Just moved and in the fun decorating phase!

im in chapter 66 of WOR. BRUH WHY DID KALADIN GIVE THE SHARDPLATE AND SHARDBLADE TO MOASH OF ALL PEOPLE??? moash is like the most volatile of all the bridgemen. bro tried to kill elhokar. WHYYYY

sorry i have no one in my life to talk to about this amazing series

edit: just read further and am reading how kaladin agrees with moash and his friends now

I'm rereading the audiobooks with my partner and I've noticed that I haven't heard any descriptions of any of the artwork that's between some chapters, like the maps of war camps or drawings in Shallan's sketchbook. When did they remove them from the audiobooks? Are there different versions that still have these descriptions? I'm rereading them on Libby, same as I did the first time I read them and I remember the audio descriptions because I would look up the artwork after each new one and compare it to how I had pictured it in my head. Just really confused that they aren't there at all anymore and couldn't find any info on why, or anyone acknowledging that they've been removed at all. It's annoying because I don't know which pieces of art are between which chapters so I'm worried about looking at them with my partner on Brandon's website and spoiling something :/

Rereading (listening) again and I just finished the scene where Shallan enters the war camps for the first time. At this point she’s survived assassins and being shipwreck. Then not only makes it to the war camps. She secures a neutral place for herself to stay. The loyalty of a group of shoulders that have seen her to be capable and honest (ironically). And convinces Dalinar to continue the causal. The girl is a badass.

Oh and Pattern is the best spren. I love him

Thought you guys might like them!

EDIT: Yes I understand there bottom two are "misspelled". This was intentional. Names have to be unique, so I am not able to claim a name someone else already has.

(Edit: I’ve realized that I’m currently reading book 2. One English book ends up being the equivalent of two German books—likely, once again, due to translations that could use some improvement...)

Just so you know where I am: I'm on Book 4, page 600 of the German edition. About 20 pages or so after Kaladin realizes that Elhokar is Dalinar's Tien. The great battle with the Parshmen is just beginning.

And I'm no longer entirely sure I understand the logic behind the series.

The humans are now referring to the Parshendi as Voidbringers, and Dalinar believes that the Desolation is imminent or has already begun.

But the events don't really fit together. They correlate in time, but that's about it.

At the beginning of the first book, a Desolation has just ended. We learn about the Oathpact. One Herald dies. According to the story, he must be reborn somehow, because the two humans talk about how "this time" only one of them died.

Based on the logic Sanderson has applied in his other books, I assume that Desolations begin whenever the Heralds return to Roshar. In the meantime, they exist somewhere else, and there's an implication that they're subjected to torture, which eventually broke the other nine.

Since the Desolations are clearly not cyclical, that leaves us with two possibilities.

Possibility 1: Odium, or someone else, can freely determine when they occur.

Or, more likely, possibility 2: The timing of a Desolation is determined by how long the Heralds can endure the torture.

But now Rlain says that the Parshendi's Stormform would bring Odium back. And Odium's return is essentially synonymous with the beginning of a Desolation.

But I'm sorry, that doesn't make sense to me. Stormform could have been discovered much earlier. It's possible that Odium whispered something to Venli, meaning that, as Eshonai seems to suggest, Venli already knew what the transformation would actually do before it happened. But Odium is supposedly "gone", so I think it's reasonable to assume that he fundamentally cannot influence Roshar directly.

As for the Ghostbloods, I assume they aren't affiliated with Odium, but are hunting Surgebinders for other reasons (possibly religious ones). If Odium could exert that much influence over Roshar by manipulating people, he wouldn't need a Desolation to drive humanity to the brink of extinction.

And even if Venli's knowledge came from Odium, that still has nothing to do with how long the Heralds can endure the torture.

So, the events may correlate in time, but the causal link is missing.

Am I right or wrong and where and what is my missing part?

