Darin Seidel

I'm not sure starting a pitcher older than me was a great move for the Royals...

🚨The Royals have scored a run. I repeat, The Royals have scored a run. 🚨

for a few hours. You know what happened the next day? I got up and went to work. My life was exactly the same as it had been the day before. You'd think, for a long-time sports fan that attending a championship game, in-person, would be a top 10 moment in my life, but (3/5)

In 2013, I was able to attend MLS Cup for my beloved Sporting Kansas City, which they won, in thrilling fashion. The pinnacle of their league, the one big trophy everyone had been chasing all year, it seemed like a really big deal (2/5)

According to the Google machine, domestic coffee production is only viable in California, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. So yeah, why don't we just make our own? 🙄

No, you see, now it's "vintage" which makes it worth extra. Or something like that.

but we'll have to wait at least a decade to find out.

"Wind and Truth" by Brandson Sanderson
3/5 stars - good, but mildly disappointing

but WaT read almost like a fan-fiction of those same characters racing towards a pre-defined outcome, regardless of it it made sense. Perhaps some of these issues will be addressed in the second arc of Stormlight. Perhaps these loose threads will get tied up in a satisfying conclusion /25

In summary - I *LIKED* Wind and Truth, but I didn't love it and I really, really, really wanted to love it. The first 2, maybe 3 books of the series were so amazing, full of awe-inspiring moments, wonderful world-building, flawed but lovable characters behaving in consistent, believable ways /24

in fact, it's his most defining attribute is that he is always doing the unexpected and breaking every rule we thought we knew. It's when that same attitude is applied to other characters who previously played by a consistent set of rules that the story begins to unravel. /23

Wit/Hoid/Cephandrius/Midius (as a thinly-veiled stand-in for Sanderson) is off to Scadrial, which conveniently is the setting for Sanderson's next major work through more hand-wavy magic, which I actually don't mind, because it's completely in-character for him. Wit doesn't have to make sense /22

he's never heard from again. Odium/Retribution basically wins and takes over the world, except for Urithuru, which gets surrounded by an impentetrable crystal shield for reasons not explained and both the Shattener Plains Azimir for technical beaucratic reasons, which, ok, I guess I'll believe /21

Sja-Anat shows up once or twice when needed to move the plot forward as well, but why? Again, convenient "god" drops in to push the characters the right direction, then disappears. Moash (fuck Moash) has a scene where he gets to kill a couple more side characters, break Sigzil and then /20

that decision. For a book that spans over 1,300 pages, a ton of loose threads were left dangling, which made the ending extremely unsatisfying. Ba-Ado-Mishram's prison was a major focal point of Shallan, Renarin & Rlain's arc but then they break her out and *poof* that's done. Check that box /19

but it was just another plot point that felt forced. Kaladin took up the role because Sanderson had decided that's what he was going to do. While this is true for literally everything that happens in every book, I didn't believe his motivation or journey towards that ending really supported /18

All of this is ignoring Kaladin and Szeth's entire contribution to the book, which I didn't enjoy or identify with. This was by far the most heavy-handed mental trauma section of the story and it felt extremely forced to me. The whole point was to lead Kaladin to his new role as a Herald /17

accept Taravangian as a host after having to be persuaded to accept a much more honorable man in Dalinar? /16

the god of oaths, its very Intent defined by oaths, but Odium's vessel could not break it and go conquer other worlds? We know Odium had already killed at least 2 other shards, but had chosen not to absorb their power. Why would Odium absorb Honor now? Why would Honor's Power /15

was the only thing keeping Odium safe, it almost makes sense that he would take the power now that he was no longer protected by the agreement, but Odium wanted that agreement broken so he could leave the Rosharan system, so why could Honor's vessel break his oath, despite Honor being 14/

what was stopping him from claiming it all those years when it was without a vessel? Was he afraid that by doing so he would open himself up to attack from other shards? If so, why claim the power then at the end to become Retribution? If the agreement between Odium, Honor and Cultivation 13/

I understand Dalinar needed to have an opponent he would not want to fight, it was just too contrived for my tastes. Dalinar's gambit at the end to claim and then give up the power of Honor was interesting, but also didn't make a ton of sense. If Odium had wanted the power of Honor, 12/

didn't work for me. The magic hand-wavy "he's suddenly 20 years older and he hates you, Dalinar" felt cheap. Odium just plucks Gav out of the Spiritual Realm without anybody noticing and replaces him with a double at Urithuru so he can make him fight his "grampa"/great Uncle. 11/

breaking the immersion that was much more prevalent in the first 2-3 books of the series. Those are all minor stylistic gripes, but there were still plenty of enjoyable moments. The ending however --MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD-- was quite unsatisfying. The reveal of Gavinor as Odium's champion 10/

their particular brand of mental/emotional damage. Sanderson has never been known to write beauitful, flowing prose and that continues in WaT. There were times that the language used became especially incongruous with the setting, which pulled me out of the story and setting again, 9/

The heavy-handed approach to the characters mental illnesses/struggles really pulled me out of the story. I completely get what Sanderson was trying to do here, but the message felt too forced for my tastes. The story almost seemed to take a back seat to everyone's stuggles with 8/

in their minds and point them in the right direction. This had never happened in any of the previous books and there really isn't a good reason why The Wind suddenly woke up other than it was needed to move the plot forward. 7/

again by the next chapter. WaT was especially egregious about this. Introducing "The Wind" as a character suddenly when there was not even a hint of yet another "god" on Roshar felt jarring. It seemed too convenient to me that when our heroes needed guidance, The Wind was there to whisper 6/

to keep track of until even a diligent reader like myself, who did a complete re-read of the series prior to WaT found myself filpping back and forth to previous books/chapers, referencing the 17th shard to recall obscure points of lore that were suddenly relevent only for them to be forgotten 5/

but not so large that it was difficult to remember who was where and why they were there. Starting in book 3, but especially in book 4, the scope just kept expanding and expanding. Each "part" of each book seemed to add more and more viewpoints, more and more sub-plots, more and more characters 4/