Ryan

Sorry for the late reply, I've been a bit busy lately. It's true that Egwene has her flaws. She wouldn't be realistic if she didn't. However, IMO many of the character traits that you despise in her are the very qualities that have allowed her to succeed as the Amyrlin Seat. The Amyrlin needs pride and insufferable self-assurance; she needs to be at least a little conniving. She needs to browbeat even the people she loves and that love her. That speaks volumes about Aes Sedai in general, and as Rand often thinks, for better or worse, Egwene has become Aes Sedai to her toes. She did not ask to be the Amyrlin Seat. She didn't want it, at first, but they forced it on her. It would have been so easy for her to just sit back and take what she was handed by the Hall. They offered her a life of luxury without responsibility, and there are a lot of people in her position who would have reveled in that. Responsibility weighs heavy on even the strongest shoulders. But she didn't choose to take it from them. She sucked it up and decided to be a leader - a difficult and lonely path. And she succeeded brilliantly, with her brains and her guts and a fair amount of help from her friends. There are a lot of people who would have failed to do what she did. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the notion that anything was just handed to her. She had to fight for every inch against the rebel hall. She endured an incredibly harsh regime of daily beatings, manual labor, and humiliation in the Tower, and she rose above it. When the seanchan attacked, she marshaled an army of novices and fought them more effectively than any of the other Aes Sedai, despite being full of forkroot. She proved herself in the eyes of every Aes Sedai that tested her, so that, when Elaida was taken, they felt that Egwene was the best candidate to replace her. Yes, they handed her the Amyrlin Seat. But she had to prove herself worthy of it first. Otherwise they simply would have chosen someone else, someone who had become an Aes Sedai the normal way, someone who wasn't a child. Once Elaida was out of the way, both rebels and Tower would have rallied behind almost anyone. They chose Egwene, because Egwene is awesome.

I put it up to teenaged blindness. He was so thrilled that such a beautiful woman wanted to have something to do with him that he completely did not see all the things that were off about her.

Funny, I immediately thought of Mat and Tuon.

Don't know if you still need this, but: When the Dark One was imprisoned, if we know that. "At the moment of creation" is all we know. The Breaking. Roughly 3000 years ago, at the end of the Age of Legends. The Trolloc Wars. Roughly 2500-2000 years ago (they lasted for something like 300 years). The War of a Hundred Years. Roughly 1000 years ago, when Hawkwing's empire broke up.

My pet theory which I have never voiced in public is that Master Ash is Cinder. Evidence: Their names (Ash and Cinder) are so similar The song he has Denna compose which portrays the story in a way the Chandrian might want it remembered. His presence at (and potential involvement in) the wedding massacre, which came about because of a vase depicting the Chandrian. His preference for archaic musical instruments. His extreme secretive paranoia, which has no known justification. The fact that he is a grade-A jerkface.

I finished last night. First, let me say that the chapter where Karede rides into the camp of the Band is a triumph. His misconceptions are hilarious. But I also love the fulfillment of his tender relationship with Tuon. That she reciprocates his feelings to at least some degree does her great credit. Actually, I enjoyed that chapter a lot more than the battle that followed it. What is happening to me? Am I getting old? Anyway, great book. I find it worthy to stand as the last work of one of the true greats of the genre. Oh, I know that the final three are his work too, but you know what I mean.

Sounds like Loial to me. <3 Loial.

Faile has been rescued. I repeat, Faile has been rescued. And that means we're mostly done in The Sucky Countries. Woohoo! Which countries am I talking about? Why, Amadicia, Murandy, and Ghealdan, of course. Not only do the countries suck, but all my least favorite parts of the series take place there. So I'm glad they will no longer be featured in any significant way moving forward. Also, I forgot that Faile and her retainers have to betray their Brotherless protectors in order to protect Perrin from them. That...*really* sucks. Oh, it's great writing—I mean that it sucks for the characters.

My opinion is that, while it's fun that the WoT is set in our world (and as far as I know, it's the only fantasy that is), the connection doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. I doubt RJ put much effort into that aspect of his worldbuilding, which, given that it has no plot significance and is only obliquely hinted at in a few places, makes sense. (BTW, my favorite hint is the bit at the end of The Great Hunt. The Horn is blown, the heroes come back, and Rand feels he remembers them having different names in another time - and the names he lists are common names from our time.)

Now I wish I remembered where I'd heard that. Oh well. BTW, The Shadow Rising is my favorite, too.

I found that most viewpoints included some reference to the cleansing (and about when it occurred), so you could get at least an approximation of when things are happening.

I'm now in the part later in the book that is about Egwene. She mentions in passing going to a lesson with Kiyoshi, an Aes Sedai - who I always and forever will picture as Avatar Kyoshi. Except that I doubt we'll ever see her again. Oh well. I know Egwene gets a lot of hate in the fandom. People think she's too arrogant and full of herself. But you know what? I'm gonna disagree. That was true at the beginning of the story, before she had cause. But she has brought about success after brilliant success against incredible odds using her wits, will, courage, guts, and a large body of information that she assimilated from Siuan in an incredibly short amount of time. Arrogant? Considering what she accomplishes, she's downright humble.

