What are these letters? During some of the major lockdown parts of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, I wrote to my friend, Robert, about my experiences reading the Wheel of Time series. These letters are slightly edited and abridged for this blog, mainly to remove personal information. This letter was sent in mid-October 2020.
Dear Robert,
I’m 7 hours into Path of Daggers, and here’s what’s happening:
Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha and all of the Kin (the unsanctioned Aes Sedai in Ebou Dar) some of the rebel Aes Sedai from Salidar, and the seafolk, all have the bowl of the winds and try to change the weather by linking. It doesn’t seem to work. Then, the Seanchan show up and try to capture all of them, but they flee through a gateway back to Andor, I think. Elayne pulls at one of the threads to the gateway and it explodes, killing a bunch of Seanchan. On the surface, this part of the plot was very exciting, but it was full of the typical sniping and pettiness that Robert Jordan likes to infuse his female characters with.
Morgase and company run into Perrin on the road. Faile takes Morgase on as a servant. One of Morgase’s guards comes close to revealing who they are, but Lini, Morgase’s lady in waiting, stops him from divulging the truth! Another dumb thing that happens is that Lini encourages Perrin to find someone to marry Morgase and her guard Tallanvor. She tells Perrin to make it happen before Morgase really knows what’s going on or can even consent, which is just really gross.
It’s pretty amazing that I’m 7 hours into this book and these are the only two things that happen. A LOT of time is spent with large groups of people together, but Robert Jordan chooses to use that time describing what everyone is wearing, every last facial expression, how people look at one another, the times people murmur inaudibly to each other out of earshot, and in the case of Perrin, how everyone smells. It is exhausting.
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