New Spring
In the Wheel of Time prequel, New Spring, Jordan
provides a glimpse of the world twenty years before the series proper
begins. As it opens, the Aiel War is ending. The Dragon has just been
reborn. Moiraine and Siuan are Accepted in the tower. The story details
Moiraine and Siuan's discovery of the dragon and how their quest to find
and guide him began. It also shows the first meeting of Moiraine and
Lan, ending with him becoming her warder.
This book was a lot of fun, especially from a world-building perspective. It's nice to see the White Tower whole and functioning as it ought to. Getting more detail about life as an Accepted and Moiraine's test for the Shawl and induction into the Blue Ajah was great. The characters in the series proper leap-frogged the whole process, so there was no chance of seeing those rituals any other way. What's more, Moiraine and Siuan's story here really drives home how unprepared Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve are to become Aes Sedai. They would have benefitted from a lot more structure and training. Then again, they are what the world needs as the Last Battle approaches.
It was nice to get a shorter story set in this world. Everything is relative, but I'm not used to seeing this much plot from Robert Jordan. Things mostly move fast, though there are still sections that drag. Side plots that seem to have very little point. It does all tie together in the end, but a few things could have been jettisoned or shortened, resulting in something that could actually be called a novella. Of course, so much of that is the epic world-building that I'm enjoying (and that you have to enjoy to be a fan of this series), so maybe not.
I do wish Jordan has lived long enough to write his other planned prequels. He's created an incredibly rich world, and while his stories are a bit dry at times, they're nowhere near as dry as Tolkien's appendices. I'd gladly read as many books as Jordan would have written about this book. It's almost sad that I've only got one more of his books left, eager as I am to see where Sanderson takes the series. But I'm glad to have read this one. And reading it in publication order was the right choice. A lot of it wouldn't have as big an impact if I didn't already know who, say, Cadsuane was, or what lays in the White Tower's future, or how long Moiraine and Lan spend searching for Rand.
This book was a lot of fun, especially from a world-building perspective. It's nice to see the White Tower whole and functioning as it ought to. Getting more detail about life as an Accepted and Moiraine's test for the Shawl and induction into the Blue Ajah was great. The characters in the series proper leap-frogged the whole process, so there was no chance of seeing those rituals any other way. What's more, Moiraine and Siuan's story here really drives home how unprepared Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve are to become Aes Sedai. They would have benefitted from a lot more structure and training. Then again, they are what the world needs as the Last Battle approaches.
It was nice to get a shorter story set in this world. Everything is relative, but I'm not used to seeing this much plot from Robert Jordan. Things mostly move fast, though there are still sections that drag. Side plots that seem to have very little point. It does all tie together in the end, but a few things could have been jettisoned or shortened, resulting in something that could actually be called a novella. Of course, so much of that is the epic world-building that I'm enjoying (and that you have to enjoy to be a fan of this series), so maybe not.
I do wish Jordan has lived long enough to write his other planned prequels. He's created an incredibly rich world, and while his stories are a bit dry at times, they're nowhere near as dry as Tolkien's appendices. I'd gladly read as many books as Jordan would have written about this book. It's almost sad that I've only got one more of his books left, eager as I am to see where Sanderson takes the series. But I'm glad to have read this one. And reading it in publication order was the right choice. A lot of it wouldn't have as big an impact if I didn't already know who, say, Cadsuane was, or what lays in the White Tower's future, or how long Moiraine and Lan spend searching for Rand.
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