New Spring
Ratings226
Average rating4
4.00/5.00 “He was better. But he thought I was finished, with only one arm. He never understood. You surrender after you're dead.”
Read this book between Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams
And he's back!! Robert Jordan delivers in this short novel a incing on the wheel of time cake. I throughly enjoyed this entry. I struggled to start this book after I finished book 10, since I really wanted to start book 11 right away. I was tired of drugging through the slog and I wanted to reach the end of the slog. It was a difficult decision to read New Spring before jumping into Knife of Dreams. Having read this, I don't beleive this book is must-read, but if you are a wheel of time fan, this is a must-read. The Aes Sedai worldbuilding in this book is vital context for every other book in the series. We finally understand what it means to Aes Sedai, portrayed a story of adventure and courage in Moiraine's POV. The story composes several good characters, and mostly importantly, it elegantly avoid inundating us with numerous named characters, which is the dead-weight that was caused the slog. A very fun read, New Spring may not be as grand a story as a regular WoT book, but it is very enjoyable.
Emotional Impact -> Throughly enjoyed this book, loved Moiraine and Siuan, their friendship and FWB relationship? LOL. The Aes Sedai worldbuilding was like dessert after the bad soup of the slog. I enjoyed Lan's POV and the Malkier worldbuilding as well. Great read, not the best of WoT but better than the slog. Characters -> I loved how Moiraine has the childish streak mixed with a dangerous unpredictable tones. She is a wild cat. Really enjoyed the character developement between here and her "pillow-friend" Siuan. Lan is great as usual, and the book is solid fun. Plot -> Pretty decent plot, nothing overly amazing, but it does have a lot of hints dropped for the larger scale WoT series. Prose -> Solid Robert Jordan prose. All the shit of uncontrolled named female charaters are cut dramatically in this book and I was able to enjoy RJ's prose again. Thank you lord! However, this is nothing really poetic on the scale of the Great Hunt. Worldbuilding -> Amazing White Tower worldbuilding. You'd think after all this time, there is nothing much to add to the white tower. There is so much! We finally experience what it is to be in the white tower. This is an experieced I craved in Book 1 and I forgot that this is something I wanted.
Up to this point, I have read the first four Wheel of Time books and watched the first season of the show and found this a really cozy spot to dive into New Spring. You have what you've read in the books so far and some context in the show to lean on and nothing felt spoiler-y to me imo.
I was really enjoying this book in the first half. Moiraine and Siuan scheming pranks, making eyes at each other, and showing how powerful they were as a unit and as individuals was my favorite part. I really do hope we get to see an Accepted Test in the show because I could not get enough of Moiraine's.
It all went downhill for me literally the second Lan and Moiraine “met” aka when she tried to unarm him and then proceeded to harass and physically assault him for days upon days because he wouldn't show remorse, react to her assault, or apologize for basically defending himself.... Like I said, downhill. I am very happy to lean on a later-in-life show! Lan and Moiraine because this ain't it chief.
This book also made me consider how I feel about Aes Sedai. I can't deny the inner workings of their culture is very interesting and seeing their power in action mystifying. That said, they've never really been my favorite parts of the books and I think New Spring showed me exactly why. Aes Sedai have always felt so self-righteous to me and they never really apologize for how they often aggressively act first, passively ask questions later. Probably because they've never been apologized to. As we see in this book Moiraine and Siuan, as Accepted, are basically abused as a form of “teaching” by another Aes Sedai.
The way I see it, Accepted are taught that more often than not, throwing around your power is the right way to get the results you want. Then they go out into the world, treating people the way they were treated in the White Tower and expect respect and apologies themselves. It's just a vicious cycle. I do like some singular Aes Sedai and know how important they are to the story but as a whole, not a fan.
All said, I loved seeing Moiraine before she became The Moiraine (who am I kidding though, she was a boss from the start). And even though it rubbed me so wrong, it was nice to glimpse who Lan and Moiraine were before they came together and how.
