Trace’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2016)

Trace’s comments from the Let's Read: The Wheel of Time group.

Updated the prior post. Will catch up on podcast until you all move on to book 3.

The last few chapters had a nice build up. I liked Rand's duels, mat stabbing the guard with his ruby dagger, and the horn calling the heroes.

It is a bit silly for such a long book but there were story threads that seem not well developed (or not relevant). Ingtar = lan but a dark friend. Verin = morraine but brown ajah. The white cloaks. The boat guy.


Another story line wanted more development were more background on the different heroes that were called. Sort of feel it was a lost opportunity.

There could have been flashbacks, history drops, etc to build more them up. Still a cool scene and concept.

Padin and thom were more interesting and developed in this book.

Mat and Rand seem to be developing.



Some interesting concepts...

The game (of thrones) erupting after Rand left (and did nothing).

The reveal that certain characters were dark friends.

The forsaken interacting with the team.
lanfear and baalzamon

The seanchan (sp) were a interesting faction. I really like it in games and stories when you have an evolved faction that has the roots of the main world but are totally different.

Void and learning magic
Sword forms during his fights is for me a cool way to explain the fights. Reminds me of my kungfu training.

Rand being compared to Harry is a good comparison.

Blank slate, "chosen one", sometimes bad ass, sometimes a big baby, generally lucky or very fortunate on the way events pan out, etc.


I suppose making a main character/narrator for a series can be tough to get just right especially in a expansive world that you are trying to develop naturally through the eyes of a character also experiencing these new things.


Probably another more in depth book report you could do on what makes a good main character. What traits are bad (and annoying) and what traits help progress the overall story and character development.

Yea, story/history dumps can be jarring to the story flow.

I've always had this idea where I wanted to create an electronic book set up like a wiki page. If you had interests in something, it would link to a page with basic background which might have links for deeper reading. (you could have bookmarks for later as well so that it would not interrupt the primary story).


Ha, on the belltine experience. This reminds me of the first time we roleplayed. The festival leading to the goblin invasion.

The women character thing is understandable.

But i semi feel that most of RJ's characters (in the first book) are 2D, which isn't that big of a deal but sort of is for what you are investing into. Most of the characters remind me of an interesting but generic role playing archetypes.

He also has this weird, (bad) repetitive, not value added, way of describing certain character traits (perrin and rand always saying the other is better with women, women hair tugging, boys vs girls type discussion, etc)

It's like RJ wanted to flesh out the women side of fantasy but over did it.



I did find it interesting when perrin and egwene were hanging out with the tinkers. It reminded me of past experiences with friends dating the "wrong" type. A bit 1 sided since we don't see egwene's side of things.

Delving into the Lord of the Rings or the hero's journey parallels might have been a good report back in the days.

(Padan Fain = gollum, the ways or shadar logoth = moria, fades = nazgul. Ogier = Ents, etc)



I can semi see why people might complain about this. A billion pages to tell a story that is overall not super original seems like too much effort.

But besides some character traits, and metaphors seeming to be forced, I thought it was a well built world and story. (i am semi cheating though by listening to the audio book and supplementing that with rereading sections that interest me).

Mostly Characters...

Lan is probably my favorite character. General bad ass with mysterious past and potential due to him being the king of the Malkieri. A few cool / interesting quotes. Layered like a onion.


Loial is probably number 2. I've always been a fan of the scholar / recorder types in these sort of books.

I'm a fan of Moiraine, Nyneave, and Perrin.


The chapters with the Green Man were overall badass. Killing the forsaken and then sprouting up as a huge oak after dying were some cool passages.


Mat being the trickster should be good for later books but him being cursed was a bit annoying. I like Thom as well but don't feel he is as interesting after a 2nd reading of book 1. Like he should have known more.

Rand is a good blank slate type character with some good potential. They mention it in the later chapters (him healing Bella) but there a few more times throughout the book that he got lucky (and eventually sick and better real fast)

The intro to the first chapter is a cool way to start a book about cycles.

“The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the third age by some, an Age yet to come, an age long pass, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”




I also really like the fact that the two Dragon Reborn prophecies at the beginning of the book are contradictory. One says the dragon will come back to save the world, and the other says the dragon will destroy the world.

One of my main reason I am not a fan of modern super hero stories is part of this prophecy.





There is also a lot of name dropping and world building in some parts that may be important in future books. Again might be cool to dig deeper later.

Like the ideas brought up in the prologue, the history of Manetheren, Min’s prophecies, the different ruins / wonders the group sees on their travels, or the Tuatha’an seeking the song and the warning from the Aiel wastes, or the main character’s dreams.

I like the way he reuses symbols and names from the our world’s myths/religions/monsters for ideas in the WoT world. Potentially some reaching on my part...

Some of the Symbols – Aes Sedai symbol (Ying/Yang)(Male/Female), Great Serpent and Wheel of Time (Circle Ouroboros / Infinity)

Some of the bad guys - Trolloc (Troll / orc) Ko’bol (kobald), Dha’vol (devil), Ba’alzamon (sounds like a demon name Ba’al, Beelzebub, etc), Ishamael (Ishmael / Bible + Moby Dick = exiles)

Flame and Void (Tai Chi / mediation)


I don’t have an in particular in mind but I like the books use of analogy/metaphor. It is sort of forced sometimes but I still like them like I like a bad pun or dad joke.

2/9/16
Finished the first book and starting on book 2.

1/26/2016
I just finished the first 27 chapters and plan to work on a summary of thoughts and ideas for the discussion topics later this week.


1/17/2016
I finished chapter 5 and was semi working on a post and waiting on others.

Tried to get Casie to listen to it some while we did errands but its slow going.

I've finished up a new podcast, so need to catch up on my older ones but otherwise can start focusing on these soon.

I read the first 6 or so books when I was in high school. I remember really liking the first 3 or so but the series seemed to get too big / messy in the next few books. So college and not wanting to wait for each book to come out stopped me from reading them.

I had heard Brandon Sanderson was a good author over the years but never got around to rereading the WoT series or his other series. I recently listened to the Mistborn audiobooks which are great. So I am also excited that the series is finished and that Sanderson has hopefully got the series back on track with a satisfying conclusion (based on the Mistborn books).


I've always like the idea of cycles, reincarnation, destiny, balance of opposites, prophecy, etc. When done well these repeating/reinforcing patterns make for a satisfying read.