My First Time Reading Eye of the World

[dovien]

Hammar moved to stand beside Galad, still groaning on the ground and trying to push himself up. The Warder raised his voice to shout, “Who was the greatest blademaster of all time?”

From the throats of dozens of students came a massed bellow. “Jearom, Gaidin!”

“Yes!” Hammar shouted, turning to make sure all heard. “During his lifetime, Jearom fought over ten thousand times, in battle and single combat. He was defeated once. By a farmer with a quarterstaff. Remember that. Remember what you just saw.” He lowered his eyes to Galad, and lowered his voice as well. “If you cannot get up by now, lad, it is finished. “ He raised a hand, and the Aes Sedai and Accepted rushed to surround Galad.

And there are passages which back up Mat's skill. Right after this excerpt he explains to Hammar about the competitions at Bel Tine and how his father Abel always wins.

[moratcorlm]

Yes, but none of that answers his complaint that "Mat has never shown any particular prowess with a weapon"; it's all after the fact. Now, a staff is a superior weapon to a sword if there's room to work with it and the swordsman's not armored, so someone skilled with a quarterstaff doing what Mat did is not too incredible; it's just that there are no prior hints that Mat has any skill with a quarterstaff. Having a character who was dragged around as a useless lump for 2+ books suddenly become an active agent will tend to create seams at the transition, and this is one of them.

 

Still a fun scene outside of that context, though.

[Coz]

Mat is taking the letter to Morgase. The Girls are about to make a move from the Tower. Coz is trying to finish The Dragon Reborn, so he can start the one-thousand page behemoth known only as the Shadow...

[Suttree]

Yes, but none of that answers his complaint that "Mat has never shown any particular prowess with a weapon"; it's all after the fact. Now, a staff is a superior weapon to a sword if there's room to work with it and the swordsman's not armored, so someone skilled with a quarterstaff doing what Mat did is not too incredible; it's just that there are no prior hints that Mat has any skill with a quarterstaff. Having a character who was dragged around as a useless lump for 2+ books suddenly become an active agent will tend to create seams at the transition, and this is one of them.

 

Still a fun scene outside of that context, though.

 

 

Well Mat has been shown to have excellent dexterity and as noted in the Jearom story he was defeated by a "farmer" with a quarterstaff. Mat is a farmer and his father is the best in the Two Rivers with that particular weapon. I would say the Abel Bel Tine competition mention is the throwaway line. It stands to reason that he would be very proficient.

[rsahae]

well, sometimes in these stories things happen and then are explained after the fact. no big deal. I agree that Mat is like a completely useless character aside from causing trouble and that little horn-blowing incident. But seeing as how the story has kinda centered around him, Rand and Perrin, I guess that's why this little issue didn't seem weird to me on my first read.

 

Dear Sir Coz, I beg you don't rush through the rest of tDR just to get to tSR. Yes, tSR is awesome, maybe the best book of the series. But tDR is a lot like the finale of a trilogy, if you look at the first 3 books as a unit (many people do). Lots of important stuff is going to happen in the second half of the book. Take your time and enjoy!

[Coz]

Oh, I won't. I think it's the best book so far and aside from the lull with the Aes Sedai and a some unbelievable moments, I'm starting to liken myself to Jordan's writing. Also: Mat survived a fall, Thom's back. And on we go...

[rsahae]

besides Mat's all-of-a-sudden combat mastery, any other unbelievable moments on which I can try to project believability?

[Elend]

The time when it was revealed all Ogier are aliens who abduct people at night, experiment on them, and thus we gained channelers? And a stedding just has a giant anti-Source forcefield so they couldn't exact their righteous vengeance back in the day?

 

That did happen, right? I didn't just make that up?

 

[username13]

besides Mat's all-of-a-sudden combat mastery, any other unbelievable moments on which I can try to project believability?

 

The arm wrestling match between Bela and the velociraptor. Those guys have such tiny arms, there's no way they can hold out that long, especially against Bela

[Elend]

besides Mat's all-of-a-sudden combat mastery, any other unbelievable moments on which I can try to project believability?

