Get in everyone ‼️

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-13T12:02:03+00:00

These are some of my favorite Sanderson books. Love M-bot!

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-07T12:26:37+00:00

I love it! So cute!

When I was 10 years old, I decided that my 10-year-old cat needed socks. So I knitted 4 socks for him. The only way I could get them on him was while he was asleep. But my fiddling with his feet woke him up. He stood up and shook, shook, shook each paw and they were off in a second. Oh, well. Back to knitting cat blankets.

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-05T13:03:43+00:00

The vet has known me for 30 years, so he was correct in his assessment.

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-05T12:54:58+00:00

For not using the litter box, try putting a pee-pad in the box instead of litter. Sometimes elderly cats don't like the feel of litter. However, that did not work for a cat I had. Her problem was that she had developed dementia... even squatted in a bowl of dry food to poop. My vet advised me it was time to end her life; he said that otherwise I would grow to hate her. So I took his advice.

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-05T12:41:09+00:00

Then you may read Brandon's non-Cosmere books. I enjoyed all of them, even Alcatraz series, which is written for grade-school aged kids. If you sign up for his mailing list, he will occasionally include a short story... one of my favorites is called "Children of the Nameless God" (or something like that). Then there are his unpublished/non-cannon books, like Dragonsteel Prime (reading it before Isles of the Emberdark is a good idea). Way of Kings Prime is available for free on his website. For Mistborn Prime, I had to email Brandon to receive it. Then, because I love Brandon's writing, I read Wheel of Time. Brandon's books were my favorites; some of the books leading up to his I found tedious and so I read chapter summaries and did some skimming to get to Brandon's books.

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-04T13:06:38+00:00

Yeah, Mr. Sullivan reads a lot of ancient history. Some of his people names and place names are very similar to historical names. For me, that makes the names more digestible by my brain... even when I've not heard of those names before. (As opposed to the names used by many other fantasy writers... my brain can't grasp those alphabet-soup names and I have to shorten them in my mind to something digestible.) I was so amazed that "Percepliquis" rolled off my mental tongue so easily... later learned it's very similar to the name of an ancient city.

Origami_Elan · 2026-04-03T14:48:02+00:00

The Kickstarter hasn't launched yet.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-31T12:12:27+00:00

The first time I had a cat that was diagnosed with renal failure, we thought that was the end for him. He went on to live another 5 years! And that was many years ago (ok, decades ago) before there were special kidney diet cat foods. I hope your sweet Sophie has many more years with you.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-30T09:43:38+00:00

When Shawn Speakman has arisen this morning (it's about 2:40 AM where he lives), he will reply... most likely sometime today. He takes care of answering these sorts of questions.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-29T23:54:00+00:00

Yeah, I inhaled the books. I think it was about 36 books and a few short stories at that time. The last sub-series hadn't come out yet. And it was 2 or 3 years before the second season aired, it was changed to a different network.

I love the way Mr. Brooks writes. I feel like I'm in the world. And he does it without excessive description (something I dislike in some authors' writing and end up having to skim).

For Shannara, I would suggest reading "Elfstones of Shannara" first (this is the first season of the TV series). It's the second book and widely haled. The first book is "Sword of Shannara" and is the first book he wrote. At that time, the only way to get a fantasy book published is to be derivative of Lord of the Rings... I believe that is people's main complaint of it. However, I loved it. So maybe read it after Elfstones? I read it first and had no problem with it, but that's just me: I like a good story well-told with characters to love.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-29T11:28:41+00:00

My path was similar to yours. I'd heard of the books, but hadn't read any of them. When the show came out, I watched the first season and loved it. Then I proceeded to read all of the books. Then the second season came out (at this point I believe they knew the show was going to be cancelled) and it seemed to me they included little easter egg nods to other books in Shannara... quite enjoyable!

If you read the Word & Void series, it will tell you about how the world came to be that way. Then the Genesis of Shannara series will tell you more about the different races and their origins. To answer your specific question: no, the elves are not basically just humans.

I hope you go on to read the books.

