Anyone else ever get tired of the action occurring offstage and being forced to learn about it through character monologues after the fact?
No. Not if the really important thing is happening in the part that is shown. You're the kind of reader who would be pissing and moaning about the waste of time/space/pages spent on nothing happening if we got treated to Nynaeve & Cadsuane interrogating Semirhage futilely. The IMPORTANT thing is that Rand is not letting them use useful methods, and what this means for him and his character! What is the point of useless dialogue between Semirhage & Cadsuane with no relevance to the plot or exposition value?
It's been happening over the last several books more and more often. The most egregious example was Rand's meeting with Logain. It's the lazy way to tell a story. Rather than write the action as it happens, just let a character remember it.
Rand's meeting with Logain WAS the action, and it WAS the important parts, NOT the by-the-book meeting with Logain. Are you SERIOUSLY complaining that RJ did not show all the logistical details of moving around armies and Asha'man? The only detail of significance that Logain reported on, which might have been an actual scene, is Taim's reaction, and Logain told us all we need to know. The friction between Rand and Logain is much more important. We know all we need to about the relationship between Logain and Taim and Rand's & Taim's has not changed. RJ was not going to write a Logain-Taim confrontation with hints as to Taim's Shadow connections, so you would have been just as frustrated had that scene been in there.
I was disappointed in the chapter, not because of the writing, nor do I think it is Sanderson's fault, but it was another 6500 words with nothing happening.
1. Does each chapter REQUIRE "something" to happen? MUST there be a fight, One Power revelation or sex scene for every chapter?
2. What chapter are you talking about? I read, and was under the impression we were discussing, The Gathering Storm, Chapter 1 (Tears From Steel), where we see Rand is further along the path of psycho-hood, losing control regarding LTT, and still unable in spite of his estrangment from his humanity to order or even permit interrogation of one of the most obviously evil Forsaken merely because she happens to be a woman. We see more clearly than ever how he is looking at the worst in every situation, expecting the worst reactions or results to everything, deliberately eradicating his own humanity and even further increasingly obsessive. As an example of the last, he contemplates opposing Ituralde to further his truce with the Seanchan, and possibly throwing Murandy to the wolves as well, overlooking that the proposed truce was merely a means to an end.
Why not tell the story of the escape, or Rand's healing, or present some of the questioning scenes?
Because...and I am going to go out on a long limb here and make a vary tenuous leap of logic...they DON'T HAPPEN IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. Just a guess.
Cannoli
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
Your thoughts on TGS - Chapter 1
05/09/2009 05:23:47 PM
- 6071 Views
For all of those whining about it not sounding like RJ:
05/09/2009 05:47:07 PM
- 1947 Views
You're forgetting one thing.
06/09/2009 12:13:03 AM
- 1945 Views
And if he were to off Egwene? What would your opinion be? *NM*
07/09/2009 05:38:36 AM
- 955 Views
He dislikes Sanderson's prose. Plot content is irrelevant here. *NM*
08/09/2009 06:44:42 PM
- 1046 Views
Pretty good.
05/09/2009 07:35:41 PM
- 45339 Views
Re: Pretty good.
05/09/2009 09:13:44 PM
- 1900 Views
I found it well-written, but rather uninteresting story-wise *NM*
05/09/2009 08:04:15 PM
- 1042 Views
because there should totaly be massive plot development in the first chapter
05/09/2009 08:29:18 PM
- 1673 Views

I'm tired of passive story telling.
05/09/2009 08:57:13 PM
- 1658 Views
I'm tired of mindless readers
06/09/2009 01:54:14 AM
- 1715 Views
Re: I'm tired of mindless readers
06/09/2009 04:01:56 AM
- 1880 Views
I was over critical.
06/09/2009 04:56:48 AM
- 1514 Views
A real analyst or literary critic would laugh his ass off to see this...
06/09/2009 06:51:57 AM
- 1692 Views
Re: because there should totaly be massive plot development in the first chapter
06/09/2009 01:22:09 AM
- 1637 Views

A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
05/09/2009 09:34:44 PM
- 1810 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
05/09/2009 10:03:59 PM
- 1781 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
06/09/2009 03:18:41 AM
- 1606 Views
I think Lews Therin's comments to Rand were the most hugely significant part of the chapter.
06/09/2009 01:15:05 AM
- 1543 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
06/09/2009 02:52:47 AM
- 2193 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
06/09/2009 07:08:08 AM
- 1496 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
06/09/2009 10:31:20 AM
- 2054 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
07/09/2009 05:09:38 AM
- 1588 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
08/09/2009 10:19:13 PM
- 1545 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
10/09/2009 06:20:56 AM
- 1796 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
08/09/2009 11:46:44 PM
- 1630 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
07/09/2009 04:41:47 AM
- 1640 Views
Re: A few things that drew my attention... (this is long and rambling...spoilers)
09/09/2009 03:48:53 PM
- 1569 Views
Good post, but I have an alternative explanation for the saidin barrier
28/09/2009 12:53:41 AM
- 1352 Views
Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
06/09/2009 12:02:13 AM
- 1569 Views
Re: Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
06/09/2009 05:12:25 PM
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Re: Robert Jordon vs Brandon Sanderson
06/09/2009 07:20:45 PM
- 1428 Views
I found it...interesting --spoilers--
06/09/2009 01:33:11 AM
- 1746 Views
I liked it
06/09/2009 07:58:09 AM
- 1533 Views
Some questions...
06/09/2009 08:04:30 AM
- 1563 Views
Theory: Rand and Egwene. What is up?
06/09/2009 07:59:58 AM
- 2428 Views
A simpler answer
06/09/2009 03:04:04 PM
- 1632 Views
Really?
06/09/2009 03:38:59 PM
- 1482 Views
Look at what he has seen...
06/09/2009 11:45:44 PM
- 1440 Views
And all this happeened in the few days between the end of KoD and the beginning of tGS?
07/09/2009 12:35:29 AM
- 1499 Views
Why not? How often did he think of Egwene in A Plain Wooden Box? It might have been there already
07/09/2009 05:29:27 AM
- 1638 Views
She treated him like a pawn when she "passed" him over to Elayne way back. NM *NM*
07/09/2009 02:49:18 PM
- 937 Views
are we already at the location of the book cover?
06/09/2009 11:49:06 AM
- 1513 Views
Two Things
07/09/2009 12:25:31 AM
- 1576 Views
My thoughts are that the main page is being crowded by too many duplicate threads
07/09/2009 10:23:41 PM
- 1551 Views
I know why Rand is mad at Egwene...read inside to find out
11/09/2009 03:15:00 AM
- 1607 Views
Ummm... the embassy's proposal was accepted, and (presumably) communicated to Egwene at the earliest *NM*
11/09/2009 04:16:31 AM
- 973 Views
Semirhage isn't scaring anyone
28/09/2009 02:32:34 PM
- 1811 Views
Indeed...
28/09/2009 03:36:55 PM
- 1422 Views
Will the Chosen pass that edict down or just not act themselves?
28/09/2009 10:29:53 PM
- 1415 Views