Sci Fi?

[Foxtale]

I'm intrigued with the part about the Shalom (is that it?) and the world before The Breaking. What exactly is that about? Do you think he's planning on expanding on that part? And given the level of scientific knowledge and technology in that period, does it count as sci fi?

And does that mean that the entire series is futuresque?

[Winters_Sorrow]

Originally Posted by Foxtale

I'm intrigued with the part about the Shalom (is that it?) and the world before The Breaking. What exactly is that about? Do you think he's planning on expanding on that part? And given the level of scientific knowledge and technology in that period, does it count as sci fi?

And does that mean that the entire series is futuresque?

I suppose you could argue that effectively it's "post-apocalyptic" if anything.
I'm not sure what more of value he could add to the pre-history (doesn't mean he won't - after all, it's Jordan! ) as he's already covered; the tainting of Saidan, the formation of the Foresaken, the existence & fall of Lews Therin and the 'Evil One'.

There's not much more you could add which would be important enough to warrant a mention.

[Green]

Check out "The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time" by RJ and Teresa Patterson. It has a fairly detailed section on the pre-breaking world. It does touch on Sci-Fi, imo... but still with a mainly fantasy feel.

Maybe you've already read that and want more... in which case, you're just greedy

[Foxtale]

I'm just greedy. <_<

[lightvsdarkness]

As i can remember in one of the books was something about rocket(spaceship), not clearly, bard's tale. Long time before Age of Legends. Wheel of time... Our future, their past. Or our past and their past, or...

[BSOM180]

I noticed Jordan never made mention of the world's name. He never called it anything, the entire realm. I mean, Europe still considered itself Europe before they found America, they knew there was more and they were a group of similar, so the region doesn't even have a name. But I always noticed that the map reminded me of Europe for some reason. Because of the all the kingdoms having similarities to Spain, England, and such. I have no idea why the asian presence was shoved in the north, I mean, maybe he thought no fantasy was complete without asians to kick butt. But ya, I always thought of it as WAY AFTER US. But if that's the case, then who's our dark one and who's the Dragon?

[Werthead]

My take was that the WoT series is set about 10,000 years in our future. Our age is the First Age and ends with the discovery of the One Power via genetic engineering. After the chaos and strife surrounding that (during which time the portal stones are first created) the Age of Legends begins, an extremely long period of peace and advancement. At the end of that period the War of the Shadow takes place.

The evidence for this is fairly straightforward. Moghedien tries to tell Nynaeve what the stars are but is interrupted. There is a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament in the museum in Tanchico in The Shadow Rising (alongside giraffe fossils, IIRC). There is a radio telescope-like artefact in the Black Hills that is possibly radioactive (a bowl-shaped valley with a spire coming out of it that radiates death). Egwene mentions an ancient story from the age before the Age of Legends about Lem travelling to the Moon in an eagle of fire (the first spacecraft to travel to the Moon was called the Eagle and the bit that landed on the Moon was called the LEM - Lunar Excursion Module). Thom Merrilin also mentions 'Materese the Healer' (Mother Teresa) and a giant called 'Mosk' threatening the world with fire (Moscow threatening the world in the Cold War). The Hindu gods Shiva and Kali (Shivan and Calian) are two of the Great Heroes of the Horn of Valere mentioned in ACoS.

[the_faery_queen]

my friend said the same thing as werthead. he said that there was mention of helicopters as well.
*shrug* would have been good/nice part of the story, make it more interesting
if only jordan hadn't waffled on so much and kinda ruined all the effort and backstory and depth that he had created.

[BSOM180]

Thank you very much for the info, I can use some of that in my game. The stories pointing to our history, it's really pretty interesting. I don't remember the mercedes ornament, I'll look for it tommorow when I'm reading [Just now getting to Tanchico in my re-read].

I do remember the references to Helicopters, APC's and Airplanes. I forgot the name for the helicopters but the APC's were Jo-Cars I think, and the Airplanes Sho-Wings. I found it odd that in the Age of Legends people were divided by appearance. The Aiel, or servants I guess all had the same hair color and such. The soldiers were all dark haired and dark eyed. It set things up for the WoT, but still odd.

[Talysia]

Having only recently finished the series, I thought it was just me that noticed the references to our world in the books. I guess it does make it more interesting. On my next reread I'll keep my eyes peeled for it.