DRAGONMOUNT

Aleksandra (Ola) Hill is a Polish-Canadian SFFH writer and the founder and editor-in-chief of khōréō, an Ignyte and Shirley Jackson award-winning 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: The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu is the first book of the War Arts Saga trilogy. Set in a secondary world inspired by wuxia, it's an exhilarating, action-packed start to a very promising series. It’s perfect for fans of subverted tropes and wuxia/martial arts, and readers who enjoyed The Stormlight Archive, She Who Became the Sun, and The Unbroken.    #   The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu follows the story of a Chosen One: Jian, who has been foretold to defeat The Eternal Khan, a warlord from the adjoining Katuia nation, and lead the Zhuun nation to victory by a five-hundred-year-old prophecy. But when Taishi, an old, ornery, one-armed war arts master, goes to check on Jian's training, what she finds is a spoiled, petulant boy taught so many different styles that he has learned nothing at all. Worse, news of the Eternal Khan of Katuia's death arrives soon after she does. The prophecy is broken, and Taishi must help Jian flee for his life from the political machinations of the dukes of Zhuun. The premise of the series is an excellent subversion of the Chosen One trope as well as an absolute love letter to wuxia, a martial arts genre typically set in ancient China. The magic that features in this story is martial-arts-based; specifically, individuals have an inner energy (jing) that they can learn to master with training (as an aside, I think that the jing here is the same as the one of traditional Chinese medicine, making up the Three Treasures along with qi and shen. Based on my limited knowledge, I think qi is used more frequently; I’d love to hear why the author went with jing here instead). Many schools of martial arts exist, each with different jing-based abilities. For example, Taishi's school is Windwhisper, which lets her manipulate air currents to attack, defend, and—most excellently—fly using her jing. There are some other fantasy elements in the story, such as reincarnation, but it's all generally more subtle than, for example, channeling in The Wheel of Time; I would say it's much more similar to books like She Who Became the Sun, which has limited magic but still feels very much like a fantasy novel. I absolutely loved reading this book, especially with Taishi as the point of view character. She's no-nonsense; she's highly skilled and knows it and yet, people continue to underestimate her both because of her age and because of her physical disability—one of her arms does not work. She's the kind of character I would be thrilled to see more of in fantasy. In fact, I loved her so much that I was deeply disappointed to learn that there would be other POV characters in the book! I didn't much care to enter Jian's head at first, since Chu manages to make him so deeply irritating from the start; the book also follows the stories of Salimande, an elite Katuia warrior and one of the Wills of the Khan, and Qisami, a ruthless, sardonic, and deeply chaotic bounty hunter I kept picturing as Awkwafina for some reason.  While I was initially disappointed to be breaking away from Taishi, the multiple perspectives in the book let us get a much deeper, fuller picture of the world, especially the conflict between Zhuun and Katuia and all of the political forces at work. Katuia itself is a fascinating culture; they are a nomadic people within the Grass Sea, a dangerous land of monstrously large grass and ever-shifting landscape. The culture appears to be steampunk-esque, with moving cities that rely heavily on machinery and, I think, steam. Without giving anything away, I really can't wait to see how the world and all the people within it grow and change over the next two books; one of the final scenes of the novel has me more excited for a sequel than I’ve been since I can remember. Furthermore, the reader sees a promising start to Jian’s evolution as a character, from annoying child-warrior who needs to learn something of the real world to… well, not a hero, not yet, but someone with the potential to be. I appreciate Chu’s restraint in not making Jian the golden boy right away and—to my great surprise, given my initial distaste for him—I’m excited to see how the character I genuinely found deeply annoying grows.  The one thing I'll note: while the book was full of both tension and action, I did feel it sagged a bit in the middle. This might partially be my fault—I got absolutely knocked out by COVID when I was about two-thirds the way through and didn't pick this book back up for two weeks—but there is also some amount of setup and moving about in the middle of the book that slows the pace down. If you feel yourself getting a bit bogged in the details, I highly urge you to keep going—the parts that felt a bit unnecessary for me when I was reading them are, I think, going to be major parts in the next books, and I'm really excited to see where they go.  I've been really hesitant about committing to series for the last little while, especially when it comes to long books (The Art of Prophecy clocks in at 528 pages in the hardcover edition, which is on the shorter side of "tome length", but still a big time investment!), but I find myself so excited to keep going with this trilogy. And, I was thrilled to learn while preparing this review, the series has been optioned for television, with The Wheel of Time's very own Uta Briesewitz set to direct. No word yet on the series premiere, but the next two books in the series are coming out in 2023 and 2024 so you don't have to worry about unpredictable years of waiting between the books after you start the series. In all, I give my highest recommendation for this book, especially for anyone who is looking for an awesome, action-packed martial arts fantasy with multiple strong female leads. It's perfect for fans of She Who Became the Sun and The Unbroken, as well as those who enjoyed The Stormlight Archive with its sprawling world and battle scenes. And if you don’t know if any of those things are up your alley, trust me and give this book a chance. I’d love to hear what you think.  

