Kathy Campbell: Thom has seen the first three episodes and I’ve seen the entire season. Season Three of The Wheel of Time on Prime Video. And now we’re going to tell you about it. And just so you know, This is going to be a non-spoiler review for the first three episodes from Thom and then I’m also going to provide my thoughts for the whole season. Let’s start with Thom. Thom DeSimone: The lovely folks who work on the Wheel of Time show on Amazon [Prime Video] deemed us worthy for screeners of Season Three and thank the Light because mother's milk in a cup they're amazing. Really. Cut. We can end there, like that's my feelings for this. If you're coming into this wanting it to be negative, you're gonna find negative, but honestly as a twenty-five-year-long Wheel of Time fan; as someone who has a character in the books based off of them, I love this show. And this season is by far the best one yet. First off I want to do the looks of this show.To sum it up in one word, simply gorgeous. Costuming is next level; the variation of color and texture and material. I paused several times just to look at background characters because they were just stunning. So awesome. We all know at this point that we're going to be seeing more of the Aiel in this season. And what lead costume designer Sharon Gilham did with this particular group is just nothing short of Emmy winning. I'm looking at you, Television Academy. They're the ones apparently that vote on who get Emmys or who is nominated. Sharon produced such a unique beauty with this group of people who wear such a limited color palette and are mostly utilitarian in their outfits (except, you know, looking at you, Savannah) that she had me backtracking to re-listen to dialogue. I was just lost in looking at their costumes. When we see some particular favorite characters of the Aiel pop up on screen, I was lost in watching them. Though I really do think that my favorite aspects still, even through Seasons One and Two, is going to be the Aes Sedai, Particularly their costumes, hair, and makeup. The way Sharon Gilham and Davina Lamont capture the Aes Sedai and their uniqueness of culture, personality, and everything within their costumes, hair, and makeup is just, just, like, I love it. It's so great. You can really see how each Aes Sedai comes from a different culture and a different country, different ages, different personalities. It's beautiful. Speaking of Divina Lamont, Davina Lamont is a multi-award winning hair and makeup designer and the lead hair and makeup designer on the Wheel of Time television show, which for the layman's that includes things like the Trollocs and Myrddraal or the practical effects on the Trollocs and Myrddraal like prosthetics and things. Davina and Sharon work a lot together, as you can imagine, more often than not. I had a unique opportunity to speak to both of them together prior to Season Two, and they are absolutely lovely. And the passion they have in their work and the camaraderie they share between the two of them was palpable when I got to speak with them. They spoke at the time about working together to come up with a look for Cairhien and their enjoyment in getting to play with a mashup of 13th century France and feudal Japan was just palpable. Listening to them talk about how they played with hair and makeup and clothing of both cultures and also putting it into a fantasy setting was just so much fun. You could really hear the passion and excitement in their voices. And they got to play with their toys together again in this season with the Aiel. Everything from armor and weapons and hair. It was just absolutely beautiful. The Aiel are so individually unique and beautiful that I just like, I want to go through and grab a screenshot of Aiel that pops up onscreen just to pick out the differences in each one's personal armor and cadin’sor. But according to interviews that both Sharon and Davina did for Season Three, Tanchico is going to be the one that they had the most fun playing. So Davina had to say that one of her favorite designs was the characters of Tanchico, a world and look that we haven't seen on television before, wild and raw bunch of ruthless people. This is where we can really go crazy with our look. And Sharon, on the same thing, said “Tanchico was my favorite, especially because it challenged us to incorporate veils into society in a new and fresh way.” So book readers know that veils are a big thing within Tanchico. Most people wear veils in some form or fashion, regardless of their social standing. So really just be on the lookout for background characters, really, in all of our settings, just at their costumes and hair and makeup. It really encourages watches and rewatches and reWoTches and reWoTches and reWoTches. Still sticking with the looks for a minute. Two men who I lovingly have given the name the Ondřejs, mainly because their names play hell on an English-only speaker with dyslexia. Mouths [me!]. But I'm going to give it a shot saying both of their names. And I'm sorry in advance if I butcher them. Lead production designer, Ondřej Nekvasil and lead special effects coordinator, Ondřej Nierostek. Again, for those keeping track at home, a production designer would be someone that is like leading building and designing the sets. And the special effects coordinator is not, as you might think, anything to do with computer effects, but actual practical effects on the set. So, you know, explosions and things. I also had an opportunity to interview the two of them together, and it was so much fun. I don't know why, but my very first thought seeing the two of them sitting next to each other was just like, that they were cute sitting next to each other. And I'm happy with myself that I got them to laugh when I said that whoever put them together had a sick sense of humor because Ondřej Nekvasil builds the sets, and then Ondřej Nierostek blows them up. They laughed at that, which I, you know, I will continue to think about as a highlight of my life. The beauty that Ondřej and his team brought to life seems just really taken right out of the mind of Robert Jordan himself. It just, in one word, it was stunning. The sets are gorgeous. Every single one of them. I have absolutely no notes on anything. No feelings in the negative at all on any of set design. Absolutely gorgeous And then I was equally as impressed on how Ondřej blew them up, particularly in episode one. Seeing the cold open in episode one had me really excited for posibilities in the future Speaking of episode one and things that happen, we could talk about the story a little bit. And I will again, still be non-spoilery, I promise. There’s a ton to unpack in the first episode let alone the first three. But I’ll try to keep it short, you know. Well this is probably a good time to mention that, if you’re interested in a more spoiler filled review, you can check out Dragonmount’s YouTube where Chrystal and I are taking a deep dive into the first three episodes, screenshots, and clips all over the place. And, if you’re liking our content, make sure to smash that subscribe and