Modern Fantasy Readers and Writers discussion

1. [Character:] Elend Venture becomes a major focus of the series as he grows through a maturing process. His and Vin's interactions are really developed at the end of our last sectino and throughout Section 4 of our reading. What were your initial impressions of Elend? What tools did Sanderson utilize to make us see him that way?

2. [Plot and Character:] What do you think of Kelsier going to informants to find out about Renoux; to discover how much was leaked of their secrets? Did this scene develop Kelsier's foresight for you making the final plot twist more believable because of how scheming Kelsier was?

3. [World and Character:] It is important to explain how magic systems work in fantasy, so we have an understanding of how things work. Sanderson does this over the whole book, but really pushes his system forward with the training Vin receives from Marsh. Did he handle this well? Did the training between Vin and Marsh seem like a natural part of the story or did it feel more like an opportunity to expound upon Sanderson's magic system? During this training session what did you gather about Marsh's character?

4. [Plot:] Sanderson spends a considerable amount of time describing the differences between Skaa and Noble. Giving us the question, "Why are they different? Should they be?" Do you feel Sanderson answers this question in his book? Or does he leav it open? In particular, why does there have to be Noble blood for there to be allomancy?

5. [Plot:] The destruction of their army broke a large part of the plan the group had. How do you feel about how Sanderson handled the Crews reaction to this twist? For those who have finished, doesn't the outcome of Kelsier's plan seem to make the army almost irrelevent? Like they never needed to develop an army?

Elend Venture becomes a major focus of the series as he grows through a maturing process. His and Vin's interactions are really developed at the end of our last sectino and throughout Section 4 of our reading. What were your initial impressions of Elend? What tools did Sanderson utilize to make us see him that way?

Well, I liked him because he was associating with the crowd of people who were presented as evil. And he liked Vin, who I liked.

[Plot and Character:] What do you think of Kelsier going to informants to find out about Renoux; to discover how much was leaked of their secrets? Did this scene develop Kelsier's foresight for you making the final plot twist more believable because of how scheming Kelsier was?

Well, I didn't when I read it. But now that i read your questions, I guess it seems pretty obvious that it is just setting up character details.

[World and Character:] It is important to explain how magic systems work in fantasy, so we have an understanding of how things work. Sanderson does this over the whole book, but really pushes his system forward with the training Vin receives from Marsh. Did he handle this well? Did the training between Vin and Marsh seem like a natural part of the story or did it feel more like an opportunity to expound upon Sanderson's magic system? During this training session what did you gather about Marsh's character?
I thought the magic was explained well throughout this book, and it never really felt like the characters were talking to the reader instead of each other, to me. In terms of learning about Marsh, I think this was our first opportunity to learn about him. Up to this point, he hasn't had much screen time.

[Plot:] Sanderson spends a considerable amount of time describing the differences between Skaa and Noble. Giving us the question, "Why are they different? Should they be?" Do you feel Sanderson answers this question in his book? Or does he leav it open? In particular, why does there have to be Noble blood for there to be allomancy?

He explains this at the end of book 2 actually, In thsi book it is left as an open question.


[Plot:] The destruction of their army broke a large part of the plan the group had. How do you feel about how Sanderson handled the Crews reaction to this twist? For those who have finished, doesn't the outcome of Kelsier's plan seem to make the army almost irrelevent? Like they never needed to develop an army?

I am embarrassed as I missed this plot hole. You are quite correct in thinking that it is unnecessary. And for the life of me, I can't think of a single reason why Kelsier would have done it, unless Sanderson didn't know how the book would end until he got there.

Well I don't know what Eland - will become. Although I have some "thoughts" what will happen to him. Through this book I know a lot of people thoguht he was one of their favorite characters. For me he was "all right" - seemed pretty stanard - rich kid that is revolutionary etc. Again seen it before but it was not "heavy handed" so I'll not complain too much.

As to the "magic sysetm" - it is by far one of the most creative ones I've seen. .... but I think he "over did it" we definitely understood it early on and he didn't have to keep repeating and reminding us over and over about it. I thought that had a bit of a heavy hand.

-- Robin The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha | Nyphron Rising (Oct 2009)

1. I thought Sanderson did a good job of introducing Elend. His aloofness and thumbing his nose at his father came off very genuine. I did not understand Vin's attachment to him so early on, other than to chalk it up to no one had really paid all that much attention to her to begin with. But after Sanderson's heavy handedness throughout so much of the book, I might have missed that in a first reading.

2. I thought Sanderson handled Kelsier very well. Keeping the balance between the slightly off-balanced, good hearted leader and the calculating, forethinking revolutionary he was. It was little scenes like these that Sanderson added in that made the character development of Kelsier stand out in my mind.

3. I thought the training scene was very heavy handed between Marsh and Vin. There were other ways to show Vins "special" use of the metals-perhaps ones that would have lead to more character development opportunities between her and some of the other Crew Members. It would have helped their blind acceptance of the 17 year old street rat turned revolutionary leader as the mind behind the plans in the Well of Ascension.

4. I am interested in finding out the tie between the noble blood and allomancy, I have the third book on my shelf and will pick it up once I am done with Wizard's first rule.
I thought Sanderson's handling of the Skaa/Noble question was one of the better PoV issues he used in the book. Everytime someone spoke on the issue they revealed more about themselves and their view of the Skaa.

5. @David, the only thing I saw was Kelsier did not want to sacrifice himself from the beginning and was planning on using the army. I think he had to adjust the plan as new developments happened and that his end goal-overthrowing the government-was worth any sacrifice and he would not be deterred. I think the story worked, but Sanderson could have handled the shift from Plan A (Use the army and survive) to Plan B (Die as a martyr for the cause). I don't think Sanderson shifted gears as there were a lot of scenes that built to the believability of the sacrifice. I mean think of all the religions he reviewed with Sazed, it was all research.