Timewaster's Guide Archive

I just finished reading Warbreaker for the second time, and Awakening has really captured my imagination. Are steel and stone the only inorganic materials that can be Awakened? What about glass? Or plastic? Or iron? Could you Awaken a cloth made in our modern times that is a mix of cotton and polyester? Could you encase a dinosaur skeleton in stone and awaken that?
Are swords the only steel thing that would become sentient? What about a lance, or a steel cube? I wonder what other Commands could have been given to Nightblood. Protect me?
Vasher had those two pairs of shirts and pants fight along side him. I wonder if Awakened pants or shoes could be taught to dance.

I think it's actually not such a bad title. It sort of fits with the others. The Shadow Rising...The Gathering Storm. Not a bad title. But the tentative title for the next book...was it Swirling Clouds? No way.

The other day I was thinking about my favorite book, Harry Potter, and I thought of something. The three Unforgivable Curses which land a person in Azkaban for life are murder, torture, and the Imperius curse (stealing someone's free will maybe?). And then I realized the forbidden magic in the Wheel of Time is basically the same. Aes Sedai can't use the Power to kill, or use the Power as a weapon, which rules out torture, and Compulsion (maybe analogous to slavery?) is forbidden too, although not by the Oath Rod. I thought it was interesting that the same things were outlawed in two different books.

I recommend Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks, it's part of a trilogy. I can't think of any other fantasy I know without elves or dwarves. Also it's set in Illinois.
And don't forget Warbreaker, or Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians.

Where does Mat fit in?  He kind of seems out of place to me.  What does the signet ring and the medallion mean?  We know the nine moons means Tuon, but what does the fox chasing two ravens mean?  What's the medallion supposed to be meant for.  I know what the medallion does, but what is it meant for? 

Mat seems to be the wild card in all this.  He's always late to the party in this series. Rand found out he was the Dragon Reborn, Perrin found out about his wolve senses long before Mat discovered his luck.  Likewise, Rand found all his women, Perrin found Faile long before Mat found Tuon.  So I wonder where Mat fits in any ideas?   

Don't forget Mat blew the Horn of Valere in book 2 and no one else can use it unless he dies. The signet ring was something he picked by chance, which showed a fox chasing ravens (symbol of Seanchean) surrounded by nine moons. Tuon's damane had a Foretelling that she would marry 'the fox that makes the ravens fly.'

Quote from: Roberts on December 08, 2008, 02:54:24 AM

Would elevators and electricity work in the World of Dreams?

I was under the impression you could just think something up and it would work a certain way, without really needing a rationale for why it works.

ex: "I want to stand on this circular platform and it will hover in the air." No need for electricity, pulleys, shafts etc.

Well it would be even easier to fly or teleport, but using an elevator might be cool. I was reading the part in book four or five where they are searching through Elaida's papers in the World of Dreams and the papers keep disappearing because their reflection in the dream world is weak...I wonder what would happen to a computer, if you tried to turn it on or access the files or...go on the internet. There's no electricity in The Wheel of Time...I wonder if it was in Robert Jordan's notes about how electricity works in the World of Dreams.

Also, seeing the percentage bar move so fast is really cool. 400,000 words x 1% = 4,000 words, which is about 5 single spaced pages in Microsoft Word. I bet if Mr. Sanderson pulled an all-nighter he could finish the first draft before his birthday.

http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000720.html

so I found out at a book signing that this is the real reason why TenSoon becomes a horse