104. Down and Out in Paris and London – George Orwell

It might come as a shock to no one that Orwell is one of my go-to guys and I have frequented the phrase ‘Orwellian state’ far too many times in the last 18 months. But there has been far too little of Orwell in my life the last few years though! Perhaps as a result the morbid call to reread 1984 and Animal Farm are pulling quite strongly at me again (even if that is also to put myself in a position to write about them).

Down and Out in Paris and London is far from his other work, Orwell is penniless, living in lice ridden rooms, and destitute. His first hand account of living within Paris and London in the 1920s in less then ideal circumstance is probably one of the more interesting things you could have drop in your path. It is humbling. It is not a scream at a starving artist waiting for daddy to come rescue you while you endlessly tap out dreadful prose on a rusty typewriter. It is more of a book within the present moment, struggling through homelessness, near starvation with a good helping of the people. Street artists, drunks, tramps, and down-on-their-luck-con men, this book has it all. Orwell scrapes together survival on sugary tea, stale bread, cheap wine, and cigarette butts. But as he writes Orwell doesn’t condemn the people he rubs shoulders with, instead he condemns the people who fail in their desires to better life for their fellow man.

Down and out in Paris and London – George Orwell

“A rich man who happens to be intellectually honest, if he is questioned about the improvement of working conditions, usually says something like this: ‘We know that poverty is unpleasant; in fact, since it is so remote, we rather enjoy harrowing ourselves with the thought of its unpleasantness. But don’t expect us to do anything about it. We are sorry for you lower classes, just as we are sorry for a cat with the mange, but we will fight like devils against any improvement of your condition. We feel that you are much safer as you are. The present state of affairs suits us, and we are not going to take the risk of setting you free, even by an extra hour a day. So, dear brothers, since evidently you must sweat to pay for our trips to Italy, sweat and be damned to you.'” – p.120

Any observation or comment Orwell makes about class politics or social situation is done with an air of good humour. He talks of the relief of finally realising you, yourself are at last down and out, as if it is inevitable to fall as low as you can and survive.

Orwell’s Paris is a difficult affair. Everything he owns has gone to pawn shops or has been sold to keep his lodgings, and he tramps around Paris chasing rumours of employment. The job he finds is at a restaurant washing dishes, where the hours are unbelievably long and he is at the very bottom of the hierarchal ladder and must endure being verbally abused. From this stand point Orwell also sees behind the scenes of the restaurant, he sees the waiters, how the kitchen is run and how the food is really treated away from the customer.

There is something queasy in these scenes, a nightmare of dirty dishes piling up, the over intimacy the head cook treats food destined for customers and “the secret vein of dirt, running through the garish hotel like the intestines through a man’s body.” It is difficult to not love the disgust Orwell brings to Down and Out. It is difficult to not be swept up in it.

There is potentially something romantic in the Paris half of Down and Out, working hard on 17 hour shifts, 7 days a week, for a couple of glasses of wine every night, accompanying the whimper of rubbing together francs for anything to fill the belly. But more importantly is how he demonstrates empathy with the poor and the lower classes that likely is the precursor for his later works. Orwell is shrewd in this book but he does not continually push his beliefs through the somber material but waits for natural pauses in the narrative.

The second half of the novel is based in London which is far less vivid and interesting to my mind. But Orwell there describes what it is to tramp around London, living from found cigarette butts, in long days walking from one place to another for a mouldy blanket and a mattress with 60 other people.

There seems to be more energy in the first half of the novel for me, more vitality but that may have more to do with the content. Tramping around London seems more to do with waiting, and pausing, and waiting whereas the Paris section is energetic in it’s search for work. It’s energetic in its packhorse mentality, the urgency of survival seems more keen in the first half of the book. Whereas London is a sort of apathy, a sort of, drifting no man’s land. To compare them, the two halves have a very different sort of feel. But they are demonstrating two very different things, one is utter unemployment and reliance on the good nature of others and hand outs, and the other is good-honest-work of the kind that leaves no room for self-pity.

