Welcome back to the Rhythm of War reread, oh my peeps! We’re back with Shallan, Radiant, Veil, and Adolin on the Shadesmar Barge To Nameless. (Getting a bit crowded up in this corner, I’ve gotta say.) Artwork abounds, after a bit of maneuvering, and relationships grow. Come on in!
Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entirety of the series up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries of the Stormlight Archive (this includes the novellas Edgedancer and Dawnshard, as well as the entirety of Rhythm of War), best to wait to join us until you’re done.
In this week’s discussion we also discuss some HUGE spoilers from the entire Mistborn series in the Cosmere Connections section, so if you haven’t read all of it (original trilogy, era 2, and Secret History), best to give that section a pass.
Heralds: All four icons this week are of Palah (Paliah). Learned/Giving. Truthwatchers. Role: Scholar
L: An interesting choice, for a Shallan chapter! Even though it’s mostly Radiant in control at this moment, this is still an odd choice for her.
A: Definitely unusual. She does spend a good bit of time thinking over what she learned from Ialai’s notebook, and giving us some good hints in the process, but she also spends a lot of time drawing. There’s a nice conversation with the one Truthwatcher spren on the expedition, so… there’s that? I guess?
Icon: Pattern, which tells us this is a Shallan POV chapter.
Epigraph:
Endowment at least responded to my overtures, though I have not been able to locate Invention again following our initial contact.
A: Whee! New Shard name!! Invention is one we’ve not heard of before, and the Shard seems rather elusive. I can’t help wondering if this is the one that Sanderson once said just wants to hide and survive, if Harmony has been unable to locate it a second time. This does bring up the question from last week again: How do the Shards contact one another? How did Harmony find Invention in the first place, and why can’t he repeat that?
Endowment, of course, is the Shard openly resident on Nalthis, the planet where Warbreaker takes place. Edgli is the Vessel of Endowment; we don’t know the first thing about Invention’s Vessel yet.
Chapter Recap
WHO: Shallan
WHERE: Shadesmar, on the way to Lasting Integrity.
WHEN: 1175.4.1.5 (the second day of the voyage, one day after Chapter 22)
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
In Shadesmar, Shallan struggles with her fear and insecurities. Veil and Radiant join forces to convince her to take control again. She and Adolin have a heart to heart in which Shallan reveals to him that she’d intended to steal Jasnah’s soulcaster.
Overall Reactions
A: I dare say I’ll repeat this a number of times over the course of this reread, but I’m really having a blast with all the deeper Cosmere information Sanderson is starting to dole out. He’s been so cagey for so long, it feels quite decadent to get some of this stuff!
Ialai had discovered that the Ghostbloods were obsessed with a specific spren named Ba-Ado-Mishram. That was a name from myth, one of the Unmade. It had been this spren who had taken over for Odium following the Final Desolation; she had granted the singers forms of power.
A: Okay, so this one isn’t entirely new to us; we already heard about how this particular Unmade was able to give the singers the same forms of power that had previously been only available through Odium, and only during Desolations. What’s new to us, though, is the Ghostbloods’ interest in her; so much interest, in fact, that Ialai termed it an obsession.
[Mraize] also wants to transport Stormlight offworld, Shallan thought, emerging. I believe he was honest in that point. So perhaps these two are related? Perhaps Ba-Ado-Mishram can help him in this quest?
A: It might make sense, I guess… Ba-Ado-Mishram seems to have some power over Connection, one of the great spiritual attributes in the Cosmere. Do they think she can bind Investiture securely enough to an object that it can be transported completely away from its planet of origin? That’s the only reason I can think of for them to be so interested. Unless they’re just interested in the perfect gemstones, and her prison is the only one they’ve heard of?
Speculate, my friends and little chickens! Why would the Ghostbloods be so fascinated with her?
As a side note, I’m deeply amused by Shallan’s thought at the end, that “it’s all connected” and she just needs to figure out how, without coming apart herself. I suspect it’s connected at multiple levels, including her own internal disconnects.
Music, Mechanisms, and Manifestations of Light
It felt so good to let go and draw. To not worry about a mission, or her own psychosis, or even about Adolin. To become so wrapped up in the art that nothing else mattered.
L: As a fellow artist (albeit in different mediums), I always love to see this from Shallan. It’s just so realistic.
A: Sure is. Getting lost in the art is great healing for the spirit. I can’t draw worth beans; my art is music. Sometimes I think my guitar deserves a large part of the credit for getting me through college.
