DRAGONMOUNT

Earlier this week, The Wheel of Time account helped announce FantologyPV, from Amazon Prime Video. According to their twitter bio:             FantologyPV fullfilled their promise of exclusive content when they revealed today, via their official social media accounts the following video:     This video has been part of a near daily marketing effort to promote the show. It was also posted to instagram and YouTube by Amazon Prime Video Australia New Zealand, which said in the description of the video that this clip is a sneak peek of the first minute of the series. The one minute long clip opens with Moiraine getting dressed as she describes the breaking of the world and how the dragon has been reborn. She specifically says that they aren’t sure the Dragon Reborn is a girl or a boy. It will be interesting to see how the show resolves this slight change from the book series, where Moiraine always knew she was looking for a boy. We see Moiraine glance over a map of the Westlands, before donning her cloak over an awesome pair of suspenders and an even more epic pair of knives at her hip. She walks out and Lan meets her with their horses.    To see every promotional video, image, and early preview that Amazon has released so far, check out out our Season 1 Media page.  And be sure to check our TV section of the website.    What do you think of this new teaser? Let us know in the comments and be sure to join the discussion on our forums.   

The Wheel of Time revealed today, via their official social media accounts the following video:     This video has been part of a near daily marketing effort to promote the show. This teaser looks similar to the Aes Sedai explained video providing background on the world of the Wheel of Time. This time we focus on the town called The Two Rivers. It appears the show is simplifying the name of Emonds Field to The Two Rivers. The show has also located the town up in the mountains compared to the books where the towns of the region were beyond of the foothills of the Mountains of Mist.   To see every promotional video, image, and early preview that Amazon has released so far, check out out our Season 1 Media page.  And be sure to check our TV section of the website.    What do you think of this new teaser? Let us know in the comments and be sure to join the discussion on our forums.  

