Brandon Sanderson/Cosmere Thread!

I really love how he set up this ~love triangle~ thing in Alloy of Law and then just. Kicked it in the teeth. And two books later Wax and Marasi are like "let us never speak of that again."

My sibling had a similar reaction.

The worst part is

I don't think Scadrial has a moon.

They don't even know.

 

I would just like to let everyone know that I just looked at Brandon's website and the Stormlight 3 first draft progress bar is at 98% and he's selling holiday cards with Mistborn Santa on them and I am uncertain which of these two things fills me with more joy.

 

Oh hot damn this is my jam.

I've been trying to get my sister to read the Stormlight Archive for forever.

 

I'm trying to get @Quicksilver to so I have another person to scream to, but I'm not allowed to bug her about it in earnest until the semester is over because she has work to do and it's physically impossible to put Sanderson novels down in about the last 25% of the book, so when the book in question is 1200 pages long you have to schedule a block of free time long enough for a 300-page marathon with your eyeballs glued to the page. :::PPP

 

Reasons I am happy:

 

SO

if i want to read other series besides mistborn/alloy of law which one should i start with?

 

Any of Elantris, Warbreaker, or The Way of Kings. I'd lean towards Way of Kings after the other two, since that lets you see the most of the character cameos in the Stormlight Archive (and as mentioned upthread, there's some BIG Warbreaker cameos in the second Stormlight book). Elantris and Warbreaker are both standalones, and Warbreaker is up for free on his website in a few different formats, if you don't mind reading it that way.

 

i think im going to start with warbreaker then! i thiiiink i started reading that a few years ago but never got past the first chapter for... some reason... it might not have been finished yet? because i remember thinking it was super cool

that's the one with the talking sword and the powers that are like? colors? strands? something like that

 

Nightblood the murderpuppy, yes. And the magic does involve colors, among other things.

(My top 3 favorite things about Warbreaker are probably, in order: 1) Lightsong and Blushweaver's snark-offs, 2) Vivenna's character arc, and 3) Nightblood's entire personality. Especially when he gets jealous of a shirt.)

 

im excited

 

Last time I read Warbreaker I kept a list of all the things Vivenna disapproved of in one early chapter. That was fun. It included "statues," "restaurants," "foreigners," "dressing for the weather," and "the entire concept of fish."

 

Brandon is doing an AMA on r/Fantasy right now so I thought I'd mention it here.

 

!!!

 

So I have Mistborn. I am going to read this madness and record my feelings here. Because why the fuck not.

First we still start with the cover and some of the pretty things inside because apparently there's a map or some shit in it. The cover is adequate. It says "Yes I am a fantasy novel cover" and doesn't particularly charm me the way the first cover to The Hobbit did. But at the same time it hasn't offended every last one of my sensibilities like the recent Kencyrath covers have. What is this. Why are Jame's boobs so big. Why does Death's-head look exactly like a mildly miffed white horse and not the armored death tank he is. Why are Jame's boobs so fucking big.

The questions abound.

Such questions aren't to be had here though. They might if I find out the main character is fucking blond or some shit while reading but for the moment things are fine. It is Very Purple Looking. The first map is ok and is showing me that I am in for the standard learn 500 new places names of vaguely real sounding names and something like THE HILL OF DEATH. Map two terrifies me as it is one of those dreadful city maps with the streets and districts and things I will never be able to make heads or tails of. I hate maps save to occasionally admire how they look. Not sure what these crescent symbols over everything are but they are pretty and I appreciate their presence. I am very easily bought by symbols that I can doodle all over myself and my belongings and waste exorbitant amounts of money buying shit that has them on it.

Out of these maps I am most intrigued by the names Soot Warens and the Ashmounts. These are good names. I approve of them heavily and also like the sound of a soot warren. I mean it sounds like it's shit and like everyone in there is a poor piss drinking peasant but that's ok. That means the name is evocative. The FANTASY names are fine meanwhile. I am kind of ??? about why Zerinah has an h at the end of it, but it's not the dreaded mysterious kh so I will let this slide. I will also decide that the h is there because like the Arabic haa it is sounded.

I can only guess that I in for a romp in a city given the city map and that makes me happy. I like cities a lot. Cities are good. I may like the latter Kencyrath books more but God Stalk's setting remains my favorite in the series solely because I am very heavily biased in favor of urban settings. I damn near pissed myself with joy when I saw that Kothifir was a city. Do not let me down Luthadel.

 

oh wow that is terrible. that neckline. why.

 

SHE WOULD NEVER WEAR THAT. Or she might actually because it was the only thing fucking there but she'd probably be very ??? UGH about the thing.

 

Also being Silent Hill trash I just kind of giggled at the word Allomancy on the back and went IT WAS FORETOLD THROUGH GYROMANCY.

 

I think the biggest sins on Cosmere novel covers so far are World's Whitest Kaladin on Words of Radiance and World's Whitest Everyone on the Series 2 Mistborn books.

 

Actually wait I looked through the Mistborn cover gallery on Brandon's website and some of the international ones are so bad.

Spoiler: Big images

This looks like a romance novel. Why does Vin have her tits out. Why is her hair so long. Why is the mistcloak dissolving. Why does Kelsier have a metal belt buckle.

I have literally no idea what that blue thing is supposed to be or what presumably-Vin is doing.

I'm sure we all remember that very important Mistborn character, Grayscale Screaming Bald Man With Glowing Mouth.

 

omfg that last one wtf