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Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Main characters: Teagan “Tea” Wylltson, Aidan Wylltson, Finn MacCumhaill Time and place: contemporary Chicago + Mag Mell First sentence: “Please, Teagan Wylltson’s fingers curled in American Sign Language as she spoke.” Summary: Teagan’s life was a fairly normal one, split between school and her part time job at an animal clinic. One day Tea’s cousin Finn puts in an appearance, coming to live with Tea’s family as they are his closest relatives. And that is when the lines between real and impossible start to blur, as Finn comes followed by all sorts of creatures straight from the pages of Irish mythology books.

This is the second book I got via NetGalley and boy was I glad I did. Even more so since I started reading it straight after The Secret of Ka (a book I did not quite like, to say the least), and I was happy to see that this book scores in every single aspect that one failed to deliver. Let us consider the dialogues for example, I absolutely loved the lines the characters had in this book (the light banter between Teagan’s parents was a favorite part of mine), making me actually stop and wonder how is it that some writers (like Ms. Hamilton here) can write enjoyable, authentic-sounding lines, while others simply can’t. It is then very appropriate to say that this book was an encouragement to me, and a breath of fresh air (in an “phew, enjoyable books do still exist” sort of way).

The characters were quite interesting and easy to like. Teagan is a teenage girl who loves animals (a trait I love seeing in books) and who has her future already planned out, as she works her way towards a scholarship at a very prestigious school. She is very little prepared for the strange things fate starts, all of the sudden, to throw her way, but she does the best she can to handle the situation, while also trying to protect everyone around her. Her little brother, Aidan, is five and right now one of my favorite kids in literature, as he is smart, and brave, and (in his own words) awesome :) I loved the way he was very opinionated about Elvis Impersonators (in his mind calling someone an EI was one of the worst insults ever, as he considered them pathetic because they were unable to create their own music :) ). As for Finn, he is the Mac Cumhaill, a responsibility he shoulders diligently, and of course I liked that (how could I not?). Despite having spent some years on the streets, he has been lucky enough to meet some very good role models, so he has grown up to be as close to perfection as possible. Needless to say I loved reading about him :)

The supporting characters were colorful and, too, a pleasure to meet: Abby the Italian, whose family “knows some people”; Abby’s cousins, nicknamed the Turtles because they happened to have the same names as the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Raynor Schein (“rain or shine” :) ) and his beloved car Brynhild; Lucy the sprite; Ida, the grandmother with a direct line to the Almighty, and more.

The plot is fast paced and interesting, and plunges the reader in a world that I for one knew nothing about. Mag Mell, “the plain of joy”, the former home of one Fionn Mac Cumhaill, hero of legends. I very much enjoyed the descriptions of that place, as, without being too wordy, they managed to evoke very well the feeling one got while being there (or so I thought). The frogs with little vests and long walking sticks were a nice addition too. :)

The relationships and interactions between people were also well written and believable. My favorite part regarding that is the bond that develops between Finn (the ragtag teenager who lived on the street) and Aidan (the still-innocent five-year old), because I simply didn’t expect them to go so well together (for some reason I expected Finn to feel awkward around a small kid), and this particular development was one I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, the author has chosen to manage the love story (or is it stories?) in the book in such a way that the relationship felt romantic and vibrant. The tension between the characters is easily felt, despite the lack of any mention of anything sexual. I loved the way this part was written, and I rooted for the protagonists all throughout the book.

A quote I liked (from the Irish prayer of the Wylltson family):

“I do not ask for a path with no trouble or regret. I ask instead for a friend who’ll walk with me down any path.
I do not ask never to feel pain. I ask instead for courage, even when hope can scarcely run through.”

Thoughts on the title: To be totally honest I am not sure what the title is about. It clearly references a poem of William Blake’s (The Tyger), a poem that is recited at one time by one of the characters as a warning. A thing I take to imply the dark, and mysterious things that haunt the book. “Reader, beware” and so on. I kinda like that :)

Thoughts on the ending: Oh lovely ending :)
I loved it and the particular way it implies there is going to be more to the story later on. The last page was particularly endearing for some reason (but hey, why did Thomas grow feathers? I’m dying to know :) )

What I liked most: show spoiler

What I liked least: There was a particular scene I was not fond of (show spoiler

Recommend it to? Anyone who likes YA books :)

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk | Kersten Hamilton’s site | “The Tyger”, page from Blake’s book, printed c. 1795 (pretty!)

