Boston Book Signing, Oct 13th
Andrew Arace
signing?
I'll be there.
-Andrew
Allen Bryan
owned this book one day!
Anyone else have a tear in their binding around page 400?
Allen Bryan
RJ's looking good! More gray in the hair, but much trimmer; he's lost
weight. One question was about his health; he says he lifts 3 times /
week, swims (less often than beofre), and walks. At his latest physical
they had to give him an injection to speed his heart, and his blood
pressure **still** didn't break 120/80 (double-chcked). He's in
fantastic shape.
Introducer gave a five-minute laudatory speech, empathizing with the
long suffering of the fans and making reference to Hemingway's
character and the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia as other famous Robert
Jordans. RJ himself thanked him ("the check is in the mail") and stated
that the name was generated so that he could have different names in
different genres. All the names were generated from his initials; his
real name is reserved for contemporary fiction, originally for a novel
on Vietnam that he will now never write. (Everything that needed to be
said Vietnam has now been said many times, he said.)
He gave the standard remedial pronounciation guide, and was exasperated
that people didn't use the glossary pronouncations. Look back there
people, there's stuff not in the main storyline!
Book Twelve will end the main sequence if he has to personally go to
New York and beat the publishers at Tor, even if it runs two thousand
pages and they have to invent a new way to bind the books (shudder).
There will be two more prequels a la New Spring, and there might --
very big MIGHT -- be another trilogy in the same universe. Have to chew
on it a year or two, he says.
If he doesn't find a way to write it into the plot in Book Twelve, RJ
is contemplating announcing Asmodean's killer at the time of the
publishing of the paperback of Book Twelve. He wants to let us stew a
little longer, though.
Blah blah Infinity-of-Heaven-cakes. IoH's culture will be even more
stratified than Seanchan's, but as close as we will get to seeing
Seanchan culture. However, one thing about Seanchan: you really can be
born a peasant or slave in Seanchan and rise through skill and luck to
become an assistant and confidant of the Empress herself. That's a
point in its favor; it's fluid.
Questions:
I got the first question: The Gasp Moment. I won't reveal the Gasp
Moment (thank you, said RJ), but why write it in? There doesn't seem to
be a plot reason, so it must be a literary reason. You said on your
blog it was painful to write, so why??
RJ: Because Hell on Earth is about to break loose! Haven't you people
got that in your heads yet? The Shadow is winning, it's the fifteenth
round, our boy is on the ropes and the Shadow feels great and has
tremendous punching power! Three minutes to go and there's only one
chance. The Gasp Moment is their reaction to this.
My internal reaction: wow. nasty.
Other questions, not necessarily in order:
Is the Asha'man bond involuntarily linking? No. (Waste of a good
question; that's in the FAQ.)
Does the rate of slowing depend on your strength in the Power? Yes,
basically; you age at 1/X your normal rate, with X being dependent up
to a point on Power strength. The Power acts as a natural rejuvenator
on you; even at the point of death you won't look or feel worse than a
normal 65-year-old. (RJ had to hem and haw a good bit to avoid
revealing that slowing != the Ageless Look -- there were several
spoiler people in the audience, including one who was working on Book
Six at the moment.)
Another couple of Asmo questions: "I'm not going to give you a chapter
to find." However, he emphasized OPPORTUNITY as the key to knowing
Asmo's killer, even over motive (which got a mention). Graendel and
Lanfear theorists, you may start grinding your axes.
Mesaana: Do we have enough clues to know her identity. RJ: I think so,
but I'm not absolutely sure. Her Third Age role has been at least
mentioned.
RJ was amazed that few women were asking questions after the first
woman asked her question (about the seventh speaker), specifically
asked for women to ask (none did at that moment, but two more did
later) and later specifically favored women asking questions over men.
Interesting there -- he ascribed the behavior to being at Harvard.
The Seanchan Empire is so detailed. Did you enjoy writing some cultures
more than others? --No, I enjoyed them all. But it's really about
people; people can be interesting even in a boring culture.
I got a few more questions in as he signed my book:
1) Dyelin is like Cincinnatus of Rome. True or false? -- True, pretty
much, except Dyelin was never really offered power; she had it for a
little while as Elayne's not-quite-authorized regent, but otherwise
wasn't really called upon to save Andor the way Cincinnatus was called
upon to save Rome. Otherwise, yes. (Be'lal, whoever you are, I win a
cookie.)
2) Demandred does not use a Third Age persona. True or false? -- RAFO.
3) The Thirteenth Depository has never been revealed by a non-channeler
librarian for three thousand years. How is this possible? -- Because
there are no non-channeler libarians; the librarians of the Thirteenth
Depository are all Aes Sedai.
"Brown Ajah?" I asked.
He hesitated a moment. "Yes."
I couldn't ask any more -- he was already signing the next book -- so I
said good night (Thank you!) and left.
However, one more question formed in my mind as I walked home, along
with a nonloony theory. (Hint to anyone going to a later signing!)
Behold my new Purple Ajah Theory:
The Purple Ajah, or Second Foundation Ajah, is real but not so cohesive
as that. It is simply that the Purple Ajah consists of the libarians of
the Thirteenth Depository.
