Re-reading The Shadow Rising
In which threads diverge but remain controlled, Rand is saner but makes less sense, and Faile is ... kind of awesome? I don't know, it's weird.
Well, this is clearly where I started skimming, because I didn't remember much about this book, and much of what I did remember was wrong. As a whole, though, it was pretty great, especially the climax.
For a start, I always thought of TSR as the book where the multi-thread storyline started to spin out of control. And although this is the first book where everyone is not together again for the Big Ending (and thus we have several Big Endings happening concurrently), it's also pretty restrained in the number of threads we follow. Only three main ones - Perrin and Faile in the Two Rivers, Nynaeve and Elayne in Tanchico, and everyone else in the Waste, with occasional diversions to Min in the Tower - means that this is actually quite tightly written, although a little long.
Most of these threads could have done with a bit of editing, I find. Perrin's especially dragged quite a bit in the middle, even though it had a wonderfully gripping end. I also found myself really enjoying his relationship with Faile (minus the spanking incident, which, thanks to Leigh Butler, I can never unsee), which I'm fairly sure was not my reaction the first time around. The whole Two Rivers section was nicely done, bringing in Whitecloaks (eurgh), Fain (double eurgh), and Tinkers (yay!). Plus, Loial's still a major character? How could someone so adorable have slipped my memory so?
But wow, it took them a long time to leave Tear, didn't it? I mean, yes, I savour the last time we see Our Heroes together for about ten books, but wow. That was longer than the hobbits spent in the Shire. And I found the High Lords of Tear a little confusing and difficult to straighten out, which made the politicking going on there harder to follow. Again, a judicious edit or two might have moved this along.
My favourite thread here was probably the one we got the least of: Tanchico. I love Nynaeve and Elayne's interplay with each other - unlike the rest of the Main Six, Elayne doesn't have a lifetime's history with the rest of our protagonists, and I really like that it's Nynaeve she spends the most time with. Their little unconscious routine is a ton of fun, and they also have a fun but limited supporting cast: Egeanin (I knew I liked her!), Domon, Thom (hilariously), and Juilin. We also expand on Liandrin's Thirteen, none of whom get a ton of screentime but several of whom (Eldrith, TEMAILE) are really really creepy. Ick. (Liandrin herself, of course, continues to be very much a third-rate villain. I mean, really, I think she's a good character, but her competence at the whole Evil thing could use some work.)
Min and the Tower: so much stupidity, so little time. It's a good thing it's Min we spend the most time with here, because she's the only one keeping her head on her shoulders. First of all, Siuan completely misunderstands the nature of Min's gift and so ignores the warnings she receives. It's really what brings her down, not taking the threat of the Tower Schism seriously. Not that that doesn't make me terribly sorry for her and Leane when it all goes down, and not that I don't admire her spirit after being stilled. But whoa.
And Elaida. She hasn't even met Fain yet, and she's already nuts. How can someone be so wrong about so many things? Some nice cameos from Future Important People in her entourage (Joline, Shemerin, even Mesaana, although we won't know that until BOOK THIRTEEN), though, and enter Alviarin as a significant character! Yay! Look at her dancing Elaida on her strings without the fool woman even knowing! You know, it should have been a giveaway that Alviarin was evil, because she's characterised as being far too with it not to see the gaping holes in Elaida's plans.
(Edit: Talking about the Tower and stupidity, it seems a colossal oversight not to have mentioned Gawyn. So here it is: Gawyn is an idiot, and I hate him, and I want to bash his head against a wall, and I can't believe anyone ever forgives him for the way he behaves during the coup, because seriously, he killed Warders. Not remotely OK. Egwene deserves MUCH better. And we'll talk in the next post about why I don't have the same problem with Galad.)
Rand and co in the Waste: some of this was amazing. The Rhuidean sequence was extremely well done, both Mat's bit with the foxfaces and Rand's with the history of the Aiel (which - wow, I'd forgotten that too). Rand himself I found a bit weird and inconsistent (he seemed so certain who Lanfear was, but then we find at the end that he had it completely wrong), and it was weird that Egwene's POVs dropped out pretty quickly. Huh. On the other hand, Aviendha was both annoying and a lot of fun. And poor Rand, with everyone telling him to just read Elayne's letters, they'll make it all make sense. Heh.
More Forsaken, too! And more fun ones this time, with Asmodean and Moghedien joining the party. Asmodean's kind of the Forsaken wet blanket, but Moggy is the scariest we've seen yet outside the Big Two. That Compulsion thing - ewwww.