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This is my third time reading this book (I’ve read it twice as a child). I have come to it with a bunch of expectations, given that I already knew I was going to like it, because, of course, I had already read it. Twice. Well, as it happens when it comes to expectations, I was wrong. I simply couldn’t believe this was a book I have actually liked. Everything seemed cardboard-like, the situations, the characters, everything. So disappointing.

Summy Skim for example. He loves quiet life (so mostly he complains about wanting to go home), but he also has feelings for one of the girls (so wherever she goes he goes too). Loves hunting, he’s a good shot, that’s about it. Nothing deeper than that. Edith is simply gentle and good at keeping everything in order. Ben Raddle is an engineer who wants adventure, and Jane is almost his female counterpart (just as adventurous yet shallow as he is, with a dash of feminism blended in). As for the antagonists, they felt more like literary devices than fully fledged characters, as they are two vicious people with no background and no qualities at all.

Mr. Verne is mostly famous for his “Extraordinary Voyages” series, and I believe this book is one of those. The characters are uprooted from their familiar environment (Montreal), and brought at the (almost literal) end of the world. Some say Mr. Verne’s descriptions of travelling in cold weather are very well-done, making one feel like he/she were actually there. Unfortunately all I can say about it is that even those parts seemed bi-dimensional to me.

As a bit of trivia, I have read this book in my native lanaguage (Romanian), and, while I own two separate translations, both of them have the same opening sentence, which differs from the one in the English version in two places: the date in the English version is March 16, when in my versions it’s March 17; the century is “this” instead of “the previous” one. I have checked Google books and found a copy of the original French book, and it was the same as the English one. However, the fact that I have two translations I think implies the fact that somewhere out there there’s also a French text with March 17 instead of March 16 — but why would that be? At least the case is a bit more obvious when it comes to the century issue, since the book was released in 1906, if I remember correctly (post-1905, anyway), so “the previous century” is by far the correct version, rather than “this”. But why is there a French version of the book with “this century”, when it all happens in 1800s, but the book was published not in that century but the next?

After a bit of digging I have found out the explanation for the century dilemma (but not for the date change, which is what has intrigued me the most). The version published in 1906 was a post-mortem one, heavily edited by the author’s son. I already knew that, but what I did not know is that the original version of the text, originally finished in 1899 (the same century as the events in the book), was also published in 1989 (yup, 90 years after). I have first read this book, in its Romanian translation, with March 17, far before 1989, which means that my copy is a translation of the initial version, the edited one (waaaah!), while the English version is straight after Jules Verne’s.

The differences between the original version and Michel Verne’s are very important (hence my adding Michel as a co-author): show spoiler

So many things I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t searched for the first sentence of the book in English :P

Thoughts on the ending: Predictable and somewhat unlikely, but nice :) show spoiler

What I liked most: It was interesting to find out about the meridian marking the border between Canada and Alaska, and a bit of what the search for gold entails — about rockers (a cradle-like piece of equipment that could be rocked like a cradle to sift sands through screens) and sluice boxes (sluices that have transverse riffles over a carpet which trap the heavy minerals) for example. I knew a bit about them before but I had no interest in them before (not that I have any grand interest now but I did spend about an hour clicking around Wikipedia in search of information regarding gold mining back then :) ).

What I liked least: The character that annoyed me the most was Naluto, a guy who never gave a decided opinion on anything. His answers to questions were something like “It’s [something]… unless it’s not” and “There are probably twenty miles ’til there… or more… or perhaps less”. Each and every time he talked like this and it became mightily bothersome after a while. To think that this is a character written in by Michel especially for comic effect! Ugh.

Recommend it to? I didn’t much like this book so I do not particularly recommend it to anyone.

