Board 8 > Just finished The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. Damn.(Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I need to remind myself what happened in the last two books. I have this thing where I remember minor unimportant details and then forget the main plot.
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Eerieka posted...

I need to remind myself what happened in the last two books. I have this thing where I remember minor unimportant details and then forget the main plot.

Here are chapter summaries, but really this is just a great wiki to click on people or organizations and learn more about them.

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Words_of_Radiance/Summary
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Yankees posted...

https://www.tor.com/2017/08/15/stormlight-archive-refresher/

If you just want to get up to speed, the publisher posted a refresher online.

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Thanks, ya'll.
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Reading Mistborn: A Secret History right now

mannnn you can tell Kelsier was Brandon's favorite character as well.

"That smile. Is infuriating."

so much fun.
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I'm going on a week long trip to Nicaragua next week on Nov 15

I'm gonna spend it reading Oathbringer
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ExThaNemesis posted...

Reading Mistborn: A Secret History right now

mannnn you can tell Kelsier was Brandon's favorite character as well.

"That smile. Is infuriating."

so much fun.

It's so good and it'll make you want to read Bands of Mourning again.
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Finished Secret History last night.

One question I need answered is, what was Hoid doing on Scadriel and why was he in Fadrex hiding out during the war.

Man, Kelsier. I fuckin' love this dude. The Survivor of DEATH.

I had totally forgotten about the bit in Bands of Mourning, too.

I am SO STOKED for Oathbringer now. Even more than I already was.
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Clearly there is more going on with Hoid than we realized. Between Elantris, Warbreaker, and Secret History it seems like Hoid might be gathering powers. Trying to gain as many types of magic as possible.

Of course he also seems to just like being places where exciting things are happening, so that is probably the main reason he was on Scadriel. Getting Allomancer powers from the Lerasium may have just been a bonus.

And yeah, Kelsier is awesome.

Man there is so much Cosmere related stuff I want to know. Like how does the Seventeeth Shard recruit? It seems to be made of minor (but significant) characters from various books.
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I believe there's a Word of Brandon saying that Hoid gets a feeling he's supposed to be somewhere due to magic. Like Chromium Feruchemy or something similar.
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It was nice to get confirmation that Hoid was the one who took the lerasium bead that ended up missing. Explains him drinking metal flakes at the end of WoR when he meets with Jasnah
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I didn't like Mistborn (just the first, never bothered with the rest) but am interested in The Way of Kings, especially given the praise of the entire Stormlight series thus far. I read the prologue last night and I think it was pretty good.

Mistborn felt verrry young adult genre and I didn't care for it. I'll probably stick with TWoK for now but I'm wondering: will I get a similar feel with Stormlight?
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Mistborn actually has since been branded as a YA novel, so your feeling isn't unfounded. Stormlight hasn't been and probably won't.

I am of the opinion that Sanderson started off as an 'okay' writer, but he improves as he goes. Some of his writing in Mistborn wasn't terrific, but by WoK he was better, and in WoR, better still. I am excited to see how he's improved in Oathbringer. Also, because of his religious beliefs you won't get much in the way of cursing or sexual content. If your concern with Mistborn was the fact that everyone acts like they've never heard of sex before, well, I think that's a personal choice Sanderson made that is present in all his books. With cursing, there's a lot of made-up curses. I think the first real-world curse word I saw was 'shat' in WoR and I had to put the book down and laugh because I never thought he would use that word.
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Peridiam posted...

I didn't like Mistborn (just the first, never bothered with the rest) but am interested in The Way of Kings, especially given the praise of the entire Stormlight series thus far. I read the prologue last night and I think it was pretty good.

Mistborn felt verrry young adult genre and I didn't care for it. I'll probably stick with TWoK for now but I'm wondering: will I get a similar feel with Stormlight?

Sanderson is a Mormon and admitted prude, so you're always going to feel some of that in his books. He'll throw in some occasional sex jokes and they do sort of feel aimed at teenagers. It's just one of those things I deal with because there's so much awesome shit elsewhere. But I do think the subject matter can be dark and mature. As for "feel," SA has a more epic feel than Mistborn. Keep reading if you like it so far, and bear with Shallan when she shows up.
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Ah, fair enough. I had heard he was a Mormon but wasn't sure if that explained some of the "feel" I got. Kinda like an 'M-rated' game setting set to 'T'.

Either way, hope I like it. Would love to get sucked into another series.
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EndOfDiscOne posted...

