|
AlternateAccount posted:edit: ugh, yeah, don't bother with that review. It's just random out-of-context statements and SQUEEEEEEE for a few pages. Kinda useless. Or, put another way, if you've been reading her reread and like her style of commentary, and want to see what non-spoilery things she has to say while reading it, you'll probably like the review. If you haven't been, or you don't like her writing style, or you'd rather just wait until the book is out and you can see comments with context, skip it.
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2012 22:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 10:09 |
|
|
api call girl posted:Lots of characters haven't been on-screen since TGH--Agelmar for example, except for a one-mention cameo in TPoD prologue. He's with the Borderlander army right now and is way overdue for an appearance. The specific usage here seems to suggest a relatively minor character, though. Possibly the innkeeper woman outside Cairhien? Dom of RAFO has a breakdown of the candidates: eliminating that innkeeper I was talking about, who I guess must be in the Malden encampment as a forced gai'shin. quote:
e: he's wrong about the innkeeper, she's still running The Nine Rings in Tremonsien as of Winter's Heart VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Dec 12, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 01:33
|
|
|
#16 "Do not cut off your foot for fear that a snake will bite it, Perrin Aybara. Do not make a terrible mistake because you fear something that seems worse. This is all I will say on the topic." Either a Wise One or an Aes Sedai, maybe Berelain?
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 06:55
|
|
|
api call girl posted:#16 "Do not cut off your foot for fear that a snake will bite it, Perrin Aybara. Do not make a terrible mistake because you fear something that seems worse. This is all I will say on the topic." Wise one. Snakes, Perrin Aybara, do not let fear rule you... gotta be an Aiel.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 07:14
|
|
|
AlternateAccount posted:Oh, good, "OH MY PEEPS" showed up in a "professional" book review. Uh... I would call it more a promotional article in the Tor site than a professional review.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 09:53
|
|
|
#17 "It is one of the three things which I will require of you. Your payment, to me, in exchange for my life." Obvious.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 20:00
|
|
|
api call girl posted:#17 "It is one of the three things which I will require of you. Your payment, to me, in exchange for my life." Rand to, uh, Egwene?
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 21:56
|
|
|
It could even be Rand to the Dark One, although that's a pretty big stretch, as I don't think that's actually the Dark One's goal.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 22:00
|
|
|
I both can't wait for and dread January. I mentioned this in the Towers of Midnight thread, but my Mom and I used to buy each other the hardcovers for Christmas every year. In November of 2010, my mom passed on after a hard fight with cancer. I bought myself ToM that year, wrapped it up, and opened it Christmas day. It sounds stupid, but it made me smile, and then when I relalised the flyleaf wouldn't have her usual "Merry Christmas" epigram on it... well that was bad for a while. So now this is it. We're closing out the Wheel of Time, mom. I'll read you the good parts.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 22:15
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:I both can't wait for and dread January. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2012 23:15
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:I both can't wait for and dread January. Jesus, it just got really dusty in here or something. Got something in my eye.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 04:06
|
|
|
AlternateAccount posted:Oh, good, "OH MY PEEPS" showed up in a "professional" book review. Yeah, that was pretty bad. I didn't have a problem with the actual review, but the section of contextless reactions to plot points was unnecessary.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 05:03
|
|
|
Ithaqua posted:Yeah, that was pretty bad. I didn't have a problem with the actual review, but the section of contextless reactions to plot points was unnecessary. Let's be fair, Leigh Butler is pretty much a talentless hack. Go find the bit in TOM or TGS, can't remember which, where she gets a 'shout out' and see her reaction. Or find the bit where one of the Sea Folk describes the way they see a ship and her three page reaction to the sexism in it. It is one of the most offensive things I have ever read, but then, as a seafarer myself, it really grinds my gears when someone who has never been to sea tries to tell me how to view life. That aside, I enjoyed her recaps of the books so far, it was good for me because I didn't have to read 12 monumental novels.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 07:32
|
|
|
I need help pulling the trigger on this series. SFBC has a sale where I can get the entire series for like 130 USD in hardcover (including New Spring and MoL when it is relesaed)...I'm very tempted but I haven't read a word of Jordan. I'm halfway through Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen, finished A Song of Ice and Fire so far, and I've read the canonical Dragonlance novels when I was a kid. I've heard about the slump that happens in the middle of the series and I think I could power through knowing the last few books are really good. Can anyone say something completely awesome that will sell me on the series? The SFBC deal is really good and my folks would more than likely get them for me for Christmas, so the money won't be a huge loss either way. Should I do it? (I'm pretty sure I would love the books I just need some gooncouragement to pull the trigger.)
