7 - Crown of Swords and 8 - Path of Daggers
I finished Path of Daggers before I got around to writing about Crown of Swords, so here they are together.
The pace of the action is starting to pick up over these last two books. Everything still runs together; I can't remember what happened in which book. I briefly tried to pick up a different series for a little bit but I felt compelled to keep working at the Wheel of Time.
I normally like to say something about each of the main characters, but there are so many of them and so much to say that I don't know where to start. Jordan keeps at these particular themes with the main characters and it really makes them well developed and vivid, but at the same time some of it gets a little repetitive. I suppose since they all came out several years apart maybe that's a good way to refresh someone's memory of what each person feels like.. but since I am reading them all back to back now it's a little much. Those recurring themes do evolve over time as the characters grow and gain experience, but slowly. I guess the word "evolve" came to mind for a reason.
There are so many characters that the minor ones really get lost in the shuffle. There are long passages - sometimes whole chapters - from the point of view of characters that I know he's introduces and grown over the previous 6,000 pages or so, but it's a shame I can't remember what they were like. There's just too much for me to follow sometimes.
..and, it seems, too much for the author to keep up with. He leaves one of the MAIN main characters in very dire straights at the end of the CoS and just leaves him there for all of PoD. Light, man, what happened to Mat? Maybe they'll get the band back together in the next one.
I almost - damn me - find myself wanting to go back and read them over again from the beginning. I hear there's a graphic novel. Maybe that's the way to go if I want to pick it back up someday. All in all, it's really good. He's not one for much flowery language, but the adventure and plot are so deep and broad and the characters so well done that the story really works (..and works, and works, and works).
9- Winter's Heart
I feel like we've made some good progress here. Good job, Rob.
This book felt balanced. All of the characters progressed here, most of them quite significantly. Mat has been found and his plot line is really good. He doesn't get a heck of a lot done in the world but he's brought to a very significant moment. Perrin didn't do a whole lot, but you can feel her and his significant other are getting somewhere - especially Falie.. and not where she wants to get.
Rand is betrayed again, is saved again and almost dies again. That seems to be a constant for him.
Egwene and Elayne are kicking ass and taking names. Nynaeve seems almost humble and helpful now. I really like this new character Cadsuane that you get to know so much better in this book. All of these Aes Sedai witches are sassy, but she has extra spice. Cadsuane suffers no fools.. except when she has to teach fools how to not be so foolish.
I also totally dig the new venue in this book. Far Madding is a really neat town where magic does not work. It makes it unique and separate from the whole rest of the world in that way. It was interesting to see the characters have to rely on their wits and their martial training to overcome challenges instead of just using The Power for everything.
Again: good job, Robert Jordan.
CoS
p248
"But here we will take care. It is the enemy you underestimate who kills you."
p464
Across the room , Julian paused with his hand over the stones board, giving her a look of outraged innocence. "How often must I say so?" Outraged innocence was one of the things men did best, especially when they were guilty as foxes in the henyard.
PoD
p 205
Quicksilver. A kingfisher flashing by faster than thought. Certainly faster than his thoughts. It would never have occurred to hide so.. flagrantly. But he could see the sense. It was like concealing the fact that you are a murderer by claiming to be a thief. Yet it might work.
P359
"Give up?" Siuan laughed. "I'll be giving up nothing." Her back straightened, and then passion. "The oaths are what makes us more than simply a group of women meddling in the affairs of the world. Or seven groups. Or fifty. The Oaths hold us together, a stated set of beliefs that bind us all, and a single thread running thru every sister, living or dead, back to the first to lay her hands on the Oath Rod. They are what makes us Aes Sedai, not salidar. Any wilder can channel. Men look at what we say from six sides, but when a sister says "This is so," they know it's true, and they trust. Because of the Oaths, no queen fears that sisters will lay waste to her cities. The worst villain knows that he's safe in his life with a sister unless he tries to harm her. Oh, the White Cloaks call them lies, and some people have strange ideas about what the Oaths entail, but there are very few places that an Aes Sedai cannot go, and be listened to, because of the Oaths. The Three Oaths are what it is to be Aes Sedai, the heart of being Aes Sedai. Throw that on the rubbish heap, and we'll be sand washing away in the tide. Give up? I'll be gaining."
p590
And these were Rand's rooms; the comfort of that alone outweighed any amount of oppression. An irritating thought. This was Rand's room if her ever deigned to return.
A very irritating thought. Being in love with a man seemed to consist largely of a great many irritating admissions to yourself.
WH
p660
Great captains earned their reputation not just by laying brilliant plans, but for still being able to find victory after those plans began to fall apart.
P697
She is wrong, Lews Therin murmured in his head. Battles can alter history. He did not sound pleased with it. The trouble is, you can not say how history will be changed until it is too late.
p966
"You can never know everything," Lan said quietly, "and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway."