I really loved this book. I’m not sure what to call it, a memoir, a thinly veiled perhaps true account somewhat stirred with artistic licence – there is real divided opinion. But wikipedia says it’s non-fiction so I guess that’s a start? Out of all of the books I have read this year this one really sticks out as one that shines, one that has a touch of rebellion about it. One that I’m sure to read again. There is something honest and ‘within the present’ at the time it was written, there is something intangible that I can’t quite put words to. But perhaps that is because I, myself, come from a privileged position and have never experienced what it is to be down and out.

103. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Sadly, I never got to read this one in school because I was put in a higher set (through complete fortune and kindness) and studied Lord of the Flies by Golding instead (don’t worry that one I have reread recently and is on the way). I have been meaning to get some Steinbeck for a while but the opportunity just hasn’t arrived or it hadn’t until I decided to cross Of Mice and Men off of the ‘I want to read this’ list. There are so many things that I want to read that I often forget I want to read them, until the impulse returns and I am faced with the undeniable truth that now is the time. Usually I am stood in book shops and a title grabs me.

If you haven’t read it, Of Mice and Men is a story of two outsiders trying to make the best of it and it’s a relatively simple story. But their are tensions and boredom and people swinging dicks around to make life more difficult. And there is just one very innocent, sweet guy, who doesn’t know his own strength, and his name is Lennie Small.

Lennie, for me, is one of the most endearing things about this novel. It’s like he is the gentle giant that has been dropped in from space and doesn’t belong there. He confuses easily, he doesn’t grasp how easily he can hurt people, and mostly he just wants the story of where him and his best pal, George Milton tells him they will be. The story goes they get their own land and farm away from everyone else and live for themselves with no interference and no boss.

Lennie is the sort of character that can be really frustrating to read because he simply does not understand, and the characters around him sometimes make no allowances for that. It is one rule and one way and there is no air around him to be, well him. Society makes no allowances, and to paraphrase a conversation I had recently: if society broke down the day after he got to the ranch and ceased to be, Lennie would be fine in the wild making his own way as his disability isn’t a physical one. Society is his disability.

When he is quiet in his blunderingly clueless way he fades into the background and works harder then any other because of his enormous strength. But it is difficult for him to keep his head down because he is completely childlike and trusting and vulnerable and when he comes across small fury things he just wants to love them.

George is trying his best to look after him and keep a promise. George seems to play mediator for most of the novel, I get the sense that given the right opportunity if George’s sense of loyalty was lessened he would have ditched Lennie a long time ago. But instead George is a bit of a father figure and doing his best with a big guy who grasps the world like a child does. George is trying to do the right thing and to protect Lennie as best he can from the world.

The two of them drop lucky on a ranch that hasn’t heard of them. They’ve been on the road, run out of town because of rape accusations. (Lennie touched a woman’s dress and wouldn’t let go because it was soft and he loves soft things and as she was hysterical the town put the rest together without any other questions.) They get themselves settled into their beds and the next day fall straight into the middle of the ranch drama.

Of course we find other characters that share the dream George and Lennie have, and the ranch and it’s inhabitants become a sort of microcosm for American Underclass at the time.

In this despondent novel there is very little joy. Curley – the son of the farm owner – is having trouble with his unhappy wife who seems to be giving the eye to every man she comes across. He calls her a tart and seems possessive and jealous and is overcompensating for something.

Old Candy’s dog is taken out back and shot, because it is infirm and ill and at the end of it’s life. This is done in posturing and dick-swinging sort of contest, and the power play leads Old Candy very unhappy he hadn’t done the deed himself. And in itself it’s very sad.

Crooks, the stable buck and cripple, agrees to go in thirds with Lennie and George for a piece of land. He is at first distrusting but then seems to recognise something in Lennie that is within himself. Alienation and disconnectedness are big themes in the novel and I’d like to think that Crooks, recognises that in Lennie.