I believe there's a Word of Brandon saying that Hoid gets a feeling he's supposed to be somewhere due to magic. Like Chromium Feruchemy or something similar.

Hmm, that's interesting. I know there was a Word of Brandon saying he sometimes goes places where nothing interesting is happening so he just leaves.
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Murphiroth posted...

It was nice to get confirmation that Hoid was the one who took the lerasium bead that ended up missing. Explains him drinking metal flakes at the end of WoR when he meets with Jasnah

While rereading WoR, I've also noticed that Hoid is hinted to be ingesting metal flakes during one of Shallan's flashback chapters where she catches him covertly dropping something into his drink during a chat with her father. He does appear to be stockpiling different abilities.

I don't think I've ever been this hyped for a sequel. I'll be living under a rock until I finish it
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I freaking love the idea of Hoid, and seeing some of the other world hoppers was great as well.
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I may have discovered that the first few chapters of Oathbringer are on the Tor website.

I may have started reading them already.

I am impatient.
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I've never really understood the thing people say about Mistborn being YA. Like I've read Twilight, the Hunger Games, Divergent, and Graceling, and Mistborn is so clearly at a higher literary level than those books. Brandon has even gone on to write Steelheart, which while very good is clearly intentionally written to be at the same level as those YA books. The difference in style, tone, and reading level are very apparent.

It's definitely a less matured version of Sanderson's writing, and it has certain idiosyncrasies you might notice (rolls his eyes and snorts) if you pay attention to things like that, but YA? I don't really see it.
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ExThaNemesis posted...

I may have discovered that the first few chapters of Oathbringer are on the Tor website.

I may have started reading them already.

I am impatient.

I read the first two when they first dropped and then had to stop because apparently the entirety of Part 1 (30 chapters I think?) will be up and I can't read that much without having the rest or I'd go crazy.
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I think if I take it slow I can read Part 1 over the next week until the rest comes out.
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CoolCly posted...

I've never really understood the thing people say about Mistborn being YA. Like I've read Twilight, the Hunger Games, Divergent, and Graceling, and Mistborn is so clearly at a higher literary level than those books. Brandon has even gone on to write Steelheart, which while very good is clearly intentionally written to be at the same level as those YA books. The difference in style, tone, and reading level are very apparent.

Yeah I agree with this. You can't call Mistborn YA when he has an actual, really good YA series in the Reckoners
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I agree as well.

I guess part of it is the lack of cursing and adult content.
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I mean it's not really integral to the plot.

If you want to see Vin and Elend have sexytime I'm sure there's fanfiction for you.
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I am finally starting to figure out what Hoid is doing. His quest is beyond the scope of Kelsier, Vasher, or anyone else. He's trying to stop Odium from splintering more of the Shards and eventually standing alone in the Cosmere to do what he wants.
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According to the Letter and the Second Letter, which epigraph Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, Odium is contained in the Roshar system and can no longer go wherever the hell he wants through the Cosmere to accomplish his plans. Now, that's bad for Roshar, but according to Frost, it's the sacrifice they will have to make. Frost seems to think that interfering could somehow loose Odium from that system, but I think Hoid has figured out that Odium will be able to move on eventually anyway, and stopping him here and now is the best chance they're going to get.
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I'm not so sure Hoid is specifically trying to stop Odium from doing anything. I think he just has personal beef with Odium and wants to fuck him up. Hoid is a generally good natured guy from what we can see but it seems like he cares less about doing something good and more about completing a vendetta.
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You're probably right. It could just be that his vendetta with Odium/Rayse seems good because Odium is trying to destroy everything that we like a lot.
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If you are the sworn enemy of the bad guy, does that make you the good guy?
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Is Frost the name of the dragon that wrote the second letter?
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Maniac64 posted...

Is Frost the name of the dragon that wrote the second letter?

Yes
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Okay. Dont think I ever saw that name before.
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Maniac64 posted...

Okay. Dont think I ever saw that name before.

It is widely assumed that Frost is the dragon that Hoid is corresponding with in the letter, but the name is not referenced. Brandon has stated that Frost has not appeared in a book yet but has been referred to. I believe he's also said that he has a non-interference policy which supports that idea. We'll probably have to wait until Dragonsteel to see him directly.
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I hadn't heard the name myself until I started digging around the information available about the Cosmere.
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As much as I love Dresden Files, Codex Alera did nothing for me. The characters all seemed kind of bland and uninteresting and the story just didn't draw me in.
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