Rajiv Moté is Dragonmount’s book blogger with a lens on the craft of fiction writing. When he’s not directing software engineers, he writes fiction of his own, which can be found catalogued at his website.   The Wheel of Time turns, and the tapestry it spins across the Ages is not made of identical weaves, but echoing patterns. So it is with adaptations, and Robert Jordan gave us the framework to embrace the differences between the books and Amazon Prime Video’s series. The show is a new turning of the Wheel, a new angle on a 30-year-old saga. Adaptation is interpretation. This is an opportunity for fans to experience The Wheel of Time in a fresh way.   One of the most striking and interesting angles is that this season’s preview trailers [1, 2] center the story on Moiraine Damodred. If you read the books beginning with the prequel, New Spring, it’s easy to see how to frame The Wheel of Time as Moiraine’s story (up to a certain point, of course). She has knowledge that must be held close, and the world’s fate depends on what she does with it. Right away, this does a couple of interesting things.     First, it cements the stakes. Moiraine knows the history of the Dark One’s war on humanity and the prophecies of how he can be beaten. We won’t waste time figuring out whether we can trust Moiraine. The world is in danger, and the prophecies must be fulfilled or all is lost. This is essentially the plot of New Spring, and it figures heavily into the second trailer.   Second, centering Moiraine makes the book’s non-mystery of who will stand against and defeat the Dark One into something more complicated--and more in line with the books’ ending. (SPOILERS for the end of The Eye of the World, and for the end of A Memory of Light!) Rand al’Thor is the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of Lews Therin Telamon fated to face the Dark One at Shayol Ghul. But The Wheel of Time is not your typical Chosen One story. Min, who sees the Pattern, knew from the first book that winning the Last Battle required the ensemble cast.   Min’s prophecy is realized during the Last Battle as Rand, facing the Dark One, finally understands that the world’s fate wasn’t only on his shoulders--this conflict involved everyone who struggled, fought, and gave their lives for the Light.     In the books, Moiraine sought a boy of a certain age who could fit the parameters of the Prophecies of the Dragon. Rand, Mat, and Perrin were all candidates, though Rand’s point-of-view in Chapter 1 gave away the mystery. The show’s second preview suggests that Egwene and Nynaeve are under Moiraine’s consideration too. And why not? Min had the right of it: the darkness is held at bay only when they are united. Even in the books, there is no one savior. They all have a major role to play.   Gender essentialism is core to the books, no doubt. Souls are female or male. They channel saidar or saidin--even if they happen to occupy the body of a different sex. In the Wheel’s natural cycle of reincarnation, they are reborn within their soul’s gender. But in this turning of the Wheel, the Dragon Reborn seems to be an equal opportunity role. It’s a change that will have ripple effects. But it’s a reinterpretation of the story that is worth trying. If the show has revised the prophecies to indicate that the world’s savior isn’t necessarily male, it has made the prophecies more accurate. Rand may have confronted the Dark One in Shayol Ghul, but he did so while Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Mat, Perrin, and Logain united and mobilized the rest of the continent as a force for the Light in the Last Battle.   Logain is prominent in the show trailers. It looks like we’ll see the Aes Sedai hunting and capturing the false Dragon, and he doesn’t go down easily. It’s hard to tell if the funeral scenes we see are in the aftermath of this campaign, or a consequence of the Whitecloak witch-burning, but it clear that the show is going to show us the dangers of men channeling instead of us relying on the hearsay of Aes Sedai. From what little we’ve seen, it’s a smart choice. Álvaro Morte is a presence on screen, menacing even behind bars. Expanding his role in the early parts of the story will hammer home why false Dragons are hated and feared, and why many might consider the real Dragon not much of an improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised if, by the time Rafe Judkins adapts Lord of Chaos, the character of Mazrim Taim gets conflated into Morte’s Logain. “Asha’man, KILL!”     The visual treatment of saidin, the male half of the One Power, deviates from the book, but is more illustrative. Technically, the Dark One’s Taint (sorry, now it’s “Corruption” to spare us the jokes) lies between the channeler and saidin. The channeler reaches through the Corruption, which floods him along with the Power, but the flows themselves are not attainted. That’s great for internal narration, but when all the audience sees is the channeling, that sinister, black smoke snaking around the flows of Power is a great way to represent corrupted saidin. It also seems visually more in line with how that problem is eventually solved, in Winter’s Heart.     There are many other changes we can glean from the trailers. The Emond’s Field Women’s Circle seems to have rituals of initiation. The Aiel will battle Tam’s Illianer Companions in the Blood Snow. Moiraine will take part in Logain’s capture. The Children of the Light will pose an actual, lethal threat to Aes Sedai. Thom will play the guitar. There will be more brown eyes than blue than the books describe. But never once do the images not scream The Wheel of Time. Emond’s Field, Tar Valon, Shadar Logoth, and Fal Dara evoke their printed page counterparts in wide and focused shots.    There’s no doubt the Third Age has come round again. And we'll get to re-experience it for the first time.

Amazon Prime revealed today, via their official social media accounts, seven new posters featuring the main characters from the upcoming Wheel of Time TV show.    The seven characters featured are Moiraine, Lan, Rand, Egwene, Nynaeve, Perrin, and Mat.                  Tell us what you think of the posters in the comments below. Which one is your favorite?    The Wheel of Time premieres on November 19, 2021. Learn more about the show on our TV section of the website, and check out all of the officially-released media from the show.    ### UPDATED ####   We made a fascinating discovery: those images contained hidden layers with weaves of the One Power woven across each character. When linked together, they form a single braid.                        Well played, Amazon Marketing team, well played.  Share what you think in the comments or on our forums!   

Amazon Prime released the latest trailer for its upcoming Wheel of Time TV show. The trailer came in a 360-degree immersive format, allowing viewers to move their phones around and "look" around in a mysterious chamber filled with clues and ominous imagery.    Here's the trailer:     After you watch the trailer, check out the full video breakdown from showrunner Rafe Judkins:     For more information, including the full cast and all official images and videos, head over to our Wheel of Time TV show section of the website. Also, be sure to join us on our forums, and let us know what you think in the comments below. 

