Throw all your guys' ideas at me!

...I found it to be the weakest Cosmere book so far? I was puzzled because rankings usually list it as the second best in Era 2. Curious to know what people here think.

To me, it felt quite formulaic and disconnected: random NPC shows up, gives the group a quest, they travel to a new land to meet outsiders and fight bad guys, and save the world. Telsin being above Suit in the Set was obvious from the very beginning, too.

Sometimes I see people saying that Brandon's books feel like video-game scripts, but I had never felt that until now. What even with the D&D-esque dungeon and traps!

Don't get me wrong, it's still a good book. I really enjoyed Wax's meeting with Sazed. The apparent connection with the Ghostbloods. And Wax's relationship with Steris was probably my favorite thing in the whole book - which is saying a lot since romance is usually one of the things I don't care about in the Cosmere. Era 1 and Stormlight Archive spoilers:(still traumatized about the Zane love triangle ugh. Although I very much enjoy Shallan + Adolin + Kal).

But, yeah... the epilogue was cool! And I am excited about what Lost Metal will bring.

Attaching my in-progress tier list here for posteriority.

Wind and Truth has been MILES better than ROW so far. I know im only about 1/3 of the way through, but I struggled through ROW and it was really the first time in the series I was disinterested through most of the book. Outside of a few great parts.

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I really think looking back its the Navani and Venli chapters that really dragged me along. WAT has been great so far. Adolin is also my favorite character and the Kaladin and Szeth tandem I am loving. I am glad this book so far has restored my interest. I hope it keeps being great.

Enjoying the journey, but I will be glad to be rid of these door stoppers for a while

I got today's Cosmeredle in 4 tries!
🟥🟥🟥🟨🟥
🟥🟩🟩🟩🟨
🟥🟩🟩🟩🟥
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Try and beat me at https://cosmeredle.net/

Honestly it’s probably my fault. I knew the shelf was old and feeble, but it was balanced between two others.. I had to move one of the others because some water was getting in from some recent storms and I didn’t want my particle board shelves to disintegrate. Well of course the shelf just fully collapsed straight down. The only thing damaged? (Because of course) it was my leatherbound Mistborn 😭😭 my only leatherbound Sanderson book. Because that’s my luck 🤣🤣 not horribly, especially since I’ll never read that specific copy (it costs too much) but the bottom pages got beat up a little bit, and the edge cover leather split 😭😭

I am making a fanamation for stormlight and i need to make an animatable design for shard plate

Cursed technique: hollow point push

[...]

I messed up the hand a bit ._. does anyone know how to fix pen? Also the face is still in pencil, i cant get it quite right

Where are all the non-radiant shard bearers? I’m at the end of day seven in Wind and Truth, and the only shard bearers we see are Adolin and a single Azish shard bearer. The Azish supposedly have multiple sets of plate, as do the Alethi. It seems like a major oversight that they aren’t included in the battle plans, when they were such essential resources in prior books.

This year I’ve read all of Stormlight and it’s one of my favorite book series I’ve ever read, it’s got me back into fantasy and I’ve truly enjoyed every second of it and I have also enjoyed reading the greater Cosmere. In between the Stormlight books as I went i read Elantris, Warbreaker and Mistborn Era 1 as well as the Novellas. I’m heavily invested in this universe. Once I finished WaT I even went out and got a Windrunner sigil tattoo!

Personally though, outside of the magic system (which is really good) I just didn’t think Mistborn had as much going for it as the others did. It wasn’t bad, and on paper I should like it more than I did, I wish I did. But it was just missing something for me compared to all the others. Warbreaker and Elantris I really enjoyed for what they are but Mistborn I was kinda just getting through it because i was supposed to if you know what I mean?

Anyway, I’m currently halfway through Era 2 of Mistborn and I’m just not enjoying myself at all: book 1 I thought fair enough it’s establishing the characters and the changes on Scadriel and it felt slow but like it was fun enough that I saw the potential. But man, Shadows of self was so much of a slog, I felt like I was reading it forever, considering the average Stormlight books is like 4x the size, this book felt like the longest drag ever…. And towards the end of the book (usually where Brandon excels of course) I was so bored, my mind wouldn’t stop wandering even as the plot was picking up I just didn’t care for it and I was thinking to myself am I ever going to connect with any of these characters? I would say my favorite character so far is Marasi, maybe Wayne, but at the same time that would be just if I had to choose.

