Timewaster's Guide Archive

I could be persuaded to list a few of them, yes.

- It is stated several times over the course of CoT and KoD that Bryne has organised the siege of Tar Valon in a way completely different from the way it is depicted in TGS. The RAS army are holding the bridge towns on the west and east sides of the river. The rest of the army is held in reserve near the bridge towns, ready to rush in to fortify the garrisons holding the bridges, in case of a sally from Tar Valon. The Aes Sedai camp is far removed from the many camps of the soldiers. The reason Siuan was sleeping in Bryne's tent was not primarily that she liked being near him, but because it would take too long to return to the AS camp after finishing her chores. Now, when TGS opens, the bulk of the army has magically transported itself so that it surrounds the AS camp.

This has implications when, in TGS, Bryne and Siuan incongruously quickly manage to get one hundred soldiers across the river to free Egwene, when starting off from the camp which (in Sanderson's version) is actually pretty far from the river. It is obvious that RJ intended them to leave from a camp in near proximity to one of the bridge towns, which is where the army actually is supposed to be. Unfortunately, neither Sanderson nor one of the editors managed to see this. This is a particularly bad miss, as no research or interpretation of the notes is really needed.

- Another bad miss is seen when Dorlan, the village Gawyn is staying in, inexplicably changes sides from the east side of the river to the west. Recall, the AS are encamped on the west bank of the river. Sanderson, however, describes Dorlan to be a “two day ride” from the Aes Sedai, which is clearly erroneous, as Dorlan is not even on the same side as the AS. It would require a very large boat to get Gawyn’s horse across the river, but no mention of this is made at all. He has just ridden the distance, apparently. It is clear that RJ intended Gawyn to cross the river by boat from the tiny village downriver from Dorlan – which he knew was where Tarna and Katerine had gone to get back to Tar Valon. He would have to abandon his horse to do that, though, and buy another one once on the other side. Sanderson and his assistants have missed this, unfortunately.

- At the end of KoD, Perrin has decided to move away from Malden within the hour. He has already started sending the refugees away ahead of him. When TGS opens, he seems never to have sent the refugees anywhere, and has decided to wait several days to leave.  No explanation is given for his change of mind.

- The access key ter’angreal shrinks by half, approximately, from at least two feet to about one. This apparently to facilitate being carried around by Rand like some sort of pistol. Also, it glows red (Rand is apparently turning into a sith) when Rand channels through it. That has never happened before, and the glow should, as far as I can remember, only be visible to channelers. A bit sketchy on this one though, it might be the sheer cheese factor of the incident, with leaves blowing around his feet, trees bending, and the incongruous depiction of the balefire that threw me off the scene. I am sure I will like it more on a subsequent re-read.

I am indeed not kidding you. The book would have benefited immensely from another three months of editing. Additionally, Sanderson should really have been allowed the time to research the series more. I am very pleased with his performance, I think the book was very good. Yet I also think that if he had been allowed more than a mere three months to re-read, he would have done an even better job. That is, I believe, also the reason that Sanderson now is saying that book 13 might be pushed back to March 2011. This, I would applaud.

You should turn down the hyperbole, a little. The "countless others" that you cannot remember is Alan Romanchuk, the third of three (3) editors who worked on the book. I think they did a fine job, but with a few more months it would have been better. There are several inconsistencies and continuity errors which have nothing to do with "interpretation of the notes". They are annoying, and take something away from the enjoyment of the book. Not a lot of it, but some. These errors are present through one thing only; a lack of time. The editorial process was really rather short.

Interesting statements. I certainly disagree with every single one of them, and discussing them in full here would probably take more time than we both have. I would, however, be interested in briefly seeing your positions fleshed out a bit, as some of them seem quite outrageous. This holds especially true for the comment about Sanderson, although I realise  he is your friend. It does hurt somewhat saying this, seeing how nice of a guy he seems to be, along with the effort he is putting into WoT, but Sanderson's published work is clearly inferior to Jordan's by any yardstick.

I think Sanderson did wonderfully with this chapter. This has laid any of my lingering fears to rest, I am relieved to say. In terms of quality, I would say that his prose has improved leaps and bounds, and stands head and shoulders above anything he has done so far. I am happy to note that he seems to be moving away from the film-like, snappy dialogue scenes of the Mistborn trilogy. I really see this as an author maturing very quickly, and I am overjoyed to see it.

Also, must disagree with Jakobus, saying that Jordan is an acquired taste. His instant success in the early 90s prove otherwise, and his extreme sales-figures shows that he is a few sizes bigger than any other fantasy author.

