Stuff Brandon says

[lord of madness]

2 scenes to go. Brandon will finish on 12-21-11 the world is supposed to end on 12-21-12. Maybe there is something to this 2012 stuff after all.

 

There is actually something to this 2012.

 

Sun spot cycle occurs every 11 years, but every 100 years a monster tsunami of sun spot activity occurs = disaster for our high tech world.

 

Prominent physicist Michio Kaku on it (see YouTube)

 

 

The way the WoT is going, ultra polish for the final book, I would not be surprised if we never get to see it.

if the end of the world comes before I read AMOL then I will tell it to get lost I'm reading

[Guest Emu on the Loose]

The sun is entering a period of minimal sunspot activity and will remain in that state for several years. Let's not distract this topic with real-world pseudo-science when it's so much more interesting to talk about pseudo-world real-science. The One Power!

[Suttree]

The way the WoT is going, ultra polish for the final book, I would not be surprised if we never get to see it.

 

Sorry mate but taking the normal amount of time to do editing and revisions isn't "ultra polish". It is merely not rushing through the process to the detriment of the overall quality ala TGS & ToM.

[Random Man]

 

if the end of the world comes before I read AMOL then I will tell it to get lost I'm reading

 

This!

[Entreri]

The way the WoT is going, ultra polish for the final book, I would not be surprised if we never get to see it.

 

Sorry mate but taking the normal amount of time to do editing and revisions isn't "ultra polish". It is merely not rushing through the process to the detriment of the overall quality ala TGS & ToM.

 

Brandon is a machine. He can spit out books like I can eat cookies. I am sure he can deliver the final book rapidly, a few typos here and there are fine.

 

An author can spend five+ years on a book, does not mean it is any good (A Dance with Dragons).

[Suttree]

An author can spend five+ years on a book, does not mean it is any good (A Dance with Dragons).

 

As has been noted in various other threads a few typos are not the issue. Just because an author can do something, doesn't mean it is the best way to go about it if there are alternatives. Most importantly there is a great deal that goes on between an author finishing his first draft(however fast) and the book going to print. The quality of writing suffered because of how quickly those books were rushed. BS & Team Jordan both have acknowledged this and changed their process to address it in AMoL.

 

While you can have your opinion on the type of fantasy writing you enjoy(and subsequently which books you prefer), there is no comparison between the quality of writing in aDwD and TGS and ToM. If you look at it strictly from the perspective of prose they are in two separate leagues. BS is certainly a skilled author but these two WoT books were not his best work and this falls squarely on how fast the first two novels were rushed.

 

In terms of DwD I have noticed at Westeros that people mainly fall into two camps. Those that enjoy hack'n'slash novels of the type your namesake would be in tend to like the faster books with instant plot gratification and a neat tied up ending(nothing wrong with that). While others see the entire series as a single story with drawn out political elements and complex plot threads woven over the course of all the books. My point is DwD was a very well written novel, it just didn't have the pace and plot advancement that some were hoping for after such a long wait.

[Guest PiotrekS]

An author can spend five+ years on a book, does not mean it is any good (A Dance with Dragons).

 

As has been noted in various other threads a few typos are not the issue. The quality of writing suffered because of how quickly those books were rushed. BS & Team Jordan both have acknowledged this and changed their process to address it in AMoL.

 

While you can have your opinion on the type of fantasy writing you enjoy(and subsequently which books you prefer), there is no comparison between the quality of writing in aDwD and TGS and ToM. If you look at it strictly from the perspective of prose they are in two separate leagues. BS is certainly a skilled author but these two WoT books were not his best work and this falls squarely on how fast the first two novels were rushed.

 

In terms of DwD I have noticed at Westeros that people mainly fall into two camps. Those that enjoy hack'n'slash novels of the type your namesake would be in tend to like the faster books with instant plot gratification and a neat tied up ending(nothing wrong with that). While others see the entire series as a single story with drawn out political elements and complex plot threads woven over the course of all the books. My point is DwD was a very well written novel, it just didn't have the pace and plot advancement that some were hoping for after such a long wait.

