So there's a pretty intense discussion about the timeline issues in tGS and ToM over at Theoryland, and Peter Ahlstrom, Brandon's assistant, chipped in with this to say:
People unhappy about what they've seen of timeline issues in TGS and ToM so far are not going to be any happier once the book comes out. The best thing I can recommend about this is to ask Brandon on tour why certain decisions were made, if you want to know and can't figure it out. Harriet will be on the tour too, and Maria and Alan will be at the New York signing.
Alan's two main jobs on Team Jordan are keeping track of the timeline and advising with warfare issues. They have nailed down the timeline. But that does not mean that the chapters will necessarily occur in a linear order.
Thoughts?
People unhappy about what they've seen of timeline issues in TGS and ToM so far are not going to be any happier once the book comes out. The best thing I can recommend about this is to ask Brandon on tour why certain decisions were made, if you want to know and can't figure it out. Harriet will be on the tour too, and Maria and Alan will be at the New York signing.
Alan's two main jobs on Team Jordan are keeping track of the timeline and advising with warfare issues. They have nailed down the timeline. But that does not mean that the chapters will necessarily occur in a linear order.
Thoughts?
Well... that's a bit disappointing after Brandon said he was aware of these flaws in TGS, but it's not really surprising. At least I hope he remembered to include more timeline markers in the descriptions. Some of that was bound to happen after deciding to restructure completely a novel he had not outlined and planned himself, when barely half the material was written. It could have ended worse, much worse.
It's good to know something closer to Jordan's approach won't return with TOM now. Better to know this now, before starting the book than getting irritated by finding out as I read, like happened in TGS.
I still think that placing chapters from connected story lines out of order is a bad decision and one that required only a bit more work to avoid and smooth out, but at least I know to expect more of this in TOM.
Now some people seems to see me as an idiot and taken my views on this as general hatred of Brandon's work, and of TGS (you might want to read my wholly positive review of the book to see what I enjoyed massively in it), but I happen to have enough of an intellect to be able to globally enjoy TGS and appreciate everything that, to my tastes, Brandon did absolutely right in them without feeling the need to put my head in the sand and pretend there aren't other aspects I don't enjoy, or that diminish my fun, or not to wish to discuss them with others from time to time. But oh well, it's not really surprising from the posters who made those comments.
Timeline: some news from Theoryland...
28/09/2010 02:12:49 AM
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I couldn't care less about the timeline *NM*
28/09/2010 02:18:47 AM
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Agreed
28/09/2010 07:11:41 AM
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Re: Agreed
28/09/2010 01:02:16 PM
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I feel compelled to state that "DomA wins the thread". *Goes back to lurking* *NM*
01/10/2010 05:39:12 AM
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The people complaining about timeline issues need to seriously get a life. Sheesh!
28/09/2010 03:08:44 AM
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What's a little pettiness among mortal enemies who have never met? *NM*
28/09/2010 06:38:31 PM
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Is it possible for this Alan to publish the timeline between tGS and ToM when ToM comes out? *NM*
28/09/2010 03:39:32 AM
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There was an easy solution to this - tell the readers each chapter!
28/09/2010 09:16:59 AM
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Maybe the entire book could just be a big calendar *NM*
28/09/2010 10:32:47 AM
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With subtexts to show what each character is doing relative to the other one *NM*
28/09/2010 11:53:15 AM
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Well.... one of my predictions was that...
28/09/2010 01:21:31 PM
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For the record, my mom didn't like it either, and she's a casual reader (has read each book once)
28/09/2010 06:12:45 PM
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