You Wasted Time Writing This?
Sunday, December 25th, 2005
New Spring Robert Jordan
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a total waste of time. But why go back and write a prequel before finishing the series? There are readers out there who are gnawing their fingernails, sleeping outside of Borders, waiting breathlessly to see how The Wheel of Time ends (a slight exageration, perhaps, except for those poor fans who don’t have a life.). Finally publishing Knife of Dreams helped ease the pain of the wait, but until that came out in October, I was very annoyed with Robert Jordan for writing this bland little book first.
Anyway, New Spring tells the story of how Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche become Aes Sedai. As Accepted of the White Tower, they hear the Foretelling of the Dragon’s birth, and task themselves with finding and protecting him from the Red Ajah, the Black Ajah, and himself. It also tells how Moiraine meets al’Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of the Malkeri, and bonds him as her Warder.
While this backstory is interesting, I very quickly became bogged down in all those Aes Sedai. As I asked in my previous post, how the heck does Jordan keep all those women separate? And why do I care that 6 of Moiraine’s dresses had embroidery and the rest didn’t?! Jordan again shows that he is a fashion writer at heart.
Also, I believe New Spring started out as a short story for an anthology of fantasy called Legends
All that aside, New Spring was an o.k. little read. Nothing that I’d rush out and buy, but if I found it used somewhere, I’d probably add it to my collection. Just because I like to have all the books in a series.
But if Robert Jordan writes another unnecessary prequel before the last book in The Wheel of Time comes out, I’m going to be a very unhappy camper.