Join Dragonmount for our episode by episode "ReWOTch" of season one of The Wheel of Time on Prime Video.   Every Monday at 9pm eastern we will be streaming to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter. Join Rebecca, Thom, and Ebony as we experience the first season again.    If you missed last weeks episode, you can find it here. Just press play on your prime video episode at the same time you hit play on our stream. There's a countdown on Dragonmount's stream that will help you align the two videos.    Showrunner Rafe Judkins said he’d answer one question that came up during the live stream, so make sure to tune in and help us determine which question to ask!   After episode one, we asked Twitter to help us choose the question.     Our fans on twitter picked - What is something you think no one has noticed or commented on from this episode? Rafe replied with a little help from book consultant Sarah Nakamura. Warning, there are some spoilers for future plot points.      Our next rewatch is episode two on Monday October 23 at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. Come watch Shadows Waiting with us!    

Thirty years ago, I fell in love with Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.   Today, I opened a box.     As I’ve said before, it has been the honor of a lifetime to write ORIGINS OF THE WHEEL OF TIME, to put my thoughts beside Jordan’s, to touch in my very small way the thing that he built.    I’ll write later about what it feels like to have worked on this — honestly, I’m still trying to get my head around it — but as I’m seeing the book and holding it today I want to point something out.    When you pick up your copy, you’ll want to look inside the covers, front and back. This is where you’ll find what’s called the “end papers.” In most Wheel of Time books, they feature a glorious map of the Westlands.    We could have done that in ORIGINS, too, but we didn’t. (And, no, we didn’t use the new map of Randland that appears in this book, either.)   What we used instead is a glorious image of the symbol of the Wheel of Time: the interwoven snake and wheel. I tried not to make many requests in the production of this book, but using this imagery was very definitely one of them.    It’s for Harriet.    In 2013, you see, Harriet — Jordan’s editor and widow — gave an interview with Tom Doherty, then the publisher of Tor Books. Talk turned to many things — it’s a great interview — but among them was the Wheel of Time. Towards the end of the conversation, Harriet said there was something she’d always wished she could do in the Wheel of Time books but never did:     The simple truth is that the Wheel of Time does not exist — this world we love would not exist — without Harriet. And neither would ORIGINS OF THE WHEEL OF TIME. She gave the book her blessing. She read it and checked it. She was supportive from the beginning to the end and back again.    And no one needs me to tell them that aside from being one of the greatest editors in the history of science fiction and fantasy, Harriet is also a truly wonderful human being.    So when I read this interview, when I saw that she’d had this dream unfulfilled … well, by the Light, I was determined to fulfill it for her.    When you get your copy of ORIGINS on November 8, go ahead and open that front cover and look at the Snake Wheel on the end papers. Then, for good measure, do the same with the back cover. It’s there, too. Now hold them both open, like so:     There are neither beginnings nor endings in the Wheel of Time.    And so it is.    I’ll have more to say about ORIGINS as the weeks pass. As I look at it now, for instance, I see how my words are framed by this image, how my book “fits” within the Wheel of Time, how I’m a part of it now.    It’s a lot to think about it.   So for now, I’ll focus on this:   Today I opened a box. I opened my book. For me, it was full of cherished words and a promise fulfilled.   Soon, very soon, you‘ll open yours, too. Perhaps you will come to Charleston for the book-signing with me and Harriet and Jordan’s amazing assistant, Maria, on November 8. If so, we’ll read a few of those words together.      But wherever you are, wherever I am, those words will still connect us. To me, that’s the greatest gift of the Wheel of Time, after all: that across time and space and even the spans of existence that might separate us, we can open our books and be there together, you and I, with Rand and Egwene and all the rest — and with Jordan and Harriet, too.    It’s magic. And it’s real.    I can’t wait.    Visit Michael Livingston's website or follow him on Twitter. 

