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language: English
country: USA
year: 2004
form: novel
genre(s): fantasy
series: The Wheel of Time, prequel
dates read: 22.2.23-24.2.23
after watching and surprisingly really enjoying the Wheel of Time tv series, I decided I’d try at least one of the books — New Spring, the prequel novel set twenty years before the main series that follows Moiraine and (as an afterthought) Lan. given that Moiraine was by far my favorite character, this seemed like a sensible choice, and having read the book, I still think it was! unfortunately it has left me craving yet more Moiraine content, so I might try The Eye of the World, but I have a suspicion I’ll be disappointed.
the novel is from split perspectives — most of the chapters (like…22 out of 27) are from Moiraine’s POV, following her through the end of her time as a student at the White Tower until she becomes a full Aes Sedai and then goes on a winding road trip, in search of the Dragon Reborn but also in an effort to escape from some complicated political machinations that would have made her, unwillingly, a queen. Lan, meanwhile, is also caught up in — surprise — political machinations to get him to claim the throne of the destroyed kingdom he’s heir to and lead a(n inevitably) doomed expedition to recapture it. also there’s like three pages from Siuan’s POV at one point.
I love Moiraine. I love how much Robert Jordan was apparently committed to the women at the White Tower being in sexual/romantic relationships with each other, either temporary or long-term? Moiraine’s relationship with Siuan is the core of the first half of the book, and still important in the second half, where one of the side tensions is (as I read it) kind of around that thing where one character sees homosexuality as something childish that they’ve now grown out of and the other doesn’t, which. gets me every time. anyway, it’s explicitly stated that they’re fucking, and also Moiraine’s POV is full of things like
She had never been as close to anyone as she was to Siuan. Or loved anyone as much.
and
Moiraine was all too aware of her own shortcomings, but she thought that Siuan would make a perfect Aes Sedai.
they sleep in each other’s beds like half the time. I was truly not expecting to tag this book as “lgbtq” on Storygraph, but here we are!
the other thing that gets me is Moiraine, as a member of an institution designed to Stand The Test Of Time in order that it may be able to stave off or at least mitigate the impact of a foreseen catastrophe, being deeply aware and concerned that the White Tower is diminishing from generation to generation, with fewer and fewer Aes Sedai, fewer and fewer Accepted, fewer and fewer novices. that there are rooms, hallways, whole wings that should be full and clearly once were but now stand empty. one of my absolute favorite plots. delicious.
the gender politics are, as expected…weird, although more complex than I was expecting. I mean the essentialist magic system was always going to be a mess, although in like chapter 2 Jordan accidentally implies that anyone can access either gendered “half” of the One Power. definitely not what he meant to do, though, just a poorly thought-out bit of writing. there were a number of these scattered throughout the books — a few places where the world-building info was just introduced in a way that was clearly not what he meant to convey, and more places where in attempting to write something cool or aesthetically pleasing he landed on an image that didn’t make sense if you think about it for more than like five seconds. my favorite of these might be where Lan’s ancient magic sword is implied to be remarkable because “not even tarnish could touch the blade”. iron/steel literally doesn’t tarnish, Robert. this is 100% mundane and normal.
Lan’s plot is…fine. kind of boring. but fortunately he’s clearly an afterthought, so I didn’t have to think that much about it. the end felt a little rushed. I will say, though, that this
In any case, it was best to avoid becoming involved with Aes Sedai more than absolutely necessary.
was very “uh-oh, John”. sorry about that, buddy.
anyway, I enjoyed this!
moods: adventurous, mysterious, tense