Alice: Heya, O Chickens of the Cosmere!

Lyn: Awww, you’re coming around to it! I told you this chickens thing was fun. I feel like we need t-shirts or something…

A: Oh, I could definitely get into that!

L: Well, chickens and t-shirts aside, we’re about to dive back into the Fall of Urithiru, so I hope you’re all holding onto your feathers, because the plot is continuing its descent into darkness. Navani has one last slim hope of saving the Tower, but it really is a slim one, and the Sibling finally begins communicating with her openly in an attempt to save their own figurative butt. Join us, won’t you?

[“I want to make certain you understand the situation fully. In case you want to consider a different plan.”]

Well, my Cosmere Chickens, here we are. The Tower falls, our heroes are in danger, and things look as if they can’t possibly get any worse. Which, of course, means that they will get worse, and in spectacular fashion, but for now we’re left here in the darkness to theorize and speculate. Why is it specifically the garnets that Raboniel inverts in the Sibling’s gem matrix? Does Lirin have a point, or is he almost as much a monster as Moash? Will Kaladin ever come to terms with the wretch within him and swear that Fourth Ideal? And why is he the only Windrunner still functioning when all the others have fallen unconscious? We’ll discuss these subjects (and more) in this week’s installment of the Stormlight Archive reread. Won’t you join us?

[It had been going so well.]

Ahoy, ye Chickens of Cosmere! It’s time for some invasion action to begin! The trickle that began many weeks ago, with a company of Fused and Regals hiking through the mountains, has become a stream as they actually enter the tunnels this week. And Our Heroes, blithely oblivious, are just going about their lives, looking at ways they can improve their areas of influence. It has that bated-breath aura, know what I mean?

[Bad assumptions are the last failing of many dead.]

Happy Thursday, Cosmere Chickens! This week’s installment of the Stormlight Archive reread deals with a whole lot of betrayal. Shallan and company arrive at Lasting Integrity, and things… well, go exactly as well as was predicted, with the additional roadblock of Shallan having to deal with a truly nasty revelation about who’s been talking to the Ghostbloods behind her back.

[They’re not going to listen to you, Brightlord. They’re going to arrest you.]

Happy Thursday, Cosmere Chickens, and welcome to Chapter Thirty-Five of the Rhythm of War reread… also known as, “in which Lyn gushes at length about how accurate Brandon’s descriptions of sword fighting are.”

Sorry not sorry.

But no seriously, I hope you’re ready because my storms do I love this chapter! My sword training is a weird combination of historical European longsword and stage combat for sword, rapier/dagger, quarterstaff/spear, and hand to hand. So seeing chapters like this where it’s clear that Brandon has done his research (and ::ahem:: listened to his beta readers like me and especially Liliana Klein and Carl Fisk) just make me so, so happy. It’s pretty rare to find fantasy authors who actually write sword fights well and yet manage to make them interesting to the uninitiated, so I’m going to do a lot of pointing out of specific details in this chapter.

[There was something solid about a greatsword that Adolin had always liked.]

Happy Thursday, Cosmere Chickens, and welcome to yet another episode of the Stormlight Archive reread! Last time we walked with Kaladin as he navigated the new ways he’s trying to come up with to combat PTSD and depression… Today, we’re with Shallan and Adolin as they navigate their own mental landscapes (as well as the physical landscape of Shadesmar). Weird flora, beautiful fauna, and daddy issues abound in today’s episode, so buckle in and prepare yourselves for deep conversations, missed innuendoes, and Adolin being the perfect husband (as usual). Won’t you join us?

[We’re all strangely normal. Or normally strange.]

Happy Thursday, Cosmere Chickens! This week’s chapter is a very short but heavy read. As The Stormlight Archive does so often, it’s dealing with neurodivergencies and the treatment of such. Kaladin, bless his Windrunner heart, is trying so hard to help those suffering with PTSD and depression (and goodness knows what else), blissfully unaware of the army marching on his doorstep, about to turn his entire world upside down…

[There was more than one way to protect.]

