It sounds like we agree then. Stormlight Archive is a multiple-POV series, so killing major characters is more feasible, and I did say that GRRM can go a little overboard with his killing. Of course writing and characterization are more important, but for the most part, I'm happy with the execution there.

 

Szeth is like the ultimate badass assassin in the story. Even when he died, I knew he wasn't gonna die. D:

As for the killing thing, pretty much what Erandil said. I suspected Adolin might be killed off to make way for Kaladin as a romantic option for Shallan, but sounds like it got even more interesting, what with him sticking a knife in Sadeas' brain.

 

So how many Radiants have we seen so far? and can anyone please tell me all the types, I kind of skipped those parts that explained them.

Also whats the difference between a herald and a radiant?

Are night blood and Zahel mentioned in the first book?


Really enjoyed Shallan in this one. I'll admit I didn't care much about her in the first but here she was just fantastic and was her own character, didn't depend on anyone and got shit done loved it. I also loved her backstory, it was better than I expected it to be and it really shows just why she ended up the way she was.

Kaladin on the other hand despite being my favorite character was a little bit annoying and I really hope that all this woe is me shit is over with. As much as I really wish the pairing between him and Shallan doesn't happen(she really does fit well with Adolin) I think the talk they had in the Chasm was good for him, and it least made him realize that there are people who've had it worse.

Still not sure about all the factions. There are the Ghostbloods, Diagram(that's Graves and the tavangarian), Amaram who apparently works for the church and is trying to bring back the knights despite the church being against them, Szeths's new friends, Wit and I'm sure there has to be someone representing the chaos of Voidbringers out there.

From some of the comments here, apparently Tavangarain was expanded upon other than his chapter?

 

We've seen:

Windrunners - Kaladin, Szeth
Edgedancers - Lift
Elsecallers - Jasnah
Lightweavers - Shallan
Bondsmiths - Dalinar
Truthwatchers - Renarin

There was also the shoemaker that was killed by Darkness. We didn't get to see any of his abilities, but we know he'd said the Words to become a Radiant.

The Heralds were the 10 Invested humans that were given powers by Honour and Cultivation. As of the start of the series, the Heralds are just broken people with Shards to their name.

The difference between a Herald and a Knight Radiant is the lack of spren, so technically I suppose Szeth would have counted as a Herald (though as Jasnah keeps telling us, having the power doesn't make you a <title>).

Nope!

Okay, now for a little challenge.

Let's play SPOT THE HERALD!

Some of the Heralds of the Almighty have turned up in the books, with some only having been mentioned. Can you put names/faces to the Heralds?

I'll start you off with the easy one: Talenel'Elin the Stoneward as the madman.

 

Wait, we know that Honor is Stormfather but who is Cultivation?

Damn it really seems I didn't pay attention when reading.

I'm guessing that Wit is a will shaper.

 

Nope. Honor, otherwise known as the Almighty, is dead. He was a godlike being that held a Shard of Adonalsium (God), same as Preservation/Ruin/Harmony from the Mistborn series.

Cultivation was another Shardbearer like Honor, but we don't know if she's alive or dead as of the start of the Stormlight Archive. The Shin worship her, which is probably the reason for their Farmers First-Soldiers Last social hierarchy.

Current speculation has her as the Nightwatcher, though that may just be another powerful spren like the Stormfather.

Well, to be fair Sanderson revealed a good deal of the higher cosmic information in interviews and online, but there are clues in the text. Several of them quite blatant.

Nope! Wit/Hoid isn't from Roshar. We don't know which world he originated from, but he's appeared in Warbreaker, Mistborn and now the Stormlight Archive. Hell, we don't even know if he has any powers, though given the Letter in Words of Radiance it's hinted that he's probably immortal (and that Cultivation still lives).

 

He's from Yolen, which is where The Liar of Partinel and Dragonsteel are set. Both aren't published, though a copy of Dragonsteel is found in the Harold B Lee Library at Brigham Young University. It's a thesis edition though, and is also almost permanently checked out.

 

And that explains why I haven't seen it.

 

Szeth wasn't a radiant, all his powers came from the sword.
And I don't think it makes any sense to call him a Herald. I would think that the original Heralds were the only Heralds.

 

Think I mentioned before, but we also spotted another Herald - Nin, the Herald of Justice, who gives Szeth Nightblood at the end of the story.

Speaking of Nightblood - literally just got done reading Warbreaker, and it was excellent. A bit slow at times, but still excellent. I am now extremely curious about Vasher/Zahel.

