TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT cover art, blurb and opening paragraph

[Dida]

I give up.  It's definitely Noal.  There is no way Sweet is so bad that Talmanes' being a few years older than Mat could translate into THAT old..... I think.

 

Oh no :(  I wonder how Dida will ignore the cover for his theory, can't wait.

 

Why am I, a subject of conversion here? 

 

Why did Tor Inc block out the white hair man's mustaches originally on the book cover artwork?  Mossman,  since know everything those is to know... do tell us, why?  :P 

[Knobs Mahoney]

 

Can't...stop...laughing.

 

Guess I'll have to wait for the TofM to come out to stake the "Cyndane" vampire.  ;D

[Lambada]

We have never been given an indication of Noal carrying a stick (though, I admit I don't think we've seen anyone with a stick but Nynaeve).

Crazy theory time!

That stick is actually Moiraines from way back in tEotW - one of her wishes was for the stick to be found by that group >:D. It's going to play a key part obviously!

[Suttree]

I give up.  It's definitely Noal.  There is no way Sweet is so bad that Talmanes' being a few years older than Mat could translate into THAT old..... I think.

 

Oh no :(  I wonder how Dida will ignore the cover for his theory, can't wait.

 

Why am I, a subject of conversion here? 

 

HAHAH obviously it's Valan Luca and his "juggling fire" power that is needed for Matt to survive the ToG as the third man. Just wait until they find out Lanfear isn't Cyndane. Another amazing theory  ;D

[Hadilmir]

I've got no problems with the art, but what happened to the 'spotless silver' tower. It's like he spends weeks make the art look very good, which it does, but only fifteen minutes researching...

 

Also, no, Mat already made the black yew into a bow, remember? That is indeed Moiraine's staff, though how it got from four and a half feet tall to six feet tall is beyond me. Check out the EotW cover.

[Shard]

I give up.  It's definitely Noal.  There is no way Sweet is so bad that Talmanes' being a few years older than Mat could translate into THAT old..... I think.

 

Oh no :(  I wonder how Dida will ignore the cover for his theory, can't wait.

 

Why am I, a subject of conversion here? 

 

Why did Tor Inc block out the white hair man's mustaches originally on the book cover artwork?  Mossman,  since know everything those is to know... do tell us, why?  :P 

 

It is called a rough draft obviously a second and final draft was made. That's how artists work they make multiple drfats of something. Please do suggest to us that Mr Sweets is in on the plot of the books and is trying to cover anything up. The Valan Luca theory is dead.

[lordofsoup]

We have never been given an indication of Noal carrying a stick (though, I admit I don't think we've seen anyone with a stick but Nynaeve).

Crazy theory time!

That stick is actually Moiraines from way back in tEotW - one of her wishes was for the stick to be found by that group >:D. It's going to play a key part obviously!

 

thats what I was thinking, but the staff after the the Eye of the World, and it doesn't really look like it.  I thought the staff was more blue (wait thats not true, i just looked).

 

 

[DemandredFO]

Also, didn't Moiraine kind of throw it away after cutting out of the ways and destroying the guiding.

[Lambada]

Also, didn't Moiraine kind of throw it away after cutting out of the ways and destroying the guiding.

As I posted just 6 posts ago (in my post beginning "Crazy Theory Time!") one of Moiraines wishes was for her staff to be found by the group. Obviously. *rolls eyes*

[Dida]

The Valan Luca theory is dead.

 

Incorrect.

 

Is Malkier dead within Lan and in many of the Malkeir Borderlanders?  

No.

 

Lan told me once that Malkier lives so long as one man wears that hadori in pledge that he will fight the Shadow, so long as one women wears the ki'sain in pledge that she will send her sons to fight the Shadow. I wear the ki'sain, Master Aldragoran.  My husband wears the hadori. So do you. Will Lan Mandragoran ride to the Last Battle alone?

 

So Lan and myself are in a minority, on an issue.

