How Do You Rank The Books Thus Far?

[BFG]

She mounted a ridiculously underpowered attack on Rand's party, then when rescued, proceeded to torture Rand (or was it Min? Don't remember; not that it matters) instead of getting the hell away from there, as commanded by my Haran.

 

The attack really only failed because Cads had an item of power that didn't exist in the AoL.

 

Probably, but I'm pretty sure that Cads and Nyn were already holding the source through their angreals - particularly with Nyn that's going to make an open attempt at shielding more likely to fail and that would have been their first attempt - they had collars for everyone that could come.

 

 

Semirhage probably has something prepared that would leave everyone in too much pain to channel, all of which was destroyed by Cadsuane.

 

Haven't reread this bit in a while - will try and get a look tonight - but I thought Cadsuanes ter'angreal acted like Mat's foxhead, so wouldn't effect weaves directed against others? And doesn't Nyn have something similar to - I'm sure Alivia had one when battling Cyndane, and I thought she only had Nyns ter'angreal? I always thought that the capture was a combined effort by all the channelers minus Rand.

 

Logically the ter'angreal that disrupted the disguise must be different from the one that protects her, if they were the same and the affected distance was that far then nobody would be able to channel around her? I know their are threads about this, I'll just go and find one to see what the concensus is :)

[Barid Bel Medar]

Cadusane has many ter'angreal. She does have the one you mentioned, but she also has others.

[BFG]

Wasn't clear again, sorry

 

I know there are multiple ter'angreal, I was wondering if the one that disrupted the mask of mirrors(?) weave was the same as her equivalent to the Foxhead? I'm not sure how Cads ter'angreal works - if it disrupts all weaves at a set distance away from her then nobody would be able to channel near her at all, unless it difers from the foxhead and she can sort of control the area it covers - sounds unlikely and tricky in battle situations. Logically, based on that, it has to be a ter'angreal that disrupts mask of mirrors specifically and she has another ter'angreal that protects herself (foxhead equivalent), one that detects channeling, and others - but I didn't think any of her ter'angreal could protect the others - so I'm wondering how:

all of which was destroyed by Cadsuane

works based on my remembrance of how the scene played out:

 

I thought it was from Rands viewpoint and thus because of the fireball/loss of hand that we didn't find out what actually happened ground/pain..., except Nyn(?) said that without all of them (including/especially Cads) Semi would have won, but that overall it was a group effort.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Yeah, the actual fight involved damane and such, yes. The Asha'man and everyone helped out.

 

It was essentially Cadsuane's ter'angreal which saved them.

 

Semirhage had planned a very dangerous ambush, if it had not been disrupted, things could have gone very, very bad.

[BFG]

^thanks

[TNine]

Wasn't clear again, sorry

 

I know there are multiple ter'angreal, I was wondering if the one that disrupted the mask of mirrors(?) weave was the same as her equivalent to the Foxhead? I'm not sure how Cads ter'angreal works - if it disrupts all weaves at a set distance away from her then nobody would be able to channel near her at all, unless it difers from the foxhead and she can sort of control the area it covers - sounds unlikely and tricky in battle situations. Logically, based on that, it has to be a ter'angreal that disrupts mask of mirrors specifically and she has another ter'angreal that protects herself (foxhead equivalent), one that detects channeling, and others - but I didn't think any of her ter'angreal could protect the others - so I'm wondering how:

Not all ter'angreal have passive effects. It could easily be that channeling through the ter'angreal creates a disruptive weave, which you can then extend in whatever direction you want, as far as you can channel.

 

Now, for my rankings. I'm only partway through my first real reread, so these are pretty temporary:

 

S-Tier:

The Gathering Storm. While a Sanderson novel, i think this is much of a "on the shoulders of giants", and BS was able to capitalize on the storybuilding done by RJ. Egwene's and Rand's storylines here are just awesome.

Fires of Heaven. I enjoyed all of the storylines here, and found the conflict with the Shaido to be very interesting, and the conflict between Nynaeve and Moggy was more interesting.

Lords of Chaos: Once again, i find all of the storylines to be interesting. Dumai's Wells was really intense.

 

Tier 1:

The Shadow Rising: Perrin's storyline is pretty awesome, has some awesome moments, i don't think this is the best in the series, though.

The Great Hunt: I think this is really where the tone for the series is set. We get things becoming really serious, more down-to-earth conflict, and the series as a whole gets darker, which i enjoy.

The Dragon Reborn: All the pieces in play, the series finally gets going, and it feels good. We also finally meet Mat (yay). Everything coming together in Tear was pretty intense.

Knife of Dreams: THINGS ARE FINALLY HAPPENING AGAIN. We get some good RJ action, and Mat's storyline is really freaking awesome (i do love me some military campaigns).

 

Tier 2:

Towers of Midnight: Ehh. It's not good, it's not bad. I stop caring about Perrin a long time ago, so we have Egwene/Gawyn (meh), Mat's foray into Finnland (i like him more as a general), and a lot of consolidating power (which is less interesting than taking it).

