I'm re-reading the 5th book of the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan is an incredible author who has created such a multi-level, rich world that he sets his stories in. In the 5th book, the Fires of Heaven, Jordan provides quite a few foreshadowing, and it is exciting for me to be able to look back and see them, because I've read the whole series already.
Two questions come to mind...is it real foreshadowing, or am I just seeing it as foreshadowing because I've read the series before? And...how the heck does Jordan keep all of this straight. I wonder if he goes back and looks at the story and uses part of it in the present book, or did he have a huge master plan that he knows about, and putting the early stuff in purposefully, he then brings it out at the right time?
Well since he has passed away and I don't have a chance to ask him I don't think that I will ever know for sure. But I can guess. At the end of his life when he realized that he that might not live, he told his wife and his cousin the rest of the story (and I think that they recorded it, or took notes). So at least they (and now Brandon Sanderson) know the master-ending. I don't know which would be harder...to make sure that all of the bits make it into the story, or to make sure that all the loose ends get tied off? Either way it is very interesting to see the bits as they are introduced or woven into the story.
Which also brings me to the end of the series. Sanderson was hired to write the last book, which has been stretched into 3 books. Frankly, at the time I couldn't see how he would end it. It seemed like there was just too much stuff, to many bit-ends to be tied off. Through the end of the first book there was still a lot of ends left. Some stuff was starting to be tied off, but not much. It wasn't until I had read the 2nd book until I started seeing a lot of the ends being resolved. I can actually now see an end to the series. It has made me even more excited to see how it finally all ends. Hurry up Sanderson!!!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
To Read in the Order Written or the Order of the Story
I've just started rereading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (and now being finished by Brandon Sanderson). Robert Jordan's first novel in the series written was the Eye of the World, but the first in the history of that world, then it would be New Spring, the prequel. So I started with New Spring...in fact usually whenever I reread a series that has prequels in it, I start there. I think that it's because it is how the author intended it to be.
Of course one series that I don't start with that way is the Dune series. That is because the prequels were written by Frank Herbert's son and not him. So the prequels aren't directly connected. It's like they aren't cannon, and so they are interesting to read, but not the real start of the series.
Now, New Spring is interesting because it started out as a novella for the Robert Silverberg anthology Legends. Then Jordan fleshed it out a little and published it on its own. The same thing happened with Terry Goodkind and Debt of Bones. It too is a prequel of the Sword of Truth series.
Sometimes it seems like authors use the prequel to add stuff that they haven't talked about in the first couple of books, but have in the latest ones. So it looks like the idea or theme was in there the whole time. I dislike and like that at the same time. It just depends on the way that it is handled. Some things are very witty and funny, and sometimes its just dumb or redundant. Almost everything about reading is subjective.
Of course one series that I don't start with that way is the Dune series. That is because the prequels were written by Frank Herbert's son and not him. So the prequels aren't directly connected. It's like they aren't cannon, and so they are interesting to read, but not the real start of the series.
Now, New Spring is interesting because it started out as a novella for the Robert Silverberg anthology Legends. Then Jordan fleshed it out a little and published it on its own. The same thing happened with Terry Goodkind and Debt of Bones. It too is a prequel of the Sword of Truth series.
Sometimes it seems like authors use the prequel to add stuff that they haven't talked about in the first couple of books, but have in the latest ones. So it looks like the idea or theme was in there the whole time. I dislike and like that at the same time. It just depends on the way that it is handled. Some things are very witty and funny, and sometimes its just dumb or redundant. Almost everything about reading is subjective.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Tombs of Atuan & Freedom
I'm rereading some of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea novels. In her second novel, The Tombs of Atuan, Ged/Sparrowhawk have helped Tenar escape from dark earth powers on the island of Atuan. This takes place right after they are leaving the island in Ged's boat. The night before Tenar had felt an extreme lethargy of emotion.
"Now," he said, "now we're away, now we're clear, we're clean gone, Tenar. Do you feel it?"
She did feel it. A dark hand had let go its lifelong hold upon her heart. But she did not feel joy, as she had in the mountains. She put her head down in her arms and cried, and her cheeks were salt and wet. She cried for the waste of her years in bondage to a useless evil. She wept in pain, because she was free.
What she had begun to learn was the weight of liberty. Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
I think of all the Arab countries throwing off the tyranny of dictators, and trying to make a great country out of the ashes, but often they put just another dictator in place. I think that the responsibility of being free is the great burden that Tenar is talking about. I really like the phrase "weight of liberty." I think that people often forget or don't even think about all the things that come with liberty...which all comes to choice - even if they think of it by a different name; giving the choice to everyone, having to actually make a choice.