It all fits, doesn't it? As the librarians, they have more detailed
knowledge of the world than anyone else in the entire world, including
the rest of the White Tower. By 13th Depository Tower law, they cannot
reveal the existence of the 13th Depository; but nothing stops them
from acting on information IN it. So if Verin had been a 13th
Depository librarian, she would know things that almost no one else
would know -- and use that knowledge.
Granted, most of the contents of the 13th Depository consist of the
secret political history of Third Age Randland; but who knows? Secret
techniques and prophecies could very well be in there as well.
Well, there you have it folks: RJ Does Boston.
Andrew Arace
And that's a nice Purple theory!
And sorry about the Involuntary Linking question, my actual question
was if the warder bond was the same weave as aes sedai - warder, and
asha'man-aes sedai, he said no, they're completely different. And he
snapped at me when I said Logain discovered it. I thought he had
figured it out, with the kissing and all was how he learned how to do
it, but I guess it was some other asha'man who actually discovered it,
maybe? My followup on involuntary linking came out wrong, and he
answered it not what I was looking for.
Me and RJ
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/3932/dsc00189smaller9rr.jpg
BAsr...@gmail.com
Andrew Arace wrote:
> Yep, he was looking good indeed.
>
I was there too, but didn't get to ask a question during the Q&A
session.
I've never seen him without the hat and sunglasses before, so I guess
he looked healthy.
Someone else mentioned how they liked the way he writes political
figures as self-interested people who truely believe they are doing
whatever is right for the common good. RJ agreed with this and said
that that's what he believes the vast majority of polititians are like.
There are of course some who are corrupt. He then told a story of a
frightening meeting with a man (I forget the name) who was ex-KGB and
connected to powerful Russian polititians and liked his books, who then
asked RJ how he knows what he knows. A sweating RJ then told the man
they first had to agree on what it is that he knows.
During the signing, I got to ask whether there exists a type of balance
or opposite to the True Power the way there is with saidar and saidin.
He said no, and decribed how they are different, mostly stuff that is
already known. THe two sides of the one power being different and from
the creater and keeping the wheel turning and all that. Hi did mention
that when a channeler uses a weave (either saidar or saidin) and
releases the weave, the power flows back into the available pool of
saidar or saidin. It is never used up, and so it is like an infinite
resevour of power. The True power is not like this at all. The TP
comes from the dark one of course.
I thought this was interesting. Did this imply that the amount of TP
is finite? Does it drain the DO to use the TP? I didn't get to ask.
Maybe there's a way to destroy the DO here?
Allen Bryan
> Someone else mentioned how they liked the way he writes political
> figures as self-interested people who truely believe they are doing
> whatever is right for the common good. RJ agreed with this and said
> that that's what he believes the vast majority of polititians are like.
> There are of course some who are corrupt.
In fact, he specified: the honest politician believes his or her
self-interest aligns with the common good. The corrupt politician is
the one who doesn't care about the common good, but is only in it for
his or her own self-interest.
I got the sense that the second kind are far more likely to become
Darkfriends than the first kind.
> He then told a story of a
> frightening meeting with a man (I forget the name) who was ex-KGB and
> connected to powerful Russian polititians and liked his books, who then
> asked RJ how he knows what he knows. A sweating RJ then told the man
> they first had to agree on what it is that he knows.
The last name was Ostrovsky, I forget the first name. He couldn't find
out for three days; his terrified translator wouldn't even write it
down for three days. However, I won't forget his KGB codename. He was
codenamed the Dragon.
I am almost *certain* that he must have come across Jordan's books as
part of a standard KGB scan of the US press, looking for possible coded
references to KGB agents. Jordan's military background would have
caused his works to be red-flagged. Then he actually would have *read*
them, and discovered what he later told RJ personally:
that the books were not about politics, but the *poetry* of politics.
It adds spice to the story that they were in a small bar on an island
outside St. Petersburg, where RJ was literally concerned that he might
not be seen again...
> During the signing, I got to ask whether there exists a type of balance
> or opposite to the True Power the way there is with saidar and saidin.
> He said no, and decribed how they are different, mostly stuff that is
> already known. THe two sides of the one power being different and from
> the creater and keeping the wheel turning and all that. Hi did mention
> that when a channeler uses a weave (either saidar or saidin) and
> releases the weave, the power flows back into the available pool of
> saidar or saidin. It is never used up, and so it is like an infinite
> resevour of power. The True power is not like this at all. The TP
> comes from the dark one of course.
>
> I thought this was interesting. Did this imply that the amount of TP
> is finite? Does it drain the DO to use the TP? I didn't get to ask.
> Maybe there's a way to destroy the DO here?
I'm pretty sure that the TP is pure Dark One Power, and that the DO
can't affect the world except via TP. He obviously controls it. I
seriously doubt the DO can be destroyed; that would destroy the Wheel
as surely as anything the DO is trying to do. What *might* be possible
is to cause so much TP to be expended that the DO can't touch the world
for a long, long time: an Age or more.
Leigh Butler
<snip>
> Well, there you have it folks: RJ Does Boston.
Thanks for the report, Allen.
--
Leigh Butler