Brandon Sanderson

Something I just saw on Tumblr

The theme ate the second (and hilarious) pic◊

edited 25th Aug '16 9:42:53 AM by 3of4

I thought the mist becoming the Deepness was in order to motivate someone to seek out the Well of Ascension, not a side effect of the Well's getting "full". After all, the Lord Ruler had to muck with the orbit of the planet to deal with the Deepness the last time (but overcompensated and had to use the ashmounts to provide some shade).

I dunno, it all make sense to me until you guys pointed out that the thing I thought made sense was wrong. :p

I can see Kelsier as Generic Prettyboy Anime Guy (needs more horrific arm scarring, though), but Vin as Generic Moe Anime Girl just doesn't click for me.

I find the Lord Ruler amusing.

And the Deepness was Ruin kicking the Mists into Overdrive, not related to the Well.

That Vin reminds me of Ruby Rose, strangely.

And man, I'd forgotten what a good twist the end of Well of Ascension was. Really turned the whole thing on its head.

From what I can tell, Preservation doesn't control the power bound in the well anymore. it's on autonomous mode because he essentially committed suicide to make it. the little of his personality left can barely affect the mists, and only in small amounts.

Basically, the AI running the prison is too stupid to realize it's never supposed to let Ruin out, and has no security features whatsoever, so anyone can go in and mess with it.

Should've outsourced to the Elantrians.

Pfft, Ruin's whole strategy is subtly altering physical texts to manipulate people into doing what he wanted. Elantrians got wrecked by an earthquake, one little flaw in the prison's Aons and Ruin's free in an instant! :b

Not to mention that if the Ire are any indication they'd go and steal the power the first chance they get.

I meant cause the Aon Dor is all programming-like.

Not sure he'd be able to take advantage of that. As anyone who's had to do much debugging can tell you, programming has far more Ruin than Preservation in it.

Got to the part in Well of Ascension where Sazed finds Kwaan's message about Alendi and the prophecy. In hindsight, Ruin's manipulations are ridiculously blatant. Marsh knew that the place would be empty but didn't know how, and he appeared to interrupt Sazed after he discovered the message, but before he could actually read it. Not to mention Marsh's suspicious failure to explain that most Inquisitor powers are clearly Feruchemy.

Obvious-in-hindsight revelations are the best revelations.

Just finished Well of Ascension. It's fun picking out the hints that Sazed is the Hero. I mean, it's a bit tough to be sure because the prophecy was corrupted, but still. Kwaan mentions Alendi being very tall; Sazed is the tallest person in the books. Both Kwaan and Alendi mention that Alendi was not a warrior, but "could fight as well as any man;" Sazed constantly insists he's not a warrior, but his gate holds against the koloss longest. Plus "he was not simply a warrior, he was a person who united others;" in addition to Sazed leading the soldiers during the attack, he unites people as a mediator all the freaking time.

But the best one is the one describing the Hero's relation to the Terris: "He who is not of his people, yet fulfills all of their wishes." That's pretty much exactly how Sazed is described early in the book. He's been practically exiled for a decade due to defying the Synod, and then overthrows the Lord Ruler when they're not looking. Tindwyl even mentions that they can't punish him for giving them exactly what they wanted.

Halfway through. Straff is being a creep to Vin.

Hey everyone.

So I recently got back into reading Sanderson after having finished the original Mistborn Trilogy almost 8 years ago.

I decided to pick up the Wax and Wayne books since I was going on a trip and wanted something to pass the time. I ended up spending most of my vacation devouring those books.

I had totally forgotten how amazingly well put together the world of Mistborn was and the time-jump to a Victorian-era setting was really refreshing.

I'm about to start reading Bands of Mourning, so I'm already wondering if I should start another book from the Cosmere afterwards.

Wich series should I start with? I know this is kind of a big question with an author as prolific as Sanderson but I honestly have no idea where to go after Mistborn.

Which other series has the coolest magic system besides Allomancy? A better question might be: which series has it's characters use their limited abilities in the most innovative and clever ways?

edited 30th Aug '16 8:29:48 AM by GutstheBerserker

Hard to say. The use of very limited metal-telekinesis in order to basically form the entire way of fighting in the series is one of the coolest things about Mistborn, and it's the one with the most books to its name and therefore the most developed magic system in the Cosmere. Out of the other ones, Elantris' Aon Dor is essentially just caster-type magic albeit with some very interesting origins and details. Warbreaker's Awakening is another case of highly limited powers leading to a lot of creativity, being based around essentially taking people's souls and using them to animate constructs with varying degrees of complexity (from a rope that'll grab around the first thing that comes near it to... well, you'll see). There's a few novellas in the Cosmere as well (Sixth of the Dusk, The Emperor's Soul, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell), all with their own systems (TES's Forging being the most interesting), and they're all great reads, but the crown jewel is the Stormlight Archive. The magic system is more of a set of predetermined powers (albeit imaginative ones), but it"s the culmination of the entire Cosmere and a blast to read. Its Crisis Crossover nature means you should probably read the others first though. Honestly I'd just start with Elantris and work from there.

Finally making progress on Elantris... it's easily the worst-written thing I've read from Sanderson, but it does some very interesting stuff. I think I might actually like it more than the first Mistborn trilogy, which I've soured on more and more as time goes by.

It's one of my favorites, personally. All three protagonists are super well done.

Thanks for the tips.

Man, I can't get over how cool the Wax and Wayne books are so far. Wax is a fairly standard protagonist, and he's a servicable main character, if not an amazing one.

The rest of the supporting cast is actually far more interesting, especially Wayne.

I also really liked the fact that the main character's abilities are way more toned down compared to the previous trilogy. Wax and Wayne tend to be more creative in their approach to fights since they aren't Mistborn. It also helps that they have access to technology that is consistent with the Industrial Age setting of the novels.

I'm getting the same satisfaction from these books that I got from the Avatar animated series: interesting characters, well developped world and a setting that advances technologically while still having access to functionnal magic.

edited 30th Aug '16 1:45:48 PM by GutstheBerserker

I also felt like Wayne - or maybe just his presentation - improved a lot over the course of those books, at least for me. I liked him a lot better in Bands of Mourning.

.....In a not-serious and very random tangent.

Elendel can be glad there is no more Atium around.

Think about atium-powered motor-cab drivers in traffic.

And in a more serious thought: Did we ever find out where the rest of that Malatium bar ended up? I mean, provided they couldn't melt it down to reclaim the Atium?

edited 30th Aug '16 3:36:26 PM by 3of4

I liked Wayne better when he was called Mat Cauthon and math709 was complaining about how Sanderson changed his character. Actual Wayne's something of a dick.

Can't be worse than the electrum-burning ones.

Electrum doesn#t come with the Combat Clairvoyance of Atium, though.

Aaaaalso, we discussed it in the IRC but never here....I had the theory that one of the things the North's Allomancers might be willing to pay a lot of money for would be a Nicrosil/Duralumin medallion, one-shot-charge boosters for Mistings.

Might be more an Era 3 thing, maybe.

edited 30th Aug '16 3:48:52 PM by 3of4

They already have nicrobursts, though. Sure, nicrosil/duralumin would sell, but it's not like it's the only way for mistings to get that sort of power boost.

Besides, it's already feruchemy, which has its own boosting method.