[Andorion]

Abyss, on 24 October 2014 - 04:03 AM, said:

Yep.It's a setup book with exceedingly little payoff and very little forward movement.
On the faves question, I am the only person I know whose answer to the female side of that is Nynaeve. Why? Because she's willful as fuck, faces off with Moiraine in book one and iirc the Amyrlin in bk 2, is the first character who isn't Rand to outsmart a Foresaken ( yes, Moiraine beat one, but she balefired him... Nynaeve outsmarted Moghedien in the Dream)... Notwithstanding her block, She heals stilling, wins frikkin Lan, is fanatically protective of her people, not intimidated by anyone.... And I won't even get into some of the shit she gets into in later books like the time she yanks out her own braid and uses it like nunchucks to take out three Fades before strangling Demandred with it.... Yes, she suffers from a lot of the RJ nonsense braid pulling skirt smoothing man hating whatever... Even so she's possibly the most willful protagonist of either gender short of Rand.

Yeah i really like Nynaeve. She is assertive and powerful, never really scared of anything. Its just that she can be immensely irritating at times.

[acesn8s]

I also like the fact that she is committed to becoming an Aes Sedai because she didn't like the way the Tower just pushes people around.

[Illuyankas]

Gawayn has helped fuck up the White Tower and sworn eternal vengeance on Rand because some tinker said he killed his mother, and disbelieves both his sister and the woman he loves when they tell him to stop being such a fucking stupid ass dumb piece of shit asshat douchebag fuckbin cockwart shithog weaseldick stupid idiot fucker. Galad has been pretty.

There is a portion of CoT that is set before the Cleansing. Enjoy!

[Andorion]

9 chapters into the Crossroads of Twilight.

Mat's section is, as always extremely entertaining. The details of the Great Escape, the naval battle etc were stuff I wanted to know from book 9. As per RJ tradition Egeannin has immediately become domineering and rather nasty, with no sense of reality. She owes her freedom to Mat. She is a fugitive in an alien country, and Mat is the one who knows the geography, local customs, people to assure her escape. So she must antagonise Mat and take over command. His sections with Tuon are interesting. The Dice stopped thrice. Lets see how that develops. On a sidenote, Luca knows Thom And juillin and his ony response to them turning up was to laugh hysterically? I mean not even one question about Nynaeve?

The pursuit is already underway,and by the Deathwatch Guard backed up with Suldam no less. The chap in command seems quite formidable. So that is another point of interest.

Perrin's section is frankly overlong and long-winded. I did an experiment wherw I read only the first two sentences of each paragraph and only conversation sections. I then went back later to check and found that I hadn't really missed much of importance. Masema is clearly in touch with the Seanchan and Rand should have authorised a kill mission rather than a capture mission. He is nothing but an explosion waiting to happen, The Darkhound section was interesting. How Perrin plans on getting Faile and co. out is beyond me though.

In the Shaido camp, things are RJ-normal, which means lots of references to womens dress, jewellery, women and men being tied, beaten, the works. There was an entire section devoted to laundry techniques of cleaning silk, without soap. Unless RJ was a medieval recreation enthusiast, I fail to see how this is relevant.

For all the shit CoT has taken, what I have read so far isn't too far below the RJ average. I mean at least its no interminable Salidar.

[Andorion]

18 chapters in and the book has slowed down to a crawl. I am seriously wondering whether any of the storylines will be resolved, or even if anything important is going to happen.

Elaine's storyline started off well, what with the seige and her attempts to garner support.But it soon bogged down rather badly. While the deal struck with the seafolk was ineresting and sensible, the seige of Andor has to be the most farcical in history. Soldiers, commanders, even thge principa Elaine can arrive and depart at will using gateways. Supplies are coming by the same way. nobody is attacking nobody. Its like RJ intended to have nothing happen and so created this situation. What I don't understand is why Elaine doesn't use gateways to get the advantage. She doesn't have to fight, just launch sudden strikes into the command tents, kidnap important nobles and so on. Even if Amyrlia is shifting her tent every night it wouldnt matter, because she would get somebody.

