The Wheel of Time, Part 1 - The Eye of the World, Prologue (Blogger xpost)
http://jakejesson.blogspot.com/2010/02/wheel-of-time-part-1.html
Quick recap: I'm an aspiring fantasy author, about to read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time for the first time.
Wheel of time, turn, turn, turn. Show us the lesson that we should learn.
I run a risk by reading and analyzing this series. Why? Because Wheel of Time (WoT) has been around forever, and half the Internet already has an Opinion on it. I'm an Aspiring Fantasy Author. Either I dislike it, and alienate half my potential audience, or I like it, and alienate the other half. But hey, I've been called an enfant terrible by other writers before, so why stop now?
What I know about this series:
The Wheel of Time, Book One: The Eye of the World
Fair warning: I'm going to over-analyze this, because it's the opening. Suck it up.
Prologue: Dragonmount
Okay, the book title? Pretty damn cool, actually. The title to this prologue? Not so much. YMMV, of course.
Some crazy dude (Lews Therin) wanders through a palace, in the aftershocks of some mystical event - a 'mind twisting', which kills people, warps stone and marble and stuff, and ignores paintings and sculptures (for some reason). It's actually pretty cool, except...
Jordan doesn't seem to edit very much. For every good line, there's three mediocre lines. I've seen worse, but pretty good purple prose is still purple prose. As a writer who struggles with description now and then, this is something I'm sensitive to. Some of the prose is mystifying:
Broad black smears crossed the blistered paints and gilt of once-bright murals, soot overlaying crumbling friezes of men and animals, which seemed to have attempted to walk before the madness grew quiet.
The men and animals seemed to have attempted to walk...? Walk where? Seemed how? Attempted, but didn't succeed? We're never told. (For the record, though, I quite liked the first 2/3 of the sentence.)
Back in the palace, Crazy Dude wanders around looking for his (clearly dead) wife. Some Guy teleports in. "Lord of the Morning. I have come for you." DUN DUN DUNNNNNN. Crazy Dude calls Some Guy - in a dramatic whisper - "The Betrayer of Hope". DUN DUNNNNNNNN!
Some Guy works for Satan "Shai'tan". (Really?) Satan Guy is dressed in black and won't shut the fuck up with exposition (Nine Rods of Dominion! Gates of Paaran Disen! Some Other Capitalized Things!) and villain monologuing. Crazy Dude blissfully misses most of it, because he's so Crazy, until Satan Guy (Elan Morin) fixes the Crazy with some Satan-powered magic. Crazy Dude's skull is "a sphere of purest agony on the point of bursting." Which raises the question: Why bursting? Is bursting something that spheres of agony tend to do?
Turns out Crazy Dude accidentally caused the magical blow-up, because Shai'tan 'tainted' his magical power source in retaliation for some attack. Casualties: His lovely wife and tiny adorable wide-eyed children. Their adorable dead eyes ask WHY, Crazy Dude, WHY?
Crazy Dude is understandably upset about this, letting loose "a scream that came from his depths" (perhaps somewhere around the bladder, or the small intestine). Pausing only to treat us to Satan Guy and Crazy Dude taking mutual involuntary steps back from the other's dramatic gaze, Crazy Dude teleports away and immolates himself in a burst of melodrama so intense that it leaves a volcano in his place. THE DRAMA: IT IS VOLCANIC. Satan Guy is all "I'll get you next time, Gadget!"
Side note: The magic that's tainted is "the male half of the power that drove the universe." Oh great, the male/female 'divide' canonized as part of the cosmos. Sigh. Can I just tell you now how much I am not looking forward to seeing that elaborated on?
My Impressions So Far: Dialogue is not The Eye of the World's strong point; it's steeped in melodramatic exclamations and heavy-handed exposition. The plot seems interesting once you wade through the overwritten narrative - which seems to be a pastiche of Old Timey Writing. Character? Can't tell yet. I'll get back to you on that once actual characters show up.
As prologues go, this isn't too bad, and I'm not the biggest fan of prologues. It introduces a Big Story Problem, and starts in the middle of Horrible Things happening. I imagine this Tainted Penis Magic is important, and this is a better way to learn it than to be told that. Unfortunately, Jordan doesn't seem to have applied this principle to, well, anything else in the chapter.
Next time: Chapter 1!
Quick recap: I'm an aspiring fantasy author, about to read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time for the first time.
Wheel of time, turn, turn, turn. Show us the lesson that we should learn.
