[QuickTidal]

So I started this yesterday and I'm almost halfway through the 96Page Prologue (what is it with these long ass prologues?)Wasxn't the prologue in tEotW like 10 pages or sumthin?

Anyways, I digress. So far it's pretty good (read: leaps and bounds better than tPoD and CoT). I'm so pleased at this point to be able to hate Suroth so fully and completely that having Semirhage put her in her place repeatedly and then I get to watch her reaction to the Empress and her family and nobles and friends are dead...and your country is at civil war...was priceless.

Is it me or is Galad a little TOO good for his own good?

That's the only comments I have so far. I am quite chuffed to be so close to being caught up in this series.

[SilenceYourTongueAndWitness]

QuickTidal, on 28 December 2010 - 01:45 PM, said:

So I started this yesterday and I'm almost halfway through the 96Page Prologue (what is it with these long ass prologues?)Wasxn't the prologue in tEotW like 10 pages or sumthin?

Anyways, I digress. So far it's pretty good (read: leaps and bounds better than tPoD and CoT). I'm so pleased at this point to be able to hate Suroth so fully and completely that having Semirhage put her in her place repeatedly and then I get to watch her reaction to the Empress and her family and nobles and friends are dead...and your country is at civil war...was priceless.

Is it me or is Galad a little TOO good for his own good?

That's the only comments I have so far. I am quite chuffed to be so close to being caught up in this series.

Theres so so much i wanna say here, READ FASTER FRIEND lol. to avoid spoilers i will say NOTHING muahahahahaha

[QuickTidal]

Haha, working on it. Once I get into the actual chapters of these books I normally plow through them (if they aren't tPoD or CoT...LOL!) My plan is to be free to read TGS and TOM (both of which I received for Xmas) in January.

[Terez]

Galad...do you mean he's too good in the moral sense, or with the sword? Both ideas have been developed for some time now...but Galad is explored a little more thoroughly in book 13.

As the series goes on, RJ starts to use the prologues mainly for important side plots. It's not that there aren't any side plots in the main parts of the books, but the prologue bits are typically less connected to the main characters. Ituralde, for example. He becomes very important later on, for obvious reasons. The Black Ajah hunters are another prologue staple; they're not really connected to either Elaida or Egwene for the most part, so in the prologue they go.

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 28 December 2010 - 06:13 PM, said:

Galad...do you mean he's too good in the moral sense, or with the sword? Both ideas have been developed for some time now...but Galad is explored a little more thoroughly in book 13.
.

I meant his moral compass is totally north, even if it would be optimum to be otherwise.

Nearly done the prologue now, and I am surprised to find the Darrell Sweet cover image depicts something that occurs in said prologue and not the main book. Interesting. I can't recall if any of the other books do this...

Still, nearly 100 pages in and KoD is doing just fine clicking along at a much better pace than...CoT *shiver*....

[Terez]

Didn't you finish it yet?

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 03 January 2011 - 08:05 AM, said:

Didn't you finish it yet?

Haha, no, not yet. I've got a few books on the go right now. Trying to chew through all of them. I'll let you know further thoughts as they occur to me though.

[Terez]

I'm just rushing you so you can join us in harassing Brandon on Twitter. Do you even use Twitter?

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 05 January 2011 - 04:56 PM, said:

I'm just rushing you so you can join us in harassing Brandon on Twitter. Do you even use Twitter?

I have a twitter acct for Iceberg Ink. You can look for it on there if you like...I have Sanderson on my twitter. His comments on some of the stuff on his re-read is awesome!

Yeah, I am SO aware that I am only like 2 1/2 books behind now....getting very exciting again!

[Terez]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2011 - 06:10 PM, said:

Terez, on 05 January 2011 - 04:56 PM, said:

I'm just rushing you so you can join us in harassing Brandon on Twitter. Do you even use Twitter?

I have a twitter acct for Iceberg Ink. You can look for it on there if you like...I have Sanderson on my twitter. His comments on some of the stuff on his re-read is awesome!

Yeah, I am SO aware that I am only like 2 1/2 books behind now....getting very exciting again!

Cool, I will find you and follow you. I needs more people to follow, but I get frustrated with following people who talk about a bunch of stuff I don't care about. Basically I use it for WoT only. I don't mind so much the talk about books I don't care about, though. I've been tempted to unfollow Tor a few times because they spam your feed at least once daily on weekdays with tons of tweets about various things, but there are WoT nuggets in that, so... Anyway, I wouldn't recommend following me until after you're done because I don't ever think about spoilers. I just blab about WoT indiscriminately.

