My First Time Reading Eye of the World

[klipscomb]

So... I have been following this thread for about a month (since i started reading EOTW) and have found it amazing... As of right now, i am currently reading the Shadow Rising and keep thinking that the books keep getting better and better... keep up the reading COZ... From what i have been reading on the thread.... you and I are about page for page

[White_star]

More time with Mat. Aludra has been introduced. And now back with Perrin in Illian...

For the second time.

[Coz]

Second time? Should I have noticed that or not? Hurm...

[gambril]

Second time? Should I have noticed that or not? Hurm...

 

He just means iirc that she was introduced in TGH when Rand wanders into that illuminator's warehouse in Cairhen. Aludra was there in that scene I think.

[moratcorlm]

gambril has the right of it; Aludra was the leader of the Illuminator chapterhouse in Cairhien that Rand accidentally blew up in TGH27, which is what the other Illuminators were blaming her for. Egwene's prophetic Dream in TDR37 of "Mat with a woman who seemed to be tossing fireworks about. An Illuminator, she assumed," might refer to her, too. I'd give a dramatis personae of the characters which are important to remember, but until the beginning of TSR that would be somewhat spoilery in some cases.

 

Speaking of spoilers, I've been sort of wavering on whether to point Coz to the chapter summaries at the Encyclopedia; they're an excellent tool to keep track of things (which accounts for much of our comprehensive memory), but the footnotes will spell out both the past events being referenced in the current chapter, and (sometimes far-) future solutions to the current chapter's mysteries. Mostly they're in the form of "Verin's motivations are far from clear. We learn more about her in TGS,Ch39.", but occasionally they'll expose some fairly major developments outright.

 

Edit: Now that I've looked some of them over, way too much is revealed for me to recommend it. They're a great tool for us to look things up for you, though, I guess.

[Sid]

Agreed, the Encyclopaedia is much, much too spoilery for anyone to check if they're not done with book 12 yet. One cannot simply ignore the 'notes' section at the bottom of every summary page.

[Agitel]

I'm guilty of it as much as anyone, but is Coz in need of a guide to help him with every detail in the series? Particularly when he's more just commenting on it or wondering out loud instead of asking outright questions. I fear it might take some of the discovery out of reading. I know Jordan himself was very fond of using the phrase RAFO.

 

If I'm completely off base and rude, sorry, I find it difficult to not respond to such comments, too.

[moratcorlm]

That's a good question; I've been more guilty of it than anyone recently, and it was unasked-for. On the one hand, a lot of people do cite the increasing number of characters and so forth as a significant barrier to entry; on the other... he hasn't gotten to that point in the series yet, and there's no call to turn his first read into a lecture.

[rsahae]

you know, I think there's something to be said for just taking it all in, especially the first time. It's near impossible to try to keep track of every character entrance and situation, unless you really go at it with plenty of notepaper and ink (or their modern equivalents), but that just takes the fun out of reading (it makes it like WORK!)

 

so don't worry about missing aludra or anyone else. When you read the series again, you'll see things that you will know are going to be important later and you'll go, "Huh. He put that in there all the way back there?? Awesome."

 

That's one of the wonderful things about this series - it's very very re-readable

[Coz]

Darkhounds. Balefire. Zarine becomes more annoying...

[dovien]

Zarine never stops being annoying. Never. Even when she's not around.

[rsahae]

Agreed. I don't like anything having to do with Zarine until (book title spoiler)

is it the prologue of TGS?

Alright there are a couple moments here and there but basically that's it.

[socom-delta]

was such a thrill reading through this thread.

 

Coz, you strike me as a remarkably astute fellow. You hated Nynaeve and Moiraine as much as I did! LOL

 

I think maybe the author realized that some of these central characters would be disliked, so you end up getting to know them a bit better and respecting them for being the way they are.

 

Allow me to act as an Aes Sedai, and spoil the whole series while not really spoiling anything:

 

 

 

On the surface, this series is a very ambitious and pleasing fantasy epic. You'll find the story pacing and the author's writing style change roughly around book 7, and by book 9 the plot progresses rather slow, although there are still many key plot points and experiences and wonderful characters in these books. Books 10 and 11 pick up the pace more.

 

Once you've had a chance to read through much of the series, and depending on how observant you are and what kind of person you are, you may actually feel yourself learning things about yourself and this series. As you see and feel characters grow and change throughout this series, you may see some things in yourself change. Your initial perceptions of people will be challenged, with surprising results. If you're anything of a heavy thinker like I am, you'll find that Robert Jordan touched on a myriad of social themes. I actually tried to make a list of these themes in another thread: http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/54808-philosophies-of-the-wot/ (WARNING: there are no spoilers in the OP, but after that you may encounter some. OP is worth a look).