Of course these are tiny parts of the story that just amount to the vivid detail that Steinbeck builds the novel with. Unpretentious, naked, truthful writing that seems to follow the characters rather then push them towards the frying pan. This is a novel of destitute people lacking agency and it shook me awake at every turn with reality.

But this novel also had me convinced that maybe it would be a happy ending. Ha. Ha ha ha. (Laughing bitterly while crying) *Spoiler alert*

Lennie pets Curley’s wife’s (no she doesn’t have a name that I can remember other then tart?) hair and of course, she panics. In the struggle he kills her by accident and then runs away from a lynching mob. Perhaps luckily, or perhaps cruelly, George is the one that finds him and while lulling Lennie into a sense of false security (because he trusts him, HE TRUSTS HIM) he shoots Lennie in the back of the head. There is a part of me still mourning for Lennie because this novel executes (poor choice of words on my part) something very real and very stark and very unpredictable. And like Lennie, I was lulled into the false sense of security of hope that they would get out of this drifting life and buy their land and have a porch.

And Lennie would get his rabbits.

George doesn’t shoot Lennie out of rage or out of the hysteria of the mob. He shoots him to save him from being lynched. He shoots him to spare him (and probably them as he wouldn’t go down easily). It is the right thing, but it is the difficult terrible thing.

I regret that I didn’t read it when I was in school because this book makes a big impression and there is a lot to take away from it. I may never get over Lennie and George, and the gilded knot that lumps in my stomach whenever I think about them. But I will read this again at some point. Steinbeck demonstrates that a book doesn’t have to be loud or big or artful postures and a flourishing peacock to deliver some very real messages and morals. And as a result I don’t think I’m done with this one yet, I need to read it again. There is just so much more I could say.

102. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

By now you’ve gotten the hang of things here, and you know that I read just about everything that peaks my interest. So why, oh why did I read this decidedly man-boy-book? Well the film had just come out and several nerds I know had mentioned it and well, why not? This is a sort of gamer, 80s mash up of pop culture trivia with a good slap of teenage angst. Oh, and there’s a girl.

Of course! (Just be patient, the rant is coming in due time)

Don’t mistake me, there were things I enjoyed about this book, but many things that were lacklustre. Surely I should adore a world that prizes itself on its references from Blade Runner to the first text games? Partly. There’s a part of me that really loves imagining the pop culture references in this book as a Labyrinthine Bowie thrusting his codpiece in the faces of the general populous with glee and pretending it’s for the audiences pleasure. But it gets to a point where these things can feel like overkill and at times the novel feels like a nostalgia jerk off. It can be a likeable world if you turn your brain off, with a few twists and some moving parts that I appreciate. But on the whole, it had the potential to be so much better.

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

To jump right in, Wade’s life is a game. It is the Oasis, created by James Halliday as a free immersive multiplayer platform to take the people of 2045 out of their awful lives. But it’s also more then that, the player’s lives can be immersed into the Oasis, they can go to school in the Oasis, work in the Oasis, play in the Oasis, and have sex in the Oasis. After unchecked corporate power has swallowed society in an enormous wage gap and climate change (which we never really hear much of) has ravaged the planet most Americans live in shanty towns surrounding major cities. But can find a little fun and escapism in the Oasis.

The plot of the novel is: James Halliday has died and in his will he leaves the Oasis to one player who can find his Easter Egg. The Hunt is a test of knowledge, finding the clues through all the pop culture and 80s geek shit Halliday has loved through his life. But it’s also a matter of stopping the big bad corporation, IOI the global conglomerate from taking control of the Oasis and making it a paid, or sponsored experience. Whoever solves the puzzles wins the keys, you win the keys, you get closer to finding the Easter Egg, you win the egg you get to be the person at the top of the Oasis, make lots of money, have lots of money, and be something of a king. Seems simple right? It sure does right?

This is until you throw a bunch of teenagers at it. ‘If it weren’t for those meddling kids’ should be the tag line of this novel. Because I genuinely feel that it if weren’t for those meddling kids we’d have a better novel.

