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Messages - ErikHolmes

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1
Reading Excuses / First!
« on: December 15, 2010, 02:04:34 AM »
Welcome back everyone.

Glad to have the forums back again.

2
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Authors, Monetary Success and Brandon
« on: October 01, 2010, 11:23:44 PM »
Even if we lowballed it, said that she averages 15% of each book and that most of those 400 million books were paperbacks for 10 bucks a pop, that's still 600 million in sales. But she's made a lot more than that off her book sales alone. I think she's easily made over one billion off just book sales alone.

I seem to remember that she didn't make a huge amount of money off of her movie deals. I think she got like 2 million for selling the rights to the first four books. Then again, considering they are the highest money makers of all time she probably got to set her price for the rights to books 4-7.

3
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Authors, Monetary Success and Brandon
« on: October 01, 2010, 09:59:07 PM »
Well, she's sold more then 400 million copies of her books. If you figure that she's getting 20% royalties off each book then she's made a LOT of money off of just the books.

Let me just give you an example:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sold in hardback for $21.85 when it first came out.

It sold about 10 million copies in the first 24 HOURS.

That's $4.37 per book, times ten million or about 43 MILLION dollars... in one day.

Then again, the Harry Potter series is the highest grossing film series of all time. It's made more then Star Wars, more then all of the Bond movies, more than LOTR.

But I have no idea how much of that money Rowling sees.

4
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Authors, Monetary Success and Brandon
« on: October 01, 2010, 08:50:01 PM »
I think Brandon does pretty well. But keep in mind that people like JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer are in another league. Their books are at the forefront of mainstream books. Rowling as you said is a billionaire from her series, and Meyer makes like fifty million a year from her Twilight books.

My understanding is that for Way of Kings Brandon got something like 1.7 million as an advance for the first four books, but by meeting certain deadlines and sales can earn 2.5 million or more in bonuses, etc.

Then again, Way of Kings sold out like four printings before it even hit the shelves so hopefully its sales will way exceed expectations and Brandon will make even more. He Deserves it!

5
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The Thrill (Spoilers)
« on: September 30, 2010, 07:50:37 PM »
Quote
Something blew against him. “Wait!” Kaladin said. “Why is there so much war? Must we always fight?” He wasn’t sure why he asked. The questions simply came out.
The storm rumbled, like a thoughtful aged father. The face vanished, shattering into droplets of water.
More softly, the voice answered, ODIUM REIGNS.

And how does Odium Reign? He reigns Because:

Quote
the Thrill—the enjoyment and longing for war—was part of what drove the Alethi as a people

Rayse is a drug dealer. The Alethi are his addicts and The Thrill is the drug.

I think the Radiants knew this, which is why the one tells Dalinar that if he has a desire to fight he needs to come to them and get training, so that the thrill doesn't consume him.

6
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 30, 2010, 02:26:51 AM »
Except it sounds like she didn't like her father much.

Maybe she did something even worse in order to get a shardblade to kill her father with? Maybe she did something that resulted in her family being in the trouble it is?

But that's a lot of maybe. You are all probably right and she killed her father and took the blade from him. I forgot about the pic of her father in a pool of blood.

7
Brandon Sanderson / Re: The Thrill (Spoilers)
« on: September 29, 2010, 08:31:15 PM »
The Thrill is definitely supernatural in my opinion. Just look at how its used in the story. It isn't just something he feels, when the thrill takes him he seems to fight better, faster, there are times when Dalinar lets the Thrill take him and a little while later he looks back in shock at the hundreds of people he's killed.

Just look at these quotes:

Quote
He was losing his thirst for battle. That worried him, as the Thrill—the enjoyment and longing for war—was part of what drove the Alethi as a people

Quote
The Thrill excited him, strengthened him

Quote
He felt a spike of regret along with displeasure at the Thrill. Surely these Parshendi—these soldiers—deserved respect, not glee, as they were slaughtered

Quote
He remembered the times when the Thrill had been the strongest. Subduing the highprinces with Gavilar during their youths, forcing back the Vedens, fighting the Herdazians and destroying the Akak Reshi. Once, the thirst for battle had nearly led him to attack Gavilar himself. Dalinar could remember the jealousy on that day some ten years ago, when the itch to attack Gavilar—the only worthy opponent he could see, the man who had won Navani’s hand—had nearly consumed him.

