Warrior of the Altaii
Nov. 15th, 2019 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealI saw a "new" book by Robert Jordan of Wheel of Time fame on the "new books" shelf at my library. I guess this was one of his first drafts, it helped him get in the door, meet his editor/wife and eventually get Wheel of Time published, but never saw the light of day. (And maybe towards the end of his life he was like "no, I don't ever want it published," but they did anyway?)
Anyway, if you are interested in what non-WoTish stuff is present and interesting there, here is a very short (but spoilery) list:
There are some interesting death-related rituals? Okay the Borderlands in the WoT had them too but this felt more of an underlying theme. Or maybe I just have morbid interests.
Parallel universes explored much more deeply than WoT. One of the characters is kind of a "Mary Sue" (in that she's magically transported from a world much like ours to this nomad society). She also brings some insight into a dilemma the main characters face that isn't as explicitly brought up in WoT.
Sex pollen (really)
An interesting aside about "pride" vs. "honor"
The Aiel-type tribe have old-timey Anglo-Saxon names, not stuff like Aviendha or Rhuarc.
And an incomplete list of things you've probably seen before and don't need to see again...
-Women can do magic, men cannot. (Probably.) Including established magical advisors to monarchs/chieftains.
-"Why?" "Because prophecy, that's why."
-"Our tribe needs water and we go around this droughtland hunting and killing for water, water is very important because it is so rare."
-The way to get revenge on people who have abused you is to enslave them and make them swear binding oaths to you and only you
-It's a great idea to torture your enemies because then they will learn their place.
So yeah, this might be one of those "I read it so you didn't have to" volumes.
Someone mentioned in a review elsewhere that if you liked the scenes of stoic characters enduring in WoT, you might like this. And that made me wonder...There's a lot of comparison between Rand versus Egwene in their stoicism/enduring terrible situations (ie book 12). With Rand, though, it's mostly just "wah wah these evil women are mistreating me, I must ENDURE so I can get REVENGE." And that's...basically what our protagonist's mindset is here. Egwene, in contrast, could often get out of her situation (call upon allies to rescue her by force when she's prisoner, not tell the Aiel about her deception before answering the tower summons), but she chooses not to, because she's in service to a higher call (unifying the Tower from within, meeting her toh and showing she's truly internalized Aiel honor that way). So that type of stoicism is much more interesting. And also not on display here.
Anyway, if you are interested in what non-WoTish stuff is present and interesting there, here is a very short (but spoilery) list:
There are some interesting death-related rituals? Okay the Borderlands in the WoT had them too but this felt more of an underlying theme. Or maybe I just have morbid interests.
Parallel universes explored much more deeply than WoT. One of the characters is kind of a "Mary Sue" (in that she's magically transported from a world much like ours to this nomad society). She also brings some insight into a dilemma the main characters face that isn't as explicitly brought up in WoT.
Sex pollen (really)
An interesting aside about "pride" vs. "honor"
The Aiel-type tribe have old-timey Anglo-Saxon names, not stuff like Aviendha or Rhuarc.
And an incomplete list of things you've probably seen before and don't need to see again...
-Women can do magic, men cannot. (Probably.) Including established magical advisors to monarchs/chieftains.
-"Why?" "Because prophecy, that's why."
-"Our tribe needs water and we go around this droughtland hunting and killing for water, water is very important because it is so rare."
-The way to get revenge on people who have abused you is to enslave them and make them swear binding oaths to you and only you
-It's a great idea to torture your enemies because then they will learn their place.
So yeah, this might be one of those "I read it so you didn't have to" volumes.
Someone mentioned in a review elsewhere that if you liked the scenes of stoic characters enduring in WoT, you might like this. And that made me wonder...There's a lot of comparison between Rand versus Egwene in their stoicism/enduring terrible situations (ie book 12). With Rand, though, it's mostly just "wah wah these evil women are mistreating me, I must ENDURE so I can get REVENGE." And that's...basically what our protagonist's mindset is here. Egwene, in contrast, could often get out of her situation (call upon allies to rescue her by force when she's prisoner, not tell the Aiel about her deception before answering the tower summons), but she chooses not to, because she's in service to a higher call (unifying the Tower from within, meeting her toh and showing she's truly internalized Aiel honor that way). So that type of stoicism is much more interesting. And also not on display here.
