Well, it could have been worse
I have a computer again. I’m back to using the much smaller hard drive that came with the computer, and it’s pretty much stuffed to the brim. The hubby has ordered a case that will let him try to boot the messed-up hard drive outside of the laptop…that’s pretty much going to be our last ditch effort to rescue what’s on it. Getting a new head put on the drive would only be worth the money if it contained information vital to the survival of the Rebel Alliance…or something.
I think I’m going to skip the chapter that got eaten, and go ahead and write the next one. If by the time I get to the end of the story we haven’t rescued that chapter, then I’ll rewrite it. However, I am going to outline how the chapter goes, while it’s still fresh in my mind. I’d just go ahead and rewrite the damn thing, except the thought of doing that makes me so irritated that I just don’t think I can, right now.
Hmm, what is it, Friday? Been doing some reading this week, especially in the wake of Nevermore’s Wednesday digital disaster. (Nevermore is my computer’s name. Bleached Nevermore, actually, is her full name). I finished The Gathering Storm…all 800 something pages of it. I’d say it’s possibly the best one since Crown of Swords, or at least the most enjoyable. The problem with the Wheel of Time series is that it takes so long to set up some of these major events…and thus, you have books like Path of Daggers, where you get all the way to the end and realize that although pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, queens, and kings have all been moved about on the chessboard, nothing of major significance has happened. So when you get an installment like The Gathering Storm, where several elaborate sets of dominoes all come toppling down at the same time, you get a really exciting book.
The prose is all still very Robert Jordan…Sanderson did a good job with blending his voice into the established one. He’s all but invisible most of the time. However, and maybe I noticed this because I had just finished Warbreaker…but there were a couple of passages and exchanges by the characters that I would stop and think, “That was Sanderson humor. Jordan probably would have written that differently.” This is not a bad thing, by any means. I can’t recall any other Wheel of Time books that actually made me snort out loud in amusement over something a character says. Jordan’s humor has more to do with stereotypes, and the misunderstandings these cause…which are sometimes very, very funny…but in a shake-your-head-in-pity sort of funny, not lol funny. But I think Mat, in particular, could have done all along with a little more of the snarky, sardonic type of humor Sanderson is injecting into his character in this book.
Rand’s character got a whole lot darker than I expected in this book. He’s been getting more dark and distant for about four books now, and I thought they’d pushed that about as far as it could go. And I was actually beginning to be annoyed that they stretched the transformation out for so long. Thankfully, finally, that subplot got started on its resolution at the end of this book.
Egwene has turned out to be an awesome character. She really impressed me in Knife of Dreams, and she has impressed me further in this book. Perrin didn’t get much screen time this time around, which was disappointing in the sense that, now that he’s rescued his wife, he desperately needs a direction, a focus, a reason to remain in the story. He really didn’t get one…they were still tying up the Faile abduction subplot that was already pretty much over with. Perrin’s presence felt a little purposeless this time around. I hope that gets fixed. I really don’t think he came all this way just to end up as someone who stands beside Rand in the Last Battle and calls in the wolves.
I loved the part where Cadsuane starts seeing herself in Semirhage; she needed that. I wished they hadn’t killed off Semirhage the way they did…seemed a little abrupt, and anti-climactic. I actually kind of liked Semirhage, as far as villains go…of all the female Forsaken, she reminds me the most of Nasira (Raphel’s ras, from the prequel I’m planning). The way Graendal was taken care of also felt contrived, as though the author really didn’t know what to do with her and decided to just get rid of her. She really hasn’t done anything (that I can recall off the top of my head.) (Granted, we’re not absolutely sure she’s dead, and Forsaken have this knack for reappearing when they are most unexpected. But, balefire…?)
What else. I finished Elantris today, and wow. That was his debut?? I liked it better than Warbreaker. I may have to procure a copy of my own, simply to have a really good reference on how to pace a fantasy novel. And how to make each POV character and his/her entourage interesting enough that you actually want to follow all the subplots (and not just slog through them in order to get back to the interesting storyline). Sanderson also appears to construct magical systems the same way I do…less mystical, more scientific in nature. I tend to like those better, as part of the fun is figuring out how the whole system works together.
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