A Memory of Light - Chapters 21-24

In this section, Demandred finally appears in person, and the day dawns twice as Rand enters Shayol Ghul.

Siuan and associates escaped the Sharan attack by diving through a pre-existing Gateway to fall hundreds of feet to the ground, and readers are informed of this via a short flashback. The flashback allows the author to skip right to the introspection by Bryne, which is the key element of the scene. A scene with Siuan falling towards a crash landing even as she surveys the battle from above could have been awesome, but longer than the 2/3 of a page for the flashback. A narrow escape might also have raised the reader’s spirits a bit, and the intent here is to keep them very low.

Lyrelle gives a solid example of just how self-serving some people can be, even in crisis times when altruism is the desired virtue. She gets her Warders, but only because there were enough men who actually wanted to be Warders. The point once again, is that the Asha’man choose their own path, marching to the Last Battle not because they must, but because they want to. It’s a nice mirror to Rand’s own storyline.

Egwene witnesses Bao the Wyld, Demandred, as he executes prisoners and questions Leane. There are so many hints of an epic back story to his dominion over the Sharans, but thankfully it’s used to tantalize and not bog down the story with exposition.

The Sharan culture is a sharp downturn from even the Seanchan culture which readers and characters have grudgingly had to accept. In Shara, there is no hope of rising, only fear of falling to an even worse position. Even the ‘lords’ “had hollow, haunted expressions. They slumped forward, eyes down, faces wan. Their arms seemed thin, almost skeletal. So frail. What had been done to these people?”  This culture symbolizes what Demandred and the Dark One offer. Nothing.  Had they been introduced earlier, the symbolism would not have been as effective as now, when the other Nations and their various cultures stand together in opposition to a nihilistic way of life.

Perrin confronts Graendal in Tel’aran’rhiod, bending balefire as a matter of course. Lanfear, the Age of Legends’ premier researcher into space-time, then tells him how time is being affected by the Last Battle, even in the waking world. The use of time distortions, with the Bore acting as a black hole where time runs slowest is a brilliant way to make the battles in each location last an appropriate amount of time, and to pass off any disparity as a random fluctuation instead of author error. It also speaks to the finality of the Last Battle, if time itself can no longer be counted on and reality frays away.

Lanfear offers Perrin even more aid, and a chance to be her consort. She scorns his refusal, jabbing him with the revelation that his father-in-law was Graendal’s target. Now readers have the big piece of the puzzle they were missing, and know that the generals are subject to the Forsaken’s influence. Bryne’s bond with Siuan ought to protect him though…

In desperation, Gawyn uses the Seanchan Bloodknives’ rings to move Egwene from the Sharan camp. Leilwin helps her along the way. When confronted with a Sharan who has captured her, Egwene is able to let herself feel intense fear and then control it.

At Shayol Ghul, Aviendha leads the channelers against the first Forsaken and Dreadlords who appear to thwart the strike. She finds ways to defend against balefire, and devises methods to fool their opponents should they strike again.

Rand enters the cave with Moiraine and Nynaeve, Duty and Conscience, at his side. They have always played these roles, nagging at him to do what he knows he must. He has found a way to balance the two driving forces in his life. He wasn’t certain if he should be pleased that the two of them had started to get along. Nynaeve’s new short-haired maturity shows how Rand’s conscience has found a way to adapt to the other moral frameworks he has encountered, staying the same but just a little different because of that exposure. Rand wears a coat bearing the thorns representing Manetheren, a reminder of the tale Moiraine told long ago to give Rand the bedrock of confidence he needed to face his greatest opponent.

Thom guards the entrance as an eclipse occludes the sun. The sun’s return heralds Rand’s victory, a symbolism that is so obvious that the author spends only two paragraphs dwelling on it each time a character sees it in their location. Except Elayne, who makes a speech that would fit Manetheren’s last stand as easily as the defense of Cairhien she now leads.

