Timewaster's Guide Archive

Now that we know from the Navani translation page that spren are trapped in Soulcasters, what if the reason that Shallan attracted the transforming spren was because she freed it/them from the Soulcaster by accidentally breaking it?

I realized something strange about Tavarangian in my reread. When him (or his associates) meet Szeth for the first time, they used a Soul Caster. If that's the case, then why did he need Jasnah's help in the first place to rescue his granddaughter? Was it a plot by him just to see Jasnah's soul casting ability in action? Is Tavarangian himself a soulcaster? Maybe he just wanted to keep his abilities hidden?

Okay, enough with the cheesy jokes... 

I watched the videos, and Brandon mentioned that chronologically, tWoK comes after Dragonsteel and White Sands. I've always been a big stickler for reading things in order, so for some reason I find this mildly distressing. 

So, where does Mistborn, Elantris, and Warbreaker fit into all of this? 25 years later, are we going to have this huge gigantic mind bendingly awesome book that combines all the series into a gigantic climax? Mistborn is probably a good deal earlier, since we're going to have the two other Mistborn trilogies, with the one involving space travel, that will probably have stories from two different worlds blending together...

Since Shallan has so much back story untold, I have a feeling that in book 2, there's a good possibility that Shallan will become the primary protaganist, like Kaladin in this book. That way the flashbacks can tell her father's mysterious story and the way she got her shardblade and how the soulcaster got cracked and where her oldest brother, Helaran, (who probably ISN'T dead) disappeared to.

I don't think there's much to ponder there.  Who would expect their beloved daughter of killing them?  Getting him dead within the 10 hearbeats doesn't seem like a big stretch.

I decided to find the little hints of flashbacks in chapter 7 and 8 to see what we can figure out about the event.

It still felt odd to her that she been the one to take charge after...After the incident...After..

Memories attacked her. Nan Balat bruised, his coat torn. A long, silvery sword in her hand, sharp enough to cut stones as if they were water.

I guess if the memories are of after the incident, then she probably got the Shardblade from her father.

Speaking of which, is that a typo in the book? I think that it should be "It still felt odd to her that she HAD been the one..."

And then talking about the soulcaster...

Nobody knew where he'd gotten the fabrial, which she now carried in her safe pouch. It was unusable, damaged on the same disastrous evening that her father had died.

This quote, on the other hand, seems to imply to me that the Shardblade played a part in the damaging of the Soulcaster.

So... basically, I have no real theories yet, however, Brandon probably has hidden a big secret in the events that really transpired that day.

Are the part two epigraphs written by Hoid? I know everyone has a tendency to think that Hoid is behind every wall or mysterious incident, but it kind of makes sense. The epigraphs are kind of sarcastic, and that fits in with his personality. Also, Hoid is being searched for in the interlude about Clear Lake. Could those be the friends from the 17th Shard?

This is definitely going to be a big area of exploration in future books, but I thought the whole idea  for the Parshmen and Parshendi to be  already very interesting. They definitely weren't the usual Trolloc or Orc evil characters... in fact, I had a hard time figuring out what they were supposed to be until towards the end of the book. A reread is in order now that all the proper nouns in the books are acquiring definitions in my head.

I really liked the way Brandon came up with Parshendi. It definitely was quite different from the humanoid monsters in most fantasy-I just took them to be a different human race, just with shell growing abilities. It definitely fits in well with the whole world building aspect of it, with the shellish/chitinous construction of everything.

I also liked the parallels to the Roman empire, where the majority of the society was slaves, and the sinister threat underneath it all of the slaves overpowering their masters.

I also liked the mysterious nature of having these humanoid creatures, the parshmen, being so... animalistic. Shen seemed to act almost like a robot, but with tiny hints of a personality. I look forward to future books, where the parshmen become "unlocked", and I think it will be fascinating for someone like Shen to develop a personality.

In some ways, they have a very "insect" feel, especially with their hive mind capabilities.

Can't wait to see where Brandon will take all of this... but unfortunately, I will HAVE to wait... at least two to three years for the next update. Sigh.

By the way, I don't know how Brandon can be such a prolific writer. I know that he was way ahead work wise, but seriously, two huge books coming out in the same year. And an Alcatraz book to come. He's a scary man. Slow and steady writers, shake in your boots with fear.

I think his humanity will be more apparent if he can't get AMOL finished by next year. Is that actually possible? He's not going to start writing until the beginning of next year... surely he won't be able to make a November publication...