Re-reading The Eye of the World
In which Tolkien's influence flows strongly, Lan is kind of a condescending jerk, and Gawyn and Elaida, fleetingly, don't suck.
First, some background. In case you didn't know (and if you didn't, hand in your fantasy fan credentials at the door), A Memory of Light came out today. That is, the final volume in the epic, never-ending Wheel of Time, which outlived even its creator. And in what I will modestly describe as a heroic act of self-control, I will not be reading it until I re-read every one of its predecessors.
Because here's the thing. The first time I read WOT, I got to the point where I kind of really wanted to know what happened, but only for a few of the many, many plot threads. So I started skimming the ones I wasn't as into. And then skipping outright. I mean, I got the main beats, but I missed A LOT. So my familiarity with WOT is selective, to say the least. I can tell you almost everything about the White Tower Schism, for example, but almost nothing about the machinations around the Andoran succession, or just about anything Mat-related, since I never forgave him first read for his annoyingness in The Eye of the World (TEOTW henceforth). From what I've heard, I missed out on a lot with that one.
So now I'm doing a nice leisurely re-read, and I am going to make a little post for each book about the things that I've noticed. (They will, of course, abound with spoilers, for this and everything up to AMoL. If you spoil AMoL for me, though, I will hunt you down and skewer you with Callandor myself.) Although, with TEOTW, since I read it fairly closely last time there's less stuff that jumps out.
It's still very Tolkienesque: Moiraine is Gandalf, the Myrddraal are the Black Riders, Taren Ferry is Bucklebury, etc. Jordan is very good at imagery, even if he sometimes doesn't get the whole "less is more" thing, and I was really struck by how he built the Two Rivers and Emond's Field, despite how little time we spend there. We spend so much of the novel with Rand (or, more rarely, Perrin) reminiscing or having dreams about it that we really feel we know the home they've come from.
Different characters spoke to me this time, though. I'm loving Nynaeve, just for being plucky and taking no rubbish from anyone. Egwene, who became my favourite towards the end, is a bit of a blank slate here, and Perrin is already angsting. Eesh. Lan is annoying me a bit, mainly because he doesn't call anyone by their name. He may be the uncrowned King of Malkier, but that doesn't give him an excuse for going around calling people "sheepherder" and "blacksmith" all the time. And Aginor and Balthamel are still firmly in the "Disappointing Forsaken" half of the pile, along with Be'lal and Rahvin and, debatably, Mesaana. On the other hand, Ishamael is evil in a way that makes me think, "I admire how good you are at this," and I love those sorts of villains. (My favourite WOT baddie, Alviarin, is the epitome of this.) I am surprised by how obvious Ba'alzamon's true identity is once you know the answer.
The best part, I thought, was the Caemlyn interlude, mainly for the cameos we got of people who will soon be Very Important. Morgase was such an awesome queen; it makes me sad about what's in store for her. I was reminded again how much I liked Gawyn when we first met him, because for the rest of the series my feelings towards Gawyn will be ... well, they won't be kind, put it that way. I like Galad too, and unlike Gawyn will continue liking him through all his own brand of stupidity. Elayne never really connected with me, and she doesn't really here either, but we'll give her time. Elaida (who is wearing green the first time we see her - who knew?), whose Foretelling is the highlight of the book, will still surprise me in how much of an idiot she will turn out to be. I remember thinking the first time I read this that she was going to be the Snape figure, the character who worked very hard towards the common good but was kind of a horrible person for all that. As it turns out, Elaida's Harry Potter counterpart would be Fudge, with the paranoia dialled up to eleven.
Mat annoyed me a lot less this time, too. Maybe it's because I was going a bit slower and had time to notice that, even with the Shadar Logoth taint, he stuck by Rand when he was freaking out with the dreams and made sure he was safe. I don't like him yet, but I can see that, likely as not, I'm going to like him a lot. Mind you, he's still an idiot in Shadar Logoth, and he, like the rest of the Emond's Fielders, is still SO DAMN STUBBORN. This will annoy me about almost all of them at some point (the endless "oh no, Aes Sedai!" gets old really quickly, because yes, in general Aes Sedai suck, but in case you hadn't noticed, Moiraine is kind of amazing and has saved your ungrateful lives about fifty times to boot).
(It kind of amuses me that if this were any other series, you would be safe assuming Loial would be a major character, given his role here. But unless I'm completely misremembering, he fades a lot after this book and ends up maybe a third-tier character at best. It's kind of sad, because he's adorable, but at the same time there are a LOT of characters to find room for.)
The final showdown at the Eye still confused me a fair bit, especially that weird chapter where Rand teleports to Tarwin's Gap and there's something with Aginor and threads and things, and he seems to kill Ba'alzamon but doesn't really, and, look, I don't really know. But this book, for all the series' later faults, is awesome and I had an absolute ball reading it.