Spren and Shadesmar
She turned the page to show off the cultivationspren she’d drawn. “I’d like to find both male and female subjects for each variety of spren. There might not be time for it on this trip, but it occurred to me that no one, at least not in the modern era, has ever done a natural history of the Radiant spren.”
A: We’ll be looking at these frequently in the next few weeks, and I think it’s absolutely delightful that Shallan has decided to record these. Of course, the other reason I love it is that it brings Shallan’s scholarly pursuit back around to reconnect us with the girl we met back in The Way of Kings. I realize that not everyone enjoyed her back then, but I did—at least once I had enough hints that there were layers underneath that façade of “spoiled teenager” she put on to cover up her fears. Even when she was playing that role, even if you disliked her, one thing she took seriously was her pursuit of natural history. How appropriate for the same chapter where we’re reminded of Shallan’s… history with Jasnah—trying to become her ward in order to steal her Soulcaster.
This week, there’s also a fun little conversation with the Stump’s spren: the mistspren whose name is Dreaming-though-Awake. For some reason, the spren is also interested in Ba-Ado-Mishram. Huh. Too bad the current generation of spren know so little about the Unmade.
Relationships and Romances
You’d do better at connecting these ideas than I will, Radiant thought to her. Why don’t you take control?
…
What are you doing? Shallan demanded. You’re a terrible artist.
“I know,” Veil whispered. “And you hate watching me try.”
L: I love how subtle Radiant is trying to be here… but of course, Shallan sees right through it. But Veil has her back, and tries to get Shallan to come forward in her own way as well.
Buy the Book
The Witness for the Dead
A: This is one of the rare times (at this point in the book) that I really liked Veil. It’s a hint that she really does have Shallan’s best interest at heart, even if she lets her own personality overwhelm her priorities sometimes.
We’re not going to let you retreat and hide, Radiant thought—and Veil could feel her relief in discovering the two of them agreed on this. Something is wrong, Shallan. Something bigger than what Veil did. Something that’s affecting all of us, making us erratic.
L: It really makes me happy to see both Radiant and Veil truly caring for Shallan and trying to help her to get better.
…at her core, Veil had a singular purpose: She’d been created to protect Shallan. And she would send herself to Damnation before she let that Formless thing take her place.
L: This is really, really touching. I love Veil for this.
A: There are a lot of times when I get frustrated with Veil, and even find her untrustworthy, but… yes, at her core, she does have a purpose that takes precedence. Sometimes she doesn’t see the problems she creates until she’s already created them, but… don’t we all?
You told Adolin about robbing Jasnah, Radiant said. Well done. It wasn’t so bad, was it?
L: Awwww…
A: Definitely another small step in the right direction, but while she can’t/won’t remember The Big Thing she’s hiding, it’s really not on the same scale.
“You’re tense, Adolin.”
L: Okay, I need to point out that I am so happy to see this. It’s kind of rare for us to see Shallan managing to pull herself out of her own issues long enough to recognize that someone else is hurting, and to try to help them. It makes me so happy whenever we see it, especially with Adolin, who gives her so much time and attention.
A: It is a delight to see this. She spent much of her early life sheltering the rest of her family—who were quite obviously in need of help—but we haven’t seen that side of her in real-time very much. I suppose part of it is that, by comparison to her brothers, Adolin is incredibly stable and secure, and doesn’t need Shallan’s protection. It’s good to see her realize that he needs her, too, and that there are ways she can help him that suit their relationship.
“I set out to rob her,” Shallan said softly. She felt Adolin shift, looking toward her. “My family was impoverished, threatened by creditors, my father dead. We thought maybe I could rob that heretic Alethi woman, steal her Soulcaster—then we could use it to become rich again.”
L: Honestly, I’m surprised that it took this long for her to come out with this. But then… it is Shallan…
A: I loved Adolin’s response, when he pointed out that since Jasnah hadn’t said anything about it, it must have worked, at least for a while. He knows his cousin well! She’ll admit an error, especially if it affected other people, but admit being fooled? By a backwoods teenage Veden girl? Not if she doesn’t have to! I can just imagine him teasing Jasnah about this someday.
Storms, I love this man, she thought. For his humor, his brightness, his genuine goodness. With that smile, brighter than the cold Shadesmar sun, she became Shallan. Deeply and fully.
L: This. This right here makes me so incredibly happy. This entire conversation between them is so nurturing and supportive in both directions.
Bruised, Broken, and Disabled
…after Veil’s stunt in seizing control a few days back—violating the compact—neither wanted her to be in charge.
L: Understandably.
