[QuickTidal]

So, I am currently plowing through A CROWN OF SWORDS, and so far I like it. Sure it's slower than the previous volumes and yeah, there's not as much action. It's almost as if after the chaos that was Dumai's Wells we needed a breather and the characters sit back and take stock. That feels fairly natural actually. So far, Egwene has managed to win me over with her new non-annoying personality, Perrin continues to be a little wishy-washy (especially when it comes to Faile), and I still miss Moiraine.

So far (page 275-ish) and I am enjoying it...on a different level than the previous volumes mind you....this feels like a character building novel and I don't mind that at all. It's nice to have more insight into certain characters foibles.

My goal (and I hope to achieve it) is to get through the remaining volumes by Jordan as my girlfriend has said she'd get me THE GATHERING STORM & TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT for Christmas, so I plan to try to be done by then.

[Terez]

I'm not sure sometimes why ACOS gets a bad rap. The ending is awesome in many ways, and many interesting things happen in the book. I think that people who are not fond of the caricaturish portrayal of the women might find the book tedious in instances, but the proximity of Mat helps a good deal.

[QuickTidal]

Indeed. Just as Egwene and Siuane find Lan and send him to keep Nynaeve safe, I then got a chapter about the Bowl Of Winds which was interesting, and then I am in the thick of it with Mat seeing a Darkfriend from TEOTW at the races, and then it looks as if Jaichim Carridin, Inquisitor of the Hand and Whitecloak is actually also a darkfriend? Crazyness and awesomeness. It's been an exciting middle so far actually.

Really not sure why the bad rap, I haven't actually had much trouble with it so far and I am nearing the halfway point. I think I may be a COMPLETE convert of this series now. I used to avoid it like the plague, but now I can't wait to read the next book, and I dig it bigtime! LOL.

[Abyss]

Just guessing that read back to back without years-long gaps between the weaker books, the overall WoT series probably isn't as irritating as a lot of people myself included found it to be during the books 7-10 stretch.

RJ tended to follow the 'big finish' writing pattern, where more or less everything in any given book was basically building to a big kaboom confrontation at the end. Some of the books after LoC finish on a less impressive note, and especially after Dumai's Wells (i defy 95% of fantasy lit fans to who aren't Teres to be able to name exactly where most of the WoT finales take place, but EVERYONE knows what 'Dumai's Wells' is...). So with a big pay off, 700 pages of sniffing, dresses, Perrin whining and Rand going bugnuts was worthwhile. Without it. not so much. But each book did have its good bits so i suppose that the 'weaker' endings don't jar as badly when you have another book standing by ready to go.

- Abyss, almost not bitter.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Well...let's give that a go; I'll only go up to aCoS to avoid any spoilers though:

TEotW -- the fight at the eye of the world and the discovery of the Dragon paraphernalia

TGH -- Falme and Rand's battle with Ishamael

TDR -- The Stone of Tear

TSR -- Rhuidean and all that jazz.....I think? (That seems very early on though; perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't think what else it might be.)

FoH -- uhm...there was the confrontation with Rahvin, but that was in the middle of the book, wasn't it? I can't-- OH! MOIRAINE! Shit, yeah...of course!

And LoC -- Dumai's Wells, of course.

How was that, does anyone want to check 'em?

EDIT: I can try and carry on (though it DOES start to get harder now) in a spoiler tag if you like...?

This post has been edited by Green Pig: 09 November 2010 - 04:01 PM

[Abyss]

Green Pig, on 09 November 2010 - 04:00 PM, said:

Well...let's give that a go; ...

I think that's generally right, but i suspect any average fan's response would be a similar kind of 'this place, maybe that place, oh, and Dumai's Wells!' - which isn't even a location in Randland before that book.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Yeah, I know what you mean...it certainly gets difficult to remember what happens through book 8 to 10 (maybe even 11 too) -- I always get mixed up with what happens in which book.

I've never had any 'issues' with those books -- I've enjoyed them just as much as the 'better' ones, however they do kind of mush into one big...thing, where it's hard to differentiate between the books (in most places, though even the big, important events I can't always recall which book they happen in).

