Timewaster's Guide Archive

Well, Great Hunt will have to wait.  I could not resist the Name of the Wind.  I'm going to get through it as quick as I can though (and Indigo had a buy three get the fourth free deal, so I also bought the Dragon Rebron), and continue with the wheel of time.  I hope to finish as many as possible before Way of Kings comes out.
I look forward to these great endings you speak of

See I knew Rand was the Dragon already just through osmosis.  I don't think reading New Spring first gave that a way.  It just tells me that Moraine is looking for the Dragon Reborn, and thus, had I not known it was Rand, I would have just assumed it to be Matt, Perrin, or Rand. 
I just finished Eye of the World by the way, and the ending was admittedly very good.  Good enough to make me consider holding off on reading The Name of the Wind for a bit and read The Great Hunt instead. 
The reason I liked New Spring better (and I still do) I think had to do with channelling.  I really like the magic system, and Eye of the World just doesn't show it off very well.  It all comes across as very cliche: woman with staff shooting fireballs at people.  In New Spring, you go into the how and why of channeling.  I found the weaves of saidar to be very interesting.  In Eye of the World, Moraine is just some mystic woman who can do all kinds of wierd things with wards and magic coins and of course, fireballs.  In New Spring, you see what goes into each of those weaves.
Another little criticism I have of channeling in Eye of the World are the choices Moraine makes in battle.  She herslef tells Egwene that women are more powerful at channeling air and water, and that both can be used to just as great an effect as earth and fire, yet in battle, Moraine consistently uses earth and fire.  She uses fire a lot during her test in New Spring, but those were more specialized situations.  When she battles Meeren (sp?) at the end, they fight eachother mostly with air if I recall correctly.  Why didn't she use air or water to trap Aginor in the Eye of the World when she must have known he could manipulate earth and fire better than her even if they were close to the same power level?
just a few things that bothered me, but I really enjoyed the book, and can't wait to read the next one.  I'm sure I will enjoy them all, but so far New Spring is my favorite.

I liked the use of Hebrew names for the dieties.  It especially like how you named goddess Shekina (or Shekinah as I prefer to spell it): 'the glory and prescense of god.'  It made me laugh a bit though, because here in Saskatchewan, we have both a Camp Elim (which is a dump) and Camp Shekinah (which is awesome), which is how I know what Shekinah means (sorry if you were impressed, I don't actually speak Hebrew.

In the prologue some of you paragraphs got repetitive.  I know you were going for inpact when you wrote the 'Never again.' paragraph, but it didn't work for me.  That could just be preference of course.  The six elementals turned me off as well (not that I can talk, having Auroks controlling fire and water in my story).

You don't need so exact a year (I'm talking about the '1,064 years ago,') in the prologue.  These are gods you are righting about, and I don't think sixty four years here or there should make much difference.  For me, it wrecked the very nice flow you were setting up.  I know you probably did it to avoid using the cliche: one thousand years ago, but in this situation, I think that would almost be better.  You might not even need a date for it all.  It's nice that you know it, but I don't think the reader needs to.
When Phyra calls for Kyrie, it is unclear which girl is shorter than the men around her with red hair.  As all ready mentioned, you should be clearer.

I also think Charon should have more of a reaction when he discovers Kyrie is the girl he needs.  At first he seems absolutely sure it can't be her because she is a human, but when he sees her eyes, he just accepts that she is the one he needs.  This might be in character, but I suggest making him surprised to find out she is a fae.

So far very creative, and it looks like it is going interesting places.  Keep it coming!

I don't understand what you guys see in Nathan Fillion.  I like the guy, but for Kelsier?  Robert Downey Jr. has my vote as well,

I also agree.  You sited her attack on Cett's keep as evidence of her ruthlessness.  Did you remember what happened after?  If I remember correctly she hid in an alley and cried.  Also remember: Telden was Elend's friend, and Vin knew it.  He was not some faceless guard to her.  Thirdly, He came up and confronted her directly.  It's a lot easier to kill someone in the heat of battle, or in stealth, as she did with Cett's men, and another thing entirely to look someone in the eye who is helpless against you, and torture them.  Vin has never tortured anyone, she's killed many, but she never tortured anyone.
The use of the mists in book one is the only true use of Deux ex Machina I can see, and there was a reason behind that.  I'm glad you finished the series.   I can't imagine that seen being so jarring as to make anyone consider not finishing it.  Did you at least enjoy the ending?

@Comatose
To help me better understand, I'm curious as to why you think it was a good choice to make it vague as to how much time had passed between Se'amus' funeral and the engagement party.  It felt organic to me and I didn't put a lot of thought into it, so I'd like to hear yours.

I have to think about that.  I was just going of my first impression of the piece.  I suppose it just made it interesting.  Like you said, you just let it slip organically that the second scene was a year later.  It gave me as the reader more the puzzle out through the course of the scene.  First, we have Edgar getting dressed.  Then we find out his mother is getting married.  Then we find out it is to his uncle.  Now at one of these points, I started to wonder, "Well how long has it been since her husband died?"  Even though it only took you a few paragraphs to bring up the jump in time, the gradual release of information gave the back of my brain more to work on, and thus made it more interesting to read, I guess.  Does that help?

I didn't get Valkynphyre's.  That might have been my fault though.  I was sure it was in my email inbox, but now it is not.  Regardless of the fault, please resend it!

I always lie and never tell the truth.