Quote
His army surged forward behind him, and the Thrill bubbled within. It was power. Strength greater than Shardplate. Vitality greater than youth. Skill greater than a lifetime of practice. A fever of power. Parshendi after Parshendi fell before his Blade. He couldn’t cut their flesh, yet he sheared through their ranks. The momentum of their attacks often carried their corpses stumbling past him even as their eyes burned. The Parshendi started to break, running away or falling back. He grinned behind his near-translucent visor




8
Brandon Sanderson / The Thrill (Spoilers)
« on: September 29, 2010, 06:34:52 AM »
So, in the book The Thrill is mentioned several times. When asked about, it seems like it a topic few want to discuss.

If you really look at the Thrill is like superhuman bloodlust, destruction, even hatred. Its like a killing rage.

Now look at this quote from on of the radiants:

Quote
“All who can fight are needed,” the woman said. “And all who have a desire to fight should be compelled to come to Alethela. Fighting, even this fighting against the Ten Deaths, changes a person. We can teach you so that it will not destroy you. Come to us

Could she be talking about teaching a person not to be overcome by the Thrill?

My thought is that The Thrill is the power of Odium.

9
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 29, 2010, 06:13:29 AM »
Its the shardplate that makes you into a lighteyes, not the blade. The Radiants all had almost white eyes because their shardplate was so much better.

I just assumed that lighteyes are in charge because they are the decedents of the people who first go their hands on the radiants shardplate.

So:

1. Radiants abandon their shardplate.
2. The shardplate stops glowing as brightly as it once did, almost immediately after being discarded by the Radiants. Is this because they discarded it or because of some outside influence?
3. The shardplate is picked up by random people who then become lighteyes. The people with shardplate quickly take over control of society and their decedents (who'd inherited their lighteyes) become the local ruling class.

None of the Heralds we've seen so far have used shardplate. Neither Kalak and Jezrien or Talenel used shardplate.

As for Dalinar, I think his trip to seek out the old magic is what made him the Blackthorn, the greatest warrior of his time. Hell, the name Blackthorn just sounds like something you'd associate with old magic.

The Dalinar chapters often talk about the Blackthorn being an unstoppable force, death itself. And maybe he is.

10
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 28, 2010, 10:45:34 PM »
I really think that Shallan had the Shardblade before she killed her father and that she used it to kill him. I just wonder where she got it. I wonder if she came across the kings shardblade after Szeth killed him.

11
Brandon Sanderson / Spren and the Almighty (SPOILERS-for Mistborn too)
« on: September 27, 2010, 07:07:32 PM »
Ok, so I was rereading and noticed something big I think.

There are no Spren AT ALL whenever Dalinar goes back in time for his various visions. And there are plenty of times where there should have been.

Dalinar even mentions that he should be seeing Terrorspren at one point with Taffa's daughter, but figures its just too dark.
There are no painspren when he and Taffa are being cut to ribbons. And no terrorspren from Taffa or her daughter.
In the prelude, even with all that death and destruction, there are no spren.
There's no anticipationspren even when 300 radiants begin to charge Feverstone Keep.

Nohadon does mention spren, such as honor spren, but I get the impression he's talking about spren like Syl and I think she's something different entirely.

Also, in all of his visions Dalinar notices something that wouldn't work during his time. Flimsy buildings, long winters, etc. He explains them all away, but during his visions there are no signs that the world is plagued by highstorms.

So here is my theory:

The Almighty tells Dalinar that most of the things he's shown him he witnessed himself. Meaning he was alive at the time.
But during Dalinar's time the Almighty is dead.
I think that in the past there were no spren for everything. Anticipationspren, terrorspren, deathspren, etc. There were the sentient ones like Syl, but they were everywhere like they are now.

The modern spren came about when the almighty was killed, they are a remnant of his power, maybe his body, etc. Like the Mist in the Final Empire. And his death brought about the highstorms as well.
I think maybe the face in the storm is the spirit of the Almighty, his body has been destroyed, but he lives on as the raging source of the storms.

Thoughts?

12
Brandon Sanderson / Re: WoK: The Heralds *Spoilers*
« on: September 26, 2010, 11:05:38 PM »
Ok, I have a wild theory about he Heralds. Its just complete speculation at this point but I'll post it anyway.

So we know that Jezrien is called the Stormfather by some, but when we see him he doesn't seem very stormfatherish. One the other hand, that face Kaladin sees during the highstorm seems pretty Stormfatherish to me.

