New Spring (Wheel of Time) [Paperback]

Robert Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2004 | Series: Wheel of Time

The city of Canluum lies close to the scarred and desolate wastes of the Blight, a walled haven from the dangers away to the north, and a refuge from the ill works of those who serve the Dark One. Or so it is said. The city that greets Al'Lan Mandragoran, exiled king of Malkier and the finest swordsman of his generation, is instead one that is rife with rumour and the whisperings of Shadowspawn. Proof, should he have required it, that the Dark One grows powerful once more and that his minions are at work throughout the lands. And yet it is within Canluum's walls that Lan will meet a woman who will shape his destiny. Moiraine is a young and powerful Aes Sedai who has journeyed to the city in search of a bondsman. She requires aid in a desperate quest to prove the truth of a vague and largely discredited prophecy - one that speaks of a means to turn back the shadow, and of a child who may be the dragon reborn.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Expanded from a story that first appeared in Robert Silverberg's anthology Legends (1998), Jordan's eagerly awaited prequel to The Wheel of Time, the first of a projected three, more than lives up to its high expectations. For three days, battle has raged around the city of Tar Valon. In the White Tower two young Accepted attend the Amyrlin Seat and her Keeper as they await word of the outcome. Purely by chance, Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche are on duty when the Keeper foretells the rebirth of the Dragon, the world's only hope of winning the fight against the Dark One. Written with all the skill that has made Jordan one of the grand masters of fantasy, it's accessible enough for new readers, while the inside information is sure to captivate longtime fans. Far from the coldly self-possessed Aes Sedai who arrives in Emond's Field in The Eye of the World, the first Wheel book, Moiraine is a fun-loving, prank-playing and naïve Accepted, one who slowly grows into a determined and resourceful character. Even better, the narrative is flush with answers to mysteries only hinted at in Wheel (what was the test for Aes Sedai, what was "the Vileness") and with little details aimed at those in the know. Jordan buffs will be especially pleased to find the novel moves quickly, not at the glacial pace of recent books in the saga.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Jordan's best-selling Wheel of Time stands at 10 volumes and counting, and now he starts a prequel series by expanding his contribution to Legends (1998), an anthology of stories set in the worlds of their authors' novel-series. Basically, the new tale is about how two Wheel protagonists--the soldier Lan Mandragoran, claimant to the throne of a kingdom long defunct; and Moiraine of the royal house of Cairhien, an initiate of the sorceresses known as Aes Sedai--met. The momentous event comes early in the search for the infant boy who, grown up, may save the perpetually warring Wheel world from the Dark One. It doesn't occur, however, until this book is winding down. The preceding pages, after an opening in which Lan and his command are reprieved from certain death when the enormous army they are about to engage turns and marches away, focus on Moraine's and her friend Siuan's last days as wanna-be, and first as new-fledged, Aes Sedai. Both take their new status as license to look for the child of destiny, and they have inside dope, thanks to having heard a senior Aes Sedai announce the child's birth with her dying breath. The term padding comes to mind soon and often as New Spring blooms. Perhaps it should have been left a short story, and perhaps only Wheel of Time junkies will genuinely enjoy it. Said habitues are by now legion; acquire accordingly. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (December 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841492612
• ISBN-13: 978-1841492612
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (375 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of a twelve-years-older brother and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He is a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with "V" and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. A history buff, he has also written dance and theater criticism and enjoyed the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing, and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting.

Robert Jordan began writing in 1977 and went on to write The Wheel of Time(R), one of the most important and best selling series in the history of fantasy publishing with over 14 million copies sold in North America, and countless more sold abroad.

Robert Jordan died on September 16, 2007, after a courageous battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Considerably better than Crossroads of Twilight, February 12, 2004

By 

Ironblayde (Omaha, Nebraska, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: New Spring (A Wheel of Time Prequel Novel) (Hardcover)

Those familiar with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series know that a great many readers have something of a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, the world in which the story takes place is meticulously constructed, diverse and highly immersive, a true joy to read about. Some of his characters are quite intriguing, and his numerous subplots were always enough to keep readers highly involved. On the other hand, his series has two huge defects. First, almost every single female character is cut from exactly the same mold; Jordan says he wanted to write "strong" women, but what he means is that they behave like arrogant, spoiled teenagers who see men as little more than beasts of burden. I've read a number of strong women in literature, and met a number of them in my life, and none acts the least bit like Jordan's harpies. The second problem is that in the later volumes of the series, "glacial" doesn't even begin to describe the pacing. At least glaciers make progress once in awhile.

New Spring, thankfully, rectifies the latter problem. It moves along at a fine pace, keeping the reader interested from beginning to end. It's a measure of the depth of Jordan's story that even those of us who have read through the whole Wheel of Time series numerous times can find plenty of interest in this latest volume. A number of long-standing questions are resolved to greater or lesser extent in this book:

- What history does Elaida have with Moiraine and Siuan?
- What is the nature of the test to become full Aes Sedai?
- What happened to the other Malkieri following the fall of their nation?
- Why does Siuan suspect that Cadsuane is Black Ajah?
- What was the "unpleasantness" following the Aiel War that Cadsuane has referred to?
- How did Moiraine meet Lan?
- What was Lan's life like before he met Moiraine?
- How was the Tower involved in the fall of Malkier?

