First Time Read with a friend

[Caia Al'Horst]

I am a new reader, too, and would be excited to have someone guiding me throught this series, but ya'know, spoilers, so Iam trying to avoid to be spoilered at any point. Thus I am just hopping in, saying hello and then will vanish again... Just want to let you know that your friend can be happy to have you at side!

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

I am a new reader, too, and would be excited to have someone guiding me throught this series, but ya'know, spoilers, so Iam trying to avoid to be spoilered at any point. Thus I am just hopping in, saying hello and then will vanish again... Just want to let you know that your friend can be happy to have you at side!

Read along with us! We're doing our infomal book club over discord messaging but I"d be happy to make a group

 

[Toral Delvar]

Theoretically, this forum is spoiler free. Certainly any actual spoilers should be hidden with a spoiler tag, and if they are major spoilers for later books, shouldn't be here at all

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

I will make sure to use spoiler tags for future posts

 

[Toral Delvar]

I think because of the format of this thread, that’s fine, but if there is a character introduced, anyone saying “he’s interesting, even more so when we seem him later” that is probably spoiler worthy

 

[Dianna Melear]

Your friend being sooooo sus of Tam cracked me up

 

[Caia Al'Horst]

Your friend being sooooo sus of Tam cracked me up

Well, tbh, I did not have had any suspicons of Tam yet, but just writing it, there are a lot of things happening

Spoiler: in my head...

Why did he leave Emond's Field? What happend to Tam's parents (aka Rand's great parents)? Why was he in the Aiel waste fighting? And why did he come back? Was he hiding Rand? Does he knows something about the Dragon Reborn prophecies? And where the heck does the Heron marked sword come from?

So I can understand the suspicions, but I do not have them. I think Tam loves Rand (and Kari, for sure, but

Spoiler: btw

where does **she** come from? What is her story?

and does only things that are best for Rand.

 

[Tobyas Cuendrelle]

Good morning! I talked a friend into reading the series with me! She ordered the first three books and we'll be starting in a couple of weeks. But I've read the series several times and am looking for some general input on walking through her through a first read. I am sure there are things that I know so well they don't jump out at me like they should anymore.

Are there any first time reader guides out there? What are some things from books 1-3 that I should definitely make note to call out and discuss with her as we make our way through? My favorite character is Mat, and I love the Tower stuff so I'm worried I will neglect Perrin's development early on (for example)

Mat & Tower stuff are also my faves!

The "BOY MAGIC" "GIRL MAGIC" comments it's so true

 

[Dorian Har'Locke]

I feel like the practice bout with the Princes . . . I mean it's not the last time we get Mat showing he's an absolute badass with that stave, but there's two others in the next books that kind of get glossed over and I wish there was more because the description of the fight scenes are fantastic all things concerned.

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

Sorry it's been so long! Life stuff, ya know? Got some more reactions for you all!

Spoiler: EoTW Reactions

-- "Last lord of the seven towers" sounds significant

-- "Oh THIS is gonna be important" - and sends me a picture of the first time Mat speaks the OT and Moiraine explains for them. "...the ancient warcry of Manetheren...the blood of Aemon's line is still strong in the Two Rivers. The old blood still sings"

Moiraine not so sublty hinting about egwene and mat's ancestry
Mat randomly speaking in another language bc vibes
They just got to shadar logoth

-- Wow
This placed is fucked
Mat is a dumb ass lmao
Now they have to leave in the middle of the night to contend with the evil shadow dudes because there just so happens to be trollocs accidentally coming straight for them
Love it

-- then after they escape Shadar Logoth
"Egwene's dead, she's got the ophelia treatment, book's over"
"Fades eat glue apparently"

-- Weird that the trollocs don't fuck with nynaeve
Also waow there's a big mystery with how these trollocs are getting around so fast

-- JFC THE COINS TELL HER IF THEYRE ALIVE
At least she can still follow their trail and get the coin back ig

-- I really like Perrin's POV chapters
He's interesting

-- Wow
So perrin is the puppy boy
Can't believe they put the guy from dog whisperer in wheel of time
Reminds me of wargs from ASOIAF
Really cool concept, loving how he's introducing things that are more arcane and unknown and mysterious than the dark one himself
Like the murder clouds in shadar logoth and the puppy guys

-- Got another picture of one of Rand's dreams - "There was only one face in those endless mirrors. His own face. Ba'alzamon's face. One Face" with reactions to it

THIS DOES NOT BODE WELL
The fact that his finger was actually bleeding from the dream is crazy
This implies to me that like, rand is genuinely fighting for his life every single night and he COULD die (or worse) if TDO catches him
Which is like... an extra layer of fucked on top of all the fuckery these kids experience
Jfc the stranger things kids ain't got shit on the emond's field gang

-- The giant statues they pass along on the Arinelle are so odd to me
Over a hundred feet tall just chillin there and there's a lot of them
Interestinggggg
And they ALL looked like royalty


-- So mat's just emo now
Playing with his sparkly knife he stole from shadar logoth
Surely no coincidence between his stark contrast in behavior all of a sudden and that happening
Surely not

 

[Dorian Har'Locke]

Spoiler: For @brycc

The coins are such a great bit, I felt that was even just a really cool cut that was written in. That and Thom schooling the boys on not just giving up silver because it's more money those their hayseed asses have seen in a lifetime.

You mean you wouldn't have gone with Lord More-Death?

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

Alright! We've got some more reactions.

