Year of Cosmere discussion

Welcome to the September read-along for Words of Radiance! What did you think of the first part of the book? Is it carrying on from The Way of Kings in the way you expected? Lets discuss!

WARNING - This thread will be discussing potential spoilers for Words of Radiance and definite spoilers for The Way of Kings, so read ahead at your own peril!

This is sooo good so far! Even though I really enjoyed Way of Kings, I found it very dense, full of information I didn't quite grasp. The Interludes especially had really confused me; with the exception of the ones about Szeth, they were merely interesting short stories that added more information I couldn't quite piece together.
Words of Radiance is much better in that aspect. There is so much that is explained, and the Interludes were amazingly interesting! I loved having the Parshendi (or Listeners) point of view!
I particularly love how I have no idea who is right or wrong, if any. Who is serving Odium inadvertently, and who's actions will save the Cosmere. So interesting to see how complex this world is, and finally being able to understand it a little bit.

I had some trouble getting back into this world the first 50 pages or so, but after those ive been flying through the story, i'm really enjoying it so far. I'm curious to what happened to Jasnah (i don't believe she is really dead). I loved the interludes, and like said above, feel they are done better than in the previous book. I hope Wit somehow comes back, cause i did miss the humour in this first part.

Milou wrote: "I had some trouble getting back into this world the first 50 pages or so, but after those ive been flying through the story, i'm really enjoying it so far. I'm curious to what happened to Jasnah (i..."

I also think she may not be dead, especially because stormlight can heal her, and she is a skilled surgebinder. But I have what I call the "Kelsier effect" hapening to me (spoilers for the Mistborn trilogy ahead): (view spoiler)[ I spend the whole trilogy waiting for Kelsier to return, because I couldn't believe he was really dead, and then he didn't - which I thought it was ultimately the right move, but still broke my heart. (hide spoiler)] So I'm trying not to get my hopes up!

Raquel wrote: "Milou wrote: "I had some trouble getting back into this world the first 50 pages or so, but after those ive been flying through the story, i'm really enjoying it so far. I'm curious to what happene..."

Hahaha, I had Exactly the same thing

This is my second time reading WoR. It's still as good as I remember. Reading it for the second time, I get all the little hints and the foreshadowing. The story is good and fun at the beginning, but where this part really shines is in the interludes. In the first book, the interludes were just vague hints about the rest of the world. Now they have continuing storylines with Rysn, the pov of the enemy with Eshonai and hints of a mysterious man hunting down Surgebinders. Another great aspect of this book is that, thanks to Eshonai's perspective being represented, we're not really sure who the villain is. I'm really enjoying reading this again.
On an unrelated note, has anyone else noticed that there are some names that are identical to other names in the Kingkiller Chronicles? Like Reshi and Devi.

It's slow-going for me so far. Not in terms of the story, which I'm really enjoying, but it terms of how fast I'm reading the book.

Have to agree with Raquel and Milou above, the interludes were so much better than they were in WOK. I'm interested to see Adolin and Shallan interacting. And Jasnah! Oh my gosh, I don't know what to think.