I literally hate Teravangian! As Odium he's a flat out prick! Manipulative, snide, arrogant. I had to pause several times during the debate with him and Fen and Yasna. I wanted to punch him in the face so bad I had to stop and breath and cringe hard core. I kept yelling "POINT OUT THAT HE IS THE GREATER THREAT!" and then he said he could protect her people "forever" and I shouted "POINT OUT THE DEAL ONLY LASTS A THOUSAND YEARS, NOT FOREVER!"

Ugh I hate him so much. I hope they kill him off lol

Ok end rant.

Wondering if anyone has gotten a rainspren tattoo before or done any fan art! I am hoping to get a small, minimalist rainspren (also to represent being from the PNW) for my forearm. TIA!

About mid-way through Oathbringer and I have to get this off my chest.

I love love love this series, but I HATE how the cast treats Kaladin and his hatred of Lighteyes. The narrative at times openly acknowledges prejudice in various forms throughout the book, and highlights the inequality between the Darkeyes and Lighteyes. But as soon as Kaladin says something about it, he's suddenly the bad guy?

I'm on Chapter 69 and Kal is commenting on how the Lighteyes are throwing a fancy party during this war while there are refugees starving on the streets. And then Skar and Drehy start comparing it to having a drink at the bar during a war or having parties when hiding in storm shelters.

Kaladin then astutely comments, "It's not the same," and "You taking their side?"

Then Drehy responds "Are there sides?" and that's the end of that.

... Drehy and Skar WHY are you riding these Lighteyes so hard? You KNOW it's not the same.

This reminded me of this one part in WOR where Kaladin said something critical about Lighteyes, but Shallan pointed out Adolin being jokey to some Darkeyed guys and letting them try on his helmet. And Kaladin somehow loses that argument. Like this caste system directly caused extreme trauma for him and millions like him, but somehow that's okay because one (1) Lighteyed Prince is cordial to his underlings.

I love Adolin, but for every Adolin there's a hundred Roshones and Sadeas' and Amarams. Adolin being a good Lighteyes on an individual level does not ERASE the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF HARM that this caste system allows Lighteyes to inflict on Darkeyes. Is Kaladin not completely correct in calling out this IS an oppressive class system?

Anyways, I get what Sanderson is maybe trying to do by showing there's good and bad people in both castes, and you shouldn't make generalizations about a group of people. But it feels like Kaladin is the ONLY one learning that lesson while the Lighteyed characters are hardly ever challenged on their beliefs. For example, Dalinar just met with the Azish, and he had a brief moment of reconciling the incorrect assumptions they had about each other's cultures. But all Dalinar got from that was "Well, we don't treat our Darkeyes like slaves so they're wrong about us." Hm yeah except when your vassals enslave them 😐 but like whatever I guess.

So I already skimmed other forum discussions about this, and it seems like it never really gets properly addressed, which is a real shame because Kaladin’s struggle as a Darkeyed guy in this society was one of the things that made me fall in love with his character and this world.

Anyways viva la revolution also I miss Eshonai.

This is going to be a part of my Halloween costume...

Joyce here made a cool (almost perfect) ketek. Also of note that the two sentences aren't actually saying the same thing and one follows the action of the other. Here it is:

"Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince’s stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince’s stores."

By the way there was a Spanish translation of Ulysses which translated only for meaning in which the ketek was totally lost and the translator himself later decided that he would retranslate the whole entire book again this time more creatively and in this second version he made the mirroring perfect so that at least would be a great natural and perfect ketak.

What about yourself? Any good keteks you've come across in the wild from authors other than Sanderson? All mediums are welcome

Okay, this may be a bit of a reach, but I have been watching Seven Havens recently. There was a scene which gave me big Kaladin with spear vibes.

For context, the character is an airbender, which means they can manipulate the movement of air (Which is like another layer of similarities. Stormblessed <--> airbender yadi yada... anyways). In the scene he takes a spear from an enemy and incorporates it into his fighting style.

