New Spring

Title: New Spring

Author: Robert Jordan

Genre: Fantasy

Series: The Wheel of Time #0

Pages: 304 pages

Synopsis:

The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.

For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a Foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, is born an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before the forces of the Shadow have an opportunity to kill him.

Moiraine Damodred, a young Accepted soon to be raised to Aes Sedai, and Lan Mandragoran, a soldier fighting in the battle, are set on paths that will bind their lives together. But those paths are filled with complications and dangers, for Moiraine, of the Royal House of Cairhien, whose king has just died, and Lan, considered the uncrowned king of a nation long dead, find their lives threatened by the plots of those seeking power.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts

New Spring is the prequel novel to The Wheel of Time Series. It follows a young Moiraine and Lan, how they met and their first adventure and how they began their mission to find the Dragon Reborn.

There is a few things I liked about this book. I really love Lan and Moiraine’s character development. We get both Moiraine and Lan’s point of views in this book. And that really helped flesh out their characters. I think this is the first time we get chapters from Lan’s perspective! We learn more of their backstories, what motivates them. We see a side of Lan that hasn’t really been brought up that much, and that was him struggling with his duty as the King of a nation that no longer exists: Malakier. He is a king of a country that no longer exists and yet the survivors of that country still look up to him for leadership and we see him struggle with the duty and responsibility that comes with that. Character development is the best thing about this book. It was also nice seeing familiar Aes Sedai characters in this book as well. This book also made me realize how much I miss Moiraine as a character.

For worldbuilding, there isn’t too much. We learn about what a “slice of life” of what living in The White Tower is like during regular times. We also learn a little bit more of Malakier: it’s history and some of their customs.

Without spoiling anything, Moiraine and Siuan have probably the best relationship I’ve seen in this series.

I actually liked that the villain in this book was not an over the top evil person. The villain is part of the Black Ajah, and this would be Moiraine’s first interaction with this group and it makes sense on why she was not surprised of hearing the Black Ajah during the earlier Wheel of Time books. Also unlike Crossroads of Twilight, we do get some fight scenes and a proper climax. The climax may not be as good as Lord of Chaos and Winter’s Heart but it worked for me.

Now I do have some criticism of this novel. It takes over 200 pages for Moiraine and Lan to finally meet. And I was really expecting them to meet earlier in the book and got to know each other better.

While the fight scenes and the climax definitely helped made me enjoy this novel, I felt like the fight scenes began and ended way too quickly. In one of the fight scenes, I was going: “Yes, a fight scene. Alright. I’m excited.” And the fight ended one page later. And I was like: “Wait, what? That’s it?”.

I also felt like the ending was a little bit rushed. I just felt like Lan and Moiraine and bonding just happened way too quickly for me. Lastly this book didn’t really add much to the series as a whole. While it was cool to see how these two iconic characters were brought together, I don’t feel like a novel is justified for this idea.

Overall, this was definitely a step up from Crossroads of Twilight. This book isn’t my favourite in the series but again much better than Crossroads. And again made me realize how much I miss Moiraine’s character. I would only recommend you read this book if you want to finish ALL of the Wheel of Time books or are just a devoted Wheel of Time fan.

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