[D'iversify]

Briar King, on 19 September 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

You ll just have to keep reading lol. Your questions will be answered.

Also there is a world map from that shitty guide book that came out after bk 7. I ll try to find it.

World Map http://i58.photobuck...11/WoTworld.png & Seanchan: http://4.bp.blogspot...+-+Seanchan.png

Not great resolution, but there's not much detail on the originals.

[Andorion]

firvulag, on 19 September 2014 - 07:30 PM, said:

I've just started this series again. I originally read all the books that Jordan himself had written and never read any of the Sanderson ones. At the time I decided to see what other fans would think of them as well as wait for the series to be completed before going back and reading them all back to back as the OP is doing.

I agree with a lot of people's sentiments with the quality of the series as it goes on, as in it gets better then kinda just goes meh for a few books. The last one Jordan himself wrote, for me, was a complete return to form. I remember how excited I was to read it and be blown away, how excited I was to see where he would go with it, then he died

From reviews I've read, Sanderson does a good job finishing the series so I am looking forward to reading them all again.

Welcome to the club! Nice t o have someone reading them with me. At home my brother is sniggerring and making sarcastic comments about labyrinths and never-ending tasks and whatnot

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 19 September 2014 - 06:11 PM, said:

Andorion, on 19 September 2014 - 02:27 PM, said:

...

1. The heroes summonned by the Horn ar ebound to the one who blew it. But they took orders from Rand and addressed Mat, who actually blew the Horn as 'Trumpeteer'! How???

because Matt summoned them but they followed the Dragon.

Quote

2. What happened to the heroes after the battle? Did they vanish back into the fog? Will they come again if the Horn is blown again?

Poof gone. Yes. In theory.

Quote

3. This is the second book in a row where Rand apparently kills the Dark One. The Dark One was genuinely alarmed when Rand started taking swings at him, and the sword was melted, so it was a physical enounter. Its also obvious that the Dark One is not dead. So what was the point of that charade?

One would almost think there was more going on....

1. So they will return only if Mat blows the horn, but they obeyed the Dragon coz he is the Dragon? If Mat had been alone, I am assuming they would have followed him...
2. I was kind of hoping they took Rand literally and chased them all the way across the Aryth Ocean!
3. RAFO, then?

[Andorion]

D, on 19 September 2014 - 09:26 PM, said:

Briar King, on 19 September 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

You ll just have to keep reading lol. Your questions will be answered.

Also there is a world map from that shitty guide book that came out after bk 7. I ll try to find it.

World Map http://i58.photobuck...11/WoTworld.png & Seanchan: http://4.bp.blogspot...+-+Seanchan.png

Not great resolution, but there's not much detail on the originals.

Thanx, these will do nicely, especially as I don't have the guidebook. Nice to know what Seanchan looks like, but wtf is "The Land of Madmen"???

I would hav eliked one book on the exploration and crossing of the Aryth Ocean. There are far too few fantasy books centering on exploration. I can only recall one series and even that I forgot the name off....

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 20 September 2014 - 01:37 AM, said:

If you look at world map you can guess that Land of Madmen is Australia , Randland is Europe, Shara is Asia, and Seanchan is N & S America. That's the way I took it anyway.

Yeah I get the real world parallels, but Land of Madmen? Really? He better have a really good reason for that name.

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 20 September 2014 - 02:17 AM, said:

How far into bk 3 are you now?

Spent the day absolutely blasting through Book 3. Around 25 chapters in. This is some of the fastest reading I have done, but for the most part the narrative is pretty simple. I am beginning to increasingly like and look forward to Egwene and Nynaeve's PoVs. they seem to be doing lots of important stuff, and plaing meaningful roles while the Dragon Reborn is meandering around the countryside instigating mass marriages (seriously wtf?) and Perrin is terrified of turning into a wolf. Things seem to be shaping up to a climax at Tear and the sword there - Cal something or the other.

[Andorion]

Holy shit! Rand just massacred a seemingly innocent merchant party for no reason whatsoever! Is he losing it already?

Also, so far all the females I have seen have been romantically attracted or are otherwise interested in the three male protagonists (except Aes Sedai) I am not sure I like where Jordan is going with his female characters, though I love Nynaeve or Egwene's PoV, but when they or any non- Aes Sedai females are being described from the male PoVs..... just seems a bit strange.....

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 20 September 2014 - 05:09 PM, said:

You have a fav character yet? I'm hoping you were like I was on bk 3 choosing.

