- B-Sand's writing: Things were a little off, and all too often the characters used idioms and expressions that are too characteristic of a 20th-21st century RW person. They are minor and of the sort that would be forgivable in an original work...except we have 11 books of examples of how people in WoT actually talk. In the first chapter I was annoyed at how often Cadsuane used the word "one" as a pronoun, but that seemed to have faded. I found the references to Rand as the Dragon to be the most glaring example of aberrant writing through the book. He was ALWAYS the Dragon Reborn or the Lord Dragon, and only simply called or referred to as "the Dragon" when discussing his role or philosophical ramifications or the like. If B-Sand (IMO, tGS was not bad enough to drop his abbreviation down to BS) was trying to show that people are now seeing Rand as becoming absorbed into the role and subsumed into the Dragon persona he was creating, it was handled poorly.
Agreed. But I did not find this too distracting, especially later in the book.
- "Veins of Gold": Why? That's a lame title of the chapter, especially since it did not have anything to do with what happened and was not actually used, IIRC.
I thought the answer was quite obvious. Rand realizes that it is the chance to love again that justifies the whole process of rebirth, gives him hope, yadda yadda. And the deepest love Rand feels run through him like veins of gold. Hence the name of the chapter.
- I undertand why RJ wanted to keep aMoL in one volume: this has the same unsatisfying feel of George RR Martin's Feast for Crows - it's not a book, it's half of a book.
Not really. Because of the very successful character parallels between Rand and Egwene, and the way BS was able to end the book with Rand ad Egwene witnessing/being part of the same event, there was a sense of completeness to this book.
- "The Death of Tuon": I laughed my ass off when I came across this title. I can just imagine the speculation and spoiler anguish when people saw this on the list of chapters! With all that crap about new names among the Seanchan, I guessed the meaning, but there must have been some pretty horrified or delighted reactions to the title, and more chagrin upon reading it.
Typical cannoli. Every single person in most spoiler threads promptly assumed that this was Tuon being raised to empress.
- I like the Bloodknives. It makes sense that after 1,000 years of utilizing and manufacturing a ter'angreal to be your greatest weapon, a military organization would have been looking at other ways of using ter'angreal.
This was quite disappointing. Why the hell didn't they attack Egwene? And if they did, why wasn't it shown?
- Egwene was a little better in this book, but she won exactly as I predicted: through no real accomplishment of her own, but through outside circumstances giftwrapping a situation for her. Not that this should be any surprise, as that is how most of her success in the series has come, but those who might call this book a spectacular triumph for her as a character would be wrong.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Neither Verin nor the Seanchan attack caused her victory. The Seanchan attack almost made all her progress void! Her successful politicking had Elaida divided from her Ajah, and serving a severe penance, and Egwene free again to do as she liked. With strong support from Saerin and co. as well as Ferane and Suana in her bag, it was only a matter of time before Egwene could have neatly deposed Elaida and taken the Amyrlin Seat.
The Seanchan attack only swayed Adelorna in her favor. Everyone else was more impressed by her firm insistence on upholding the law, working for unity, and her refusal to seek an escape even when she was imprisoned in a box! All of these were Egwene's own achievements.
As for the Seanchan attack, she did a brilliant job sending them packing, taking very minimal losses for the amount of damage she inflicted.
Her getting the Seat was her own achievement.
- Regarding the Mat chapters, he feels the most changed in this book to me, but that isn't necessarily bad. B-Sand seems to have a better handle on writing wiseassery and backtalk. Talmanes characterization was a little too heavy-handed, which made it feel out of character, but it was not too bad or distracting.
Wasn't impressed too much by the Mat chapters, except the situation in Hinderstap. They felt unnecessary in this book.
- The Verin thing was rather appalling, I felt. It was a spectacular finish to her character, but the deus totally jumped all the way ex the machina and crapped all over the plot. "Oh by the way, here's a complete list of everything you need. The end."
But why not? It fit with Verin's character that she would be very thorough with her research. And isn't that what this was? A research project first, and a heroic gesture second?
I loved how RJ twisted the "curiosity kills the cat" moral and concluded Verin's story.
- Rand's breakthrough was pretty cool. I'm glad he did it himself, and didn't need anyone to lead him through it.
Well he got some pushes, but yeah, he figured things out himself. He's finally ready emotionally. Loved him in this book.
Thoughts
- 28/10/2009 01:23:15 AM
9193 Views
Some more thoughts...
- 28/10/2009 02:58:17 AM
1337 Views
Re: Some more thoughts...
- 28/10/2009 04:49:45 AM
945 Views
I think you may find the Bloodknives are still out and about...
- 31/10/2009 06:29:23 PM
713 Views
Re: I think you may find the Bloodknives are still out and about...
- 18/11/2009 09:37:04 PM
749 Views
Crosses fingers that they kill a few of the bigger d-bags in the Tower
- 08/12/2009 04:44:41 AM
665 Views
Re: Thoughts
- 28/10/2009 05:49:31 PM
917 Views
Didn't he say something like "Saidared," too? *NM*
- 31/10/2009 12:35:26 PM
750 Views
Please help me here. What does "Saidared" mean? *NM*
- 15/11/2009 04:10:20 PM
664 Views
Past tense verb of "use saidar on," or something silly like that *NM*
- 15/11/2009 07:03:46 PM
420 Views
Mat should be commended on finally starting to enrich the language back to AoL standards.
- 23/11/2009 07:52:59 AM
724 Views
Did you miss Tylee's second appearance, at Tuon's court?
- 31/10/2009 06:33:12 PM
767 Views
The trolloc attack
- 03/11/2009 04:38:38 PM
822 Views