Favorite Writing Moments

[Twitchy]

I'm doing a re-read over my ridiculously long Christmas break, and I've been noticing some amazing passages that make my think, "Wow, RJ was such an incredible writer."

 

Just wanted to know what some of your favorite passages in the books were, if you can remember them.

 

I'll start off with the one that made me want to make this topic.

 

 

Previously in the chapter, "Whirlpools in the Pattern" in the Shadow Rising, Perrin and Mat had fought off bubbles of evil after thinking about how much everything has changed, and whether they can still consider Rand to be their friend, as well as the Dragon Reborn. This paragraph ends the chapter after Rand had just fought off the first bubble of evil that tried to kill him.

 

"Limping to the foot of the bed, he lowered himself into the chest there and laid Callandor across his kness, bloody hands resting on the glowing blade. With that in his hands, even one of the Forsaken would fear him. In a moment he would send for Moiraine to Heal his wounds. In a moment he would speak to the Aiel outside, and become the Dragon Reborn again. But for now, he only wanted to sit, and remember a shepherd named Rand al'Thor."

[trench]

Well the ceratinly is no lack of great moments. A few that come to mind; What Might Be from tGH, The Dedicated and Road to the Spear from tSR, Mat dancing the Pattern Dance in LoC, Mashiara from aCoS. But my favorite RJ moment isn't from the series main body but instead from the Strike at Shayol Ghul the last lines sum up RJ's style of writing beautifully.

 

"Whoever read this, if any remain to read it, weep for us who have no more tears. Pray for us who are damned alive."

[moratcorlm]

My short-list of favorite chapters, those from the long-list that meet criteria of both quality of writing and awesomeness, is still far too broad to answer your question:

 

EOTW

Dragonmount

The Web Tightens

TGH

Blood Calls Blood

The Dragon Reborn

What Might Be

To Come Out of the Shadow

The Grave Is No Bar To My Call

TDR

Healing

Awakening

Easing the Badger

The Hammer

What Is Written In Prophecy

TSR

Decisions

Deceptions

Into the Heart

Out of the Stone

Beyond the Stone

Rhuidean

The Road to the Spear

The Dedicated

Misdirections

Imre Stand

Among the Tuatha’an

Into the Palace

Goldeneyes

A Breaking in the Three-fold Land

The Traps of Rhuidean

TFOH

Gateways

A Small Room in Sienda

Memories

Birdcalls by Night

The Fifth, I Give You

Memories of Saldaea

A New Name

Performances in Samara

Before the Arrow

This Place, This Day

The Lesser Sadness

The Price of a Ship

Leavetakings

News Comes to Cairhien

Choices

Fading Words

To Caemlyn

The Threads Burn

LOC

The First Message

A Different Dance

Threads Woven of Shadow

Fire and Spirit

When Battle Begins

The Mirror of Mists

Weaves of the Power

The Feast of Lights

The Sending

Dumai’s Wells

ACOS

Lightnings

A Broken Crown

A Morning of Victory

Insects

A Touch on the Cheek

The Triumph of Logic

Swovan Night

Mindtrap

The First Cup

Mashiara

Sealed to the Flame

Into the Woods

Six Stories

Promises to Keep

TPOD

Deceptive Appearances

The Breaking Storm

Threads

Message from the M’Hael

Out On the Ice

The Law

A Time for Iron

A Cup of Sleep

WH

Snow

A Lily in Winter

What a Veil Hides

What the Aelfinn Said

With the Choedan Kal

COT

A Mark

What Must Be Done

A Cluster of Rosebuds

Something Flickers

KOD

Embers Falling on Dry Grass

A Deal

A Stave and a Razor

Dragon’s Eggs

A Short Path

A Hell in Maderin

Vows

The Golden Crane

Honey in the Tea

As if the World Were Fog

A Plain Wooden Box

The Last Knot

To Keep the Bargain

Under an Oak

Prince of the Ravens

Remember the Old Saying

TGS

A Warp in the Air

A Halo of Blackness

A Visit from Verin Sedai

Sealed to the Flame

Just Another Man

TOM

Distinctions

Men Dream Here

In the Three-fold Land

A Making

And After

 

 

Purely for quality of writing (going by memory here, which is always an iffy proposition, though I remember the majors), technical skill and manipulation of mood, I’d select out What Might Be, Easing the Badger, The Hammer, Decisions, Deceptions, Rhuidean, The Road to the Spear, The Dedicated, Among the Tuatha’an, A Breaking in the Three-fold Land, Memories, Memories of Saldaea, Before the Arrow, This Place, This Day, The Lesser Sadness, The Price of a Ship, A Different Dance, Fire and Spirit, The Sending, Dumai’s Wells, Lightnings, A Broken Crown, The Triumph of Logic, Mindtrap, Mashiara, Promises to Keep, What a Veil Hides, What the Aelfinn Said, A Cluster of Rosebuds, Embers Falling on Dry Grass, A Stave and a Razor, Dragon’s Eggs, Vows, The Golden Crane, As If the World Were Fog, and Men Dream Here.