So far my favourite male character is Perrin and female character is Nynaeve. Perrin just seems a lot more stable than the others and I like it when Nynaeve gets angry. RJ has a tendency to throw in random stuff sometimes. I just read this and laughed for 2 minutes straight:

Quote

“They have knives!” he roared, and threw the cheese platter at them.

Somehow the mental image of a roomfull of flying cheese just set me off and I laughed so hard I had to stop reading.

[Illuyankas]

I know, it was a total over reaction. I mean, how else were they meant to cut the cheese?

[Andorion]

So finished Dragon Reborn. First and foremost, I owe Briar King an apology. As the book progressed, especially in the last quarter Mat became the person to watch. From essentially lying around and eating in the first part, it was a huge change and yeah he has become my favourite character to watch now. The progression of his character is nice. From an irresponsible prankster to what he is steadily becoming.. scheming, unpredictable, dynamic... my favourite type of protagonist.

So, as for the book, RJ pulls of a repeat of Eye of the World, where the title character - The Dragon Reborn barely receives one chapter of coverage. how exactly is this a good way to write? We get Rand all broody in the beginning, then he disappears, then he shows up in brief episodes, increasingly unstable, then without any explanation as to how or when he shows up at the finale, and fight shis by now requisite fight with the Dark One. Seriously, a bit more Rand coverage would have helped.

Best new group are the Aiel who are at last here in significant strength. They are really cool and I woul dlov emore of them.

Perrin's progress is quite good. he is becoming increasingly mor elikable and taking more of an initiative in things. Every bit of back and forth between Moiraine and Lan was gold. Why can't we have more of that?

The girls ended up quite creditably though so far Nynaeve and Egwene have overshadowed Elaine to the point where I am not even sure if she is a main character anymore.

Moiraine's rediscovery of Balefire struck me as just a bit too convenient and once more a Forsaken went out just that bit too easily. I understand Balefire is pretty much unstoppable, but I am pretty sure the heroes in the Age of Legends knew how to use it. The Forsaken survived them just fine.

Also started up the fourth book Shadow Rises and so far its been random comedy gold. Perrin's axe suddenly started flying around by itself and tried to kill him and Faile. Guess it got jealous of the hammer and the girl. He had to actually wrestle it into submission. Meanwhile Mat just got stabbed in the hand by a drawn figure in a playing card. Thats where I left off. Best go back and check I suppose if Rand is getting beaten up by a chair and Nynaeve is having an arm-wrestling match with a hairbrush. (Sigh)

[D'iversify]

Andorion, on 21 September 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

Moiraine's rediscovery of Balefire struck me as just a bit too convenient and once more a Forsaken went out just that bit too easily. I understand Balefire is pretty much unstoppable, but I am pretty sure the heroes in the Age of Legends knew how to use it. The Forsaken survived them just fine.

Moiraine didn't rediscover balefire; it's just a weave that any Aes Seadi who knows what it does wouldn't employ except in dire circumstances. The Heroes of the Age of Legends and the Forsaken also both knew/know how to use it. They nearly found out the hard way what happens when you use too much balefire.

[Andorion]

21 chapters into the fourth book, The Shadow Rising. I have to admit the first part of this book was worrying me, but it picked up after some time. After several random incidents where Mat got stabbed by cards, Perrin wrestled his own axe (is this metaphorical?) and Rand fought reflections of himself, including tiny reflections that came out of a bowl and thus caused me to thrash around laughing my head off while the main protagoist almost bleeds to death, stuff got going. Yet another Trolloc attack, and now I really have to question whether the people in the WoT world are all blind or not. Trollocs are like 12 feet tall and have animal heads. How did they get into the Stone of Tear without an alarm being raised as soon as they broke cover? Incidentally the mighty and impreganable Stone of Tear has fallen twice in 2 books now without much of a contest really. The only reason the Trollocs lost was because Rand brought up some type of universal Lightning storm.

Thankfully everything got settled and finally people are on the move again. Each group has its own destination set, Thom Merrilins return and active participation is much appreciated. What I really liked was the short section from the PoV of Moiraine. That is so rare and its very interesting to read. Seems the action will now shift to the geographical peripheries - islands in the Aryth Ocean and the Aiel Waste which is all good as they basically spent the first three books marching up and down the central continent.

One thing that struck me was the ease with which Lanfear/Selene basically comes and goes as she pleases. If all the Forsaken tried this Rand and Co. would be in deep deep trouble.
Another thing was Mat stepping into the doorframe to have his questions answered. I am pretty sure they answered four instead of the agreed upon three.
Now back to the book and the topless, channelling sailors of the Sea-Folk!!!!!