Moiraine gasps as a voice shakes them, the voice of the Creator. It portends no victory, only the inevitable confrontation that the Pattern has pulled Rand towards with thousands of threads. As with Rand’s own drive to save mankind so they can continue trying to live their lives and solve their problems, the Voice can’t or won’t help Rand, it can only give him the opportunity to do things right this time.

Fortuona makes an observation about Mat which mirrors what has happened with Rand: He has changed, yet is the same. Mat is chaos, Fortuona order. The ability of Seanchan to accept a change in station is funnily portrayed with Mat’s response to being renamed, told from Fortuona’s perspective: “Knotai?” Knotai said. Knotai convinces Fortuona to send aid to the Aes Sedai.

Elsewhere, Agelmar, Bashere and Ituralde seem to be doing everything right. The Sea Folk make their last appearance of any import when Zaida reports the Bowl of the Winds is all that is keeping the Dark One from scouring the valley of Thakan’dar.

Writing Lessons:

Know what your characters represent so that you portray them consistently.

Crossroads of Twilight - Chapters 23-26

In this section, Rand reappears and makes the first of several fateful decisions to come

The title of the book, Crossroads of Twilight, implies a choice of roads, either of which could be leading toward darkness or light. Rand is the first character faced with a decision that involves major concessions on his part. Readers have already been warmed up for this since the Rebel Sitters voted to enter talks with the Black Tower, and Tarna has proposed a course of action that is anathema to other Red Ajah.

Cadsuane’s introductory paragraph describes a dividing line “The air in the room was just sufficiently warmer than outside…”, and uncertain outcomes “…to put a mist on the glass panes set in the red-painted casements, and the glass contained bubbles besides, but Cadsuane stood peering out as if she could see the dreary landscape clearly.” Descriptions of the farmers outside and the weather also act as metaphors for the situation she and Rand are in. It’s one of the more obvious uses of this technique in this book, which has had subtler than usual metaphors worked into the descriptive text. So subtle I often can’t tell if one is even there.

Cadsuane ponders everything she sees, perceptively picking up on many subtleties, and continuing to represent the Light itself. She still can’t figure Verin out completely, another clue that the Brown has some Shadowy motivations. Cadsuane tells Merise that however she decides to handle her Warder is probably right, implying that such matters are not affairs the Light mixes in. Cadsuane judges Nynaeve, who acts as Rand’s conscience, as a frivolous girl, full of passions, who only rarely demonstrated that she had a brain. Nynaeve is still wearing her angreal and ter’angreal, either to protect Rand or out of wariness of him. Cadsuane remains uncertain about whether saidin has been cleansed of the Dark One’s taint, trusting more to Merise’s bond with Narishma than to either of their own observations from linking with one of the men. She would have more faith if she had that bond herself, leading her to reflect once again on the wilder in the Black Hills who taught her that what must be endured, can be endured, and who may have given Cadsuane her collection of ter’angreal. Is that the same lesson Cadsuane must teach Rand? Since this reminder has come up, it seems likely to be so. She wonders at the affinity between Rand and Alivia, not knowing of Min’s viewing regarding her helping Rand to die. Rand himself is in a poor place, hardened, tired, and nearly disabled from the sickness caused by the taint.

As has so often been the case, Robert Jordan uses the sun to describe a character’s mood and situation: Midafternoon sunlight should have been slanting through the windows of Rand’s bedchamber, but a hard rain was falling outside, and all the lamps were lit to hold off a twilight darkness.

Rand too can almost see visions of his fellow ta’veren when he thinks of them. Other times an almost familiar face appears, accompanied by dizziness. Rand grasps saidin and we get the first description of clean saidin, for once not accompanied by a description of the taint. He has begun thinking of his weaves as webs, as Lews Therin does.

Logain has traveled to Rand’s hiding place, accompanied by several warders, Asha’man, Bashere’s men and Loial. Logain’s aura still speaks of glory to come.

Loial managed to have the majority of Waygates closed and guarded. This isn’t quite attacking the Shadow’s supply lines, but it is the only defense humanity has put up as of yet.