share our channel with some friends who you think might enjoy as well. We’re welcoming to all here, even those who don’t really like the show as long as, you know, you can sit around and have discussion about it and not be toxic No need to munch on other peoples' bunch of crunch. Okay, we get taken for quite a ride right off the bat in episode one, both emotionally and physically, with another 17 minute cold open. Yes, 17 minute cold open. Those of you who watched the 11 minute teaser preview will notice the time difference there. I will say that is the cold open just sans a lot of information. So it is still worth watching in its entirety when the episode airs. I will say, steel your hearts and gird your loins, it’s a doozy. We get tossed right into moral dilemmas, tough decisions, and budding new love; as well as some old flames maybe going out. A few notable changes to some character behaviors that was a bit jarring for me at first but after it cooked a little in my brain I really grew to like it and I’m interested to see how they build out on that particular character. . . See if you guys can figure out who i’m talking about. I think it'll be pretty epic. There are some trials that our characters go through that were particularly exciting for me to see on screen, both going into those trials and what our characters actually saw in the trial themselves. Now to harken back to set, costume, hair, and makeup again, damn, those scenes and the actors and crew's creativity really, really just sing through. I absolutely loved it. By the end of episode three, if you're anything like me, you'll end up on your feet cheering and laughing one minute and then wiping tears away from your eyes for a character from the books that you never thought you'd have any emotion other than hatred. And really that's all I can do non-spoilery for those first three episodes. I really can't tap myself any further without divulging more info. I'm sure we'll have so many edits to cut out my accidental spoilers already. Really just watch and rewatch and rewatch and rewatch The Wheel of Time over on Amazon, especially if we want to see a Season Four! Make sure to just leave it playing on all your devices in your home as much as you possibly can. With that, I love all of you awesome nerds. Thanks for hanging out with me. Kathy’s Review Kathy Campbel: Now, first off, the incredible things. Visually, this season is even more of an upgrade than Season Two. Season One was good. Season Two was great. Season Three: a whole other world. I cannot even begin to explain to you how many times I paused the show just to look at the incredible visuals that were on the screen. So many massive wallpaper worthy prints. Just the entire world feels so much bigger than it did before and so much more detailed. I cannot wait for you all to see it. There were so many breathtaking moments with the visual effects, how things were framed and the scenery ,how the One Power was done. Everything was just incredible. For costuming especially, Sharon Gilham has outdone herself. Her and her team have done some incredible, incredible work this season. There is one particular character that shows up that I actually had to stop because I, like, I audibly gasped out loud with how incredible this costume was. It was , I know I'm, listen I'm gonna say incredible a lot okay because this season was incredible I can't wait for you folks to see this because it truly is just awe-inspiring, just like with Season Two hair and makeup. All of that is another step up, like it just looks so real. There's so many more battles, so many more, let's say arguments, and moments where the hair and makeup just add an extra little something. It is flawless on the eyes. When people are having altercations with each other, it still looks stunning in the most perfect way. It is flawless. And, of course, let's talk about the casting. The returning cast feels like they've settled even more into their characters than they did before. There's something really comforting about seeing the Two Rivers Five, and Moraine and Lan, and all of these characters that we've grown to love from Season One. It feels like they're even more real but on top of that the new cast, oh my goodness, the number of Zaddies in the world! Let's just say, so many attractive people it should be illegal. Everyone's going to be so impressed with the new cast this season, all of these characters that we know from the books feel amazing. Even the Forsaken that show up, let me just say, y'all are gonna love it. It's so exciting to see this world that we've seen, that we've read, that we've lived with for years, come to life. And this season especially feels like authentically Wheel of Time. As somebody who's been reading the books since, you know, the early2000s ,it's exciting to see new surprises with the Wheel of Time. And that's something that this show does. There's so much packed into this season and yet it still feels like Wheel of Time. There are some scenes that book fans have been waiting for that are here and they are very good. However, there are some things that I know folks are going to be missing. . . There are a few moments that I wish so desperately had been in the show that were not. And you know what? That's okay. Because I know if there had been more time, more episodes, longer episodes, any of this, the thing that gets me through these moments is the fact that I know Rafe tried as hard as he possibly could to get these bits onscreen because these are iconic moments for the books that I know are sad to be missed. So maybe we'll see some behind the scenes, or cuts, or here's stuff we filmed that we couldn't put in the scene, like in the show, because of time or whatever. I really hope that we get to see those because again I know that Rafe loves these bits just as much as we do, but again, there are some moments especially ones that I know people have speculated would not show up they're there get ready to be swept away with an incredible season I feel like this season especially is really going to turn around people that maybe have not read the books you can get friends to watch the other seasons and then watch Season Three they're gonna be hooked they're going to want Season Four. This season shows what the show could be without the pandemic without strikes without all of these things that I know have affected previous seasons. We're finally to the point where I feel like it's spread its wings and it's ready to go. And I think, I really, really hope that we can get more seasons of this show because this story deserves to be told and these people deserve to be the ones to tell it. So, overall, this season is wonderful. It's high fantasy at its best. It's The Wheel of Time at its best. It's the characters that we know and love being their true selves. It is visually stunning. It is something, it's a world that you're going to want to live in. It's a world that you're going to want to hug and embrace and visit over and over and over again. And I cannot wait for you to see Season Three of The Wheel of Time on Prime Video. Goodbye.

