Re: Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
Master Radishes Send a noteboard - 16/11/2009 03:46:28 AM
His voice was visible here and there. I feel like he turned Mat into a bit of a cartoon, for example. In many ways I enjoyed this because Mat has always been my favorite and I get the most laughs from him. I liked that Sanderson had fun with him. I had a good many laughs over the things he said and thought about women and Aes Sedai. You could tell Sanderson was a fan of Mat's and was enjoying squeezing all the funny out of him for us. I feel like he took it a bit too far, and in that way kind of violated the character. But overall I didn't mind too much. I mean we knew some things would necessarily be different. It could have been drastically worse in my opinion.
Yeah yeah, everyone thinks Mat was the most noticeable Sanderson-written character. But I don't know if I buy it. I'm pretty sure BS stated that RJ's notes told him how to write Mat - it wasn't all Sanderson's doing.
Gawyn had already gone sour in a previous book by siding with Elaida, but you could kind of appreciate that in an ethical dilemma sort of way. In this book he just became a little biotch. He seems to have reverted to arrogant teenager whereas before he had seemed to accumulate some gravitas. It seemed inconsistent with the way the other young characters had developed and matured. I thought he was going to become somebody we'd root for but now I'm hoping he takes an arrow. Egwene can do better.
Gawyn? Somebody we can root for? I wish I had your optimism.
Seriously though, I thought he was better this book. Maybe it's just because his chapters actually have a plot to them now. For most of the series it was just one chapter a book about hating Rand for killing Morgase or whatever. Now he's actually developing a bit.I noticed way too many words italicized for emphasis when describing people's thoughts, e.g., "She would find a way to topple Elaida..." or whatever. It was a minor distraction all throughout the book. On most pages you could find that done once or twice. I believe Jordan did that too but much more rarely. Same thing with exclamation points. Too many of those for emphasis. When Siuan or somebody is having what seem like constantly exasperated thoughts, it can detract a bit.
I didn't notice...maybe because I'm pretty sure that mimics RJ's style. Especially with Siuan. She always had those exasperated thoughts.
I thought some loose ends were tied up far too neatly. All that buildup with Aram and Masema and that's it? Aram just eats it on the initial charge (admittedly in KoD, pre Sanderson)? The Prophet and the rest of his rabble just get clipped in the forest? That seemed like quitting to me, in terms of bringing those two storylines to a close. It was too clearly forced. Should have been something more.
The Masema thing was a bit...abrupt. I think RJ just thought up too many cool plotlines to know how to solve them all while tying them into the larger story. Some will unfortunately suffer the abrupt end Masema did.
Another thing that seemed too forced was how Semirhage Moridin(?) just up and told Rand out of nowhere how to kill Forsaken forever by using balefire instead of just regular old death. I was hoping that one would be learned or revealed somewhat more subtly. Nope - blab blab blab.
I imagine Moridin revealed such info about balefire knowing Rand would end up using it to start taking out other Forsaken. Moridin gets some of his rivals out of the way, and he manipulates Rand into doing the DO's work, creating chaos in the pattern via over-use of balefire. It ties in with his manipulations in getting Rand to kill a woman (Semi) and go on a couple cold-blooded crusades of death (Graendal, almost the Seanchan). Moridin almost won the Last Battle in this book...Rand became Dark Rand, and was teetering on the brink of stone-cold insanity.
Speaking of tying off loose ends quickly and writing characters differently, Sheriam I actually enjoyed a lot more as written by Sanderson. Obviously we didn't know she was a DF before this, so that's a new facet to her character. But I liked how knowing her thoughts told us more about why some people chose to be DF. She never took it seriously, thinking it was just for career advancement. I liked that it showed that it wasn't just a black and white situation, but more shades of grey. That feels more realistic and therefore makes the story richer. It was an abrupt change and an abrupt end, but I liked it. Jeez, that was a lot of DF Aes Sedai.
Actually, we DID know Sheriam was a DF. But I agree, I liked how her (and Verin's) motivations were explained, and added depth to the BA.
Nynaeve I thought he wrote pretty well. She didn't seem that much different to me than in previous books. I'm glad her braid got a break.
Did anyone think it was a shoutout to the fans that Nynaeve was trying to force herself to tug on her braid less?
I like the direction Rand went in. Whether that had much to do with Sanderson I don't know, but he/Jordan did a good job of illustrating Rand's inner tumult and describing his outer crazy.
It was all RJ. The entire plot is RJ's. Sanderson is only writing it for him now. But yes, I liked it too.
I made an audible grunt of weary disgust when Rand had his Magic Of Love epiphany on top of Dragonmount. Grooooan. Ugh. Boooo. Yuck. Awful. Hey at least we finally got to see him barf not long before that. So that's nice and kind of balances things out. Barfin' on a bridge in Ebou Dar. Sounds like he had been out partying.
Really? I loved the redemption scene. Yeah, going on about "love" seemed a little...Harry Potter-esque for me. But the scene as a whole was really cool, and very necessary for the plot. My only regret is that we didn't get to enjoy Dark Rand longer.
Overall, I loved the book. Instantly one of my favourites; certainly the best in the back half of the series. I look forward to ToM.
Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 16/11/2009 01:13:51 AM
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Re: Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 16/11/2009 03:46:28 AM
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"We" did not "know" Sheriam was a DF
- 16/11/2009 04:28:53 AM
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And the consensus seemed to be she was a lightsider who was being used by BA. *NM*
- 16/11/2009 05:09:57 AM
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Sheriam is like someone not believing God joining the clergy, just for personal gain,
- 16/11/2009 09:24:40 AM
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Re: Nicely done, Sanderson. Some differences but still a great story.
- 17/11/2009 03:03:35 PM
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