Aminar

Last book Shallan was kind of dull until the end. The chapters of Words I've read are fascinating though.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about a Stormlight Archive without Kaladin. Everybody else matters, but Kal... Kal needs to stick around. He's my favorite character since Harry Dresden...

I don't think the Spren become the plate and blades... It feels wrong, especially given the different spren associated with the different orders. Why would every kind of Spren become the same thing, and why armor? It's too artificial seeming... Shardplate and blades are decidedly spiritual(use stormlight) while Spren are cognitive, Ideas given shape. That said, I agree that Shardplate can be summoned. After all, we know it is made from stormlight.(Now I really want one of orders to be Stormsmiths, because that word is epic...)

Beyond that 1.6 G's(R's?) in your calculation isn't enough to kill someone, and we haven't been in the head of a stuck person to know if they're having trouble breathing. 1.6 G's isn't even all that terrible. We can't be sure they aren't feeling it(assuming Szeth stuck someone shirtless to a wall at some point.

We see entire battalions of radiants ditch plate and blade without a whisper of a shardspear. You'd think Dalinar would have noticed them if they existed, and these were Radiants that didn't deal with thunderclasts. Granted, I feel a shardblade is a much more useful weapon than a shardspear despite my love of spears. It doesn't seem like shardblades are mutable things. Plate changes for its wearer, resizing and becoming formfitting. Blades don't change. There has to be a reason for that.(My guess, an order of Radiant Smiths.) Although whoever made the point about Division has a very good point.

I think, if anything, the lack of shardspears suggests that shardblades are made. Otherwise the weapons would be more diverse. That said, I think it probably takes a surge to forge a shardblade, perhaps transformation, but more likely the last unknown one. It would fit a genre trope, although combining with transportation and surface tension seems off.

Pull or push, manipulating air pressure can in fact move objects. You want something to move towards you, you create a vacuum in the right place, they will move towards you. You're arguing a semantic that doesn't change what air pressure can be used for, just how the person using it has to think. We know it can create and seal a vacuum between two objects that is strong enough to break the objects rather than the suction,

Largely because Szeth is the setup explanation for shardblades, and his mention of the spine is very specific. Specific enough where Szeth would have said something about the organs if they mattered. Especially given how much we relate to the heart as a killshot. Moreover, I think that has an explicit relation to how people's spirits are set up, something important. It makes sense that the spirit doesn't have organ anologues, why would it need them. We don't have soulblood to pump, soul-air to breathe, our souls don't spirit-defecate. That's all physical stuff, and what organs do. So why would stabbing an irrelevent part of a soul matter, if the soul is even there?(It sounds to me like souls are a stick figure framework) Chopping off a limb severs it, so the limb is useless. Limbs must matter in the spirit world. A cut through the spine burns out a persons eyes and kills them, that must be directly connected to the core of the soul. The spirit form of a greatshell is bound to be different. It doesn't have any intelligence to speak of, so maybe there is something different about their spiritual physiology, a more realistic aspect because they don't have a concept of a soul. Either way, I have always found that scene odd, since my first wok readthrough.

Desolation as a noun makes sense, like Ragnarok. Beyond that Odium means hate, making him want to cause desolation. Desolation as a shard is too similar to Ruin though. And neither Honor nor Cultivation are likely to be Desolation. Sorry, this one doesn't quite make sense.

I find that... questionable. Szeth is the only person that describes what works against a person, and what area needs to be hit. He says nothing about taking out lungs or hearts. Especially because the limbloss isn't organ based at all. It doesn't kill the muscle it slices, it kills everything below it, and only if it goes through the core of the limb, it's all or nothing. Greatshell physiology may be entirely different. They certainly don't have spinal chords, and given the relation between nervous system and damge as suggested by Szeth's thoughts on the subject that sounds like it makes a big difference.

Kal is a brilliant fighter and squad leader. He already has the tactical mindset to figure out how best to use stormlight, and doesn't have Szeth's pre-suppositions about the uses of his powers, lending him adaptability and surprise. Learning a new style of fighting after mastering an old one is far far easier than learning the first. Szeth is an amazing fighter, but Kal is easily his equal in skill with just weapons, and has a reason to be fighting. Szeth's reasons are weakening with every murder he commits. He wants to die. I honestly think this is a moot point as I feel like Kal's big battle is going to be Amaram, with Adolin, and possibly Renarin, fighting Szeth. That said, Szeth will live. He has a story arc to complete, one that moves further into the books. He needs to learn the sins of zealotry, and atone for the damage he's done. Dying just isn't enough for that.

If you're pulling a shot every 10 heartbeats(+arrow flight time, knock time, and aim time) you're not being a very efficient archer. Shardbows with iron arrows make a lot more sense for dealing with shardbearers. Same with spear throws, which are meant to slow somebody down by wounding and bleeding them. That and a throwing spear is entirely different from a combat spear in most cases. Throwing an eight foot pole isn't generally practical, and a 4-5 foot javelin isn't the best hand to hand weapon. Shardblades need to cut specific locations(the spine/head) to kill. Otherwise at best they might take out a few limbs a shot, but aren't likely to do much. Beyond that combat archery is about volleys. You're not getting volleys of shard arrows...

