Brandon Sanderson

Arsteel was definitely Returned- he was one of the Five Scholars, along with Vasher, Denth, Denth's sister, and Arsteel's brother. I don't think there's any indication Jewels or Tonk Fah were, though.

Thanks. That was basically my impression, but I wondered at what point in time Jewels was in a relationship with Arsteel- if she isn't a Returned, then that would mean that it was pretty recently that Denth and Vasher were on the same team- which doesn't make sense since Vasher killed Denth's sister presumably eons ago.

Well, Vasher killed Arsteel pretty recently, and Word of God indicates that Arsteel had been trying to put together some sort of reconcilliation between Vasher and Denth and something went wrong. I imagine we won't get the full story until the sequel, which is supposed to have a heavy Vasher/Vivenna focus. In any case, on reflection Jewels can't be a Returned, as she's a Drab, and even Returned who've suppressed their divine Breath and don't have any others on top of it aren't the same as regular Drabs (again, Word of God- Sanderson's site is full of it). So her relationship with Arsteel had to have happened within a normal human lifetime ago, and she's not that old.

Ah, that makes sense so basically, Denth and Vasher were not on the best terms after Vasher killed Denth's sister (who irrc was Vasher's wife and Nightblood's creator), but they only became mortal enemies around the time that Vasher killed Arsteel.

Which is interesting because it suggests that Denth was perhaps a pretty decent guy until relatively recently and that Vasher is still not the best guy- I read the annotation re Arsteel and it goes into the "hero of your own life" theme, as it sounds like it was partly Arsteel being Obliviously Evil and partly just Poor Communication Kills.

Just finished The Well of Ascension today. This series is growing on me; I liked this book better than the first. I might even like it better than Way Of Kings.

The Kandra are so fascinating... I hope they show up more in the third book. I think my favourite character in this was Ore Seur.

Lots of kandra in The Hero of Ages; you definitely won't be disappointed on that count.

Just finished The Hero of Ages! Copletely epic, and a lot faster than The Well of Ascension, but I'm sorry that Elend and Vin died, even if God!Saze confirmed there's an afterlife. Also, the whole conflict between Ruin and Preservation bothered me a bit, shouldn't Preservation hate growth as change? Spook also failed to really grow on me. Still hugely recommendable, though. Can't wait to read The Alloy of Law!

Just finished Hero of Ages! Wow. That was kind of unexpected. I seem to remember that he said in the annotations 'there's always another secret', and that's about right too...

I actually did wonder if Sazed might be the Hero of Ages, because the wording 'bear the future on his arms' was so odd. I'd kind of forgotten about it by the time it paid off, though. I did manage to guess some things a page or two in advance, like what the atium was and Vin's earring.

The Kandra were fascinating... although I think they would have been just as cool if they were simply a natural creature instead of what they ended up being. I kind of want to write something with bone-eating shapeshifters myself now. I'm sad they all basically died [sad]

edited 4th Sep '12 8:16:02 PM by LoniJay

I'm pretty sure most of them managed to get their spikes back into them.

But how would they know to do that? They were non sentient mistwraiths... unless somebody did it for them. Maybe it says something about it in the annotations on Brandon Sanderson's website? I would like confirmation...

Sanderson's website says God!Saze got some of their spikes back into them, including Ten Soon's. I'm trying to get The Alloy Of Law. Also been checking out the wiki, I might have been spoiled a bit, but they have some very cool info on the metals.

Which other books by Sanderson are good?

Way of Kings is probably the best of his non-Mistborn stuff. Warbreaker is also good, and it's free.

edited 5th Sep '12 1:28:20 PM by Benluke

Legion, a non-Cosmere book,, is out. I'm picking it up on the weekend (hopefully).

I really need to read those annotations. So TenSoon got back to normal? That's good, because after Breeze he's my favourite Mistborn character.

The Alloy of Law is getting a sequel called Shadows of Self. Before the title was announced, I wanted it to be called (Hero of Ages spoilers) The Alloy of Law 2: The Alloy of Sazed.

Seems like Sanderson was going to call Stormlight 2 "The Book of Endless Pages", but then suddenly realized how hilarious that title would be on a 1000 page book.

edited 5th Sep '12 3:22:42 PM by Moth13

Is there any sequel titled Book 2?

Damn, for some reason I can't get spoiler text to work. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong...

edited 5th Sep '12 5:02:33 PM by LoniJay

Syntax: [[spoiler:text to hide]]

text to hide

Anyway, Legion is about a man fighting crime alongside his delusions. Sounds awesome.

That's what I was doing, but for some reason it didn't work. Anyway, I'm glad Ten Soon survived. He was my favourite character.

Got the Alloy of Law! Seeing all these references about the old characters is awesome, as are the shootout action scenes. Also, now that Feruchemy and Allomancy are both open to the public, magic is way more awesome. I want to see a Steel Compounder.

Spoilers for Hero of Ages, from the annotations... "Remember, this is a fantasy book—just like you shouldn’t try jumping off your house and using a coin to Push off of, you shouldn’t participate in mass-suicide death cults. The kandra had special circumstances, as they were in the process of being taken over by a dark god when they killed themselves". Well, if that doesn't count as special circumstances, what does, I suppose.

edited 7th Sep '12 5:50:33 AM by LoniJay

I love Brandon's sense of humour......

I agree, Lightsong is the best character.

Finished The Alloy Of Law! Great book, though a lot more focused on the characters and setting than on the plot, in contrast to The Hero of Ages (not that that's a bad thing whenever I actually manage to write something it's largely the same). The Ars Arcanum did three things: it made me much more interested in Brandon's multiverse (who the hell is the speaker?!), it made me ache for a sequel, and it got me wondering about the powers. It'd be awesome to see a Chromium or Duralumin Compounder, how'd you like infinite luck or people-skills?

I realize this isn't the liveliest of threads, but I've got a bit of Fridge Logic: Where did Marsh get the atium he needed to become immortal, so that he could survive into The Alloy Of Law? Elend and his atium army used it all up to heep Ruin from it. Did Harmony just magic some up?

Elend used up the biggest store, that's all. Zane had a pouch in that tree-trunk, and Marsh could have found more.