Things pick up again in this chapter when the peddler Padan Fain makes his annual arrival in Edmond's Field to sell his wares and share news of the world outside the region of Two Fields, and the news isn't good.
- "What could be worse than wolves killing sheep, and men?" Cenn Buie demanded. Others muttered in support.
"Men killing men."
Yes, war's breaking out elsewhere in the world, and all because a man is claiming to be the Dragon Reborn. The original Dragon, as we saw in the prologue, screwed up the world in his quest to be rid of the forces of darkness, and now everyone hates him. The people believe that his reincarnation is going to ruin things even more, or at least most of them do:
- "I heard a story once," Mat said slowly, "from a wool-buyer's guard. He said the Dragon would be reborn in mankind's greatest hour of need, and save us all."
"Well he was a fool if he believed that," Perrin said firmly, "and you were a fool to listen."
Now, this actually kind of interests me. The characters listening to Fain, Cenn Buie especially, may not have much reason do doubt the veracity of this distant warmonger's claims, but we do. We all know that Rand is going to end up being the Dragon Reborn. There's no use pretending otherwise. It's the classic "chosen to save the world" position that you see all the time in stories like this. But here it seems that the legends are muddled and confused, and few believe that he's going to be a good guy. Hopefully the story has him hide his status in order to avoid being persecuted by the people he's trying to save. That would be legitimately interesting. I'm not going to say that misunderstood heroes are new to me, but I can't recall seeing them in the world of fantasy (unless you count Harry Potter), and I'm curious to see how this turns out in the end.
The Aes Sedai, an order of female spellcasters, also get their first mention here. They share the blame for wrecking the world along with the original Dragon, and now they are ironically the only thing that can stop the new Dragon impostor, because he can wield the One Power.
- "He'll go mad and die! In the stories, men who channeled the Power always go mad, and then waste away and die. Only women can touch it. Doesn't he know that?" [Ewin] ducked under a cuff from Master Buie.
I wonder if there's any sort of magic the men can wield safely? I kind of doubt it, but there was a male force mentioned in the prologue, so maybe I'm wrong.
Anyway, there's more new people to meet! Rand's other friend, Perrin Aybara, the blacksmith's apprentice. He seems level-headed, with a bit of a sarcastic side, a decent counterpart to Mat, who's excited about stories of far off wars while Perrin just hopes they stay far-off. Mat lets slip that Perrin also got a silver penny from Moiraine and saw the rider.
Looks like we might have a three-man protagonist team. This and the presence of a Dark One who people are reluctant to name make me start thinking of Harry Potter. Maybe J.K. Rowling read this series before starting hers?
All this talk of the Dragon Reborn and the Aes Sedai vexes Nynaeve, who shows up for the first time, proving herself to be all business and no pleasure:
- "If you are done staring like a moonstruck lamb, Rand al'Thor," Nynaeve said, "perhaps you can tell me why you were talking about something even you three great bullcalves ought to have sense enough to keep out of your mouths."
She's got a stick up her ass, that much is certain, but I can see why she would. It's been established by now that several of the village think she's too young for the job of Wisdom, and she probably feels she has to overcompensate and prove that she can handle herself just fine. I do so hope that this is the case and she isn't just a bitch.
She's accompanied by Egwene, who isn't at all the pest I imagined her to be when I first heard that Rand wanted to avoid her. Turns out he just doesn't want her to pressure him into going out with her. But that might not happen after all, as Egwene is taking Wisdom lessons from Nynaeve and might actually disregard any potential suitors for her career.
- His amusement melted as fast as it had come. "Outside the Two Rivers? I'd never see you again."
"And you wouldn't like that? You have not given any sign lately that you'd care one way or another."
I wouldn't bet on it, though. I'm guessing that she and Rand are Meant To Be. Unlike the three guys, she hasn't seen the rider and doesn't believe it's an ill omen, so who knows what she'll be doing in the near future.
- Egwene drew a sharp breath and opened her mouth, but whatever she had been going to say vanished as the door of the inn opened and a man with shaggy white hair came hurrying out as if pursued.
And then the chapter ends. I'm fine with these little end-of-chapter cliffhangers for now, but I hope there aren't very many more of them. They do get old after a while, especially if they're used on trivial things like the arrival of new characters. TV shows tend to abuse cliffhangers at the end of episodes all the time, and it gets annoying fast.
Also, I probably don't read fantasy as often as I should, so I'm not sure if it's normal for a book of this length, especially the first in a long series like this, to take this long in establishing things for the plot without any sort of perilous situation actually happening to the characters. It's not like I'll stop reading if trends continue, but it still worries me.
NEXT TIME: Showboating and words of wisdom!
I must admit, things like the 'One Power' do tend to make me a little twitchy in fantasy. They're just so, so tired, and it always feels melodramatic to me when people go throwing around capitals on otherwise ordinary words.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the female-only magic and the one guy who can miraculously wield it reminds me a bit too much of Dune and the Bene Gesserit, and I was never very fond of that book.
