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Messages - Daen

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« on: February 13, 2008, 06:14:05 PM »
Yeah, I think that cleared it up a bit.  Any idea on how Denth would think of Shasharra as his sister, though?

Makes a bit more sense now, with knowing a bit more about the timeline with how the five scholars started up and were initially doing their work in relation to the start of the manywar and Vasher as Peacegiver starting his reign.

Thanks!

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Warbreaker: Free Ebook
« on: February 12, 2008, 10:37:16 PM »
I just finished Warbreaker 4.2 and wanted to ask a couple of questions.

I really liked the entire thing and felt that it flowed well.  I especially liked the turn of events when Vivenna found out about Denth and Parlin's murder.  Very well done. 

Anyway, onto the questions-- they have to do with the epilogue and the wrap up explanations mostly.  I'm not sure how much of this was supposed to be obscure by intention, but a couple of the details at least would be nice to have clarification in the future versions.

1. Vasher is a Returned, but he is also one of the five scholars.  Were the five scholars Returned at the time that they were doing their work/got that title?  That seems it would be the implication, since Vasher admits to not remembering his former life in the epilogue. 

2. Where in the timeline was the five scholars' life time/important part in relation to the Manywar and the begin of Peacegiver's reign?  (Hope that made sense...)

3. Are/were Denth, Tonk Fah, Shasharra (sp?), Arsteel, and Yesteel also Returned?  Again, with some of the things that are mentioned, especially with how Denth (and seemingly Tonk Fah) are very old along with Vasher, it seems to be implied that they are, but never really cleared up.  On the other hand, it is stated that Shasharra was Denth's sister, which implies they are not Returned.  I'm a little confused about this whole relationship here.

4. Also, I thought the explanation of how a Returned can survive without receiving a Breath a week, while good, seemed to be missing something.  Not sure-- maybe I just didn't understand it well the first time I read it, but I was left feeling confused.  So, does Vasher have just a lot of extra Breath hanging around that his body consumes at a rate of one a week?  How does he hide from Vivenna with her Life Sense, then?  Put it into something inanimate like Vivenna starts doing?  Does he only need to have it at the time when his body will consume it?  I found this explanation to be a bit more confusing in its current state than your others in Elantris and both Mistborns.

5. Relatedly, shortly after Vivenna meets him, Denth mentions that he has gone without Breath for long periods of time before.  Assuming he is telling the truth and that he is a Returned similar to Vasher, how does that work?  If he isn't returned, it makes  a bit more sense.

Anyway, on the whole, I really liked it.  I noticed some type-os and name confusion (using Denth instead of Vasher a few times), but I assume you'll be proofreading those out a bit later.  To answer a question you asked a few months ago about the title fitting, I think it fits really well.

Keep up the good work, and I'm looking forward to when this book gets published so I can go out and buy it!

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Wow! #2
« on: November 06, 2007, 09:46:11 PM »
Yeah... For a while there while I was reading Well of Ascension I was trying to decide if I liked it as much as the first book or not, and I wasn't so sure.  The ending totally makes up for it, though. 

I need to write a book review on this one and solidify my thoughts a lot more, but the ending was definitely very different from what I expected.  I remember back when it first started to get off the pathway from where I was expecting it to go and it was, honestly, very surprising and very good.  I don't want to give any spoilers here in case there are those that haven't read it yet, but my review will definitely be spoiler-heavy, just to get the thoughts going. 

Another thing I noticed about the book: Brandon did an awesome job of bringing out the emotion in this one.  I find that to be the mark of a good fantasy/sci-fi author (and arguably in most other genres as well).  I remember really feeling for the characters and the predicaments they found themselves in during a lot of the very important scenes, especially near the end. 