The other farcical seige is Tar Valon. Egwene and her army are just sitting there, staring at the White Tower, sorting through contaminated food, and the Aes Sedai are bickering away to glory. Has no one, including the supposedly legendary general Gareth Bryne heard of a boom and chain? Thats how you block a river and stop the supply ships from coming in. You can block it far away from the White Tower, outside their reach. That would put the beseiged in a fix. How can anybody not have thought about this? The big shock is the Aes Sedai are apparently making Cuendillar. That is a great innovation indeed.

The traitors in the two camps seem to have everything going their way. Halima has a big hold over Egwene with the headache cure thing, while Mellar is totally unsuspected. Then theres the yet to be unmasked murderer. I hope those traitors actually do something at some point.

This whole book could have been called Echoes of Rand, because all the groups are feeling the monstrous channelling and are totally shaken up. Not mcuh else happens.

[Illuyankas]

At least one of your issues is directly addressed, and I'm not telling you which!

[Andorion]

Finished it......I am not going to post what I think yet.....too tired and too irritated..... maybe later..

[acesn8s]

Andorion, on 27 October 2014 - 12:38 PM, said:

Finished it......I am not going to post what I think yet.....too tired and too irritated..... maybe later..

Yeah, that sounds about right. Knife of Dreams is better.

[Andorion]

acesn8s, on 27 October 2014 - 01:19 PM, said:

Andorion, on 27 October 2014 - 12:38 PM, said:

Finished it......I am not going to post what I think yet.....too tired and too irritated..... maybe later..

Yeah, that sounds about right. Knife of Dreams is better.

Seriously, after a decent start this book just kept on going and kept on going and nothing freaking happened!!!!! This book has displaced A Fire in the North by David Bilsborough as the Worst Damn Fantasy Book I have ever read

[Illuyankas]

Now imagine you waited three years for it and then had to wait another two for the next one, which might even contain ~*events*~

[Andorion]

Enough moping.. right thoughts on the last few chapters of CoT:

The basic fucntion of this book is foreshadowing. Ther eis so bloody much foreshadowing.


Nothing much happens with Perrins storyline. They capture Galina and they think hewr motives are pure but this only spells trouble for Faile. Foreshadowing #1

Mat: The escape continues at a snails pace. Mat as usual is very entertaing and his dynamic with Tuon is engaging. Literally the only bright spot of the book. But all that stuff about dice and Tuon...... Foreshadowing#2. There was also a lot of talk about the Seanchan getting strong allies. Foreshadowing #3.

In Egwenes seige of Tar Valon, a lot of pointless politics then a decison to get closer ties with the Ashaman. Foreshadowing #4. Egwene is betrayed. Bloody inevitable.

In the Tower the schizophrenic insanity of the Aes Sedai continues to increase. On the one hand the Black Ajah under Alviarin prepare for a decisive stroke. On th eother Elaida is trying to claw power back. So the Tower will be in tumult. especially as they to want to get closer to the Ashaman. Foreshadowing # 5

Rand says the Seanchan may be impossible to defeat and drive out. Foreshadowing #6. He opens negotiations.

Now only one foreshadowing that the Seanchan will get powerfull allies is in the process of fulfillment in the book, none of the rest are resolved. Now I know in long series, sometimes a bridging book is neede dto set stuff up for later books, for the big finale etc. But this book was only the setup. There was no build up of tension. The entire book ambled along at the same pace and small unremarkable stuff happened. I would really have liked to see some Forsaken reactions to Rand's cleansing but we get none. I would have liked the seige of Andor resolved, but nope. In fact if not for Mat and a couple of fairly revealing chaptes about the Seanchan, this book would not be worth reading.

[Andorion]

Read the prologue and the first 7 chapters of Knife of Dreams

Galad kills Valda and takes over the Whitecloaks. Will they finally cease to be window dressing and actually do something? Lets see.

The raids in the north against the Seanchan continue, and Ituralde is awsome!

Suroth is a Darkfriend. Huh! The entire Mat-Tuon situation just got curdled badly.

Egwene in the Tower, holding out, Elaida reasserting herself....the Aes Sedai may actually do something now.

The Perrin-Seanchan summit was interesting. Now are they going ot confront the Shaido already?

What is it with these winds of brimstone and strange distorting ripples? The touch of the Dark One?

Mat is back and he is as awesome as ever. Aes Sedai acting up? Just spank them!

