Curtis on :
You're weird.
Monday, September 9. 2013The Shadow Rising (Chapters 49-54)
I'm claiming a medical hardship waiver for my entry being a week late. It's a mediocre section this week, as we're getting near the end of book four and threads need to be wound down.
I like the Aiel cultural stuff in the first two chapters, especially because we see Rand bumbling through it; just because he's the Dragon Reborn doesn't mean things go well for him.
The chapters about the girls in Tanchico are less interesting. I really struggled to get through these. These folks never learned rule #1: Never split the party. However, the male a'dam sounds terrifyingly awesome, and the balefire wand was pretty killer as well. As has consistently been the case for this novel, Perrin's tale is the highlight of the assignment; although it's a little bit "relationship heavy" this time around, the Wolf Dream prophecies, Lord Luc/Slayer, and Perrin's stoicism really save the chapter. Trackbacks
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AoD on :
Granted; is there something specific that prompts the comment?
Curtis on :
Haha. I guess that was a very non-specific comment.
Let me preface by saying that I've already finished the book and can't remember exactly what the content we're discussing. Rand bumbling through the Aiel stuff is the bracelet, right? I found the way Rand is resisting the urge to humanize the Aiel very interesting. He so very much wants to just use them like a blunt instrument, and they very much want him to have compassion for them. These chapters almost made the Tanchico thread in this book worthwhile. Most of the time I hated getting sidetracked into what they were doing. The fight with Moghedien sets a good metric for how powerful Nynaeve is and it was fun to see Elayne in action rather than just passively observing. I was moved by Perrin's attempt to save Faile, but then I've been getting in touch with my feelings a lot lately. :) AoD on :
Life would be a lot easier for Rand if he could *be* the hardcase he pretends to be, but I suspect that transition might have dire consequences for the world at large. Echoes of Ender Wiggin here.
I don't think the Tanchico thread *can* be salvaged, but I'm glad these chapters recovered it a bit for you. As a reader, I already got that Nynaeve is strong; without knowing how strong Moghedien is, I'm not sure how much more information this gives us. As I said, I also liked the Perrin stuff; but the whole thing with them getting married was...not my favorite. I'll leave it at that, wouldn't want to upset our own little Faile by saying too much. ;) |
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