Dragonmount (Kathy Campbell): Egwene is a lot of people’s favorite character, and Madeleine Madden brings her to life. I’m so excited for everyone to see how incredible she is this season, especially with the intensity of season two. Which is in fact my first question. So let's get to it. Hi, I’m Kathy with Dragonmount. Madeleine: Hi, How are you? DM: I’m wonderful. You were so kind to Humberto in Brazil, thank you so much for that. M: Oh my God, it was. . . Honestly I still think about that. Brazil is on my mind all the time and how wonderful that experience was. DM: I’m so glad! Well, it was so special for us as well. M: Good! I’m glad I’m glad! DM: So thank you. So season two was incredibly intense for Egwene and the audience. And season three is a very different type of intensity. How did you separate yourself from that mental space after filming last season’s trauma, and then again dealing with the post traumatic healing journey this season. M: It was difficult! To step back into where we left off in season two. Even between seasons, it feels like a lot of time, and sometimes to get back into that mindset and even that physicality, and I mean when I saw in the script it's like “Egwene is back in the cells” and I’m like Goddddd. That’s always a bit of a challenge for me as an actor, and I think for any actor, is just trying to find where you left off. However, for me personally, and I know for the audience, I think it’s really important for us to see how Egwene heals from this experience and moves forward and picks herself back up. And that she is going to be okay, but she is going to need the help of other people in her life to guide her into that path of healing. But you know that’s it’s a challenge! But I feel really blessed to have been able to have such an incredible character and character arc so early on in the series. DM: Many book readers were so excited about the first hints of dreamwalking that were confirmed to be part of the show. And I will say, it does not disappoint, it is incredible. And then as someone of Aboriginal descent, which has a long history of dreaming traditions, what resonated with you in this part of Egwene’s characters and then how you presented it on screen? M: I mean so much of the magic and spirituality and the lore in Wheel of Time has always drawn me to this series. I think that’s what makes the Wheel of Time such a standout in the fantasy genre and Robert Jordan’s writing in his books and his appreciation for all the elements is really special. So for me like you said, and thank you for mentioning my heritage, we carry a lot of spirituality, in our culture as well and also reincarnation. That is a big element in First Nation Australia culture and that’s obvious something that we have in the Wheel of Time, and it’s such a gentle wonderful way of looking at time and lifetimes and cycles and destiny and it's really wonderful. DM: thank you.one last question. Egwene travels to the Aiel waste with Moiraine, Lan, Aviendha, and Rand while the rest of the group scatter throughout the world. Which location or experience do you wish you could have taken part of, especially with the temperatures being apparently 45 degrees Celsius, 113 Fahrenheit in South Africa and all of the challenges that that brings. M: Yeahhh. . . Goodness me, there's I think. . . Goodness, yeah it was SO hot in South Africa but it really helped inform the way our characters moved in where they were at emotionally and energetically. As hard as it was, we were very lucky to be filming on location. The scene that I wish I was involved in… It’s a scene that involves a Forsaken and two of the other actors that were working in this scene with the Forsaken. They had such a fun time and like, I don’t know how I can explain this. . . DM: I think I know what scene you are talking about. . . M: I think you know what scene! And even Rafe was texting the actors and was like “just watch the dailies.” And I’m like DAMNIT I want to have a little laugh and so I would have loved to have even just been a fly on the wall for that scene. DM: Amazing, thank you so much for doing this. I'm so excited for everyone to see your incredible season in just a few days! M: Thank you! Ahh I know! It’s crazy DM: Finally! M: It was lovely to see you again! DM: Lovely to see you! Thank you.