Adam Whitehead is Dragonmount's TV blogger. Adam has been writing about film and television, The Wheel of Time, and other genre fiction for over fifteen years, and was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2020. Be sure to check out his websites, The Wertzone and Atlas of Ice and Fire (including The Wheel of Time Atlas!) as well as his Patreon.   Prime Video revealed footage as part of a sneak peek for the second season of The Wheel of Time. We still don’t have a release date, but we now have a bit more of a clue as to what stories we’ll be seeing in the sophomore season.   According to showrunner Rafe Judkins, the second season will draw heavily on The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, the second and third books in the series. His plan is to arrange things so that the already-greenlit Season 3 can focus on more closely adapting the fourth book in the series, The Shadow Rising, the favourite book of many readers.     The video opens in a somewhat desolate landscape with eleven riders heading down a road. It’s probable that this is Perrin and Loial travelling with Lord Ingtar’s party in search of the stolen Horn of Valere, since the terrain is very similar to what we saw for Fal Dara in Season 1.   We then see Rand (Josha Stradowski) staring out of a window whilst we hear Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) saying that they did not defeat the Dark One, but released his strongest lieutenant (Fares Fares, presumably playing Ishamael). That lieutenant is now awakening the Forsaken, the Dark One’s most powerful servants.   Rand's tribulations have certainly been good exercise.   We see a figure with long hair hands covered in blood being awoken before cutting to a table with twelve figures sitting around it, with their faces hidden apart from Ishamael. Based on the dialogue you might be expecting this to be a council of the Forsaken. However, there are twelve rather than thirteen figures and the figures have somewhat distinctive clothing, including the white gloves and sleeves of a possible Child of the Light, and one Aes Sedai ring. This may then be the “Darkfriend social,” a fan-favourite event in the second book when a group of high-ranking Darkfriends from across the land gather to hear of the Dark One’s plans. We then cut to the arrival of a detachment of what appears to be Seanchan troops in a village. They have imprisoned Uno (Guy Roberts), one of Ingtar’s men. He is forced to kneel before several damane whilst Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) and Loial (Hammed Animashaun) watch on.   We then cut to Mat Cauthon, now played by newcomer Dónal Finn, before seeing a member of the Seanchan nobility, the Blood, complete with an ornate face mask hiding her features and long, lacquered fingernails (based on the books, this is possibly the High Lady Suroth). Moiraine then warns Lan (Daniel Henney) that he has “no conception” of the power “they” wield, as we see Seanchan soldiers assemble. Moiraine may be talking about the Seanchan or, maybe more likely, the Forsaken.   The Seanchan are a strong focus of the preview.   The camera cuts to Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) standing in a field, Lan practicing his sword forms, Nynaeve practising sword combat with Alanna’s Warders, Moiraine hiding with a drawn dagger, and several Seanchan soldiers lowering their spears alongside what might be a Seanchan nobleman. We see Egwene (Madeleine Madden) a stone room, Mat looking at a flame, Loial restrained by ropes, Moiraine in a bath, Rand tied to a wheel (maybe a dream sequence?), Perrin looking scared, Uno defeating a Seanchan in combat, and the Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) descending from a carriage. Over this, Ishamael intones that “the only way to stop all this suffering is to stop the Wheel itself.”   