I got it because of Old Man's War. I figured the average price (needed to unlock OMW) was not much more than it would cost to buy one book, so I could get a book I've been meaning to read along with a bunch that I've never heard of for essentially free. Who knows, maybe there are some gems in there?

I blame the Shadow. It's their fault the Tower has been dwindling (the Black Ajah guiding Tower policy in ways that reduce headcount over time), and it's their fault the population has been dwindling. I believe that this is what Darkfriends have been doing - starting wars, sowing discontent, engineering the downfall of nations. Oh, sure, now they have more specific goals, but what about all the years before the Dragon was Reborn? They've been making the world, its peoples and its cultures, as weak and antagonistic towards one another as they can, the better to ensure they can't survive the Last Battle.

I just finished the first viewpoint of the prologue (Galad, killing that Valda bastard). A scene containing a fine amount of badical. It's like a pronouncement that the middle books are well and truly past. I'm I could squee.

I finished this book last night. And boy, I'm not sorry to see the back of it. I feel like this book is unique in the series in that it seems to make no attempt to advance any of the plotlines at all (with the exception of Egwene's, of course). Instead, it seems focused on showing the state of the world at a crossroads, in the wake of the world-altering cleansing of Saidin, and with the Shadow's conniving more prominent than ever. It took an entire book to show all of it, and set up the mad, 4-book-long rush to the grand finale. So yes, I can appreciate it on that level. In fact, I've head Brandon say that this is his favorite book, and for the very reason that it's unique not only in the series, but in all of fantasy. Jordan's craft is on full display, and I can acknowledge that this is not a bad book. But, well, I just find it dull, and there's just no getting around that.

220 pages left. I can do this! Gotta push through! Okay, I will admit, there are some interesting things in this book. It's just that, more often than not, the characters are thinking and talking rather than acting, giving the sense that nothing is happening.

I imagine (and this is pure speculation on my part) that healing mental illness in the AoL was a lot like compulsion. They would have to identify some change to the function of the mind that would counteract its illness, then use a mind-altering weave (a la compulsion) to make it. That would explain why Graendel, one of the most skilled at treating mental illness, is the best at compulsion. As others have said, healing taint madness is different. Nynaeve said the net of blackness on the Asha'man's mind resembled compulsion. I imagine (more speculation) that compulsion woven with the True Power would look a lot like taint madness. Nynaeve is not the only one to detect such things. Rand has on several occasions been able to see the "hose" of the True Power as well as a male Forsaken's connections to the Dark One - and, more than once, to sever them. I believe Nynaeve is manifesting a similar Talent here. I think the people of the AoL assumed that they knew things that they didn't. They had discovered so much that they believed that, at least in some things, they had discovered the limits of possibility. So many abilities of the One Power are dependent on Talents. I think, rather than blaming the Bore, I'd blame the Time of Change, when old, forgotten things (like wolfbrothers) emerge again, and new things (Talents) never before seen come to light.

...I think clothing is described in every chapter. Of every book...

I just finished the prologue. 100 pages long, nearly an eighth of the book (by page count), and containing a large number of viewpoints so that, by the time one has a little movement, it's time for another. Makes for a slog no matter how you view it.

Refreshingly, the book only started with Perrin, and that plot is never mentioned again. Paradoxically, I think this is one reason I'm so down on that plot: it seems to drag on forever, because it literally spans 4 books. Anyway, I'm done now. I raced through this book because I was eager to see the ending again. I felt like the cleansing of Saidin was practically pulling me through. Of course, now I'm faced with book 10. Maybe I'll have the prospect of books 11, 12, and 13 to pull me through that?

Hey Brandon, thanks for doing this. My question is only tangentially related to your books. See, I've already read all of them. What book (or series of books) would you recommend while I wait for the next one?

I'm through the prologue and chapter 1. Can I just mention how great the prologue of this book is? They're often tedious, dragging affairs, but all three of the POVs in this one were fascinating. I especially like the scene where Elayne and Aviendha become sisters. It's a perfect example of how deep RJ's fictional cultures run, and a wonderful use of the magic system to make an ordinary adoption ceremony into something extraordinary. Aaaaand then the first several chapters about Perrin, and I'm sorry, but I never did enjoy the "Perrin is looking for Faile" plot. I'm probably going to skim it this time through. I know how it ends, and while it's an epic scene, the buildup to it just drags on and on. I don't know how he did it; I usually find kidnapping plots gripping, but not this one.

It's something they could only get away with because the WoT is so big. For most other books, such sneak previews are posted online free of charge. In fact, I think they used to be for the WoT, too. But I'm with you - I can wait. Not because I'm morally opposed to the scheme, but because I'd rather not start a book that I can't finish.

I just finished this book. And I've gotta say, despite what I said earlier about enjoying this book more than I expected to, that final third was tough to push through. I got quite annoyed with the pacing by the end. As soon as one plotline got moving and something interesting happened, Jordan would switch to another. This here is Middle Book country, and I've got another 600k words to push through before the pace picks up again. The last chapter of any length in this book is called "Beginnings," and true to its name, several things begin therein. That's not so frustrating now that I can immediately begin Winter's Heart, but back on my first readthrough (and I read this book as soon as it came out) it really ticked me off. There are just too many irons in the fire at this stage of the game. I hope every writer learns from this mire that Jordan got stuck in on these middle books, as Brandon seems to have done with his Stormlight Archive series.