Wade Watts, or Parzival by his avatars name, is a poor kid from the shanties. He is socially awkward outside of the Oasis, goes to school in the Oasis so he can avoid social interaction like bullying, and has no money to speak of. He does have an obsession with the game though and is desperate to win Halliday’s contest. However, as a broke kid he has no money to travel from the world his school is on and level up. The odds are stacked against him, but he does have obsessive tenacity and has learnt every detail he can about Halliday’s life. He devotes hundreds of hours studying Halliday, watching tv shows and films, playing games, and generally nerding out to 80s shit.

Wade’s best friend is Aech, a higher level but despite Wade’s lower standings Aech has been impressed by him enough to invite him into his secret hangout.

Wade for some reason, being the most unlikely character in the entire universe, cracks the first clue and discovers the first key. It is pot luck the key is hidden on the planet he’s been stranded on! The planet of the schools! Because of course he can’t afford to travel anywhere else can he?

Wade is the first to get the Copper Key and as he is leaving he runs into his longtime crush Art3mis. She reveals she’s been trying to crack the game for weeks to get the key and after reading her blogs avidly and admiring her for many years Wade gushes over her and gives her a tip on how to beat the game.

From then on Wade’s name is on the scoreboard and everyone knows who he is and the story continues to revolve around him, Art3mis and gushing over Art3mis and not selling out to IOI and winning the game fair and square.

The big glaringly obvious fault in this novel is that Wade leads a charmed life. Any conflict and friction in his life is accompanied with “Hey isn’t this just like the goonies?” and then a wall will raise to reveal the easy route to the thing he is looking for. I don’t like YA books like this. I DON’T LIKE EASY. I WANT TO STRUGGLE and KNOW that this story has been worth it because it’s been emotionally traumatic. If I don’t put down a YA book feeling slightly abused then it hasn’t done it’s job correctly.

The 80’s nostalgia that I love and I believe is done correctly is in Stranger Things where people have more personality then flat surfaces and have actual complex emotional worlds. Ready Player One falls down time and time again because it refuses to give characters a hard time beyond the sphere of toxic masculinity tantrums because – some girl you don’t know won’t date you. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a thousand times, THIS DOES NOT A PLOT MAKE. If your character spends half the book over-eating, self torturing, and perpetuating the idea that just because YOU have feelings for THEM they belong to you or owe you something, just stop. That is not plot and that is not character development. What that is my friends is a waste of ink and paper and awful messages to give young people.

And then if you so happen to give it the ending of the boy gets the girl because he tortured himself SO much, you are the problem as a writer for even further perpetuating those broken down, exhausted story lines that we as a society (I hope) are moving beyond. It does not translate well. Her ‘coming around’ is not a narrative we need more of. Those are poor choices. Fetishising this sort of wallowing-self-torture-sadness as a plot device only works when you are Emily Bronte.

And I’m sorry, but who is the villain again? I’m really struggling to put a face on them because my entire memory of the book is dominated by angst and self pity and ‘why won’t she love me though?’ and ‘I’m such a loser’. The villain’s here seem to be unmemorable and faceless to me. But perhaps thats the beauty of a global corporation.

We spend a lot of time reenacting films word for word and playing games in this novel, but we don’t see much of the dystopia world it’s set in. I walked into this novel knowing nothing about it’s world and I’m really struggling to find details now because the Oasis is the forefront of this novel. And arguably to some of the characters that is the world. However there are whole sequences where we are running around the real world, but it’s too little too late to actually demonstrate what reality is. Cline spends so much time tapping away at the fantasy in this novel, he looses the foundation that it should be based on.

I didn’t get attached to the characters in this book or have much of any empathy for them because there is a lack of struggle beyond what is self involved. For some what Cline delivers is enough and is perfectly satisfactory. But for me I want something from literature that has a bit more bite. I really enjoy the set up of this novel, I enjoy the concept, I enjoy the little guys against the big-corporation-bad. But I think this is really poorly executed. And like Bowies codpiece, I don’t want that or any of this waving in my face.

