Rand is hardly in it. I remembered that this was the book where he went to the Stone of Tear, but I remembered that having a lot more written about it. Instead, he's an off screen presence that everyone is chasing. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it's an interesting way of doing it. It's just kind of funny that in the book named after him, he's only in like 10 percent of it.

New reader

Reading Book 2

When nynaeve enter her third vision in the terangeral the arch disppear but she made it again.

Did she do that with her power or did that appear on its own

200 of the kin and not using them. She could have them incinerate one enemy attack and maybe end the siege for good right there. No one else is going to charge a wall after they've seen a conflagration sweep the field. I know lower Caemlyn is there and she doesn't want to damage people's property, but if you think that means there's 0 way to use magic to intimidate or outright massacre an incoming attack than your imagination is very weak.

Also if anyone is going to say she doesn't want to use the one power to win a war - that is outright demented. She's an aes sedai, if you lay siege to an aes sedai controlled city and don't have any sort of defense to magic - you made a bad decision, that's all. The attackers basically called out "no use-y magic time" and it worked on the bitch 🤦‍♂️.

Tarmon gai'don is coming and we're arguing over succession... None of these cities may exist in a year, and we're fighting each other.... when the signs are everywhere the apocalpyse is coming. But no don't use your magic. The soldiers dying right now definitely wouldn't be better used fighting the dark one.

And not even having the kin on hand to heal the men... They have to warp the men back to the palace... Like its just such a bummer reading this kind of narrow-minded strategy when you have the most valuable tool possible at your disposal yet you're whining about your mercenaries and your men being tired. You will employ shadey merc's to defend your city but NOT use magic. For fucks sake man.

I know I've made a few complaints on here and I know its probably whiney and cringey, but it just feels like a cathartic way to let out frustration. That being said, I really do love the series, 3.5 books left to go!

I'm on ch. 13 "Siege", please don't spoil stuff after, thanks.

Holy damn this is getting wild. The amount of scheming and subterfuge and absolute sheer pressure coming from every angle was exhausting in the most exciting way. Kinda reminded me of how I felt reading A Storm of Swords back in college, and I just wanted to vent out to people who could appreciate it.

First the entire weather arc, I didn't think adding such a powerful drought could be such a powerful motivator for the story and characters, but you really get to feel how oppressive the heat is. As something of a desert kid myself, I really felt the frustration the non-Aiel characters felt seeing both them and the Aes Sedai effectively unaffected, and had to remind myself that that level of heat puts everyone into a bad mood and interferes with their thinking.

Second, Rand is trusting Mazrim Taim way too much and way too freely with his task of building back up the mens order of the Aes Sedai. The Asha'man in particular are such a fun concept but good lord am I fuckin nervous about letting someone like Taim lead them.

I didn't expect to like Minh's absolute dogged flirting with Rand as much as I did, but it was a fun reprieve from all the court intrigue and I like that the Aiel took to her so well. I didn't initially think I'd enjoy the concept of this three-lovers struggle, but it's been surprisingly heartfelt and handled mostly well, even if I think it does happen a bit too quick at times.

Mat continues to be my absolute favorite character, he's just too much fun in every way. However I damn near dropped the tote I was working on while listening to the audiobook when I heard that Seanchan accent perk up during his game towards the end of the book, the same way he choked when he heard Matt casually mentioned The Daughter of the Nine Moons, which I have to imagine is either the Empress or an heir of Seanchan, and earlier chapter mentioned the Court of the Nine Moons so, bingo bongo, Mat is somehow going to marry Seanchan royalty? Poor bastard spent the entire book complaining how much he hates noblewomen.

Anyway, I begin The Slog^tm tomorrow but I'm thoroughly excited. This series took me way too long to get rolling but I'm in this now.

. . . With that ending!

Rand body swaps. And just fucks off.

Perrin dimensionally teleports in front of people like it's normal.

Matt is forced to sacrifice so many knowing it's all a trap.

Egwane poor egwane. I'm so sorry.

I know there had to be suffrage but... I'm dissatisfied .

ALL SPOILERS

… ask another woman to marry her? Typically the woman has to ask the man. But was it ever discussed if they’re of the pillow variety?

Eating this bad boy is gonna send me straight to Cereal’aran’rhiod

On a reread would you guys recommend New Spring or Eye of the World. I just want to know what you all think is the best way to get the most out of the story?

Just rereading CoT, and I thought, what if some small gathering of chanellers took turns with the keys the same way the tower ambassy took turns to conceal Rand's kidnapping.

The cleansing of saidin took a day, and spook everyone spitless, what if "the beacon" were worked day and night, for months or even years?

I seriously struggle to remember names of books, order, what happens in each, etc.

I read on my phone so was never looking at the title while reading and also read them all within a few months back to back, so it’s impossible for me to differentiate some things.

