Wheel of Time: Second Time Around

[childoftyranny]

As of last week I've begun working through listening to the Wheel of Time series again in preparation for buying the final book on audible with my next credit, obviously I have a lot of free listening time... anyway after finishing up A New Spring, and about halfish way through The Eye of the World, I'm fully enjoying myself, I'm really pleased that having already heard all of this before that I'm enjoying it just as much.

I think the most interesting thing I'm coming across is how much more prevalent pride is within the charcters even at this early point. There have been lots of comment/complaints about the way Jordan has his women behave, though I really think on a second listen they come across even strong than the first time, despite the fact that nearly everyone seem just to prideful to being entirely oblivious!

The closest example I can think of is as they are riding into Shadar Logoth,  Moiraine while telling them the name of the dead city would entirely fail to mention the main danger of it, actually really the only danger, and the entire reason they are going there relates to it. I do realize she is supposed to be tired, but either it was a case of a character thinking they know better(plenty common) or plot convienance, either way I find that scene a bit off for that reason!

[childoftyranny]

Having finished Eye of the World and moved into the Great Hunt I think I would add in the way pride mixes with self assurance, even in characters where doubt is prevalent there seems to be an assurance that their doubts and worries are true doubts and worries. Perhaps that is more a projected characterization, but find that I often am curious about my own motives so it feels odd to see these complex characters accepting them and acting to strictly to them. Using Rand as an example we see him very consistently pushing others away to protect them, the motivations seem to be pure, acting out of fear of what he doesn't know, but with all the changes hitting him so rapid-fire I'd expect some doubts about his understanding considering how much confusion and doubt he has, yet it seems to me he consistently keeps acting the same way despite doubts. I don't recall having this issue so much on my first listen through, so obviously something in my own way of thinking has changed, but I don't think that's it entirely.

[childoftyranny]

Finishing up The Great Hunt I find myself ponder abrupt endings, this definetly reminds me of a few times where Wheel of Time novels seem to go from full tilt to a sudden stop so quickly that you wonder if you somehow skipped some time in the audio book or pages in your printed/displayed copy.

In this case its the final battle of the book, it does resolve though there is so much going on that the one single fight ending suddenly switches to the aftermath it feels like I missed something. I'm not entirely sure which book its in but I know I recall another book doing the same thing in the series where it ends with Rand Al Thor screaming on a mountain top and the reader/listener going, "it ends here?" Not so much in that horror that arises from a properly or even improperly made cliff-hanger but from things just sort of stopping without even the feeling of lead-in or continuance.

Particularly I find this odd, in the second book of series(third if you count the later-published prequal, but its second in the original published order) it felt done correctly in the first book so this oddity in the second is all the more jarring.

I appreciate that we're getting a bit less of, "You want me to do something, so I will do the opposite" for no reason, with character growth but if memory serves thats sort ofa  faint hope as that is pretty much a mainstay of the characters of the series.