I run a risk by reading and analyzing this series. Why? Because Wheel of Time (WoT) has been around forever, and half the Internet already has an Opinion on it. I'm an Aspiring Fantasy Author. Either I dislike it, and alienate half my potential audience, or I like it, and alienate the other half. But hey, I've been called an enfant terrible by other writers before, so why stop now?
What I know about this series:
- It's long.
- Supposedly, it's a bit overwritten.
- The main character has a silly last name (Rand al'Thor.)
- It's long.
- The main character is a Chosen One of some sort.
- It's both well-loved and widely derided, possibly for the same reasons. Jordan is often mentioned in the same breath as Tolkien, though curiously not often in the same breath as George R. R. Martin, the so-called "American Tolkien" - except to contrast the two.
- Robert Jordan died before the completion of the last massive book in this series, though he left copious notes to allow another author to finish it. Did I mention it's long?
The Wheel of Time, Book One: The Eye of the World
Fair warning: I'm going to over-analyze this, because it's the opening. Suck it up.
Prologue: Dragonmount
Okay, the book title? Pretty damn cool, actually. The title to this prologue? Not so much. YMMV, of course.
Some crazy dude (Lews Therin) wanders through a palace, in the aftershocks of some mystical event - a 'mind twisting', which kills people, warps stone and marble and stuff, and ignores paintings and sculptures (for some reason). It's actually pretty cool, except...
Jordan doesn't seem to edit very much. For every good line, there's three mediocre lines. I've seen worse, but pretty good purple prose is still purple prose. As a writer who struggles with description now and then, this is something I'm sensitive to. Some of the prose is mystifying:
Broad black smears crossed the blistered paints and gilt of once-bright murals, soot overlaying crumbling friezes of men and animals, which seemed to have attempted to walk before the madness grew quiet.
The men and animals seemed to have attempted to walk...? Walk where? Seemed how? Attempted, but didn't succeed? We're never told. (For the record, though, I quite liked the first 2/3 of the sentence.)
Back in the palace, Crazy Dude wanders around looking for his (clearly dead) wife. Some Guy teleports in. "Lord of the Morning. I have come for you." DUN DUN DUNNNNNN. Crazy Dude calls Some Guy - in a dramatic whisper - "The Betrayer of Hope". DUN DUNNNNNNNN!
Some Guy works for Satan "Shai'tan". (Really?) Satan Guy is dressed in black and won't shut the fuck up with exposition (Nine Rods of Dominion! Gates of Paaran Disen! Some Other Capitalized Things!) and villain monologuing. Crazy Dude blissfully misses most of it, because he's so Crazy, until Satan Guy (Elan Morin) fixes the Crazy with some Satan-powered magic. Crazy Dude's skull is "a sphere of purest agony on the point of bursting." Which raises the question: Why bursting? Is bursting something that spheres of agony tend to do?
Turns out Crazy Dude accidentally caused the magical blow-up, because Shai'tan 'tainted' his magical power source in retaliation for some attack. Casualties: His lovely wife and tiny adorable wide-eyed children. Their adorable dead eyes ask WHY, Crazy Dude, WHY?
Crazy Dude is understandably upset about this, letting loose "a scream that came from his depths" (perhaps somewhere around the bladder, or the small intestine). Pausing only to treat us to Satan Guy and Crazy Dude taking mutual involuntary steps back from the other's dramatic gaze, Crazy Dude teleports away and immolates himself in a burst of melodrama so intense that it leaves a volcano in his place. THE DRAMA: IT IS VOLCANIC. Satan Guy is all "I'll get you next time, Gadget!"
Side note: The magic that's tainted is "the male half of the power that drove the universe." Oh great, the male/female 'divide' canonized as part of the cosmos. Sigh. Can I just tell you now how much I am not looking forward to seeing that elaborated on?
My Impressions So Far: Dialogue is not The Eye of the World's strong point; it's steeped in melodramatic exclamations and heavy-handed exposition. The plot seems interesting once you wade through the overwritten narrative - which seems to be a pastiche of Old Timey Writing. Character? Can't tell yet. I'll get back to you on that once actual characters show up.
As prologues go, this isn't too bad, and I'm not the biggest fan of prologues. It introduces a Big Story Problem, and starts in the middle of Horrible Things happening. I imagine this Tainted Penis Magic is important, and this is a better way to learn it than to be told that. Unfortunately, Jordan doesn't seem to have applied this principle to, well, anything else in the chapter.
Next time: Chapter 1!