As you probably know, New Spring first appeared in short story form quite some time ago, and sometime following its release, Jordan's publishers at Tor convinced him to expand it into a novel, since he had told them that there was a great deal of the story he had to leave out in order to fit it into the space he was given. Keep in mind that I have never read the compressed version of this book, so I cannot compare the two, and tell you what was added or expanded in the novel form. However, the book doesn't read like a very short story that's been lengthened to fit a higher page count, not at all.

The other thing of note is that a number of sections in this book are written with Lan as the point-of-view character, which is an interesting experience, since I don't think Jordan has ever used him as such in the standard Wheel of Time books. Lan's character is already much as it will be about eighteen years later, when the opening events of the series proper take place, but the look into his mind is still fun.

The other main characters, Moiraine and Siuan, do show a little difference from their older counterparts that we're used to. Moiraine in particular is interesting to read, as she really comes across as a younger version of herself: determined and capable of great focus, but yet to attain the dignity and composure we're used to seeing from her. Siuan is a bit of a different story -- she seems to change rather rapidly after becoming Aes Sedai -- but it's still interesting seeing her as a younger woman.

In summary, despite some of the low reviews it's received, this book is well worth the purchase for Wheel of Time fans who miss the much better pacing of the first several books of the series. I wouldn't strongly recommend reading it if you've never read Jordan before, as it's better to have the background information from his full-size novels first, but if you're set on doing so, you should be able to pick up enough to keep from getting lost. An excellent purchase.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than I expected, July 27, 2005

By 

Mark Taragin (Jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New Spring (A Wheel of Time Prequel Novel) (Hardcover)

As this series has gotten worse, I have switched to buying the softcover edition instead of the hardcover edition to save money and space- and therefore just read this.

For all of you who have been buying books every 2 years - and debating whether to keep doing so - buy this.

This was a FUN read - and reminded me of why I got hooked on this series in the first place. I had read a review complaining there was too much fluff (e.g., descriptions of Tar Valon) - nonsense. While the book was not deep it was a pleasure to follow. Reading this provides insight into the relationship between Lan and Moiraine. READ THIS!!

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but not great {I am fourteen years old}, July 6, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: New Spring: The Novel (Wheel of Time (Tor Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read New Spring: The Novel, and have to say that although it was a hundred times better than Crossroads of Twilight, the latest installment in the series, it still is missing the magic that the first novels had. When the Wheel of Time series began, it was captivating. There was an exciting plot that never dragged along so slowly that it seemed to be standing still, as it does in the later books. It was full of mystery and thrill, and I could hardly force myself to put the books down. New Spring: The Novel, was a great read and provided a lot of interesting background to the series, but it certainly was not as fast-paced as the Wheel of Time or the Great Hunt, and not the type of book that kept me up late at night with my eyes glued to the pages. Robert Jordan still tends to go on in too much detail about clothing and furniture, such as "it was a simple room, with not too much gilding, but the mirrored stand lamps were brightly polished and silk tapestries hung on the walls." It seems that Robert Jordan has gotten into a rut and does not know or understand anymore how to write without so many excess details filling his books. But if you can ignore the lengthy un-needed descriptions, this is a book WoT fans will definitely want to read. I am lucky becasue I got into the series in late 2004, and I have had no waiting for any book to come out. For older fans of the series, I can imagine how frustrating it would be to wait for the end of the series only to discover that R.J. has decided to go back and write a prequel before moving on with the plot that everyone cares the most about.

Enough about what the book doesn't have. New Spring is very good. It takes us back to when Moiraine Damodred and Siuane Sanche are Accepted in the White Tower, training to become Aes Sedai. It is interesting to know that Suiane and Moiraine were "pillow friends" and that they used to play pranks on Elaida. They hear Gitara, the Keeper of the Chronicles at the Time, have a Foretelling about the Dragon Reborn taking his first breath, in what I consider to be the best scene of the book. Siuane and Moiraine start hunting for the baby, searching through the thousands of names collected of women whose children were born within ten days of Gitara's Foretelling.

Also Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of the dead nation Malkier, fights battles against the Aiel. He meets Moiraine, who he knows at first as Lady Alys Sedai. Lan and two Malkieri escort Moiraine to a city, and many funny things happen between them, with Moiraine, Aes Sedai and of the high house of Damodred, flying into a pond, or Moiraine setting fleas and wasps on Lan and sending a column of water crashing down on his head. Lan also has his carniera, first love, to deal with. She wants him to claim the throne of Malkier and try to fight back the Blight to reclaim the lost land where the nation used to lie.

This book was good, not to long, and provided interesting if not direly needed background information. If you have not read any of the other Wheel of Time novels, DO NOT start with this one! There is no index explaining trollocs or the Blight or channeling, and you will be very confused. The one true complaint I have about this book is that reading about Moiraine and Siuane putting fish in the White Tower's fountain or putting itchpowder on Elaida's shift detracts from the mystery that surrounded Siuane and Moiraine, or at least Moiraine, before. During the Wheel of Time, Aes Seadia were legendary, almost not human, but they have slowly evolved, to me at least, into regualr women. Their serenity seems to hide the fact that they are childish at times and nearly bursting with emotion, and they always seem to hang on to serenity by their toenails- it could slip at any second.