reading the next book, with Szeth being the main character, and meanwhile, it looks like I'm reading Warbreaker next.

 

The theological hierarchy is due to the problems with how history on Roshar developed. Effectively, this is a society only recently entering an industrial era (barely, if that), and history would have been lost and distorted, especially due to the theological purges following the Recreance. The Almighty (Honour) was around, and created some (all?) Spren (Splinters of himself).

When he got "killed" by Odium (theorised to be the Day of Recreance), meaning his shard was splintered, one of his splinters (probably the greatest) became the Stormfather. Alternatively, the Spren that eventually came to be known as the Stormfather absorbed a huge part of his Shard. However, as the Vorin don't actually believe (insofar as I understand it) in the Stormfather being an actual presence in the highstorms, they also attribute the name to Jezrien, as the leader of the Heralds.

Nightblood isn't evil. Nightblood wants to destroy evil, but doesn't have a human frame of reference to understand the concept of evil. I have no explanation for Nin/Nalan, other than perhaps, without Jezrien to lead him and direct him, he simply seeks to pursue what he views as "justice" without any real direction, which results in him just killing whoever he thinks acted unjustly in their life.

 

I cant wait to find out how Nalan got Nightblood away from Vasher/Zahel.

I might have to take a break from HP and delve into cosmere ff.

 

I'm going to be honest and admit that the main reason I dislike Shallan is because she's a much more interesting character than Kaladin.
Kaladin's character in the first book had potential, which Sanderson failed to deliver on, and it even feels like his character actually regressed during the second book.
It's just sad to see one character get so much development while another with just as much potential, and whom I was introduced to first and thus identified with, is wasted.
Plus, I think Sanderson just really sucks at writing male characters.

 

In my case, the lack of character death removes a big part of the suspense, especially for characters that are frequently in life-threatening situations. If you're sure the character will survive, then it's much less gripping.

You don't have to go full Martin and kill off 50% of your cast, but killing a character or two keeps the readers on their toes. Now, granted, what happened with Jasnah early on did maintain that suspense for the course of the book, but in bringing her (and Szeth) back at the end, the suspense is lost going into the next book. Unless they kill someone at the beginning of Szeth's book, there will be no tension in any of the fights. But then you're starting to get into a pattern, which is bad.

 

I suspect Adolin will get killed off in the next two or three books. He's affable, integrated, but not central to any of the plotlines. Prime character death material.

 

Does anyone know why audible has two versions of this? The only difference seems to be publisher and price (mcmillan is almost doubly expensive!)

Any other differences? I'm sorry if this has been answered, but i didn't want to spoil anything for myself so i just posted without reading thread. Thanks.

 

Yeah, but I thought the same about Jasnah. And Szeth (once his initial arc ended in his defeat).

Edit: Saw this interview with GRMM from a few days ago, and it sums up pretty well why I think some Stormlight Archive characters need to die:

 

Well I think that GRRM ignores that are many types of stories. His idea/plan only works if you have multiple POV (of which I am not the biggest fan) and that does not work for all stories. And while some suspense is nice I personally like to identify with character which is quite hard if they die every 10 pages, in the end I stop being interested in the characters and couldn´care less if they die or survive.
I find the writing style, characterization and such things much more important then if the author kills his cast or not.

And this series is still in the beginning right? (2 of 9) So maybe Sanderson simply plans to build some familiarity before killing any major characters. But you are right his current focusing on different characters for every book would allow for some deaths.