 

So I ran into a description of an ancient Persian text, and this series bears some similarities. It's a grand epic that mirrors some religious texts, like the Bible without the heavy reliance on religion, full of life lessons on things like justice and respect for women and property, how to live your life by doing good and recognize wickedness and whether those who are wicked can truly be reformed. I don't know if RJ intended to do these things. I DO know he served in Vietnam and he was a decorated veteran, and raised Episcopalian, and also highly educated, but the WoT series is a fairly liberal (politically speaking) interpretation of societal structure.

 

Have patience, read and follow the intricate plot lines with gusto, and get a feeling for how each of the societies, peoples, and nations are distinctly different and you'll find yourself the better for it. And by the time you're ready for the pacing to pick up, it does, and you find yourself near the end but wishing it doesn't.

 

tl;dr

 

This series is, I think, far far more deep than a lot of readers and fans realize. I hope you ultimately come to the same conclusions that I have (unless I'm just crazy! lol) and it touches you in the same way it has me.

 

`S-D

 

p.s.

 

I hope your recuperation goes more smoothly and you get better. Being a veteran myself (got out under very different circumstances; don't ask), I understand how hard it could be to separate from active service, so I pray this doesn't happen until you're ready to exit. Happy reading!

[Whatsie]

Waaaaah socom it looks (on my phone) like you forgot to put in a tag to end the spoiler. The whole ting shows up for me, you may want to check that.

[Coz]

And so I finish The Dragon Reborn.

 

I'm still taking time to process my thoughts, but basically:

 

I loved the last few chapters. Rand facing Ba'alzamon was basically the same as before, with each character thinking The Dark One is dead. Obviously, he's not. The women still annoy me with their constant disapproval of essentially every male in the story (example: Mat, in his best of the novels, risks his life for them, yet they scold him for bad language. Talk about an awkward moment). And speaking of awkward moments, it seems that Jordan is still trying his best to reel them in -- each novel from the first seems to contain more mature and adult themes, and it's why I'm still reading. That, and I really, really like Rand, Perrin, Mat, Thom and a few others...

 

Whew. Time for sleep. And tomorrow, the Shadow Rises, folks...

[dovien]

Good work. Mat eventually gets an apology but you'll be waiting a while...

[Guest wand]

ok this is my first post on the forums (sry for my bad english). im reading wot for the first time myself. I just finished lord of chaos. The pace youre reading you will soon catch up with me. with that said, back to topic.

 

This is the only thread i can read whitout risking spoilers. i agree with most of your thoughts. The most upset ive been so far in the series was egwyne, nynaeve and elayne reaction when mat "saved" them.. I could not understand how they could be so ungrateful..

[capuga]

@wanderlei - Welcome to the boards. Maybe you would be interested in starting your own thread as you read so we can live vicariously through you as well?

[moratcorlm]

Congratulations on finishing the prologue! Now the fun starts.

[trench]

I agree the Prologue to the Wheel of Time is over at tDR. The real meat of this story starts with tSR. This is my favorite book by far, im very jealous now.

[coolpool]

hey new to the site. I loved this thread so much that i just had to join! i just got through my first read of the series (already started reading them again :D) and it is cool to see that other people felt the same way about things in the series like getting addicted on book 2 and some of the charaters

 

i will say COZ, take notice of the dragon prophsies in TSR.. though they are hard to understand until it actualy happens..

[Jackson]

Love this thread. Love the books. It took me a long time to get through I dont have your speed and at some points id take time of then restart the series to refresh and finally i plugged it out to the end. However I remember so little its making me feel bad. But now my brother started the series for the first time and he's been asking me questions so now im tempted to start reading again to go through with him.

 

Funny question he asked me today. "Are all 13 books about them trying to get to tarvalan" And I was like no....

 

-sorry for bad book related spelling (Audio book listener)

[Whatsie]

Woah... I never even thought about that. I'm so used to my own mistaken pronunciations that I don't even bother trying to correct them anymore... Having just finished Great Hunt on a re read, Egwene, Nynaeve, and sometimes Siuan are the ones I know I do wong, but 10 years in I just don't care.

 

for your reference, Jackson, the name of the city is Tar Valon. I bet the maps are online somewhere, or maybe even the glossaries from the end of every book, if you are interested in seeing how some of the citiies and old tongue words are spelled.

[rsahae]

Coz, there's definitely been some repetition at the end of books with killing Ba'alzamon. The end of tDR does give a clue as to what's been going on, though. Enjoy tSR, one of the best in the series, and like someone said, enjoy the prophecies!

[A2597]

oh yea...It is kinda funny how books 1-3 all kinda have the same ending.

 

"Kill Ba'alzamon" "The dragon is reborn"

 

rinse, repeat.

 

Then realize whats been happening later and go "ohhhhh"