Here's a funny non-spoiler exchange from yesterday (irt the locked Tar Valon thread) (notables: Matt Hatch is webmaster of Theoryland, Richard Fife is a novelist and tor.com blogger, and Felix is the raving lunatic of the WoT fandom):

Twitter said:

Brandon on Twitter - 4 January 2011


Yes, early WoT is very Tolkien influenced. But several original things really stood out to me when I was younger.


Brandon


1) The magic. 2) Strong female protagonists. 3) A woman 'wizard' figure who was far more human than others I'd seen. 4) Tam lives.


Bryce Nielsen


What about Polgara?


Brandon


Polgara was awesome. Belgarath was pretty cool too, but Moiraine always feels slightly more real than either one to me.


Brandon


But that's modern Brandon. Teenage Brandon might have thought differently.


tadbo


The females in The Wheel of Time are among the most two dimensional in the history of fantasy.


Brandon


I disagree. Case in point: Tolkien's female protagonists. (Which was the comparison I was making.)


Brandon


But even beyond that, you have to remember, this is a society with some skewed gender relationships because of the way magic works.


Brandon


But Moiraine is hardly 2-d. Neither is Nynaeve. They can be annoying, yes, but that's not the same as 2-d.


tadbo


They scheme, they argue, they tug on their skirts and stamp their feet, or they fall at Rand's feet. Really?


Brandon


Aviendha is very distinctive. Tuon is very distinctive. Min is very distinctive. Many of the Aes Sedai act as you say, but...


Brandon


...I see this as an intentional effect of the society they live in.


Zeerak Waseem


Don't you get annoyed with the females in WoT? The female lead I prefer is Aviendha, the rest are full of themselves.


Brandon


Oh, I didn't say they didn't annoy me at times. I said they were strong, and I'll add that they are interesting.


tadbo


Final note. I would argue that Jordan's female protagonists are MAIN characters, whereas Tolkien's are mainly supporting.


Brandon


The Tolkien point is valid. However, remember what started this conversation. I was saying things about the WoT that impressed me.


Brandon


One was a large cast of female main characters, something a lot of fantasy by men I'd read was lacking.


Terez


WoT females are caricaturish, sometimes stereotypical, but not 2-d. (This from a female.)


tadbo


Yes, caricatures. A better description than 2-d.


Brandon


Well, different people read things differently. If WoT's women didn't work for you, I understand why, though I don't feel the same.


Brandon

You're not the only one to feel that way.


Terez


The fact that I see them as caricatures helps me to enjoy them as characters more. It's RJ's own type of dry humor.


Brandon


I view them more of products of a society where social norms are different, and women have something 'machismo'-like.


Brandon


It makes them act similar in places, even though when you see into their souls, there is something deeper.


Terez


IMO this is also true, but the caricature part is an important aspect of accepting ALL WoT characters as they are.


Terez


They, like the story itself, are ubertropes. There is more to them than that, just as there is more to the story.


Felix

It's as if RJ's sense of humor was written for a theater company on stage. Bombastic, perhaps?


tadbo


I don't know if I ever saw it as 'dry humor'. The Aes Sedai scared the crap out of me in high school.


Terez


Well, maybe now that you're a big boy... RJ said he'd rather hunt leopards...


tadbo


True enough. XD


Terez


I mean, have you SEEN the map of Tar Valon? It's supposed to be funny, people. And serious at the same time, of course.


James Furlong


Haha! Just clicked on, never noticed THAT before. Hoho!


HBFFerreira


LOL Never noticed it before either.


Karen Baskins


LOL! In nearly 20 years of reading WoT, I never took notice of the Tar Valon map. Thank you for the laugh. I needed that. :-)


Brandon

I've wondered about the map for Tar Valon. That..well, that can't be an accident. I've never asked Team Jordan, though.


Brandon


Needless to say, it wasn't something I noticed when I was a teen.


