New Spring: The Novel (Limited Edition) (Wheel of Time)

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely wonderful!
Review: I couldn't possibly disagree with the previous reviewer more. I think the novel New Spring was quite excellently written and throughly interesting. I enjoyed getting to know Moraine, Lan, and Siuan as young people. Although I am tremendously enjoying the Wheel of Time series, I have had a minor (Minor!) complaint about RJ's writing sometimes - specifically his tendency to reuse specifc phrases and to be redundant in his explication of a characters emotions. For example, I understand Rand's reluctance to accept his identity...I understood the first several dozen times it was explained, no need to go over it again and again!

Fortunately New Spring completely avoids this pitfall. It appears to me personally that RJ has come to understand his characters quite profoundly and he has much new information to share with us about them.

Ignore all the negative reviews of this book and check it out for yourself. And when you do so, consider the book itself and NOT its place in a series or whether you wished it had been a new book (or an end to TWoT) in the series - instead give it your attention for WHAT it is - a deeper look at the main characters in the series and a delightful glimpse into TWoT world.

As for the audio production of this book: Fantastic! Kate Redding and Michael Kramer are THE standard for audio readers in my opinion. Listening to them has completely spoiled me for other readers. I have come to expect a much higher standard in audiobooks thanks to seeing just how amazing a reader can sound.

Michael and Kate we LOVE your work at our house! :)

Rating:
Summary: Quite Good!
Review: This is a wonderful introduction to the beginning of the WoT series. Jordan does a great job of pulling us into the story. As the story unravels, we also get to discover a few new things, making some future events make more sense! It is a little slow-moving at spots, but I'm impatient. I'd recommend this book to any Robert Jordan fan!

Rating:
Summary: Understuffed and overstretched
Review: When you have a series that is going nowhere fast, it's not a good idea to dangle a prequel in front of readers. Formerly a short story in the "Legends" collection, "New Spring" is another dud for Robert Jordan, as he stretches a good novella into a ponderous, boring novel, which moves as fast as a brain-dead snail.

It goes back in time a few decades, to when a very important fortune is told: a baby has been born, and this boy child may be the key to defeating the evil Dark One once and for all. But the Shadow is trying to kill the still-helpless Dragon Reborn, and so the good guys have to rescue him and keep him hidden away until he's old enough to fulfil his destiny.

Moiraine Damodred is becoming a full-fledged Aes Sedai (sort of a female wizard), and Lan Mandragoran (Aragorn, anyone?) is the lost king of a lost kingdom. And together they will try to search for the Dragon Reborn and hide him away -- but their quest is not going to be that easy.

Expanding short stories into novels is always a risky idea. For every "The Gunslinger," you'll get ten novels like "New Spring" -- stretched-out to the breaking point. In its original form, "New Spring" was pleasantly written and well-paced, but Jordan fills it in with... well, filler. So we have too little plot and too much writing -- a lethal combination for any book.

The writing itself would be nice if two-thirds of it were pared away. Unfortunately it's full of weird physical quirks (hair-pulling, straightening clothing) and facial expressions, or details about the rooms/furniture/dishes/random inanimate objects. And the actual content of the book takes place very late in the plot, with an obvious "to be continued" tacked on for more inevitable prequels.

With a plot moving as fast as a glacier, Jordan has plenty of time to expand his characters -- but he doesn't. Moiraine was one of the most interesting characters of the Wheel of Time series, and it's good to see her "early years," although it does take away from her mystique. Lan is good at brooding and doesn't have much more of a personality, and the Aes Sedai sniff and whine and snipe a lot.

While Jordan's "New Spring" in its original form was a pleasant background read, the expanded novel is a bloated, sluglike mass of dull writing. Not recommended except to die-hard fans.