I love how Elayne is acting like a proper ruler, and commanded the Aiel and rand's army to gtfo of Andor, when he needs my help he'll get it.
I laughed out loud at that scene. "GTFO my lawn, Rand!", pretty much ^^
I love how Elayne is acting like a proper ruler, and commanded the Aiel and rand's army to gtfo of Andor, when he needs my help he'll get it.
I created the thread with the mindset that eventually I will covet each book and eventually comment on it as a whole. I haven't covered Crown of Swords yet as I do not own it and eventually will, I rushed my impressions of books 1-4 as I did them all together and will go into detail on Book 6, and finally I will try to get through New Spring, but an all Moraine book might drive me up the wall. We'll see.Thanks for resurrecting the thread with more impressions. Keep them coming!
New spring is a short story. It was originally published as part of a short story collection.I created the thread with the mindset that eventually I will covet each book and eventually comment on it as a whole. I haven't covered Crown of Swords yet as I do not own it and eventually will, I rushed my impressions of books 1-4 as I did them all together and will go into detail on Book 6, and finally I will try to get through New Spring, but an all Moraine book might drive me up the wall. We'll see.
And I'm done with Path of Daggers. And I'm never listening to the internet again. Or taking anyone's opinion seriously about anything again. After Crown of Swords, its generally assumed that it and Books 8-10 are the bad years. The books everyone hates to read before the finale, as if something went horribly wrong. And I gotta ask, why? Don't have CoS in my collection so I haven't read it yet, but so far the "slog" is going swimmingly. What is effectively noticeable is that the only real issue with PoD is that with a slower pace, Robert Jordan's flaws are more pronounced, and in fact it only hampers my impressions on previous books, as the fast pace and confusing endings or in general the small bursts of excitement from genuinely surprising moments feel like a masquerade now to hide his flaws. But yeah, PoD is a solid 7/10 if not an 8/10 for me.
Before commenting on all other events, my favorite bit about the book is the fact that we finally get a slow paced battle taking up the majority of the book, and holy shit. The jumping between Rand's PoV and Minaj the Seanchan Captain, the gateways, the scouting from both parties, the Callandor induced heroic BSOD, this is by far the best battle I have read in the series up till now. Its dual nature of method vs chaos, lends a certain air to the battle not seen up this point, lending characterization to Rand, as well as giving us insight on how the Seanchan operate and what their mindset is on hierarchy in the battlefield. What is great is that this book starts out quite timidly, with Perrin in Ghealdan, Egwene dealing with Romanda's bullshit, and the Ebou Dar ragtag channelers moving north. What is especially great is that you get this momentous achievement with the weather being fixed, and then the books like fuck that, the Seanchan are here in the Wetlands, lets move over to see how Rand's dealing with it. Spoiler alert, he's not. Finally, the book decides that it has quite a few plots to setup or continue, so we get small glimpses of the Tower in Chaos, the Salidar Rebels moving in for a siege of Tar Valon, Elayne finally getting back home with murder on their heels, and a kdinapping of Faile. This last plotline especially should be glorious, I can only imagine the berserker Perrin chapters in Winter's Heart hunting down the Shaido, shit should be glorious. Finally, the Black Tower not being as pristine as he thinks with the Asha'man going awol should be a huge wake up call, and I hope he deals with Mazrin Taim quickly.
But yeah. This is the only real complaint I have with the book. Its that all books should be like this. 2/3rds Rand, with the small plots and going ons just surrounding his bits, with no intermissions on his goals and schemes. Secondary characters doing what they have to do, and maybe only one or two books with them in the focus. Oh and no Mat. What the hell Jordan. I hope to god WH has Mat chapters, I dunno if I can wait till Crossroad of Dreams for more Mat.
That is the one thing that definitely is great about the series. It takes place over what, 4 years, and yet you see the politics and conquering shaping the world. Borders change, power shifts like quicksand as the Breaking happens on a metaphorical level, and their are actual geopolitics instead of ASOIAF's, these 7 familys have these 7 lands and everyone else is unimportant AF, oh these guys took these lands, but borders are still the same.Oh, PoD is the one where Rand tries to oust the Seanchan. Now I remember. Arrogant Rand is worst Rand. The realisation that the Seanchan aren't going anywhere is one of my favourite series moments. That slow dawning that the landscape of the world is permanently changed and the mainlanders just have to Deal With It.
The books everyone hates to read before the finale, as if something went horribly wrong. And I gotta ask, why?
I created the thread with the mindset that eventually I will covet each book and eventually comment on it as a whole. I haven't covered Crown of Swords yet as I do not own it and eventually will, I rushed my impressions of books 1-4 as I did them all together and will go into detail on Book 6, and finally I will try to get through New Spring, but an all Moraine book might drive me up the wall. We'll see.
Yeah, I skiped ACOS cause I haven't bought it yet. Planning on to next week, but I really wanted to continue the series so I said fuck it and just catch up later.Wait you read Path of Daggers before Crown of Swords? I always loved Crown of Swords.