Happy Thursday, my Cosmere Chickens! (Has this caught on yet? Have I made it A Thing? If I keep using it long enough it’s going to become A Thing through sheer tenacity of will, right? What if I make t-shirts, because I will totally make t-shirts if I get Dragonsteel’s blessing, don’t test me…) In this week’s installment of the reread, we join Adolin and company who are continuing along the road to Lasting Integrity. Adolin is continuing to be just an amazing partner and caring individual, Veil and Radiant are trying to help Shallan come to grips with her past, and prospects for the delegation’s success are not looking promising…

[So Adolin was wrong, but he was also right.]

Greetings and salutations, my Cosmere Chickens, and welcome to another Thursday and another installment of the Rhythm of War reread! This week we’re hitting the road with Venli and the Fused army to (::gulp::) capture Urithiru! The tension is a little subdued, as we also learn a lot about the differences between how singers and Radiants use the Surges and get some really neat Cosmere theory-fodder, but it’s still there, lurking in the background… Kaladin and Teft and the others remaining in Urithiru are about to get a very rude awakening! Let’s dive in, shall we?

[Within the week, they would arrive at Urithiru. And then the real test would come.]

It’s Thursday again, O my chickies and peeps, so welcome back to Roshar and the Rhythm of War reread! This week, we continue on the same day in Nameless, with Shallan flipping personas like shuffling a deck of cards, and Adolin battling his own loss of confidence while trying to sort out the politics and players of Shadesmar. Come on in and join the discussion!

[Something feels off about the whole group.]

Greetings and a good morning to you, my Cosmere chickens! (Or a good afternoon, or a good evening… whenever you happen to be reading this!) With springtime blessedly on the horizon (not to mention the prospect of social events maybe being able to happen again soon!!!), things are looking a lot brighter here in the real world… but in Roshar, we’re in a bit of a lull, with stormheads brewing on the horizon line. In today’s chapter, Adolin and Shallan deal with some necessary logistics in regards to acquiring supplies for the continuation of their trip. We get a lot of cool information about Shadesmar and the spren who inhabit it, and one particularly important bit of information about a certain deadeye spren Adolin encounters, but for the most part we’re treading water until the craziness begins in earnest. So, without further ado, let’s jump in, shall we?

[A fight without an opponent.]

Hello out there, O Cosmere friends!

Lyn: Chickens, Alice! Chickens! (I’ll win her over yet)

Alice: (Honestly, I love it, but I’m never sure I can pull off the usage. I’ll give it a shot, though…) Chickens, Cosmerans, Countrymen, lend me your ears! Welcome back to the Rhythm of War reread!

L:  Yessssss.

A: We have a short chapter this week, but full of interesting things to discuss. Navani has finally heard from her mysterious spanreed correspondent again, and she was prepared. It pays off, too. Come on in and join the conversation.

[Let’s see what you do now.]

Happy Thursday, my Cosmere Chickens! I hope you’re all doing well, and are excited to jump into another Navani chapter with Alice and me. This week we’re looking at a lot of relationships. Navani and Dalinar, Navani and Jasnah, Sebarial and Palona, Jasnah and Wit, Dalinar and his sons (both real and surrogate)… there’s a lot going on in regards to interpersonal connections. We’ve also got some more Cosmere tidbits in the epigraph (as usual), and some speculation on Nightblood. Join us, won’t you?

[“Integrity doesn’t stop men from killing, Brightness,” Sebarial said. “It just makes them use different justifications.”]

Welcome back to this week’s installment of the Rhythm of War Reread, my Cosmere chickens! Thankfully this week is a little… lighter in tone than last week, which is saying something considering all of the trauma that Shallan is repressing in her quest to find the traitor. There are a lot of smatterings of humor thrown in here this week, thanks in no small part to Pattern and his little… flock? Of Cryptics. What do you think a group of Cryptics should be called? An equation?

[You’re always willing to give others more charity than you extend yourself.]

Good morning, Cosmere Chickens! This week’s chapter might be a little triggering for anyone who suffers from depression or has been “treated” for a mental illness (I put this in quotes because of stories shared with me from friends that were institutionalized, which even today can be shockingly similar to the treatment plan the ardents use here). Please be aware of this and proceed accordingly.

The Stormlight Archive in general does a lot of work in regards to representation of those who are neurodivergent, and this chapter is a very good example of such. We’ll be discussing some pretty heavy topics with historical precedent, the echoes of which resonate through the real world even today.

[He saw not a few gloomspren around.]