New Spring

I had completely forgotten about New Spring until I happened to come across it in the local library recently. New Spring is the prequel novel to the epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. It was originally published as a novella just before The Path of Daggers but Jordan later lengthened the novella to a full-size book which was released after Crossroads of Twilight. Despite that it's not even half the size of the usual Wheel of Time novel.

I suppose I didn't consider a prequel story worth reading: I never bought it even though I have the rest of the series. What new information could there be? Now after reading it, I can say I was correct in my assumption but it was still interesting to visit the series after finishing A Memory of Light over 11 years ago. I still remembered the gist of the setting but I had forgotten how cool the Aes Sedai and the White Tower were.

New Spring is set in the year Rand al'Thor, the Dragon, is reborn. Moiraine Damodred is a mere Accepted in the Tower, soon to become a full Aes Sedai with Siuan Sanche. It was curious that the current Amyrlin Seat the book starts with is not even the person Siuan supersedes later. Some serious turnover there for a lifelong position occupied by the long-living Aes Sedai.

In addition to Moiraine (and brief Siuan), Lan Mandragoran is another viewpoint character. He's not yet Moiraine's Warder -- obviously -- but the novel shows how they ended up meeting and then bonding.

The Black Ajah is a big plot element in New Spring. As I recall, it took few books for it to be introduced in the actual series, though my memory is hazy. In vain I tried to recall which of the many Aes Sedai mentioned in this one turned out to be of the secret Ajah. Cadsuane is also introduced: I'm pretty sure she doesn't appear until towards the end of the series -- New Spring felt like it was meant to be read in the place it's located in the publication order.

Adaption? Meh...

In 2021, Amazon started airing their TV adaptation of the books -- which I have avoided. Despite its high production cost, the show looks cheap (like fantasy shows often do). Adapting such a huge novel series with a massive character cast would never be easy, of course, but it appears the show makers have not even attempted to make justice to it.

Like with so many film and TV adaptions these days, the writers hate the source material, instead thinking they can do better than the original author and that someone cares about the writers' new vision. Every imaginary setting needs to be a reflection of the current day culture and politics of the United States -- or at least how the show makers would want things to be.

Movies and shows have become such garbage. I feel it's not worth spending my time to watch anything. The best way to enjoy them is Ryan George's Pitch Meetings on Youtube: films' laughable writing and inconsistencies condensed into an actually entertaining format.

The recent Dune adaptions, particularly the more recent Part Two, have been actually okay, although the first one did have an odd alteration for no good reason. The films managed to be captivating despite me knowing the plot. But because they were so faithful to the source material, they were only okay, not doing anything new.

One current year movie that really appears like my jam is the upcoming Alien: Romulus in August. Its obvious Alien: Isolation inspiration in the space ship/station interiors looks so awesome that I momentarily forgot how terrible the writing in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant was. Also the cast seems oddly young. And why they had to make someone with a British accent say the word 'water' in the trailer? All seriousness got instantly spaced out the airlock.