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New Spring

New Spring

The Novel (Wheel of Time)
Epic FantasyFantasy
Pages
400
Published
2004
Language
English

Synopsis

Roughly twenty years before the Dragon is Reborn, the Aiel War grinds toward its close in the snowbound camps outside Tar Valon. Among the Aes Sedai gathered there is a young Accepted named Moiraine Damodred, present when a dying woman's Foretelling announces that the Dragon has been born again on the slopes of Dragonmount. Sworn to secrecy with her friend Siuan Sanche, Moiraine begins a quiet and dangerous search for the infant who will one day be both the world's salvation and its ruin. Her path crosses that of al'Lan Mandragoran, the uncrowned king of a nation long ago swallowed by the Blight, a warrior who expects nothing from life but a soldier's death. This prequel traces how a sheltered noblewoman becomes an Aes Sedai and how she and Lan forge the bond between Aes Sedai and Warder that sets the main saga in motion. Shorter and more intimate than the novels that follow, it is a self-contained origin story for two figures whose early choices shape everything to come.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

AdventurousTenseAtmosphericHopeful
QuestMentor FigureComing of AgeSecret Identity

Genres

Epic Fantasy Fantasy High Fantasy

About the author

R
Robert Jordan

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007) wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan and became best known for the epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. He served two tours as a U.S. Army helicopter gunner in Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star, then took a degree in physics from The Citadel and worked as a nuclear engineer for the Navy. A fall and a long convalescence in the late 1970s turned him toward writing full time. Before fantasy...

Characters

Moiraine DamodredProtagonist

A young, sharp-minded Aes Sedai of noble Cairhienin birth who takes up the secret, lifelong search for the reborn Dragon.

al'Lan MandragoranProtagonist

The uncrowned last king of fallen Malkier, a disciplined warrior who wages a private war against the Shadow and becomes Moiraine's Warder.

Siuan SancheSupporting

Moiraine's closest friend and fellow Accepted, ambitious and pragmatic, who shares the secret of the Foretelling.

Gitara MorosoSupporting

An aged Aes Sedai whose dying Foretelling reveals that the Dragon has been Reborn.

Cadsuane MelaidhrinCameo

A famous and formidable senior Aes Sedai whose reputation precedes her.

All characters in New Spring

Frequently asked questions

  • Should I read New Spring before The Eye of the World or after?

    Most readers recommend reading it after the main series, or at least after the first several volumes. Although it is a chronological prequel, it was written and published much later and assumes familiarity with characters and concepts the main books introduce. Reading it first can blunt some reveals.

  • Was New Spring originally a short story?

    Yes. It began as a novella in the 1998 anthology Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg, and Jordan later expanded it into a full novel published in 2004. The novel adds considerable length and detail to the original.

  • Were there supposed to be more prequels?

    Jordan planned New Spring as the first of a trilogy of prequels, with later volumes covering other early events. He set the plan aside and never wrote the others, and his death in 2007 ended it. New Spring remains the only completed prequel.

  • When is New Spring set?

    It takes place roughly twenty years before The Eye of the World, around the end of the Aiel War, and centers on the Foretelling that the Dragon has been Reborn. It depicts the events that send Moiraine searching for the child who becomes the series' central figure.

  • Do I need to read New Spring to understand the main series?

    No. The fourteen-book main series stands on its own, and New Spring is optional background. It deepens the history of Moiraine and Lan but introduces nothing required to follow the central story.

  • Why is New Spring so much shorter than the other books?

    At around 300 pages it is roughly a third the length of a typical Wheel of Time volume. It was conceived as a focused origin story covering a brief, specific span of events rather than a sprawling installment.

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