I have been geeking out about this, so I wanted to share.

Is it fair to call the skybreakers fascists?

And they started bonding with people?

What does it mean now that Kaladin is the Herald of the Wind? Does it ultimately mean that he is a herald of Adonalsium as the Wind is one of the caretakers left behind by Ado?
Also, I feel like ‘Herald of Second Chances’ will have greater implications. Brando doesn’t just randomly give titles. The obvious part of Second Chances aside, what could it mean?

Anyone know which patch is on Kal's left shoulder in the first Pic? The Bridge Four patch is supposed to be on his right as shown in the second Pic, and it doesn't look like the cobalt guard patch from pic 3. I guess it could be simplified cobalt guard as that detailing is tough at the scale of the image, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Art credit

#1 Antti Hakosaari (Stormlight Handbook p.225, Cosmere RPG)

#2 Deandra Scicluna (Stormlight Handbook p.126, Cosmere RPG)

#3 Glyphs by Isaac Stewart.

I am talking about Jasnah, but some people are not done with Words of Radiance so didn't want to spoil even the name.

Anyway, I didn't what happened to her at all. I understand that this is not the end of the whole thing, but it is frustrating anyway. She is arguably the most intelligent human woman in Roshar and I feel like they did her dirty so bad.

She misses out on the discovery of Urithiru because she was on Shadesmar. Her vast knowledge of the past is rendered almost irrelevant. She is of the 4th ideal but never quite learns to elsegate and her potential is kinda wasted as a general for that war in Thaylenah. Wit is such a bad partner, he doesn't mistreat her per-se but he knows how much she loves history and what it means to her, yet he doesn't share what he knows even though he was there for a lot of it. We find out through Dalinar and Navani with the Spiritual Realm visions, but as far as I remember, she doesn't get to learn about it. and then Taravangian dunks on her and gets the deal with Fren by dunkin' on her philosophy, beliefs and mistakes.

I feel like she perpetually gets the short end of the stick throughout the whole Era 1 and I guess she is gonna get some sort of closure somewhere in Era 2. But right now it feels like such a wasted potential... I would have loved Jasnah flashbacks; I understand why venli's were important, but with so many new potential POV / flashback characters it feels awful to think it is gonna be potentially 15 years until we get to really know about her and she gets some justice.

I know a certain character went through something similar in another cosmere story but at least he got closure, meanwhile Jasnah gets to eat shit.

Edith: thanks everyone for the reassurance, it brought me comfort.

I finished the (arc 1) journey late Friday night. Wow. Just. Wow. It’s been awhile since finishing book series left me like this. I think the last time this kind of feeling took was last year when I played through the Mass Effect Trilogy over the spring and summer months.

Honestly, I was skeptical of Brandon Sanderson and the Cosmere at the start. For a variety of reasons, I have an automatic suspicion of most people I see as connected to organized religion + I came across a couple articles/reviews that looking back for sure shown an erroneous light him and his works. This is one of those cases where I’m so deeply happy to be wrong.

At first, I wasn’t super impressed last year when I started The Final Empire, but by the end of the book I was completely swept up and rooting for the crew by the end. That continued all through Era Two and several of the secret project novels. All excellent stories, especially Tress.

But The Stormlight Archive has been a whole different breed of experience. I found myself effected more deeply by so many characters than in previous entries. Actual tears shed + fist pumping and shouting like I was watching a sporting match. Adolin’s arc in particular touched me though really everyone and everything left a mark.

Damn. What a series. What a powerful exploration of cycles of violence and how to try to person when we’re all trapped in one. Already losing my mind about book 6.

(And thank you all for being such a fun community!)

This took me 5 months to complete but I'm so happy with how it turned out. Acrylic on canvas 24"x36"

Starting earlier this year, I started the Stormlight series. I ripped through the first four books and was very excited to read the fifth book and be all caught up.