A: For sure. At this point, Veil is starting to look even less trustworthy than before.
You’re still troubled by how Veil violated our compact, aren’t you? Radiant asked.
We’re supposed to be getting better, not worse, Shallan thought.
L: I like how Radiant points out later that there’s something else going on to disrupt the balance.
Not you, Shallan thought. You have never seized control like that.
Radiant felt an immediate stab of guilt.
L: Is this implying that she has? I’m a bit confused by her reaction here.
A: It’s about a revelation we’ll get in the future regarding an event that happened in the past. (Does that count as foreshadowing?) Near the end of Part Four, we will learn that Radiant was the one who took control back in the warcamps and killed Ialai. We’re getting very small, isolated hints along the way.
Veil surprisingly found herself in control. It had been four days now since she’d taken over…
L: I find it a good sign that Shallan does have enough control to keep Veil subdued if she needs to. That’s got to be good, right?
A: Yes, I think so. It’s distressing to have such conflict between them, but it may be good that Shallan still has some level of control over the other two.
Cosmere Connections
The place names were locations beyond the various expanses in Shadesmar—worlds beyond the edge of the map. Pattern had confirmed this by chatting with a few other spren who had met travelers from these places.
L: A reminder that the “place names” listed earlier in the book were actually other planets in the Cosmere. I find it fascinating that this implies that other PLANETS are “beyond the edge” of the map. This indicates that space doesn’t function the same way in the Cognitive Realm as it does in the physical one. Travel between planets is easier if you only have to continue traveling along one “plane” rather than having to find a way to leave the atmosphere and travel across space to achieve it!
A: Yes, that certainly makes a difference! It’s more like going from one continent to another than one planet to another—more two-dimensional. Also, the space between planets and systems—what would be “outer space” in the Physical realm—is much smaller in the Cognitive Realm. Since there’s basically nothing there to give it dimension, it doesn’t stretch very far.
Another section of the book contained Ialai’s conjectures and information about the leader of the Ghostbloods, the mysterious Thaidakar.
L: MAJOR spoilers for Mistborn (all of it—original trilogy, era 2, and Secret History) to follow! Do NOT continue reading this section if you aren’t caught up here.
Still here? Okay, good. Because Brandon’s pretty definitively revealed that Thaidakar is Kelsier. (Here’s a little more on that subject.) I am so excited by this! Kelsier’s one of my all-time favorite Cosmere characters, so I’m fascinated to see what he’s got planned here!
A: I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the back five. I have a feeling that from the Stormlight Archive perspective, Kelsier will have more of a villain role than he does from the Mistborn perspective.
Geography, History and Cultures
A: The conversation with Dreaming-though-Awake was… curious. It’s always a little frustrating to be reminded that, as old as most of these spren are, they still weren’t around 1500 years ago, and they don’t know what happened at the Last Desolation and the Recreance. They’re mostly operating on hearsay, just like the humans are. Even the singers have no information on it; the ones living at the time were either disconnected already and part of the listeners, or they lost all ability to communicate anything they might have known about it.
The spren made a very interesting suggestion, though:
“If you wish to know more, ask the Heralds. I have heard several were there for her binding. Nalan. Kelek. Find them; ask them.”
A: Sad for us, Nalan is on the other side and won’t likely share any information he does have. Taln obviously wasn’t there, and Shalash hasn’t said anything that we know of. (Whether that’s because she wasn’t one of the “several” or because no one has asked her the right question, we don’t know.) We may learn more about this in book 5, because it’s apparently one of the subjects Shallan and Kelek talk about when they get together at the end; we just don’t get very much of what she learned yet. The Part Four epigraphs reveal that Kelek was indeed there, and remembers it, so there’s a good chance we’ll get a follow-up plot.
Singers/Fused
By capturing Ba-Ado-Mishram—locking her in a gemstone—humankind had stolen the minds of the singers in ancient times. They knew this from the brief—but poignant—messages left by the ancient Radiants before they abandoned Urithiru.
L: Interesting that Ba-Ado-Mishram is so deeply connected to the singers…
A: Indeed. She seems to have had a Connection to more than just the singers, but we’ll get into that much later in the book. It does seem that there might be something the Fused could tell us about the Unmade, and this one in particular. They obviously weren’t there when she was captured, but they’d know more about her abilities and effects than anyone other than the Heralds.
Arresting Artwork
L: Okay, we NEED to talk about this sketch of the Crypticspren and PATTERN’S FEET. Look at how CUTE he is! And Shallan’s right, in her little note… Cryptics DO look very silly running, based on that sketch!
