#*backs up*

I’m sorry, “interlude 1″? Interlude? One? As in, there are multiple of them. Hoo boy. Why the flip not, I guess we’re doing this.

Ishikk

Stop. Giving. Me. Gods. To. Remember!! I did not become a religious studies major, and there was a reason! Enough!!

Is this yet another freaking unrelated, untethered subplot to keep track of out of nowhere, or is this some of that “You should have read the other Cosmere books first otherwise you’ll miss out on Easter Eggs” stuff people kept warning me about? I just don’t have the time to be reading Brando Sando’s full bibliography, I’m barely carving out time to read these behemoths that are so long that they apparently need INTERLUDES?

Major points for “Grump,” “Blunt,” and “Thinker,” tho. Been there, done that, I feel ya, my guy.

Nan Balat

Freakin... We mentioned this dude earlier with whats-her-bucket, yeah? *flips back to check* Okay, so she didn’t kill him, like I assumed. But he was involved--

OKAY now, hello sadist! Maybe she should have offed him...

Brother? BROTHER? Okay, Shallan, sweetie, maybe you ought to just, you know, let your house fade into obscurity and stick with Jasnah because HONEY. Your family is JACKED. UP. I’m not nearly as attached to you as to my sadboi Kaladin, but babe, you deserve better. Cut your losses while you have some prospects in the world.

Scaly lobster dogs. Thanks. Did not need that!

“Only he and Shallan had escaped unscathed.” Says the man ripping living creatures apart because it soothes him to feel them suffer in his hands. Yes, you’re surely the picture of stability and sanity. I now have SERIOUS concerns about Shallan’s mental health.

Szeth

So it’s obvious to me that Branderson is working ol buddy here around to be a sympathetic character in the future by emphasizing how much he doesn’t want to do these bad things but is forced to. I’m smelling a redemption arc, obvs.

How the heck do I say this man’s name, anyway? This has been bothering me CONSTANTLY.

What would happen if my guy’s “oathstone” were destroyed or lost? Would he be free? Or would he, like, combust?

Also, I’m sure it’s going to come up at some point inconvenient and distracting, but why does Mr. son-son-Vallano link back to, I’m guessing, his grandfather, when the Shin author Jasnah and Shallan both talk about links back to her mother? Why is Szeth skipping identifying with his dad? Does everyone in this book have daddy issues?

Final Verdict

Isn’t the point of an interlude to be kind of a rest break you really don’t need to be paying attention to?

Yes I’m a bit salty, but after a very long day fighting our drywall and its magically-migrating studs to try and put up some shelves that shouldn’t have taken so dang long to wrangle, I have little patience left over for the ever-increasing pile of questions that crop up at highly inconvenient and distracting times.