The Eye of the World: Looking at this book in comparison to all the other books is surreal. It's definitely not a bad book, but i feel that RJ wasn't yet in the WoT seam, and the book is more generic and overall less interesting.

 

Tier 3:

Crossroads of Twilight: Things are speeding up, but still slow. Egwene's capture probably single-handily save this one for me, it was probably of the biggest "WHOA" moments for me in reading these books, the sudden "wait what just happened" really shocked me back into the story.

Crown of Swords: Things start to slow down, but we get some action at least.

 

Tier 4:

Winter's Heart/Path of Daggers: Twelve hundred pages with perhaps one hundred pages worth of content. Just so very, very slow. Abysmally slow. Perhaps RJ could tell you how slow it is, but he would probably require two chapters to do it >.>

[Crael123]

I have a very different list than most other people so... dont judge :)

 

1 TPoD... I know, it is super duper high. But. The Seanchan campaign.... was like one of my favorite scenes in the whole series. I loved it.

Great Hunt. was great.

Kod....The deathgates, Lan, Simerhage. I love this book.

Shadow Rising. Obvious reasons.

LoC. Dumais wells.

Eye of the World. Green Man was epic.

Fires of Heaven... Love Moiraine, and Lanfear.

TGS, was pretty good.

ToM was also pretty good.

CoS wasnt that great.

Dragon reborn... I dont remember anything from this book.

 

COT.... not much happened. Didnt like this one.

[Suttree]

I have a very different list than most other people so... dont judge :)

 

1 TPoD... I know, it is super duper high. But. The Seanchan campaign.... was like one of my favorite scenes in the whole series. I loved it.

 

Damona Mountain campaign and the LTT/Rand back and forth could very well be the best writing in the entire series.

[muddasssir]

I have a very different list than most other people so... dont judge :)

 

1 TPoD... I know, it is super duper high. But. The Seanchan campaign.... was like one of my favorite scenes in the whole series. I loved it.

 

Damona Mountain campaign and the LTT/Rand back and forth could very well be the best writing in the entire series.

i have to agree with both of you, but this was the first manifest of darkness creeping into the soul of the man kinds only hope and that campaign really set the tone for the entire dark Rand saga. What people criticizing this and subsequent books and Rand's character in them tend to forget is that he is going mad. There was a scene form Winter's Heart where he is copying the mannerism of Ltt involuntarily and there is a dialog like he should have been afraid but he was not. It was when he was playing the flute for min I think. Similarly there are numerous scenes both from two subsequent books which shows that his grip on reality is slipping. His insistence on being hard whatever says his lack of fith and trust in anyone around him, his growing paranoia. All of these things were there for anyone to see. It all started with that Dimona campaign and yes sutt is right this really was some of the best writing in the entire series, especially in retrospect with perfect hindsight.

[BFG]

^ agree that the middle books had some exceptional writing, but I think the very few excerpts of Rand in tDR started to set the stage for his darkness - the bit where he made the people he killed kneel to him creeped me out in a way that very few other parts have. I've read somewhere on these threads that the reason their's so little of Rand in tDR was because he found him so hard to write as his deterioration was so rapid, but the bits he did write were excellent!

[muddasssir]

No he started deteriorating almost from the first moment he knew that he can channel. That campaign was the first manifested sign of his creeping madness. With that scene RJ announced buddies our hero has gone loonies.

[Tleilaxa]

I actually really like crossroads of twilight. I think it's really well written. I can understand why certain people might not like it, but I think it's a very good book. The description of Malden and the hugeness of the Shaido-camp there is great. :-)

[dawnflower8]

Favorite to least favorite:

1. The Fires of Heaven
2. Towers of Midnight
3. Knife of Dreams
4. The Great Hunt
5. A Memory of Light
6. The Eye of the World
7. The Shadow Rising
8. Lord of Chaos
9. A Crown of Swords
10. Crossroads of Twilight
11. The Gathering Storm 
12. The Dragon Reborn
13. Winter's Heart
14. The Path of Daggers

For some reason I found The Gathering Storm a bit slow....and what happened in Path of Daggers, I cannot even remember. I think something with the Bowl of Winds, but that might've been Book 7? I don't even know...

[magatsu17]

My list

 

1. The Shadow Rising

2. Lord of Chaos

3. Fires of Heaven

4. The Great Hunt

5. The Dragon Reborn

6. Towers of Midnight

7. The Eye of the World

8. A Memory of Light

9. The Gathering Storm

10.  Crown of Swords

11. Knight of Dreams

12. Winter's Heart

13. Cross Roads of Twilight

14. Path of Daggers

 

 Books 4,5, and 6 are with out a doubt the best fantasy i've ever read any where.

[udbabor520]

.and what happened in Path of Daggers, I cannot even remember. I think something with the Bowl of Winds, but that might've been Book 7? I don't even know...

 

Don't skip, don't skim and you will be just fine.