 

And there are some entire sections which were structured well but have no particularly excellent chapters, too; the end of TGH comes to mind, and a bit more of that of LOC; the beginning of COT; probably others I can't remember. The villain scenes, too, offer a much more self-contained space to explore, as in Memories of Saldaea is done excellently; consider Insects from ACOS, or some of the Forsaken chapters which I didn't mention – they aren't all brilliant or even well done, but it's an interesting change of pace.

 

The best, of course, is What Might Be. I think Memories of Saldaea comes second, though I might exchange one of Jordan's Tuon chapters... or really any of the rest of them, depending on the day.

[Sid]

let me grab my TeoTW quick

 

“Nothing was left of their farms, their villages, or their great city. Some would say there was nothing left for them, nothing but to flee to other lands, where they could begin anew. They did not say so. They had paid such a price in blood and hope for their land as had never been paid before, and now they were bound to that soil by ties stronger than steel. Other wars would wrack them in years to come, until at last their corner of the world was forgotten and at last they had forgotten wars and the ways of war. Never again did Manetheren rise. Its soaring spires and splashing fountains became as a dream that slowly faded from the minds of its people. But they, and their children, and their children's children, held the land that was theirs. They held it when the long centuries had washed the why of it from their memories. They held it until, today, there is you. Weep for Manetheren. Weep for what is lost forever."

[rsahae]

<sits back and breathes deeply as he enjoys RJ's masterful prose>

 

<wishes he had the encyclopedic recollection to be able to call up these gems at a moments notice>

 

<hopes those who do post more on this thread>

[dovien]

"He ravaged my home because it was my home." Rand's face was frozen, his voice ice. "He brought Trollocs to kill my friends because they were my friends. He is a Darkfriend, and a dead man." Those last words came through clenched teeth. Punch splashed to the carpet as the silver goblet bent in his gloved fist.

 

Lan shook his head slightly. "He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead."

 

"Aiel are hard," Ingtar said. "Man and woman, hard. I've fought them, and I know. They will run fifty miles, and fight a battle at the end of it. They're death walking, with any weapon or none. Except a sword. They will not touch a sword, for some reason. Or ride a horse, not that they need to. If you have a sword, and the Aielman has his bare hands, it is an even fight. If you're good."

 

"All the stories are real," he said softly.

 

"He is born again! I feel him! The Dragon takes his first breath on the slope of Dragonmount! He is coming! He is coming! Light help us! Light help the world! He lies in the snow and cries like the thunder! He burns like the sun!"

 

Still not looking at him, Asmodean rubbed the side of his nose. "I once saw a man hanging from a cliff,"

he said slowly. "The brink was crumbling under his fingers, and the only thing near enough to grasp was a tuft

of grass, a few long blades with roots barely clinging to the rock. The only chance he had of climbing back up

on the cliff. So he grabbed it." His abrupt chuckle held no mirth. "He had to know it would pull free."

 

"So, cabbage," he said with a grin, "back with your neck unbroken, not kidnapped and not married."

[Dasmarius]

"Kiruna drew herself up proudly. Whatever she was, she was certainly no farmer. 'You forget who we are. They may have mistreated you, but we--'

 

'I forget nothing, Aes Sedai,' Rand said coldly. 'I said six could come, but I count nine. I said you would be on equal footing with the Tower emissaries, and for bringing nine, you will be. They are on their knees, Aes Sedai. Kneel!'

 

Coldly serene faces stared back at him. He felt Asha'man readying shields of Spirit. Defiance grew on Kiruna's face, on Bera's, on others. Two dozen black-coated men made a ring around Rand and the Aes Sedai.

 

Taim appeared as close to a smile as Rand had ever seen him. 'Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon,' he said softly, 'or you will be knelt.' "

 

Dumai's Wells is fantastic.