Reading her PoV, one thing strikes me. The biggest flaw to Brandon's writing is that when characters start talking, we stop seeing their points of view.
It's funny, but I think I noticed something like that with tGS, namely, the Warder bonds. Where Jordan used that as a supplement to dialogue and body language, for Rand and Min to be noticing how the other felt, and their internal reactions to things (much like Perrin's scents), in tGS, they only noted the bonds when the other party was out of their presence. Aviendha is aware of Rand's bond, except when he is actually in front of her in the cover scene, and Min and Rand mostly only note the bond's input when the other one leaves the room. IIRC, the bond never comes up in the Dominion Bond scene, and that should have been a key factor in Rand's torment. Instead, he is often describing her emotions in terms of facial expressions "she looked shocked" or seemed amused or the like. I had thought he just was forgetting it, or missing its significance but maybe it's of a piece with this tendency to drop the stream of consciousness.
I noticed that too. I thought the Domination Band scene was where the bond would have been really significant. Wouldn't Semirhage the great torturer have mined this? Wouldn't her pleasure of controlling Rand have increased knowing that he could feel every bit of the pain he was forced to inflict on Min, and Min could feel his pain at doing this? Perhaps in Min's panic, her shining love for Rand which he always feels through the bond will be dimmed, and that will drive him over the edge to touching the True Power...
There was so much that could have been done to enhance the richness of that scene. But, as you said, Brandon missed it.
Even in this chapter. Rand feels Aviendha come to Merrilor. We know from the Prologue that she comes straight from Rhuidean, exhausted and depressed over what she saw. Rand didn't feel this? And he hasn't seen her since Arad Doman. How come he doesn't wonder about her after he feels her arrive? Why isn't he worried about how Elayne and Aviendha will receive the changes in him?
And why don't we get Egwene feeling the sorrow and anger and fear that obviously had to be coursing through Gawyn when he learned Caemlyn was burning?
All these opportunities to flesh out non-PoV characters in these scenes, and we get none of it. Presumably, Brandon will waste a paragraph or two detailing Gawyn's reaction when we first get his PoV, long after the event in question.
If you have to call someone "my friend" three times in a couple of minutes, he isn't.
- 28/09/2012 11:59:13 AM
5964 Views
The only people I've ever heard say "my friend" are foreign street vendors
- 28/09/2012 01:19:00 PM
1290 Views
Sanderson's handling of character interractions is pathetic....
- 28/09/2012 06:43:48 PM
1531 Views
Now see, here I don't fully agree, or at least think it's a matter of taste.
- 28/09/2012 07:21:09 PM
2196 Views
Sorry, that's just not true...
- 28/09/2012 11:33:59 PM
1332 Views
I posted something very similar at DM. Reposting...
- 28/09/2012 11:46:07 PM
1362 Views
Re: I posted something very similar at DM. Reposting...
- 29/09/2012 01:51:20 AM
1550 Views
Yes!
- 29/09/2012 02:26:39 AM
1505 Views
I complained about this regarding the Forsaken chapter
- 28/09/2012 07:34:25 PM
1599 Views
I've long since accepted that Sanderson uses inaccurate terms like "powerful"
- 29/09/2012 05:44:11 AM
1600 Views
To be fair, the last Moghedian PoV by RJ might have changed her a bit.
- 29/09/2012 03:27:31 PM
1303 Views
Yes. The last time it happened to me it ended with the taxi driver fined by the NYPD.
- 29/09/2012 07:05:26 AM
1281 Views
The burning question to me, after reading all of the comments above, is this...
- 29/09/2012 08:50:50 AM
1512 Views
Piggybacking on someone else's established characters and near-climax-point plot?
- 29/09/2012 03:04:03 PM
1572 Views
Both of you disgust me
- 29/09/2012 04:13:16 PM
1473 Views
To be fair...
- 29/09/2012 04:36:52 PM
1343 Views
True ... He may not be perfect, and he certainly made some strange choices
- 29/09/2012 05:37:29 PM
1263 Views
B-Sand is not a ghost writer
- 29/09/2012 06:35:16 PM
2630 Views
Didn't say he should.
- 29/09/2012 09:07:45 PM
1951 Views
What is it you want?
- 29/09/2012 09:39:36 PM
1502 Views
We want to bitch about an inferior product. Duh.
- 29/09/2012 10:00:09 PM
3491 Views
Hmm that's true I guess. Sad though *NM*
- 29/09/2012 10:07:25 PM
632 Views
It is what it is
- 30/09/2012 12:52:20 AM
1106 Views
You do know this isn't his series, right?
- 29/09/2012 04:19:00 PM
1796 Views
Do you see us going to Mistborn boards to rip his series? Part of the problem is what you say.
- 29/09/2012 09:57:54 PM
2193 Views
Apologies for not being clear: I'm only referring to WoT. Haven't read any of his other work...
- 30/09/2012 06:56:08 PM
1603 Views
I'd agree that I like his original works more than his WoT books
- 01/10/2012 06:17:33 PM
1396 Views
It's fairly simple....
- 30/09/2012 09:55:52 PM
1544 Views
Thanks for that insightful response...
- 30/09/2012 10:37:27 PM
1226 Views
Try reading something instead of judging. I recommend the Mistborn trilogy *NM*
- 01/10/2012 01:14:24 AM
598 Views
It's more...
- 01/10/2012 01:05:18 PM
1958 Views
Re: The burning question to me, after reading all of the comments above, is this...
- 11/10/2012 08:22:27 PM
1117 Views
I have an acquaintance who uses "my friend" as punctuation of every sentence.
- 05/10/2012 02:47:40 PM
1814 Views

*NM*