Prequel novels should rarely ever be the first book read in a series. They are called prequels for a reason. Detailed knowledge of the ins and outs of the fictional world and the characters and their futures is sometimes necessary context to truly understand what is happening. For instance, in the debate in the Chronicles of Narnia series over book order, to read The Magician's Nephew first, makes no sense. The magic is lost, and some of the reveals are pointless without prior knowledge of the other books.
For this reason, I think that to read the prequel novel to the Wheel of Time series, New Spring, after one has read the first several books in the series makes the most sense. That is what I have, indeed, done. Jordan seemed to have agreed on this, since one is just given a narrative that assumes knowledge of the other books. Very little effort is made to explain the systems of magic, military organization, governments, and so forth.
What Jordan instead focused on, and did so very well, were the answers to the questions "Who?" and "Why?". Who are Moiraine Damodred, Suian Sanche, and Lan Mandoragan? Why did they take up the quest in the first place? Why are they the ones that this task was given to? These questions are answered to some detail. It was nice to finally have a back story to the series proper.
The main part that I really loved was how Lan and Moiraine actually got their point of view narratives. Finally. They had had some to be sure in the series proper, but not like this. To read of their thoughts, and their motivations for why they did what they did was, well, pure awesomeness.
Along this vein, let's just say that Moiraine and Lan decidedly did not have a warm and fuzzy relationship right off the bat. When they first meet, they are hilarious annoyances to each other. I found myself laughing at some of the things they did to each other. Laughing hard. :D
The only area that I would caution on the book is that it is much more violent than the chronologically later books. Well, maybe that's not an entirely accurate statement, because incredibly horrific things happen in the series proper. The difference is that in the regular series the more difficult elements were happening off-screen, if you will, and referred to after the fact. In this book, the horrific things were occurring right in front of the reader's "eyes" if you will. So I do warn of some of the violent areas, and suggested graphic violence as well.
For me an area that I will not rate the series down on, but do not like, was how Moiraine took the law into her own hands and allowed an evil character to be harmed and potentially murdered, instead of finding a way to turn her into the law. We never find out if the evil character lived or died. And this is not being killed by other Dark Friends, as is the custom with the villains here and in other stories, who turn on each other constantly. In this case, a truly evil, but non-Dark Friend character is set up to potentially die by Moiraine.
While it is true that the character of Moiraine did not show such heartless and vengeful notions of "justice" in the series proper, it was still disturbing to read. I can accept that as she grew older, she'd not do some of the same things that she would think right when she was younger. It's even a good narrative. And I do believe that that is part of what we are to conclude about her. She is young and inexperienced, and makes mistakes.
However, this seems to be one more item in a long line of items from the series that shows a very jaded and dark view on life on the part of Jordan. He seemed to learn the lesson of war that one does not just do what is necessary, but one actively seeks chances to do so. Revenge and necessary actions are not the same, really, in any sane view of life or warfare, but to Mr. Jordan, they apparently were. I greatly enjoy his books, but I'm more and more convinced that I would decidedly not have liked or agreed with him on these issues in real life. To do what is necessary is one thing. To do what is necessary with no sense of morality or restraint from a fidelity to justice over vengeance, is another. As is to enjoy doing the necessary thing. That is not just or necessary, but simply sadism.
Okay, that's enough of me on my soapbox for now. Other than the extreme violence that is done right in your face, and the very disturbing action of Moiraine referred to just now; the book was a great read, and a lot of fun. And seeing a Moiraine narrative was great, especially after several books in. *Whistles innocently* What? That is not a spoiler, come on. ;)
Highly Recommended.
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