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 23 September 2014 - 03:20 AM, said:

Yeah I believe those things are called bubbles of evil or some such. It's been awhile since I read.

Mat and the Aelfin/Elefin is a cool treat. Pay attention to it. My 1st read of bk4 was fucking awesome. I think you ll be in for a treat getting through it!

I get the concept of Bubbles of Evil, that the Dark One is so powerful, the weakened seals let his influence cause fluctuations and stuff, but seriously RJ could have some up with a better name than "Bubbles of Evil"! Its a bit hard to take something like that seriously.

[D'iversify]

Andorion, on 23 September 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2014 - 03:20 AM, said:

Yeah I believe those things are called bubbles of evil or some such. It's been awhile since I read.

Mat and the Aelfin/Elefin is a cool treat. Pay attention to it. My 1st read of bk4 was fucking awesome. I think you ll be in for a treat getting through it!

I get the concept of Bubbles of Evil, that the Dark One is so powerful, the weakened seals let his influence cause fluctuations and stuff, but seriously RJ could have some up with a better name than "Bubbles of Evil"! Its a bit hard to take something like that seriously.

Just think of them as 'anomalies' or 'disturbances in the Pattern' (though the latter does have me imagining some horrific WoT/Star Wars crossover).

[acesn8s]

Andorion, on 21 September 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

Moiraine's rediscovery of Balefire struck me as just a bit too convenient and once more a Forsaken went out just that bit too easily. I understand Balefire is pretty much unstoppable, but I am pretty sure the heroes in the Age of Legends knew how to use it. The Forsaken survived them just fine.

If I remember correctly, the weave for Balefire is known but most Aes Sedai aren't strong enough in the power to weave it.

Going back to your observation about items holding power. I believe the context is holding the One Power. The Horn of Valere doesn't work on power (if I remember correctly).

I'm enjoying your thread, thanks.

[Andorion]

acesn8s, on 23 September 2014 - 12:11 PM, said:

Andorion, on 21 September 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

Moiraine's rediscovery of Balefire struck me as just a bit too convenient and once more a Forsaken went out just that bit too easily. I understand Balefire is pretty much unstoppable, but I am pretty sure the heroes in the Age of Legends knew how to use it. The Forsaken survived them just fine.

If I remember correctly, the weave for Balefire is known but most Aes Sedai aren't strong enough in the power to weave it.

Going back to your observation about items holding power. I believe the context is holding the One Power. The Horn of Valere doesn't work on power (if I remember correctly).

I'm enjoying your thread, thanks.

I just assumed that all magic was done through the One Power, clearly thats not correct. And I am halfway into the 4th book and there are items of power basically littered all over the place, so I am going to ignore Moiraines early comment from now on.

[Andorion]

D, on 23 September 2014 - 10:00 AM, said:

Andorion, on 23 September 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2014 - 03:20 AM, said:

Yeah I believe those things are called bubbles of evil or some such. It's been awhile since I read.

Mat and the Aelfin/Elefin is a cool treat. Pay attention to it. My 1st read of bk4 was fucking awesome. I think you ll be in for a treat getting through it!

I get the concept of Bubbles of Evil, that the Dark One is so powerful, the weakened seals let his influence cause fluctuations and stuff, but seriously RJ could have some up with a better name than "Bubbles of Evil"! Its a bit hard to take something like that seriously.

Just think of them as 'anomalies' or 'disturbances in the Pattern' (though the latter does have me imagining some horrific WoT/Star Wars crossover).

If the Dark One or one of the Forsaken try to tell Rand "I am your Father"..............

[QuickTidal]

Oh, you're almost at my fave book of the series, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN! Woot woot. That one will kick your ass with awesomeness.

[Slow Ben]

QuickTidal said:

1411490641[/url]' post='1150640']
Oh, you're almost at my fave book of the series, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN! Woot woot. That one will kick your ass with awesomeness.

Word.


FoH is badassingness.

[Andorion]

Finished Shadow Rising. After a strange beginning, the book really got going and I think I like it the most. The infodumps in Rhuidean were very good, revealing some but not all (what is a jo-car) Rand is seeming more competent and stable than at anytime in the past. Mat is suddenly showing strategic competence, but my favourite storyline was Perrin and his defence of Two Rivers.

One question: does Nynaeves victory over the Forsaken show she is actually equal in terms of raw power? Just having trouble believing that. Egeanin was interesting, though I thought they trusted her too easily.

The scope of things greatly increased in this book and I think this where RJ decided to shift from a short series to an enormous one.