We know there is a connection between Kaladin and his powers and Syl. My thought is that maybe there is a connection between the Heralds and even more powerful Sprens.

This is just a guess but I'm thinking that the face we see in the storm is a powerful spren and that its Jezrien's spren. My guess is that each of the Heralds is connected to some godlike spren, which in turn makes them godlike themselves.

13
Brandon Sanderson / WoK: Random Thoughts after reading (Spoilers)
« on: September 25, 2010, 05:46:53 AM »
I finally finished WoK's. What a great book!

I had a lot of thoughts/questions/ideas after reading it. I'm sure some of these have been gone over before, but who knows, maybe I noticed something that hasn't been spoken about yet...

1. Shallan possesses a Shardblade. She used it to kill her father, cutting up the Soulcaster he possessed during the fight, which is why the chain and crystal were cut.

2. The Death visions come form Talenel while he was suffering in agony in that damnation place. But not all of them, I think a few of those are just ones Brandon threw in there to throw us off. They are just the random things people said as they died that ended up getting recorded too.

3. I'm thinking that Dalinars gift from the old magic was either to make Navani love him or to become the Blackthorn.

4. I really want to know what this paragraph is hinting at:

Quote
Holding his breath, he clung to the Stormlight. He could still feel it leaking out. Stormlight could be held for only a short time, a few minutes at most. It leaked away, the human body too porous a container. He had heard that the Voidbringers could hold it in perfectly. But, then, did they even exist? His punishment declared that they didn’t. His honor demanded that they did.
-Szeth, Prologue

5. Someone named Thaidakar leads the Ghostbloods and he and the previous king were in some sort of conflict, Gavilar thought he was the one that had sent Szeth.

6. Someone named Restares leads another group who King Gavilar was also in conflict with, Amaram works with or for him. Restares convinced Amaram to take Kaladin's Shards.

7. The Radiants never betrayed anyone. After the last desolation they grew tired of pointless battles for greed and power and abandoned their armor. Those who took up their armor afterward were mistaken for Radiants and are the source of their bad reputation/legends of betrayal.

8. The face Kaladin saw during the Highstorm was the Stormfather.

9. Highstorms are the source of most magic on the world and Spren are sort of the imbodiments of that magic. That's why there are no spren in Shin.

10. Is it just me or are those Aons in the picture of the Shattered Plains at the start of part two? Near the top, within the round shapes.

11. Surgebinding seems just like Allomancy to me except with stormlight as a focus/power source instead of metals. Lashings are this worlds version of pushing and pulling on metals and when filled with stormlight a surgebinder has the strength, speed and healing powers of a mistborn.

12. I thought it was very interesting that each of those cities had a glyph associated with them. It reminds me of Elantris. Could each of the cities be a focus for the different powers out there, like Elantris is for the Dor?

14
All in all I found the chapter interesting, especially Amaryllis. I wanted to see more of a confrontation between Rosalin and Black Rose.

But the chapter felt a little too rushed, I think you could easily make it longer, maybe focusing more on the confrontation with Rosalin and Black Rose, etc.

There were places where the writing was just confusing to me, I couldn't picture what was going on or the wording was just a little confusing. Paragraph two is a good example, it just seemed confusing. Another good example is this section right here:

Quote
“We will not have much time,” Kalimeris said. “Dais, shoulder your pack, you're first. Then you Sen.” the swordsman looked at Senna with the same sternness as he did everyone. The last time he had looked with kindness was before Overlook, Dais thought. “I'll be last; leave me if you must.”

“What's going on?” Dais asked. Doing as he was asked he quickly put the rucksack back on. From above the rope came down.  

“I can hear it too, like a rumbling horde of Chittins without a rose in their way,” Rosalin said.

Chittins? Roses? That didn't make sense, but rumbling, that's something Dais thought he could hear. “We've still got time, though, right?”

In this little section Dais asks whats going on before you tell us whats happening. It would be far less confusing if you told us what Dais heard, then his reaction to it.

Nothing really wrong with this though, its the kind of thing that looks a lot better in the next draft.

15
Reading Excuses / Re: Sept 14 - The Sword of Worlds - CH 27 - Kail
« on: September 17, 2010, 08:16:39 PM »
Thanks. I have a lot of catching up to do myself.

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