Olivia

A short excerpt from AMoL's prologue is up on TOR. Read it here: http://www.tor.com/s...rologue-excerpt

Unfortunately it's from a PoV of no one we've seen before, just some random guy fighting for one of the people who still oppose Elayne's rise to the throne. (The Andoran throne, mind you; I know there are some on this forum who shall not be named who still contest her rise to the Cairhienin throne.)

It wasn't anything spectacular, but I wasn't upset by it or anything. It's pretty predictable for them to give a nonsatisfying first preview of AMoL, to make us want more. I suppose (like with the previous books) as we move closer to the release date we'll get more excerpts, hopefully from characters we give a crap about.

I didn't really buy that that guy's family would have kept the tradition of making stone tools. But, I guess from a thematic, aesthetic perspective it was kinda moving, showing how humanity has in some ways been reduced back to our most primitive days due to the Dark One's influence, yet we're still determined to fight on despite what feeble weapons we have.

It also gave us more on the already-established theme of the Dragon as the breaker of bonds, by showing just how different the world after the Last Battle will have to be, with new lords and rulers, new vassals, new modes of government, even new channeling regimes have to be reformulated.

What are your thoughts on the excerpt, MW?

In the last few years (in WoT's Earth) we've had several challenges to the three-thousand year old custom of channeling female + nonchanneling male = Warder bond.

We've seen chan. female + nonchan. female in Elayne/Birgitte
Chan. female + chan. male in the Asha'man/Aes Sedai bonds (willing and otherwise)
Chan. male + nonchan female in some of the Asha'man and their wives
And (though it's a secret to most) we now have 2 chan. females + 1 chan. male + 1 nonchan. female in Elayne/Aviendha/Rand/Min.

Given all this, my question is: When will Aes Sedai start bonding each other?

(We could also ask the parallel question of when will Asha'man bond each other, but I don't are about them.)

And when Aes Sedai do bond each other, why?

Will it be for pillowfriends to grow even closer, like Greens who marry their Warders or the Asha'man who bonded their wives? Will it be for battle purposes, like to better coordinate them while fighting in the Last Battle or to give the bonded sisters more stamina/endurance so they can fight longer? Or do you have other ideas?

http://www.tor.com/b...sweet-1934-2011

Darrell K. Sweet, cover artist for all the WoT books and many other Sci-Fi/Fantasy books, has passed. The TOR link gives a nice article about him and displays some of his best fantasy pieces, which are really great.

I like to tease that Sweet's WoT covers were pretty terrible, and aspects of them totally were, but I also have to geekily admit they were what first grabbed my attention when browsing at the bookstore. The colors, the actions, the costumes and weaponry, the scenery and architecture... The art did what covers are supposed to do: give a pictorial flavor for a written work. Good and bad, accurate and inaccurate, they got me interested in WoT, and for that I have to thank him.

Unfortunately Sweet didn't get to finish the AMoL cover. I'll be interested to see who they pick to create the face of the last book of this epic series, and how it turns out.

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The forum informs me that it is the special day of a special user! May you have a wonderful birthday and many happy returns!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WHITTY!!!!

A friend linked me this. Just find your month, date, shirt, and post!





Mine is "I ate out with Santa Claus and I'd do it again."

I'm interested to see what other MW members come up with. Also might be fun to think which combo-phrases would suit WoT chars.