Brandon Sanderson

It's out already? Well, I know what I'm reading now.

And unlike last time, this time I'm sure!

I know what I'm spending my 70-minute commune on.

I got my copies of Words of Radiance and Legion and the Emperor's Soul from the library today. So soon I shall be completely up to date with all of the books of the Cosmere and finally be able to stop shying away from spoilers on the trope pages.

In other news my library had the hardback copy of Word of Radiance. If anyone breaks into my house tonight, they are gonna get one good and solid death bludgeoning.

Edit: Shallan trying to convince a stick to be fire is one of the funniest moments so far in her story. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that Jasnah may have survived, after all we still don't know her second ability.

edited 8th Jan '15 3:33:38 PM by 32ndfreeze

Emperor's Soul is really good. Definitely my favorite Sanderson novella.

I think I like it a bit better than Elantris. It's just a really neat little thing.

Yeah, Shai is just amazing.

Finished Firefight! Really liked it. The ending was classic Sanderson. Though I do feel Regalia was something of a Karma Houdini, her manipulating events to make Prof the next Big Bad was pretty cool, as was the introduction of Calamity as the Bigger Bad. Tia, we hardly knew ye. And Exel too. Oh, and I wonder how literal the Biblical references are. Obliteration is a classic loony, but Regalia wasn't and she referred to Calamity as the Angel of Apocalypse. Speaking of, what happened to Obliteration after all?

Did Tia die? I thought he killed Val, but Tia wasn't there for his rampage. As for Obliteration, David asked him about his nightmares, he had a revelation and teleported away. He's probably gonna be a mid-weight villain in the third book.

Oh yeah, you're right. In my defense the names are really similar. Valentine, we really hardly knew ye.

I'm assuming there's some rule that says an Epic's nightmare has to be of something that actually exists, otherwise you could get a High Epic whose weakness was, let's say, the Loch Ness Monster, making them unkillable.

I think there's a bit of leeway. For example, Newton's nightmare was her family's high expectations of her, while her weakness was being complimented. So while there's definitely a connection, the weakness doesn't have to be excessively literal.

Plus, I think they're more... meaningful things. Like your truly deepest, darkest, more defining fear. No matter how scary a movie may be, it's not gonna fuck you up for life.

It does feel a little weird that David's fear is drowning. I know that phobias are rarely logical, but still. I wonder if Steelheart was his real greatest fear, and facing him vaccinated him against Calamity? He thought that Regalia's weakness was something directly to do with Epics and their powers, so it's a possibility.

It does seem like David had too little of a hangup on water. He got over it pretty quickly and didn't seem to have any real bad history with it.

Maybe he saw Jaws at a formative age. He and Val keep going on about sharks. All I know is that David's fear completely makes sense to me.

edited 11th Jan '15 3:00:32 PM by SCMof2814

I just finished Firefight myself. I'm really glad that The Power of Love wasn't actually a solution to the evilness of Epics, because I was totally ready to call shenanigans on that. The idea that no Epic had ever loved someone, or been loved (or whatever the exact requirements were to activate love-powered-evil-shielding) is a bit silly. That said, now I wonder what Prof's fear is — I would have said "turning evil" or "hurting the people who trusted him", but he already did both of those without any problematic effects, so...

Of course, now the big question is what's the deal with Calamity? Answering the question of "what caused the Epics to gain their powers?" with "Some dude in the sky" isn't especially satisfying. Not that it was played up as The Reveal at all — it was clearly adding depth to the worldbuilding, not actually meant to be a "mystery solved!" moment, but still. Guess we'll hear more about that in the third book.

Probably not a literal archangel.

I think we got a clue as to prof's weakness/fear with that scene with the chemistry experiments. If remembering the kids makes him feel better then his weakness/fear might have to do with children. Notice that we've NEVER seen him around kids and for someone on the edge of a literally epic breakdown during the submarine, building on fire bit, he asked for someone to quiet down the kid instead of doing so himself. Given he's pretty hands-on when he goes Epic, as David found out, this might be indicative. Also, in the Fridge page, someone brought which epic destroyed his school. It's not unlikely that he has nightmares about that.

Also, in hindsight it's extremely obvious Edmund is like Megan, who has overcome his corruption by facing his fear. He said he was afraid of dogs but 'it really doesn't affect [him] like [he] thought it did. Knowing Epic Psychology, he probably talked himself into seeing if a dog really WAS his weakness (since it's only 'being near' and not 'being bitten') and in doing so faced his fear sufficiently to prevent corruption.

Also, the fanfic writer in me squeals with unholy glee at the thought of an Alcatraz/Reckoners crossover. I can already see how. When Alcatraz Broke Talents, he also Broke the rules of magic, and created Calamity...

Given the setup of the Reckoners series, a continent could have showed up and no one would notice because of all the Epics.

And also, Alcatraz seems an anomalous hero now. Both David and Joel got the chance to get powers in the books but unknowingly screwed it up without realizing it. Alcatraz... also unknowingly screws up his powers without realizing it. I'm sensing a trend here...

Why oh WHY aren't the YA series be Cosmere books? Because I have to wonder if someone who's been Duralumin Soothed to a state of no emotions can 'not fear Steelheart' enough to kill him... And Shardbearers would be screwed against Chalklings...

edited 11th Jan '15 3:27:48 PM by SCMof2814

Nah, Edmund's just a vanilla Gifter, with all that entails. I don't think there's more to it than that. And David didn't unknowingly fuck up his chance at powers, he was very deliberate about it. Joel got fucked over something fierce though.

Hmm... If Calamity is a Gifter... That means he's dangerously sane and equipped with all the powers in the world... And if his power is giving powers...

There was a lot of discussion in this book about the source of the weakness... Regalia's mention of David's powers being 'thematically appropriate' indicates that Calamity decides what to give him, not that the powers are Personality Powers. But if you stretch and squint, argument can be made that the powers are also linked to the weakness. To wit:

• Steelheart: weakness, those who aren't afraid of him. Deduced fear, someone standing up to him/standing up to the bully. Powers, perfectly suited to make him Super-bully. Physical strength, which he knows how to use to beat on people, invulnerability, because he thinks he can't be hurt, energy beams for long range hurting, wind-control and flight because bully needs to be able to get at his victims and possibly a hangup from his track and field days. The steel field might be his way of marking his bully territory.

• Mitosis: weakness, his own music. Deduced fear/nightmare, that he would be stuck making bad band music for the rest of his life. Power, self-replication, suited for him getting rid of and making a one-man band.

• Newton: weakness, compliments. Deduced fear, high parental expectations. Power, force reflection (Vector Manipulation? Accelerator, is that you? OH MY GOD, NEWTON IS SUZUSHINA YURIKO!!!!) and super-speed as a derivation thereof. Suited for running away from her problems, deflecting EVERYTHING. Maybe she also uses it not to hear annoying sounds?

• Megan: Weakness, fire. Root, nearly burning alive at a young age. Power, a convoluted form of reality warping to create 'illusions'. Possibly her survivors guilt comes into effect, since her powers are essentially a form of 'if only I'd done something else'.

What do you guys think?

That's it for the ones whose weaknesses and possible root causes we know...

edited 11th Jan '15 5:03:54 PM by SCMof2814

Spoilers on that first paragraph, mate.

Re: David's fear of water: Regalia specifically requested that Calamity give David the same powers as the Epic who was killed to make the spyril. It's possible that giving him those specific powers required a water themed fear.

I wish we were told what powers Murkwood had. I mean, he's an evil LOTR fanboy! I WANT TO KNOW!

Wasn't that Mirkwood? In LOTR, I mean?