 

 

Your speaking for yourself, Spard.  I stand by my prediction and theory that Valan Luca is the 3rd man, based on the story itself.  8)  

 

The person shown drawing a triangle on the Tower of Ghenjei, fits neither Thom nor Valan Luca physical appearance based on the text of the books.  :o  The clothes depicted do not fit Thom anywhere previously in the story for one, and Valan Luca is slightly taller than Mat in height.  The whole depicted is vague for the 3rd man on the cover artwork.

 

If Sweet was attempting go for accuracy the man blue coat lacks lace on the cuffs and collar. If one assumes that is Noal, he is not stooped as he is supposed to be, nor is that blue jacket tattered (CoT book).

 

 

 There seems to have been a change of emphasis in the latest artwork, from attempting to hide the identities of two of the individuals, towards a possible feeling of horror, terror as shown on the ugly face of the man in a blue coat-- "Noal".

 

 

 Does this artwork look nicer than the prior artwork overall? Yes, the red & brown palette used do look nicer than the yellow & green in the previous artwork cover, in my view.  Though, it seems more like a piece of Adobe CS created artwork rather than an painting.

 

 

Yes, I stand by my claim that Noal is a darkfriend, and is not the 3rd man.

 

 

Who do you all believe and predict is going into the Tower of Ghenjei with Thom and Mat, and why?

[Mr Ares]

Why am I?

A mystery to us all.

[Etzel]

After BS even said on Twitter that the cover has no real errors anymore, it's pretty crazy to still believe that the third man is anyone else than Noal, the old hero Farstrider (who already offered to come with Thom & Mat). It's also reasonable that they'll get to exchange their old, tattered clothes for new ones before the trip, when they visit Elayne in Caemlyn. The matter of the third man is really settled.

[Hadilmir]

After BS even said on Twitter that the cover has no real errors anymore, it's pretty crazy to still believe that the third man is anyone else than Noal, the old hero Farstrider (who already offered to come with Thom & Mat). It's also reasonable that they'll get to exchange their old, tattered clothes for new ones before the trip, when they visit Elayne in Caemlyn. The matter of the third man is really settled.

What isn't settled is how Moiraine's staff grew two feet taller during her imprisonment. Or the odd texture on the 'spotless metal' tower...

[mossman87]

After BS even said on Twitter that the cover has no real errors anymore, it's pretty crazy to still believe that the third man is anyone else than Noal, the old hero Farstrider (who already offered to come with Thom & Mat). It's also reasonable that they'll get to exchange their old, tattered clothes for new ones before the trip, when they visit Elayne in Caemlyn. The matter of the third man is really settled.

What isn't settled is how Moiraine's staff grew two feet taller during her imprisonment. Or the odd texture on the 'spotless metal' tower...

 

This calls for a new theory.

[FarShainMael]

Perhaps Moiraine, freed from the three oaths by her imprisonment in 'finn-land, has been lying to her hosts..   ;)

 

'Spotless' may simply mean 'untarnished'. Free of rust or similar corrosion.

 

[Sentinel78]

From Domon, Book 1:

 

Another time, when the eastward shore had become flat grassland again, broken only occasionally by thickets, the sun glinted off something in the distance. "What can that be?" Rand wondered aloud. "It looks like metal."

 

Captain Domon was walking by, and he paused, squinting toward the glint. "It do be metal," he said. His words still ran together, but Rand had come to understand without having to puzzle it out. "A tower of metal. I have seen it close up, and I know. River traders use it as a marker. We be ten days from Whitebridge at the rate we go."

 

"A metal tower?" Rand said, and Mat, sitting cross-legged with his back against a barrel, roused from his brooding to listen.

 

The captain nodded. "Aye. Shining steel, by the look and feel of it, but no a spot of rust. Two hundred feet high, it be, as big around as a house, with no a mark on it and never an opening to be found."

