> Ok, this is the third time I've tried to post. Two times before this my browser window died on me while trying to write out my treatise on Jordan. I think it's a conspiracy.

: ) Well I for one am glad you're persistent, Dave. Can I just say here and now how much I enjoyed reading your posting?

Can hardly dispute any of what you said (except for maybe the bit about Moiraine); Jordan does contrive - gratuitously - to imbue the story with a sense of mystery, keeping things from the reader and what-not .... funny, how I seem to have come full circle in my estimation of this series LOL perhaps in no small way due to some of your comments, Dave, i have been considering it from a different POV.

> I must say, I'm finally hooked. It took about 500 pages, but Jordan finally did something that made me want to keep reading. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that thing was. I just know I'm suddenly interested. Maybe it's the good feeling of looking at the book and seeing more behind my bookmark than ahead of it. Anyway, I'm on page 650 or so, and I actually want to keep reading.

LOL And I must say - once again your persistence is remarkable! To have to wait 500 pages before enjoying a story - I could not do it! Shall be most interested to see what you think when you get to the end ...

> However, my interest seemed to perk up a bit once everyone got separated. I think this was because Jordan finally had manageable groups of people in which he could get in some actual character development. Also, I *hate* when characters get separated in novels, and then spend forever getting back together (as a general rule), so I usually scream through these parts at breakneck speed because I just want everyone to get together again. But this is a purely personal quirk, I'm sure.

No, not at all - I rather liked it when they all separated, too, and enjoyed waiting to see how they would rejoin ... it was wise, I think, for Jordan to employ this device (as transparent as it now seems) so that we might get an opportunity to know the characters a little better, and see them interact with other characters ...

> Moiraine's single distinguishing characteristic is that she's confidant and steady. Otherwise, her main purpose in the story is to use her powers at plot points. She makes me angry more than anything, because she won't tell anybody anything of note, even though she obviously knows tons of useful info.

LOL again! I share your sense of frustration, Dave. I'm sure there were many times she may have spared her comrades considerable concern merely by bringing them into her confidence - but perhaps there is a reason Moiriane makes the choices that she does; why she keeps so much to herself. she is an interesting female character - the only one (to date IMHO) that Jordan has drawn in a believable manner (Nynaeve comes close, but is not quite right ... and Egwene is too much like a character created by a teenage boy in a game of Dungeons and Dragons...)

> Egwene hasn't done much of note yet. She started to get interesting when she was discovering her powers, but then Jordan basically forgot about that and now she's boring again. Her main purpose so far has been as a foil for Rand.

You're quite correct about the 'foil' business (at least as far as Eye of the World is concerned - and that is most annoying; she seems to exist purely as window dressing, and to affirm Rand's maleness ... argh!

And yor Pop Quiz was most amusing! LOL = ) Rand may be powerful, but perhaps not terribly bright ....

> Mat I still hate. When he's "himself", he's stupid and annoying. When he's under the influence of that dagger he found in Shadar Logoth, he's stupid and mean.

Re: Mat - agreed, wholeheartedly.

> Perrin was actually starting to become an interesting character, when during his time with the wolves. But then everyone got back together, and Perrin is pretty much forgotten again.

Hope I do not spoil this for you, but Perrin comes into his own, later in the series, and I find him a very noble, interesting character - far more so than Rand, and well, as for Mat, he's not worth mentioning ...

> That's probably my biggest peeve with Thom--*nobody* every questioned his motives! They just blindly let him stay with the group. Moiraine mumbles something about the pattern, and everything is supposed to be explained. No, I don't think so.

Hmm, good point - again!

> Probably the biggest boost to my interest in the story came when I discovered the glossary at the back of the book. I read it straight through, not worrying about spoilers at that point, because I was thinking I might not be reading the book much longer. In fact, if I didn't want to be able to BAM it, I probably would have quit a long time ago.

Sorry, please explain what BAM means to me? This is a bit silly, but I didn't notice the glossary until I'd completed the first book. An unfortunate fact, for it would have assisted me a little, i think. But once more, you raise a valid point: the materials contained within the glossary could well have been incorproated into the story (i do believe, to be fair, that some of it is ...)

Oh, and as for Tar Valon ... well, you'll just have to wait and see, and read on, won't you, Dave?

But it is pleasing to hear that you have (finally) enjoyed the experience : )