#ssp5

Starling!!

In case it is not obvious from the title, this post contains major Isles of the Embedrark spoilers! But if you've read it too--or if you simply do not care about spoilers--then here are the top 10 lingering questions I am left with after finishing this book.

#10: Is Patji Autonomy?

I'm putting this as #10 because, well, I DID have this question after finishing, but it seems like this is actually known. Patji is Autonomy, yes. But in the book, characters were speculating: What Shard is responsible for the investiture? Who could it be?? So I was wondering too. But then I checked and it seems like we know this because of a letter that Patji sent to Hoid that was in the Stormlight Archives. Man, I'm bad at remembering those kinds of things...

#9: You can Awaken Metalminds?

I'm putting this as #9, because I assume all of you more investiture-aware readers are like, "Pshaw! This blogger doesn't know about Awakened Metalminds!" But no! No I don't! What exactly would this mean? Like, if you Awakened Copper, what would that mean? Would it give you slideshows of your best memories like my phone does? Would we want that?

#8: Where did Frost go?

I'm not going to dignify this with a "Is Frost alive?" because I assume we have no doubt. And I'll admit, I'm not THAT curious about where he is, but it was a question that was woven throughout the book, so I can't say I'm not wondering at all...

#7: What did Star do?

The book kept alluding to whatever crime got Star exiled and her dragon form suppressed, but we never did learn the details. It sounds like she perhaps saved people when the other dragons didn't want her to. I wonder if we'll ever find out what actually happened?

#6: What was that golden paste?

Sixth of the Dusk was able to hear the pulses thanks to eating the worm goo. But Cakoban used some sort of golden paste, which seems a lot better than worm goo. We never did learn what it was or where it came from--and I'm curious if we ever will.

#5: How did Nazh die?

I was totally unaware of Nazh as a character before this book. I never really read the captions on the maps & the drawings; to be honest, I vaguely assumed they were all Shallan. But no! It was apparently Nazh who was producing a lot of those pictures and maps because he worked for Khriss. Apparently he's also the guy who got chased away from the Bridge 4 stew for trying to sketch them! I sure miss a lot of things! Anyway, I became immediately invested in Nazh because he's a Threnody shade, and Threnody is my favorite planet, and since when are the Shades, well, sentient as themselves?? I'll take any backstory about Nazh that is offered, please and thank you.

#4: What is up with the Grand Apparatus?

I am SO curious about the Grand Apparatus: a city where the rooms all move around and if you need something, like a shower, you just ask and the room will be rotated into your vicinity? And it's actually a slave society run by the Sleepless who are doing experiments? Like...what the hell? It sounds completely insane. I need more.

#3: Can we please get the Grand Apparatus Hoid murder mystery?

And Hoid solved (or "solved") a murder there?? Sanderson, I will pledge to that kickstarter. Drop the novel, plz.

#2: Huio is alive?? And an Arcanist??

While listing Arcanists, Ed mentioned a "Huio." Now, I suppose there's no guarantee that that's Stormlight Huio, but also... come on. I'm pretty sure Sanderon's editors told him that he wasn't allowed to reuse names because people would cry. If that is Huio, then I am desperate to know how he ended up in Silverlight!

#1: HOID HAS A WIFE AND KIDS?!

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

Not just Stormlight, but all of the Cosmere books.

So if there's a map, or (particularly in the Stormlight books) ephemera, Isaac has had his hands in those, and he likes to add little easter eggs, and he came up with this persona of this character who was doing this. And we knew we wanted these to be in-world artifacts, but we also knew that we needed somebody who was kind of recovering these for some thing, and I'm like, "Well, this works very well with Khriss, probably compiling these and finding artifacts from planets and bringing them back to Silverlight."

And so, that's kind of where Nazh was born. I borrowed him once before for Secret History; he makes a small appearance in Secret History. Larger appearance here. Isaac and I have talked through his history and his future, and as early as years and years ago (probably seven, eight years ago), I'm like, "What about this?"

And that's when Nazh joined Starling's crew in his current incarnation.

Isaac Stewart: I think it was with Alloy of Law where we realized we need somebody annotating some of these, now and then. One of the reasons was, when you're doing a map of a city the size of Elendel, we couldn't really put these tiny street names, and things like that.