From: bell@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Robert Jordan's "THE SHADOW RISING" (spoilers!)
Date: 5 Oct 92 22:16:39 GMT

   I'm having trouble with my terminal program so forgive me if this comes out
f**#@$ed up!!

In article <uprao.718309650@mcl>, uprao@mcl.ucsb.edu (Parik Rao) writes:
>  Summary: BIG book, I was a bit disappointed.
> 
> SPOILERS BELOW!  Don't read any furthur unless you've read the book.
> 
> 
>  Ok, I finished TSR today morning, and I was a bit miffed.  Nothing much
>  seems to happen in this book!  Rand & Co wander around the wastes for
>  a bit, and end up fighting YET ANOTHER FORSAKEN (no wonder its gonna
>  take 7 or 8 books, he's still got 8 or so forsaken to "handle"!).
>  Perrin saves the day in the 2 Rivers.  Nynaeve and Elayne save the
>  day in Tanchico.  EOF.
> 
>  The history aspect was pretty nice, I liked how we find out so much
>  about the Aiel (the linking w/ the Tuathanan should have been obvious,
>  but I missed it completely).  On the other hand, it demistifyies them,
>  and they were my favorite people.

    I liked this alot.  I'd forgotten what the Tuathanan were like so I
didn't make the connection until Perrin saw them again.

> 
>  The Two Rivers portion was garbage IMHO, Perrin should NOT have survived.
>  At the least, he should have been captured by the peddler-guy or the
>  WhiteCloaks.   They way he saves the day and gets the girl in the end
>  reminded me too much of Eddings work.
> 
>  Likewise for the Tanchico portion, I find it difficult to believe that
>  Nynaeve could defeat one of the Forsaken.

      You have to remember that Nynaeve, Egewene and Elayne are supposed to
be the strongest Aes Sedai to come around for a long time.  It's very
possible that Forsaken (forget her name) was overconfident and was cocky and g
got beaten. 

> 
>  The bit about the Amyrlin seat was beautiful, I can't wait to see how
>  it turns out (unfortunately, it'll probably be that Siuan is magically
>  restored by some angreal, she gets back the Tower, and lives happily
>  ever after).  

     I was very surprised about what happened at the White Tower.  Siuan isn't
going to get her powers back, though.  I believe Egewene will be the next
Amyrlin seat.  Min sees Gawyn bow to her and Perrin sees Nynaeve and Elayne
and other women (don't remember if they were specifically Aes Sedai) bowing
to her as well.

> 
>  The ending was not satisfactory, I find it hard to believe Lanfear didn't
>  even bother searching the area for the woman-half of that super-angreal,
>  take the one from Rand, kill Asmodeus, try to contact Shaitan, etc.
>  Asmodeus seemed pretty wimpy as well, although I guess thats his
>  character.  And how did that other Aiel-psuedo-chief get the markings
>  on his hand?  Who would draw it for him (perhaps he's a darkfriend, and
>  asked one of the forsaken?).

    I don't get Lanfear.  I don't know if she's supposed to love Lews Therin so
much that she wants Rand to come to her willingly and she isn't willing to
push that even for the super-angreal.  By the way wasn't the statue a
ter'angeal that linked the holder to the strongest sa'angreals? 
   I can't come up with a viable reason for the pseudo-chief having the 
dragons on his arms either.

> 
>  All in all, I feel the entire series is moving more towards formulae
>  than originality now.  I hope I'm wrong.
> 
> --
> parik rao						       prao@cs.ucsb.edu

    I still thought it was a great book and can't wait for the others to come
out.  These are all just my honest opinions and are open to discussion, but no
flames please.


			Shane L. Bell
			bell@ecs.umass.edu 

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written