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The characters are much more developed now, at the end of the series, than in the previous books. Gemma manages to come to terms with her magic, getting to know its abilities and limitations. More important, she gets to know herself better, discovering among other things that she is just as thirsty for freedom as Felicity is. There is a bit of a paradox here as, being part of an estranged family, Gemma also thirsts for affection — not necessarily romantic love, but someone to share her worries with and offer her advice.

I noticed that lots of reviewers have complained about the fact that Gemma chooses the wrong characters to trust, while she should have known better. I don’t know what to say about that, because for me part of the book’s appeal was the fact that Gemma never knows who is reliable or not — at times she is betrayed by those closest to her, at times she has visions without knowing who sent them or whether that someone is with or against her, and most important, almost every other person she meets tells her that nothing around her is to be trusted. In these circumstances I found it very hard to have a certainty one way or another (I had my guesses, but no actual reasons for them), and I considered untangling the threads part of the fun.

My feelings towards the rest of the girls are mixed — Mrs. Bray never created cardboard characters, I’ll give her that :) Let’s take Felicity for example — she has a good heart, and yet most of the time she acts commanding and as if she’s entitled to everything she desires to have. I spent more than half of this book disliking her, only to have some light shed on her behavior later on, as her relationship with Pippa is closer explained. Gemma’s other friend Ann at times inspired my compassion, because her station in life was indeed more difficult than the rest’s, but she also annyoed me at others because she completely refused to think for herself: whatever Felicity did, Ann closely followed (especially if it was something stupid that shouldn’t have been done).

As for the antagonist, I can only say she was one of the most interesting such characters discovered lately. While, like any self-respecting antagonist, she does want power for herself and is ready to sacrifice things and people for that, she nevertheless cares for Gemma in her own way, going as far as to help her at times. The feeling is mutual, as Gemma too respects her and cares for her somewhat. Sort of a melancholy thing, as one cannot help thinking that in other circumstances those two would have made the best of friends.

One thing I have very much liked in the series is the theme of dealing with choices. Ever since book 1 Miss Moore has taught the girls that there are no safe choices, there are only other choices, and this idea shows up all throughout the trilogy, as all characters have to make choices now and then and very few of those, if any, are easy ones. Miss Moore has also tried impressing on her charges’ mind the fact that after making a choice one can never go back, only forward. Quite a few characters are faced with this problem in the book — Pippa for example, wanting everything to be as it was before — but not all of them end up accepting it. Either way, this philosophy has struck a chord with me, as it reflects my own thoughts on the matter, and I was happy to see it in the books too.

Oh, and did I mention that H.G. Wells puts in a cameo appearance? :)

Some quotes I liked
Gemma about herself:

I’m like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I’m flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I’m still me.

One of the best descriptions of The Statue of Liberty I have ever read:

There in the city’s steam-and-smoke-smudged harbor is the most extraordinary sight of all: a great copper-clad lady with a torch in one hand and a book in the other. It is not a statesman or a god or a war hero who welcomes us to this new world. It is but an ordinary woman lighting the way—a lady offering us the liberty to pursue our dreams if we’ve the courage to begin.

Something less inspirational that has somewhat amused me:

It is said that Paris in springtime is a glory to behold, that it makes a man feel as if he shall never die. I should not know, for I have never been to Paris. But spring in London is a wholly different affair. The rain pitters and patters against the carriage’s roof. The streets are choked equally with traffic and gas fog.

Thoughts on the ending: Full of promise :) show spoiler

What I liked most: I hereby nominate the very intensity of the book. Mrs. Bray has created a world that at times felt so real I could almost see it, and things happened at times that made my breath catch. Can there be anything better when reading a book?

As a favorite detail, I loved seeing there were gargoyles involved. I find them so interesting and there are very few books featuring them — I was quite happy to see them in this one.