In Russia a lot of the elderly people would go back to communism if they could. Because choice & freedom is balanced by security. In almost all forms of their government the Russian people have traded security for a lack of choice, or a lessening of freedom. America has a greater amount of freedom and a greater sense of choice but a lot lesser feeling of security. After 9/11 we seem to have traded in a bit of our freedoms for a little bit more security.
In fact, we can trace this question of choice vs security back to the great Council in Heaven. Heavenly Father offered us all the opportunity for freedom - we would have all the choice in the world, but not everyone would return and be worthy to live eternally with Him. Lucifer offered us an opportunity to all return to live with our Father in Heaven...the ultimate security. None of us would have to do anything (after this one choice), but on earth we would not have choices at all, plus we wouldn't grow, or improve...we would be damned - no more progression.
Sometimes in my life now I feel like I am damned - not because of others or God doing it. I feel like I can't make a choice, or I'm too scared make a choice. That's the depression and anxiety talking. Lately I've been thinking that I need to get back on the horse. That I need to go back to the place of my defeat and "hunt the hunter" as Ogion the Silent says to Ged in Le Guin's first book A Wizard of Earthsea.
"Now," he said, "now we're away, now we're clear, we're clean gone, Tenar. Do you feel it?"
She did feel it. A dark hand had let go its lifelong hold upon her heart. But she did not feel joy, as she had in the mountains. She put her head down in her arms and cried, and her cheeks were salt and wet. She cried for the waste of her years in bondage to a useless evil. She wept in pain, because she was free.
What she had begun to learn was the weight of liberty. Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
I think of all the Arab countries throwing off the tyranny of dictators, and trying to make a great country out of the ashes, but often they put just another dictator in place. I think that the responsibility of being free is the great burden that Tenar is talking about. I really like the phrase "weight of liberty." I think that people often forget or don't even think about all the things that come with liberty...which all comes to choice - even if they think of it by a different name; giving the choice to everyone, having to actually make a choice.
In Russia a lot of the elderly people would go back to communism if they could. Because choice & freedom is balanced by security. In almost all forms of their government the Russian people have traded security for a lack of choice, or a lessening of freedom. America has a greater amount of freedom and a greater sense of choice but a lot lesser feeling of security. After 9/11 we seem to have traded in a bit of our freedoms for a little bit more security.
In fact, we can trace this question of choice vs security back to the great Council in Heaven. Heavenly Father offered us all the opportunity for freedom - we would have all the choice in the world, but not everyone would return and be worthy to live eternally with Him. Lucifer offered us an opportunity to all return to live with our Father in Heaven...the ultimate security. None of us would have to do anything (after this one choice), but on earth we would not have choices at all, plus we wouldn't grow, or improve...we would be damned - no more progression.
Sometimes in my life now I feel like I am damned - not because of others or God doing it. I feel like I can't make a choice, or I'm too scared make a choice. That's the depression and anxiety talking. Lately I've been thinking that I need to get back on the horse. That I need to go back to the place of my defeat and "hunt the hunter" as Ogion the Silent says to Ged in Le Guin's first book A Wizard of Earthsea.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Warbreaker and Real Beauty
I really like Brandon Sanderson's books. Warbreaker is his 5th novel (not counting his kid's books). Sanderson, like myself, is Mormon, and truth - all truth is important and part of the gospel - no matter where it comes from. Here is some truth that I found in Warbreaker.
In this quote Susebron & Siri are talking. Susebron is a Returned, and the God-King of Hallandren and Siri is his wife, and they are only just getting to know each other. The form of magic in this book is based on Breath. Each person has one and they can give it away. A Returned is someone who has come-back from death and is worshipped as a god by the Hallandren.
A person can buy Breaths and the more that you have the greater powers you have. 50 Breaths is the 1st level and you have the ability to tell at what level others are. 200/2nd level gives you perfect pitch, 600/3rd level gives you perfect color recognition and on and on it goes. Most people, even buying Breath, only get a couple of thousand.
300 years ago the God-Kings started with a massive amount of Breath & have been given 2 Breaths a week from their public since then. Susebron therefore has over 50,000. But he had his tongue cut out as a child so that he could never use the Breath for anything. This left him childlike and uneducated, knowing only what his mother taught his from his favorite children's book.
Susebron and Siri have been talking about her home kingdom in the mountains...
"Susebron was writing again. I suspect that the mountains are beautiful, as you have said. However, I believe the most beautiful thing in them has already come down to me.