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 18:35
|
|
|
#18 Fortuona ignored her, standing. "This woman is my new Soe'feia. Holy woman, she who may not be touched. We have been blessed. Let it be known." Uh is Selucia being replaced already? Or is she being proclaimed in some other context?
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 18:52
|
|
|
--The hook and first several books are super interesting. --The arc is wide and ambitious. --The middle books lay the groundwork for later. It's good to know it pays off, as opposed to when we had doubts as those books were being released. --There's a ton of content. Each book is like 700-1000 pages long. AMoL will be the 14th book. --The first 11 were written entirely by Jordan. Dude's not just an historian but a poet as well. --The last 3 are co-written by Sanderson. Less poetic, more action-y, generally competent, always humble & diligent about it. --Tons of  moments, but not so many that it's overwhelming.--Most characters are likeable and awesome. You might not like a few. They're certainly the exception. --It's not worth just reading, it's worth re-reading to catch up on the implication and references made earlier that were left hanging at the time. --Easing the badger. It'll make sense much, much later. isk fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 18:55
|
|
|
Pegnose Pete posted:(I'm pretty sure I would love the books I just need some gooncouragement to pull the trigger.) A guy who wrote some books once posted:There are a lot of layers—everything is an onion. And we're talking almost a four-dimensional onion here. Any particular point that you look at—almost any particular point—has layers to it. It's one of the interesting things to me, is how much can I layer things without making it too complicated. It's quite possible for somebody to read these books as pure adventure, and I actually have twelve-year-old fans who do that. I was surprised to find that I had twelve-year-old fans, but I do and they read it just like that. Other people spend quite a lot of time discussing the layering, and it's fun for me to do. Dom@RAFO posted:He's decided to mix several styles and traditions. some normally appealing to rather different readerships. One of that is epic fantasy. Another strong aspect is much more in the vein of Alexandre Dumas (not the Dumas of the simpler novels, the one of Memoirs of a Physician.. a mix of history, politics, relationships/romance, mystery, magic, secret societies etc. with a massive, massive cast) to which RJ added the whole bag of tricks of Irish folk-tellers, with their abundant use of motifs, mystery elements, foreshadowing and their love of keeping the audience puzzled etc. If this all sounds appealing to you, then congratulations, go hog wild, there is no real slump to speak of.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:02
|
|
|
api call girl posted:#18 Fortuona ignored her, standing. "This woman is my new Soe'feia. Holy woman, she who may not be touched. We have been blessed. Let it be known." One interesting bit of speculation is that it's Egwene.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:05
|
|
|
JohnnyCanuck posted:I mentioned this in the Towers of Midnight thread, but my Mom and I used to buy each other the hardcovers for Christmas every year. In November of 2010, my mom passed on after a hard fight with cancer. Yeah, my Dad and I didn't have a lot in common. We got along fine, we were just very different in our interests. He's the one that got me started reading this, he borrowed EotW from the library because he'd heard it was good and asked if I wanted to maybe read it and if it was, to let him know. Obviously it was, and we both enjoyed them immensely up until his sudden and unexpected death about five years ago. If I remember right, when he died, Sanderson hadn't yet been announced as carrying on the series. I think we were kinda resigned at that point to the thing languishing unfinished. I'm glad it's getting sorted out, but I wish he were around to see it done. I will always appreciate the series for giving us an excuse to have something to talk about. edit: it's been FIVE years, I am a terrible son. I remember it was almost exactly a month before it was announced. AlternateAccount fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Dec 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:09
|
|
|