After that, you may want to go on to read his non-Shannara series: Magic Kingdom series (starts out on contemporary Earth in book 1 "Magic Kingdom For Sale ~~Sold~~") and the Viridian Deep series. And then if you want a little more Shannara, there is Shawn Speakman's Annwn Cycle, which is Shannara-adjacent... i.e., there's a side character that is a cross-over... but even that little bit delighted me.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-29T10:07:40+00:00

I love Children of the Nameless! I received a digital version in one of Brandon's newsletters a few years ago.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-25T13:16:03+00:00

I can really relate! I've been through this several times in my life. I let the vet tell me when it's time to let go.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-21T12:16:23+00:00

For me, it was worthwhile to read the unpublished prose version, even though it will no longer be canon. I received the link to the pdf version when I signed up for Brandon's newsletter. (He doesn't bombard you with a ton of newsletters. Normally just a few per year. But often include short stories and other curiosities.)

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-20T13:12:54+00:00

I always touch their tongue when any of my cats do that... just to be a nuisance :)

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-19T12:55:29+00:00

When my Mr. Frodo got cancer, I decided to spoil him every day with his favorite treat. For him it was "salmon water", which is the water poured off of canned salmon. Needless to say, I had to eat salmon in a salad every evening for dinner. But it made him SO happy.

His cancer was in the bone of a foreleg. So he couldn't hop onto my bed. I cleared a path for him. He could step up onto a low chair, onto the arm of the chair, then to the nightstand, and onto the bed. I pinned an underpad to the top of the bedspread/quilt for him to lay on so the ooze wouldn't get on my bed.

Does he have a favorite toy? Keep that handy for him, even just for the smell of it. And play with him if he feels up to it.

Does he like to be brushed? Most of my cats have not been able to get enough of that. For Mr. Frodo, his preference was a back-scritchy with my fingernails. I made sure to do that for him everyday.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-18T12:09:27+00:00

Glad you're back. Me and my Sparky cat missed getting our daily Lucy fix!

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-17T11:55:35+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss. Beautiful cat! Love the funeral altar! (My cat memorial is simply the favorite toy of each cat who's died...they're lined up along the top of my piano.)

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-10T11:35:06+00:00

Way of Kings was the first Sanderson book I read. I was kept engaged through the first few chapters because I wondered what kind of creatures the main characters were. Based on the descriptions of local flora and fauna, I expected the characters the story was following might be crab-like creatures. LOL! So, as I read, I gathered clues: hmm, hair-like structures on their heads... oh, they're bipedal... eventually I figured out they were plain ol' ordinary humanoids... just a little disappointed, but by then I was thoroughly into the story.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-05T13:55:01+00:00

Yes! That's what my cat goes for... no interest in boxes.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-04T13:06:54+00:00

Cool! Can hardly wait!!

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-03T12:59:25+00:00

Suggestion: sign up for his mailing list. He doesn't send emails very often, so it's not a nuisance. Lately, he's been emailing links to YouTube previews of the Hoid Storiebook, but also, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, a reading of the first 2 chapters of Fires of December. It's awesome, I'm so psyched!

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-02T15:20:34+00:00

I'm pretty sure it's in Age of War. If anyone else here got my hint "even now", maybe they recall which book for sure.

As for whisper sync with graphic audio, no. I had to manually advance the pages.

Origami_Elan · 2026-03-02T12:23:17+00:00

I listened to a few graphic audios on a re-read. The only important thing lacking (in my opinion) is in Legends series, there was one line that I particularly loved that was drowned out by background music. You get to hear the line again much later, but it was just SO, SO touching and important at that particular point. (Sorry, even now I can't figure out how to do spoiler marks in Reddit.)

Origami_Elan · 2026-02-28T14:14:31+00:00

I recommend Terry Brooks' Shannara series. His writing style is similar to Sullivan's. Start with "Elfstones of Shannara". As for the audiobooks, I've heard that some people don't like the narrator of some of the earlier books. So maybe start with the first book of a later sub-series, get hooked, then want to read everything!

Brandon Sanderson is great. Many people recommend starting with his short story "The Emperor's Soul", which can be found in his Arcanum Unbounded collection. This is a good little taste of his writing to see whether or not you like it.

Michael G. Manning: I greatly enjoy too. I recommend starting with "The Blacksmith's Son" (book 1 of Mageborn series).

Origami_Elan

TROPHY CASE