We then see more scenes of combat; Egwene screaming with a metal collar around her neck; the Children of the Light assault the Seanchan stronghold; a cloaked figure with a long, serrated blade; a group of soldiers charging into battle; and a man being engulfed in flames.   Princess Not-Appearing-in-this-Video.   Putting these pieces together, it looks like mostly material from The Great Hunt. The Seanchan conquering the town of Falme, consolidating their control, and then being attacked first by Ingtar’s Shienaran soldiers and then the Children of the Light, with Egwene’s captivity hinted at. Notably missing from the preview video is any sign of Elyas (Gary Beadle), Elayne (Ceara Coveney) or Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) or the Aiel in general, or other storylines linked to The Dragon Reborn (apart from Rand’s solo adventure), so there’s obviously huge amounts of material from the season missing from this brief teaser.   New material is hinted at, such as Nynaeve learning to fight physically, possibly a result of her learning more about her wilder’s block and needing another way of protecting herself. We also know that the pursuit of the Horn is going to be somewhat different, with neither Mat nor Rand taking part, but what exactly they’ll be getting up to in the meantime is unclear. I suspect we’ll be getting some of Mat’s adventures in Tar Valon from The Dragon Reborn and some of the material from Rand’s solo adventure from the same book.   As usual, please continue to follow developments on our casting and news pages, and the forum, and stay tuned for more info as we get it.

At the New York Comic Con today, Prime Video hosted a joint Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power panel. The Wheel of Time started off first. It was streamed live on the popverse site, but to watch the full panel now that it's over you'll need a digital ticket. Just a warning, the clips were blocked so only those in the room could see them.    Actors Marcus Rutherford, Madeleine Madden, and Daniel Henny were joined by showrunner Rafe Judkins and two new actors for season two - Dónal Finn (Mat Cauthon), and Ceara Coveney (Elayne Trakand).    The panel began with a short introduction from Rosamund Pike, followed by some discussion of Perrin, Egwene, and Lan’s character arcs in season two. The clip from Rosamund was shared to instagram.   The next clip was the cold opening for Season one, Episode 7: The Blood Snow.   Then, they introduced Dónal Finn as Mat Cauthon. Dónal is taking over the character after actor Barney Harris left the show during filming of the first season. The clip was only shown to folks in the room, but The Wheel of Time social media channels posted a photo of Dónal as Mat.     Donal joined the group onstage to discuss his role as mat in season 2. Next they began to discuss a major new character - Elayne Trakand, Daughter Heir of Andor, played by Ceara Coveney. The group at the comic con were shown a clip of Elayne in the White Tower, and again The Wheel of Time social media accounts posted a photo of Ceara as Elayne in novice white.   The final clip was a sneak peek of season two. The Wheel of Time also posted it to YouTube, so check it out here:      There's a lot there for fans to dissect and discuss!    Finally they ended the panel with some audience questions. Stay tuned for our full breakdown of the panel! What did you guys think? Let us know in the comments below what you can't wait to see in Season Two. 