[Illuyankas]

Vague memories of the later books, also spoilers

Spoiler

ACOS - Sammael and Shadar Logoth

POD - Renegade Asha'man (Asha'men?), not much else

WH - Saidin

COT - NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING

KOD - Faile resolution, Princing the fuck up and Semirhage

Sanderson Books, Double Spoiler

Spoiler

TGS - Lews Therin

TOM - Towers and Hammer Time

[QuickTidal]

Green Pig, on 09 November 2010 - 04:00 PM, said:

Well...let's give that a go; I'll only go up to aCoS to avoid any spoilers though:


FoH -- uhm...there was the confrontation with Rahvin, but that was in the middle of the book, wasn't it? I can't-- OH! MOIRAINE! Shit, yeah...of course!

Probably one of my favourite moments in the series so far is how Moiraine goes out. It's just awesome. (*ahem* hence my avatar of Dan Dos Santos prelim sketch of the scene for TFOH eBook)

[End of Disc One]

I'm pretty sure FoH did end with Rahvin in Caemlyn, and Moiraine was a little earlier. And TSR's Rhuidean sequence was in the middle of the book. I only read the books once, six years ago, but I have a pretty good memory and could tell you where all of the endings take place.

As for ACoS getting a bad rap, it's just in comparison to those before it. Aside from the prologue not much happens in the first 1/3 of the book, and the ending was less epic than the books before it (though a certain action scene was awesome).

ACoS is definitely better than the three following books, and I'd say it's better than Knife of Dreams as well.

[Dolorous Menhir]

QuickTidal, on 09 November 2010 - 01:14 PM, said:

Indeed. Just as Egwene and Siuane find Lan and send him to keep Nynaeve safe, I then got a chapter about the Bowl Of Winds which was interesting, and then I am in the thick of it with Mat seeing a Darkfriend from TEOTW at the races, and then it looks as if Jaichim Carridin, Inquisitor of the Hand and Whitecloak is actually also a darkfriend? Crazyness and awesomeness. It's been an exciting middle so far actually.

Wasn't Carridin outed as a darkfriend as soon as his character was introduced, earlier in the series?

End of Disc One, on 09 November 2010 - 06:31 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure FoH did end with Rahvin in Caemlyn, and Moiraine was a little earlier.

That's right - wasn't losing Moiraine the reason Rand went mental and launched the unexpected frontal assault on Rahvin in Caemlyn?

[Use Of Weapons]

No, as soon as Rand decided to take on Rahvin, Moiraine knew that her vision of confronting Lanfear at the docks would happen. After the Lanfear/Moiraine confrontation, they then proceed to Caemlyn by Skimming gateway, and Rand balefires some darkhounds, bringing Mat and a few other characters back to life. IIRC, FoH is also the second Nynaeve/Moghedien fight, where Birgitte is ejected from Tel'Aran'Rhiod, and Nyn captures Moggy with an a'dam in Dreamland, leading to the rediscovery of Travelling.

[Terez]

Abyss, on 09 November 2010 - 02:59 PM, said:

Just guessing that read back to back without years-long gaps between the weaker books, the overall WoT series probably isn't as irritating as a lot of people myself included found it to be during the books 7-10 stretch.

Yeah, I have always said much the same thing. 10 was the first one I had to wait for, and I didn't have to wait long for it. Consequently, there were no 'bad' books in WoT in my experience.

kitty said:

RJ tended to follow the 'big finish' writing pattern, where more or less everything in any given book was basically building to a big kaboom confrontation at the end.

I have always felt this applied more to Erikson than to RJ, or most authors for that matter.

Spoiler

7 - Mat fights gholam in Ebou Dar, Bowl of the Winds obtained, ass-kicking of Black Ajahs. And Sammael.
8 - The climax of this book was not at the end. IMO the climactic scene was Rand using Callandor and killing his own army. Both Rand and the Seanchan felt they had suffered a major defeat. A dark sort of climax, which comes to a head even further when Rand kills Fedwin Morr - something in the wine - after Aginor/Osan'gar/Dashiva and the others try to kill him by blowing up the Sun Palace. Another climactic event was early in the book, when the Seanchan invaded Ebou Dar just after the Bowl was used, but it wasn't written like a climax.
9 - The Cleansing, obviously. Made the whole book for me, though there were other good tidbits in it. Elayne starts working on gaining the throne, and Mat escapes from Ebou Dar with Tuon.
10 - Total cliffhanger. Rand sets up his meeting with the fake Tuon. Egwene gets captured. Perrin has a Moment of Awesome when he gets serious with his axe, and the Shaido.
11 - Three climaxes, really - Mat escapes Altara after Tuon completes the marriage ceremony, and Perrin finally rescues Faile. Elayne gains the throne, finally.

