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We decided to break from our favourite moments in Wheel of Time Series to bring you a discussion of what we thought of the pre release content we got for The Gathering Storm. We discuss the Prologue and Chapters 1 and 2 in detail so if you dont want to get spoiled, this would be an episode to skip for now.
Part 2 which will be spoiler free is a discussion of what we are anticipating in The Gathering Storm, and I’m hoping we can get that up by the end of the week.
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Ok, I’m breaking my “no spoiler” deal to listen to this episode because I really want to listen to this today. I’ll post my comments as I listen, but I’m commenting on your thoughts only since I haven’t read/listened to the prerelease stuff.
- Way to be brutally honest about Chapter 1 Marco! Tell us how you *really* feel why don’t you? ~LOL~
- on Grendael and the other Forsaken – to me, it seems that the less we know about the actions of a particular Forsaken, the more credit we give them
- Egwene – she didn’t particularly bother me early in the books but you’re right, since the Aiel came into her life she’s been fascinating – I agree w/ Amit that her character arc is one of the most dynamic and interesting
- Elaida – I can’t stand her either, but I have to disagree with something one of you said – the comment was that there’s no way an outside influence can change a person so completely – but I think that the evil of Aridhol absolutely CAN twist a person’s true self into something completely different – I think it took Elaida’s pride, sense of superiority, and other character flaws and morphed them into the bullying, sadistic person she has become
Great job guys – a pleasure to listen to.
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PS. I have to share some really cool news that I know you both will appreciate. I was chosen as one of the Storm Leaders for The Gathering Storm tour!!! You can imagine how excited I am, I’m sure.
Wow! That is great news. Many congrats! I’m sure that’ll be a blast and a bit.
I have in actuallity been told recently that I am too honest so apologies if I came across too strong RE chap 1.
Good point regarding the Forsaken. Perhaps it’s the same as knowing there is a snake in the house for example – when you can see what it’s up to you can anticipate and react, which is much less scary than when you can’t see it and your imagination takes over…
Marco – Keep up the honestly, I love it!
Needless to say, I’m thrilled about the Storm Leader opportunity. I’ve been reading WoT since then 1990s so it is definitely a part of my life by now and I can’t believe I get to be even a small part of the excitement!
And that’s exactly what I meant about the Forsaken. Early in the series they were this horrifying concept that we knew little about, but as the story progresses we realize that they are (for the most part) simply very powerful humans with all the human emotions that go along with it: jealously, pettiness, paranoia, pride, etc. Suddenly they don’t seem all that scary anymore, you know?
While I don’t agree that chapter 1 was as bad as you say, I do feel like it had Brandon’s hand in it way more than the rest of content that they have released so far. My assumption/hope is that this was one of the first chapters that Brandon wrote, and he got a bit better at it by the time he got to writing Egwene’s storyline.
I remember BS saying in his blog that he wrote the entire arc for a certain character first. Then he went back and wrote the arc for another character… etc… So I assume that he wrote Rand first, and Egwene later, when he was more comfortable/experienced with writing in the WoT universe. Also, I feel like chapter 1 was a pretty typical “Welcome-back, here’s-what-you-missed, let’s-catch-you-up” introduction chapter. Very little action every happens in the first chapter of a WoT book. Prologues are always packed with minor subplots and catching certain characters up, chapter 1 is almost always a “intro” to the book, slow chapter.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it.
I think I need to qualify the critism I levelled at Chapter 1.
The point Amit and I were trying to make is that Chapter 1 shouldn’t have been released first. I went back and read the Prologue and then Chapter 1. It now flows much more smoothly and doesn’t come as quite a shock as it did when it was released first.
That was a massive blunder by Tor in my opinion. One doesn’t read a fantasy series for 2 decades and be lenient on a chapter at the same time. Perhaps my expectations were too high of the first chapter, especially because I am a fan of Sanderson’s work as well.
Of all the Forsaken, Semirhage still scares the living stuffing out of me. NOTHING good will come out of her “capture”.
Agreed. The release order was messed up. I bet they sold more of the prologue though, then they would have if they didn’t first release Chapter 1 for free. It was a smart money-making move, bad story move.