Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: To the End!

Rhed al'Tere

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As always, feel free to jump in here and discuss whether you're reading along or not -- or join in the readalong now! :D

Note: There are spoilers for all books here, through Memory of Light and including New Spring and the Companion, and spoiler tags are not required. Read at your own risk.

I aimed for about 100 pages per week.

Jan 3: Prologue-2
Jan 10: 3-8
Jan 17: 9-11
Jan 24: 12-16
Jan 31: 17-21
Feb 7: 22-27
Feb 14: 28-33
Feb 21: 34-38
Feb 28: 39-41
 
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Megana Vallentin

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

Yeah, I didn't realize so I'm already two weeks ahead. :look: I only read through Chapter 3, but still. It's one of my favorite books, so hard to wait!

Hmm what to read for two weeks...
 

Megana Vallentin

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

Wait, what am I thinking...I got the Companion for Christmas! :joy
 
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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

:laugh: Meg! :P
 

Wil Cambrae

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

Ugh, the Prologue is sooooo bloody long. I remember trying to read this thing for an afternoon when it first came out. Good thing I had the practice for when Winter's Heart came out :look:
Also a year of reading and we're all about half way through the books. Not bad I think. :joy
 

Aduiavas Ida

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

Yeah, we are definitely entering into the era of looong Prologues :look:
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords starting Jan 3

I'm going to pick up again! I didh half of LoC, but got out of synch
This one, we hardly have any notes/annotations - just Elaida's foretelling and Min's viewing, so should be able to come up with plenty of useful information
 
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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

Let's make the loooong prologue short:

Section #1: Elaida - ambitious, arrogant, deluded. And still in many points almost right - like with the reasons why the Salidar Aes Sedai chose Egwene, an accepted, as their Amyrlin. And there is the famous foretelling about the Black Tower - fire & blood, sisters will walk the grounds - quite so, but not the way Elaida wants it to happen. Almost right isn't enough - and Alviarin offers us an accurate diagnosis of Elaida's weaknesses in section 3. Nice line about the Salidar AS: "Quietly desparate sheep looking for a shepherd" - well, they got themselves an Amyrlin who knows about sheep. - "Elaida's secret plan": that refers just to Beonin, and we will see it / her fail.

Section #2: Sevanna - ambitious, reckless, deluded. Any reasonable person can see that her plan of taking Rand, thereby controlling all Aiel and achieving domination of the wetlands is bound to fail. How could she make some of the more important Wise Ones go along with it and bind them to her by the murder of another WO? We had that question before, and there is no satisfying answer - just blinded by greed? That must be it.

Section #3: Alviarin - ambitious, reckless, but intelligent and definitively not really deluded. Leaving Elaida in quite a troubled state of mind, brushing past sisters who want something from her - "the only one to ignore her was Danelle" - ha! But as of now we only know that this "friendless Brown" led armed men into the tower to secure Elaida's coup.
And yes, she is thinking about Elaida - it's so beautiful, it needs to be quoted:
"A woman of many layers, Elaida. The first look at her showed a beautiful woman with dignified reserve, the second a woman of steel, stern as a bared blade. She overwhelmed where others persuaded, bludgeoned where others tried diplomacy or the Game of Houses. Anyone who knew her saw her intelligence, but only after a time did you realize that for all her brains, she saw what she wanted to see, would try to make true what she wanted to be true. Of the two indisputably frightening things about her, the lesser was that she so often succeeded. The greater was her Talent for Foretelling."
Sorry, Alviarin, with the last point I'd like to disagree - what use is foretelling if you have the habit of bending it to your wishes?
And then she calls their residential Chosen, and Mesaana [mens sana? curious name] more or less tells her to go easy for the time being. Why not? Things are going well for the Shadow. Alviarin is not half as submissive as she behaves, collecting information - knowledge is power. One important decision: Having the correct impression that the Black Tower mission will be a disaster, she decides to send no Black sisters there. Not quite clear what the consequences of this are: in AMOL, we learn that there is a lack of women channelers which slows down the turning of Ashaman. But having 53 minus 2 (Gabrelle and Pevara) turned to the Shadow, wouldn't that be enough? Or are the turned persons unfit for that job?

We have learned to take Lanfear as a standard for ambition, and these three women measure up well. But the risks ...