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 New York Times published an article, “Hobbits and the Hard Right: How Fantasy Inspires Italy’s Potential New Leader,” about how Italy’s fascist movement has used J.R.R. Tolkien’s work as their core myths.   Author and neuroscientist Benjamin C. Kinney noted in a Tweet:   Of course, many social and political movements present a romanticized past as a nostalgic ideal, all the way back to the major religions. In the Old Testament, humankind’s purest state of grace was in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were exiled for their Original Sin, humanity’s long road took them further and further from God. Time and distance from Eden was a vector of corruption. Hinduism has a similar view in its great cycle of ages. The first age of the cycle that begins with creation is the Satya Yuga, or Krita Yuga. It is considered a Golden Age. It degrades through three subsequent ages, and the last, the Kali Yuga, is an age of darkness. At this stage, the universe must be destroyed before being created again in a new Golden Age. Again, the further from the original divine action the universe moves, the worse off it is, and the best times of any given cycle are in its past. (I wrote a story published in Translunar Travelers Lounge, “Don’t Make Me Come Down There,” where the Hindu gods challenge this cycle.) Tolkien, like his friend C.S. Lewis, crafted fantasy with Christian themes. It’s not hard to see the Shire, a place of innocence and pastoral bliss, as a thematic representation of the Garden of Eden. Factoring in The Silmarillion, Tolkien’s world stretches along a moral West-East axis, with Valinor in the absolute west, the blessed realm of the angelic, undying Valar; to Mordor in the east, stronghold of the diabolical Sauron and the corrupt races who serve him. The “fundamental layers of conservatism” in Tolkien look very Christian--the King who returns to Gondor is a blood descendent of the Men of Númenor, who lived halfway between Middle-Earth and angelic Valinor. Those closest to the source of creation--physically, temporally, or spiritually--are the world’s salvation from evil. The final reward, reserved for the holiest, is leaving Middle-Earth altogether to reunite with the divine source in the ultimate West. I call these stories “Entropic Myths.” They’re tales that cast the primordial state as morally closest to the divine. Perhaps there is an inciting incident, a fall from grace or a Big Bang, or perhaps it’s simply the grind of time and human nature, but humanity drifts away from the divine ideal and thus diminishes. Humanity can redeem itself, but it needs to look backward, to the past. Entropic Myths, and the conservatism that uses them, rely on a concept coined by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, “anemoia,” a nostalgia for a time one never experienced. The world of simplicity, innocence, and bliss that we yearn for was in a mythical past. We can find our way back if we stop recklessly moving forward. We can go back to the Garden. It’s a fantasy that captures hearts and minds with its long cultural history. Progressive SFF writers, of course, responded to the New York Times article by warning their peers that conservative fantasy tropes need to be interrogated and challenged. In my terminology, progressives are calling for “Enthalpic Myths” where the future can be better than past or present. Where the best is yet to come. The future is usually the domain of science fiction more than fantasy, and utopian futures like that in the Star Trek franchise do a great job of painting futures that progressives would like to live in. In fantasy, The Wheel of Time transforms a story that began as Tolkien-esque into an Enthalpic Myth. I’ve written about the contrast Robert Jordan makes between the Wheel’s conception of “home” compared to Tolkien’s. In Jordan’s epic, you can’t go back to the Garden, and you won’t want to. All the promise lies in the world before you, the world you can have a hand in creating. Jordan also put a twist on the Chosen One trope, where it was never about a single savior, but the world having the will to move forward and together.  If there is a single, overarching theme to The Wheel of Time, it can be summarized by Rand al’Thor’s epiphany at the summit of Dragonmount.   The past remains important in The Wheel of Time, but not as something to embrace uncritically. We learn from the past so we can forge a better future. The Golden Age is always ahead. That’s a great mythology to embrace.