Siri started, then flushed. He seemed so open, not even a little embarrassed or shy about the bold compliment. "Susebron!" she said. "You have the heart of a charmer."
Charmer? he wrote. I must only speak what I see. There is nothing so wonderful as you, even in my entire court. The mountains must be special indeed, to produce such beauty.
"See, now you've gone too far," she said. "I've seen the goddesses of your court. They're far more beautiful than I am."
Beauty is not about how a person looks, Susebron wrote. My mother taught me this. The travelers in my storybook must not judge the old woman ugly, for she might be a beautiful goddess inside.
"This isn't a story, Susebron."
Yes it is, he wrote. All of those stories are just tales told by people who lived lives before ours. What they say about humankind is true. I have watched and seen how people act. He erased, then continued. It is strange, for me, to interpret these things, for I do not see as normal men do. I am the God King. Everything, to my eyes, has the same beauty.
Siri frowned. "I don't understand."
I have thousands of Breaths, he wrote. It is hard to see as other people do - only through the stories of my mother can I understand their ways. All colors are beauty in my eyes. When others look at something - a person - one may sometimes seem more beautiful than another.
This is not so for me. I see only the color. The rich, wondrous colors that make up all things and gives them life. I cannot focus only on the face, as so many do. I see the sparkle of the eyes, the blush of the cheeks, the tones of skin - even each blemish is a distinct pattern. All people are wonderful.
He erased. And so, when I speak of beauty, I must speak of things other than these colors. And you are different. I do not know how to describe it."
The reason that I really like this exchange is because I can see it as a way that Heavenly Father sees us. God is "No respecter of persons." He doesn't favor anyone because of what what job they have or how they look.
More to the point 1 Samuel 16:7 says
"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
In this quote Susebron & Siri are talking. Susebron is a Returned, and the God-King of Hallandren and Siri is his wife, and they are only just getting to know each other. The form of magic in this book is based on Breath. Each person has one and they can give it away. A Returned is someone who has come-back from death and is worshipped as a god by the Hallandren.
A person can buy Breaths and the more that you have the greater powers you have. 50 Breaths is the 1st level and you have the ability to tell at what level others are. 200/2nd level gives you perfect pitch, 600/3rd level gives you perfect color recognition and on and on it goes. Most people, even buying Breath, only get a couple of thousand.
300 years ago the God-Kings started with a massive amount of Breath & have been given 2 Breaths a week from their public since then. Susebron therefore has over 50,000. But he had his tongue cut out as a child so that he could never use the Breath for anything. This left him childlike and uneducated, knowing only what his mother taught his from his favorite children's book.
Susebron and Siri have been talking about her home kingdom in the mountains...
"Susebron was writing again. I suspect that the mountains are beautiful, as you have said. However, I believe the most beautiful thing in them has already come down to me.
Siri started, then flushed. He seemed so open, not even a little embarrassed or shy about the bold compliment. "Susebron!" she said. "You have the heart of a charmer."
Charmer? he wrote. I must only speak what I see. There is nothing so wonderful as you, even in my entire court. The mountains must be special indeed, to produce such beauty.
"See, now you've gone too far," she said. "I've seen the goddesses of your court. They're far more beautiful than I am."
Beauty is not about how a person looks, Susebron wrote. My mother taught me this. The travelers in my storybook must not judge the old woman ugly, for she might be a beautiful goddess inside.
"This isn't a story, Susebron."
Yes it is, he wrote. All of those stories are just tales told by people who lived lives before ours. What they say about humankind is true. I have watched and seen how people act. He erased, then continued. It is strange, for me, to interpret these things, for I do not see as normal men do. I am the God King. Everything, to my eyes, has the same beauty.
Siri frowned. "I don't understand."
I have thousands of Breaths, he wrote. It is hard to see as other people do - only through the stories of my mother can I understand their ways. All colors are beauty in my eyes. When others look at something - a person - one may sometimes seem more beautiful than another.
This is not so for me. I see only the color. The rich, wondrous colors that make up all things and gives them life. I cannot focus only on the face, as so many do. I see the sparkle of the eyes, the blush of the cheeks, the tones of skin - even each blemish is a distinct pattern. All people are wonderful.
He erased. And so, when I speak of beauty, I must speak of things other than these colors. And you are different. I do not know how to describe it."
The reason that I really like this exchange is because I can see it as a way that Heavenly Father sees us. God is "No respecter of persons." He doesn't favor anyone because of what what job they have or how they look.
More to the point 1 Samuel 16:7 says
"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
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