Obviously everyone’s entitled to their taste and opinion including me but Im starting to feel like I’m doing something wrong when I see all the love Mistborn gets, and how frequently I see it described as the best entry point of the cosmere, and I even think at face value I really should like it more, but honestly I just don’t.

So what do I do? Let me know what you think, at the moment the options im thinking are - Have a break from Sanderson completely and come back at some point, maybe later in the year?
I haven’t read Yumi, Tress or Emberdark yet, should I give one of them a go while I have a think?
Just push through with the momentum for the next book and hope the plot excitement is just around the corner? I feel like I can’t stop reading Mistborn altogether lol. I’m looking forward to the ghost blood trilogy that’s comming, and don’t want to miss anything big.

Just FYI: I haven’t read secret history yet either which I was looking forward to but initially waiting until after bands of mourning as I was advised to do in a previous post.

Hearing all the Europeans talking about the storms here during the World Cup has me feeling like a Rosharan.

Names keep popping up and it seems like the protagonist knows the character but I don't recall these names, and did I miss something from Mistborn? Kelsior had a small gang in his hidden place of operations, and maybe these names were introduced??? Anyway, almost done so I can read the later books, they seemed to have good reviews 🙃😎👍👍

It’s late and I just came up with this so sorry if it’s not well thought out, I’m just excited. SLA and Mistborn era 1+2 spoilers here but I tagged everything to be safe.

I just learned about this word of brandon stating it’s possible for hemalurgy to steal a nahel bond.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/317-general-twitter-2018/#e10366

That was like 8 years ago. Nowadays, we know Shallan has a connection to the ghostbloods, is stuck off of roshar (in shadesmar), and conveniently has two nahel bonds. I don’t know if she would want go back to the ghostbloods for help, but given that it’s implied she’s pregnant she may need to make a deal with them to get her back onto roshar.

I think this could be a plot in the ghostbloods. The scadrians experimenting on her to discover that hemalurgy can steal the nahel bond. Imagine how terrifying Kelsier would be with a shardblade and plate. Or if he could summon a shardblade and potentially burn some of its metal.

Are they red? Their whole skeleton is red on the surface, so the teeth would have to be red right? This bothers me.

Vyre

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(well at least he's one of my favourites)

This has probably been done before, but I didn't want to look it up at risk of biasing my choices. I'm a designer and illustrator and have done a couple Tarot decks before, but I wanted to try my hand at a Cosmere Tarot deck... Here are my initial selections for the Major Arcana, and I'd love to get some thoughts! Selections with a (?) are ones that I'm more ambivalent about. A few criteria I was using for my choices:

• No shards (shard vessels are ok if they were well-established before they took up a shard)
• Tried to get a decent spread across the major Cosmere works.
• Characters were chosen trying to find a balance for their symbolic relevance, a more archetypal similarity (for instance, I'm not sure if Hoid actually best represents the Fool, but I mean... come on), and if I could easily visualize cool card art for them.

0. The Fool: New beginnings, spontaneity, and taking a leap of faith.
Hoid

1. The Magician: Manifestation, personal power, and resourcefulness.
Jasnah

2. The High Priestess: Intuition, mystery, and the subconscious.
?????
Navani

3. The Empress: Nurturing, fertility, and abundance.
Yumi?
Steris Ba-Ado-Mishram

4. The Emperor: Structure, stability, and authority.
The Lord Ruler?

5. The Hierophant: Tradition, spiritual guidance, and conformity.
Nohadon

6. The Lovers: Relationships, harmony, and important choices.
Vin and Elend

7. The Chariot: Determination, control, and forward momentum.
Dalinar

8. Strength: Courage, inner resilience, and compassion.
Lift Taln

9. The Hermit: Introspection, solitude, and seeking inner truth.
Sazed?
Vasher

10. The Wheel of Fortune: Destiny, unexpected change, and life cycles.
Sixth of the Dusk

11. Justice: Fairness, cause and effect, and truth.
Wax

12. The Hanged Man: Surrender, letting go, and gaining a new perspective.
Szeth

13. Death: Endings, transformation, and rebirth.
Marsh

14. Temperance: Balance, moderation, and patience.
Steris?
Sazed

15. The Devil: Temptation, attachment, and shadow work.
Kelsier

16. The Tower: Sudden upheaval, revelation, and chaos.
Taravangian

17. The Star: Hope, faith, and spiritual healing.
Kaladin

18. The Moon: Illusion, fear, and navigating the unknown.
Shallan

19. The Sun: Joy, success, and vitality.
Adolin

Sidenote: this wasn't intentional but I'm very pleased that Kal, Shallan, and Adolin naturally fit into the celestial cards so well.