Tor books, posted a blog post from author Michael Livingston discussing the brand new world map. The map will be included in Livingston’s upcoming book Origins of the Wheel of Time. Livingston used notes from Robert Jordan and worked with artist Ellisa Mitchell to create a map incorporating Jordan’s original vision for the world.   Credit: Ellisa Mitchell   The original version of the world map was published in The World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (also known as the Big White Book) in 1997.   In the blog post on Tor’s website, Livingston explains that while going through Robert Jordan’s notes in preparation for the new book, he found notes marking errors in the previously published version of the world map. The two main errors were a name change, and a change to the shape and size of the continent of Seanchan.     Credit: Thomas Canty   Livingston proposed to Tor books & the Jordan estate a new map incorporating Robert Jordan’s edits. Tor and the Jordan estate gave Livingston permission to oversee the changes himself.     The new map was drawn by the same artist who drew the first map of the Westlands included in the Eye of the World in 1990 - Ellisa Mitchell. Livingston worked with Mitchell to include Robert Jordan’s suggestions and create a map closer to Jordan’s vision for the world.   The updated map will be published in Livingston’s upcoming book, Origins of The Wheel of Time: The Legends and Mythologies that Inspired Robert Jordan.   Origins of The Wheel of Time is available for pre-order from Tor books for print and ebook, as audiobook and in the EU only Broken Binding is publishing a special edition. Inkstand books also has a limited edition.   What do you think of the updated map? Let us know in the comments below. 

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: The First Binding by R. R. Virdi is a South-Asian-inspired epic fantasy that builds heavily on the traditions of Tolkien, Rothfuss, and Jordan to create something startlingly original. Recommended for fans of The Kingkiller Chronicles and She Who Became the Sun. The first book in the Tales of Tremaine series, it’s a promising start to a complex, intriguing world.   #   The First Binding is a hefty book, clocking in at over 800 pages. Those who are familiar with the genre will immediately recognize the structure of The Kingkiller Chronicles: a figure shrouded in magic and conflicting legends, myths, and tales tells—we think—his true story.   And that story is something. Ari, our protagonist, is now known as simply the Storyteller: a magician who wanders the world telling stories with hefty doses of magic both in them, and used in the performances thereof. Yet he once was an orphan working in the understage of a theater in the bustling city of Keshum. He knew nothing of his family or past, but does know stories: the legends of the creation of the world and the great heroes of lore, which are inspired from Hindu mythology/cosmology. It is clear how much the author loves both his source material and storytelling in general, and how deeply meaningful both are to him. Early on in the novel, Ari says: "I don't know if you're aware of what it's like to be deprived of your past, your parents. The idea that there is nothing connecting you to anyone in this world apart from your work. There is a certain hollowness, singular and all encompassing [sic], that fills you. The notion that you are all that is—nothing more—and when you're not much on your own, it's a rather crushing thing." (p.89). The manner in which Virdi weaves stories-within-stories-within-stories in this book is an absolute pleasure both in how they snuck up on me as a reader and how well they fit both the narrative and the philosophy: that a story, fuzzy as it is, is both identity and truth.    Eventually, Ari encounters magic for the first time. When a Binder arrives at the theater, he learns not just that magic exists, but that he may learn it, too. In this world, magic is enacted through five pairs of Bindings, where each member of a pair acts as counterbalancing force to the other. These bindings are controlled by the "folds" of the mind—a compounding of your thoughts to create your own version of the world, reminiscent of the Mythbusters' quip of "I reject your reality and substitute my own." More folds result in stronger magic, or a stronger counterbalancing: if I use six folds to lob a stone at your head and you use eight to imagine yourself dodging it, then you will be safe; less, and you will probably end up with a lump on your forehead. Before Ari can learn any of the Bindings, he must learn the folds; before he can learn the folds, he must learn to settle his mind. The exercises he is first set to—the candle and flame—are strongly reminiscent of the flame and void that Tam teaches Rand in The Wheel of Time. Ari is promised the opportunity to study at a magic school named the Ashram if he works hard with his new teacher.   