What I liked least: show spoiler

Recommend it to? This book is my favorite one in the trilogy but, as it can’t be savoured by itself, I recommend the whole series to anyone who likes to read about strong heroines. :)

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk

This book is a sequel to:
A Great and Terrible Beauty | Rebel Angels

Written by the same author:
Going Bovine

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

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There are no limitations to the things that can happen in this book. The Norse god Balder is a yard-gnome, a WWII jazz player is still alive, fire giants are roaming the world and a certain band is transported through space and time. Just so you know what to expect :)

One of my favorite stops is what I took to be a satire on the American society of today (parts of it of course): a place where all the children were only allowed to think happy thoughts, and everyone was told he/she is special. Censorship was rampant, for example all the books have been removed from the library for all sorts of reasons (Winnie the Pooh because “Bears don’t really talk. Might confuse the little ones.“, comic books because “Superheroes have unattainable powers, and are therefore not relatable and might make kids feel bad about themselves.“, and so on), all but a very boring self-help one. A very important element of that world are the smoothies — everyone has access to as many smoothies as he/she wants, with any taste in the world. At least in theory because in practice all of them taste like vanilla. For a very good reason too:

““Oh, they’re all vanilla,” Ruth says. “At first, we gave people a choice. But then we found they didn’t like the blueberry as much as they thought they would or they wished they had gotten the strawberry instead, just like their best friends did. It was a big bummer. So we simplified things for them. Now, they can order whatever they want, but in the end, it’s all the same flavor. You’re guaranteed the same experience every single time. And you’re having the same experience as everybody else. Cuts down on things like dissatisfaction, envy, competitiveness, longing, regret. All that bad stuff.””

Another thing I liked is the way Don Quixote is repeatedly mentioned. It took me a while, but eventually I did noticed the fact that this book is, in a way, a parallel to that book. Cameron is a noble knight, travelling on a quest to save the world (not to mention the car he drives is a Cadillac Rocinante).
show spoiler

The characters are atypical and quite interesting. One cannot help but feeling sorry for Cameron, whose life was already going nowhere and who got an incurable disease on top of it all. He is a good guy, albeit somewhat misguided at times, and his sense of humor made the book actually fun, despite its dark underlying theme. His sidekick is Gonzo, a little person who’s also a hypochondriac (it’s how the two met, in the hospital while Gonzo was waiting for some test results), but who never let his shortcomings get in the way of doing things (well, let’s rephrase that to “important things”, because for example he never dares eating anything but grilled cheese when in a restaurant). Another original character is Dulcie, the pink-haired angel with graffiti on her wings — I liked her too, and I would have loved to see a bit more of her.

A short quote to give a sense of the writing style:

I creep up the stairs with a fry pan as my only defense, and despite the fact that my heart is beating like a hummingbird’s, it strikes me as funny. Greetings, ax murderer! I was just wondering how you like your eggs?

Thoughts on the ending: I am not certain I got it right, so I am not certain what my feelings are. Summing it up in one word: “interesting” :)
show spoiler

What I liked most: show spoiler

What I liked least: There is nothing that impressed me in a negative way. Any other book would have seemed too random at times but the author has managed to make it all look believable :)

Recommend it to? Anyone interested in a surreal dark comedy novel, of course. :)

Buy it on Amazon.com | Buy it at bookdepository.co.uk | Libba Bray’s site | FollowTheFeather.com

Written by the same author:
A Great and Terrible Beauty | Rebel Angels | The Sweet Far Thing

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

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Interestingly enough, although the book title is “The Dragon Reborn”, we get to see very little of the said Dragon Reborn in it. The main threads of the story are narrated either by Perrin, Mat, or Egwene, and we get to know almost nothing about Rand, his adventures, and his state of mind (a very nice touch of the author’s actually, because Rand seems to be fighting hard to maintain his grip on sanity and as such I am not sure how interesting/reliable his part of the story would be).

As expected from a third book in a series, it was nice to see the characters grow and develop even more. This is particularly true for Perrin, who keeps fighting his wolfish instincts (plus I think he’s sort of a male Dreamer, but we’ll see), and a part of whom starts to yearn for home and for the uncomplicated life as a blacksmith, and also for Mat, who is at last cured of the evil taint and who finds himself the “owner” of some unbelievable good luck. I was happy to get to know Mat better (the real one, uninfluenced by outside factors) and, while he was still a bit too interested in money matters (remember that he ended up with the dagger in the first place because he was seeking treasure), he kept putting others’ interests above his own and I really liked him for that (a huge step forward because I kinda disliked him in Book 1).

