thepunktheory
Written on Jan 17, 2022
Sometimes I’m really not the brightest candle on the cake. I wanted to read the first book so I can go check out the Amazon show. I went and downloaded a collection that has all the novels and started reading. Only halfway through did I realize, though, that this is a prequel novel. Whoopsie!
However, the story was intriguing and in comparison to the rest of the books this one was also really short (300 something pages), so I’m glad I actually started with this one! It gives you a taste of the world-building, of the vibe, of the stories to come. So, you can decide whether it is for you or not without having to read over 800 pages (which is the actual first novel). My e-reader tells me that all in all, I’m going to read over 13,000 pages, so that’ll take a hot minute.
But back to the story! As I am writing this, I’m already halfway through the first actual novel which allows me to tell you that reading the prequel really helps to understand some stuff. It is by no means necessary to read it in order to follow the story. But I tend to ask a lot of questions and those questions didn’t get answered so far. So, I appreciate this backstory on two important characters!
Essentially, we follow two stories until they converge. We follow Moiraine and Lan. To be precise, we accompany Moiraine throughout some of her Aes Sedai training. That means we learn how those powers work, what it takes to rise in the ranks, how Aes Sedai are seen by the world, what their tasks are and, what I expect to be very important later, what different kinds of Aes Sedai there are. As I’ve said, I appreciate knowing about details like this! We also learn a little about Lan’s back story but also about how the two met. I’m sure it’ll get addressed at some point in the books but I don’t know when and where that’ll be.
Some of the things happening in this novel also directly explain what Moiraine is up to in the first actual book. I didn’t feel like the prequel didn’t give too much away or spoil anything. I did, however, give me a big “aha!” moment. To be honest, so far the first book didn’t explain much and I am not the most patient person, so I’m really glad I read the prequel first.
I can see how some people might be bored with it, though, to a large extent it simply is world-building. But since this book series is so expansive and I’ll be busy reading it for a while to come, I don’t mind investing some extra time in understanding some of the more intricate workings. Especially since, as I mentioned before, the book isn’t that long. I didn’t even want to put it down, as this world immediately felt fascinating, and wanted to soak up more and more information. Just from reading the prequel, I could tell that the rest of the series would be amazing and that I’d have a ball reading all those 13,000 pages.