 

The arm wrestling match between Bela and the velociraptor. Those guys have such tiny arms, there's no way they can hold out that long, especially against Bela

 

True. I'd forgotten that. Especially considering Bela's stoutness.

[dovien]

The arm wrestling match between Bela and the velociraptor. Those guys have such tiny arms, there's no way they can hold out that long, especially against Bela

I laughed out loud for like half a minute...

[moratcorlm]

besides Mat's all-of-a-sudden combat mastery, any other unbelievable moments on which I can try to project believability?

Mat making dice throws at a probability of less than 1 in 10^23? Good thing we have an in-story explanation for that one.

[Sid]

Is that tossing the King 5 times in a row?

[Coz]

Zarine. Faile. Interesting to see how Jordan is getting everyone to the Tear...

[fikkie77]

Wow, this is a great topic to read! Just to read someone's first reactions and to try to compare them with your own, fantastic!

Coz, have you figured out what's up with Selene yet? Of course you will in time.

What I really like about the series, is that not only characters evolve and change over time, but that your opinion about them change as well.

I hated Nynaeve in the beginning, but learned to love her later on.

I loved Rand in the beginning, had trouble relating to him later on, but turned back to loving him.

I think I'm a minority when I say that I love Egwene for almost the entire series.

 

But others here will probably feel completely different about the characters and that's really the fun of it.

[Coz]

Is Selene one of the Forsaken? She's been one of the weaker elements of the plot so far.

[moratcorlm]

Which chapter have you made it to? Just after Zarine first calls herself Faile is "Daughter of the Night", . It may or may not be a while before Selene's identity becomes clear.

 

On the bright side, you're coming to a bunch of good chapters here, and more action than the middle section had.

[Coz]

I'm at Daughter of the Night. And yes, the book has definitely picked up after moving away from The White Tower.

[dovien]

Egwene put on her white novice dress and got ready to scrub her white floor even whiter so that she wouldn't be put out of the White Tower by a White Ajah Aes Sedai even though her potential was so great and everyone was so impressed at her rate of learning. Just then Verin walked past her open door and stopped to say something before being distracted by the smudge of ink on her nose and wandering off again. In the distance could be heard the rumbling of a thousand different Aes Sedai machinations, mostly directed against other Aes Sedai, leaving Egwene to wonder just how the Tower had gained a reputation as pulling the strings of the world when to most sisters the rest of the world is beneath notice.

[sfgiantsfanmike]

New to the forum but been reading WOT for, what, 10 years now? Anyway, this is a great thread and thanks for sharing coz! This thread was so entertaining I ended up registering so I could post here.

 

Anyway, even though I've read through the series several times I'm blanking on Selene as well (the tid bit that has gotten me to register). Still in Eye of the World on my last read through (or so I'm saying now) so I'll be a while before I get there reading wise... I think I know who she is and won't post my thoughts but, man, it's bugging me because I should now it! How many other tid bits have I forgotten through the years since my last read through (2004ish)...

 

Anyway, glad to see you're enjoying your read through and thank you for serving, coz! May the Lord bless thee and keep thee.

[Coz]

I'm just surprised more people haven't made threads like this. By the way, Balefire has finally been introduced, as have the Aiel and Rhuarc.

[Evoke]

I'm just surprised more people haven't made threads like this. By the way, Balefire has finally been introduced, as have the Aiel and Rhuarc.

 

Those Fades never knew what hit them.

[moratcorlm]

I think this is the first time we see Nynaeve's super-Healing depicted, which is kind of important. And you've met Aviendha, Rhuarc, and Bain and Chiad; you're getting toward the point where the cast is going to explode on you, though TDR has the fewest character intros of any book until very late in the series, but those are the ones to keep in mind. Like Aludra.

“Galldrian ... Well, he is a dead king now, and he’ll see no more fireworks.”

Thom Merrilin is a bad man.

[Coz]

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

[Isgrimner]

I'm just surprised more people haven't made threads like this.

 

I did. Couldn't do it with WOT since I've been reading it since '91. However I had been putting off reading George R.R. Martin's series because of the long wait between books. I've finally started reading it, and because of this thread and the other one by Dralid that died out, I've been chronicling my reading of that series over on Westeros.