Timewaster's Guide Archive

Taking a little step back for a bit, while Shallan is a major viewpoint character, why do we get lots of tasty hints but few concrete facts about the event...? I think this is likely to be mostly because Shallan herself is only starting to be prepared to fully confront what happened by the end of the book. There is another possibility though: it may be we need a bit more world-building before we (the readers) can fully understand what happened. Of course, it could be a mix of both.

I can think of lots and lots of questions, and some excellent ones have already been raised. For example, how did Shallan's father get (at least) two super rare and expensive items (the shardblade and the soulcaster). Did they belong to the family historically? Did he set up some grand bargain with the Ghostbloods? Was he deeply part of the Ghostbloods and doing this as part of their schemes, or was is more for his own personal gain? Why were the Ghostbloods asking after the soulcaster but not the shardblade? Was there a "hidden" reason why Shallan's father seemed particularly over-protective of her, or was it a combination of culture and his personality? Why did Shallan of all people end up with the sword - if it just appeared by her father's dead body, why did she claim it and not one of her brothers (culturally, she's shouldn't be going near such things and she's doesn't come across as a tomboy)? Could it be that he actually gave the sword to her specifically? Shallan seems quite trusting of her brothers, but do they know she has that sword? How accurate is Shallan's perspective of events? What were the events leading up to her father's death - some kind of internal dispute (no hints that outsiders we involved on the day in question at least)? Was it something sudden and completely surprising or was it a "last straw" kind of event? It seems like it occurred at a family dinner almost, so why would Shallan (seemingly) play the biggest role and not one of her other brothers? Why did the soulcaster get damaged - was it "collateral damage" or did it play some part of the events?

So, why not sell the sword? It could obviously get them a lot of money very quickly. But there's a lot of dangers I can see - there's no way they could sell it to someone local since they seem to have only enemies around them. There's little chance they could sell the blade to someone local without giving away the fact that her father is dead - after all, if the family needed money, the family head would be making the sale. Basically, selling it to anyone local would be very likely to backfire horribly. In a way, it's almost too valuable to be able to sell safely, unless you really know what you're doing. It would be almost impossible for them to sell it publicly, which means doing a more "black market" type sale, which is risky for both sides. Would a bunch of "children" be able to do that with some foreign power...? I also wonder, do Shallan's brothers even know she has it? If they do, wouldn't they want it? It may be that Shallan got it without anyone else knowing and due to her guilt she hasn't been able to confess it yet.

Very nice.

One last try.

One last month 

one thing struck me, her Dad's a Soulcaster right? a hidden one in that no one else knew about it, and they find that Bracelet thingy on his body.   But it doesn't work, so my main question is, Why???

First Idea:  Its outta Juice.  if the Bracelet thingy runs off of Stormlight, perhaps its been drained, and the Kids don't Know you have to recharge it?

Second idea: Its "soul-bound" to a specific user.  not sure if i like this idea, but it has merits, that Soulcasters are Born, not Made, and perhaps, Shallen could be one

I haven't re-listened to the audio but I thought it was reasonably clear that you need juiced-up jewels to power the thing. I'd have to re-listen to check but I think Shallan will be attempting to steal the jewels not the Soulcaster itself.


PS I'm interested in Shallan too. I like that she put herself in this situation. In some ways she's trapped by her financial issues, but she's still got her freedom for now. So it's interesting to see what she decides to do - it's not like she's depending on the advice of others.

PPS After seeing the Soulcaster being used, who else thought - "how long until Shallan gets to use it?" 

Oh, already have the paperback all ready to read.  And not just Warbreaker, but also the Mistborn series and Elantris. The only one I don't have is Alcatraz.

Oooh, how about this then: read the first chapter each for Elantris, Mistborn #1 and Warbreaker. Then continue with the one you liked the best...

I'd be curious to see which one you pick.

I notice that the last Mistborn annotation is up (it was actually up on my birthday ). Thanks to Brandon for writing them and Peter for posting them. I really appreciate this sort of thing. Looking forwards to the Warbreaker annotations!

And now... a little confession. I actually started reading some of the annotations before I read any of the books - Brandon would often mention the Mistborn annotations in his blog posts, so I got curious about them one day and decided to read a couple. It was rather weird doing that - I was reading them in the exact opposite order  After a while, I decided I wanted to know what was actually going on and ordered the whole trilogy. I then read them all over a single weekend (starting on Friday evening).

Bit later than I had intended, but here's some initial thoughts on the characters, based on only a tiny percent of the book. Also see the typos thread for the source of some clarifications I discuss here.

The "production description" bit on the Amazon page on the book suggests the main characters are: Dalinar Kholin (who we see "slumped drunken at a small table" in the prologue), Kaladin and Shallan. Doesn't seem like we'll be seeing too much of Szeth in this book - quite interesting how he's so powerful yet so constrained at the same time and clearly has a rather different culture.

Not much to say about Dalinar yet. Is he on the Shattered Plains, with the Alethi king? (Or at least, where the king was in chapter 1). Who's the Shardbearer at the end of chapter 1 - anyone we know? Meanwhile, his niece Jasnah is off on some major journey and is considered to be both brilliant and a heretic. Jasnah seems like someone to cause big upsets and it seems quite likely she could drag Shallan into something much bigger, whether by accident or deliberately.