Rand and Cadsuane learn about the bonded Aes Sedai with Logain. It was a very nice and unexpected twist to have the Aes Sedai become the Warder. Rand worries that the Tower will want to balance things by asking to bond Asha’man, a suggestion Tarna has already brought up and Cadsuane has independently decided should be done.

Logain warns about Taim’s influence on the Asha’man, and the orders he gives which supposedly come from Rand. Rand is irritated that Logain isn’t thankful for the cleansing he performed. Rand gets philosophical about the Creator, thinking “A gardener did not weep for each blossom that fell.” He is trying to convince himself that is true.

Rand puts the Black Tower to the side, and broods upon the attempts to acquire the seals on the Dark One’s prison. He can’t fight the Shadow and Seanchan at the same time, so he sends Logain, Bashere and Loial to arrange a truce with the Seanchan.

His decision is based on recent conversations with Alivia, but also on his failed attempt to stop the Seanchan from invading Illian. He set them back for a few months, but their way is to learn and adapt and overcome. A useful trait to have on his side, if he can get it. Making a truce with an enemy to fight a greater enemy is the choice that each character will have to make in the lead-up to the Last Battle.

Perrin needs food for his troops, so he is setting off to the walled town of So Habor. While this is a realistic problem a commander might face, it is also mundane, making it likely readers will find it uninteresting as a focal point of the story. As it happens, the town of So Habor is one of the most interesting locales in the book, which is unfortunately a poor reflection on the rest of the book.

His first view of the area is abandoned fields and seemingly uninhabited houses. Empty. Men manning the town’s walls are filthy and unkempt. They ask how they can tell whether Perrin is alive. It seems a foolish question but it points to the moral turmoil from which he is suffering. We don’t get an immediate answer to what happened in the town, but the consequences are plain enough. Fear, living in filth, distrust. Perrin sees that the clean grain samples are kept in sealed jars, with well-cut threaded lids.  Their best is kept hidden away unless they need to show it off to someone. He demands to see the rest of the grain. It is heavily contaminated with vermin, crawling with weevils. Each sack is almost half weevil, half grain. The grain can only be cleaned by sifting through it carefully, winnowing out the insects. It is a metaphor for Perrin’s fate. He is at the halfway point, like a sack of grain, teetering towards being devoured by the weevils, needing to be winnowed to preserve the grain. He judges that ghosts and weevils don’t explain all that is wrong with the people of So Habor; they have simply given up, and in doing so the badness has been allowed to fester and grow inside them as it has consumed their warehouses. It’s all explained away as the Dark One’s touch, but the scene was placed here to show a possible fate for Perrin. So Habor serves a similar purpose as Shadar Logoth did in The Eye of the World.

Writing Lessons:

Location, weather, events, behaviour: anything can be used as a metaphor.

Mundane problems make a mundane story.

Crossroads of Twilight - Chapters 13-14

In this section, much happens, but Elayne accomplishes little.

These are the fourth and fifth chapters in this book dedicated to Elayne and Caemlyn. Elayne reminds her friends that she has to take the long view. Even if she is trying to gain the throne, she cannot set aside the work that needs to be done to prepare the queendom for the Last Battle. Her goal is not simply to win the contest for the throne, but to win the support of the Andoran people for the long term. She makes several seemingly minor decisions throughout this section, none of which have any immediate consequences, but they may have delayed consequences that she will not know the result of until much later, when it is too late to change them. In a typical Mat sequence, the result of his gamble is immediately known, while in Elayne’s version, the dice are thrown and it may be a book or two later before we know how the dice have landed. While this makes sense in the political arena, a delayed payoff creates an expectation that the payoff will be that much more rewarding when it finally comes.

Elayne receives the support of four High Seats, though in truth Dyelin did the legwork and they are siding with Elayne because of loyalty to her mother, or antipathy towards the other claimants. So far, Elayne’s actions or character has not proven particularly relevant in her budding support.