I ordered them, thanks guys.  Total was 126 USD with shipping, I skipped New Spring for now because of the way the 2 for 1 sale was working, I would have been paying more than NS was worth by itself. Anyway, thanks again sorry to noob up the thread.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:18
|
|
|
Is Moiraine going to continue traveling with Mat? I'm not really sure, but she could fit. She came back from the dead (kind of) and was Brought back from the World of Snakes and Foxes by the Prince of Ravens. Also considering the Mythological Origins of her name, some association with Holy Ravens (the Imperial Symbol) could be applied here. All this could tie to some crazy Seanchan Prophesy that's on the tip of my tongue, but I might be remembering something wrong.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:27
|
|
|
It's actually almost certainly Egwene. Zombie Sammael @ Theoryland posted:The part I'm really interested in is the title, Soe'feia. That's close as dammit to Sofia. In Gnosticism, Sofia is the aspect of... let's call it God that was responsible for the creation of the world when she attempted to emanate without her male counterpart, resulting in the creation of a monstrous demiurge which created the physical world. The interesting part for me is that the aspect which Sofia represented was wisdom. Also, in Gnosticism, Sofia is the female counterpart to Christ.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 19:40
|
|
|
(spoilers for the new reader, but come on this is the thread for the very final book you're reading it at your peril) I find it very, very interesting that a dozen-generations deep Southern Gentleman, Christian, Vietnam War veteran and husband to a woman who sings in a chorus which preserves the spirituals of chattel slaves as a cultural piece wrote in detail a (relatively) highly technologically advanced pan-ethnic imperial power founded on a slave caste where everyone speaks in what is unambiguously a southern-US accent. Explicitly coded as antagonistic to Randlanders, but replacing catastrophically broken/fragmented feudal systems with a strong central government, ultimately with all parties needing to learn to live with each other despite massive cultural distance before they all die to the Dark One. Its not a specific commentary on anything, because if it were it would be a term paper and not a novel which would suck. Instead like pretty much everything else in the series and good allegories in general it has just enough threads to the real world to make you sit up and go "Huh." So... Huh.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 20:03
|
|
|
Pegnose Pete posted:I need help pulling the trigger on this series. SFBC has a sale where I can get the entire series for like 130 USD in hardcover (including New Spring and MoL when it is relesaed)...I'm very tempted but I haven't read a word of Jordan. Do you like extensive world building? Do you like to have a super epic tale spanning several countries, factions, prophecies, years of "real time" story, and hundreds of characters? Do you like to read just good, nice, detailed prose? If the answer is yes, the famous "slog" in the middle will be pretty mitigated, at least that was the case for me. Most people who hated the slog, from personal experience, it's people that just want to know what happens next in the main plot, without giving a drat for the factors I pointed, therefore the slow books were insufferable for them.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 20:08
|
|
|
api call girl posted:If this all sounds appealing to you, then congratulations, go hog wild, there is no real slump to speak of. This, for real. I can't imagine anything more tedious than reading this series waiting for someone to swing a sword at someone else, or wanting to see the "main plot" without realizing that this series is overwhelmingly about events not Just Happening Just Because but because a million people make the big things happen. Threads in the pattern and all that. For me, the real appeal is seeing everything set up--from the quirks of protagonists and bit characters alike, to the functions of prevailing political bodies, to the preferred embroidery patterning on a culture's clothing--and then obliterating it as poo poo Goes All To Hell. Wheel of Time : Words :: Tibetan Mandalas : Sand
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 20:10
|
|
|
Just finished my first read through of the series so far, and decided to go back and look at the pronunciation guide at the end of Eye of the World to see what I had messed up (in RJ's opinion). NIGH-neeve? Moor-GAHYZ? Really? What's wrong with pronouncing e's at the end of words?