But I have hit a wall. I am just at the beginning of the 6th day and the story just is not working for me. Book 1 and 3 both hit a little slump in the middle for me, but did not take long for that slump to disappear. But this slump has been long. Day 4 and 5, with the exception of some parts felt like a slump.

Adolins chapters have been fantastic. There is clear tension building and the grind of trying to hold the line until reinforcements get there is brutal in the best way. Szeth background chapters have been very interesting and engaging. Kaladin and Syls bond growing has been wonderful to see.

But man there is so much exposition. Dalinar, Navani, and Shallan are all caught in a flashback episode. I get that this information is important and probably will have some big reveals coming. But good lord their chapters just feel like exposition. To be fair, Shallan chapters have some more intrigue with the Ghostbloods but I also have become uninterested in the Ghostbloods. I started to lose interest about them in book 4.

I also just feel like the book has a villain problem. Tarvanigan started interesting to me, but I do not care about him anymore. Even if he is Odium. Mosh started as an intriguing villain, and now I am tired of him. Mraize is tiresome too.

Sadeas was a fantastic villain. Tarvanigan started so interesting when his motives were being revealed. Raboniel in R&W was such a breath of fresh air. Yes she opposed our heroes, but I also felt for her and liked her. But this book has such a bad villain problem. I dont care about any of them. And the way some of them persist is laughable at this point. I think Mraize has escaped death three times already this book? It is boring to see him continually slip away with a smirk and a wink.

This is the first book in the series I actually want to stop reading. Just because the story is not clicking in to place for me. It does not seem to have those moments that kept propelling me forward like the first four books did. Because so much of the book is exposition or heavy handed therapy time.

I guess this rants purpose is to ask (with no spoilers for what is to come), is this a common feeling about the book? Does the book get better in the back 650 pages? Should I just take a break and come back to it?

I do not want to quit. But reading the book has started to feel like homework rather than something I am enjoying. Which is hard to say after how much I loved the first four books.

This was the most difficult Cosmere book for me to get through. The middle 50% failed to excite me in the same way that WoR did.

But then we get to the climax…

Renarin about to be executed by Jasnah
Dalinar is the champion with nine shadows
Lift and Szeth being consumed by sword-nimi
Adolin has been speared through the guts
Kaladin has run out of stormlight somewhere in the distance

I’m almost crying and have to take a break because its so intense

Then we find out Renarins vision were wrong and Dalinar saves the day for everybody by becoming good god.

WHAT!? After all that!? Nobody dies!?!

It frustrates me how the author writes stuff like ‘us radiants are vulnerable without stormlight’ but doesn’t really follow through by showing it. Just feels like huge plot armour for the main characters. ARGH. I feel so invested and want to know what happens next but come on 😭.

The killed my guy Jez who i didn’t even know was alive.

Can someone convince me that Dalinar becoming Unity is more interesting than Dalinar become Odiums Champion? That wouldve flipped the whole series into chaos which sounds amazing to me!

Long time lurker, first time poster. Not a single person of the hundreds who have met my new puppy have understood the reference.

This is Lift! My new Boston Terrier puppy.

I’m mentally preparing myself to get downvoted to oblivion, but upon reread of The Way of Kings, Amaram’s actions are more justifiable than I remembered. When Kaladin killed the shard bearer, he didn’t take the shard for himself, he decided to give it to a nameless nobody underneath him. Both that man and Amaram were pretty shocked by this, understandably so. This is exactly like when Kaladin gave the shard to Moash, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Amaram’s reasoning when he was confronted by Dalinar about killing Kaladin’s men actually made sense and paralleled some things Dalinar has done, doing reprehensible things for the good of the many. Did it make more sense for Amaram to have the shard than a nameless nobody under Kaladin? Yes. Is the way he did it correct? Absolutely not, and I wouldn’t have done the things he did if I were in his shoes, but I’m surprised at how justifiable his actions were after reading The Way of Kings again.