Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 24: A Time for Iron
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Kennar Miraj
Captain-General Kennar Miraj is camped a few miles east of Ebou Dar. He has received countless reports of groups of enemy soldiers in the Venir Mountain range and several of his outposts has been overrun. He estimates their number at 90,000, nearly twice what he has. He has several raken and to’raken, but something is wrong with the damane and the sul’dam are staying confined to their tent.
The High Lady Suroth enters his tent, newly arrived from Ebou Dar, accompanied by her Voice, Alwhin and 2 da’covale. Oddly, one of the da’covale, a short, dark-haired, slim, pale-eyed woman is leashed as a damane, with Alwhin holding the a’dam. The other da’covale, a young woman with a doll’s face and her hair in thin braids is sullen and poorly trained. Both her and the damane have a strange, ageless look to them.
Suroth asks Miraj if he is ready to march; Miraj thinks it will take at least 10 days for the enemy to combine and march on Ebou Dar. Suroth tells him that there are only about 5,000 men, but 50 Asha’man. They are Traveling, so they could be there by tomorrow. Miraj wonders how Suroth knows this, but she orders him to wipe them out. Miraj asks Suroth to release the damane to him and asks if they are still sick. Suroth does not say, but she agrees to give him the damane he needs after pointing out the price of failure.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand pushes a final drive against the Seanchan. Lews Therin becomes increasingly withdrawn. Dashiva, Flinn, Adley, Eben Hopwil, Morr, Narishma, Manel Rochaid, and Charl Gedwyn are all holding gateways for his army. Davram Bashere rides up, accompanied by all the other nobles, joining Ailil Riatan and Anaiyella Narencelona. Rand tells them that there are still 50,000 Seanchan 10 miles west and warns everyone to stick with the plan. The remaining Seanchan are still enough to defeat them. The nobles all head out.
- Weiramon Saniago leads Kiril Drapaneos, Bertome Saighan, Doressin Chuliandred and several minor Cairhienin.
- Gregorin leads Sunamon and Dalthanes.
- Bashere leads Jeordwyn Semaris, Amondrid and Gueyam.
- Semaradrid leads Torean, Maraconn and Ershin Netari.
- Gedwyn accompanies Weiramon while Rochaid accompanies Bashere.
- Jak Masond leads a company of the Legion of the Dragon.
The remaining Asha’man join Rand and Dashiva, revealing that he is not so mad as he usually pretends, says that saidin is behaving oddly; his weaves are vibrating instead of holding steady. Rand shrugs this off, telling Dashiva that he’s just feeling the taint more strongly. Dashiva persists though and forces Rand to actually look at a weave, which unsettles him. He secretly wishes Herid Fel were alive to answer this for him. Arlen Nalaam Travels in to report that the Seanchan are on the march and Rand sets his army in motion.
Point of view: Kennar Miraj
Miraj hopes to close with Rand’s forces before he knows they are there. A scout reports the enemy 5 miles ahead, deployed in 5 columns. Miraj gives the order for deployment of his forces and worries about the damane.
Point of view: Bertome Saighan
Bertome is riding in one of the attack columns and moves up to talk to Weiramon. He overhears Weiramon and Gedwyn talking, but they cut short the conversation before he can understand what it is about. A scout rides in then and warns of 2,000 Taraboners right behind him. Weiramon and Bertome lead their men in an attack.
Point of view: Varek
Varek has a message he needs to get to Banner-General Chianmai but there is much fighting around him. When he reaches the camp, Chianmai is dead. A Taraboner reports that they were attacked and were winning thanks to the damane, but then the damane channeling went wrong. Varek takes command of the remaining men, planning to disengage.
Point of view: Davram Bashere
Bashere is deciding between crossing a meadow which could be a death trap or going around which will take time. He asks for Rochaid for assurances the Asha’man will respond more quickly next time. They are having difficulty channeling. He decides to go around with triple scouts out.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Bashere reports to Rand and suggests strongly that Rand and his army leave the field of battle. He tells Rand that their original battle plan cannot work now as the Seanchan general has adapted and gathered his forces. Now the Seanchan lie in wait for Rand and his forces ahead in the forest. Rand, nervous but confident, opts to wield Callandor and unleash lightning in the area. He loses control of both saidin and Callandor, and devastates the surrounding area until Bashere knocks him down to cease the attack which is also affecting his own forces. Now really seeing what his attack has done, Rand chooses to leave the battlefield with his forces. He feels this as the first defeat of the Dragon Reborn and Lews Therin in his head is furious about that.
