frozndevl

Replying to self, go me! Anyway, finished Fires of Heaven this morning and I have to confess what happened in this and the next 2 books had all seemingly blended together in my head. I think that it was because I picked up the series around when book 7 was published, so I rushed through all of these waiting for Path of Daggers. One thing that bothered me on my first read through, and this one too, is the entire Morgase situation. It seed kind of sad and pathetic, especially how it just kind of fizzled. Lanfear has definitely got some Style. Moiraine took herself up a few notches with her actions (of course I remembered them) and I can't wait to see what she does in the last book. I did miss Perrin. This is the first book where one of the main PoV characters was largely absent, and it is sad. Perrin has more of the everyman quality about him than Mat or Rand, so he was sorely missed. Yes, he has the whole Wolfbrother thing going on, but it seems to be less mystical than Jesus-Rand or Mat and the Dark One's luck. Though, when we get to the book that really doesn't show any Mat, I think all of fandom basically sh** a brick and wanted to know how the hell RJ could write a book without Mat in it in any substantial way. Those are my random thoughts, oh, one last one. How far back to you think that Rahvin was removed from the pattern. A "thicker than a man" chunk of balefire has got to remove him for at least a few days I would think. Okay, this brought up another thing I noticed. Nynaeve seems to have some sort of enhanced awareness when she is in TAR. She notices that Rahvin turned into Mist before he disappeared, and she also noticed Moggy in the window. Now, maybe it was just chance, but I find it interesting that she noticed those things as well. Also, she was able to pick up on Siuan and Leanne playing their double-game to the Aes Sedai in Salidar. I can't remember if this awareness pops up anywhere else, but I noticed something. Cheers! Edit: Okay, I'll edit this one. In a prior thread I posted about who would win in a battle, Mat, Gawyn, or Galad. I think after seeing Galad in action in Samara that he would win. He is just too damnation perfect. Though, it was his fault there is a war there, that makes up for his beauty and perfection, I guess.

I'm only about a third of the way through FoH and I am remembering why this isn't my favorite of the series. At times it just seems to drag on. Onto Egwene, this time through I am much more aware of her growing ego, especially on her dealings with Nyn. She really turns into an unlikable person.

Yeah, that was a fun scene to read again. Also makes me wonder who would win now. Galad - He is the perfect swordsman Gawyn - somehow has turned into super sayan form of himself Mat - Just overall badass with his ashandarei

There was a good example of the oaths in the first scenes with the Seanchan and damane. If I remember right, one of the captured Aes Sedai was commanded to say a dress was a wrong color but was unable to do so. I don't recall her body forcing her to keep trying to say the false word, she just tried and was unable to do so. I don't think the binders will compell you to keep trying to do something if you fail at it. It will just keep you from doing it, or will make you try to do it that time. Also, remember that the agelessness comes from the oath's settling down onto the skin.

Heh, I have slowed down, but not by choice. I still can't believe that I've made it this far so quickly. I just ran across Slayer for the first time, and the most recent books haven't stuck with me like these original ones have, so I can't remember if that story has been finished or if there is still resolution to come in AMOL.

I actually missed that Ingtar was a DF on my initial read through, and I had suspicions this time but thought the clues were very well done. Very subtle. I think that is what I am getting the most out of these books. I know what is going to happen in almost all cases (if I can remember) and so I can see the clues, but if you are reading it the first time it is very easy to miss. Gives me that much more appreciation for the writing. In that same vein, I think that makes Brandon's job that much easier. A lot of the foreshadowing and hinting was already done by the time he had to take over, so he gets to focus on the resolution.

Yeah, Gawyn just seems like a nice guy right there. Doing his best to keep peace with his sister and Galad. Oh how little we suspect the chull he becomes later on.

Just started Shadow Rising myself, and I am looking forward to them leaving for the 3-fold land. Also saw the first instance of Nynaeve not accepting that something can't be healed. She is talking to Avi about stilling and she didn't say it wasn't possible to heal, just that it hasn't been done yet. Nice foreshadowing, especially since we know what happens further on. I also appreciate how Avi is slowly becoming more of a part of the story, instead of just being thrown into the mix right away.

Stupid, yes, but understandable. If you were to consider the WT as a military force (I know it's not) then the low level privates/rookies/recruits are just following the orders of a commander. Since those orders don't contradict any existing orders, they can be followed.

