Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

I don't think that was a deliberate choice. The implication is that the Bond simply can't form with people who are emotionally healthy — the Knights Radiant are described as "broken" people, and the spren bonds to them by filling in the "cracks" in their soul (ie, spiritual aspect). Without those "cracks", the spren has no way to anchor themselves to the person and form the bond.

@Rytex: if it helps, 'Sadeas' is his family name, and is the local equivalent of Genghis, Temujin, Charlemagne, Bismarck, or Kennedy. His personal name is 'Torol', which always made me think of a fat mellow hippy.

Edited by SCMof2814 on Dec 2nd 2018 at 9:21:34 PM

Are Genghis, Temujin, Charlemagne, and Bismarck common names in some parts of the world? I would have said it's the local equivalent of Alexander (as a surname, which is a bit more rare than a given name but not unheard of). The original Sadees is pretty shamelessly Alexander the Great, after all, right down to his empire splitting up with his death.

Finished the first book. Hide yo gods, hide yo heralds, cause they killin every deity out there.

Oh, you silly boy. I remember those young, carefree days starting this series. It's so cute you think this is a series about something as simple and straightforward as mere deicide. I WISH the series stays that simple.

Edited by SCMof2814 on Dec 11th 2018 at 9:15:02 PM

Oh I know it gets more and more intricate. This is a Sanderson book, after all.

I just couldn't resist the dead meme reference.

Curious: What do you think of the main crew so far? Kal, Syl, Shallan, Jasnah, Dalinar and the like?

Edited by CryoJNik on Dec 12th 2018 at 11:49:37 AM

I think Kaladin suffers from clinical depression, and I know because I've been there.

I think Syl is the one thing holding him together, because when she was gone for a short while, he fell apart almost immediately.

I think Shallan is the ballsiest character in the entire cast except maybe Kal, and yet she fails to think things through. and gets into trouble (seriously, stealing a valuable magical artifact from a relative of teh head of a state with multitudes of shardplate and shardblades?)

I think Dalinar takes himself too seriously, but he's got good reason to, considering not doing so got his brother killed. And now he's not going to ask others to do the same, now he's going to tell them to, which should be interesting.

I think Jasnah takes herself just a fraction too seriously, though I like how she's presented as a reasonable atheist, rather than the Hollywood variety, or rather than be played up normally and pitted against Hollywood evangelists and whatnot (even though Kabsal kind of had the feel of a member of Section XIII Iscariot).

As for Szeth-son-son-Vellano, Truthless of Shinovar, I feel really sorry for him. Not really his fault he has to do shit others tell him to do. Total woobie.

Edited by Rytex on Dec 13th 2018 at 8:34:12 AM

Common theory I've seen is that Kaladin has seasonal affective disorder, which is especially rough for him since he lives on a world where seasons change every couple weeks.

My guess would be that he has it as an aspect of his depression - like comorbidity, you know?

So, a fair bit into Path of Radiance. Jasnah's dead, Shallan's now being led to the Shattered Plains by the same group that sold Kaladin to them, Sadeas is being a douche, etc. etc.

So, first part, she's defo coming back. Sure, we saw the body for a bit, and while she fits the Mentor archetype for Shallan, she's also too connected to the main cast to kill off anywhere but near the end for some personal stake, and she's too heavily involved in figuring out everything about the Parshmen to be gone for good.

Second part, why does everyone have to meet everyone in fantasy worlds? This is a hell of a Contrived Coincidence that the same people who sold Kaladin to Sadeas just happened upon Shallan and are now taking her to the Plains too.

Third part, called it.

It's the name of his Autobiography.

The one thing that puzzles me about Sadeas is him posing as Gavilar when Szeth came to kill him, something everyone seems to agree should have been a suicide mission.

Did Sadeas have genuine loyalty or affection for Gavilar, which just didn't transfer over to Gavilar's son? Or did he have some ambition back then for getting out of that situation alive, and increase his standing enough to be worth the risk?

With Sadeas now dead, it seems unlikely we'll get an answer to that, unless he ends up getting his point-of-view for one of the Night Of The Party flashbacks.

I think Gavilar's death probably had an aggravating effect on Sadeas already less than savory tendencies. He was after all entirely on board with wiping out the Rift to the last child.

Gavilar may have been his Morality Pet.

Sadeas seemed to accept that Gavilar deserved to rule because he was the most powerful. Sadeas knew that he couldn't beat Gavilar, so he decided to join him instead. Because he acknowledged Gavilar as the best person to rule, Sadeas was legitimately loyal to him, even to the point of sacrificing his life if necessary.

Elhokar was a different matter. He wasn't Gavilar's equal in either politics or war, so Sadeas felt that Elhokar was not the best person to rule, which meant that he did not owe Elhokar his loyalty. Sadeas believed that he was the best person to rule after Gavilar's death, and if he managed to overthrow and replace Elhokar, then that would prove it to everyone else as well.

Sadeas seems to operate in Klingon strength terms while Dalinar is trying to get everyone running on Klingon honor terms.

Also, when I said Sadeas was being a douche, I was at the part where he was sticking swords in his own dinner table, and his wife was putting spies in Dalinar's camp and stuff.

Edited by Rytex on Jan 3rd 2019 at 8:10:24 AM

Seems appropriate. For as much as they like to Kling-on to shardblades.

Navani will be the viewpoint character for book 4's prologue. Presumably this means Gavilar himself will be the viewpoint for book 5.

Makes sense, since there's still questions about Gavilar that a viewpoint would answer.

Yeah, people have been theorizing that Gavilar would be the viewpoint in the fifth prologue since at least Words. It fits very well, thematically.

Oh, and current working title for book 4 is The Rhythm of War (remember, this is Venli's book) with an expected release of either December 2020 or early 2021, depending on how the Skyward sequel goes.

I’m a little tired of Kholins, though I loved Oathbringer. I was hoping for a Szeth focus for the next book.

We're just talking about the prologues, where we already got Szeth's POV. Book 4 is Venli's, and book 5 is Szeth's. So far it will be titled either Skybreaker or Stones Unhallowed.

Jasnah is probably going to get a book in the back five, but other than that there shouldn't be any more Kholin books. Obviously they'll still be important characters, but that's it.

Thanks, I wasn’t clear on that.

As current plans stand (and are subject to change) Jasnah (who's atm a supporting character) is getting full main character status in the second half of the series, same as Renarin.

So probably one Jasnah Book, one Renarin Book.

Edited by 3of4 on Apr 23rd 2019 at 10:41:42 AM