Tuesday, March 19. 2013The Great Hunt (Chapters 12-17)
Overall, I felt that this was a solid assignment. We get to learn a bit more about several characters besides Rand, along with doing a little more world building. Summaries and further thoughts below the fold.
We get Egwene’s point of view for the first time in the series. We get to learn more about how Saidar works as she and Nynaeve attempt to embrace it and control the air. Nynaeve has a difficult time until she becomes angry and then she overdoes it. Egwene begins to have strange, true-feeling dreams about Rand encountering danger and possibly falling into a trap. When she tells another Aes Sedai about this, possibility is raised of her becoming a Dreamer - of which there have been no Aes Sedai in several hundred years.
Rand, Loial and Hurin wake up in a strange land that smells of violence and murder. Loial lends us the exposition on a Portal Stone. Rand begins to accept the role of a Lord. We get Perrin’s point of view as the camp discover that Rand, Loial and Hurin disappeared without a trace. Mat and Perrin are suspicious (having recently learned that Rand can channel.) Having no other way to chase down the Horn of Valere and Mat’s dagger, Perrin reveals to Ingtar that he can speak to wolves who will help them track down Padan Fain. Verin Sedai mysteriously appears looking for Rand and decides to stay with the group after showing an interest in Perrin’s “sniffing.” Rand and company continue tracking Fain. He has an encounter with Ba’alzamon that is neither dream nor entirely real. He finds a heron mark brand on his hand as a result. Maybe now he can stop insisting that Tam is his real father and show how Tam’s sword branded him to anyone insinuating otherwise. Rand and company encounter Selene, the most beautiful woman. Ever. She seems to know an awful lot and yet disdains the title Aes Sedai. Rand insists on following the “trail.” Selene insists they use the Portal Stone by which she entered this odd realm. Rand is stubborn which seems to turn Selene on. Suddenly there are more grolm than Rand can deal with and he is forced to take his friends to the Portal Stone. They arrive back in the real world and decide that they have arrived near Cairhien before Fain so they will camp and wait for him. My thoughts. Wow. After doing the chapter summaries I realize that a lot more happened in these chapters than I thought. We get introduced to more of the absolutely marvelous (and in no way do I mean that sarcastically - not one bit) Aes Sedai intrigue. This will continue forever. The Egwene and Rand thing can please end. Like now. Ugh. Grow up. I feel that there are spoilers in talking too much more about Egwene. I hadn’t realized how much foreshadowing there was to her character. And saying that is probably giving away a lot. And I haven’t even finished the series. We finally meet our mysterious lady in white. Or at least, Selene is a mysterious lady in white. Do we ever find out for sure who the lady was that Uno saw? I don’t remember. I’m assuming for now that Selene is not telling us everything. I’m mildly annoyed that we have another way of zipping across the huge countryside. And we’re not even close to being done yet. We got both Rand and Egwene’s point of view on channeling. For both it is a little scary, but Rand seems to be a little bit like a junkie wanting another hit despite the yucky taint. Looking forward to more of the story this week. Trackbacks
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Radar on :
I can't agree with you on your feelings on Ice-a-dye intrigue. It's annoying and I don't enjoy it at all. If they wanted to help Rand then they need to give him knowledge and then offer advice, not a ring in the nose.
Good metaphor about the power and being drawn to it like a junkie though. Curtis on :
I layered my sarcasm too deeply. The Aes Sedai intrigue in this book is annoying.
AoD on :
Technically, the first time we hear Egewne's POV is in the second prologue, titled "Ravens", which was added when EOTW was re-released as two shorter novels...but, then, only a TRUE fan would know that, so I'll let it slide.
I actually really like the Portal stones; I am disappointed at how infrequently they turn out to be used. Aes Sedai are chronically manipulative; there's a strong odor of "nurture rather than nature" coming off the entire Aes Sedai organization - they perpetuate this problem to each new generation of Sisters. We'll see a *lot* more of this as the series develops. The Mad Giggler on :
So what you're saying Joey, is that Egwene's POV was LATER inserted into a previous book. So this chapter from her POV was actually the FIRST written?
AoD on :
Or, Egwene's POV was written EARLIER for EOTW, cut from the first release, and later REINSERTED into its proper place as Egwene's first actual POV chapter.
Radar on :
Here-Here! Well said MG.
Radar on :
I like the portal stones too. It is one of the really interesting parts of history in this world. The mystery of the angrial/ter-angrial are also pretty cool.
Curtis on :
I also like the idea behind the Portal Stones; I just find it mildly annoying the way he keeps introducing new ways to cut across the countryside at super speeds. If it were just the Ways and the Portal Stones, I'd think it was great. They point out in these chapters that they are related somehow - that makes sense.
I do feel that I'm failing to point out how Jordan is trying to make everyone new a suspect (based on his prologue indicating there were Darkfriends everywhere.) I'm not sure if it's because I already know most of the characters from later in the series so there's no suspense for me or if it's just not well-written here, but I'm really not feeling any insecurity as a reader. |
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