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Wheel of Time


Dwip

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Apparently I gave myself about 2 weeks too many to get done with the series before the new book. Oh well. Guess I'll go read the BBoBA again.Also, The Gathering Storm is perhaps even better the second time around, now that I can fit it properly into things.I am ridiculously excited.

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Well. My last full series re-read was about this time in 2008. TGS came out this time in 2009, so it had been a year since I'd thought about some of the more minute details of the series. Since this is a series that revolves around minute details, well. Especially since there are a ton of callbacks to The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn*. Too, the last time I had read Crossroads of Twilight three times ever, and Knife of Dreams twice, so they were less set in my mind than, say, books 1-6 (ten or twelve times each).* - Including my favorite:

When Egwene goes to get that fluted rod sa'angreal during the Seanchan attack. You know how she knows about that? Siuan used it to heal Mat clear back in The Dragon Reborn. Good memory.

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Ok, I guess there really is a benefit to rereading the series as a whole. I had forgotten that detail too. I suppose that qualifies as great note taking for the author, or one seriously broadly spanned plan to begin with.. :lol:

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Yeah, you figure with a few million words of story, you forget things from time to time. Details, plotlines...It's the only series I've heard of that needed multiple dedicated research assistants.

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The funny thing about that is that it's not really the longest series out there, I don't think, though it certainly is a complex one given how long it is. Likewise, it's gotta be close to be the longest even if it doesn't quite hold the record. On that note, I wonder if there is a title for the longest book series (or biggest in word count?) listed somewhere...and curiosity has gotten the better of me. I asked Google who referred me to Wikipedia who said that the longest novel series is Perry Rhodan, a German series of novels claiming over 150 million words in more than 2,300 parts. But, apparently, the Wheel of Time series is right up there coming in at something like sixth place. Go figure, eh? Of course, we all know how reliable Wikipedia can be at times, but still. :shrug:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, that book was pretty awesome. I probably shouldn't have been up until 11am reading it, but you know.

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I thought Mr. Sanderson had announced that Towers of Midnight was to be 864 pages plus an epilogue. You read ~90 pages and hour and manage to retain it all? I'm expecting it to take me closer to 16, maybe 17, hours of reading to get through it when I finally get a copy, and that's also strictly counting actual reading time which may easily translate to a week or so rather than two days...

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Pretty sure it topped out at 850 pages or so. And yeah, more or less I retain things, although generally with first reads it's more about the OMG NEW WOT BOOK SQUEE than remembering everything. I'll obviously be going back multiple times in the future and following discussion, so....who said anything about two days?

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Hmm, I was going off the info in wiki for page count which is supposed to be based on info provided by Sanderson himself via his facebook page according to the wiki page's footnotes. :shrug::lol: I guess I tend to not reread books so much.Well, the wiki listed it as having been released Nov. 2nd, and you posted that you'd finished it Nov. 4th, so I figured you'd read it within a 2 day span. Did you get your copy sooner somehow?

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Finished yesterday (yay)Especially enjoyed:

1. Lan's stuff (and I'm a guy, a straight one no less, he's arguably the best "hero" in the series.2. Perrin forging his new Trolloc-slaying, darkspawn-toasting hammar.3. The scene where Mat makes his deal and just up and pays for it.Also, Sanderson writes better battle-scenes, Jordan never had character make use of shields properly.Didn't like:1. The butt of Mat's weapon being singed, it's supposed to be power-forged.2. Sanderson having an Ashaman describe a circle wrong, because you weave with both powers.

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You've finished it too, eh?I'll join your ranks as soon as I can afford a copy of it for myself.. of if my local library gets a copy in.

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1. Lan's stuff was awesome, although I thought his voice was off a little bit for good chunks. However, let us ignore this in favor of the epic winning going on. Also, appearance by the random serving boy from New Spring. 1a. And speaking of appearances by incredibly minor early book characters, the farmer who drops off Rand and Mat in Caemlyn in EotW. That was fairly random.2. Jesus. I can finally like Perrin again. His whole plot was pretty great, but the hammer was epic. LOLed pretty hard at the name though.2a. Also in Perrin's plot, Dain Bornhold of all people.3. Mat was pretty predictable yet cool. The eye thing and the ashanderei bit were awesome. I always did kind of wonder about that.Who was using shields? To be moderately fair to Jordan, most of the on-screen swordfights are duels without shields on either side, but.And yeah, there were a fair number of minor weird errors like that going on.Also, re: endless bitching I have done on this subject, the whole book was worth it for the Rand Sedai beatdown of Cadsuane. In an ideal world, Moiraine will show up in AMoL and put her back in her place.