Unfortunately I cannot say the same thing about the girls. The three of them (Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne) seem to be inseparable now, but the dynamic of their relationship is not particularly interesting. It can be summed up as: Nynaeve, being the mature one, takes the decisions, Egwene resents her for that, and Elayne… Elayne is just there. Nynaeve is often angry (a bit more often than she has reason to), and she is always plotting her revenge on Moiraine (although even she realizes that she is wrong, that Rand and Egwene’s lives would have been out of ordinary even if Moiraine had never interfered), which is getting a bit annoying after a while. Egwene sometimes makes me want to shake her, as she is far from sensible at times, opposing any suggestion of Nynaeve’s simply because she thinks she’s being treated like a child (not that she ever had a plan herself, she just feels like opposing others). Ugh. I do hope she’ll grow up soon.

Speaking of female characters, I was glad to discover a new one — a very unexpected thing for me as I thought everyone worth knowing had already been introduced in Book 1. Zarine (or Faile, as she wants to be called) sounds like a very promising character so far (I particularly like her courage, the way she doesn’t give up even though she’s afraid), although she couldn’t participate so much because there are still lots of things she has yet to know. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her in the next books :)

Thoughts on the ending: I found the ending to be a bit disappointing, not through a fault of its own but because it was no match for the one in the previous book (that was oh so cool and thus set the bar oh so high). It was nice seeing everyone together again (it seems to be a characteristic of all books so far, the fact that however things start everyone ends up back together near the end).

I do have a question though: show spoiler

What I liked most: I seem to be still very fond of all the talk of pattern and ta’veren and the way they influence lives around them. From this point of view my favorite part was what happened in the first village Rand went through (lots and lots of weddings, because he was a very strong ta’veren and influenced lots of people; I’m having quite a bit of fun imagining how all those wedding happened and how things went in that village for a while).

Another wee detail I was happy about was getting to meet Hopper again (remember, the cub who wanted to soar like eagles? :) ).

Plus we got out first requited love story, hehe, how cool is that? :)

What I liked least: At times the author seemed to think that the only way he will make the characters different from one another would be to give each of them a trait and make them show that over and over again. Example: twenty years ago the Amyrlin Seat lived into a fishermen village; almost every other sentence of her is a metaphor related to fishing, and it gets really tiring after a while. Nynaeve tugs at her braid when she is upset; this book almost puts the said braid in danger, that’s how often she tugs at it — in every single scene is Nynaeve there’s at least one tug, usually more. Mat always thinks of gambling (believable enough given his interest in money and his new-found luck, but each and every time he meets someone new he thinks of dice — so very meh after a while).

Recommend it to? Needless to say, I recommend this to whomever has read books 1 and 2 and is curious what happens next. Overall, I thought this book was somewhat slower than the previous two, but there are a lot of people who claim the exact opposite :)

See also
Here’s how a spit dog looked like

This book is a sequel to:
The Eye of the World | The Great Hunt

This book is followed by:
The Shadow Rising | The Fires of Heaven | Lord of Chaos

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

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This is the second book in the Wheel of Time series and I have enjoyed a very small bit less than the previous one, yet still a lot. First of all, I love the writing style, because it has what I call “cinematic quality” (every visual detail is so aptly described that it sometimes feels like watching a movie). This book needed less world-building than the one before, since the reader is now familiarised with the location; however there were still new concepts introduced, and new places, giving me the occasion to bask in visual details, just as I like.

The plot is also well written, and quite unpredictable too — I very rarely knew what to expect, if at all. This is another reason why I’m on the way to becoming a fan of the series: the fact that there’s always something happening, with never a moment of boredom. Many people say that will change once the series reach book six or seven, but until then I really really love this part.

