As far as I know, I am the only one in my circle of friends who went back and reread the entire series before reading this new book, and I think that had an effect on how I viewed this text.  While I agree that the book is quite good, I certainly can’t say that it’s the best, but I can understand why it would be received so positively.

Closure.

In Western Culture, we’re big fans of closure.  We love to have our stories nicely wrapped up at the end, and fans of the fantasy genre are no different.  The Gathering Storm is beginning to give us what we, as Western readers, want.  It’s tying together all those loose ends that have been dangling for years.

(Spoilers after the cut)

Essentially, The Gathering Storm ties up two of the longest running loose ends: the division of the White Tower and Rand’s ongoing battle with insanity.  It’s fascinating that the final few chapters of this book do not feature any running battles with Forsaken or large armies of trollocs getting devastated.  The conclusion of this book, for the first time in the series, is almost entirely about an internal conflict, whether or not Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, will destroy himself and the world.  What’s impressive is that Jordan (& Sanderson, more on him in a minute) makes us care and worry about what Rand will do in these chapters.  We wonder what choice Rand will make even though we, as readers, also know that there are many chapters to come, and there’s no way Rand can make the insane choice here.

It’s an interesting risk Sanderson takes, choosing to end his first WoT novel this way.  He could have taken the safe path, ending with Egwene’s victory at the tower and leaving this conflict to early in the next book. He kind of hedges his bets by having the Egwene epilogue after Rand’s madness, but there is no conflict following Rand’s laughter.  It’s risky in that the event could have fallen flat.  We, the readers, could have remembered that he suggested splitting the final book in three.  We could have remembered that those other two books are coming, but we don’t choose to.  By prefacing Rand’s internal conflict with his reunion with his father, we are drawn into the tension, and there’s nothing to say that Rand cannot kill his father.  Once that particular threat is averted, we are tied to the narrative; we believe it and are drawn into this struggle we’ve been watching unfold since before Rand was locked in the Aes Sedai’s chest.  Whether this section was written by Jordan or merely plotted by him, it was Sanderson who chose to end the book at the place, and after nearly twenty years, it feels earned.

(In a way, I almost wish he had waited for the next book since I want to read about a few of the events from Perrin’s narrative that Tam mentions in passing: the meeting with Galad, the introduction of the Berelain-Galad love story, the reunion of Galad and M0rgase, and the revelation that the former queen of Andor isn’t dead. Three of these events are mentioned, but we aren’t shown them happening.  I can only assume and hope that these events will be fully described in the next book.  Sanderson does something that I don’t think Jordan ever did, he tells us about events that we have yet to read about (and I, for one, will be annoyed if these events are only ever shown in this way, as comments made in passing by Tam).  I assume that these events will be described in the next book as we know that Sanderson had already written a fair bit of what will be the next book by the time they decided to split them.)

The loose threads tied together at the end of this book date back to The Eye of the World and  The Great Hunt.  The prologue of The Eye of the World shows us the results of Lews Therin’s madness, and the revelation at the end of that book makes us connect his madness to Rand.  At the beginning of The Dragon Reborn, we are shown the first events that make us think that Rand may not be all there.  Throughout that book, the only book in the series in which Rand makes minimal appearances, it is suggested that Rand is fighting insanity.  His decisions turn out to be saner than the others think, but we are left to wonder.  When the voice of Lews Therin appears in The Fires of Heaven, we truly have to wonder how firm Rand’s grasp on sanity is.  Jordan skillfully wove the ongoing question of Rand’s sanity throughout the series, and we are given the final pieces to the puzzle with Semirhage’s comments in Knife of Dreams.  Thus, Rand nearly murdering his father and destroying the world become the logical concluding points to this important narrative.  Closure.

The other major thread tied off was first referenced in The Great Hunt.  During Egwene’s test for Accepted, she sees herself as the Amyrlin Seat.  In The Shadow Rising, Siuan Sanche is deposed as Amyrlin, and the White Tower is broken. We read of Egwene’s changes while studying to become Aes Sedai, while hunting the Black Ajah, while studying with the Wise Ones, and while acting as the Amyrlin of the rebels.  We’ve seen her grow as a character, and we’ve followed the conflict between the Aes Sedai.  Thus, with her finally being raised the Amyrlin Seat of all Aes Sedai and unifying the White Tower, we are given closure with another of the most important threads in the series.