Marcus Rutherford: How are you doing? Dragonmount (Kathy Campbell): It’s so good to see you both again, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I’m going to start with Dónal. You were absolutely incredible in Hadestown, and thank you for signing my book back in July! Dónal Finn: Ohh big legend! Nice! Thank you! DM: The UK version of Hadestown is unique in its choice to allow the actors to use their native accents. In contrast to that, your Mat Cauthon Two Rivers accent is then you also have to speak that Old Tongue in that accent, so smoothly. The parts of season three that I've seen show so much more extensive use of that balance. What was the hardest part about working with an accent and a completely different language? DF: Do you know what, I feel a little bit kind of liberated when we're working with a character that has an accent because you’re kind of thinking through an internal monologue or something, or your internal thought process, you hear it in a different way. So you kind of hear how they see the world and it’s got to be different than your own voice, so you kind of start to move degrees of separation away from yourself. So I enjoy working in accents and also it’s not really like the accent is born out of necessity, not just placement but with this, when it comes to the Old Tongue. I think what was great about that was we had our dialect coach Naomi Todd. I have a text that's in the old tongue but I worked with her on it. There was nothing left open to a decision or interpretation because it felt at that point like a science, which was amazing given that it's you know, it's this world of fantasy, and that we get to decide these things based on what's there in the books as evidence. But she knew, given the way that it was written what accent within our world it might draw from, you know given what consonants it uses at the start of something, (then) that syllable is going to be stressed, and it's a case, or it might take some kind of a Russian influence or something, or this is where the verb lands within a sentence. So in the flow of a sentence, this is where you might hit that kernel that might be where you stress if you're trying to make this point. And it’s really imaginative work, and I think that really iit was a great exercise and great a great joy as an actor to kind of get stuck into that and to embody it. DM: Yeah. . . Alright Marcus. A lot of book readers are very excited about what's to come in this season, especially with some new cast members including Perrin’s Falcon. She is a very divisive character in the books especially for her treatment of Perrin at times. How have you found that to play out on screen? MF: It's been amazing man. I knew everyone was kind of anticipating Faile as a character that, even as Perrin, I was kind of so excited. To me, I felt like he'd met all these characters along his journey and I felt like they'd all kind of given him something to reflect about himself, whether it be the Tuatha'an, or Elyas, or the Shienarans, or Aviendha But it kind of felt like there was someone who almost going to slap him into shape a little bit and tell him what's right. And yeah, Isabella (Bucceri) is incredible. She's amazing. She brings a new energy to the show which I think is really tricky to do at this stage. I heard some people have thoughts about Faile, and (Isabella) was like, “oh they might not like me,” all this kind of stuff. But she's incredible. She makes her so strong and so fierce, but so affable at the same time. I think people are going to be really really excited about that. There's, you know, this kind of big gentle giant and this little pocket rocket energy that kind of works. When we were doing chemistry test for that character, she just came in and everyone was just like “yeah this just works.” And she’s amazing, I think all those moments from the books and the little things she has with the beard. I dunno there’s so much there that is so sweet and so much fun to play with that’s in The Shadow Rising and the other books that hopefully all the book fans relate to. DM: Oh I’m so very excited. Thank you again so much for this time and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Dragonmount: Hi Rafe! First off, thank you so much for how kind you were to Humberto at CCXP when they talked to you! Rafe: Oh it was so sweet! We loved spending time with him! DM: Thank you! We appreciate it so very much. R: He was so sweet and so excited. DM: He was so excited. Book readers will recognize from the press release that the two Wise Ones that were just announced (Bair and Melaine) seemed to have swapped abilities to channel versus just dreamwalking. We even got confirmation just to clarify to make sure that it was correct. What would you like to tell the fandom to help them understand the changes that have been made. Other than just Watch and Find Out. R: Yeah, for that one it’s pretty simple, which is that we wanted, we needed, to condense Bair and Amys into one character essentially. So she is really Amys and Bair combined. So it felt important for Amys side of the character that she be able to channel, and I think that relationship with Egwene. But we loved the idea that one of the Wise Ones who was really proficient in dreamwalking couldn’t channel, so that became Melaine’s character trait. So it’s not really. . . It’s a technical change from the books, but it’s more about keeping the Amys character alive in Bair, and keeping alive this idea that one of them can’t channel because I really like that. DM: Yes, well we like that too. We appreciate that, thank you for the clarification so no one will yell as much. Hopefully. Were there specific moments in the books that you felt were essential to highlight in Rosamund (Pike) and Sophie’s (Okonedo) portrayal of Moiraine and Siuan? R: Oh that’s interesting! I think one of the most important scenes that we sort of focused on, especially in the first season, was this scene that they have at the top of the second book (The Great Hunt) where you kind of peel back the curtain suddenly and see, oh these two are working in cahoots with each other, and realize that this Amyrlin Seat that we’ve see as so high up above everything has actually has some relationship with Moiraine that we don’t fully understand. And then I think outside of that, a lot of what we took was from actually their relationship in New Spring which has so much of the richness between them, and their care for each other, and their love for each other. That was really the key places we were pulling from for their relationship and so operating under the idea that maybe their relationship is that close in the books but we don’t hear about it as fully. DM: Yeah, absolutely. What is a question that you’ve been hoping somebody would ask because you have a perfect answer that you know people really want to know? R: Oh that’s really interesting. There’s actually, people have been good today about asking so many questions. I wish that someone had asked exactly which Forsaken we’re going to be put on screen and when, because then I would tell them. . . But no one asked. . . DM: Oh and now I’m out of questions! Dangit Rafe! Both laugh DM: I should've started with that! Well thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a great rest of your day. R: Oh thank you you too it’s so good to see you as always!

