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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 28, 2009, 09:15:24 AM »
I'm thinking of another use for Sliver.
As we know, it takes a Shard to share something of Itself to create sentient life. So, why couldn't every Human in the series be a Sliver of Infinity?
Maybe it was something ironic or subtle on TLR side, because it was true to call him Sliver of Infinity (read Adonalsium) and it was true for everyone, but was just so cool that he took it for himself  8)

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I have a book that big, $2 at a garage sale.  It has aluminum rods through the binding to strengthen it and one is broken so we can't use the totally awesome unabridged dictionary.  I do not want something that big to read for real though, unless the lectern came with it. And maybe a nice chain to connect the two.

Buy the "A memory of light" collector's edition.
1800 pages, carved rustic hardcovers, oak lectern and silver chain, and your own monks garments and candles.
Cristal expositor and chorus incoming in the Deluxe Edition.
 :P  :D

EDIT: I just checked some of the books we have on the shelves right now (we can see it now we are moving and have packaged 42 boxes full of books). The count of Montecristo is around 1460 pages, 1st edition 2004 3rd edition 2006, in perfect shape (my wife is fan of Montecristo, I tell you it is not there for exposition). And Johnatan Strange and Mrs. Norrel (never read, I'm naming on memory alone) is about 900 pages but with thick paper, almost the size of Montecristo.
So, yeah, these kind of books are done, but, you know, I have 6 points worth stitches in my back and doctor said I shouldn't lift weights, so they will be staying there till they are packaged  ;D

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 27, 2009, 10:32:06 PM »


Back on the Shards, though.  Is it possible that some of the Shards themselves split into lesser Shards or "Slivers"?  Meh, I guess 16 is a big enough number to make a good number of books with.

One question to ask, I guess, is how the number 16 ties in with what we've observed about the magic systems in Elantris and Warbreaker.  Yeah....I can't think of anything right now.

Maybe there are 16 tiers in Awakening, but surely there are more than 16 Aons, although maybe there are only 16 basic lines to draw Aons.

Anyway, I liked that word, "Slivers". Don't you remember having seen it written somewhere? Oh, yeah, about hundreds of times in Mistborn: Final Empire.
So, that's kind of a thought.  ???

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 27, 2009, 09:23:12 AM »
I see. Point taken.
So maybe there are 16 entites like Adonalsium, and... who knows where it may end? Maybe there are 16 universes, and so on..........  :-X
I hope BS will stop at Adonalsium, or we can get dizzy  8)

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In fact, they are meant to do some million copies, because, well, encyclopedias...............  ;)

That's not the point, I think everyone who is not agreeing to have the book split as a good idea haven't really tried to read one book that size........... :P
It can be done, and it can be done for maybe 80-100 U.S. dollars (we are speaking of around 90$ in 3 hardcovers, so price isn't really much different).
But, well, BS is reviewing the first 450k right now, so it will take him at last as much time to finish the other 350k-400k words. How much time could that be?

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 26, 2009, 11:36:20 PM »
I have been assuming that Adonalsium was a person or god of some sort.

I believe this concept is too simple. Maybe not "a god" but "the GOD", that's why I named it Creation, not the force actually used to Create, but the Universe itself, should it be conscious. You know, something BIG.

The Big Bang Theory for Brandon's Universe:
In the beginning, there was God (Adonalsium). Until one day he exploded.

 :) :D ;D
That's it.
also, as you said in the previous post, I agree if they are Shards, they should have been united before.

And, why is it that we have Humanity in every Shard world? Maybe the biblic conception "at his own image"? I believe BS to have one explanation for that, because he is so orderly....

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Spriggan, please, stop saying there are no binding machines for that...
The first copy I read of the LotR was a 1100 plus appendix pages, and I have seen books over 2000 pages. Yes, they are special editions, but they have been printed. And some of them are more than 30 years old. Oh, and the cost wasn't insane, but prices have gone up insanely since then, at least in here.

Anyway, I think the problem here is the concept. Let's face it, RJ said he would give one final book because it was his legacy and he didn't know if he could see it finished , which he finally won't :'(
Hadn't he got ill, he would probably have written 3 or even 4 books.
But, as it is now, to transmutate one compact story-book into 3, well, they may go for the "chapters 1-45", "46-87" and "88-end" which would be something dissapointing, or they could try to have BS rewrite the story so that he could give 2 minor book endings, but still good enough, and the final one which is written by now (I believe). That would be acceptable and even desirable. I have some and I tell you, you don't want to have 1500 pages hardbacks, they are so difficult to read. And no paperback would resist that amount of pages.

Also we have the title. It ringed some bells and I looked after it. Apart from Winston Churchill's book about WW2, it is also one book (I think about terrorism or something like that) released around 2006, so copyrights.....