101. Come As You Are – Emily Nagoski

So I may have put myself in a bit of a bind as now I need to talk about sex and isn’t that always a bit of an awkward topic when you’re not sure who is listening? Come as you are is a bit of a mixed bag for some for other’s it’s the self help sex guide they have been looking for. Personally I feel it fills in some of the gaps lacking in sexual education because it moves beyond mechanics and cultural questions like ‘does my junk look like their junk and if it doesn’t is it still okay?’ It’s aim is to reassure and to dispel some myths. But it also jumps straight into several different narratives associated with sexuality.

Rather then giving straight answers to questions it gives a frame work of suggestions of what could be going on and how to alleviate the problems being encountered. But it does it all with a confidence boosting tone in a non-invasive, sitting-here-to-chat-and-not-judge-way. Because if you’re here already, surely you’re already curious right?

And if you’re already curious, then this book assumes you’re obviously ready to do a little work in exploring.

Come as you are – Emily Nagoski

Firstly I should say that this book is very gendered. It is a broad look at a woman’s sexuality, but it deals in both heterosexual and homosexual partners. But. And this is a big but (heh heh butt) you do not have to identify as a woman to get something from this book. To paraphrase Emily Nagoski a little and to put my own spin on it: Human beings are the same biological-ikea-flatpack with slightly different instructions. Fundamentally we are all the same, but we are in different arrangements. (As a side note, everyone is allowed to realise those instructions and the current arrangement do not match up and bloody change the arrangement if they want. Don’t be shitty.)

This might not be relevant to you because of the parts you possess arranged in the ways they are, but if you’ve had sex before with anyone, even yourself, you will likely find something to think about in Come as you are. Even if you become the best buddy giving advice to his buddy about is other buddy’s girlfriend. Sometimes it pay’s to do a little homework on a subject you think you’re already pretty hot in.

Nagoski covers an umbrella of topics that are for the most part interlinked and inform one another. Her ten years of experience as a sex therapist has given her a rabbit warren of things to write about. She talks about anatomy, stress, lions, your emotional brain, your primitive monkey brain, trauma triggers, brakes and accelerators, being sex positive and cultural myth for a few. But she writes in a gentle way, discussion on the theoretical doesn’t read as confusing or suffocating. Instead she gives you easy to digest metaphors and compresses things down without condescending. For example, giving the boiler a long time to heat the water BEFORE trying to use the shower (more on that later).

Nagoski generally writes what feels like a safe and informed space that’s relatable. Partly she achieves this by writing about fictional couples each battling with one or several different issues. These couples each feature throughout the book to inform her own writing and ideas, but they aren’t simplistic. Put though their paces these couples demonstrate that intimate relationships are a work in progress. But also these couples reinforce her idea that the map of what we expect to happen (which has been given to us culturally, through hollywood and a sex education that only considers mechanics) isn’t necessarily the terrain of HOW it WILL happen.

The terrain of how it will happen belongs almost entirely to context. Whatever is going on in your life will inform the sex you are having. You may have just lost a relative, or lost your job, or gained a promotion, or have a child that’s sick or or you might suddenly have a weekend free for the first time in months or you just may not be feeling your own vibe in your own skin. For example, Nagoski writes about a couple who deal with stress very differently, for her it is an accelerating factor for her desire and increases it, but he is the complete opposite. This leads to miscommunication on the topic and feelings of unease and pressure but ultimately goes towards a solution of why she smothers her stress with desire.

In this and the other couples Nagoski writes about solutions aren’t easy and are worked for with a lot of mistakes along the road. But they are worth finding.

Nagoski writes eloquently in the way she breaks up sexuality into building blocks that are easier to understand. Rather then the so called myth of a ‘drive’, she claims instead that a combination of Accelerators and Brakes (things that turn us on and off) are responsible for sexual desire.

