Game of Thrones fever is getting bad again, just months before the last seasons airs. While I’m ambivalent about the series generally, I am happy about one side effect. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is thinking about “what’s going to be the next GOT?” And that’s where things get interesting for us fantasy fans.
There’s the Amazon 5-season Lord of the Rings-themed series that may or may not follow Aragorn’s early life (which would be actually very interesting). Then there’s the much-promised Wheel of Time adaptation, also from Amazon. By the way, how they’re going to manage 2 extremely expensive fantasy adaptations at the same time, I have no idea…
In any case, all this news actually forced me to plough through The Fires of Heaven, book 5 in the Wheel of Time series. It took me forever! But the end was worth it, especially in the big showdown with the bad guy at the end. Rand, the main character, is suddenly assailed my memories of a former life, when he was the most powerful sorcerer in the world. That sorcerer was also crazy out of his mind, and he basically destroyed the world. So this crazy powerful sorcerer begins to come awake in Rand’s consciousness.
Because the world of this series seems deterministic and in some ways fatalistic, we’re almost trained to expect this to happen to Rand. But it doesn’t. He fights for his personal identity, and through the personhood of Rand, not the Dragon, he wins a great victory.
This reminded me, negatively, of my thoughts after finishing Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool trilogy. That series was simultaneously the most interesting and most maddening fantasy series I’ve ever read. In particular, the issue of time and identity played an important role in the ending.
Turns out that both novels have something very interesting to say about time and identity. Plus, they reflect the mindset of modernity in very unexpected ways. I talk about this, and some other things, in this week’s book review/cultural rant. You can either watch it or listen to the audio. Up to you. Enjoy!
Here’s the audio if you prefer just to listen:
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