It is interesting to note that the two major plotlines concluded at the end of The Gathering Storm feel more resonant than the three major plotlines concluded at the end of Knife of Dreams.  Perhaps this is because the events concluding Knife of Dreams do not go as far back as those of the more recent book; perhaps the events of The Gathering Storm resonate more because they feel more world-altering.  In Knife of Dreams, Perrin ends the Shaido threat and frees Faile (narrative threads dating to The Shadow Rising and The Path of Daggers), Mat marries the Daughter of the Nine Moons (a narrative thread that began in The Shadow Rising), and Elayne is proclaimed the queen of Andor (a narrative thread that goes all the way back to  The Eye of the World). I suspect that  Perrin, Mat, and Elayne were relatively silent in The Gathering Storm because major events happened in each of their narratives in the previous book.  I also suspect that we will see more of them, Perrin and Mat in particular, in the next book.

Overall, I certainly enjoyed The Gathering Storm, but it only works in context.  The Wheel of Time, despite being released as a series of books over 20+ years, is a single narrative.  On this most recent read-through, I found that the books which had initially disappointed me were more enjoyable.  Jordan used these books to plant seeds for events that would happen later.  He uses them to develop his characters and further a plot that was destined to take thousands more pages to conclude.  If this latest book is any indication, he knew how he would end things, and that ending will be satisfying.

I commented that the Olympics mean so little to me that I would have to make an effort to care less.

She said that she didn’t really care either, so I dared her to see what would happen if she tried to change the channel.  She said she’d try.

Not five minutes after our conversation ended, another friend messaged me saying, “Canada’s hockey team is playing for the gold” or something to that effect.

My response was “So?”

He didn’t reply to that.

I am somewhat of a gamer.  I like a variety of games in a variety of genres.  I prefer PC gaming to console gaming.  What I’m saying is that I’d like a system that has some juice.

Amanda, on the other hand, is an artist.  She has done some graphic work on her Lappy, but it’s a little chuggy for her to do anything serious.

I was toying with getting the Dell XPS 16, which is currently $1699 as configured below:

• Intel i7-720 QM Quad-core processor
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 15.6″ WLED LCD (1920×1080)
• 2.0 MP built-in webcam
• 6 GB DDR3 Ram @ 1333 Mhz
• 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 w/ 1Gb onboard Ram
• CD/DVD-RW
• Wireless-N network card

But then I heard about the ASUS G73JH-A1, which will be out in Canada in 2 weeks-ish for $1743-ish as configured below:

• Intel i7-720 QM Quad-core processor
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 17.3″ LED (1920×1080)
• 2.0 MP built-in webcam
• 8 GB DDR3 Ram @ 1066 Mhz
• 1 TB (2×500 GB) 7200 RPM SATA-II HDD
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 w/ 1GB onboard Ram
• BD Reader-CD/DVD-RW
• Wireless-N network card
• Altec-Lansing Speakers w/subwoofer
• Backpack
• ASUS Razor Gaming Mouse

I would like to look at the Alienware M17x, but it starts @ $2000 and that’s with the dual core i5-520M, a 250 GB HDD, a 1440×900 monitor, and only 4 GB Ram @ 1066 Mhz.  To match/surpass the XPS 16′s processor, HDD, monitor resolution, and Ram, you’re looking at $2670, and if you want to give it the same Ram and BD as the Asus, you’re up to $3200.  I’ve heard little but positivity about Alienware, but their out of my financial reach.

The external aesthetic isn’t really an issue to me.

I’m leaning towards the Asus.  Does anyone out there agree? Disagree? Have another suggestion?

Honestly, if you were to acquire a TV series, you would think that Season 1 was the place to start, too, wouldn’t you?

So, there Amanda and I were, watching the first season, and we had no idea what was going on.  I thought to myself, Hey! It begins in media res, obviously they’re going to explain some stuff as the show goes on.  Then an episode went by, then a few more, and we found ourselves with only the two-part season finale left, scratching our heads. 

Amanda suggested that it was unnecessarily confusing with far too much left unexplained and that she didn’t really care about the characters because she was confused.  I was doing my best to keep a positive attitude, but it seemed like the revelations were coming too slowly.

Of course, I was chastened when Amanda said, “Look it up,”  and I learned about the miniseries. 

Last night, we watched the miniseries.  Now, we know what the deal is with Baltar.  We know why everyone keeps dissing Laura Roslin.  We know what the tension was/is between Commander Adama and Apollo.  We know why Helo is on Caprica and why he was so surprised to meet Boomer there. We know why everyone’s in a massive space convoy (I made an assumption beased on the old series while we were watching, but it was nice to have it confirmed).  We know how they know what some of the Cylon’s look like.  We know Number Six’s name. 

We actually care about the characters. 

