Two Tams?

[Kat]

It seemed like Tam was with Perrin and Rand at times, but no mention was made of him Traveling to go see Rand? Am I losing my mind?

[Wesley]

I'm pretty sure its because you're seeing events happening at different times. In the previous book he'd already gone to see Rand, but in this one he hadn't. Been a little while since I read this so I could be wrong.

[Selena]

There was a mention that Tam had gone off with Nynaeve but it was like one line that was easily overlooked.

[Laia]

Wesley is right, it is a timeline issue, the events are happening at different times. The Tam that is with Perrin still has not gone to see Rand. Perrin, Egwene and most of the characters don't catch up with Rand's timeline until the 30th chapter. I found it really annoying, specially with the "two Tams": I even made up my mind that one of them had to be a Forsaken in disguise!

[Shannon]

yeah I think its becuase of a time line issue as well. Maybe the author was thinking you would just conclude that he had traveled since you could travel anywhere in a second using the portals.

[Richard]

Sanderson said in the forematter of "The Gathering Storm" that in order to get his mind around the plotting, he had to collect events according to relevance instead of timeline.

This was true for "Towers of Midnight" as well. If you just accept that, then the Timeline works out. RJ would have massaged it all together so that no one character's personal timeline backtracked, but he didn't have to play catch up with another author's work.

I boggle to think of the task that Sanderson took on at such a young age. I'm not satisfied with the quality of his writing and editing with the major climaxes, such as Rand's Mountaintop Experience and the Exposure of Sherriam. But he's to be congratulated for doing as well as he has. But I want better. But I couldn't do better. But I want--

[Marilize]

Laia wrote: "Wesley is right, it is a timeline issue, the events are happening at different times. The Tam that is with Perrin still has not gone to see Rand. Perrin, Egwene and most of the characters don't cat..."

It's very disorienting that things happened so out of synch. It bothered me a bit, but hopefully all the characters have now caught up and we can knuckle down for the finale in the next book.

Looking forward to it - but Brandon, please keep things in order/timeline!

[Ezra]

I also found the timeline disorienting but I enjoy these books so much that I find it only mildly distracting. I do think it seems that everyone is caught up now so hopefully events will be more straightforward. I am looking very forward to the last book.

[Jp]

Kat wrote: "It seemed like Tam was with Perrin and Rand at times, but no mention was made of him Traveling to go see Rand? Am I losing my mind?"

The timeline of the last two books is a little fuzzy. Honestly, the first half of the latest book takes place during the events of the book prior.

[Jonathan]

Jp wrote: "The timeline of the last two books is a little fuzzy. Honestly, the first half of the latest book takes place during the events of the book prior."

I would image that is because in the original plan, it was all one book. As such, progressing a character along, then going back and bringing another forward to match is pretty well done in all the books after the boys split up.

[Jp]

I'm pretty willing to buy that. Still, what kind of blows my mind is this: Jordan was planning on finishing up the series in one book, but I can't picture how. There hasn't been a single wasted scene - hardly a wasted page in the last two books. Sanderson has used every opportunity to pursue plot and necessary character development. It almost seems likely that Jordan's joke about having to "Carry the manuscript out of the bookstore with a wheel barrow" would have come true.

[Jonathan]

The book could have been done at once, but it would have been as dense as the freaking bible, which didn't bother Jordan from his statements (as quoted above), but Sanderson and Tor balked at it.

To be honest, I think they made the right decision, given the slow grind of catchup sanderson had to do, it would have been incredibly daunting to try and do it all as one book.