BTW, clarify something for me guys, how would you differentiate b/w a shardholder and a shard? As in, are Shards in Cosmere sentient themselves? They certainly appear to be so - Odium "killed" Almighty, but Almighty was a shardholder? Or did he kill Honor, and Almighty was just a "vessel" for the shard?

 

Wait you guys, whats Warbreaker? is it a part of the Stormlight archives?

 

Warbreaker, apparently available for free download from Sanderson's site.

 

Correct. He also plays a larger role in WoR. Guess which one?

Honor was a Shardbearer. He was also the Almighty. The Shards themselves are like Dresden Files mantles in that they shape the people that hold them to fit the nature of the Shard.

 

Larger role in WoR - He's responsible for all the attacks on other budding radiants depicted in the Interludes. In the name of "Justice" of course.

Hmm, if they are simply mantles, then how come they are *always* referred to as persons? "Odium" as killed me, not "The Odium" as killed me. Consistently. Also, I remember reading that "Honor And Cultivation had a romance" somewhere. Not their holders.

That's a derp you made btw, Shard holders, not bearers, which is a very Stormlight specific term.

 

Nin was the guy after Lift right?

Actually if you figured out how this guys think then it would be very easy to take care of them by using Justice against them. They seem incapable of getting around those, which makes me wonder whether they would back a united world under one King meaning one set of rule to follow.

I'm a little confused about Shards to be honest. Are shards similar to spren(I know that some Spren are basically a part of Stormfather, who was a spren bonded to the almighty)?

Also,just to confirm, there is a God in this universe and then there are mortals who gained power through shards to become godlike somehow right?

 

Basically, yes. Although nobody really knows what Adonalsium is yet. Might be 'God', might not be. All we actually know is that it/he/she was 'shattered' (an event which Hoid supposedly witnessed), and that event gave rise to the Shards of Adonalsium.

The Shards, each with a specific 'intent', were bestowed upon / bonded to people who in essence 'became' the shard, gaining godlike power. Leras bonded with Preservation, Ati with Ruin, Rayse with Odium, Tanavast with Honor, Aona with Devotion, Skai with Dominion, and of course, at the end of mistborn,

Spoiler

Vin with Preservation, and Sazed with Ruin and Preservation together to become Harmony.

From what I've gathered, when a holder dies, the Shard can be taken up by someone else, as was the case with Leras and Ati... or it's splintered. Rayse/Odium's main goal seems to be killing the shardholders and splintering all the other Shards.

I don't think the mechanic is really the same. Shards are shattered pieces of Adonalsium.

Spoiler

Whereas Spren are ideas granted physical form. The Stormfather is the spren/idea of what remains of Honor.

 

Like Khaaaaaaan said, there's little to no difference between a Shardholder (my bad) and the host. Rayse is, for all intents and purposes, Odium at this point. The name simply comes from the Intent that defines the Shard. Odium is all of Adonalsium's divine wrath without the other aspects of its being to give it context and Rayse is the embodiment of that Intent.

So when Brandon says that Honor and Cultivation had a romance, it could mean either the humans that bore the Shards or the god-like beings that are Honor and Cultivation. There's very little separation between them.

 

Just finished it. It took me a while to get into it - I was literally checking my local bookstore every day in the week or so before release, on the off chance that they'd release it early, but once I had it I just...didn't start it, really. Read the first hundred pages or so then put it down.

Once I sat down to really get on with it though, I stormed through it. And it was great. Not perfect, but great. Kaladin got a little (very) annoying by the end, although hopefully we've seen the last of him being such a miserable git now, and to be fair when he's being awesome, he is fucking awesome. Shallan had the most interesting storyline, and it's going to be interesting seeing her juggling all the different personas in future. The interludes seemed more obviously relevant this time around, which was a massive improvement. In general, despite the length of the book, I'd say that on first reading it's a much tighter read than WoK, although whether I'll feel that on re-reading I'm not sure. And the Sanderson Avalanche was typically :awesome

I did feel that I was missing things throughout though, on two fronts. I realised early on that I'd forgotten an awful lot of what happened during WoK, so I was a little vague on why some things were happening or why certain characters were doing things. I also realise that I don't know nearly enough about the Cosmere. I'm going to have to reread a lot of stuff before tackling WoR again, and try and get hold of the books I haven't read.

But yeah, basically pretty great.

 

Words of Radiance
Deleted Interlude: Stick

Oh god all my feels

 

Fuck you Brandon Sanderson. Making me feel empathy for a stick.