Jan-12-2012, 12:27 AM (UTC)
On one hand, I'd have thought so too Valarya but, on the other hand, there is something kind of exciting about "going back" and finding out all that has gone on before. In a way, such a thing is more true to life...you meet someone new and are plunked into their stream of time and once you get to know their 'now' them, you can delve deeper and discover (and be even further wowed by) their 'then' them. For Fitz, this is kind of how he narrates his story to us from the outset, as an adult who has gone back, and it is interesting during the re-reads how we discover that we actually knew the 'now' Fitz, though for us during a first reading he was more the 'future' Fitz, before we knew the 'then' Fitz. 
Of course, the very same thing happens no matter which RotE book we pick up first. Some come to the tale via LST, others Farseer, others RWC. Even if it were Assassin's Apprentice, where the tale would be said to 'truly begin', we readers still manage to arrive into that moment of the characters' and the realm's histories very late, with so much more to learn of the past...and it is this loss of information that makes the whole thing so exciting for me. Even with Fitz, whom we meet early on as a six-year-old, we must wait to learn more of his past...and twelve plus books in, we are still clueless to most of it.
I believe that this is also why the RotE short stories work so well...though Robin has provided us with an approximate timeline where they fit into the whole saga, and so could thus be read chronologically, it doesn't really matter when we read them...we are just sundering the pieces back together like bits of broken crockery that we find on the floor.
Actually, the entire story is based on what happens when we only hold certain pieces of information or knowledge and must piece together bits as we find them...in this, we come to the story as clueless as those various characters who make up the story...and I love that.
Just think...joost's mum will know only what those keepers, Alise etc know and, just like those keepers, she will likely later learn the roles and other important pieces of information that have brought things about to that point in time eg what Wintrow did, Prince Dutiful's role etc...
Of course, the very same thing happens no matter which RotE book we pick up first. Some come to the tale via LST, others Farseer, others RWC. Even if it were Assassin's Apprentice, where the tale would be said to 'truly begin', we readers still manage to arrive into that moment of the characters' and the realm's histories very late, with so much more to learn of the past...and it is this loss of information that makes the whole thing so exciting for me. Even with Fitz, whom we meet early on as a six-year-old, we must wait to learn more of his past...and twelve plus books in, we are still clueless to most of it.
I believe that this is also why the RotE short stories work so well...though Robin has provided us with an approximate timeline where they fit into the whole saga, and so could thus be read chronologically, it doesn't really matter when we read them...we are just sundering the pieces back together like bits of broken crockery that we find on the floor.
Actually, the entire story is based on what happens when we only hold certain pieces of information or knowledge and must piece together bits as we find them...in this, we come to the story as clueless as those various characters who make up the story...and I love that.
Just think...joost's mum will know only what those keepers, Alise etc know and, just like those keepers, she will likely later learn the roles and other important pieces of information that have brought things about to that point in time eg what Wintrow did, Prince Dutiful's role etc...
"I am the Catalyst, and I came to change all things. Prophets become warriors, dragons hunt as wolves."
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