Timewaster's Guide Archive

Wooo Hooooo! Way of Kings update!

I just have to say I love how open and upfront Brandon is about his progress, how he spends his time, his personal goals, and whatnot. It's a huge contrast from most other authors. What a stud! He actually gives us more information than I would if I were in his shoes, but I think it's awesome he feels comfortable revealing his self-imposed deadlines to us. But, maybe telling people what his self-imposed deadlines are helps him reach them. 

THE WAY OF KINGS is a massive war epic of legends, mythology, and magical revolution. It's intricate, complex, and was a bit daunting for me when I thought about readying it for publication.

That sounds AWESOME! I'm stoked! When I first read Elantris and Mistborn I enjoyed them, but they didn't have the epic scope I love about WoT and other long series. Then when I learned that Brandon was finishing the WoT, the most exciting aspect of it for me was that he'd get the experience and practice of writing in that huge epic world.  Now my wildest dreams are coming true and Brandon is publishing his own huge series. And he's young enough that this could just be his first big series, he could go on to write additional ones!

Brandon says he's been planning and working on this book for 8 years. I'm sure some of that was spent in world building and outlining the overall series, and we all know Brandon has pumped out MANY other books in the last 8 years. I'm curious how long Brandon expects the second book in the series to take him.

Oh, and congrats Ookla! That's very cool. Now you can really give us the nitty gritty (that's nitty gritty with a Nacho Libre accent).

Oh yeah! I forgot you mentioned that.

Inkthinker actually read Brandon's mind without knowing it and drew the Way of Kings characters on the Shattered Plains from Dragonsteel (without having ever read it).

Ink - is this drawing being saved for something special? Or are you able to throw it on these forums?

Ink - you should definitely read it (for selfish reasons). I want to see you draw a scene on the shattered plains! 

Joe - Sorry to hear about your friend. I really don't know what to say about that. It's a really hard thing to deal with.

On a WoT note, thanks for the update. It was fun to read even if your heart wasn't in it. And ya, it was kind of obvious you weren't quite your normal self when you wrote that.

I agree that Path of Daggers wasn't as good as the previous books. I don't mean to say that I didn't like it. I did. But I LOVED some of the previous books. Fires of Heaven is AWESOME! And most people REALLY enjoy reading from Matt's point of view, and there isn't any Matt in Path of Daggers at all! No wonder it's not as exciting! 

Masema is crazy. I also hope to see Rand lay into that crazed loon one of these days. I won't comment on Faile, because I can't think anything to say that wouldn't potentially lead to a slight spoiler.

I'm currently at the beginning of The Dragon Reborn on my own re-read of the series. I love the foreshadowing that Jordan drops about different characters. Every time someone teases Egwene about rising as far as the Amyrlin Seat is great! She is an awesome Amyrlin. Artur Hawkwing wouldn't have had any channelers when he laid seige to Tar Valon. It will be very interesting to see how that goes.

Ya, you'd think Elayne would just walk in and take the Lion Throne. She's the Daughter Heir and her boyfriend is the freaking Dragon Reborn, who already controls Andor. I kind of see her point, but I also think she's a little stubborn. She wants to jump through every tiny hoop to prove to everyone that she is the Ruler of Andor because she deserves it and not because Rand handed it to her on a silver platter. Kind of makes sense, but a little frustrating she has to go through all the politics anyway.

I don't recall when Logain joined the Black Tower, but yeah, he's there. When he kissed Toveine he did something to her with the Power. You'll probably find out exactly what shortly after starting the next book. Elaida is such an incompetent person. Everything she does ends up blowing up in her face. Sending those sisters to the Black Tower ends up introducing some very interesting twists in the relationship between Ashaman and Aes Sedai.

It's been a long time since I read Path of Daggers. I can't remember much of Rand using Callandor in a battle with the Seanchan. Cleansing Saidin is an interesting idea. That would be pure crazy talk though.

Dashiva and the other Asha'man haven't gone mad. They're just finally showing their true colors. Looks like there are some darkfriends mixed in with the Asha'man. Now they have to keep an eye out for "Black Asha'man" as well as ones going mad.

So yeah. Path of Daggers isn't as great as some of the other WoT books, but I think it still carries the plot forward and sets up more exciting things for later books.

Good luck Joe!

Brandon Twittered the following about 15 minutes ago:

Getting Ready for a Post about THE WAY OF KINGS. Should go up soon.

I am VERY excited about this new series. I am so excited about it, I am a little sad that Brandon has to work so much on the last few books of The Wheel of Time.  (And I am a HUGE WoT fan!) That's how excited I am.

I managed to get a hold of Dragonsteel (see the Dragonsteel **SPOILERS** thread for more info on that) I enjoyed the characters and concepts introduced in that book immensely. From what I understand, Brandon decided not to publish Dragonsteel, but to introduce some of the concepts from it in The Way of Kings instead. YES!

Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread to discuss the imminent announcement of WoK. My first thread on these forums! That's how excited I am. 

There is real reason to believe these are Mat's personal past life experiences.

Renoard - I don't think so. I agree with melbatoast on this one. I seem to remember Matt having memories from multiple people in the same age. Melbatoast mentioned Matt having memories from multiple people in the same battle (even different sides of the same battle). I can't think of any examples of that, but I seem to remember something like that too. Anyone have the books handy and want to point out some examples? 

Seems to me that Matt's memories are just a bunch of memories from different people, mostly generals and commanders. I'm not sure if the memories are from people that visited the land of Finn or not, but that theory at least makes a little bit of sense. I seem to remember the Finn vicariously "enjoying" people's memories when they were visiting with them. I think that's the reason the Finn even allow humans to contact them. They gain something from sifting through people's memories. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is it kind of makes sense the Finn would have access to people's memories that they could have dumped into Matt.

Yeah! An update from Joe.

I agree with you about the Shaido. It's pretty ridiculous they're still against Rand when Couladan is long dead. My only advice is get used to it. The Shaido don't go away any time soon.

Mat is Artur Hawkwing reborn? I'm not so sure on that, but I've been wrong before.

I LOVED that scene where Elayne and Nyneave finally apologize to Matt. I NEVER thought that would happen. Oh, and the scene where Elayne is getting drunk through the warder bond is hilarious.

Aes Sedai age slower than most people, but they don't get close to 412 years old! This was news to me when I first read that part, since it never really says how old Aes Sedai get.  Just that they "age slower". I think you'll soon learn a theory about why the Kin live longer than Aes Sedai. It's pretty interesting.

I hear you about Rand not making much sense when you're seeing him through other people's POV. That's one thing I missed in the later books is more insight into what Rand is thinking. I guess it makes sense that Jordan started sharing less and less of Rand's thoughts, since that's now a large part of the suspense. "What will Rand do next?"

Oh, and thanks for the nice long update! Reading them totally brings back the memories of reading this awesome story for the first time.