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Blowing off any negative aspects of reading the spoiler tagged sections ahead of time (because there's nothing else to respond to otherwise...), sounds like I'm going to really enjoy reading this one. :)

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1. The only place I really thought Lan's voice might be off was when he tried to get around his oath, but apparently even he thought his voice was off there. In terms of epic winnage, the moment Lan is confronted with the Malkieri army, and the men wearing their father's/grandfather's uniforms actually caused a little tear to run down my cheak.Also like his final line in the book :biggrin:2. Yep, I also finally understand his relationship with Faile and why they work together.3. Mat's voice is off, in the letter to Elayne especially, I'm suspicious that most of the Tower scenes were written by Jordan before his death.Galad carries a shield with him when he thinks Perrin is going to attack with archers, Perrin's infantry carry shields and spears, so do the Domani spearmen, I think. It was a good detail, as shields only fell out of use with the advent of super-heavy plate and guns, and most WoT soldiers are relatively lightly armoured.

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Yeah, for once I actually liked Faile. That means the world is going to end, I suppose.I thought he got Mat's voice much better here than in TGS. Letter is probably Sanderson, but still worked well enough. Although, with all those memories in his head, none of them taught him penmanship?For that matter, the Tower felt more Sanderson than Jordan to me, but who knows. Moiraine in particular seemed a little not right to me. Then again, she's been gone for almost 8 books, so what do I know?Ah yes on the shields. I mostly just think of them in terms of the Aiel, since their look is fairly iconic. Most everyone else who isn't a Shienaran or Saldean gets glossed over in my head as "generic wetlander soldier." :P You are, of course, totally correct.

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So Lan finally does get his Malkieri army, cool. :)Hmm, I've always liked Faile. What didn't you like about her?I think Mat's gotten great strategy from his memories but they don't change who he is, so I don't see why his penmanship should change from them either.He brought Moiraine back? Very cool, I thought she seemed one of the better WT characters from the onset.

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Couldn't resist the spoilers, huh?Re: Faile, she's an immature, jealous, annoying brat for most of her on-screen time, except brief periods in TSR and some flashes of awesome after she gets jacked by the Shaido. In a large part she's an obstacle for Perrin to overcome, which I realize is the point and all, but I don't like seeing him dragged down like that. He was awesome in TDR and TSR, and then his whole plot made it impossible for me to like him until just this last book or so, and I blame Faile for it.Re: Mat, yeah, but he picks up dancing and (perhaps) the Old Tongue from them, among other misc. skills, so why not letter writing? He remembers writing at least one book, as I recall. :)

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Nah, especially when there's no other post content to respond to. :shrug:Really? I thought Perrin sort of lost himself for a bit when she was abducted from him but otherwise has been largely in-character all along, at least prior to this book which I obviously haven't read yet, and I thought his character, in some ways was more likable than Mat's, though I also find Mat's more interesting. I do think Faile is an obstacle for him in some ways, but also a sort of grounding facilitator for him in other ways.Hmm, that's true enough. Maybe the handwriting thing is sort of a way of showing that underneath the skills and strategies his memories are providing he's still got himself in there yet? Did he (or one of his memories, at least) write a book? I don't recall that, but it's been a long series.

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I don't think Perrin was out of character at all anywhere, for the record.As to Mat's book, there's a scene in I think LoC (maybe TFoH) where he mentions something out of some guy's book, then remembers actually being that guy.

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:shrug: I had the impression that Perrin sort of lost himself for awhile, but I suppose, in a sense, that's in-character too.As for the book, I must've just forgotten that particular memory, though I have no doubt that it was there if you're recalling it since you've reread the whole series recently and I haven't read any of the books since the I finished the previous one.
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