Section #4: Morgase has more or less signed Andor over to the Children, but Niall delays acting on it. There is all the uncertainty of these troubled times, and he may also have a feeling that his own organization is not as unified as it needs be for such an adventure.
Enter Omerna with news and a dagger, and right the moment Niall finally acknowledges that there are indeed enemy forces - the Seanchan - up in Tarabon, that they pose a threat, Omerana puts the dagger in. Crucial information lost. No regrets for Niall, please, and no regrets for the Children - being surprised by the invasion like we see happen later is perhaps the least bloody alternative, for them and the Seanchan as well.
We were shown that Omerna was a fool - and what a fool he must have been to have himself set up for the deed and thinking he could get away with it. Enter Valda and Asuwama - no love lost between the two - exit Omerna, permanently. Niall falls against the gaming table - well, whatever game he was playing with Morgase and power in Andor at stake is over, Valda will see to that. Niall "would have laughed" - at Valda's and Asuwama's doings, and at his own mistakes ... not a nice death.
Why did Morgase go to Amadicia in the first place? She might have found hospitality in a number of other places. The only reason I can see is that she intended to deal with the Children right from the start, trying to use them like a mercenary force. Well, desperation makes for bad judgement, and their price is much too high.

Section #5: Gawyn and the Younglings - he's lost about two thirds of his force,and while he still believes there had been a plan to get him killed, he remains loyal to the Tower. "Small wonder he would have preferred to go on without Aes Sedai, had he any choice." In fact, he has - he's got a much better grip on his followers than Niall - but he is too dumb to see it.
Just to save later explanations, we get a glimpse on Galina and how she was captured - see you soon, among the despicable wilders.
 
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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

well, they got themselves an Amyrlin who knows about sheep.
:laugh:

"the only one to ignore her was Danelle" - ha! But as of now we only know that this "friendless Brown" led armed men into the tower to secure Elaida's coup.
I didn't recognize Danelle's name as having any importance so I looked it up in the Library. AHA! Now it makes a bit more sense. Perhaps this is a discussion for another time but do we have any idea when Mesaana might have started masquerading as Danelle? Before Elaida's coup possibly?

I haven't started this week's segment but I'll likely do that tonight.
 

Megana Vallentin

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

I remembered about Danelle vaguely, but I feel like by now we should have figured out when Mesaana took over. Like it should be obvious in hindsight...yet nothing jumps out at me.

Gawyn and Galad really started to feel like brothers to me at this point. Galad, who does what's right NO MATTER WHAT, and Gawyn, who is loyal to certain things or people NO MATTER WHAT. Their rightness blinds them. :-/
 

Leira Galene

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

Finished the prologue! A couple questions I noted:

Mesaana says to Alviarin: "You children almost match the ajah at times." What is she talking about? Obviously some group before Ajahs became official. Does she mean that the White Tower in her time had a Black Ajah equivalent?

The note Niall got was about the Seanchan, correct? It seems like so long since they've invaded Tarabon.

Finally, who is the sister Gawyn sees? Is that Galina? Sounds like her from the description, although I'm surprised that he wouldn't recognize her even through a telescope.
 

Aduiavas Ida

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

I never connected the fact that the sister Gawyn saw was Galina :brown-blink:

But it does make sense, now that you have pointed it out :facepalm
 

Ryu Shadowborn

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

I just realized as I read a couple weeks ahead so I can write at work and have posts ready to put on my days off.

I am about to hit Cadsuane..I am gonna have to set a night aside to properly construct that post.
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

I don't know that Elaida was right about them choosing Egwene. A large part of that was that Siuan and Leane planted doubts about pretty much anyone suggested, and a second part that Lelaine and Romanda opposed each other so much. The Sitters sent by the Ajah heads contributed,but they'd have opposed each other anyway
 
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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

I don't know that Elaida was right about them choosing Egwene. A large part of that was that Siuan and Leane planted doubts about pretty much anyone suggested, and a second part that Lelaine and Romanda opposed each other so much. The Sitters sent by the Ajah heads contributed,but they'd have opposed each other anyway .
I'm quite aware of Siuan's and Leaine's activities - but even then, with the AS seeing Egwene as a "biddable Child", a "grunter for the table", what was her function meant to be? The thought that she would be expendable if things went wrong must have been at the back of their minds.
 

Aduiavas Ida

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

They didn't really think that they would ever march towards TarValon either... They would just stay in Salidar if Egwene and her crew hadn't kicked them into gear :look:
 

Megana Vallentin

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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

Man, Aes Sedai. :facepalm Our Two Rivers kids (and us as readers) have all come a long way since book 1. Remember how wise and mysterious Aes Sedai were back then?
 
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Re: Re-Readalong: A Crown of Swords: Prologue-Ch 2

Man, Aes Sedai. :facepalm Our Two Rivers kids (and us as readers) have all come a long way since book 1. Remember how wise and mysterious Aes Sedai were back then?

:laugh: Oh my gosh yes. :P
 
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