The names are also starting to bug me at this point. There's no sense of cohesion with them, which is odd, because at first glance most of them are reasonably similar: Rand, Mat, Bran, Ewin, Cenn, Perrin, even Egwene and Nynaeve all are pretty short, simple names that sound perhaps vaguely Irish in origin. But the surnames just don't hold up. Why do three people have the al' prefix on their last names but no one else? Is this a marker of status? Of different cultural background? It doesn't seem to be, and none of the other last names seem to have any cohesion either, they're just random sounds.
It's not the most important detail, but it is distracting.
The names are Irish, you say? Well, that's weird. I don't know what the deal is with the surnames either. I'm just starting things out.
ReplyDeleteI sort of got into Dune a while back, mostly based on hearsay about the weird, millenia-spanning plot over the series. That sounded right up my alley. Because I always get distracted, I never progressed past Dune Messiah (which is an oddly short book). Also, I made the mistake of reading one of the prequel trilogies by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I enjoyed them back in the day, but I think I'd enjoy them less if I read them now. Also, I remember when Paul of Dune was released, and even with my limited knowledge of the series I knew it was completely unnecessary.
I like how Homestuck pokes fun at capitalizing terms like that, complete with specially-colored font.
Yeah, you can expect a lot of my comments to ramble like this. My first draft is my only draft.
They sound vaguely Irish to me, but I am not really an expert on that. Egwene and Nynaeve especially though sound like names I have seen show up in older Irish/Celtic fairy tales and such.
ReplyDeleteI only read the original Dune, and that twice. Actually, I only read it the second time because my friend was obsessed and I thought perhaps I'd just not understood it the first time. Nope, I understood it, I just didn't get the obsession. It was an okay political sci-fi. I don't get the hype.
I have seen this Homestuck thing showing up online a lot. What is it? A game or something?
Homestuck is essentially a webcomic that takes the trappings of a lot of video games, especially adventure games with text parsers. It's on the MS Paint Adventures website, in which the story is advanced by text commands submitted by readers like "Go north" or "Pick up key" or "Retrieve arms from chest." Homestuck is the latest in the author's adventures, and it's grown into a bit of a phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteThe author describes it as a combination of Earthbound, The Sims, and Spore, and I don't want to give much more than that away. I can understand why a lot of people hate this comic, but personally I love it. I love the way the story is presented, and the author's willingness to experiment with storytelling methods. I love the dialogue, which takes place almost entirely in extended instant messenger sessions. I love the music; this is the only webcomic I know of that has its own soundtrack, which plays during the Flash animated segments.
I recommend giving it a shot, just to see if you like it or not. The following address takes you directly to the first page in the story: www.mspaintadventures.com
I will take a look.
ReplyDeleteI also checked out the names. Some of them are made up and so I couldn't find them, but here's the meanings/origins for the rest:
Bran - "raven" - Welsh
Finn - "fair" - Irish
Ewin (as Ewan) - "born of yew" - Scottish
Rand - probably from Randall or Randolph - "shield wolf" - English
Moirane reminds me a lot of either Morrigan, a war goddess (also Irish) or Morgan le Fay. Egwene and Nynaeve both seemed most Irish, but neither are actual names. There are a few things that look kind of close though.
So yeah, looks like some solid UK influence in names, although I don't know if that's deliberate or not.
Now, there's been a while since this was posted (and sadly also updates - I love this series, it would have been awesome to see more), but I know a fair bit about WoT names, and would like to share :)
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'd just like to point out - one man that can use this magic safely? What on Earth gave you that idea?
On the prefixes: They are remnants of the old language used in the region. 'Al' means 'son of', while 'ay' means 'daughter of'. Now, this means Rand's name is Rand, son of Thor. And Perrin is *cough* Perrin, daughter of Bara. However, this practice died out hundreds of years ago, and the prefixes are now simply parts of ordinary surnames. The ones without a prefix, such as Cauthon, is originally not from the region. Except that Mat has very old Two Rivers blood - on his mother's side.
The UK influences are definitely there on purpose. Most of the time, you can tell where a character is from based on the name. Such as Annvaere - Cairhienin.
There's another bit, too, though, which might be why you think you recognize Egwene and Nynaeve.
Basically, almost all of their names are from the myths around King Arthur.
al'Thor - Arthur
Egwene al'Vere - Guinevere (say it out loud, it's much clearer)
Nynaeve - Niviene/Nimue/Lady of the Lake
Thom Merrilin - Merlin
Moiraine - Morgana
Elayne - Elaine
Morgase - Morgause
Galad - Galahad
Tigraine - Ygraine
Gawyn - Gawain
and so on. Incidentally, almost all these characters are Andoran, which is the most English of the regions. Hell, this series has so much King Arthur in it, that once you start seeing it, it's impossible to stop!
It's worth noting that their roles in the books are (most of the time) very far from their roles in the myths, mirroring the central theme, where stories and distorted by time.
There is very little in there books that are not deliberate ;)