And he wants to learn:    Yet, before Ari can do so, tragedy strikes and he must put of his dreams of the Ashram a little bit longer. Perhaps the most marvelous part of this story is not the magic system (which I greatly enjoy), but the combination of Ari’s absolute determination to survive and succeed and his utter inability to hold his tongue—to the point of seeming to have a death wish at times. He's reminiscent of Matrim Cauthon in that sense: someone you can't help rooting for despite the fact that you're certain you'd want to thwap him over the head if you had to spend any time with him in person.   His personality is also perfect for the magic that exists in the world: he is hungry and ambitious in a way that I felt in my bones; he wants more viscerally than almost any character I’ve ever encountered. And that means that he lives on the edge of a knife. “There is a cost to magic—old magic especially,” a teacher tells him. “If you wish to enforce your will on the world, shape it—shift it—make it—break it, what do you think will be the cost, hm? If you wish to affect it, do you think you will be spared its effects on you? There. Are. Costs.” (p. 573). As Ari comes closer and closer to wielding magic as a child, the reader feels the tension rising, knowing that he can’t possibly fathom the costs and that there is a very real chance that he might not think about them until it’s too late.    Though I found myself breathlessly reading many parts of this book, I do have to note that it was a very slow start for me. While it seems many readers found the prose compelling from the first page, I found it somewhat overdramatic; it eventually settles into competent, very readable writing. In larger part, however, I found Virdi's writing of female characters deeply irritating in a way that was reminiscent of the most outdated parts of The Wheel of Time —a gender essentialism that feels forced and unnecessary and like it belongs in the 1980s/90s. In the “present tense” sections of the book, Ari spends almost the entire time telling the story of his childhood to Eloine, the singer/temptress/’broken thing’ our narrator meets in the first chapters of the book. I flipped to a random page to draw an example: this isn’t the most egregious one I could remember, but it is representative:      By this point, I had already annotated "omg, stopppp" in the margin: so many of these interactions feel so cliché that is seems the author is either trying to parody classic fantasy works or prove his own maturity in matters of romance. Eloine is at times coy, at times humourous, at times wounded—but only quietly so, hinting at trauma without ever speaking of it. In general, the various women in Ari's life all feel insufficient, foils for his experience and learning rather than true characters on their own (though, to be fair, many of the male characters are treated in the same way: Ari is, above all, a self-centered figure out of the need to survive).   Most importantly, all the past sections of this book (let's say about 500 pages of the total text) are told directly by Ari to Eloine, within the first few days of meeting, while hearing barely anything of her story—which translates to about thirteen hours of speech on Ari's part. The idea of listening to a monologue that long from a person I just met, regardless of gender, is truly horrifying and often pushed my suspension of disbelief to the point of breaking. If I hadn't promised to review this book, I would have likely given up within the first fifty pages, as many folks on GoodReads seem to have done.   But, I pushed on—and I’m glad I did. At page 97, I finally found myself pulled deeply into the world. My interest waxed and waned throughout; I inhaled the past tense and found myself often trudging through the present. Ultimately, however, I found myself so compelled by the magic system and the setting that I fell in love with the world.    And, I suppose, Virdi would quote his book right back at me for my gripes:"[i]t's a horrible thing when someone asks for a story and isn't willing to patiently sit through it and listen" (p. 129). This one required a lot of patience for me; for others, I’m certain it will be a breeze.    Above all, I believe that what he is trying to do is something excellent: pull something new into fantasy. It builds on familiar foundations while drawing from a well of tradition that has been underrepresented in fantasy. I am deeply curious about the life that Ari leads and how he ends up growing, changing, learning, suffering, loving, losing. If the “present tense” of the story were written as engrossingly as the “past tense” section, I would unquestionably continue on this series and await the next book eagerly. As it stands, I am mildly hesitant but overall hopeful and look forward to seeing where Virdi goes with Book 2.   I recommend The First Binding for any reader hungry for an epic fantasy that builds on the tradition of the ‘classic’ greats like Jordan, Rothfuss, and Martin while integrating South Asian lore. I most heartily encourage curious readers to give it a try. I hope to see this trilogy become successful—I want more stories like this one in the world, and I think Virdi is a strong early voice to build on this branch of the genre.   The First Binding is available in the Dragonmount eBook store. Find it here!   Reviewer Note: Quotations are pulled from the ARC of The First Binding; they may have been updated in the final version of the book.