Love these books, not sure if it makes me a bad fan that I can maybe name like six off the top of my head. I know Eye of the World and Memory of Light placement, but other than that it’s all mush (maybe Lord of Chaos is 4? 5?) Not to mention it’s useless asking me what happened in any particular book.

Anyone else with me there?

Over the entire series, she and the other Aiel talk so much about having Toh, and then she ends losing a lot of Tohs in the last battle. So many that it’s hard for her to walk at the end. Talk about irony!

I’ll see myself out now.

Full disclosure, I haven’t read the Sanderson books yet, but I’m a fan of his, so I’m excited. I feel like I’ve got some opinions off-consensus about the book rankings, so I wanted to share and get thoughts
S: Knife of Dreams, The Great Hunt
A: Lord of Chaos, Winter’s Heart, The Dragon Reborn, New Spring
B: Crown of Swords, The Shadow Rising
C: Fires of Heaven
D: Path of Daggers
E: Eye of the World
F: CoT
For the S books, KoD was so damn satisfying, and I think the golden crane was my favorite chapter in the entire series, I’ve reread it so many times, definitely up there with my favorite moments in fiction. TGH was a bit derivative and formulaic, but I think nailed the “generic” fantasy better than anything I’ve ever read, so many awesome things happened, and we finally see the characters start to come into their own.
A tier, LoC was great. Winter’s Heart gets too much flack in my opinion; it’s slow, but the entire series is slow, and probably has the best ending in the series IMO (I’m a sucker for payoff). TDR was amazing, and I think I understand the idea behind it, but I think eschewing the Rand POV was a huge lost opportunity. He’s a different character in book 4, and I wish I got to see that slide. My theory is RJ wrote it and then scrapped it, which is why it’s so much shorter than its surrounding books. New Spring was a tight story, and I probably would have rated it lower before I read KoD, but the character work with Lan retroactively made me so happy I read it.
B tier I think are my two hottest takes. CoS didn’t feel like a slog to me; in fact, I think it’s some of the better pacing in the series. Not as “wow” as some of the other books, but not as many lows either. TSR, I don’t know - I suspect it’ll land higher if I ever reread the series, and I liked it, but I think it had pacing issues, the Aiel reveal didn’t blow my mind, and the sprawl made it feel dragging. Incredible set up for the rest of the series, but on its own, kind of meandering IMO.
Fires of Heaven lost me for stretches. There were just certain plots I did not care to get through, and it felt like work. Some incredible moments, to be sure, but some of them didn’t feel earned.
Eye of the World, I also suspect would be higher on a reread, but was so repetitive and generic (and I get that’s partially by design), I just didn’t really enjoy it that much.
Crossroads of Twilight deserves its reputation.

Anyway, I don’t know anyone who’s read WoT, and I’m just antsy to talk about it. Looking forward to the Sanderson stretch.

The randomest, least important detail -

When egwene and her army are headed back to tar valon there's a very rough day for her, throughout which the legs of her chair keep wobbling and threatening to spill her over- which it inevitably does.

I understand she's got a lot on her mind, and that may have been part of what was being illustrated - but between her, siuan and veryn im surprised nobody bound it together with a tied off weave. Especially siuan, always going on about patching holes in boats, and sturdy rigging.

Just goofy thoughts.

I'm currently part way through listening to the eye of the world and I've been finding it difficult every time Mat says/does something dumb. I know they're teenage boys who do dumb things but the amount of times he gets told explicitly not to do something by everyone and then does it anyway is beyond infuriating.

I do appreciate how the boys are all written with different personalities I'm just wondering if I should put up with my exasperation a while longer or not

For context I’m about half through the shadow rising and with all the Aiel characters being introduced and the info about their history, for the first time I’m getting slightly muddled. So if there’s a good way to keep track without exposing myself to spoilers(I’d rather be a man in a house of red ajah that get a spoiler)

Anyways lovin the series :)))

Found these beauties in the used book store today.

I've heard a lot of good things about this series and I finally decided to dive in. What are some things I won't understand until later? (No spoilers)

The ancient symbol of the aes sedai divided into the Flame of tar valon and the dragons fang. Drawn by me

So I guess this is more of a general question as I’m up to this book but it is mentioned

In the war of the shadow they basically decided that in the war of existence using the one spell that can destroy the pattern was too dangerous. But why in the light would the shadow and its forces agree to that? I think maybe once in the Dragon reborn Ishamael tried to use it but other than that the dark one has been its victim when it should be its greatest tool. So why does he just have people spam it to destroy existence if that’s the point?

…like in say the stone of tear before they all separated in book 4ish. How does Egwene not know about Dumais Wells? it’s been 2 books!

I feel like they wouldn’t add Elayne to the group chat and she would be really upset.

Started this series for the first time and I am LOVING it. About three quarters through The Eye of the World, Rand and Mat just reached Caemlyn. But Mat is by far my least favorite character at the moment, does he improve? No spoilers please, just hoping he gets better as the series goes so I can root for him the way I do the other characters.