Rafe, Josha, and Madeleine: Happy birthday! Happy birthday Dragonmount! Happy birthday, woop! Dragonmount (Humberto): Hello guys my name is Humberto and as I said I work for Dragonmount which is the oldest Wheel of Time website Madeleine: Yeah! Josha: Oh that's sick! Rafe: It's OG Wheel of Time! Josha: I love that DM: Last time we spoke with you, Rafe, you said that the Wheel of Time fandom is statistically the greatest fandom ever. How do you feel? Does it still hold up or do we need some spanking? R: Statistics are statistics! They don't change. M: Statistics don’t lie! R: It's still the greatest fandom statistically. But I think it's, you know, what they found when they were looking at the statistics was that the response to our show is more positive. I know sometimes it doesn't feel like it in the echo chamber of the internet but like actually the response amongst fans is more positive than almost any other adaptations that are out there and that the fans are more welcoming to people outside of the fandom than any other fandoms and so I think that that's always been a nice thing about Wheel of Time. You guys created that with Dragonmount way before the show ever existed, that this was a fandom who wanted to have people come into it instead of wanting to have people stay out of it, and I think that that’s true for the show too now. J: And that’s also nice that we're here. We have you in the room because—we just spoke about it—but over the last years everything has been on Zoom, or we weren't able to do any kind of press This is actually the first time after four or five years that we can engage. That's lovely. R: Yeah, that’s nice, that's nice! DM: Last time, you said that your favorite dinosaur was the pachycephalosaurus? R: (laughs) That's what I said, apparently! All laugh DM: So now I feel obligated to ask the cast of The Wheel of Time: what's your favorite dinosaur? J: I mean, T-Rex! R: That’s what the Dragon Reborn would say! M: Destruction! There was this one… I worked on a show called The Ark and it was all dinos, dinos, dinos. And there was one, I can't remember the name, but it’s got these spikes on their backs and they can regulate their temperatures through their little spikes and I thought that was really cute. So I love them. The spiky one! DM: And speaking about dinosaurs and creatures and monsters, one of my favorite things about the Wheel of Time is the shadowspawn like the Trollocs and stuff like that. And in the show we've seen the Trollocs, the Fades but there's still one creature that I really like that we haven't seen it yet. And I think in the Shadow Rising there's a scene with Rand and the Draghkar. . . Can we expect to see other creatures in season three or later in the show? R: I will say that, every season… well, not the first, but in both season two and season three the Draghkar has been scripted as happening in the show, and then eventually gets removed when we talk to the VFX department and they’re like Rafe, Rafe Rafe, we can’t do this for one scene. DM: So, not yet. . . R: We would like to get it in there! And the Draghkar has a real, I don't know if I should say this, but in the writer's room we always joke about the Draghkar being like a car full of drag queens, so when the Draghkar arrives it's just like beep beep motherfuckers! M: Get in, bitches! J: But there will be other creatures, right? R: Yeah! We have a new shadowspawn this season. . . DM: Nice! So I had lots of questions prepared for you guys, and then I saw the trailer and I had to scrap everything to just talk about what I saw! There's Rhuidean, and there's the Car’a’carn and the Aiel Waste and so many cool things for the book fans. And I would like to ask which scene was the easiest to adapt from the book and not have to say: ‘oh we have to change this and we have to change that.’ Just look at the book and say: ‘ah we can pretty much do this as it is.’ R: I think one scene that was really easy to do this season—and I've been really excited to get to it for a while because I think it's such a beautiful scene—is a scene with Matt and Siuan Sanche and, you know, we don't often get to because we're compressing so much from the books and we have to change little things along the way so we don't often get to have exactly the group of characters, and exactly the place that they were in the books, saying exactly the words that they said in the books. We don't get all three of those things very often and that scene is pretty much exactly the characters, exactly where they were, and saying very close to exactly the words. So it was easy to write that because you just type it up! M: Copy and paste! DM: And I want to talk about Egwene a little bit. On the previous seasons Egwene was this character that had a lot of the world building and the concepts about the show and the book being shown through her eyes like the Seanchan and the damane and I believe in the next season we have the World of Dreams and Tel’aran’rhiod. I don’t know if you can talk about it, but how is it to play this character that so much of the world building and core concepts that have to be shown to the audience goes through your eyes? M: Oh, It's amazing because I get the privilege of you know exploring these different worlds through her eyes and you know we've traveled to some amazing locations like on this show and you know I wouldn't be able to do that if I wasn't playing her. And exploring the different cultures and meeting the people that exist in those worlds has been really wonderful to learn more about the world and her, and who she is, and what her abilities are. You know, I think even with season two in the damane cells you know you're never actually like in there with her? She's telling Min what has happened when that's happening. . . R: . . .In the books, yeah. . . M: . . .and so to be able to have a whole episode just to like deep dive into it has been fantastic and it's the same sort of thing with the dream walking (in season three). DM: That’s perfect. And I think, I don’t know, this is my first time doing this! But it’s just that one minute left. . . R: Oh no that’s ok! One minute left! M: Yeah, yeah! DM: (to Josha) I know this is not your first time in Brazil. J: It’s not, no DM: And what about you guys? M and R: First time! DM: Please come film here! All laugh M: We’re so down! R: We would love to! You call us and let us know about a government rebate and we’re here! All laugh DM: It was great talking to you!