Also, there are apparently some misunderstandings that Kestrel needs to have cleared up, really to many to go into in any great detail. Basically, I would recommend the person to learn to read more widely. Jordan really is not very descriptive. He may appear descriptive compared to your run-of-the-mill Fantasy writer. Jordan, however, attempts much more than to write an adventure story. Consider Dumas, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, hell, even Dickens. Jordan's description really are quite economic, and serve a variety of functions, such as accentuating and setting moods and developing rather intricate symbolisms and other themes. That you are not able to keep up with or recognise such things reflects more on you than on any mistakes of the author.

I think Sanderson did really well in achieving a balance between Jordan's style and his own, and it is obvious that he has improved considerably prose-wise. Offering such negative criticsm to a writer when you clearly do not know what you are talking about, is ludicrous. Again, some might consider reading more widely than just their exciting Fantasy novels. With all due respect, certainly.

Seriously? Publish the book in February? January and February are the worst months to have a book published.

Ookla is right, the book will be as long as it needs to be. The last time I chatted with Brandon, he was thinking 750K, but that it may easily go longer. For a moment, consider how much needs to be wrapped up. I would hesitate to get too angry over the way it will or won't get published. Remember, Harriet is making some of the calls here, so apparently she is OK with whatever is gonna happen. If she is OK with it, I'm pretty sure RJ would have been good with it too. If the book creeps higher than 800K, i have no doubt they will split it into 3. From a bookstore perspective, that would be the best.

People may as well stop thinking of it as 1 book being split. Try thinking of it as 2 or 3 books to end an epic series. Maybe then having 2 or 3 massive books released a year apart rather than 3 years apart will seem like the huge accomplishment that it is. As it is, I'm starting to lean towards not being sure who is being more greedy in this situation.

I would rather the book be written in its entirety and written right rather than rushing to get it all out right now and have it turn into a terrible work like the new Dune novels. There is also a lot more that goes into having a novel published than just, "lets just publish it all real quick."

The book isn't done yet. Brandon has finished the first 450K and is revising it LINE-BY-LINE. Then he still has to write AT LEAST 300-400K more. Good grief, the speed at which he is writing is astounding, and that isn't good enough?

It is certainly good enough, and I am happy we could have such a competent and hardworking author finish The Wheel of Time. Add in the fact that he is a longtime fan, and no one can ask for more. The speed of his writing is not the issue here.

However, this talk of three books concerns me a great deal. Sanderson has never even entertained the idea, at least not in any place we common readers could see it. He has talked about the possibility of splitting the book in two, though, which is a notion any reasonable person can accept and appreciate. Three, on the other hand, seems to come out of the left field. That would make three very short books, given the context of this series, if not that of publishing in general. I for one will be more than pleased with two volumes of 400k+ books, much more so than three books in the 260k range.  If that entails a wait of half a year more than what the case would be with a hypothetical tri-split, then so be it.

I really do not think so. All textual evidence, as well as very clear statements by RJ, suggest that the Dark One is an entity which stands in complete antithesis to the Creator. He is a cosmic force, not a man. He is an entity very much reminiscent of the Manichean mythology, and if mythologies should be compared, he is really quite a lot more powerful than the Biblical Satan, as he seems to be the Creator's equal in all respects. Since he is not a man, or even part of the reality of the books, I highly doubt he has a soul to transmute. RJ said that Shai'tan is a force which is not human in any way. There is no reason to think that he has a body, or a soul. Note that in Shaidar Haran he could be said to have imprinted part of his essence on someone existing in reality. He  also did something similar to Padan Fain at a very early stage. That being said, I think the Dark One's essence is to huge to be carried by a human, trolloc or myrddraal host, and nor do I think he would be able to move his essence into reality before the seals break. After they break, why should he bother with putting himself inside a human, in the highly unlikely case that it actually could be done? All in all, with Shaidar Haran he has succeeded in creating an agent directly controlled by himself inside the reality created by the Creator. When the seals finally break, he will widen the Bore to the point that he can finally break into reality completely. When that happens, he will be omnipotent, and able to do whatever he likes with it.

As a side note, given the mythological underpinnings of the work, and textual evidence, I believe it is self-evident that the Dark One is not, and has never been, imprisoned. I think he has been shut out. When the creator made reality - all the connected universes and dimensions, all the physical and non-physical worlds in the world of the books - he effectively made sure his dark antithesis would be unable to affect it, as he would surely attempt to destroy it. When the Bore was drilled, Shai'tan was allowed a way into reality. He is not trying to get out of  a prison in order to be free, he is trying to gain access to (one of) the realit(ies) the Creator has made in order to destroy it. Ishamael is the only person who has really understood this, as indicated by the works he wrote in the AoL, and supported by the fact that he "called for the destruction of everything" when he revealed himself as Forsaken. This also explains the Creator's apparent lack of concern over the fact that the Dark One is breaking into reality. The Dark One is no threat to him, only to what he has made.

Certainly they are fading because the facet boundaries, to use that metaphor, are being reestablished.