Brandon's books always leave me feeling inspired to work on my own writing, and this one was no different.  I've been stuck for a few months, now, on my main writing project, but since I read Well of Ascension I've had a lot more drive to work out the plot problems and do a better job than I have been recently.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to #3.  I'm going to try to see if I can be at the book signing for that one, too-- only missed the one for Final Empire, so far.  These books are kind of like crack-- I need my fix.  ;)  I might have to go back and start re-reading the ones I do have before long here.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Writer of the Future. Who Has Been Entering Lately?
« on: June 01, 2007, 09:14:27 PM »
I guess I could maybe look at the link to get this answered, but what size stories have you guys been submitting for this?  Seems like they're short stories, but I'm still a little hazy on what exactly qualifies as a short story.  Under 20 pages?  More less?  I might consider sending something in.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: PC or Mac?
« on: May 31, 2007, 06:53:51 PM »
And it'll do the right click and everything?  Same functionality as the control-click thing that you have to do with the one button?  If so, that's pretty cool.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: PC or Mac?
« on: May 30, 2007, 12:11:17 AM »
I'm a PC guy, myself, but I think the major issue comes back to what's already been said: what are you comfortable with?  It sounds like you've been using a Mac for a while now, and are probably pretty used to it.  So, there are probably some things you need to ask yourself about it, maybe like: can I find things easily and quickly with the current set up?  Do I find it satisfactory (does it do everything I want it to, or are there features that I would like that are lacking)?  Does it run the programs/games I want it to?  Have I had any major problems with it?  Would I mind trying something new or different?  How much would it bother me having to spend a little bit of time learning the differences?

Anyway, those are just suggestions.  You might change some of the questions, get rid of some, or add others.  I think after asking some of them, you might have a better idea of what it is you want.  As has already been said: they both have advantages and disadvantages-- Macs seem to lean more toward being good at art and graphics type things, and PCs more toward games and other widespread programs.  (I would say something more specific, but I can't think of any at the moment...)

I've been using Vista for about a month now and not had any stability problems with it or anything, but I don't want to resurrect that issue-- it seems to have been fairly well settled. 

I don't like the one mouse button on the Mac.  That's my biggest issue with it.  Other than that, I think I would have some difficulty finding things for a little while, but you get over that fairly quickly if you use it almost every day.

Anyway, remember that the biggest questions are what you're going to use it for and what you want/feel comfortable with.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Okay, I'm hooked.
« on: May 24, 2007, 10:59:19 PM »
I heard about Brandon from some of the people in my ward-- they're English majors here at BYU and had heard about him somehow... I'm not sure.  Anyway, I found out that he was going to be up at the BYU Bookstore for a while and decided to head up and take a look.  I'd been looking for something new to read.  Anyway, got up there and had a chance to talk to him a bit.  That was pretty good-- I fancy myself a bit of an author and needed some tips on how to go about doing a better job.  I ended up with not only that, but a signed copy of Elantris.  I think I read the book in a couple of days over a weekend, and I was really impressed.  I was really excited to hear about a published author that taught here at BYU.

I ended up getting a copy of Mistborn a little late.  I heard about it when it came out and wanted to get a copy, but my school work made me so busy that I didn't have any time to read anything other than engineering text books (*gag*) for pretty much the entire year.  Just got it... 2/3 weeks ago (?) as an early birthday present, but again was very busy until this last week.  I thought it was even better than Elantris.  I was blown away by the depth and detail of the world, the magic system, and how it all intertwined.  Not only that, but the way it was described in relevant pieces as the story went on, giving further depth and introducing mystery.  I just finished the book a couple of days ago, and I've been talking it up to all of my friends ever since I got to the halfway point. 

Like I said, I fancy myself a bit of an author, but I've been having some issues with my time recently-- not really having any of it to spare, that is.  I have a world I've been slowly building and writing a history for over the course of the last 4 or 5 years, and I'm hoping to be able to write a book from it-- maybe turn it into a small series.  After reading Mistborn, though, it left me with a new drive to keep going with it and turn it into something.  You'd be surprised how much time you can make for a project when you feel some new inspiration. 

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