Everything about this page is just brilliant, which is to be expected from Ben McSweeney. His sketchbook pages for Shallan never disappoint! One of the most interesting things that I think deserves noting is that the Crypticsprens’ hands are either stark white or stark black, like marble or obsidian. Very intriguing that it’s only those two colors.
A: I wonder if this is in any way linked to the Oathgate spren, who also are stark white and stark black. Clearly it’s not a feature of all spren, or even all the sapient spren, so… why are some black-and-white while others are so varied?
L: I also rather like that their very clothes are described as shifting and folding planes! Way to make it impossible for the cosplayers, Brandon! (But super unique and cool.)
A: Indeed. I keep getting ideas that promptly fail to play out past the initial inspiration. I’m sure someone will come up with a great version, though.
Brilliant Buttresses
She gripped her pencil and started drawing Adolin. Really, really poorly.
I don’t care, Shallan thought.
Veil gave him a unibrow.
Veil…
Veil drew him with crossed eyes.
That’s going too far.
L: Oh, storms. I wish we had gotten this sketch!
A: Right? I was cracking up over this.
“Don’t worry. I don’t struggle with feelings of insecurity any longer.”
“Good.”
“I’d say I’m pretty good at them.”
L: UGH THE PUNS.
A: ::snort::
“Well, I’d say you’re a pretty good thief…” he began.
“Oh, don’t you dare.”
“…because you stole my heart.”
L: …she’s a bad influence on him.
“It was a stealth joke,” Shallan said. “Hiding in plain sight, like a Lightweaver. That’s what makes it genius.”
L: Right.
Join us in the comments, have fun, and we’ll see you back here next week for another chat with Kaladin and Teft. (It’s one of my favorites!)
Alice is thoroughly enjoying the Skyward 3 (working title Nowhere) beta read—and of course can’t say any more about it. She’s also grateful that the three days of local winter are over.
Lyndsey has been a Sanderson beta reader since Words of Radiance and is also a fantasy author herself. She’s been doing weekly tie-in videos to the reread and silly cosmere cosplay vids on TikTok, or you can follow her on Facebook or Instagram.
No comments?? First! Hi Alice and Lyndsey!
I LOVE Shallan and Adolin’s relationship and how they help each other. I desperately want Kaladin to have this kind of relationship, too. I hope Brandon thinks he’s ready for it.
I enjoyed the banter between Shallan, Veil, and Radiant in the early parts of RoW — thrice the snark is thrice the goodness. But Shallan, the one I knew first, is my favorite. It’s good to spend a little time with her here. I’ll miss her (again) when she retreats for much of RoW.
“You don’t need to be insecure any longer.” Hah. I suppose some people with insecurity can stop having it, but for me, that’s nearly on an unthinkability level with “not self-shaming anymore.” Shallan’s response is most excellent and I should borrow it.
Much as I like Pattern, I think Cryptics are among the creepiest-looking spren in their full form, as humanoids with floating symbols instead of heads.
I don’t usually think of myself as an artist. But I obsessively photograph things, mostly plants, landscapes, waterways, and any animal that gets close enough to not be blurry in a phone-camera photo. It does serve as a distraction from anxiety and despair, by forcing me to think it the moment and givng me a purpose to focus on. I got even more obsessive about it last year, after the pandemic and shutdowns began and my depression worsened, to remind myself (and friends I shared the photos with) of the beaury that remained in the world.
this is actually not a re read for me but my first read so I will have to be careful with spoilers, but god I am glad to actually see Shallan again. I really disliked How veil literally took over, and she came off as incredibly untrustworthy, especially since I didn’t like Veil in Oathbringer. It was also good to see Adolin and Shallan be so adorable.
For the opening, I was surprised to see we get a new shard name and I’m curious bout him. All of the other shards have been a sense of purpose or emotion, like honor odium, or culitviation. I understand those. I wonder what invention brings to the table. Is it Adonalsium’s sense of curiosity? I hope we hear more of them in the future
I’ve been lurking for all the Cosmere rereads, but haven’t posted in years and years
I also loved Adolin and Shallan’s interactions here. It felt like they helped each other be better
I was never one of those who found Shallan very annoying, but appreciated the way she was interested learning about the world around her (probably another reason why I really like Navani)
***Dawnshard and Cosmere Spoilers Below***
Crazy speculation on Shards – this is a rough theory so it doesn’t add up completely, but seemed interesting anyway
I think that the Shards are categorized by the basic intent of the shard that is somewhat reflected in the Dawnshards
For Example the Dawnshard we know about is Change, and the shards that fall into that category could be Ruin, Cultivation and Invention (maybe Ambition?)