The High Seats are young, naïve, and simplistic. But there is agreement that they are good material to be shaped, some having had good training, others being perceptive, and others being amenable to guidance from Elayne and Dyelin. I cannot escape the perception that Elayne as Queen is meant to embody the Light itself, and many of the judgments she passes on the individual Andorans she meets seem like the Creator choosing out who pleases him best.

Elayne’s two most important servants, the First Clerk and the First Maid, give her reports on the state of affairs in the Palace and the city. They discuss spies in the Palace, which Elayne is pragmatic about. They develop a strategy to counteract the attempted arsons in the city. Most troubling is a report that Arymilla has borrowed so much money from the banks that their only hope of seeing repayment may be to help her to the throne so she can receive enough income to make good on the debts. Other High Seats have vanished, and it is unknown whether they have settled in for the winter or are marching towards Caemlyn, their allegiance yet unknown.

Elayne is subjected to a weave to check the health of her babies, for she learns she has two. A thought is spared for Rand before she begins to fret over the difficulties if they are twin girls, which would present all manner of difficulties for the Succession. True to character.

Merilille has fled with a Sea Folk apprentice, creating another headache for Elayne. It may be that those moments spent in the dressing room or bathing are the only moments when she can be herself and not encumbered by her quest to gain the throne. She keeps many different plates spinning, coming back to each one ever so briefly, but she doesn’t actually get much done. At the end of these five chapters, I’m hard pressed to say what she has accomplished, despite the many things that have happened in her favour or against it. If Elayne is acting as a symbol for the Creator, then not taking a direct hand is appropriate. But even so, failing to do things is a sin that readers do not easily forgive.

Writing Lessons:

Delaying the payoff creates an expectation of a bigger and better payoff.

The Fires of Heaven - Prologue to Chapter 1

In this section, lengthy prologues explain the current situation.

In the White Tower, a host of Aes Sedai are introduced. The point is to show that the Tower is made up of factions, and a crowd of new faces and names are necessary to convey this idea. A few are made to stand out, Shemerin and Joline particularly, the first Yellow, and a new Green. The most important thing is that Elaida and Alviarin are contending for power. Later Moiraine will describe how Siuan should now be approaching leaders of nations to unite them behind Rand, but the reality is that the Tower is unstable, and that anything might come out of Rand showing up there, most of it detrimental to him. There is a sense that Elaida is worse than Alviarin, simply because we know how bad she is while Alviarin is portrayed as cool and logical, and she must have been misled by Elaida.

Padan fain is in the Tower, doing to Elaida what he did to Pedron Niall. He tells her to tie a thread to one Rand trusts. It is now certain that whatever slim potential help Elaida might have been, she is now bad, bad, bad.  

Carrying over from last book, we are reminded Mazrim Taim is on the loose. Since the entire Black Ajah was in Tanchico, it is easy to overlook the supposed plot to control Mazrim Taim. Other happenings in the world are easily conveyed by the meeting of Elaida’s entourage. These briefings are used frequently to pack in information that is not worth showing to the reader directly.

This is the first time a point of view is given for a Forsaken. This makes it possible to give personalities to the Forsaken, since they won't usually be talkative in front of heroes. It is also the only way to reveal the villainous plot, unless the eavesdropping (Mat), dreams (Perrin or Egwene) or interrogation (Amico and Joiya) methods are used again. Typically, overusing any one method is picked up by the reader, except for direct revelation by the villain’s point of view, which can be done frequently. There is also now less reason to keep the Forsaken mysterious, since Rand has access to one and the air of mystery will quickly be undone.

Lanfear contrives to stay near Rand and keep some 'allies' away. Rahvin considers that knowing Lanfear’s activities is better than not knowing. Important information about the differences between men and women linking, or strength in the Power, are given by a true authority in the matter. This information would be somewhat untrustworthy coming from Asmodean, who may have ulterior motives. Internal thoughts about it from an authority outside the captor-jailor relationship are a better way to make the reader believe what is being said. Similarly, Rahvin confirms how the protection from the taint works. He describes the Dark One as a ‘greater power than the Light, or even the Creator’. He differentiates between the two. The ‘Light’ therefore represents the One Power, so earlier passages about Rand wielding a ‘sword of the Light’, or other references to the capitalized word ‘Light’ can now be put in a correct context.