Kaladin's situation is certainly easy to grasp quickly. A branded slave waiting to be sold. Just about hit rock bottom mentally, physically and socially. But he also has significant experience as a soldier and has some kind of training in medicine. I wonder how he will connect up with the other characters - not sure where he is located in relation to the others, but I can imagine Shallan finding his experience and knowledge interesting, for example. Normally when you start with a major character starting from the "bottom" you rather expect them to rise up to great heights. If this is going to happen with Kaladin, it looks like he's going to be carrying a lot of baggage for some time - his last attempt to make a difference didn't end well.

I find Shallan's situation pretty interesting - she has a certain amount of freedom, certainly more than the other characters we've been introduced to so far. Normally in fiction, you'd expect to see her situation from the "start" (ie her father dying) and then her setting out, but given that it's taken 6 months for her little quest to get anywhere worth mentioning, maybe such an introduction would come across well. It also gives me the feeling she won't be returning any time soon because we're not presented with an in-depth introduction to her family and manor. I suspect she will be lucky to be returning home by the end of the book.

That Amazon page says "Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war." I would guess that this theft is from Jasnah - a heretic princess from a different country, and outside both their own countries, could make a decent target. I wonder about a couple of things - could survive her family's predicament simply by sticking with Jasnah? (ie don't take any risks and simply give up on her family) If so, then maybe Shallan could find her bridges burnt for her - that bad news about her family could catch up with her. After all, it's been 6 months - a lot could have gone wrong in that time.

The cultural situation women are in, at least with Shallan and others (related to the Vorin faith?) is rather interesting. I can't think of any historical equivalent to this freehand / safehand cultural thing for a start. Pretty rare to have such blatant asymmetry as well in everyday dress, as far as I'm aware. I wonder what kind of historical events led to this. I also wonder how carefully covering / protecting your "safehand" is "modest"? What kind of immodest things are possible without it being protected...? Also, is it always your left hand that's your "safehand" - in which case, left-handed women might be forced to become right handed. It looks like in the Vorin culture, with the exception of "ardents", only women study reading and writing apart from glyphs. Looks like a lot of clerical type work is women only - notice the "women  in red coats tracking cargos on ledgers" bit. Looks like research and the like is considered a profession for women only - I wonder if this is global, mostly global, or specific to the Vorin faith. I wonder how educated noble males are in this world, and how common highly educated males are - Kaladin and his father have some medical knowledge and they're Alethi. Is this an exception for doctors (no women on/near the battlefield). What about the opposite - have there ever been women Shardbearers?

Shallan herself seems quite interesting - lots of scope for development. There seems to be a "real" Shallan in there somewhere, ready to throw off the constraints of "proper" behaviour. Considering how unfamiliar this all is for her she seems to be handling things quite well. Will be interesting to see how Shallan's tongue fares against a noblewoman

I was working on a post about characters from Way of Kings and noticed something a bit confusing. I'm not saying it's a "typo" or something but I thought it could be worth raising.

In the Prologue we have the quote:

Likely in a way that ended with people in all countries—from distant Thaylenah to towering Jah Keved—speaking Alethi to their children.

This says that Jah Keved is a "country".

In chapter 3, we have:

Shallan nodded gratefully, still clutching her drawing pad. Out in the city, there were people everywhere. Some  wore familiar clothing—trousers and shirts that laced up the front for the men, skirts and colorful blouses for the women. Those could have been from her homeland, Jah Keved. But Kharbranth was a free city. A small, politically fragile city-state, it held little territory but had docks open to all ships that passed, and it asked no questions about nationality or status. People flowed to it.

I'd normally take "homeland" to mean country, but it can also refer to smaller regions. Anyway, this against suggests that Jah Keved is a country, or some region within a country.

Later in chapter 3:

She stepped off the gangplank into the furious activity of the docks, messengers running this way and that, women
in red coats tracking cargos on ledgers. Kharbranth was a Vorin city, like Alethkar and like Shallan's own Jah Keved.

Which implies that Jah Keved is a city. Alethkar certainly seems to be the capital city of the Alethi kingdom.

Later in chapter 3:

Shallan grinned—she hadn't expected being out on her own to be so liberating. Her brothers had worried that she'd be frightened. They saw her as timid because she didn't like to argue and remained quiet when large groups were talking. And perhaps she was timid—being away from Vedenar was daunting. But it was also wonderful. She'd filled three sketchbooks with pictures of the creatures and people she'd seen, and while her worry over her house's finances was a perpetual cloud, it was balanced by the sheer delight of experience.

And:

She raised her freehand in a sign of need, and sure enough, a masterservant in a crisp white shirt and black trousers hurried over to her. “Brightness?” he asked, speaking her native Veden, likely because of the color of her hair.

So Veden is her language and she can also be described as being from Vedenar. So what's the relationship between Jah Keved and Vedenar...? It doesn't seem likely that Vedenar is part of Jah Keved - rather the opposite, that Jah Keved is a city in Vedenar, whatever that is.

It's a bit confusing. Given the world setup, having many city-states of various kinds, like Monaco in France for example, doesn't seem so unlikely. I can imagine a bunch of isolated cities, some loosely grouped into countries. So is Jah Keved a city that is also a country, with estates around the city? Is Vedenar a continent, or some similarly large region, with a shared language and tendency for red hair (also seen in chapter 2), with many separate countries one of which is Jah Keved? This mixing of Shallan being from both Vedenar and Jah Keved is a bit confusing at this stage in the book.