So basically I finished the wheel of time series, and added the I think part cause at the very least, a companion novel might be in order. I think Brandon Sanderson mentioned it at one point, but nothing definite on the horizon.
I picked up the series, I don’t know how many times, but this was the first time I picked it up, when it was officially done. So I could read eighteen years worth of collected thoughts and not have to wait for the next book to come out. We know how it ends now.
I can say for sure that the journey was definitely sweeter than the destination. I dont believe I had ever any doubt as to how the book would end, only the plot points were in doubt. I’m not going to mention how basically the second half of the book a memory of light ends, for those that have not read it, if you have, then you know what I am talking about.
No matter the fantasy series, we know how its going to end, which is kinda disapointing. I think I would have like to have seen this one end a different way, if folks get what I am saying.
If there is a companion novel, to do justice to the series, then I would like it to be Loials history, that he is always on about, mixed in with some of Thoms thoughts.
Obviously what happens to Perrin and Mat and their respective queens.
That was sort of the problem with the last, say, 5 books (as opposed to the hair tugging meandering plot that people will doubtless show up to complain about). It was clear how it was going to end, and there was really no way around it. Sanderson did the best he could, and, to be fair, he did a good job: the epic battles were epic; the heroism was heroic; the villainy was villainous. It’s about all you could ask for. There were clever plot points that did make me laugh, and one I thought was hilarious that I didn’t see coming
Matt’s trick at the dam, using the reanimating townsfolk was clever.
I’m firmly in the haters camp on WoT. That said, there was a lot to work with, a lot of good ideas that a better writer could have made good use of. I do have one nagging question though. And a bunch of complaints.
Seriously, don’t read if you don’t like spoilers.
What happens with Moghedien? Source users have to be freed if they ask, Tuon and the Seanchan are much to law-abiding to ignore that. There’s not a chance in hell Moghedien reforms.
Complaints.
The characters that died were just pulled out of a hat. It’s like someone said “we can’t have this great war and no one dies”. Rhuarc et al are not able to recover from being compelled because why? It was already established that Elaine and Nynaeve did. Just stupid.
Ultra-powerful/ bonding to Sa’Angreal? Never mentioned or alluded to. Complete ass-pull. Ridiculous.
The series is just a teenagers power fantasy. Once I accepted that I was able to stop pissing on RJ’s corpse. Mostly.
Seriously, you have a millennia old political organization taken over by two farm girls and a pampered princess? There’s not enough hand-waving in the universe to get me to buy that. Especially when it keeps getting repeated ad nauseum about how politically adroit all of the Aes Sedai are.
I’m no RJJ apologist, and I have numerous issues with the series myself, but this one I didn’t have a problem with.
The White Tower was a long long way from the organisation it had been for millenia. It seemed to me that the few sisters sent out into the world were politically astute, with a lot of the sisters at the tower being either far less so, or being focused on other things to the extent they didn’t care about the politics. But maybe I’m just fanwanking, and just happily accepted that the protagonists could do that, which lets face it is a conceit in the majority of fantasy novels.
Two of my favourite things about the whole series,
The battle scenes with massed magic wielders, particularly the Asha’men, it just brought a real visceral realism to what it might be like to have these ultra-powerful magic wielders on a battlefield of normal soldiers. (Fantasy version of an artillery barrage I guess)
I loved his descriptions of the combats between swordmasters, I thought his naming of the various forms was just really evocative, and gave you a sense of the combat.
I don’t recall within the context of the combats if this is right or not, but Lightning I pictured as a rapid series of direct stabbing movements, and Dandelion as a sort of whirling circular movements with the blade being whipped around in wide arcs.
That’s how I pictured them anyway :D.
The one I would like to visualise better (apart from it being an all out attack) is the Boar rushes down the Mountain
I seem to recall some of the rank and file soldiers were described with shields. (Don’t hold me to that though ) But the whole swordmaster thing to me I took to be cribbed from the samurai tradition. The way the actual swordmasters blades are described sounded like a katana to me. Which is of course a two handed style.
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I seem to recall some of the rank and file soldiers were described with shields. (Don’t hold me to that though ) But the whole swordmaster thing to me I took to be cribbed from the samurai tradition. The way the actual swordmasters blades are described sounded like a katana to me. Which is of course a two handed style.
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Yep, which is why…
…when Rand lost his hand it was such a blow to him wrt his sword skills. But that’s why Rand and the other swordmasters didn’t use shields…they were using two handed swords, so shields wouldn’t have been very useful.
I would love to see one, perhaps set in the more high tech world where the series started. I was always intrigued, personally, by that world, which was a combination of magic and very advanced technology, and I think a novel or even another series set either then or in a timeline a few thousand years from those at the end of WoT would be really cool, to see where that mix of tech and magic goes.
I started the series when the first book came out, so it was a pretty rocky road for me, personally. I have to say that I honestly enjoyed the last 3 books, and felt the conclusion was appropriate to the story, but I can see how some might not have liked it.
There are hints of this in the various books, especially at the end, but it would be nice if it was a bit more fleshed out I guess. Though I can imagine how things would be and what would have happened. I’m more intrigued, as I said, on where things turn out a few hundred or even thousand years in the future. There are hints that Rand might not even be remembered, and maybe Matt or Perrin would be cast as the Dragon Reborn (or someone else). It would be cool to see how the various kingdoms and empires fared, and also Rand’s schools and the emphasis on tech at the end and where that all goes. Also the various foreshadowing events (the split timelines and views of alternative universes several characters experienced…will any of them come to pass?).
I know the blademasters (all 1500 of them) use two-handed swords. But so do the Shienaran heavy cavalry. Other than the Aiel I don’t recall anyone mentioning shields, not even merchants guards and the like.
I would like to see some stories set right after the breaking starts, but before the creation of the Eye of the World. I would have loved to see CS Friedman write some stories in this universe, she has a fantastic grasp of religion and it’s a major oversight for WoT not to have any.
Unfortunately, IMO, the tech would be so advanced as to be magic in itself. I’d read it anyway, though.
) But the whole swordmaster thing to me I took to be cribbed from the samurai tradition. The way the actual swordmasters blades are described sounded like a katana to me. Which is of course a two handed style.