The catch-22 is that some of your past sexual experiences will have informed your Accelerators and Brakes. But some of your general experiences will have too. The things that make us stop and freeze in flight response and the things that get the party going, are rooted in our emotional world. Of course, they are different for everyone and figuring out you have a sensitive Brake is just as important as understanding how to work around that with your partner.

Here is the point where I am going to be clever and explain one of those metaphors: “giving the boiler a long time to heat the water BEFORE trying to use the shower.” In Come as you are there is a couple where one party has one of these very sensitive Brakes and a low Accelerator. An easily triggered Brake or flight response is a good as an off switch, and the only way this couple found to move away from the stress signal of THERE ARE LIONS ABOUT TO EAT ME, is to take a long time heating the water in the boiler. Sometimes it was about giving pleasure rather then receiving it but before all of that came a quiet night in, having fun and relaxing, and telling the story of how they met to rekindle the intimacy and remember why they were together in the first place. And hey presto! The shower works and is running hot. And there are no lions.

Nagoski talk about lions and stress a lot in this book. She suggests that stress cycles are something that our brains deal with the same way it would a hungry, salivating lion coming towards us on the savannah. She suggests that the only way to break that stress cycle is to complete it. In the savannah when a lion is chasing you, you have two (maybe three) options: one. run, get back to the village and tell everyone, and survive and feel relief, two. be lunch (three. batman swoops down from a helicopter and saves you). But it has to be a process of I’m at Risk, I am in an action, and I am now safe for a stress cycle to complete. We cannot rush the process from shutting down entirely because I am at risk without the action that finds us safe is not a completed cycle.

She suggests a number of ways of being kind to ourselves in forming deliberate rituals that complete our stress cycles. Whether it is running, art therapy, but most of all it is communicating with your body that you’ve survived. Such as a good cry, a primal scream, sharing affection, body self care such as grooming, or progressive muscle relaxation or other sensorimotor meditation.

The biggest thing Nagoski offers in Come as you are is being kind to yourself through this entire process. Often when we have a problem, we try to muscle through it and in doing so misunderstand what we need from ourselves and other people. She offers common sense clues into what might be going on, a way of reminding ourselves that our primal monkey brain is still wired to deal with lions and not stock sheets. And sometimes those wires get a little lost and the lions creep into bed with us.

On the whole I love this book and have recommended it to just about everyone.

100. A Crown of Swords – Robert Jordan

I have spent so much time writing other things lately that it is a joy to come back to a blog post! Not only a blog post but a blog post on one of my favourite fantasy series! After seven books, interwoven storylines and multiple locations, I had to scratch my head for a while and do some googling to remind myself of the plot. Because … “did that happen then or now … are they here? WHO IS THIS?” *went the conversation with myself*

This novel in The Wheel of Times series is set greatly in my now favourite city to yet. There’s a battle with the weather going on, the Forsaken are running around some more doing some underhanded things and being more like real people. Most of the women in this novel seem to go a little crazy, there are cat fights and sexual power struggles (stop thinking of turkish oil wrestling you dirty dirty people). Mat takes up a whole chunk of this novel and it’s delightful to see him get some page time to shine. And there is a lot of meandering. As you might expect, it’s Robert Jordan.

A Crown of Swords – Robert Jordan

Alas my friends we have another novel that drags at little! But it is still enjoyable, it has all the tropes of Robert Jordan though that we have come to recognise. Men and women can’t talk to one another, certain actions are maddeningly repetitive but in this one it edges close to the ridiculous. But we know these short comings already.

Rand prepares to attack the Forsaken Sammael in Illian while enjoying life with Min. Rand as always is juggling more balls then a pingpong factory and much like the Lord of Chaos is zipping around everywhere. He quells a rebellion by the nobles in Cairhien, convinces himself that he has forced himself on Min (even though he hasn’t) and the Aes Sedai vow to serve him (not without a few tantrums). He banishes someone and they kill themselves as a result. And generally is ruffling a lot of feathers doing things his way. But as is often the case, Rand is not the most interesting part of this novel.