Finished this up last night! Apparently I have fully remembered how to sneak in reading time and sacrifice sleep to get through something. 3 big books in 2 weeks with a full-time job and little kid seemed impossible when I started the reread. I thought I would be hard-pressed to finish them all before AMOL. Of course, now the books start to get big! One of the aspects I enjoyed about this book is that this is where the channeler's start to spontaneously start to do very cool things, relative to current knowledge. We can ignore Rand and his Callandor fueled epicness as he dueled Ishy, but we can reference Nyn's balefire and Egwene tying off the weaves. And of course, the Aiel. Looking back to our first introduction to our long-time friends of Aviendha, Bain, Chiad, and Gaul, really shows that they were minor supporting characters when they were first presented. I thought the foreshadowing of Avi having to go to Rhuidean was pretty good, pretty subtle, especially when compared to "Sheating the Sword" in TGH.

I must be channeling my youth-like ability to burn through books like a teenager chews through pizza. Finished TGH last night and started TDR last night as well. It's amazing how much of the little details I have forgotten such as the conditions that led Mat to blow the horn. Or, more specifically, that the Heroes couldn't ride unless the banner was unfurled.

I read that part yesterday as well. Even though I know as an Aiel warrior, he will be a badass, I can't get over that he didn't seem that menacing. Yeah, he had some great lines, but the fear shown by the Bordermen (and I do call it fear) didn't do enough to impress me.

This makes sense to me. When I first read the book, I was early teens, therefore I liked the younger characters more. now that I am older than all of the characters in the book, I appreciate the older ones more. Wow, you change as you get older, go figure.

I just read the beginning of "Leavetaking" and Lan gave Rand the Sheathing the Sword speech. I remember that I noticed this very not subtle foreshadowing when I read the first book 15+ years ago. Maybe it wasn't meant to be subtle, maybe we as readers needed to know that Rand knew the solution when presented with it and the question was whether or not it would succeed. Or something like that.

damnation, reading the last paragraph made me well up just a little bit. damnation, looking forward to reading this last one.

Yeah, saw him tweet that yesterday. Hooray!

I would say the ash at the end was black just because it was more intense.

Yeah, I was really annoyed by Nyn on my first read as well, but now that I know where she ends up, I like her a great deal more.

That was a great scene, and since this is my first reread of the series, I had completely forgotten about Elaida's Foretelling about Rand happening in that scene. I especially got a kick out of Gawyn saying something to the effect of "I wish I could get to know you, I like you" or something like that. A big departure from later on in the series. Also, knowing Fain is following them is creepy at best. Edit: Well, just finished the book for the 2nd time ever (first time in at least 15 years) and the last little snippet gave me the shivers. I really had forgotten what it felt like to read these books for the first time. One thing that keeps coming to mind is that it seems Mat didn't get much chance to develop in this book and he still manages to become one of the most enjoyable characters once the dice start rolling in his head.

I bought New Spring so many years ago, but for some reason I never got around to reading it. I think I'm like Leven, if I have time, I'll try to get to it.

I've only made it to chapter 10, but what struck me so far was just how young Rand, Mat, and Perrin are at the outset. Yes, going into a reread we know where they will end up, and they do fit some of the standard archetypes in the setup of their characters, but man, they are young. I compare Rand walking with Tam to the village the first time to Another thing is that by the end of the series, Trollocs just seem like cockroaches to me since our players are so much more powerful. They were downright scary/intimidating in their initial appearance in EotW.

Count me in. I've actually been meaning to do a reread of the WoT for years, but have never started. I think the overall scale of the series has intimidated me as I have reread several, much shorter series (such as Memory, Sorry, and Thorn) several times in the past few years. I just started back in to the EotW, and I have a feeling I will be needing to read a bunch over my Christmas holiday this year.

Oh god that's depressing, I haven't started on my reread just yet. Time to get crackin'.

If I remember correctly, it was originally envisioned as a trilogy, so the first three stand together (and can be read alone). I also have a vague recollection that the first book (EotW) was so long he had to split it into those first 3.

I don't think they need eyeslits. When closing the visor, doesn't it fade out of view for the wearer so they are full encased, but still able to see?