All right, people. So, I read some great books and this is one of the two I listed in a previous blog-post. To the uninitiated, this is a prequel novel to the epic-recently concluded-14 book, Wheel of Time series, which has spanned two decades and a little over an author.
I managed to get hands on the prequel only after reading 13 of the main series book and hence, my observations would obviously be coloured by what I already knew about the series. Nevertheless, I will try to give an unbiased viewpoint.
As you see, the cover shows four characters and most of the story is told from the viewpoints of two of them- al'Lan Mandragoran - an uncrowned king of a fallen kingdom (shades of Aragorn but trust me far cooler) and Moiraine Damodred (a channeller of some power trying to reach the upper echelons of the female wizard faction of the world known as Aes Sedai). Both of them appear in the first novel and play important parts in the last novel, so they are pretty much main characters (although with the sheer number of characters, defining major, secondary, tertiary and minor characters in Jordan's world is next to impossible).
The novel traces the beginnings of the journeys of the two to what they become during the course of the series and although, New Spring is nowhere near as enticing or mindbogglingly heavy as the rest of the novels, it does its job of laying the groundwork pretty well.
I would not however suggest reading the prequel before reading atleast 3 or 4 of the main novels, because of the assumption of familiarity that is required to fully understand the concepts and nuances of the prequel. So, unless you want to have questions like- "Who in the burning blight are Aes Sedai and what in the bloody name of light are Ajahs?", I wouldn't suggest picking this book up as your introductory point in the series, for another reason. The series begins on a light note and grows more adult and this prequel is written more in the adult tone, so it might be an awkward bump to read the first novel after this.
That being said, the novel weaves in the characters and the plot nicely with the upcoming events of the first book, which is about 20 years away and the epic meeting between Lan and Moiraine, with both ending up drenched, which is always referred to in the novels, is simply that- epic. Some scenes are best left to imagination and I always thought this one was too, but it is a testament to Robert Jordan's writing skill and pedigree that he matches and surpasses expectations with this scene.
This was a soft breezy read and the search for the infant Dragon Reborn started from this very novel. A job well done.
I managed to get hands on the prequel only after reading 13 of the main series book and hence, my observations would obviously be coloured by what I already knew about the series. Nevertheless, I will try to give an unbiased viewpoint.
As you see, the cover shows four characters and most of the story is told from the viewpoints of two of them- al'Lan Mandragoran - an uncrowned king of a fallen kingdom (shades of Aragorn but trust me far cooler) and Moiraine Damodred (a channeller of some power trying to reach the upper echelons of the female wizard faction of the world known as Aes Sedai). Both of them appear in the first novel and play important parts in the last novel, so they are pretty much main characters (although with the sheer number of characters, defining major, secondary, tertiary and minor characters in Jordan's world is next to impossible).
The novel traces the beginnings of the journeys of the two to what they become during the course of the series and although, New Spring is nowhere near as enticing or mindbogglingly heavy as the rest of the novels, it does its job of laying the groundwork pretty well.
I would not however suggest reading the prequel before reading atleast 3 or 4 of the main novels, because of the assumption of familiarity that is required to fully understand the concepts and nuances of the prequel. So, unless you want to have questions like- "Who in the burning blight are Aes Sedai and what in the bloody name of light are Ajahs?", I wouldn't suggest picking this book up as your introductory point in the series, for another reason. The series begins on a light note and grows more adult and this prequel is written more in the adult tone, so it might be an awkward bump to read the first novel after this.
That being said, the novel weaves in the characters and the plot nicely with the upcoming events of the first book, which is about 20 years away and the epic meeting between Lan and Moiraine, with both ending up drenched, which is always referred to in the novels, is simply that- epic. Some scenes are best left to imagination and I always thought this one was too, but it is a testament to Robert Jordan's writing skill and pedigree that he matches and surpasses expectations with this scene.
This was a soft breezy read and the search for the infant Dragon Reborn started from this very novel. A job well done.
One of my favorite books in my favorite series. Lan is an outstanding character and Moiraine's return is epic.
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