It’s amazing what a difference a few hours of introductory material make. 

The real question, though, is whether we weren’t more careful in our viewing simply because we didn’t know what was going on.  We’ll never know.

And to think, Santa Claus is safe because of a bugbear, a centaur, a minotaur, a treant, a kender, and a mind flayer. You guys rock. 

I’m going to attempt to update this thing more often this year, so we’ll see what happens.

Apparently, “A Memory of Light,” which was to be the last Wheel of Time novel, has been split into three. 

This would bother me except a) it means that I have a little longer to reread the series before concluding it (and technically I can read it 3 more times before concluding (if I want to)), b) the man hired to finish the series after RJ’s death gave very good reasons for the split, and c) it gives me a chance to find out if I like Sanderson’s writing.  

So that’s okay. 

On the other hand, I liked Jordan’s claims of making TOR find new printing methods for the monstrous volume he was going to write.

Now, I know that haven’t talked about much lately, but I really have to talk about Jasper Fforde’s books. 

Maybe my miniscule audience already knows about him (in which case WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME???), but I don’t think you do. 

Last month, I was here at work and finished what I was reading.  Since I was in a library at the time, I thought I’d look around and see if anything caught my eye.  While browsing, I happened to spot “The Eyre Affair,” and my fuzzy mental processes reminded me that W had recommended the book. 

And I’m glad he did.

Set in an alternate steam-punk, sci-fi noir alternate Earth where literature is of such great significance that there is a huge criminal underground based around the illegal buying, selling, and forging of classic literature, the book tells the story of one Thursday Next, the Literatec daughter of a rogue ChronoGuard agent, who must stop the evil Acheron Hades from destroying great texts by kidnapping and killing characters. 

You would get most of that information off the back cover of this first Thursday Next book.

Fforde has an easy style that hides the erudition of some of his ideas.  He seems to have a great fondness for literature, and his interaction with it is as respectful as it is irreverent.  He also has a way with non sequiturs.  He is most reminiscent, to my mind, of the great Terry Pratchett (whose cover blurb facetiously suggests that he considers Fforde a threat). 

Fforde’s meta-fictional tendencies are, arguably, my favorite part of his work, as he seems to delve into areas explored (less-amusingly) by Grant Morrison.  In the Thursday Next books, we find characters in a novel who literally enter into novels and poems  to both commit and solve crimes.  In the second Thursday Next book, the protagonist believes she is hearing voices as she is communicated with via footnotes, which other characters cannot hear.  In the Nursery Crimes series, we, the audience, are at one point told to accept a piece of information about the book’s mystery, while earlier in the book, the protagonist gets through a particular challenge when he realizes that his opponent is filling the archetypal role of threshold guardian. 

It is in these moments of metafiction that the nature of reality, and our place in it, is called in to question. 

To date, I have read only 3 of Fforde’s 7 novels, and I am working on a fourth.   

As I think you can tell, I highly recommend Fforde to my fiction exploring allies.

I went over to what was to become my in-law’s house and met Amanda’s mother, sister, grandmother, and dog.  I was invited in and on my best behaviour.  I sat down in the living room and held out my hand to the family dog.   Rowdy, the family’s chow, came over and sniffed my hand.  She moved a little closer to smell me, and I was soon scratching her between the ears. 

The family was dumbfounded.  They watched in amazement as she let me pet her. 

Apparently, Rowdy didn’t like boys.  As I understand it, Rowdy was extremely skittish around all men, and it was virtually unheard of for her to let a total stranger pet her.  Apparently, she absolutely hated my wife’s ex. 

But Rowdy liked me, and, I think, the family liked me, too. 

Since then, I have married the elder daughter from the household.  I have lived in the house for months at a time as we were between apartments, jobs, or semesters.  I have completed a BA, lived in Japan, and come back to the city of my youth. 

I have taken Rowdy for walks and fed her treats.  I’ve cleaned up after her and been woken up at 5 am to take her outside.  She’s gone searching the house hearing our voices from a computer.  She’s licked hands and faces and feet. 

I never had a dog, so Rowdy is the closest I’ve had to a large pet. 

And now she is gone. 

I only knew her for a short part of her 16 years, but I will not forget the first in-law to like me.

If anyone wants to remake one of the classic*, horror*, masterpieces* of the 20th century, we now know who will play the key figure.  We know who will be the one character that you truly care about in the brilliant* example of its genre: “Manos :” Hands of Fate

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

YES!!!

Brad Pitt IS Torgo!!

*Not all words used to describe “Manos:” Hands of Fate may be accurate