The Wheel of Time social media accounts tweeted that we will see the full trailer tomorrow morning for The Wheel of Time. Make sure you are online at 9:00am PT so you don't miss the fun! They also released some fun new hashflags, which are emojis attached to specific twitter hashtags.   Along with the trailer announcement, they also posted some fun conversations between the characters. Head over to Twitter to see them all! There’s lots of fun puns and foreshadowing if you know what you are looking for.   The last announcement for the day also arrived on Twitter that The Dusty Wheel YouTube channel will host a live trailer watch party in partnership with The Wheel of Time. We expect to see some special guests, so it’s a don’t miss event! The Dusty Wheel will start streaming at 8:30am PT.  

Amazon Prime Video and The Wheel of Time social media accounts released a new one minute long teaser trailer featuring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine detailing her quest to find the Dragon Reborn.   There are a number of new shots from the TV show that we haven’t seen before, and it’s strongly hinted that she won’t just be looking at the three boys from The Two Rivers, but that Egwene too might be one of the candidates for the Dragon Reborn.       To see every promotional video, image, and early preview that Amazon has released so far, check out out our Season 1 Media page.  And be sure to check our TV section of the website.    What do you think of this new video? Let us know in the comments and be sure to join the discussion on our forums.   

Amazon revealed today, via their official social media accounts that they are starting a new series called The Wheel of Time - Explained. The first post is: What is an Aes Sedai?     This video teaser has been part of a near daily marketing effort to promote the show. In the video Rosamund Pike discusses that Aes Sedai are a group of female channelers, trained in the White Tower of Tar Valon and lead by the Amyrlin Seat.   To see every promotional video, image, and early preview that Amazon has released so far, check out out our Season 1 Media page.  And be sure to check our TV section of the website.    What do you think of this new video? Let us know in the comments and be sure to join the discussion on our forums. 