First, some background. In case you didn't know (and if you didn't, hand in your fantasy fan credentials at the door), A Memory of Light came out today. That is, the final volume in the epic, never-ending Wheel of Time, which outlived even its creator. And in what I will modestly describe as a heroic act of self-control, I will not be reading it until I re-read every one of its predecessors.
Because here's the thing. The first time I read WOT, I got to the point where I kind of really wanted to know what happened, but only for a few of the many, many plot threads. So I started skimming the ones I wasn't as into. And then skipping outright. I mean, I got the main beats, but I missed A LOT. So my familiarity with WOT is selective, to say the least. I can tell you almost everything about the White Tower Schism, for example, but almost nothing about the machinations around the Andoran succession, or just about anything Mat-related, since I never forgave him first read for his annoyingness in The Eye of the World (TEOTW henceforth). From what I've heard, I missed out on a lot with that one.
So now I'm doing a nice leisurely re-read, and I am going to make a little post for each book about the things that I've noticed. (They will, of course, abound with spoilers, for this and everything up to AMoL. If you spoil AMoL for me, though, I will hunt you down and skewer you with Callandor myself.) Although, with TEOTW, since I read it fairly closely last time there's less stuff that jumps out.
It's still very Tolkienesque: Moiraine is Gandalf, the Myrddraal are the Black Riders, Taren Ferry is Bucklebury, etc. Jordan is very good at imagery, even if he sometimes doesn't get the whole "less is more" thing, and I was really struck by how he built the Two Rivers and Emond's Field, despite how little time we spend there. We spend so much of the novel with Rand (or, more rarely, Perrin) reminiscing or having dreams about it that we really feel we know the home they've come from.
Different characters spoke to me this time, though. I'm loving Nynaeve, just for being plucky and taking no rubbish from anyone. Egwene, who became my favourite towards the end, is a bit of a blank slate here, and Perrin is already angsting. Eesh. Lan is annoying me a bit, mainly because he doesn't call anyone by their name. He may be the uncrowned King of Malkier, but that doesn't give him an excuse for going around calling people "sheepherder" and "blacksmith" all the time. And Aginor and Balthamel are still firmly in the "Disappointing Forsaken" half of the pile, along with Be'lal and Rahvin and, debatably, Mesaana. On the other hand, Ishamael is evil in a way that makes me think, "I admire how good you are at this," and I love those sorts of villains. (My favourite WOT baddie, Alviarin, is the epitome of this.) I am surprised by how obvious Ba'alzamon's true identity is once you know the answer.
The best part, I thought, was the Caemlyn interlude, mainly for the cameos we got of people who will soon be Very Important. Morgase was such an awesome queen; it makes me sad about what's in store for her. I was reminded again how much I liked Gawyn when we first met him, because for the rest of the series my feelings towards Gawyn will be ... well, they won't be kind, put it that way. I like Galad too, and unlike Gawyn will continue liking him through all his own brand of stupidity. Elayne never really connected with me, and she doesn't really here either, but we'll give her time. Elaida (who is wearing green the first time we see her - who knew?), whose Foretelling is the highlight of the book, will still surprise me in how much of an idiot she will turn out to be. I remember thinking the first time I read this that she was going to be the Snape figure, the character who worked very hard towards the common good but was kind of a horrible person for all that. As it turns out, Elaida's Harry Potter counterpart would be Fudge, with the paranoia dialled up to eleven.
Mat annoyed me a lot less this time, too. Maybe it's because I was going a bit slower and had time to notice that, even with the Shadar Logoth taint, he stuck by Rand when he was freaking out with the dreams and made sure he was safe. I don't like him yet, but I can see that, likely as not, I'm going to like him a lot. Mind you, he's still an idiot in Shadar Logoth, and he, like the rest of the Emond's Fielders, is still SO DAMN STUBBORN. This will annoy me about almost all of them at some point (the endless "oh no, Aes Sedai!" gets old really quickly, because yes, in general Aes Sedai suck, but in case you hadn't noticed, Moiraine is kind of amazing and has saved your ungrateful lives about fifty times to boot).
(It kind of amuses me that if this were any other series, you would be safe assuming Loial would be a major character, given his role here. But unless I'm completely misremembering, he fades a lot after this book and ends up maybe a third-tier character at best. It's kind of sad, because he's adorable, but at the same time there are a LOT of characters to find room for.)
The final showdown at the Eye still confused me a fair bit, especially that weird chapter where Rand teleports to Tarwin's Gap and there's something with Aginor and threads and things, and he seems to kill Ba'alzamon but doesn't really, and, look, I don't really know. But this book, for all the series' later faults, is awesome and I had an absolute ball reading it.