Dragonmount, near Tar Valon—Good things come (with the dawn!) to those who wait, and this week we have been treated to some long-awaited information about the upcoming third season of the Wheel of Time on Prime Video. First, like a banner rising above the fog of war, we got a season three poster. Fans, like those of us here at Dragonmount, immediately jumped on the image of Rand (Josha Stradowski) carrying a battered Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) through a barren and spear-studded landscape—are those dragons coiling around Rand’s forearms? Are his footsteps keeping pace with the sunrise, AKA the DAWN? And, as the image strongly implies a visit to Rhuidean in the Three-fold Land, what aspects of The Shadow Rising will we get to experience in the third season? Most importantly, WHEN are we going to see season three on our screens? We did not have long to wait for the answer to the most important of these questions. Saturday, at CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil, showrunner Rafe Judkins, along with Stradowski and Madeleine Madden (Egwene), participated in a panel discussion where they revealed that season 3 of the Wheel of Time will premiere on March 13, 2025. That is fewer than 100 days from now! Set your countdowns! Tell your friends! Even more exciting, although it doesn’t answer questions so much as pose a thousand new ones, the CCXP panel included the unveiling of our first teaser trailer for season three. The teaser reveals a world of heightened stakes: Moiraine confronts the incredible challenges of her mission to guide and protect the Dragon Reborn; Ishamael may be defeated, but the remaining Forsaken plot and scheme; the Black Ajah are ascendent; and the dark taint on Rand’s corrupted power continues to grow. Failure is not an option, for any of our heroes. To throw a spanner into the works of would-be detectives, we have good reason to believe that at least part of what we see in the teaser represents visions that Moiraine, and possibly others, experience. Most likely, these are related to their visits to Rhuidean, but they could also reflect journeys by portal stone or the test to become Accepted of the White Tower. This means that just because we saw something happen, doesn’t mean that it actually has happened in this turning of the Wheel… The Wheel of Time stars Rosamund Pike (Saltburn, Gone Girl) as Moiraine Damodred, Daniel Henney (Criminal Minds) as al’Lan Mandragoran, Josha Stradowski (Gran Turismo) as Rand al’Thor, Zoë Robins (Power Rangers Ninja Steel) as Nynaeve al'Meara, Madeleine Madden (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Egwene al'Vere, Marcus Rutherford (Obey) as Perrin Aybara, Dónal Finn (Rogue Heroes) as Mat Cauthon, Ceara Coveney (Young Wallander) as Elayne Trakand, Kate Fleetwood (Harlots) as Leandrin Guirale, Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders) as Lanfear, Ayoola Smart (Killing Eve) as Aviendha, and Kae Alexander (Game of Thrones) as Min Farshaw. The Wheel of Time was adapted for television by executive producer and showrunner Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hemlock Grove). Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of iwot productions (Winter Dragon), Ted Field of Radar Pictures (Jumanji: The Next Level, Winter Dragon), Mike Weber (Jumanji: The Next Level, Beirut), Marigo Kehoe (Outlander, The Crown), Ciaran Donnelly (Kin), Justine Juel Gillmer (The Survivor, Halo), Dave Hill (Game of Thrones) and Rosamund Pike (Saltburn, Gone Girl) also serve as executive producers. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios. All episodes of the first two seasons of The Wheel of Time are now available on Prime Video.