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Yes, I agree it is likely to be a 3 volume release, most probably in 3 years.
Just making notice to those of you who still hope, no, they won't likely be 3 books like the rest of the series, but parts of one work, which means no real ending climax (just minor ones), and not real endings for the first 2 books.
Also, the 22 data (21.95 to be exact) is dollars, so it is around the 15 euros mark UtbaIBG states (depends on change when books release).
And, one little thing. BS hasn't finished writing. He is guessing 700k words, but they could be 600k or 800k, so in one situation it would make sense to have 2 books and the other would be better 3.
I just can suppose they are talking about 3 to get fans used to the idea. You know, it was stated it would be 1 book, then they started to say 2 volumes, and people now are used to the idea to the point of mostly accepting it. So, maybe they want us to get used to the 3 books - 3 years release idea. Who knows?

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Well, as you know, I have some "experience"  :'( with splitting books.
Generally speaking, when you split a book that's because
a) It is large enough.
b) You want to win more money with it.

History concerns, viewpoints, climax and endings is no concern for the guys who decide to split the books. So, as Ryos said, the endings will be blunt. they would probably end when there is a big viewpoint and story jump (there should still be some stories going on separately unti they gather in TG).
Of course, with BS and Harriet pressing to keep it as whole as it can, maybe they try to fins some way to split it coherently. We may have some hope.

Anyway, this seems to me as a premeditate "leakage", something to test the level of rejection people have towards the splitting. I believe they will do it anyway, but maybe if there are riots and a worlwide general strike, they decide to release them every 6 months instead of 12.......... yes, that's irony, I think they will go ahead with this and to hell with everything else.
I just hope protests make them reconsider the price. As I convinced my wife to stop buying the translated books, we bought all 3-11 books in English paperback, and they went for around 10-12 $, I don't remember exactly. Now, one paperback book would be 66 $...... no good, not really good.  :-\

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 25, 2009, 08:10:02 PM »
Is it possible that the shards bridge the dimensions between creation and the current universe??? I mean the mechanics of the AonDor seem like it to me.

P.S. I know there will be certain amount of similarities to all the shards but acting like they follow the exact rules of Scardiel is asinine the 2 opposite powers and a natural power doesn't work on all the worlds explain Warbreaker if you think it does...

P.S.S. how do "natural" powers come into existence is it because humans on Scardiel are part of preseveration and if thats the case why can't mistborn reverse aging?

Well, as I saw it when read one of BS posts regarding that, it seems that there is a Power, the power or energy of Creation itself (I believe this is Adonalsium). This Power of Creation resides in the Shards. And the magic systems are just different methods to channel or focus that power to create the "magic effects". That is the similarity I see in the different worlds and magic systems.
Of course, every world would have different numbers, styles and philophies of magic systems. I believe the three worlds we've seen so far (I'm counting only the "public" ones) are very different to each other, but all have these characteristics: there are Humans in it (although it seems that every species is very different from each other); there is "magic" available to some (some being a number largely over the typical fantasy worlds); and these "magic" comes from one of the Shards. Also, we could see the "focus" and "fuel" as a similarity in each world, but this is something less factual (although "factual" is too strong a word for the theorizing we're up in here....).

I don't think that there are "natural" powers in Scradial or any other of the worlds. I can't find the quote right now, but it is the HoA thread, BS said something like "each magic system is there because every race and people have a different genetic pool".
That is, that in every world there are individuals who can bear different magics, depending on the Shard that created sentient life in that world and the specifics of the individual races in each world. That explains why only Arelenes can have Elantrian magic (as explained, there were people who could use the Dor before Elantris, and those people build Elantris as a giant amplifier), only Terrispeople are Feruchemists and so on.
It seems in Warbreaker everybody has Breath and can use it, but that is much to say right now.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 23, 2009, 10:52:25 PM »
What I personally believe is that all magic systems in Adonalsium's Universe come from the Shards' Energies. They are radically different in interaction and style, in the way they work and what they can do. But the Energy manipulated is the Energy of Creation.
Of course AonDor is radically different from Allomancy. But deep in their mechanics they are all the same: you take fuel and focus and get to create some effects. What these effects are and how you get to create them is different for an Allomancer, Elantrian or Awakener. But the core is the same.
And so, we can guess by their mechanics if there is one, two or more Shards involved in the world. Or that's theory, let's see if we can get it to practice....
So far, the one that confuses me more is Awakening, I don't know about you guys and gals. This one is pretty weird  ???

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Splitting A Memory of Light...
« on: March 23, 2009, 05:31:28 PM »
I suppose that's the meaning of IT IS NOT HERE.
That's it, Bela was not there  ;D

I guess we'll see the DO as a Black Horse being mounted by Moridin against Rand mounting Bela.
That should be something to see  :D

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 23, 2009, 05:28:49 PM »
Quote
f they're the same Shard, though, what does the second Shard do?
I liked the idea someone stated a few pages ago, saying they could be contrarys/complementarys. He said they could be Life and Rest (because the pool is seen as a place to take Rest, i.e. die).
I think so. Don't know if the Shard whose Power is the Dor is Life, maybe Energy, but I think the pool is Death.
Not the bad Deathlord with zombies, but Real Death, that is, a Force of the Universe. She (I always thought the voice as femenine (I suppose that's because in the book Raoden describes as parent and mother, not father) doesn't want to fill the land with Death, because where there is Life, there's Death, and without Life there will be Nothing, but not Death.
Sort of...

