There was one line that Rand said about how shadowspawn can’t travel through gateways.
Didn’t they do just that at the beginning of The Shadow Rising when Sammael sent a whole bunch of trollocs into the Stone (the ones Rand killed with that shadow-seeking lightning)?
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Nope. They were snuck into the stone in grain barges. Lan even complains that the people in Tear were a bunch of fools to not wonder why a bunch of barges were going the wrong way.
Too lazy to find it, but in one of the novels, didn’t they trap a bunch in the ways by removing the exit key? I also thought that a few o the direction stone had trolloc scribbled on them in order to guide them.
Basically, when the “shadows spawn can’t Travel” fact was revealed, it helped explain some things that didn’t make sense - like why Foresaken would chance sending their Shadowspawn through the Ways rather than just opening up a Gateway wherever they wanted them.
Hope nobody minds that I bump this after 10 days, but I just finished the book the other day. I make it a habit of going back and reading all the previous books whenever a new one is released. I’m not as young as I was when I first started reading this series, and I can’t keep everything straight. Hell, it was only upon this last re-reading that I realized the Oath Rod had actually been used to bind criminals during the Age of Legends.
Overall I agree with everyone else in that this book was very well done, with some plot elements finally being resolved and a sense of really moving forward in preparation for the Last Battle. I actually didn’t notice a change in writing style from the rest of the series. I was able to smoothly go from book 11 to this one with really no noticable difference in the way it was written. Now I did notice some characters that seemed a bit off from what I thought they were before. As mentioned, Matt seemed a tad different. Almost closer to Locke Lamora that what I had thought his previous mannerisms were like. But I suspect the author will take another look at the way he was writting that character after getting feedback from the fans. I also thought that Cadsuane didn’t quite come off right. She has always been gruff with Rand, however in this book she seemed more pushy than advising. Plus her treatment of Tam didn’t sit right. In previous books she had been able to intimidate without using the Power on someone. So her handling him like that came off wrong.
I also liked the way Rand handled Semirhage. Very well written and thought out. I also thought Egwene’s entire situation was handled very well. While it did take a while to be resolved, I thought that it did seem a bit more ‘believable’ that her ever increasing punishments allowed her to stand up to Elaida during the dinner scene. And that when she was locked in the cell, she gave some thought to how Rand must have felt locked in a box. It showed some growth to her character.
I didn’t mind, really. She’s the epitome of the Aes Sedai, but that just means that she’s managed to actually hold on to her self-control longer. However, everything was slipping out of her control, Tam was her last chance to fix Rand, and Tam blew it! So, she lost control. That, and the fact of the matter is that Tam isn’t someone who would let Aes Sedai intimidate him.
Egwene’s situation was very good and organic - but I thought it was the only part of the book that dragged.
I was hoping somehow Nynaeve and Cadsuane would be killed. I liked the book for the most part. It at least appears that Sanderson intends to tell the story instead of squeezing the fan-base further.
The only part I truly disliked was the breaking of Semirhage. That Eureka!!! I’ve found it! scene was seriously stretched. I appreciate moving things along but I think Semirhage should have lasted weeks at least. Elaida in the hands of the Seanchan was a little too pat as well, though I have no idea how that mess could have been resolved. Morgase and Galad I’d stopped caring about anyway so I’ve no complaints there.
I had to force myself back into the series, I’m another that has rekindled interest in the series. Maybe Sanderson should have a chat with George R. R. Martin.
Well, when Martin finally gets put to bed (you know, with a shovel), maybe Sanderson could pick it up from him. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, Martin’s attitude seems to have been “It’s in my head and that’s where it’s staying, fuckers!” as far as making notes and the like.
I have to admit that the last book by Martin kind of put me off the series a bit. It was…well, pretty horrible. And the long delay since then has pretty much put the series on the back burner of things I’m looking forward too. Oh, if he ever does manage to come out with a new one I’ll read it…but it better be damn good if he wants me to read any more after that.
That’s to bad. I had to seriously restrain myself from venting all the bad feelings I’ve accumulated towards Jordan. I’d hate to have to add Martin to the list. Though at least he hasn’t whored his story out. Yet.
I hope Sanderson deals with Gawyn and his wangst in the next book.
I didn’t notice much foreshadowing in this book, though I noticed Beldeine has a date with a Seanchan Bloodknife
I loved the breaking of Semirhage. Sanderson broke her in the only believable way. It was a bit fast, I’m sure Terry Goodkind would have added some lovely* sexual humiliation elements, for example, but I’m not going to blame him for a little narrative economy. Also you may be underrating how a narcisist would respond to that kind of treatment; Cadsaune shattered her entire world view.