Katy is a news contributor for Dragonmount. You can follow her as she shares her thoughts on The Wheel of Time TV Show on Instagram and Twitter @KatySedai     Showrunner Rafe Judkins answered questions about season two of The Wheel of Time on Prime Video. Recent announcements came during the San Diego Comic-Con panel focused on the Wheel of Time Origin shorts. They announced more Origin episodes are coming in August, released a season 2 sizzle reel, and announced that the television show is renewed for season 3!   After the panel, Rafe posted to Twitter that he’d answer questions on season two.     Rafe answered a lot questions (there are over 400 replies to his post), but here are the highlights:   Rafe shared thoughts on the general plotting of season two and where the story may take us. Many fans speculated, but Rafe confirmed, that season two will cover book two: The Great Hunt and book three: The Dragon Reborn. The third season just announced will cover book four: The Shadow Rising. Mat’s plot was changed the most, but by the end of season two his plot will line up for the events in book four. This makes a lot of sense, since Mat’s character didn’t really shine until book three.         Rafe also expanded on what’s in store for Moiraine and Lan. Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney are big stars for the show, and it makes sense to give them a bit more to do. This will be a rather large change to the story, so it will be interesting to see how the wheel turns for those two characters!         Rafe also gave fans confirmation of a few fan favorite characters and scenes. We will be seeing everyone’s favorite wolfbrother: Hopper. We also will have scenes with Egwene and Renna (which means more of the Seanchan plot from book 2). We will love to hate Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin.           Rafe gave us some clues about what to expect from the shadow this season. The darkfriend social, which opens book 2, will be in the show. It’s a fantastic scene, and should make for great sleuthing and speculating. Rafe confirmed we will see more than one forsaken, and that they will have an expanded role closer to what we see in later books than what’s in books 2 and 3.           Rafe also gave us some background on season one. The first was about Uno - that he was breathing. Some fans thought Uno died after he was stabbed with the tainted dagger, but it sounds like Uno will live to swear again.  Many fans had questions about the Egwene - Nynaeve scene in the finale of season one. Rafe shared that the scene was changed at the very last minute due to COVID restrictions, and the original plan was for Egwene to help Nynaeve using Wisdom skills. It sucks for everyone that these compromises had to be made.          Finally, Rafe shared that we will continue to see the cold opens for the episodes as an ode to the point of view chapters in the books. It’s just one of the ways the team has adapted the written story to television. And WE WILL GET LONGER EPISODES. Great news and we can’t wait to see how The Wheel of Time team uses some extra time to tell this beloved story.         There's a lot to still learn about season two (we haven't heard when it will premiere), but hopefully this gives everyone plenty to speculate and theorize over until we can watch new episodes of The Wheel of Time on our screens again. What's your favorite answer from Rafe? Anything important that we missed? (400 replies is a lot to shift through!) Let us know in the comments below or in our forums.   

Macmillan Audio announced today that Rosamund Pike, who plays Moiraine in Prime Video's TV show, will narrate new versions of Robert Jordan's second and third Wheel of Time novels, The Great Hunt, and The Dragon Reborn. The new version of The Great Hunt will be available August 2, 2022, and The Dragon Reborn will arrive sometime in 2023.    The most well-known of versions of these audiobooks were 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 abridged and unabridged versions.   Long-time fans can be rest assured that the older versions of both audiobooks from Michael Kramer and Kate Reading will remain available along with these new versions from Rosamund Pike.    It is unknown whether Rosamund Pike will narrate all books in The Wheel of Time series. For now it seems as though she is keeping pace with the story adaptation presented by Prime Video's series.  Season 2 of The Wheel of Time is expected to adapt many of the events in these two novels.    Here's the full tree release from Macmillan Audio:     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.