Ebou Dar in Altara is where the most interesting parts of the story unfold (for me anyway). Elayne, Nynaeve and Mat search for the Bowl of Winds. This magical artefact, or ter’angreal will theoretically break the unnatural heat that has been brought on the world by the Dark One’s manipulation. Accompanied by Aviendha, Thom, Juilin and Birgitte there is of course drama, drama, drama. (Scenes of Mat and Birgitte drinking together… you guys… it is the book to read for even that perfect friendship forming)

For romantic relationships Jordan really falls down (as usual), Mat gets involved with the Queen of Altara who like all women of that country, is a force to be reckoned with. Here women rule and men are second class. A perhaps clunky cultural shift in comparison to some of Jordan’s others no?

To some Queen Tylin is a cougar who does not understand the word ‘no’ and pressures Mat into sex at knife point on more then one occasion. But I think Jordan is taking a wild stab at being sexy and it is in incredible poor taste. I find nothing sexy about this. But I have pointed fun at Mat for meeting a woman he hadn’t bargained for and a situation that even he can’t slip out of.

Elayne and Nynaeve fall into old habits and begin bitching from the moment the book starts. But seem to put up a united front when faced with other Aes Sedai who do not recognise them as full Aes Sedai or their authority. Later on in the novel they meet a group of women, they do not expect, the Kin, and so begins a new twist in the world of magic and witches and women and men and all that stuff that build’s Jordan’s world up so brilliantly. Think a secret knitting circle, but with magic.

Egwene and Siuan are finding themselves a bit at odds with the other Aes Sedai rebels in Salidar. Having raised Egwene, they believe themselves to be in control of her and she is slowly learning the ways in which she can shift things to her advantage. While attempting to drive them towards moving against Elaida in the White Tower of Tar Valon, Lan is found. (YESSSSS HE IS ALIVEEEEE!!!!)

Meanwhile, Moghedien tries to kill Nynaeve will balefire and successfully misses by becoming spooked by some pigeons. To give her some credit she has some problems of her own right now and isn’t at her best. But Nynaeve almost drowns in a river and in doing so finally manages to shift her block and touch the power to save herself and THEENNNN…. Jordan demonstrates how awful he is at romantic relationships again … because LAN IS THERE BECAUSE EGWENE SENT HIM THERE TO FIND HER! And it’s really awkward… and she tells him off.

But of course other things happen as it is the Wheel of Time and the wheel wills what it wills and what it weaves it weaves. Or whatever. This is a bit of a novel of housekeeping really isn’t it? I think we cover some of the material in the Lord of Chaos again to fully make sense of the last few scenes in the Lord of Chaos. The following Rand chapters seem to be Rand brandishing his own wrathful justice and also he has a nasty argument with Perrin which sees him leaving the entire book.

While this book reveals some lovely things it still sort of leaves us hanging, DOES the Bowl of Winds fix the weather? That subplot is never really finished off? What is going to happen to Moghedien and why am I starting to like her? Is Elaida getting red eyes and a batman voice? (because thats how I imagine her) What’s going on with Morgase, she’s in this book for the width of a blink and then she’s dropped in the lions mouth and ??? hello?? Morgase?? Is Loial okay? I’m worried about him because I’M ALWAYS WORRIED ABOUT LOIAL! Is his mother going to marry him off while no one’s looking so he has to stay in the Stedding and be a good boy?

SO MANY QUESTIONS!

This novel treads the fine line between being filler and cannon fodder. But even when it slows it is interesting, perhaps not as dynamic and interesting as some of the other novels and not nearly as ambitious. I’ve had a little break between books now and this post is coming quite a while after reading it so writing it has been a real delight. Though it has made me homesick. I am homesick for the Wheel of Time series, which means one thing: I better get on and finish my current book so I can start the Path of Daggers.