Jordan had an issue with catching all the timelines up after Winter's Heart which is why Crossroads exists. I don't particularly love it but Knife is a great book so I'm able to get through it upon rereads.
Great series. Keep going!
Also give Blind Guardian's "Wheel of Time" and "Ride into Obsession" a listen when you get the chance.
Likewise. Same with Game of Thrones and The Eternal Champion. Apparently there's a decent sized community out there who only got into all these series due to the music based off of them... which I sort of love.Blind Guardian is WHY I started the series. Read ASOIAF up to Book 5, was listening to my favorite band, loved the song from the start, and when I put wheel of time into google I had a major OOOOOOHHH moment.
I am going to sound like an elitist ass right now, but I dunno if you can be a power metal fan and not at some point in your life discovered a couple or so high Fantasy series to read. I mean, they are so intertwined you can't not give notice to both sides.Likewise. Same with Game of Thrones and The Eternal Champion. Apparently there's a decent sized community out there who only got into all these series due to the music based off of them... which I sort of love.
I love her soft wetlanders philosophy. Those chapter when she's with Elayne in later books with her reluctance to dress in silk are utterly hilarious, and the punchline of someone actually trying to tie her boots for her just had me rolling for 3 minutes straight. The Aiel in general are great in that way. People see them as spear totting savages, but in a lot of ways are way more civil and pragmatic about life. The undercurrents of western refinery and sophstication compared to the eastern, or well in real life southern, pragmaticism being portrayed the way it is in the books is definitely low key one of the best aspects of the books. Of course there is Shara as well, from what I understand the true Africa of the world, but we know so little about it that I dunno if there are other ways to view things. The seanchan are just wtf though, I can't understand what he was trying to portray or what message he was passing there.The Shadow Rising is one of my favorite fantasy books of all time. The Aiel are so fucking dope. Aviendha <3
Read that series over half the span of my life. Drags (a lot) in parts and some characters are hard to read through. Also there are 1057385 side characters. Not really satisfied with the seanchan but overall i liked the wrapping up by Sanderson.
A lot of really hype moments i will always remember.how Rand levels that Castle with balefire
If you have the breath, go fir the series..
Haha, I already like the book tbqh, so I may like the series too much as well, ignoring any obvious flaws.[/SPOILER]All I'm going to say is that Crossroads gets better once you read the books after it :)
Then again, I love this series too much.
Hmm yeah, gonna check it out. Those types of articles always point things out you might miss on your first read or even on a reread.I can't read this thread since I'm on book 4 but I'm chiming in to say I pretty much love this series so far and it's great to see some discussion about it. TOR.com has had a cool first-timer article series going on for the past few months -- not sure if it's been linked, but check it out!
If anything it just hurts to see one (minor) plot not wrapped up
Its not easy to buy fantasy novels in English over here, so I bought them in bulk when I could. That means I found most of them in store, but not crown of swords. I had bought up to book 12 when I could, and since I'm kinda broke to be buying books, well until recently that is, I just didn't want to stop reading because of one book.Wait you skipped A Crown of Swords? Why? That's like skipping a season of a TV series. Anyway, glad you like the worst book in the series It got its reputation because we waited years for another book and it was pretty much a nothing book when we finally got it.
But it was clear as day.Loved this series.
And it probably fairs much better now than back then as the the middle booksnsloggrd when there werr years between release.
Issues that I have.
There was one question alot of the fanbase had that Robert Jordan said was clearly answered, but it was never really was. Spoiling it out of courtesy
Who killed Asmodean
So I do think there were some times where Jordan failed in that regard.
As for op, I'm interested when you get to Brandon Sanderson's books, there is a tonal shift but its probably much more pronounced to someone reading the books in a row.
But it was clear as day.
Lanfear was in Cairhien by then, and he set it up in that way to make sure you absolutely understand that much later in book 5. His death was an announcement or tease if you would that the crazy bitch finally caught up to Rand.
Shit you're right. I was thinking maybe it was after the ressurection. I meanIt was actually graendal, lanfear already had her battle with moraine at that point
Nope. Though if you do want to know who she is (it will be revealed eventually)Shit you're right. I was thinking maybe it was after the ressurection. I mean
The girl who is Egwene's bed maid HAS to be Lanfear,right? I mean the headaches, the nightmares Egwene forgets, the way she can make men bounce her on their knees...
Aaaaaaah that makes sense. I guess the reveal would have been sweeter than you straight up telling me though.Nope. Though if you do want to know who she is (it will be revealed eventually)it is Aran'gar, AKA one of the two Forsaken from the first book, Balthamel, resurrected into a womans body, but still channeling Saidin.
I mean, this I why I spoiler tagged it...Aaaaaaah that makes sense. I guess the reveal would have been sweeter than you straight up telling me though.
Well yeah, but I still open spoilers wuthout a care. Still made sense anyway, what with