The prologue and Chapter 1 act like continuation from The Shadow Rising’s 4th storyline. The focus on Min is a shift from other books, where she has played a peripheral role. Putting her front and center in Chapter 1 means she is a central character. The switch in viewpoint from Elaida to Siuan’s group is logical; it completes the White Tower characters updates. Bryne is portrayed as a cowboy leading a posse, a significant change from his days in Caemlyn. Under the pseudonym Jackson O’Reilly, Robert Jordan wrote his first book, a Western titled Cheyenne Raiders. Bryne reflects on whether the Nations will stand for or against Rand, a concern that Moiraine will echo.  

From Bryne, the logical people to look in on next are in Caemlyn. Alteima and Morgase have viewpoints, such that by page 55, not one of the original Two Rivers characters has been shown. Readers may now be anxious to get back to the central characters they know. All of the characters in this chapter are in Andor.  An expectation that they will meet up is being created.

Alteima's role is largely to provide Rahvin with information in a convincing way. Rahvin could get it elsewise, but information from someone with firsthand knowledge is more convincing. Alteima's role is also to heighten danger to Morgase. Morgase has already been described as stubborn enough to try get out of the Compulsion, and she is portrayed as being of two minds about many things. Morgase is well liked by Thom, Gareth, Elayne, Galad, and Gawyn, and may even be part of Elaida's foretelling about the Royal line of Andor (Rand is still the more likely though). She is therefore instantly identifiable as a good guy, and reader sentiment is with her.

Rahvin is interested in Rand's allies and friends. This is the second mention of tying strings to his friends. Unlike Elaida, Rahvin is a master manipulator, and uses everyone.

The very 2nd paragraph of Chapter 1, where a wind blows from Braem Wood can be contrasted with the situation of the refugees from the White Tower.  This is not simply telling readers about the geography, it tells how Min and her group are alone, exhausted, without relief, in danger of being exposed.

South and west it blew, dry, beneath a sun of molten gold. There had been no rain for long weeks in the land below, and the late-summer heat grew day by day. Brown leaves come early dotted some trees, and naked stones baked where small streams had run. In an open place where grass had vanished and only thin, weathered bush held the soil with its roots, the wind began uncovering long-buried stones. They were weathered and worn, and no human eye would have recognized them for the remains of a city remembered in story yet otherwise forgotten.

Wow, that is a great paragraph.

Writing Lessons:

Make sure the benefits of revealing the villain’s point of view outweigh the downsides.

The Eye of the World - Chapters 48-53

In this final section, enemies more powerful and numerous than any seen before are faced and defeated.

In the last act of a story, the stakes are typically raised significantly. Any part that wasn’t full of action, was full of revelation. In terms of heightened danger, Rand once fled Trollocs, and now trounces a Trolloc army. He ran from lone Myrddraal, and now vaporizes a handful of them.  The group clashes with living trees and deformed blight-creatures. Strange new foes like worms and Forsaken are encountered.  And of course, Ba’alzamon is met on uneven terms that favour Rand for a change.

What makes all this possible is the Eye of the World. We aren’t told what it is until just before the final confrontation. Learning what it is sooner would have made it that much easier to guess that one of the boys, Rand most likely, can use the One Power. There were clues, but most of the build-up around men using the One Power has indicated they must be stopped. The reader has been told that a male channeler is a villain. The first time you read it, some events are perplexing. On a reread (or eight of them) it’s incredibly obvious each of the five (count them) times Rand uses the One Power in desperation, looking for some way to escape. His behavior perfectly matches Moiraine’s description of how girls learn. But we’ve spent the entire book thinking of him as a lucky hero. Now it turns out it was the One Power all along. Many of my complaints about missing a chance to explain the quest, turn out to have been purposefully done to conceal (or not admit) that Rand can use the One Power. This is epic fantasy, and we can all guess that Rand is the Chosen One, even as we play along with the mystery. While the intent is clear to me now, I think without the rousing bits of adventure and excitement, the payoff might not be worth the suspense.