Point of view: Abaldar Yulan
Yulan covers the body of Banner-General Miraj, to keep the rain off of him. He orders the retreat back to Ebou Dar; the Seanchan have suffered their second defeat since The Return. Someone will have to apologize to the Empress.
REACTION:
This just didn’t quite land for me, as much as Jordan’s battle chapters usually do. It felt like he was going for more of a bleak 20th-century style “everyone loses in war” type of vibe. And he succeeded with capturing the vibe. The problem is that the vibe doesn’t really fit well within The Wheel of Time. We are eight books in, and I feel comfortable saying that this is a good vs. evil late Medieval fantasy epic. Wet, marshy, everything is going wrong Vietnam type stories are an awkward fit here. (I am aware of Jordan’s biography as I write that.)
On the other hand, I think the point of this confrontation was to implement a stalemate between Rand’s forces and those of the Empress, may she live forever. We just weren’t going to get anything satisfying from that, whether that be a grand victory or an agonizing defeat. So…
Part of the problem with this chapter, and it not “landing” was the plot device of the One Power not working properly. We never find out *why* that’s happening – or at least why the Bowl of the Winds caused this to happen. Even Dashiva (whose Old Tongue fluency and strength in the One Power implies that he is one of the Forsaken – most likely Osan’gar / Aginor) is confused by it and if that identification guess is correct, he’s basically the scientist of the Forsaken so he’d know better than anyone what to be concerned about on this front.
Jordan has done a really good job of hiding Dashiva’s identity while also giving us clues. I don’t think you’d notice without a very careful reading.
On the topic of the One Power being weird… it’s also a circumstances that is extremely unlikely to be repeated as the series goes forward. It’s hard to become invested in a situation imposed by the plot, that will probably never come up again. What is to stop the Seanchan from returning to Illian in a few weeks when the Bowl of the Winds anomaly is gone and the damane are healthy? Nothing. This whole fight feels pretty pointless. That’s probably part of the point. It’s just unsatisfying.
Maybe I’m just feeling very much like Lews Therin in my absolute rejection of the idea that the Dragon Reborn ever loses. But that line from him made me view him a little differently. Now I imagine Lews Therin as someone hyper-competitive, like Michael Jordan.
If Rand is Michael Jordan, does that make the Seanchan the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons? Or Larry Bird’s Celtics?
Maybe this type of too competitive attitude is why so many people didn’t like Lews Therin during the Age of Legends. It’s also interesting to keep in mind that Lews Therin *is* Rand, just in a different context. That indicates Rand is also hyper-competitive, or that he could be in the right set of circumstances. Maybe that’s why his POVs always remember who won and who placed where at the archery contests at Bel Tine in the Two Rivers.
The big question mark scene for us as the reader is what happened here with Rand and Callandor. Why exactly did he lose control? We can definitely blame the weirdness of saidin. We can potentially blame Rand’s insanity. Was it anything else? Rand used Callandor successfully in the Stone of Tear (at least until he went kind of crazy and started trying to resurrect the dead girl.) He wasn’t (as) insane yet and saidin wasn’t weird that day. But that’s two for two with respect to him going crazy while using it. Hmmm.
Note: This is a subtle thing, but Suroth’s information regarding how Rand’s forces are moving (Traveling) strongly implies that she’s a Darkfriend. Who could know what was going on except one of the Forsaken? Do we think Dashiva is a Forsaken? Yes. Is it likely that one of the Forsaken is hiding among the Seanchan leadership? Yes.
I don’t know if we’re done with Rand vs. the Seanchan in this book, but it feels a bit like we are. So I have no idea what the big finish here will be. We have a few chapters remaining to get there, though! Onward!
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