Aleksandra (Ola) Hill is a Polish-Canadian writer and the founder and editor-in-chief of khōréō, a magazine of speculative fiction by immigrant and diaspora writers. She won the grand prize in the 2019 Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards and is currently pursuing an MFA in writing at The New School. You can find her on Twitter at @_aleksandrahill.   #   TL;DR: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is a glorious first book in an epic historical fantasy duology. Set in 14th-century China, it brings to mind Mulan crossed with A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s perfect for fans of political intrigue, war, and a main character who strives for glory—whatever it takes.   #   Destiny isn’t exactly a new theme in literature. Prophecies frequently figured into Greek tragedies and have been used heavily in fantasy since then, including about half a dozen different ones appearing in our beloved Wheel of Time series. Characters learning about and fulfilling their destinies, or working to “change their stars”, are common enough to risk being cliches.    What I haven’t seen as much of is characters literally taking someone else’s destiny for their own.    She Who Became the Sun begins with a girl, her brother, her father, and the starving village where they live. A local fortune teller tells the brother that greatness is in his future: that “his deeds will bring a hundred generations of pride to the family name.”    For the girl, he sees… nothing. Just nothingness.    And so, when her brother dies, she takes his fate for herself. Zhu, known only as ‘the girl’ until the moment she begins using her brother’s name, leaves the village to join a monastery as a novice using his identity and her own tenacity. Yet even climbing within the ranks of the monks proves to be insufficient to guarantee Zhu’s safety and comfort when the outside world forces its way into the monastery—and so we embark upon Zhu’s true journey towards (possible) greatness.   The historical setting of the novel is particularly brimming with opportunity. Taking place in 1345, when China is under Mongolian rule, the book explores two interlinked concepts of political philosophy: tiānmìng, the Mandate of Heaven, which provides the right to rule; and the Right of Rebellion, which provides moral ground for overthrowing an unjust ruler (I’ll take this opportunity to note that I’m neither a philosopher, nor political scientist, nor a scholar of Chinese history; I beg the forgiveness of those who are better versed in these subjects for any gross oversimplification!). At the beginning of the book, a descendant of Kublai Khan holds power and thus the Mandate of Heaven. While Zhu is the main character of the novel, the reader is also able to dive into a number of different points of view in the second part of the novel, including two on the Mongolian side. The first of these, Esen, is a prince and a rising star of the court thanks to Ouyang, who is a famed general, eunuch, and Esen’s best friend. Through their eyes, we see not only the Mongolians’ battle to retain power versus the rebelling Chinese, but also the smaller power struggles within a cutthroat court.    On the rebel’s side, we see the world through Zhu’s eyes, as well as those of Ma, an young woman with no family who is betrothed to a rebel leader’s bumbling, inept son. While, as a reader, one naturally sides with the rebels clearly living under an oppressive rule, their own faction is rife with the same issues that plague the party in power: unchecked ambition, betrayal, and greed.    The struggle for power is enriched by one of the themes running through the novel: that of identity, especially in light of gender, sex, and relationships. For one, Zhu is born a woman and lives as a man, yet gender has not—in my reading—been of particular import to them except as a tool, even though it matters so much to the society that they live in. Their relationship with Ma, who is ensnared by society in her identity as a woman, provides an additional layer of depth to Zhu’s character that had me riveted to the page. In addition, Ouyang provides a strong counterpoint and foil to Zhu’s on views of gender by his status as a eunuch, especially in light of his relationship to Esen, a man who has never had to question his identity or place in the world. In contrast, Ouyang is held in contempt by the court, considered a sort of in-between thing rather than a man. These facets of identity play off of each other, deepening the tension and raising the stakes for every scene.    Importantly, this may not be an epic fantasy series in the way that readers of Jordan, Sanderson, Bardugo, and Jemisin might think of it. Specifically, there is no magic system of weaves or elements or spells; nor are there mythological creatures. Rather, the fantasy (if, indeed, it is fantasy*) comes from the personification of the Mandate of Heaven and the unquestionable existence of destiny, as well as the existence of (ancestral) ghosts. Some characters can see the dead, for example; in addition, the Mandate of Heaven is clearly visible to individuals. Zhu can also feel Heaven’s eyes on them, especially if they act outside of the character of Zhu.  *Writing this as a non-religious Polish-Canadian scientist/writer, the existence of something like Heaven, fate, and ancestral spirits are fantasy to me—but they may be very real to others.    This may be a different feeling to fantasy for many, especially when thinking of epic fantasy. There is no magic school and no focus on harnessing supernatural power in ways that you might expect. However, I never felt anything but enchanted by the world that Parker-Chan has created, both from the beauty of their writing and the sheer immenseness of the history that they have chosen to reimagine, and that’s everything that I’ve ever wanted from fantasy. Daes Dae’mar and battles like Dumai’s Wells were integral to The Wheel of Time—as are the politics and battles in this book.   She Who Became the Sun swallowed me whole from the very first page and didn’t let go until I emerged, blinking into the sunlight and slightly disoriented, at the end of the story. I was enthralled by Zhu as a highly flawed protagonist, enraptured by Esen and Ouyang, and enamored of Ma. Most of all, I love how unapologetically queer this book is and how deeply it explores love, sex, and gender against a truly epic backdrop. It’s one of my favourite books of the year, but I particularly recommend it to those who love political and military fantasy, alternative history, queer fantasy, and flawed protagonists.   

Macmillan Audio announced today that Rosamund Pike, who plays Moiraine in Amazon Prime's upcoming TV show, will narrate a new version of Robert Jordan's first Wheel of Time novel, The Eye of the World. the new version will be available November 16, 2021, which is just a few days before season 1 of the TV show airs.    The most well-known of version of the audiobook was recorded by the real-life husband and wife duo of Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Prior to them, during the early 1990's, actor Mark Rolstrom recorded both an abridged and an unabridged version.   Long-time fans can be rest assured that the older version of the audiobook from Michael Kramer and Kate Reading will remain available along with this new version from Rosamund Pike.    Here's the full tree release from Macmillan Audio:     This new version of the audiobook will be a fantastic way of helping new readers enjoy Robert Jordan's books for the first time while preserving the version already familiar to fans. Rosamund Pike is an experienced audiobook narrator with currently over a dozen titles to her name.    The new audiobook can be pre-ordered here on Audible. It's also available on Libro.FM, Apple Books, Google Play Books, and more.    Tell us what you think in the comments, and be sure to join us on our forums and on social media.