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 20:37
|
|
|
Zaleov posted:Just finished my first read through of the series so far, and decided to go back and look at the pronunciation guide at the end of Eye of the World to see what I had messed up (in RJ's opinion). There are plenty of "normal" names that end with an e that isn't explicitly pronounced - Anne, Jane, Joe, Duane, Wayne...
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 20:46
|
|
|
zonohedron posted:There are plenty of "normal" names that end with an e that isn't explicitly pronounced - Anne, Jane, Joe, Duane, Wayne... And Neve, Eve, Guinevere, Elaine, Kate, Beatrice and Carole. In fact, I can't off hand think of a name ending in "E" where it isn't silent, unless it's accompanied by an "I" (Annie, Eugenie, Tracie).
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 21:55
|
|
|
More factors in favor of Egwene: The throne's Soe'feia (Truthspeaker) is quite emphatically protected to a degree not even understood by the Blood, and not property nor so'jhin. When Fortuona elevated Selucia as her Truthspeaker she did it with a very simple "let it be published", nothing so ritualistic as what's quoted here. There's something special going on.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 22:54
|
|
|
Just remembered, isn't the crystal throne supposed to have an effect similar to the oath rod? There's mention of a binding chair by one of the Forsaken, and whatever the Empress speaks from the throne is Law. I wonder if that might be literal, as if whomever hears someone speak from it is compelled to obey. A strange sort of oathrod-a'dam combination?
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 23:06
|
|
|
Yes, it is very strongly implied that the Crystal Throne is a ter'angreal which Compels people addressed by one seated upon it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2012 23:10
|
|
|
If there's anything I want in this last book more than anything else, its for Tuon in specific and the Seanchan in general to finally get their share of the humble pie. Can anyone willing to look at the spoilered text so far tell me if there's an indication of that happening?
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 00:16
|
|
|
For a quite a few books we've known they're getting Matt. That should be enough to put anyone in their place.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 00:20
|
|
|
Uh, 'getting an awesome character' is not exactly my definition of being humbled. Now if it were Perrin...
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 00:28
|
|
|
My understanding of the effects of the crystal throne (though I can't remember where I read it, possibly in the 'behind the wheel of time' book;) is that it is a ter'angeal that causes people exposed to it to feel fear and awe, and submissiveness, and thus be psychologically weakened in negotiations.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 02:11
|
|
|
EkardNT posted:Uh, 'getting an awesome character' is not exactly my definition of being humbled. Now if it were Perrin... Except that getting Mat means that his first experience with Seanchan court will likely mirror his first experience with Egwene as Amyrlin. And then he hands asses to anyone who complains.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 04:03
|
|
|
Is there a "best source" for the book summaries? I've reread the first 9 books about 3 times and don't really want to read them all again but I'm forgetting a lot of minor characters/plot lines.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 05:25
|
|
|
Turin Turambar posted:Do you like extensive world building? This makes me excited to start the series. It's good to know the people complaining about the slog were just looking for more action. I want the fiction I read to be enjoyable on levels above just the plot.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 06:03
|
|
|
Pegnose Pete posted:This makes me excited to start the series. It's good to know the people complaining about the slog were just looking for more action. Well, it was a slog when you didn't have the next book to pick up. It always felt to me that the 3 novel stretch that is slow only seems so because it feels like 1 giant novel split into 3 parts. When you had several years in between book releases it really did feel like a slog.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 06:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 10:09 |
|
|
Ramadu posted:Well, it was a slog when you didn't have the next book to pick up. It always felt to me that the 3 novel stretch that is slow only seems so because it feels like 1 giant novel split into 3 parts. When you had several years in between book releases it really did feel like a slog. I read the first six books when they originally came out, gave up, and then finally read them all (starting again at book 1) early this year. So I didn't have to wait for any books to come out, and CoT was definitely a slog for me. All the others were fine, but I don't think you can explain away all the displeasure with some of the middle books by the original wait between books. I think I understand some of what RJ was trying to do in CoT, and I think it was largely a failure.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2012 07:36
|
|