So what is the Eye of the World? One hundred Aes Sedai used their lives to filter the taint away from Saidin, and place it in a well which came to be known as the Eye of the World. Beyond the Power itself, the Eye of the World has protections built in that allow one to channel more than they could unaided, like an angreal. Rand can’t already be at Aginor’s strength, or Ba’alzamon’s, so it must be that. The Eye of the World also is preferentially attuned to the Dragon, otherwise Rand would never have been able to wrest control from Aginor and incinerate him.  The Eye also places knowledge in the mind of the one who uses it. Up until now Rand has instinctively used the Power for simple applications, but is now able to Travel, make a sword of Power, and destroy opponents in various ways. Rand does a lot of spontaneous learning later, usually attributed to Lews Therin’s knowledge. I think the Eye of the World is an equally plausible means of explaining his ability to learn whatever he needs on the spot.

Perhaps most importantly, the Eye of the World overrides Rand’s actions and destroys every creature of Shadow in the vicinity. After broiling Aginor, Rand Travels to Tarwin’s Gap, and sees the forces of Shienar on one side. That is the last time his name appears for two pages, with one exception, after that he is simply called ‘he’. Everything ‘he’ does after, from decimating the Shadowspawn army until ‘he’ arrives in the room of stone faces, is impersonal, and not under his control. The Eye of the World shows him what it can do, and then, as Ba’alzamon confronts him, ‘he’ finds the void. In the void he finds Manetheren, the truth about himself, and free of doubt, Rand is now in full control.  

The use of doubt as a tool of Ba’alzamon and the enemy of willpower is well demonstrated. Ba’alzamon lies, exaggerates, takes undue credit, and dismisses every choice or conclusion Rand would make on his own, but for one: the choice to serve him. Everything he says could be true, yet Rand decides to trust himself instead of accepting that doubt back into his heart. His steadfast refusal to give in through all his trials has finally given him the Power to destroy those doubts for good, in the person of Ba’alzamon.  

The exception for Rand’s name appearing in the Tarwin’s Gap sequence is when the ALL CAPS voice speaks. We are told that it’s not Rand’s thought, but it is like a thought booming in his head. Whether it’s the voice of those who programmed the Eye of the World, or the voice of the Creator itself, it seeks a condition that is not met. It is not here, at Tarwin’s Gap. The Horn? The Dragon banner? Something else? It seems fairly certain that the Eye of the World was intended to be used at the Last Battle. With the condition not met, the voice packs up and leaves, giving Rand one last bit of help by sending him to the room of stone faces. Will the voice come back in A Memory of Light? Or is mankind on its own now, waiting for the Chosen One to do what must be done, if he so chooses?

Is the room of stone faces in the World of Dreams? Grudgingly, I must say that evidence indicates it is. How Rand manages to get there, leave there, and whether he was there in the flesh, is unclear. The Eye of the World drew him back when it ran dry?

As the group rode into the Blight, I couldn’t help but feel this was the end of Lan’s lifelong quest, and of his life. He has spurned Nynaeve, he alone has not yet passed the torch to the Two Rivers ‘sheepherders’, he can save Shienar to atone for surviving the end of Malkier, he wants to die fighting the Shadow, he has fulfilled his oaths to Moiraine. There seemed to be many reasons to believe he was a goner. As a blank canvas through much of the story, his origin and the choices he must make as Shienar faces destruction still pull at the heartstrings. Moiraine and Lan’s quest, begun in New Spring, partially ends here as they leave an empowered Rand free to go where he pleases.

The Blight is a bizarre ecosystem, where everything exists to kill each other. The Dark One really hates life. How does anything live there at all? They must spawn by the thousands, like insects or frogs. Or Trollocs. There’s no other way to keep that many living things around, is there?

