Timewaster's Guide Archive

Let's see... I'm in the middle of Malazan: Book of the Fallen. A friend turned me onto it, and I've stuck with it because of the nonlinear plot. I'm rather unaccustomed to it and find it intriguing.

My "To Read" list is already so long, but I'm always looking for more to add to it. I've been studying for my CPA exam for half a year, and I've just been loading books onto the list for when I finished, which happened 16 days ago.

Well, Brandon has mentioned that he'd like to give Kaladin a second focus book. I assume we'd see more of Tien if that comes to pass.

I have to go with Lopen. I'm not sure if Brandon gave a thorough physical description, but even if he did, my mental image of Lopen is a one-armed Cheech Marin.

Heh, I wonder if PANFO will catch on as terminology.

Did he say there were way more than 16 shards?  Did I hear that right?

I think he said there were more than 16 alloys each from Atium and Lerasium. Btw, would they still be called Atium and Lerasium, considering that Ati and Leras are dead? Shouldn't they be Sazediumone and Sazediumtwo?

Without a doubt I have to go with Mistborn. I absolutely love Way of Kings, but it's too new. At this point I can't tell how much my view of the novel is influenced by it's newness, whereas with Mistborn, I know I love all it's parts. The beginning, middle, end, and everything in between is just so good. That said, if the Stormlight Archives live up to the promises made in Way of Kings, Mistborn will be #2.

I think the ten essences only applies to the power of 1 shard - probably the Almighty. There are a lot more magic systems in this book then have yet been talked about, so it is possible for there to be another shard. The Parshendi don't seem very hateful yet, maybe there power doesn't originally come from Odium.

Or perhaps the Parshendi are not actually the Voidbringers? That possibility I'm rooting for because I think we'll be much more likely to have a Parshendi shardbearer focus book if they're not the Voidbringers.

As for the Essences, the way I read the notes on Voidbinding in the Ars Arcanum was that it used the Essences as well, just in different ways than Surgebinding. I'd look up the passage, but I'm about 100 miles away from my copy at the moment.

Szeth gets a book. Jasnah gets a book. Talanel is not confirmed to get a book, but I certainly want it to happen.

Quote from: libraloco on October 02, 2010, 05:15:42 AM

I thought I heard somewhere that book two was going to be called The Highprince of War, or something like that, so wouldn't that apply to Sadeas?

Unless Brandon decided really recently, SA2 would either be a Dalinar book or a Shallan book. If Dalinar, it will be The Highprince of War. If Shallan, then The Shattered Plains.

So I guess that means we're probably going see a lot of both of them in the next book either way. I'm really okay with that. Excited you might say.

@Stormblessed: thanks for catching that.

When I claimed that there was another Shard involved, it was based on my reading of the statement

"3 of 16 once ruled, but now the Broken One reigns."

My interpretation of this was that there were three Shards on Roshar, all 3 of which were generally benign (or at least natural for Roshar) and operated within their sphere of influence, doing Shard things.  Then, just like on Sel, Odium (the Broken One) showed up and began wreaking havoc with their system, resulting in the desolations and the general war that is apparently ongoing.

Part of this is that I don't want Odium to be Ruin part deuce.  Ruin was a natural part of Scadriel, even if he and Preservation had to be kept carefully balanced for the world to be amicable.  Ruin's power, held by Sazed, is vital to keep Scadriel running.  Odium is being built up as something else altogether, as somebody who is personally evil, not just driven to it by his very nature.

Another part of that is that it makes the story much deeper, and gives us many more delicious magic systems.

So I don't have a lot of information to back this idea up, but I haven't seen much against it either.  If there are any interviews *ahem* which might shed light on it, I might be willing to read them, though.

The largest evidence I see for 3 shards instead of 4 shards (without reference to interviews) is that there are 3 magic systems on Roshar: Surgebinding, Voidbinding, and the Old Magic. In each of Brandon's books, there has been one magic system for each Shard on the planet. Allomancy came from Preservation, Hemalurgy from Ruin, AonDor from Aona, and Biochroma from Endowment. Presumably the Dakhor magics came from Skai. The only magic system that doesn't fit with this is Feruchemy because it's a bit from Preservation (uses metals in a similar manner as Allomancy) and a bit from Ruin (has diminishing returns like Hemalurgy). Aside from that, it's one magic system for each Shard.

Brandon has said that the Stormlight Archives will have 30 magic systems *depending on how you count*. Here's how I take that statement: for each Shard, there are ten types of magic, one for each of the 10 Essences. Surgebinding relates to the Almighty, and a only a few have been named so far (Windrunners, Stonewardens, Soulcasters, and possibly Dustbringers). I don't recall any names given of Voidbinding (for Odium) or Old Magic (for Cultivation) abilities, but we've also not seen any concrete examples of these.

As for interviews, I'm fairly sure Brandon has said there are 3 shards in play on Roshar, but I can't recall where I saw that. Even without that, I'm fairly sure the the 3 shards x 10 Essences = 30 Magic Systems theory is correct.