The City in Glass begins with three vengeful angels razing the city of Azril to the ground in fire and fury. Our protagonist—a demon named Vitrine who has spent generations of human lives creating the city by influencing and inspiring its people—dies along with the citizens of Azril. But demons are not welcome in the afterlife, and Vitrine returns to pick up the pieces of herself and her shattered city. This dreamlike book follows Vitrine as she starts over, rebuilding her Azril piece by piece and person by person. The narrative jumps back and forth between the original Azril and the new Azril, and we get to see Vitrine realize that, although she can use the infinite time afforded to an immortal to grow a city from the ruins of the old, it will never be the original city. Some things are lost forever. Grief and resilience are major themes in this book. Of course, the perspective of an immortal demon guiding a city into existence over a millennium may not be relatable to most of us. But the emotion of stark loss is, and Vo’s writing brings this mercilessly home. Vitrine, reeling, takes stock of her ruined works and wonders how the world can keep going on as if nothing has changed: "The sky is still blue," Vitrine thought, looking up. "I am not sure that the sky should still be allowed to be blue." The prose is stunning throughout this book: beautiful and raw and honest. Many of us have experienced grief in the form of the loss of a loved one, through death or separation. Although Vitrine’s loss is of a city and its history and people, it is also the loss of the time spent developing and cherishing that city. The realization that all she has left of it are memories, and that there is no future to dream of with those people, is the same crushing realization that brings the raw grief in all of us. Despite the impression that you may have at this point, this is not a book that will make you sad! I loved reading this book, and Vo’s biblical “and it was so” way of describing this fantasy world of demons and angels. As Vitrine sets about developing a new city, I was reminded of the mechanics of a civilization-building strategy game. She influences the course of history by encouraging this person to study astronomy, and that person to study commerce. She selects those people who show initiative and guides them into positions of power. She teaches her people to dance, and to read, and to have ambitions and goals. With a few exceptions though, Vitrine is not attached to the people. She is immortal and they are brief, and her project and passion is the city itself. I could not put this book down and I highly recommend it.

I was incredibly excited to read The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman, whose work I first discovered last year when browsing for audiobooks by top rated performances. Buehlman had read his own book, The Blacktongue Thief, and I was intrigued. In theory authors should be the perfect people to narrate their own books—they will get all of the pronunciation correct, and any intended inflections or emphases will be realized—but this is seldom actually the case. Voice acting is a talent and a skill that takes training to develop, just as writing is, and most folks pursue one path or the other (well, most folks pursue neither but we’ll forget about them for now). Buehlman defies this by turning in an excellent and accented performance of The Blacktongue Thief, deftly introducing readers to the characters and lore of his grim fantasy world. The world of “Blacktongue,” where the duology (and I hope there are more books to come) is set, was not always grim. The Blacktongue Thief takes place several years after the goblin wars, a series of invasions by goblins that required increasingly desperate measures and alliances to be repelled by the kynd (the humanlike [humankynd?] races). The first invasion, known as the Knights’ War, was easily won by knights on horseback who outmatched the shorter goblins. The goblins responded by introducing a plague that devastated the horse population nearly to extinction, and the second invasion, called the Threshers’ War, required the conscription of farmers in order to hold out against the goblins. The humans won but paid a high price in blood and sons, and when the goblins came again, they had to call upon their daughters to march to war. This “Daughters’ War” is where this second book takes us, from the perspective of Galva dom Braga. Galva, who was a grizzled veteran who worships the god of death in The Blacktongue Thief, is now an untried soldier marching to war as part of an experimental unit of women soldiers matched with war corvids. The corvids are magically bred, oversized, intelligent ravens that are trained to kill goblins. Readers of The Blacktongue Thief will know that the war corvids did indeed turn the tide, driving the goblins to an uneasy truce and leaving nearly the entirety of Manreach with a severe case of PTSD. The Daughters’ War takes place during the war of that name, but the book is really about one daughter’s war: Galva dom Braga. Her three brothers are also marching to war, each in different capacities, and the story follows the dynamics of the dom Braga family in tandem with the battles against the goblins. The eldest brother and heir is a drunk who has been given a mostly symbolic rank and spends his war drinking and carousing with other ignoble nobles. The next brother has earned his high rank and sits on the senior war council. The youngest brother is a sort of assistant apprentice to the powerful and slightly mad wizard who created the corvids. Then there is Galva, the third eldest, who has trained at the elite sword academy and is paired with two deadly war corvids but has not yet been tested in a real fight. Each dom Braga sibling will be tested in this war—against the enemy, against each other, and against themselves—and some will do better than others. Galva also experiences love and friendship, all against the backdrop of a terrible war that can suddenly and painfully introduce loss into any relationship. And the war is brutal. Readers of The Blacktongue Thief will recall the legacy that the goblin wars had on the lands and their people; readers of The Daughters’ War will experience that trauma directly. These goblins are not the lesser cousins of orcs that populate many fantasy worlds. These are terrifying monsters whose primary reason for invading is simply that they want to eat people. Being eaten by monsters is not an unusual threat in fantasy (who can forget the infamous trolloc cookpots), but there is something particularly terrifying about the matter-of-factness with which these goblins pursue it (Buehlman has also written several horror novels). People are farmed, dumbed with drugs, herded, butchered, and savored. The goblins are intelligent, but in a nonhuman way. They build siege engines and execute strategies, but they also swarm like zombies, piling over themselves to overwhelm adversaries. There is an inevitability to the goblin invasion that permeates these pages. That is why the farmers, and now the daughters, have been called to fight. I applaud Buehlman for creating this menacing adversary, and I applaud him further for making this book about the people who are fighting more than about the fight. There are fights aplenty, but the impact is felt more on Galva's character than on the battlelines. The book is, after all, a prequel, so a prepared reader will know more or less how the war itself goes. What is far more interesting is the path that Galva takes from a green soldier to the hardened, no-nonsense soldier that we meet in The Blacktongue Thief. We also see Galva meet the Infanta Mireya, whose usurped throne is a point of some consideration in The Blacktongue Thief, but whose relationship to Galva is the point of consideration in The Daughters’ War. Perhaps the thing that impressed me most about this book is the change in tone from The Blacktongue Thief. That book is told from the perspective of the titular thief, full of exaggerations and swagger, willing to do most anything to seize an advantage. This book, from the perspective of the upright soldier Galva—for whom lying is a cardinal offense and to whom death is preferable to dishonor—feels entirely different. Even the verbosity is dialed back, from a skilled linguist who clearly enjoys his way with words to the laconic soldier who will not waste breath nor ink on anything that does not need to be said. The Daughters’ War is a masterpiece in evoking the readers’ full range of emotion. This book made me stay up past my bedtime, made me cry, made me laugh (a little—there is little humor in war), and a certain character made me absolutely furious. I cannot recommend this book enough, and we can all hope that Christopher Buehlman continues to write in this world. The Daughters’ War is released on June 25; thank you to Tor for the advance review copy.

