Ch. 1 - Apples First

Rand equals Jesus? He turns an entire apple orchard from a fallow or unyielding waste to a miraculously fruitful paradise? What's he going to do next, walk on water? Rand's reaction to the apple orchard was so terribly contrived here too: "Gather those apples quickly. My presence will hold him off for a time, I think, and whatever you take now should be safe from his touch" (58). Rand is so nonchalant about this that it just doesn't fit. He's simply accepting that because of the Dragon he can do odd things all over the place and interact with the Pattern in ways he never even conceived? How in the world can this not amaze him, or in the least slightly impress him. This, again, is a flaw in Sanderson's writing and I really think it has to do with the timeline the publishers have set for these books rather than Sanderson's skill. Too much has to be done. RJ would have more than likely taken five or six years of writing to develop these stories, and I think it would have been more than worth the wait.

I dunno, Eric. When I read it, I thought of it as being one of those times where Rands strong taveren nature causes things to happen. I figured he was non chalant about it because he's simply used to it by now. I didn't see it as something Rand actually did so much as something that happened because he was near. *shrug