As for the characters, my, there’s plenty of them. I was happy to meet again most of those introduced in Book 1. Rand, desperately trying to adjust to who he is, trying to get rid of the yokel of prophecy but at the same time preparing himself for it, taking swordfighting lessons and learning to channel. Mat, sick, doing nothing but participating in the search for his dagger, now a bit more likable to me than before because he has less pages to complain in. Perrin, still communicating with wolves, also with less pages allotted. Loial, always with his nose in a book and one of my favorite characters. Surprisingly enough, Bayle Domon, the owner of the ship Rand crossed the river seemingly eons ago, makes an appearance in this book too, piquing my interest in his fate. There are also a few new characters, of which Huron, a “sniffer” (a man who can smell deeds done by others) seems the most promising one, and I am looking forward to meeting him again. A notable absence is Lan (yup, the one that I liked most of them all), who only appears a little in the beginning and a little at the end since Moiraine Sedai is kept busy elsewhere almost all throughout the book.

The female characters get to grow and develop, especially Egwene, whom I dismissed as childish before, but whom I have actually liked in this volume. Nynaeve is trying hard to learn to become the best Aes Sedai she can be, dreaming to punish Moiraine later on for everything Nynaeve thinks she has brought to “her people”. We meet Elayne again, and, although the Daughter-Heir, she is so very down-to-earth that it’s impossible not to like. Another old acquaintance is Min, who, while only met once in Book 1, already seemed like a promising character and I was happy to see her again. As secondary characters we also get to meet a few more Aes Sedai (including their leader, the Amyrlin Seat, an old friend of Moiraine’s), some more interesting than others, and about whom I am curious whether we’ll get to see them again or not, but none of them particularly captivating and/or likable for me.

Speaking of Aes Sedai, I was happy that the author chose to give at last a bit more details about the notion of Ajah. While I have already surmised that each Aes Sedai belonged to an Ajah, and the said Ajah’s color meant something related to the Sedai’s personality, I knew no more than that. In this book though I found out a bit more details, some even funny ones, such as the way the Green Ajah women treat men (the more the better, they even have more than one Warden each). Their opposite is the Red Ajah, who despise men altogether, and never choose Wardens for that reason. There’s also the Brown Ajah, whose members thirst for knowledge and as such are always studying one thing or another. I have no idea yet of the particularities of the other Ajahs (including the Blue, Moiraine’s colors), but I am looking forward to finding out in the next book or books :)

As a small detail, I was amused by the names of the fighting stances Rand had to learn. “Cat Crosses the Courtyard” is my favorite, but there’s also “Parting the Silk”, “Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose”, “Heron Wading in the Rushes”, “The Kingfisher Takes a Silverback”, “Bundling Straw”, “The Dove Takes Flight”, “The Falling Leaf”, “The Swallow Rides the Air”, “The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain”, “The River Undercuts the Bank”, “Stones Falling From the Cliff” and many more :)

Thoughts on the ending: Unsurprisingly, I absolutely loved the ending (more so than the one in the previous book). show spoiler

What I liked most: It’s a tie between two things:
1) the three tests that Nynaeve had to go through in order for her to become Accepted. While the idea of testing someone by making him (or her) confront his (or her) innermost fears is not new by far, I very much loved the buildup and the way each test was more intense than the one before. Plus the fact that we got another glimpse of Emond’s Field and of Lan. :)

and

2) the portal stones!!!
The very idea of there existing “worlds our world might have been if things had happened differently.“. Much like some people believe in parallel universes, people in the WoT world also believe that “The Pattern has infinite variation [...] and every variation that can be, will be.“. Well actually, that’s not just a belief of theirs, because those worlds of variation actually exist and can be visited too, using portal stones. So, so very cool (I seem to use this word a lot lately). Not to mention the moment when Rand focused on one portal stone and actually got to “live” some of these variations for himself.

What I liked least: I have no major complaints but
1) I could have done without the Children of the Light (they served no major purpose anyway)(or perhaps there is a purpose and it will be revealed later?)

and

2) I was a bit annoyed at the beginning by all the drama surrounding the fact that Aes Sedai might want to “gentle” Rand because of who he is. Now, I understand that the male Aes Sedai broke the world once; I also understand that the prophecies state that the Dragon Reborn “shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind“. I understand that people might want to stop the world from breaking again and thus harm Rand to keep him from doing so. But the prophecies also state that “the Dark One shall once more lay his hand upon the world of man [...] yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light“. So, considering that somewhere in the near future the said Dragon Reborn will be the only thing keeping the world from being conquered by the Dark One, why would anyone do anything to the Dragon and interfere with his doing so?