I have to question the usefulness of a shardspear. Shardblades are shown as most effective when used in wide sweeping slashes, cutting down several opponents at once by cutting their spines(stated as required for a lethal cut.. A spear is a stabbing weapon, and stabbing a spine is a whole lot harder than slashing through a man with a 6 foot lightsaber.. Even when used for slashing the blade isn't very long, leaving much of the haft to get caught, grabbed, etc. If Brandon has the haft behave like a shardblade it's purely an aesthetic choice and the spear itself becomes somewhat useless because that nullifies the advantages of having a long hafted weapon. At best a Shard-Halberd could work, but the sword would be far more effective. The one place I see a Shardspear being vastly more effective is when fighting another shardbearer, as outreaching an opponent with a 7-8 foot spear and being able to haft block a shardblade would be a great strategic advantage. Even then, the kill would be difficult though. It depends on if Sharspear stabs break through sharplate better than blades do, which in theory they should, as stabbing through armor is much easier than slashing.

The Black Piper is obviously Hoid...(I think perhaps he's trying to start the desolation to trap Odium...)

What unit does it use? Miles? KM? Something specifically Rosharan. The other side of things is the size of the shattered Planes. Bridge runs seem to take hours, with long bouts of running that don't make a lot of sense with the plateau sizes seen on the drawing.(Even if half the section seen has established bridges.

There are two extra dimensions to draw energy/cause entropy from/in that clearly follow different rules from the physical world we inhabit. As for Time Bubbles, obviously the cognitive aspect involved in the magic is over-riding the physical, making it how people intuitively think it will work rather than the way physics has it working. Word of Brandon is that in areas where Magic isn't involved the Cosmere functions exactly like hours. Magic manipulates that somewhat, but not terribly. That isn't a reason to assume the world is fundamentally different from ours physicswise, just metaphysically.

I agree completely. I made the same point in a topic out in Standard Stromlight Archive land. It's really terrifying when you realize a windrunner could create a Vaccuum spearhead out in front of them, not have to breathe due to stormlight, and start accelerating around the sky at 3-4 G's of acceleration(90-120 feet per second per second.) without having a terminal velocity. They'd hit mach 1 in 10-15 seconds.

Or both could be used. It makes a whole lot more sesnt to use gravity as the push, and air pressure for control, breathing, and most everything else. Much like how airplanes work.It really depends what Sanderson wants done with it. And Suction isn't an illusion. That's a philisophical point that has little bearing on the real world. It's a description of the effect of a pressure differential. That makes it an idea that can be worked with(Spren) and as a function of air pressure, something that someone with pressure surges could manipulate. Gravity doesn't bind small objects together so strongly they will break before coming apart without effecting everything around them. A strong enough suction can.(That and word of Brandon.) I just find philisophical points about absence of something not being it's own concept worth refuting.

We can agree to disagree on George. I'm mainly complaining about Dance.

Suction needs a seal, but gravity needs a massive object. Stormlight allows for both. Gravity is more indiscriminant. I think that if gravity were part of the binding two objects together it would attract more objects, not just seal them together. In addition the binding causes spren, something gravity has not done so far. Suction hasn't been seen as much, and it makes more sense to have suction spren than gravity spren.

Moreover, there is no reason he can't have an honorblade and be a surgebinder that hasn't recieved a blessing/surges from the honorblade.

It's way too early in the series to kill Szeth. He needs a redemption arc. He's been questioning his path all over the place. Brandon isn't George R.R. Martin. He follows story arcs to a narrative conclusion. Szeth surrendering his shardblade would be the start of a redemption arc.

Hardcover. The ebook will drop in price. I got TWoK for $3.00. Moreover the Hardcover isn't too pricy on the internets, at around 10 bucks. I've bought 3 softcovers(gifts), 1 hardcover, the ebook, and the audiobook so far though. The hardcovers are priceless to own. They're beautiful, filled with amazing art, and just feel right. Plus they make excellent home defense weaponry. If I'm ever in a firefight The Way of Kings will be protecting my heart.

On flying speeds. It all depends on how flight works. At 1G(A single lashing) we can rely on terminal velocity somewhat. But multiple lashings allow for more. Moreover, if flight is done with air pressure(You know, like how flying works for airplanes) there is a lot that Windrunners could do to make really impressive, supersonic speeds. Create a vaccuum in front of them(To eliminate drag), Compress the air in their lungs so they don't need to breathe as often while holding the pressure in such a way where nothing breaks/explodes/gets the bends, Use multiple lashings for speed allowing gravity to propel them at multiple G's worth of falling speed, etc. It all depends how clever the windrunner is and how much stormlight they can muck around with. They are almost specifically designed to fly, shardplate or no. I would really hope that Windrunners get more than, Give an object a gravitational push/pull and suction bond two things together with air pressure. I'm sure they can. It would be rediculous not to.(Also I will now forever snicker at the spren bonding two objects together, because frankly, they're suction spren.)

Assuming that the Parshmen do their breeding in a setting where they are observed. I don't think they do. Moreover, Pregnancy is a massive shapechange to begin with. The Parshmen changing differently to a culture with questionable scientific understanding wouldn't surprise me either. We just haven't seen enough of the Parshmen to know how they're handled as slaves. Hell, we haven't seen enough female slaves to know how they're handled as slaves either. Slavery seems to be a male only career path in Alethkar.