The Wheel of Time Reread: Book 4 - The Shadow Rising
*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS AND OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES*
Find the full list of posts in my full re-read of the series HERE
With The Shadow Rising, the series has really hit its stride. Now we’re through the initial “trilogy”, as I discussed in my last post, we’re able to get into the story proper.
Growing the world
Let’s start with my highlight of the book, and possibly the series so far; the history of Rhuidean and the Aiel. This is, in my opinion, a contender for the best moment in the whole series.
We were introduced to the Aiel in the previous book, and now we see their culture in full. This is the third culture we’re introduced to - after the “main” world and the Seanchan - and its differences. The way Rand learns their history is amazing, not just because it fills in a large portion of the world’s history but for how Jordan goes about doing it. Seeing the history played out in reverse, each step showing us how an element of the Aiel culture came about, is simply masterful storytelling. And stretching back as far as the actual Age of Legend is inexplicably exciting.
Perrin and Faile: Relationship MVPs
As I mentioned in my last post, we've also established my favourite characters in the series; Perrin and Faile. It seems silly in a way, but I really connected with these two when I first read the series. Out of Rand, Matt, and Perrin, Perrin was always the one who just got on with things. There was no sulking. No hiding. No complaining about the way things were. No, Perrin just got on with things that needed to be done. I mean, he's not perfect, and he doesn't get everything right. But he's just less whiney.
And he meets Faile, a fiery, passionate woman from a different culture who challenges him and forces him to connect with his own passion. And at the same time, he grounds her. To an English boy who met and married an Argentinean girl, this spoke to me for some reason.
And I still love them and their relationship. More than any other couple in the series, they compliment each other. They still might not be perfect (none of Jordan's relationships are), but they are the closest to being healthy. They (usually) strive to be doing the best for each other, rather than refusing to communicate.
Robert Jordan’s weakness: gender dynamics
Well, I've touched on it now, so I guess I have to talk about an issue that's been raised a lot in Jordan's work: the gender divide.
There has been a lot of discussion about the gender politics of The Wheel of Time. Some of it is valid, some of it less so. I'll probably go into this in more detail in later posts, but let's start here.
The Wheel of Time has a definite gender divide. The characters are always talking or thinking about how the other gender is impossible to understand. Men and women will both talk about how the other gender is impossible to understand or control and can't be trusted to do things on their own. It's a theme that runs through the books, and a lot of people have focused on this as a problem.
But there are two sides to this.
I can't deny that this series has the same problems as all fantasy of this era and an author from his generation. Gender politics are written into the world in a way that simply wouldn't stand today. These books may only be thirty years old, but that's enough to have noticeably dated in some ways.
But it is important to remember that the concept of a stark gender divide is an intrinsic part of the world. This a civilisation whose founding incident was all-male magic users going mad and literally destroying the world. From that point on, only women could use magic without going mad, and who have had the one constant political presence for the last three thousand years. This would naturally create a culture with a stark gender awareness.
Also, as much as the female characters can be problematic at times, they usually have full agency and control. They are, in most cases, doing their own thing. And while a lot of this revolves around a man - Rand being the prophesied Chosen One will do that - that's simply an inevitable part of the story.
So while we do have the problem of traditional gender roles being entrenched in fantasy literature, I believe The Wheel of Time gets away with some of it. A modern writer might have better addressed this - Brandon Sanderson, for example, would have handled this much better - but I think Jordan just didn't see it as a problem.
And now on to The Fires of Heaven. The characters are on the move, the established havens made unsafe, and everything is uncertain.