Another Dawnshard could be Feel, and the shards here would be Odium, Devotion, Valor, Mercy, Whimsy
Then we could have a Dawnshard that would be Bind/Control/keep the same, with shards Honor, Dominion, Preservation
And lastly there would be one around gifting powers Endowment and Autonomy
It’s not neat and we don’t quite have 4 groups of 4, but it seems like there is some order here that could unlock what the commands were that broke up Adonalsium and how they resulted in these specific shards
Alice. I am in the camp that the Ghostbloods are only interested in Ba-Ado-Mishram because they know/believe she is trapped in a perfect gemstone. It is the perfect gemstone they need to carry Stormlight through Shadesmar beyond the Roshar portion of Shadesmar.
As an aside, I guess at this period in the Cosmere, no world has space faring technology that would allow for interstellar travel. Otherwise, I think the Ghostbloods would use that method to try to transport Stormlight to other worlds.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
Later on in chapter 31, when Venli is talking to Raboniel:
Answers are really sort of a theme through the whole book! And I can’t help thinking that Brandon was chuckling to himself imagining all the readers who at that point in the book are desperately identifying with Venli and her craving.
As for the Ghostbloods wanting a single perfect gemstone to smuggle Stormlight off Roshar:
1)Surely they would need a bunch? One gemstone, even one that can hold an Unmade, does not seem like a big enough container to create an entire interplanetary trade network.
2)Why not just buy storage systems from the Ire, the way the Honorspren did?
The chapter title, Full of Awe, comes from Shallan and Adolin’s Fun With Puns:
Despite the excellent character beats, this chapter dragged for me. Maybe it’s too close to Valentine’s Day for me to stomach sappy newlyweds, because I remember liking it better on first reading.
Is anyone else wondering *why* there were possibly multiple Heralds at BAM’s capture, centuries after they’d supposedly left for the Tranquiline Halls? Were they necessary for developing or executing the trap plan? Not to mention, how would a post-Recreance spren even know about the Heralds’ presence, unless it was fairly common knowledge? Did the KR of the time know the Heralds were still around, or did they get info-ambushed with “Aharietiam was a lie” on top of “we’re the real Voidbringers” and “we destroyed our last world with surgebinding”?
My new aluminum-hat theory: Ishar’s ideas about Nahel bonds somehow jeopardizing what was left of the Oathpact go back centuries. He involved himself in BAM’s capture, maybe by providing Melishi’s last-minute revelation. He then used the opportunity to spill the ancient-secrets beans, deliberately manipulating the Recreance.
Clearly there were more side effects to capturing BAM than anyone, Radiant or spren, thought of. Maybe that is what caused the dead eyes also.
I think this phrase must be more than it seems also:
“It had been this spren who had taken over for Odium following the Final Desolation; she had granted the singers forms of power.”
How would a spren take over from a shard?
@10 – That’s the mystery. Not sure how a spren could provide Voidlight like Odium does.
@10
ROW chapter 115
Some of this, Kelek said, had to do with the nature of deadeyes. Before the Recreance, they had never existed. Kelek said he thought this was why Mraize was hunting him. Something to do with the fall of the singers, and the Knights Radiant so long ago- and the imprisoning of a specific spren.
So looks like Kelek and now Shallan believe that deadeyes are probably due to Mishram’s imprisonment.
@10, @11
Voidlight can be produced by singing “Song of Prayer” (RoW chapter 67). But Venli avoids it as she worries about drawing Odium’s attention. Navani and Raboniel sang “Rhythm of War” to create/mix Stormlight and Voidlight into Warlight. Navani sang to help Sibling create Towerlight.
Also, Stormfather is a spren who provides Stormlight and is a splinter of Honor. I guess the other side does the same with Voidlight.
Regarding Ghostblood’s intention of taking Stormlight off Roshar/Rosharan system, I wonder what uses they will find for it other than lighting? How will they renew it once it runs out (I am imagining milk bottles on door steps and a silk route through Shadesmar)? Seems like highly perishable goods to me :) Also, will they be taking fabrials off world to use with stormlight? And since fabrials contain spren, can they be transported off world and if so, will they work off world? Why are they not interested in Voidlight?
@austin
In addition to what @Dee says, consider that the Stormfather provides “forms of power” to Radiants, indirectly. He can accept oaths, and make Honorspren. Note also that Dalinar can now provide Stormlight (since the ending of Oathbringer). It seemingly is not as difficult as one might expect.