Many modern fantasy books are showcases of worldbuilding—magic systems, creative (and not so creative) variations on the “orc,” tongue-twisting character and place names, and so on. Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova has the best elements of all of that, but it also has what so many of its contemporaries do not: vivid and engaging prose. Take the very first paragraph. It was nearly midnight on New Year’s Eve, but the city inside the Wall didn’t celebrate. The people there knew that the birth of a new year was—like any birth—difficult, painful, and dangerous. You better believe I tore through this 350-page book in a hurry after that. It helped that I read it on vacation, of course, with my only distractions being ordering another drink and the occasional dip in the Pacific. But Foul Days isn’t just a great beach read. It is also a great stay-up-past-your-bedtime read, a great take-on-your-lunch-break read, a great anytime read. The action is fast, the world is vividly bleak, and the suspense kicks in early and doesn’t let up. The main character, Kosara, is a young witch who has packed a surprisingly long troubled past into her short years. Before long, she is forced to give up her shadow—her magic—in order to escape from the Czar of Monsters. It’s a short-term solution, because a witch can’t live for long without her shadow. In Kosara’s quest to get it back, she gets swept up in the machinations of the criminal underworld and crooked cops—including a handsome cop with almost as many secrets as Kosara—and a host of monsters. There is an element of steampunk to the fantasy—trains, guns, and a hot air balloon make appearances—as well as a touch of romance (I did mention a handsome cop…). I picked this book up because the blurb advertises The Witcher meets Naomi Novik, and doesn’t that sound like a good time? There is more Naomi Novik here than Geralt; the Witcher comparison stems mostly from the compendium of monsters and specialized monster fighters. Novik’s influence is much more present, with a flawed-but-strong young heroine and a world grown from eastern-European folklore roots. In the case of Foul Days, those influences come from the author’s origins in Bulgaria. Indeed, the “Foul Days” of the title correspond to the Pagan Slavic winter holiday of Korochun, the time of year when the more malevolent spirits are at their most potent. Those spirits are especially potent in Chenograd, where the story begins. Chenograd and Belograd are two halves of a city divided by a wall—The Wall—which keeps all the monsters and evil spirits on the Chenogradean side. It also (mostly) keeps all the citizens of the cities on their respective sides. As you might imagine, there is some tension between the folks on opposite sides of The Wall. We learn more about the origins of The Wall and how this city got to be divided as the book progresses. Dimova does an exceptionally good job of introducing the lore at a pace that keeps the reader informed without overwhelming. The POV is third person, but there is more than a hint of the unreliable narration from our heroine, Kosara, who has some secrets that she would rather not share with the reader or anyone else. This mostly works well, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty that very much matches the uncertainty that Kosara feels after crossing to the other side of the wall and discovering the betrayal and deception that more than validate her secrecy. There are a few instances, though, where I wish Dimova had trusted her own very capable character development and left things in the subtext. For example, after Kosara meets a character who is revealed to have robbed a bank with a toy gun, we read that “Kosara glanced at Nur with newfound respect. This perhaps showed that something was amiss in Kosara’s own moral compass.” Added to the fact that on the very first page of the book we see Kosara using magic to cheat at cards, I don’t think we need to be told so explicitly in which direction her moral compass points. Overwhelmingly, though, I enjoyed the prose of Foul Days immensely. The world that Dimova creates leaps off the page—sometimes frighteningly so—and, at times, managed to take me from my sunny vacation to the snowy streets of Chernograd and Belograd. I loved discovering and understanding the different monsters, some of which are truly evil and some of which are just your average creatures with their own needs and wants. The book also does an excellent job of illustrating that some of the humans are more monstrous than any creature, and, as the cover of the book says, “the scariest monsters are the human-shaped ones.” Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova comes out in June, and I highly recommend putting it on your summer reading list. The second book, Monstrous Nights, is set to release in October, and I am already excited to see how Dimova continues this adventure. Thank you to TOR for the advance reader copy that I reviewed, and thank you to Grace for editing this review.