Quote
ne interesting thing I should mention about all Shard-magics (Meaning Allomancy/Feruchemy/Hemalurgy, AonDor, Awakening) is that they all have a "focus". That is, the Shards power is focused through something. In Mistborn, the focus is metal. In AonDor, the focus is the symbols. And in Awakening, the focus is actually the words.
True, and they also need a fuel.
Fuels are Metal / Preservation's Body (Allomancy), Dor / Energy (AonDor), Own Internal Energy (Feruchemy, ChayShan) and External Sacrifice (Hemalurgy, maybe Dakhor?).
I don't know in which group Awakening fits, because its fuel is Breath, but its external. I see it a bit like Allomancy and Preservation. Leras gave Itself to create sentient beings. Maybe the Warbreaker Shard did the same, and every human has one Breath because it is part of the Shard's spirit. So it would go into the Allomancy / Dor positive gain category. But to do someting with Breath other than creating Lifeless you have to gain Breath from other people, which seems akin to Hemalurgy..........

And one final point:
Does it seem many of we believe the pool in Elantris and the Dor are different Shard's aspects? I mean, they are not aspects from the same Shard.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: **SPOILERS! The Shards of Adonalsium
« on: March 22, 2009, 10:00:44 PM »
A person from Arelon is "Arelene."  Not sure what you'd call a Svordish person.

I believe a comment from BS recently implied that we have seen six Shards between Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker.  Since I can't imagine Warbreaker could possibly be portraying three Shards in its magic system(s), I think Elantris has two.  The pool that dissolves Elantrians strongly resembles the Well of Ascension (which was liquid Lerasium, apparently) and is therefore probably the liquid part of the Dor's "body."  Seons and Aons, I think, are the "gas" part of the Dor, and Elantris itself is the solid manifestation.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Raoden was "taken" by the Shaod when he was.  I think the sentient part of the Dor was able to "choose" him for its curse in order to heal itself.  I also think the chasm that injured the Dor's physical body was caused by Jaddeth (a separate Shard) in the first place.

We don't know much about Shu-Keseg (the father religion) yet, but I'll bet its followers are closer to the truth regarding the two Shards than the Korathi or the Derethi.  Also, ChayShan itself strongly resembles the Feruchemy practiced by Terrismen (in that the practitioner starts out very slowly and builds up speed, strength, and momentum gradually).  Aon-writing, obviously, follows after the pattern of Allomancy: something for nothing (well, no power is ever taken from living things, anyway).  It's also implied that whatever Dakhor monks do requires human sacrifice like Hemalurgy.  At least, there are many more hopefuls accepted than there are monks trained.  Whether they die by accident in the process of their intense training or are sacrificed to create a single super-soldier is as yet unknown, but... well...
I was trying to part the post but... I really want to answer everything  ;)
First, thanks for the Arelenes one.

On the second paragraph, yes, he said we have met 6 Shards, 4 excluding Ati and Leras, and that the pool is one of the aspects we have seen.

I don't think it was coincidence on the part of Raoden, neither. In fact I was wondering if Raoden would be the one to be bound with the Dor's Shard, but then I read from BS that the children are going to be the sequel protagonists, so maybe one of them (the Elantrian, I suppose) is the Chosen One.
Probably the Chasm was caused by Jaddeth, but I'm thinking that Jaddeth and the Dor come from the same Shard, and that the Dor wis attuned to the land because it is kind of imprisoned, as Ruin was. So, Jaddeth = Dor.
There is no proof of this, but just that it would be original and ironic that the "good" and "bad" guys had the same God, and that it makes as sense as them being 2 Shards, because we have so little information.

About the magic systems....
I tried to parallel Hemalurgy and Dakhor, and it makes sense when they have to burn one monk (take into account it requires one monk, not one anybody) to teleport. But it doesn't make sense that they must sacrifice novices in order to make monks, because we have Hrathen, who left Dakhor.
Also, Aons don't get something from nothing. They really work as Allomancy, fueling something from burning the Dor.
Am I dreaming or was it written that Allomancy pure gain came from the Body of Preservation itself?

Anyway, it makes sense that, having 6 Shards and 3 Worlds/Series, and knowing there are 2 (neither more nor less) in Scadriel, there should be 2 in every other World. The only other option would be 3/1, but I can't see 3 sepparate Shards in Warbreaker or Elantris.

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Brandon Sanderson / Re: Splitting A Memory of Light...
« on: March 21, 2009, 11:14:37 PM »
Well, Casco, you're right, the series could go on forever (the story about the DO liberation from his prison, the Shadow War, the individual stories.................).
But, well, think of that many TV series who have gone forever..... they always stretched things too far away from their original purpose. We all know RJ wouldn't do that, but he couldn't be writing forever (think 1 book a year, which is a very fast pace, he could have been writing for 40 years more). Better to let the series finish and never let it die within us. Should he be able write everything down, there would have been no place for discussion and theories and random ideas, so the WoT would have died in time.
Best stories are those which, even after their end, they live forever. And Wot is one of those. For sure.

PS: just noticed, why do we always tend to think of the DO as male? And... does that mean the Creator is female?  :-\
Not strictly, of course, just about ying/yang dynamics.

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