Presumably all this is because these beings have a Connection to a Shard, but that has not been made explicit yet.
It just occurred to me … we know that the ado- root in Alethi means “light” (as in Adolin’s name). So “Ba-Ado-Mishram” must mean “Light-giving Mishram.” Kelek refers to the spren as just “Mishram,” presumably her name before she learned to produce Voidlight.
Carl @14. Could “Ba” mean anti so that B-A-M’s name would translate to Anti-Light giving Mishram”?
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
@AndrewHB: it could mean “Tobacco-smoking manatee” for all we actually know. I’m just speculating, even if I used the word “must.”
“Do they think she can bind Investiture securely enough to an object that it can be transported completely away from its planet of origin? That’s the only reason I can think of for them to be so interested. Unless they’re just interested in the perfect gemstones, and her prison is the only one they’ve heard of?”
Unless they’ve also heard of the King’s Drop, currently holding Nergaoul imprisoned. It was (supposedly?) thrown into the ocean after the Battle of Thaylen Field. Theoretically, it’s possible the Ghostbloods know where it is. If they don’t already have it. With sufficient investure someone should be able to retrieve it. And it seems likely they would want more than one perfect gem for transporting Stormlight off world.
L: “…I find it fascinating that this implies that other PLANETS are “beyond the edge” of the map. This indicates that space doesn’t function the same way in the Cognitive Realm as it does in the physical one. Travel between planets is easier if you only have to continue traveling along one “plane”…”
A: “…It’s more like going from one continent to another than one planet to another—more two-dimensional. Also, the space between planets and systems—what would be “outer space” in the Physical realm—is much smaller in the Cognitive Realm.”
Isn’t the Cognitive realm affected by the perceptions of sapient beings? Maybe the Cosmere doesn’t have enough people who know about, contemplate, study the vastness of space in order to give the distances between worlds more dimension in the Cognitive realm?
NirajMerchant @5 – I’ve been thinking about the Dawnshards, what they might be, and how the known Shards might group together, ever since I did the beta for Dawnshard. While we know almost nothing yet, here’s what I came up with. All speculation, of course.
Not really that much different from yours, in fact. We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?
@6,8
There’s a WoB where he explains that Mraize doesn’t really care about Lift’s ability to turn food into Lifelight because it’s too small-scale for what the Ghostbloods have in mind for the Investiture trade. So that suggests that Carl is right and they’ll need a lot more transport capacity than a few perfect gems could provide. They’re looking for a way to transport Stormlight wholesale.
A little late to the party… but….
As the Ghostbloods are looking for a way to take Stormlight off-planet, perhaps their interest in B-A-M is to discover how she was captured, even experimenting with with a captured spren of that vast powers (in a perfect gem) and getting it off world? And how B-A-M might be impacted by that process?
Could their end goal be to find a way to capture the Stormfather and bring him off world? Why risk exposing their plan and fail until they have perhaps perfected the process?
In the end, why work so hard bring a little energy that has diminishing returns (Stormlight), when you can bring the whole dang rechargeable battery (Stormfather)?
As a side note, taking Dalinar does not make sense, as once he is that far from the Stormfather (off planet), I doubt his powers / bond would work. Let alone trying to get Dalinar to cooperate.
The Stormfather, on the other hand, exists as a storm, by default would cooperate.
I let myself get realllly behind in these re-reads (they can be so overwhelming to read, and then once I miss one, they pile up) but now I’m going to dive back in.
-I really do love Adolin. I didn’t really *love* the first Stormlight book, and Adolin just seemed kind of generic to me, but with each book I love him a little more. Honestly, in some ways he’s very much a ‘Luke Skywalker’ character, even without the powers (and one hopes he doesn’t meet the sequel-Luke fate and end up cynical and embittered) in that he’s just (at least in my interpretation of both characters) a genuinely nice, down to earth guy who does the right thing and *cares*, and who is associated with brightness/light/warmth.
Ah I can’t believe I missed those juicy links about Kelsier/Scadrial – Mistborn is and remains my favorite Cosmere books so I’m glad that they’re important :) I have to admit I’ve always been a little offput by Sanderson’s characterization of Kelsier a psychopath because I definitely didn’t have that reading of him. But maybe he fooled me.
@Lisamarie: Kelsier was very nearly giggling with glee over murder. He was never a nice, or even good, person. He’s also sympathetic enough that it’s easy to read right through that part.