Recommend it to? Anyone who read and liked the first book, of course. While I imagine it may work as standalone too, many of the events are based on what had happened before so the enjoyment of it would be considerably reduced. Or so I think :)

See also
Wheel of Time wiki :)
Moiraine’s Facebook page :)

This book is a sequel to:
The Eye of the World

This book is followed by:
The Dragon Reborn | The Shadow Rising | The Fires of Heaven | Lord of Chaos

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

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The mythology of the imaginary world the author has created is very detailed; so much so that at first I had a bit of trouble keeping the hang of who was what — however, I soon got to know everyone and things started making sense. Started being wonderful, actually. There are, at first, two clearly separated kinds of things: real, the ones everyone met with at times in their daily life (gleemen, the village Wisdom (a wise woman who is said to be able to heal people and to read the future in the wind), Winternight, the Bel Tine festival, etc.) and the ones everyone heard about in stories only (the Trollocs, the Aes Sedai, the Fades, and lots more). Some of the things in the latter category are even thought to be the product of someone’s too vivid imagination, that’s how rare they are.

And yet, all of the sudden, Rand’s world and the others’ is turned upside down, all things they barely believed in coming to life. Trollocs attacked, all of a sudden. A Fade/Myrddraal made itself known to boys of certain age. An Aes Sedai and a Warden turned out to have been in their midst. And I, I was fascinated by this sudden process of legends becoming tangible :)

There are a lot of concepts that were obviously inspired from real life, and it was interesting to see Jordan’s take on them. To name but a few, the Light is their good force (makes one think of God, especially when one sees the way it’s mentioned in daily life — “Light keep you!”, “Light, did you see that?”; they believe in a Creator too but the Light is the divinity they refer to in their every day life). The name of the evil one is Shai’tan. The Children of Light, an organisation with its own rules and ranking system, is the Andorian equivalent of Inquisition. Saidin and saidar, the male and female forces, make one think of Yin and Yang (especially as their symbol seems to be quite similar too). The Tinkers, the travelling people, are very much like the Gypsies of old: earn mend pots, travel in wagons, dress in vivid colors and are said to steal whatever they can get their hands on (what I liked most about them is that “They’re looking for a song. That’s what the Mahdi seeks. They say they lost it during the Breaking of the World, and if they can find it again, the paradise of the Age of Legends will return.“). And so on.

People often say that Jordan was heavily influenced by Tolkien, and that the plot is similar to the one in the Lord of the Rings. They are more or less right, as there are many elements in the book that make one think of Tolkien. However I would dare to say that the plot, albeit very interesting (with a few incredibly captivating moments now and then), is not necessarily the main attraction of Jordan’s work. Neither is the character development — I could say that it is actually the book’s weak point, because while the characters are believable and interesting, their emotions and dialogue aren’t always up to par. I for one felt quite meh about the relationship between Rand and Egwene, especially when the latter was being jealous — but I digress. As I was saying, the most interesting feature of the book, what makes it truly special, is the way Jordan has managed to create a living and breathing world around his characters. We are treated to detailed descriptions of villages, monuments, cities and people altogether, all forming in a colorful background behind our characters’ deeds. And it’s worth mentioning that, at least in this first volume, the author managed to present it all in such a manner that is never boring. I understand that this becomes a flaw later on, as the amount of detail tends to overcome the actual plot in some future books, but right now, after reading just this one, I am charmed.

When it comes of the characters, I very much liked the way Jordan chose to treat women. There are no damsel in distress in this book. The women are just as willing to go the needed lengths as men are; they are also, magic-wise, the more powerful, since they are the only ones able to touch the True Source. Quite a cool concept for a novel set in a medieval-like world.