Terez


Someone asked RJ about it. Sort of. His answer was hilarious. http://bit.ly/g9vV0O


RJ quote:

Eventually Mr. Jordan turned to his quest of finding females that wanted some questions answered and got a good one when a lady asked why the most powerful women in the world get their power in a pale, white shaft. The answer was "If you can't grasp the symbolism, my dear… Because I thought about having them have their center of power be a hole in the ground and I thought it wasn't really going to be as significant. It wasn't going to stand out and have people say 'Wow, Gee… look at that on the horizon' You sorta have to walk to the edge and say 'Welp, don't wanna fall off into that, now do you?' "

Richard Fife


Ya know, for some odd reason, I never really /saw/ the map of Tar Valon. Now I'll never unsee it...


Terez


Indeed, it cannot be unseen.


Matt Hatch


...wow, this really changes how I view the siege, harbor, and the iron chain becoming cuendillar.


Terez


You are such a perv, boss.


Matt Hatch


Showed my wife the map. Her immediate reaction: "Oh, Jim Rigney." Big smile.


Brandon


You'd never seen that before?


Terez


He had. Was just inspired by the moment to show it to his wife. And he'd never seen the quote.


Matt Hatch


I'd seen it...it was a while back; I remember thinking "really???" This reminded me and the quote made it hilarious.


Terez


Could give a whole new meaning to 'Rand had daydreamed over Master al'Vere's old map...'


Terez

'...half the boys in Emond's Field had daydreamed over it.'

I got a bunch of followers out of that little exchange, including Brandon. I'm still squee'ing about that like a silly fangirl (hence this post among others). The timing cracked me up (he followed me right after I linked to the RJ quote), but I have to point out that it was a cumulative effect in his case probably. I have been trying to impress him with my cleverness for some time now...

[QuickTidal]

that's way cool about him following you. I was actually involved in the first bit of that twitter convo and commented...bout the female wizards cause I love Moiraine so much....

Yeah, when I read that book and showed the map to my gf's sister, and she INSTANTLY said "Dirty!" LOL

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 05 January 2011 - 07:40 PM

[Terez]

Yeah, sadly I don't catch a lot of the replies to Brandon's posts because I don't see them unless he responds, or unless they @ me (which is, of course, rare). Just added a bit:

Twitter said:

Nicholas Brown
To the blind... what am I seeing? I see a fish or a submarine. Is there something else?
Brandon
Hm. How to do this without going places I don't care to go... Maybe a link will suffice. http://bit.ly/gMSLt6

Nice way to end it.

[Yellow]

I started used Twitter specifically to follow Sanderson's tweets. Really enjoying the #wotrr stuff, even got a comment in there of mine about the names being too realistic (though I think he thought I was being serious with the Blixbop, ah well). Anyway, I'm monkeysandles, but there's not a lot going on so don't get your hopes up

[Terez]

haha, that was you? Awesome. I remember thinking...Blixbop? WTF is this dude ON? lol..

[Yellow]

Seriously though, I've never liked the realistic names thing. I know the reason but it's just so... dull. I've always wondered if Rand was originally called Randal Thor and his editor made him change it.

[QuickTidal]

Yellow, on 05 January 2011 - 07:45 PM, said:

I'm monkeysandles,

-Followed.

[QuickTidal]

Yellow, on 05 January 2011 - 07:55 PM, said:

Seriously though, I've never liked the realistic names thing. I know the reason but it's just so... dull. I've always wondered if Rand was originally called Randal Thor and his editor made him change it.

There is so much win in this sentence. LMAO!!

baaaahaaaaa...Randal Thor. LOL

[QuickTidal]

Also on the names topic: I suggested that when and if my gf and I have kids we could name a girl Nynaeve....and was not only roundly rebuffed, but she was like "Stop trying to name future children after fantasy characters!" LOL I am holding Moiraine in reserve though I don't have high hopes she'll go for that one either.

LOL

In all seriousness though, I dunno if I could ever seriously name my kid after a fantasy character.

Maybe Randal Thor. LOL!!

[Terez]

lol, there's another website I go to called Piano Society, and I met a hardcore WoT fan there (though he's not the type to get into discussing the books online). Anyway, his kids are named Matrim, Therin, Aryth, and Moiraine.

[QuickTidal]

Terez, on 05 January 2011 - 08:11 PM, said:

lol, there's another website I go to called Piano Society, and I met a hardcore WoT fan there (though he's not the type to get into discussing the books online). Anyway, his kids are named Matrim, Therin, Aryth, and Moiraine.

Dude, that's awesome.

LOL

I actually DO know a couple who named their son Bran, after Bran Stark from ASOIAF, but that's as close as I've heard about fantasy-named children.