[Books] The Wheel of Time: New Spring

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

As I've already talked about, one of my personal goals for this year is to read my way through the entirety of the Wheel of Time series. The natural place to start seemed to be the prequel novel, 'New Spring'. Published in 2004 between the 10th and 11th books in the main series, it's one that I've never read. What better way to start.

As a prequel book this is a bit of an oddity in that it only really works if you already have some idea of the world and mythology that Robert Jordan built. There's some interesting world building here, but a lot of it only makes sense in the context of the wider series. Several concepts are introduced with little to no explanation, so a reader new to the Wheel of Time would struggle a little I think. On the other hand there are also some completely new ideas about the world which are explained, albeit in traditional Jordan fashion of only revealing as much as necessary. These are things that only make sense in the context of the earlier time in which the story is set though, as they deal with the background of some of the characters.

Speaking of which, I really liked that this book gave us more of an insight into Moiraine Damodred, Suian Sanche, and Lan al'Mandragoran. In the case of the two women we see them in their formative years, when they're still novices but being raised to Accepted. Not yet Aes Sedai, they get up to exploits that are completely different from their behaviour in the main series. It's an interesting glimpse into their history, and the events of the storyline feed very nicely into what we learn about them, and their plans, in books 1 and 2. Lan is a different kettle of fish it has to be said. From him it's very much more of the same as the main series (at least as far as I remember), but with some chapters told from his point of view we finally learn how and why he became that way, and why he puts up his barriers. I also learnt a lot about borderlands customs and manner through him, which was very interesting indeed.

The fabulous US cover art for 'New Spring', produced by Jason Chan. It shows a pivotal moment in the

history of the series, but one that is very understated in the book. (Credit: jasonchanart.blogspot.com Used without permission)

In terms of setup for the main story, this book is interesting. As I've hinted at, it's not a direct lead-in as such. Instead it's the very formation and genesis of that story, setting up the ideas but leaving the reader to interpolate between this book and the events of 'The Eye of the World'. There are hints at events to come, and nods to some of the state of the world at the time of the opening volume, but it's not spelt out. I actually really like that we didn't get all the answers, and that we were left to wonder exactly what happened in the intervening years. It leaves space open for fans to speculate and invent, which I think is 'a good thing' (TM). I'm left with lots of unanswered questions; again though, some only occur to me because I have some background knowledge of the world. No doubt some of the answers will come as I progress through the main series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's been too long since I read the Wheel of Time, and it took me a couple of chapters to get back into Robert Jordan's style of writing. But once I did I rocketed through it, and struggled to put it down to go to bed in the evenings. That said, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for readers that are new to the Wheel of Time. Instead start with the main series, and read this in publication order. But it's worth the read.