 

From Noal, Book 11:

 

"He wouldn't forget seeing it, and even if he never heard the name, he'd have to think of it when he heard of a strange tower that lets people into other lands. The thing gleams like burnished steel. I'm told, two hundred feet high and forty thick, and there's not an opening to be found in it. Who could forget seeing that?"

 

 

BS approved the cover and I doubt he was unaware of Domon's description.  Either the weird texture is not something Domon would consider to be a 'mark', it's new or the Tower changes its texture, or it's an error.

[FarShainMael]

It's possible that Domon's idea of a 'mark' might be a dent or similar damage, rather than an overall surface pattern.

 

[Sharaman]

After BS even said on Twitter that the cover has no real errors anymore, it's pretty crazy to still believe that the third man is anyone else than Noal, the old hero Farstrider (who already offered to come with Thom & Mat). It's also reasonable that they'll get to exchange their old, tattered clothes for new ones before the trip, when they visit Elayne in Caemlyn. The matter of the third man is really settled.

What isn't settled is how Moiraine's staff grew two feet taller during her imprisonment. Or the odd texture on the 'spotless metal' tower...

 

Mask of Mirrors ^3 obviously.

Noal is being MoM-ed (he's actually Olver),

the staff is being MoM-ed (it's actually Luca)

and the ToG is being MoM-ed (to look pre-fabbed in sections for RAFO reasons).

 

[Etzel]

It's simply a walking staff similar to the one Moiraine had, implying that the guys wandered a bit to the Tower of Ghenjei & that old Noal used this staff to better keep up.

[Shard]

Yeah I don't think Moriane staff is the only one with a knob carved like leaves at the end of it. It's most likely just a different stick especially since the one Moraine did have became a burnt chard rubbish that she discarded.

 

I gotta admit this cover is even better then the tGS one actually.

[DemandredFO]

Hopefully someone will Travel at least part of the way or the Light's General is going to be outta commission for too long, though that may be the plan.  Light still divided into 3 or more and trollocs and shadowspawn destroy alot of stuff and then AS and Seanchan realize that need too cooperate with Rand.  They can go back to killing each other later.

[Kathleen]

I know it was meant to be one book and it was broken down to three, but is it just me or does there seem to be a lot left to do and a lot just jammed into the final two books? I just hope it isn't written in a way that you can tell we're jamming too much info into it. The other books had a good pace and moved along at a good rate, it just seems that the tone is changing with the last books looming. I know that TG is quickly approaching, but I always thought there would be more set up for it, where the characters are scattered and rushed but the book stills flows, and then I figured the TG itself would be a bigger deal after the 11 (13) book build up. Maybe if the last book is only TG but I don't know that they can pull together the loose ends of all the story lines in one or one and a half books without it feeling terribly rushed.

 

Sorry I know this probably isn't the place for that comment, as its not on the topic of the thread, but it came to me when I was reading it so poke me with a stick in the right direction for me to move this, or reply if you want to.

[Bob T Dwarf]

One of the questions Maria was asked was who would appear in Towers of Midnight?  Her answer was main characters who we hadn't seen in The Gathering Storm.

 

What else should we expect?

 

We know from Rand's vision that Perrin and Galad have met.  Seems likely we'll get to see at least some of that firsthand.

Aviendha got sent to the Crystal Columns.  We should get to see at least some of what transpires there.

Mat, Thom, and Noal are pointed at The Tower of Ghenjei.  Hopefully we get to see all of that.

Mohammad... err Rand has to come down off the mountain.

Demandred was mentioned, but only appeared in one brief scene.  He should get some major screen time.

 

Who didn't we see and know nothing about?

 

Slayer.

Fain.

Lan.

 

Lan is the only one about whose activities we have even the vaguest idea.  There should be a lot to catch up on there.

 

So, what have Slayer and Fain been up-to?

 

 

 

[Sharaman]

Taim and the Black Tower thread presumably moves further even if it's not resolved.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Yup.  ^^^^ That's another one.

 

Also, what have Moggy and Cyndane been up to?