Interestingly enough, my favorite character of them all was Lan. Even the author said about him that “Lan is simply the man I always wished I could be.“. My teenage self would have been head over heels fascinated with him. He is a very capable warrior, with a noble heart, always putting the interests of others ahead of his own. He is not talkative, but spends his time studying the surroundings, as any Warden on the run is supposed to be do. Yet he does notice things one would think he wouldn’t, and that shows most of all when it comes to who his love interest is (unfortunately I can’t spoil that but I was very excited about that part). Oh, and did I mention he is also of (very) noble blood?

Opposed to him, the three main characters (Mat, Rand, and Perrin) are nothing but boys. I liked Rand a lot because his emotions are very believable, and his heart is good. Perrin is the strong one, who thinks slowly but always thinks things through. As for Mat, he is the claimant of the “my least favorite male character” honor. He is supposed to be a mischievous lad, but not a bad one. However he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut (annoying!!) and is too preoccupied with finding treasure for my taste (this happens to also be his doom, at least in his book, haha).

Mat’s female equivalent, “my least favorite female character”, is Egwene (pronounced eh-GWAIN). She is very young and she’s also Rand’s love interest, so I suppose she is meant to be likable rather than not. Well, she does have her qualities — strong willed, courageous, loves being part of an adventure even if it’s scary at times — but she is also a bit of a bully, and also a bit annoying towards the end. I probably named her as my least favorite not because I disliked her but because I fully liked the others. Moiraine (pronounced mwah-RAIN), the Aes Sedai (EYEZ seh-DEYE), powerful and with lots of knowledge. Nynaeve, the young Wisdom, very capable and taking her responsibilities very seriously. Quite annoyed with men, but a good tracker herself. Both (Moiraine and Nynaeve) are promising characters and I am quite curious to see how they’ll develop in the future books.

Two tiny quotes I liked:
At one time, this is said about one of the Travelling People: “he moved as if he were about to begin dancing with his next step“. A bit of nice imagery. :)

The folks in the Two Rivers are said to be pretty stubborn, and I liked their way of thinking: “[...]the Light will take care of us all. And if the Light doesn’t, well, we’ll just take care of ourselves. Remember, we’re Two Rivers folk.”

Thoughts on the ending: There are people who call it rushed, but I have actually liked it. show spoiler

What I liked most: Interestingly enough, although in real life I’m not fond of the idea of predestination, I was quite captivated by the idea of a Pattern comprising all lives.

“The Wheel of Time weaves the Pattern of the Ages, and lives are the threads it weaves. No one can tell how the thread of his own life will be woven into the Pattern, or how the thread of a people will be woven.”

It seemed to me that somehow being a part of a bigger pattern gave everyone’s lives meaning, and I liked that. Not to mention I enjoyed trying to imagine how the said pattern might actually look (yeah, I know it’s not a literal pattern, but I love imagining it nevertheless). As such, I was also bound to like the notion of Ta’veren:

“You see, the Wheel of Time weaves the Pattern of the Ages, and the threads it uses are lives. It is not fixed, the Pattern, not always. If a man tries to change the direction of his life and the Pattern has room for it, the Wheel just weaves on and takes it in. There is always room for small changes, but sometimes the Pattern simply won’t accept a big change, no matter how hard you try. [...] But sometimes the change chooses you, or the Wheel chooses it for you. And sometimes the Wheel bends a life-thread, or several threads, in such a way that all the surrounding threads are forced to swirl around it, and those force other threads, and those still others, and on and on.”

I love the imagery of that :)

What I liked least: Can I say the Prologue? It started out so sudden I was finding it all very confusing, so much so that I almost put the book down (of course I didn’t consider it seriously, as I knew the book must be quite good to have sparkled such interest, but for a moment I did consider it nevertheless).

Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys epic fantasies? Actually, I fell in love with it while reading so I heartily encourage anyone to at least give it a try :)

See also
Schema of the places where the characters travelled in this book
A background of the history of the world in the Wheel of Time series

This book is followed by:
The Great Hunt | The Dragon Reborn | The Shadow Rising | The Fires of Heaven | Lord of Chaos

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