[QuickTidal]

Okay, this line was funny...

PG596 ACOS:

"Nynaeve's eyebrows drew down. Kick her? Elayne really was becoming violent, spending so much time with Aviendha. Someone really ought to slap some sense into that pair."

LOL!

[QuickTidal]

Man does Elaida come across as dopey in this book. She's dumber than a bag of wet hair. Alviarin has her wrapped right around her black ajah finger, and it's pretty funny.

Best moment so far is Nynaeve almost drowning and then FINALLY opening herself up to saidar when she doesn't think she's going to live and resigns to her death all of the sudden she can channel normally. That was a pretty awesome moment, and one I was waiting for. She's so powerful that I wanted to see her be able to open up her whoop-ass without having to be mad. That and I really like the effect that Lan seems to have on her just being around her.

Also, Mat getting sexed up by Queen Tylin whether he wanted it or not was kind of funny when he woke up and was only really PO-ed that she cut his clothes off ruining his red coat. LOL. Priorities Mat. Also, she called him piglet and I nearly laughed my ass off at that one.

I would also like to note that Morgase gains some serious credit with me by standing up to that Seanchan bitch Suroth, and attempting to deny her the throne of Andor by trying to abdicate in favor Elayne, and then planning to end herself. Brave.

Nearly done and so far I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I suspect this bad rap comes from the length of time people had to wait between books....luckily I will be able to continue reading the series fairly close together up till the final book methinks. Which is great!

[Use Of Weapons]

I had been waiting and waiting and waiting for Nynaeve to break through her block. It still stands as one of my favourite moments in the series when she does.

[Terez]

QuickTidal, on 12 November 2010 - 12:48 PM, said:

Man does Elaida come across as dopey in this book. She's dumber than a bag of wet hair. Alviarin has her wrapped right around her black ajah finger, and it's pretty funny.

Just wait. She gets even dumber.

Quote

Best moment so far is Nynaeve almost drowning and then FINALLY opening herself up to saidar when she doesn't think she's going to live and resigns to her death all of the sudden she can channel normally. That was a pretty awesome moment, and one I was waiting for. She's so powerful that I wanted to see her be able to open up her whoop-ass without having to be mad. That and I really like the effect that Lan seems to have on her just being around her.

This is a hugely popular scene, of course, but I enjoyed Elayne's scene just before it nearly as much.

[QuickTidal]

Just finished. Good book. Obviously not as great as some previous volumes, but there was a lot of cool stuff too. I didn't find it boring. Sure it's a bit slower with less action that previous volumes, but no less good. The only agreement I can make with others complaints is that Sammael's death really is pretty abrupt and happens in like the last 40 pages or so. Other than that, much enjoyed.

[Terez]

Quote

Crossroads of Twilight Book Tour 18 January 2003 - Cambridge, MA
Q: Is Sammael dead?

RJ: Jordan responded that Sammael was dead as of the end of A Crown of Swords. Jordan felt that the character was a "louse" and didn't deserve a dramatic death ala Rahvin or Be'lal. He deserved a very vague death and was killed by something that he didn't pay attention to.

This post has been edited by Terez: 15 November 2010 - 05:41 PM

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 15 November 2010 - 05:41 PM, said:

Quote

Crossroads of Twilight Book Tour 18 January 2003 - Cambridge, MA
Q: Is Sammael dead?

RJ: Jordan responded that Sammael was dead as of the end of A Crown of Swords. Jordan felt that the character was a "louse" and didn't deserve a dramatic death ala Rahvin or Be'lal. He deserved a very vague death and was killed by something that he didn't pay attention to.

Haha! Nice! Jordan FTW!