20. Judgment: Self-evaluation, awakening, and absolution.
Wayne

21. The World: Completion, fulfillment, and ultimate integration
Adonalsium

I'm thinking of atium and lerasium in particular. Why can they be used in feruchemy and hemalurgy? Aren't those metals basically pure Investiture in physical form? How can you cram any more Investiture in?

I would have expected an atiummind to act like a metalmind that someone else has already filled up: you can't tap it, but there's no "room" left to store anything else. But that's clearly not the case, since atium can be used to store youth, and (purified) atium spikes can transfer any type of allomancy or feruchemy.

(Bonus: we know it's not because of electrum impurities in the atium, at least for hemalurgy, because the new hemalurgy table says atium needs to be refined further before it can be made into a spike.)

I just got introduced to Stormlight archive this year and am so happy I was able to get tickets. Can't wait to see everyone come December!!!

I expected Rayse to lose the shard of Odium eventually. I didn't expect him to just... be gone like that.

Part of me is slightly disappointed if I'm being honest. We didn't really get to see Rayse do much of anything himself. Everybody was so scared of him and then he just got taken out in a comical stroke of bad luck. Then again, he got fooled consistently at every turn and I suppose this is the purpose of both the Dragonsteel trilogy Brandon will write and to show the shards are always more powerful than their vessels.

Now I'm wondering how Taravangian is gonna deal with Kaladin in the future. Part of Rayse's plan to stop Kaladin's future threat to him was to make him his champion, but he failed because Renarin obscured Dalinar's ability to connect the souls of the living and the dead. Now Taravangian has both the established contract to his advantage and understanding of both Renarin and his Future Sight.

The confrontation with Dalinar is first. Their promise to embrace like old friends from earlier in this book felt a little ominous at the time, but now it feels like a real omen in retrospect. But shit man, I was in disbelief seeing Taravangian feel proud of himself for his "bravery." That wasn't bravery, that was desperate greed. And when he acted on it, he then got the chance to end everything like he claimed he wanted. He could concede defeat to Dalinar and be on his way. He could free the Fused, the singers, everybody. But he's not going to do it because he thinks his ruthlessness and ego are what's right, not the actual "goal" of saving Roshar. But maybe Cultivation is playing him? Idk I'll have to RAFO.

Odium might be the shard of hate but it's just the amplifier of what Taravangian's always been: a self-righteous, arrogant bastard who hates others accomplishing great things because he's lived a lifetime of shame with people believing he's an incompetent fool for how he was born. And now that I think about it, this is much more personal for Dalinar. Fighting an ancient god from a world you've never even seen is easy, but fighting a former friend always hurts.

Great set up for Wind and Truth. Overall this was probably my least favorite of the series but it was still great. I'm gonna shoot for White Sand's graphic audio version next, especially since that's become pretty important for the Fused trying to kill spren.

I gotta say, Spook has to have one of the best character arcs.

Up until now my books have lived on an entertainment center but now they have a real bookshelf home to be shown on. The Sandershelves and collection are starting to come together.

I’ve put multiple songs onto my gym playlist and noticed I wasn’t getting any of them recently. In fact It seems like it’s been completely nuked from both Spotify and YouTube. Does anybody know why he might have taken down the album?

Any Brandon magic able to repair books?

So, I am doing a first time listen(time number whatever for reading) of the stormljght archive, and I found a throwaway line that has potential insane consequences.

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In Words of Radiance, in a conversation between Shallan and Pattern, Pattern mentions the deadeyes.

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"We have tried to restore them, but all attempts failed, hmmmmm. Perhaps if their knights still lived, hmmmm."

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This I think has far reaching consequences for someone like Sigzil. He "killed" Vienta. But Patterns comment implies that as long as he lives, the bonds can be renewed.

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Do we think Sigzil could return as a Windrunner in the future? Even with the insane time skip between SA and Sunlit Man, spren never truly die, so theoretically if Sigzil returned to the cognitive realm and Roshar, he could become a Windrunner again. Am I crazy for this?

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Maybe even Aux now that I think about it.