 

I agree DwD was well written. It was, however, dangerously often getting repetitive (sometimes very much so) and its length was justified neither by plot developments, nor by world-building, nor by simply beautiful prose. I had the feeling it was too long, too much hype, too little to say. Just my opinion, the book overall was good though. Good craftsmanship, not great literaure.

 

Haven't I already said something similar about DwD in another thread?

[Random Man]

I still want to know what the Gun on the Mantle was in TDR. One thing that struck me was Perrin's viewing of Lanfear and Ishy being all catty; Ishy threatens Lanfear with untold suffering for defying the Dark One and Lanfear says she serves forever, yada yada, and Perrin reflects upon what he saw, wondering how in the Light a Darkfriend -- let alone a Forsaken-- could defy the Dark One, yet that seems to be what he saw.

 

There's a couple of other things that came out at me. One was the Darkfriends Mat let live who tried to board the boat (we know one was wasted in T'A'R by Ishy later for his failure) and another that struck me was how into Lord Samon (read: Be'lal) captain Malilla (sp?) was. There's a couple of others that I can't recall right now.

[Edorion]

Since you brought it up, after some thought I've got to believe that its the Aiel and their journey to "find again what was ours, and was lost." You don't have Tinkers jumping in and out of the story from the beginning, then on top of that threaten the race of the main hero with slow annihilation with out some kind of payoff. RJ was better than that. This kind of goes along with my "blood on the rocks" theory (the "blood" being the Aiel), but having bored everyone with that in another thread, I'll abstain.

 

Edit:In addition, with regards to Brandon's clue dropping and his recent confirmation via twitter that he "wrote Perrin all the way through first" before doing anything else, wasn't this particular hint pretty early on in the cycle? If so, that might suggest simply by its timing that it had something to do with Perrin.

[Guest Emu on the Loose]

I still want to know what the Gun on the Mantle was in TDR. One thing that struck me was Perrin's viewing of Lanfear and Ishy being all catty; Ishy threatens Lanfear with untold suffering for defying the Dark One and Lanfear says she serves forever, yada yada, and Perrin reflects upon what he saw, wondering how in the Light a Darkfriend -- let alone a Forsaken-- could defy the Dark One, yet that seems to be what he saw.

 

Of course, Ballzy turned out not to actually be the Dark One, so that much was simply a mistaken conclusion on Perrin's part. But...after the dream Perrin thinks to himself that Lanfear scared him even more than Ba'alzamon, and that's something which may yet bear fruit. (It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

 

Perrin spoke to Moiraine about the dream immediately afterwards; this might have been what set her on the road to her confrontation at the docks with Lanfear, which is a part of the plot with a lot of unfinished business still hanging about it.

[sleepinghour]

(It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

I think Rahvin got that beat with having killed both Mat and Aviendha at the same time.

[Suttree]

(It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

I think Rahvin got that beat with having killed both Mat and Aviendha at the same time.

 

Has it beat by far...

[mbuehner]

(It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

I think Rahvin got that beat with having killed both Mat and Aviendha at the same time.

 

But was overturned after a booth review, doesn't count.

[lord of madness]

(It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

I think Rahvin got that beat with having killed both Mat and Aviendha at the same time.

doesn't count Rahvin got a face full of fire and then balefire so he didn't kill them

[Suttree]

(It also may have been a foreshadowing to Moiraine's takedown; Lanfear has scored the as-yet highest-ranking good guy kill...except of course that it wasn't a kill.)

I think Rahvin got that beat with having killed both Mat and Aviendha at the same time.

doesn't count Rahvin got a face full of fire and then balefire so he didn't kill them

 

I would say it counts more than Moiraine who didnt actually die. In addition it may very well be something that happened during her time with the finns that proves to be a big diff at TG.

