The Joy of Erudition > Recent Status Updates

It's too long to give the exact quote here, but Melville essentially says: "The natives are not savages. No explorer has really come across anyone deserving that name. They were all peaceful before cruel European explorers found them and committed all kinds of atrocities and depredations on their islands. If they subsequently became hostile to us, it's our fault."

Asimov writes himself as a character in this story, portraying himself as a total horndog.

Back into it with Part 6, and part of the larger goal has been revealed. I can't help thinking of Douglas Adams' infinite improbability drive, though.

I really liked that the supporting characters are getting much more development and are having their own adventures. Rand was barely even in this one!

Still a much bigger focus on dreams in this one. And now we have a new character with 3 different names to remember.

I like this part with Mat running off and discovering the Dark One's Own Luck (which was later adopted as a D&D warlock ability).

It's slow but enjoyable. The parts with Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne are the best as far as this point.

I think Nynaeve has yanked on her braid more times in just this part of the book than in all previous books combined! Maybe this is the book where Jordan made a conscious effort to give his characters memorable character traits, like with Uno and his attempts to suppress his swearing around women.

Very slow, but I don't mind.