The Green Man would have been a great resource to tell us about the Age of Legends, despite only being reliable for context, not facts. He gives some obscure clues about the Aiel origin and Wolfbrothers.

Egwene and Nynaeve’s enthusiasm about feeling Moiraine channel reveals their thoughts of the future in Tar Valon. Egwene is eager, Nynaeve is cautious and considering.

Nynaeve has more reason to be antagonistic towards Moiraine. Lan hardly knows which way to jump. Their budding romance was subdued enough that a reader hardly notices it, even on a reread. That may be intentional so as to not detract too much from Rand and Egwene, whose romance began uncertainly, and is ending a bit more certainly.

Sensing Mat’s dagger appears to be how the Forsaken found the Eye of the World. Is Shadar Logoth and Mordeth their ‘old friend’ because it betrayed Manetheren, even while it opposed the Shadow?

Almost the first words out of Aginor's mouth were to reveal that the Forsaken do not get along and will try to undercut one another. Aginor and Balthamel were mentioned by name earlier, but with little other context than they were powerful male Aes Sedai who serve the Dark One, and their names are used to frighten children. The confrontation with them was exciting enough to overcome their seemingly random appearance. A lot more could have been done to build them up. See my post on the Big White Book Chapters 2-5 for an awesome back story that is completely left out of this book. http://greatlordofthedark.blogspot.com/2012/01/big-white-book-world-of-robert-jordans_02.html

Writing Lessons:

Keep building up the thematic elements that are most important to your story, consistently throughout the story.

The Eye of the World - Prologue & Chapters 1-4

Prologue – Dragonmount has to be the part of the Wheel of Time I’ve read the most often. Readers are still scrutinizing it for clues. First appearances of True Power, Ishamael’s half-imprisonment, and more are subtly tucked in here. Most recently I’ve wondered if the bolt of light at the end wasn’t the Dragon’s doing at all. He asks for forgiveness three times before the bolt strikes from the heavens, a shining bar that lasts but a second and still scores a hole through the earth’s crust. Earth-shattering lightning bolt? Or divine intervention? Did Lews Therin call for a time out and get it? Was the Dragon able to summon the Creator? Does the end of an Age come when the Dragon hits the ‘keep spinning’ button? Does the Dark One win when the Dragon decides to stop pressing it?

The reader's head is left spinning, some first-time readers reportedly just skip the prologue because they have no framework to understand the references Lews and Elan are making. That’s what Ravens was for (see previous post). And the Glossary. I’d have been lost my first read through without the Glossary.

But assuming you have no glossary, or don’t want readers to step out of the story to look something up, the author has to establish the framework and setting of the story. That is what I’ll be looking at for chapters 1-4.

The Two Rivers is a remote farming community, and the subplots of these chapters evoke that feeling of insulation from outside affairs. A traveling performer in town is the highlight of the festival. They last saw fireworks ten years ago and everyone still talks about it. War is an unfamiliar word.  A lone rider in a black cloak is enough to draw attention because everyone has a strong familiarity with everyone else in the village. No one in the village has any authoritative knowledge about anything outside the Two Rivers.

The characters interactions also reveal that insulation from the outside: Egwene thinks of leaving the Two Rivers to see the outside world, a preposterous notion. It also means Rand would never see her again. Padan Fain is able to satisfy his ego by drawing out his news report. Thom makes fun of the boys for being ‘well-traveled’.

Farming is a familiar and understandable activity. Readers have no trouble understanding the setting and characters of the Two Rivers. We all know someplace that is in the back end of forever. The town I grew up in had this sign:

It's not the Quarry Road. If you look close the stripes show where they taped over the old 381 km sign.

The setting is established, the characters are well introduced, the idea of the set of mysterious strangers with unknown motives is placed, now the adventure can begin.

Writing Lessons:

Readers need a grounding with something they can relate to. It can be just a small thing, or it could be the entire setting, but familiar things will help them relate to the strange new world you’re introducing them to.