Michael Wanyoike Wanyoike itibaren Sirajdikhan Upazila, Bangladesh
If Tolkien wrote as a linguist of imaginary tongues; if Ursula Le Guin writes as an anthropologist of imaginary cultures; then Jordan is the tourist-with-a-phrasebook of an imaginary post-high-school gap year. These books imply that Jordan sh*ts on linguistics. Doesn't matter whether people live centuries apart or continents apart; they all speak the same language exactly the same way, except Illianers do be talking like this and Seanchan have a Texan drawl, and except for a very small number of words unique to the Aiel or Seanchan. On the other hand, nations that are only a few decades or centuries old already have such distinct national dress codes and behaviors that everyone's a clone: every Domani woman is seductive, every Arafellin has bells in their hair, every Two Rivers man is an amazing archer. Or, as another reviewer put it: "and then there's Siuan Sanche, whom having grown up as a poor fisherman's daughter uses fishing metaphors for EVERYTHING, seriously, like a smurf uses the word 'smurf'." Damn smurfing right. ~~~ Re-reading in Nov 2013 ~~~ Everybody knows this is basically Lord Of The Rings fanfic. But I didn't realize until this reading that it's also fanfic of Harry Potter and Star Wars: "Rand" (Frodo/Harry/Luke) is an adopted kid living in the middle of nowhere interesting. Instead of inheriting a magic ring he needs to destroy, he *is* the magic ring/force that'll destroy Voldemort/Sauron/Vader. His girlfriend "Egewene" (Hermione) has Muggle parents but eventually goes to wizard school, although it's not coed here. His best buds "Perrin" (you might think this is Merry + Pippin based on the name, but it's really Sam who becomes a Wookie?) and "Mat" (confusingly, this one is the Merry/Pippin character, who plays pranks and touches things he shouldn't) come along with him when he leaves the Shire, after a crazy celebration gone wrong. The rest is mostly LOTR again. Gandalf's character gets split up: there's "Padan Fain," the old guy with a cart peddling fireworks, but he turns out to be Gollum really; and there's a wizard, but it's a woman, "Moiraine", though she is still best buds with Aragorn aka "Lan" the uncrowned king, who gets hit on by magical and knowledgeable-about-herbs Arwen aka "Nynaeve". They stay at the Prancing Pony (I can't remember now what it gets called here). They meet ents, excuse me, an Ogier and a Green Man, and they travel through abandoned paths of last resort *cough*Moria*cough twice. Basically, this first book covers so much of the ground of other fantasy books that, like many reviewers at the time, I cannot imagine why it'll take a whole 2 more books to finish the series... much less the 14 or so it ended up being. Ah, and, of course, unlike LOTR (which had almost no ladies at all), EVERY. SINGLE. CONVERSATION. has to be a battle of the sexes. This might actually be fanfic of Jane Austen, where the entire plot is driven by the fact of males and females being unable to communicate like reasonable adults. Arwen and Hermione Bennett are constantly angry at Aragorn and Harry Darcy, who are in turn confused. Dang. What I can never remember is WTF the "Eye Of The World" is. So for later recollection: It's (view spoiler). Which begs the question of (view spoiler) ~~~ Review from last time I read it, in 2007 or 2009? ~~~ As much of the series as I've read (up to book 5) is a really well-told yarn! I hadn't read these (except the 1st once?) since high school, so I wanted to re-read and catch up since the final one was supposed to come out this year... ...except for a few frustrations: First, I didn't realize before how much Book 1 is a blatant rewrite of Lord of the Rings. He's not even trying to be subtle about it. I can forgive this because the later books do diverge from LOTR's plot, but the other complaints are harder to ignore: --It gets really annoying that EVERY dialogue and internal monologue has to turn into a rant about how stubborn men/women are. A gentle touch of that would have added flavor to these books, but they're drowning in it... --How do these characters manage to spend weeks straight riding or walking together without ever letting each other know some important fact or asking for advice? They have WEEKS to compare notes about their weird dreams, the goals of their quest, any scraps of knowledge of the enemies they'll face... but they totally ignore it all. They also never say "sorry" or "thank you" for anything. I have no idea what they do talk about. --The whole ta'veren thing seems to turn into a deus ex machina for the author when he can't think of good *real* reasons for characters to do what the plot requires. In short, when I pick up a trashy fantasy novel, I know I'll be suspending disbelief about magic or whatever, but frankly it gets boring when you're forced to suspend disbelief about human nature for too long. I wish someone would write a fantasy novel about a mysterious far-off world (it can even have trolls and elves if you like) where people's destinies are NOT predetermined, young farmkids CAN'T sword-fight better than experienced soldiers, bad guys make their FIRST attack strong instead of sending just-barely-too-few minions every single time, etc. Don't get me wrong: This series so far is really well-written, usually fast-paced, often tense, and sometimes even funny. Mr Jordan imagined and described an amazingly coherent and detailed world, with some really nifty weaving of old legends and religions into the mix. And I love that it's not purely GOOD VS EVIL RAH RAH RAH -- there are complexities in there too, like the Whitecloaks who can do nasty things in the name of good without worshipping dark gods or whatever. I just can't make myself slog through a 6th book of Nyneave complaining about wool-headed men. Next up: The Great Hunt
I thought this was a useful read, especially since it gave me some insight to my true middle child and calmed some fears I have with our last born/essential oldest child. There was some good advice throughout the book and some very humorous stories from his personal life as well as his professional life. It was more food for thought.