The Wheel of Time

Having just finished The Path of Daggers, I wholeheartedly agree that the scope got way, way too big.

It suffers from what I like to call "A Feast For Crows Syndrome."

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And The Aelfinn and Eelfinn, if I recall their names correctly.

My Games & Writing

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Finn. They're probably the closest thing to elves we get in the series, though they're closer to The Fair Folk than standard fantasy interpretations.

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Aiel aren't elves? Could've fooled me.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Yes, because no main character in the entire roster of main characters ever questions how the Aiel society functions or comments on their customs being otherworldly/strange. Especially not the guy with the nice hat and bitchin' walking stick.

edited 23rd Feb '14 7:46:11 AM by math792d

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Not there yet, just on book 4. I'm mostly.kidding anyway. I'm just mildly annoyed that the Aiel have been nothing but unbeatably awesome, yet.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Well, you've mostly seen the Aiel whenever they've been in a situation that's to their advantage - and you've seen the Aiel that are decidedly pro-Rand.

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I'm near 200 pages in now, and wouldn't you know it, it's getting good now. No longer boring, anyway. For reference, the group just crossed the Taren Ferry and are making camp under a giant pile of collapsed trees. Doesn't seem like the best place to start a fire, but who am I to argue with Lan.

I guess the best way to give off my impressions would be to talk about the (already getting large) cast of characters, so I'll do that:

Morraine: Morraine is the best. I like her. She's actually polite and empathetic, which is a contrast to every other woman so far. She's also quite strong but content to stay out of the limelight, and she seems to be willing to manipulate people while also caring about them and not just seeing them as tools, which is a combination of traits I always find interesting. She's very secretive, obviously, so I probably don't have a real good understanding of her yet. So far my single favorite scene was when she cowed the angry mob with an impromptu history lesson pointing out that they are descended from badasses and she's ashamed to see them fall so low. The story itself was quite interesting as well, I enjoy the vast amount of lore in this book.

Lan seems very simple. He's the competent guy. Doing what needs to be done. Doesn't seem to like people very much, but that may just be a side effect of him always looking towards what needs to get done.

Thom: I don't really have much of an opinion of him. I'm not really sure whether he has some secret or if he's just a random bard like he appears to be. If it's the latter, I'm not sure why the author chose to include him in the fellowship.

Perrin and Mat: they're fine. Both have personality, both seem like decent guys, they're keeping up with the group. I like how they came along because at this point no one (except the reader) knows which of the 3 is the one the Trollocs were after. So they're being treated as equals instead of tagalongs to Rand so far, which is nice.

Egwene: I couldn't stand her at first, and she still irritates me occasionally, but I'm cautiously warming up to her. She's done some really stupid things, but hey, she's a dumb teenager, I don't expect different. Morraine would be the dumb one for allowing her to come along, but Morraine ain't dumb, so I'm guessing she knows something I don't.

Rand: Rand is still suffering from Basic Protagonist syndrome. I feel sorry for him, but so far his only real unique trait when comparing him to his friends is a tendency to suck at everything. He comes across as kind of slow, always screwing up or not reacting as fast as everyone else.

I was quite surprised to see that Tam survived. I look forward to seeing him show up and be a badass like 3 books later or something.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

I personally don't care much for Moiraine, at least initially, but with the benefit of hindsight I can see that it's as much a product of what she is than who she is.

But she is basically one of many many many Obi-Wans who show up during the story, and sorta like the story's early version of Gandalf.

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She's the most Gandalf-ish of all the Aes Sedai I can think of, bar one, who would too be spoilery to mention.

Verin, I'm assuming?

And after the second or third book, really, Mat and Perrin stop being Rand's sidekicks and go on to do their own ta'veren thing. Mat goes with Rand to Rhuidean and ends up winning a battle for Rand, but that was still sorta tied up to his own development, and he was reluctant to stay. Occasionally the Wheel will spin them together (which usually means an unholy amount of asskicking is about to ensue,) but they have their own adventures.

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Rand post-epiphany, actually. I remember very little of Verin aside from that it was she who gave Egwene the Dreaming ring, as well as her final scene. Oh, and that she popped up a few other occasions around the place during the time in between.

edited 26th Feb '14 2:40:40 AM by Sabbo

Hmm... I think around 200 pages is where my opinion of Moiraine started to sour, actually, as she starts appearing slightly more callous. At least to my mind; she developed a bit of a habit of never telling the Ta'avaren anything but getting mad at them for not knowing it. She does try to justify it, but her reasoning didn't do much for me...

Anyway, that was just me. I'm interested to see how you'll take her as the story continues. For me the story really started to get good around the time The party split up for the first time, which should be relatively soon if I recall.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

Don't you know, you never split the party...

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After her manipulation of Thom, I dislike her more than ever.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

I gotta say, the Aiel's backstory is really well done.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

You mean the bit about them being the militant half of the Travellers? I thought that was really clever, and it goes a ways towards explaining their obsession with ji'e'toh.

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Welp, turns out Egwene is a natural Aes Sedai and Moraine was able to feel that when she met her. So that's that mystery solved, and good to know that Moraine isn't a moron.

Can't say I'm overly surprised but it is an interesting development.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

Get used to the revelation that X/Y/Z character is a natural with the One Power. It comes up A LOT.

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Yup. Everyone Is A Prodigy should be a trope.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

In fairness, it works with the setting, and it's a very established high fantasy trope. Plus, it works with the fact that most of these people are closely associated with ta'veren, meaning the setting can get away with it.

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.

Yeah I don't particularly mind. The characters are main characters because they're special.

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

That is a startlingly on-the-nose statement, actually. I don't recall, have they described the concept of Ta'avaren yet where you are?

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

No, but Ginger has told me a bit about it. I more meant on a meta level, though.

I mean hypothetically you could write a fantasy novel about a boring clod who chose to live in his little village for the whole story and never got involved in major events, but no one would want to read that. So the protagonists of your story are gonna be special in some way, even if it's just the events they're involved in.

(actually I did read a book like that once, it was called Touched by the Gods and it was one of the worst books I've ever read)

Fight. Struggle. Endure. Suffer. LIVE.

A book about, say, a merchant's apprentice in a medium-sized city trying to live his life, with its ups and downs and whatnot, while in the background some epic tale of magic and war keeps bugging him, would be interesting to read, at least.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.