To me at least, it was very fitting that Cadsaune came up with it, it’s very like her initial treatment of Rand.
By lovely I mean nauseating. Fking A, what happened to that man as a child?
I found the breaking of Semirhage completely believable. It would have been annoying if she didn’t have some kind of deep flaw that could be exploited…everyone does. And if you find it, I can believe that someone like her would break fast. The part I didn’t like was her escape…THAT seemed a bit pat to me, though I liked the way Rand hit her with balefire from the true source…and her stunned look just before she was vaporized.
The *manner *of Semirhage’s breaking I can accept, the humiliation. But one spanking in less than an hour? For a woman that could make stones weep? That all of the other Chosen feared? Just to quick for my taste. I’d have preferred he extended that story-line and saved the two paragraphs used on Perrin for next book.
I was glad to see whiny Rand gone I hope it sticks, especially in regards to Cadsuane. The way he dealt with Graendal literally stunned me it was so clever. (I don’t think RJ would’ve ever come up with that).
Terry Goodkind is still the only writer whose series I dropped. And never looked back. Even Jordan I was still reading just not spending MY money on.
Tad Williams. Oh, so your hero is lost and wandering and starving and going insane (for like 80 goddamned pages)…AGAIN. And it’s so bad he actually thinks to himself that “oh my, this is like last time I was going insane when I was wandering lost”.
F-uck that.
As for Martin, his last book was bad, because it involved introducing a bunch of characters just to kill him off. Did we need to see the one girl (Myrcella) and everything that happened to her just so her bodyguard could get killed she could be a hostage? That’s what “off-camera” is for. A waste of, what, 100 pages? Blah.
I thought hist first 3 were some of the best I’ve ever read. But the fourth sucked and damn sure wasnt worth the wait.
It’s clear that the Aes Sedai are amateurs at interrogating people, I suppose they’re used to simply intimidating prisoners with their reputation. Semirhage obviously loves talking, if they’d just let her run her mouth off with maybe a few acknowledgements and leading questions here and there then she would have ended up inadvertently revealing all kinds of stuff. You know, like how cops in real life are supposed to run interrogations. Instead they went straight for the torture like someone who’s watched too much 24. It can’t just be because of a medieval mindset, it’s not like medieval types have a shortage of clever talkers.
Treating her the way they did showed that they still had a measure of fear of her. As long as that was there, she still had that measure of control and power. Losing that, however, is what broke her.
<semi-hijack> I was paid to proofread the very first WoT book way back when, when Tor Books was an independent small publisher. God I’m old <end semi-hijack>
Yes, yes you are. Apparently you’re obsolete, too, seeing as how it seems most books aren’t proofread any more. Hell, most of the time it seems they ignore those little red underlines one sees in Word…
Merijeek: Nah, I’m old but not obsolete (knock particleboard). There are still at least a few of us editorial folks attempting to fight the good fight against typos and authors’ (and quite frequently, copyeditors’) embarrassments.
One of my favorite horror stories is a Judy Collins autobiography (major publisher) that found its way into bookstores without anyone in Editorial noticing that for the first 30 pages or so, there was a formatting error resulting in every single quotation mark and apostrophe being rendered, respectively, as a pair of small, straight vertical lines or a single small, straight vertical line.
I used to spend Thanksgivings at my sister’s where this permanent guest who worked for JPL (and later had something to do with a multi-billion-dollar space thingamajig that went missing Out There) would inevitably inform me that I’d soon be obsolete and all editorial work would be done online. Roughly half of the freelancer proofers around now (I’m in this camp) still work with paper proofs and don’t employ computers other than to consult search engines.
I don’t doubt that overall, editorial work has worsened over the last quarter century, but on the other hand, I’ve seen many decades old Scribner Edith Warton hardcovers (i.e. about as classy as mainstream American fiction got Back Then) with sentences sans their end periods.
Apparently, this was at Jordan’s request. From Dragonmount Q&A:
I do agree that the backstory notes seemed a tad out of place, like something you’d be more likely to come across in a Discworld book than a WoT novel.
Sorry to arrive late to the party, but I just finished book 12, after re-reading the other 11!
Not only am I with you, but my further theory is that the quote Min read about “the three becoming one” doesn’t just relate to Rand joining with two other women, but the three powers - saidin, saidar, and the True Power - becoming one. Perhaps that joined power can touch the Dark one without being affected by the taint …