[Guest Emu on the Loose]

Yes, Mat and Avi did get killed...except half an hour later and just a few pages later it had never happened, except in memory. Moiraine was absent for eight books.

[Random Man]

I was just thinking about the confrontation between Ishy and Lanfear in TDR taken in the context of the ToM epilogue; the torture she describes seems quite similar to that Ishy remarked would be her due should Lanfer displease the DO, and then we have Perrin pondering how a Forsaken could defy the Dark One. It was quite interesting. Perhaps a gun on the mantle? The others I thought of was perhaps the darkfriends that Mat let go, although one was killed just a few chapters later in T'A'R for his failure. Will read the chapters again and see if anything sticks out.

[zfnorth]

ROFL at your sig, Random Man!

[Eliseus]

I've listened to the first four Ice and Fire only once so I maybe missing something. Don't the characters Martin kills die pointlessly, maybe Gawyn sleeps with someone other than Egwene, decide he must marry the serving maid for honor. Egwene shows up at the wedding feast, hacks everyone to bits with a cuendillar sword, then commits decide by jumping on the suddenly talking sword.

 

That's hilarious! Even better because I caught the (fairly) obscure reference to Tolkien. Kudos.

[Alric]

Do we have any info/hints about the length of aMoL? I am only skimming through these topics for fear of spoilers, so I apologize in advance if there has been a recent estimate from Brandon.

 

(Secretly hoping for it to be extremely long)

 

 

[Sid]

Do we have any info/hints about the length of aMoL? I am only skimming through these topics for fear of spoilers, so I apologize in advance if there has been a recent estimate from Brandon.

 

(Secretly hoping for it to be extremely long)

 

pre-editing estimates put it at a shade shorter than Lord of Chaos and The Shadow Rising, about the third longest in the series. Of course, once it's edited they lose a lot of words and also gain some from adding in a needed scene or partial scene. It should be the longest of the last three at any rate.

[Orderofolde]

I thought that Brandon gave a count with his announcement saying it will beat both of those, and be the laongest in the entire series? I'm pretty sure he said it will beat those two as he used LOC and TSR specifically.

[Eht Slat Meit]

I would say it counts more than Moiraine who didnt actually die. In addition it may very well be something that happened during her time with the finns that proves to be a big diff at TG.

 

Not to sound like a bad Chuck Norris joke, but Lanfear didn't take down Moiraine, Moiraine took down Lanfear! Only reason the freak got back in the game was cuz she used the cyndane cheat code. Ambush, sure, but Lanfear didn't actually do anything but die.

 

Though she might be given credit for offing herself - I wouldn't be surprised if it was suicide when the Queen of All Power-seekers found herself completely drained of the power by the Finns.

[Sid]

I thought that Brandon gave a count with his announcement saying it will beat both of those, and be the laongest in the entire series? I'm pretty sure he said it will beat those two as he used LOC and TSR specifically.

 

OK, here are the twitter quotes I was thinking of:

 

21 Dec

"By the way, with RJ's ending, we just passed up Fires of Heaven in length, meaning this is the third longest WoT book. (After Books 4&6.)"

 

21 Dec

"I don't expect it to go longer than those. After editing, I'm pretty sure we'll settle at 350-360k words. (About 10% longer than TofM.)"

 

 

 

So obviously nothing is set in stone, but Brandon seems to think it'll end up as third-longest in the series. I'm pretty excited. ToM seemed pretty long and fairly dense, so another 10% in length that includes RJ's direct words seems like a very satisfying thing to read.

[Dollhouse]

Not to sound like a bad Chuck Norris joke, but Lanfear didn't take down Moiraine, Moiraine took down Lanfear! Only reason the freak got back in the game was cuz she used the cyndane cheat code. Ambush, sure, but Lanfear didn't actually do anything but die.

No, Moiraine didn't do anything. She just used the distraction created by Rand to tackle Lanfear into Finland. Once there the Finns would have taken down both of them. So yeah, Moiraine was pretty useless. She only survived because of plot armor.