Spoiler: Reaction Posts

-- "He Who Comes With the Dawn"
Either this is about someone's morning wood or this is absolutely one of the boys TDO is hunting
The Great serpent must be the ouroboros
And I guess that represents time in this universe
Wow what a great chapter
Still unsure what the eye of the world is
Very curious about that
Sounds like it's common knowledge but we haven't gotten a lot of clues yet
Also Elyas is so interesting
I can't wait to see his secrets

-- Just finished chapter 26
Awww thom hugged the fade :')
Gleeguy really said make love, not war
(He's totally alive i don't believe he jobbed offscreen)
Towns really aren't their thing huh
Whitebridge was like the myrddral any% speedrun, they were there for like 2 hours before everything went to shit lmao
Mat is acting SO WEIRD
There's definitely more going on with him than what he's talked about
Especially with that knife
He's a little freak guy rn

-- Am on chapter 30
The ravens pursuing perrin egwene and elyas was crazy
Gigantic flocks of ravens that turn anything they see into a Buffalo wild wings meal is crazy
RJ does such a good job building suspense and mystique and anxiety about the things going on
The influence TDO and his armies have over the world is pretty fascinating
I can't wait to find out more about why he's so obsessed with teenage boys
Hopefully it's not for weird reasons
The leaf people were pretty neat
Seems like a very deliberate tonal shift before a bunch of fucked up shits gonna happen
I'm curious about future follow up with those people and their song
Can't help but feel like it'll come back up someday
Would be kinda neat
Also it's hilarious that perrin is like "GUH WOMEN RAND WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO" meanwhile rand is like shitting his pants uncontrollably whenever a woman perceives him

-- And gosh RJ really was like "ok so in book 1 nynaeve's personality is ANGERY"
I'm curious in what ways the aes sedai actually are fucked up
I feel like moiraine has to be one of the good ones and when we get to tar valon we'll see all the nuance

-- Also the giant buried statue of artur hawkwing was pretty cool
Hes not the original dragon is he? That's another dude isn't it

-- Uhghhhhh
These children of the light are so fucking annoying
They're like
Dumb as shit
Like 12 steps behind on the plot
They'd accuse a puppy of being a darkfriend if it looked at them the wrong way

-- I love how Rand always thinks Perrin would know what to do. Mat always thinks Rand would know what to do, and Perrin thinks Mat has it figured out

They all think so highly of one another
Which is actually pretty cute given how much they all suck at basically everything LMAO

-- Chapter 31 was so great.
Starting off with rand and mat being literally mud covered cowering in bushes miserable as fuck getting chased off by dogs
And ending with them being like
Rizzler extraordinaire
Sleeping in inns performing Wonderwall in each village
Idk that was awesome
The value of art and entertainment is so high in this world and RJ takes great pains to make it be known
I appreciate that a lot
Thom's impact on the kids seems like it's gonna go a long way
Anyways time for something terrible to happen again

-- My.god
RJ is such a good writer fuck
Chapter 32 was also insane
A fucking LIGHTNING STRIKE??? LMAO
Ok lowkey i feel like that wasn't a coincidence right
Like the dragon got fucked out of existence by a gigantic lightning strike i can't help but wish there was a pattern there
But anyways the tension building up over the course of the chapter was so good ugh
He knows how to build suspense and make you worry
And be like "oh my god how the fuck do they survive"

 

[Toral Delvar]

Spoiler

Also it's hilarious that perrin is like "GUH WOMEN RAND WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO" meanwhile rand is like shitting his pants uncontrollably whenever a woman perceives him

I suppose that could be funny to someone reading for the first time. It goes on for so long, from all three boys (though Rand and Perrin more), I found it really irritating

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

She is right, RJ really knew how to build suspense and the first book especially shows that

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

Spoiler: More Reactions

Theyre almost to caemlyn!
Almost got stabbed by ANOTHER darkfriend
Bro installed a GPS tracker on his new dreadlord applicants
Odd to me that this chapter started with mat and rand in the nice guy's cart after they both felt better

Maybe to give us a break from the suspense so we know they end up ok?
Also

I love that RJ doesn't shy away from having little intimate moments between his male characters
Whether rand and mat are in love with each other or just super close it's nice to see how well they take care of each other

 

[Toral Delvar]

Spoiler: More Reactions

Odd to me that this chapter started with mat and rand in the nice guy's cart after they both felt better

Spoiler

I think RJ was trying something here - playing with non linear storytelling, possibly to show Rand's delirious state, but it just didn't work. I took to reading this sequence in linear order , so moving bout a bit like a choose your own adventure book

 

[Brycc al'Thyran]

Spoiler

I think RJ was trying something here - playing with non linear storytelling, possibly to show Rand's delirious state, but it just didn't work. I took to reading this sequence in linear order , so moving bout a bit like a choose your own adventure book

Spoiler: Comment

Yeah there was something funny in this sequence. I made notes about it because there were a couple paragraphs that were basically copied word for word between one chapter and the next. I noted it but didn't think too hard about it

 

[Dorian Har'Locke]

Could always go for more platonic intimacy, especially with masculine-presenting characters. Let brothers be brotherly!

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Yes, I think RJ here wanted to show that despite Mat's... issues he still trusts Rand no matter what and is protective of him. Generally, the way the three boys interact with each other in the first few books are good to see, and it's good to see positive male friendships being portrayed without needing to add a hierarchy or dominance into it...