Wow I just realised that I gloated over a man beating a woman. I need to finsh these series fast before it warps my mind,

[Macros]

it attracts lesbians

[Andorion]

23 chapters in. Blew through the book yesterday.

So things are getting seriously creepy what with the dead, the sinking villages, bug infestations etc. Mat is soldiering on. Is he going to help the Illuminator discover gunpowder weapons? Seems they have the blue print for primitive rockets and brass cannon. Now that would be interesting to see in a battlefield. His courting of Tuon seems to be going pretty well though. T

The Moiraine twist. Will Mat and Thom head off to this Tower? Will Moiraine make a comeback? This just got very intteresting.

Perrin on the other hand is still bogged down with the Seanchan and thr Shaido. Just rescue Faile already. Its getting ridiculous.

Elayne's seige storyline finally got some action. Now if only it could be resolved. Though I think with Aviendha gone, things will only get tougher.

What is the deal with rearranged corridoors? The Dark ones touch means every building turns into Hogwarts? Seems a bit petty to me.

Rand: The coolest storyline, simply because of the gigantic battle. Thousands of trollocs, loads of Fades, and the Dragon Reborn unleashed. Now thats what I am talking about! It also answered a problem I have had for a pretty long time, i.e. how come Rand knows so much about the power in so short a time. Answer: He doesn't. Lewis Therin takes iver and kicksserious ass, also showing the necessity of skill and experience with power. Now if he had done this against the Seanchan, they would have been annihilated.

Nynaeve sends Lan to the Borderlands and then goes on a badass recruiting binge.

This book, by being so good, best shows the reasons for my frustration with RJ. He can write well. He can write really well. This was his last book, and it is one of the best in the series so far. So what the hell was he thinking when he wrote all the preceding rot??

[Illuyankas]

"I can milk this for at least another five books"

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Andorion, on 30 October 2014 - 03:31 AM, said:

Perrin on the other hand is still bogged down with the Seanchan and thr Shaido. Just rescue Faile already. Its getting ridiculous.

I usually try to reread a series prior to a new book coming out. That whole Perring/Shaido bit was read once. It is ridiculous.

[Andorion]

So was basically sick and bedridden all day today. This allowed to finish Knife of Dreams in a big Marathon read.

An absolutely awesome book. All the storylines get resolved, (except Rand obviously and the White Tower)

Perrin finally attacks the Shaido and wreaks havoc. I think this decisively ends the Shaido as a threat. Faile is back, everything is fine, but Masema is still on the loose. Somebody kill him already.

Elaine's seige ends in truly spectacular fashion, with a victory over both the Black Ajah and the opposition. Andor can at last be stabilised now.

I absolutely loved Egwene in the Tower . A masterful job at gradual demoralization. Outside, Romanda and Lelayne seem to finally have gotten their shit together and are taking constructive steps.

Mat again dazzled and the spectacular victory, which is the Seanchans third big defeat was a masterpiece. RJ improved on so many things in this book. Aludra was able to use her rockets. Now if only she could get some cannon.....

Rand.....got hurt but taking Semirhage prisoner was a risky thing to do. Frankly I think danger or no danger, Forsaken should be taken out by Balefire. May even have restored his hand. I doubt their ability to keep Semirhage prisoner. I wonder if Elayne can keep the Black Ajah prisoner effectively.

The epilogue seemed to suggest that Taim has totally gone over to the dark side. I knew Taim had betrayed Rand, but now it seems he follows Demandred.

Tuons takeover of the Seanchan, and now with the empress dead, she effectively rules them could be a big bonus point to Rand. If only Mat can get to Rand, and they negotiate together, their might even be an alliance.

[Andorion]

Now that I will be starting the Sanderson books, what should I expect? I haven't read any Sanderson yet, so no clue about his style. Is there a big difference from RJ?

And Macros, there are numerous, numerous references to 'pillow-friends' every where in the later books. No lesbian scenes though.

[acesn8s]

Sanderson does a pretty good job adapting his style to Jordan's. There's a few POV's he struggles with. The pervy level drops.

[Illuyankas]

You'll notice a level of weirdness to Mat in The Gathering Storm, but he fixes that for Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light so no need to panic.