Do I recommend skipping this book? .... Eh. I know that's not really an answer, but it depends on what you want. Some backstory on L + M? Sure. Don't really care? You're not missing tooo much. If you do read, be prepared for the usual frustratingly, uber aggressive female character except for its Moirane this time which is even more of a bummer than if it was someone else.
oh my god this is 500 words. I didn't realize I had this many feelings about this book. Don't read this lmaoo
I have read somewhere that this is an introduction book. The two important characters are introduced in this. Well.. that was an heck of an introduction. Lovely to say the least. Loved the Lan character so much...my man is awesome. Looking forward to read the series. I hope it is as good as this book.
I liked the book because it was a Wheel if Time book, but I had issues with it. The first half seemed to drag without really expanding what he had already written if the tower. The second half flew by, to the point it felt rushed, and left a lot of things unexplained that would have cleared up some of the story. All the Malkieri customs, especially toward women, were my main thing. These are not touched on in the main books so they are never really expounded upon. We also never get the towers reaction to Moraines flight messing up her plans.
Overall I would probably give 2.5 stars primarily due to liking the world, but on the whole the book really doesn't add much to the series you don't already know.
Reading the Wheel of Time series (or as much as possible) is one of my 2019 reading goals and I have to say the Prequel a New Spring is a great place to start.
Much shorter than any other WoT book at roughly 330 pages you get a great into to the characters and world... 14 more books to go!
It's been a while since I have visited Jordan's world. This book I missed in my first reading of the series and it made sense to start with it in my second reading. Having done so, I would recommend skipping this if you are a new reader to WOT. Not because it's a bad book. It's just that it's a very slow start and deals with protagonists who while important are not the Crux of the story. Also too much time here gets spent on the setup of the white tower and it's political intrigue and while it is a good read now it would be a poor way to start. Reading it after the series gives me sense of completeness and the series would be poorer without it but not so much.
As a fan of the WoT, I really enjoyed this book. Moiraine is one of my favorite characters, so getting to learn her backstory was fun.
En este libro a diferencia de algunos que he leído de La Rueda del Tiempo” pasan cosas interesantes, es preciso y conciso, y la verdad que se me hizo muy ameno, es bueno volver a este mundo y que las cosas se muevan ( aunque sean en el pasado).
No lo recomiendo si no has leído al menos 6 libros de la serie, ya que se centra específicamente en los inicios de la historia de Moraine, Lan y otros personajes que si no has leído mas de la saga no te van a sonar de nada.
De verdad lo disfruté
Short, fast, thrilling, exciting...
I's great to see such beloved characters under such a new, refreshing light, to know how they started, how they met. It only made me want even more to reread the whole series to look at Lan, Moiraine and Siuan with new eyes.
Very enjoyable prequel that fills in some details of events that lead up to the first book. A few things I would have liked to explained were left out, but otherwise pretty good.
I read this after finishing the series up to book 12 of the Wheel of Time series. I really enjoyed it! I'm not sure i would recommend reading it as the first book you read of the series, I think it would make a lot more sense once you have a grip of the world and the characters, and the other characteristics of the series. I'd love a further addition to this book to bridge the further years of Lan and Moiraine. Highly recommended, along with the entire series!
Book 0 of the Wheel of Time series. It deals with how Moiraine met Lan (no, it's not a romance). Obviously, if you haven't started reading the series, don't start here (even though it's a prequel of sorts). It is only recommended for readers of the long-running series.
This was published around Book 8 - at a time when the plot lines were going at a snail's pace - so the pacing's a little slow too. It starts off well and interesting, but it drags towards the end, although the end itself was wrapped up pretty quickly.
The plot explores the younger days of Moiraine, Siuan, and Lan. Quite a few Aes Sedai characters from the series make their appearance as well. It features many strong and commanding female characters, and as was Robert Jordan's style, lots of details on mannerisms, thoughts, and repeatedly mentioned flaws/traits.
There are hints of romance, a little of intrigue, and a small bit of action, but overall, very little tension. It's a nice read to find out more about a few characters of the Wheel of Time series, but it's not much more than that.