Well, this is clearly where I started skimming, because I didn't remember much about this book, and much of what I did remember was wrong. As a whole, though, it was pretty great, especially the climax.
For a start, I always thought of TSR as the book where the multi-thread storyline started to spin out of control. And although this is the first book where everyone is not together again for the Big Ending (and thus we have several Big Endings happening concurrently), it's also pretty restrained in the number of threads we follow. Only three main ones - Perrin and Faile in the Two Rivers, Nynaeve and Elayne in Tanchico, and everyone else in the Waste, with occasional diversions to Min in the Tower - means that this is actually quite tightly written, although a little long.
Most of these threads could have done with a bit of editing, I find. Perrin's especially dragged quite a bit in the middle, even though it had a wonderfully gripping end. I also found myself really enjoying his relationship with Faile (minus the spanking incident, which, thanks to Leigh Butler, I can never unsee), which I'm fairly sure was not my reaction the first time around. The whole Two Rivers section was nicely done, bringing in Whitecloaks (eurgh), Fain (double eurgh), and Tinkers (yay!). Plus, Loial's still a major character? How could someone so adorable have slipped my memory so?
But wow, it took them a long time to leave Tear, didn't it? I mean, yes, I savour the last time we see Our Heroes together for about ten books, but wow. That was longer than the hobbits spent in the Shire. And I found the High Lords of Tear a little confusing and difficult to straighten out, which made the politicking going on there harder to follow. Again, a judicious edit or two might have moved this along.
My favourite thread here was probably the one we got the least of: Tanchico. I love Nynaeve and Elayne's interplay with each other - unlike the rest of the Main Six, Elayne doesn't have a lifetime's history with the rest of our protagonists, and I really like that it's Nynaeve she spends the most time with. Their little unconscious routine is a ton of fun, and they also have a fun but limited supporting cast: Egeanin (I knew I liked her!), Domon, Thom (hilariously), and Juilin. We also expand on Liandrin's Thirteen, none of whom get a ton of screentime but several of whom (Eldrith, TEMAILE) are really really creepy. Ick. (Liandrin herself, of course, continues to be very much a third-rate villain. I mean, really, I think she's a good character, but her competence at the whole Evil thing could use some work.)
Min and the Tower: so much stupidity, so little time. It's a good thing it's Min we spend the most time with here, because she's the only one keeping her head on her shoulders. First of all, Siuan completely misunderstands the nature of Min's gift and so ignores the warnings she receives. It's really what brings her down, not taking the threat of the Tower Schism seriously. Not that that doesn't make me terribly sorry for her and Leane when it all goes down, and not that I don't admire her spirit after being stilled. But whoa.
And Elaida. She hasn't even met Fain yet, and she's already nuts. How can someone be so wrong about so many things? Some nice cameos from Future Important People in her entourage (Joline, Shemerin, even Mesaana, although we won't know that until BOOK THIRTEEN), though, and enter Alviarin as a significant character! Yay! Look at her dancing Elaida on her strings without the fool woman even knowing! You know, it should have been a giveaway that Alviarin was evil, because she's characterised as being far too with it not to see the gaping holes in Elaida's plans.
(Edit: Talking about the Tower and stupidity, it seems a colossal oversight not to have mentioned Gawyn. So here it is: Gawyn is an idiot, and I hate him, and I want to bash his head against a wall, and I can't believe anyone ever forgives him for the way he behaves during the coup, because seriously, he killed Warders. Not remotely OK. Egwene deserves MUCH better. And we'll talk in the next post about why I don't have the same problem with Galad.)
Rand and co in the Waste: some of this was amazing. The Rhuidean sequence was extremely well done, both Mat's bit with the foxfaces and Rand's with the history of the Aiel (which - wow, I'd forgotten that too). Rand himself I found a bit weird and inconsistent (he seemed so certain who Lanfear was, but then we find at the end that he had it completely wrong), and it was weird that Egwene's POVs dropped out pretty quickly. Huh. On the other hand, Aviendha was both annoying and a lot of fun. And poor Rand, with everyone telling him to just read Elayne's letters, they'll make it all make sense. Heh.
More Forsaken, too! And more fun ones this time, with Asmodean and Moghedien joining the party. Asmodean's kind of the Forsaken wet blanket, but Moggy is the scariest we've seen yet outside the Big Two. That Compulsion thing - ewwww.