When I was learning grammar, way back when, I was taught that a comma comes after an introductory phrase. I’m almost done with the first book for the first time, and as I’ve read, I’ve noticed that Robert Jordan is somewhat lax with his commas, and it keeps confusing me. Here’s an example, the very first sentence of chapter 44 says: “In the darkness just before dawn Rand followed Moiraine down to the back hall…” See how’s there’s no comma after ‘dawn’? When I’m reading, my brain isn’t cued to start looking for the subject and verb, then I get to the end of the sentence thinking I’m still waiting for the main clause. I don’t know if it’s just a me thing, but has anyone noticed this?
Sometimes, he does put a comma there. Two chapters later, Jordan writes: “Across the treetops, towers rose to the north and east of them, dark against the morning sky.” What’s the difference? My running theory is that he’s focusing more on the rhythm of the sentence rather than the grammar, but I’ve really only thought about an N = 2. I haven’t been actively looking for examples as I’ve read, these two sort of jumped out at me. Thoughts?