Wheel of Time?

[cignus_pfaccari]

I was enthralled with WoT through the first few books. I gave up after book 7 because I felt like things had ground to a near standstill and was tired of the way certain plot points seemed ripe for closure, but didn't actually close.

In that case, check out the last book. It's vastly more fun than anything since Book 6. Rand cuts loose with his warmagery, and Mat is again the Best General EVAR, among other things.

You can probably skip anything else that you haven't read. The prior book had three things happen that I recall, out of about 800 pages.

Brad

 

[papastebu]

I was enthralled with WoT through the first few books. I gave up after book 7 because I felt like things had ground to a near standstill and was tired of the way certain plot points seemed ripe for closure, but didn't actually close.

I agree with this to an extent, due to my natural impatience, but I stuck it out because I like the characters so much. Honestly, though, the situation with Nynaeve, and the one with Rand not getting to the cleansing--I think one book earlier might have done it--was brought back to my mind by this last Harry Potter book, when they were falling over themselves in the woods.
I'm always disappointed when the author of a truly fine story like this can't seem to shave off the dry bits without cutting out major expository parts. Even covering interesting fluff, like the history of the Aiel, could have been done a bit more succinctly. All in all, if the series was shorter by a book or two, due to editing out all of the repeats, absolutely unnecessary characters and their characterizations, and cutting the drawn-out waiting for something that you want to--and know is going to--happen, it would probably be better for it. Maybe Jordan was just trying to make sure he filled in all the loose ends. Maybe he was pandering to too much of his fans' commentary, and trying to please ALL the people.
I don't mean to villify him, because I think that reading these people's lives has I think, given me a lot of insight and enrichment.
EDITBayle Domon)END EDIT. Domon Bayle is a floating plot device.
How relevant ARE the Black Ajah? They got the three strongest women channelers in 1000 years out of the Tower, but are they just somebody for the girls to fight? I think I would have been more satisfied with this storyline if it had been resolved, at least mostly, and had been what led up to the division of the White Tower, instead of the three Accepted leaving beforehand. Lots more thoughts and questions, but I do go on. My apologies.

 

[death tribble]

Well I have read the books to date and like them. I did not see Nynaeve and Rand cleansing the Male side of the source coming but when it happened I thought Yes ! Something legendary.
I like Nynaeve. And I like the Aiel. The next book is going to be the final book according to all the sources I have seen.

 

[kingpaul]

Regardless of how you slice the Lord of the Rings, it really can't be considered a trilogy unless you are just determined to do so, in which case, it's perfectly alright to call it that.

It isn't a trilogy, but it is a trilogy?

but I feel like certain things like Nynaeve's situation could have been pared down a bit. There's a point when plot-driving tension becomes irritated waiting, to me, and I was wondering if Jordan had crossed that line with anyone else.

It irritated me a bit as well. I've read all the books through determination. The last one really surprised me, which I'm glad for. The several before that were just, IMO, dragging on and on...and on and on.

 

[papastebu]

It isn't a trilogy, but it is a trilogy?

Finally, somebody understands.

It irritated me a bit as well. I've read all the books through determination. The last one really surprised me, which I'm glad for. The several before that were just, IMO, dragging on and on...and on and on.

"This is the song that never ends..."
I have been alternately disgusted and pleased with the length of the series. More to read, or pointless reading? I would like to have an abridged version, where I get to pick what goes in and gets left out.
I do love how he has reinvented interesting things from myth, such as the golam, and how he used the dynamic of man versus woman, and the different combinations of cultures. I've always thought that the Seanchan were an amalgam of Irish and Chinese cultures, with China being predominant. Also, the Tairens resemble Spain, and the Aiel are like Bedouins descended from Irish Tinkers or something. Brilliant!

 

[papastebu]

Well I have read the books to date and like them. I did not see Nynaeve and Rand cleansing the Male side of the source coming but when it happened I thought Yes ! Something legendary.
I like Nynaeve. And I like the Aiel. The next book is going to be the final book according to all the sources I have seen.

This was something that I saw coming when I realized that A) of the new-age channelers, Rand and Nynaeve were the strongest, B) there were two massive crystal spheres which seemed to be the tops of a statue of a man and one of a woman, and C) there were two smaller statues that were not only ter'angreal, but it seemed like their special purpose was to link their weilders to the giant statues. Add the amount of saidin that could be channeled through Callandor, and the fact that Nynaeve's a natural Healer...
I was desperate for it to happen, anyway, because going mad and dying of evil-induced rot has never been a part of my adolescent power-fantasies.

 

[Ranger REG]

Regardless of how you slice the Lord of the Rings, it really can't be considered a trilogy unless you are just determined to do so, in which case, it's perfectly alright to call it that.

Yeah, the trilogy is the publisher's decision not the author's. They didn't want to scare readers by offering one big honkin' book.

Only The Holy Bible or the California Telephone Directory are easily acceptable by [casual] readers.

 

[shilsen]

I really liked the first book and went through the next 4-5 before I finally quit. One of the reasons that I haven't seen mentioned on this thread which has often come up in discussions of Jordan's writing with people of varied tastes is his absolutely inability, IMNSHO, to write realistic women. I think John Norman (of Gor infamy) is the only fantasy author I can think of whose writing makes me go, "Damn, you really don't understand women, do you?" more than Jordan. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the Gor series is another where the first novel was quite interesting and enjoyable, but which very swiftly went donwhill.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I really liked the first book and went through the next 4-5 before I finally quit. One of the reasons that I haven't seen mentioned on this thread which has often come up in discussions of Jordan's writing with people of varied tastes is his absolutely inability, IMNSHO, to write realistic women. I think John Norman (of Gor infamy) is the only fantasy author I can think of whose writing makes me go, "Damn, you really don't understand women, do you?" more than Jordan. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the Gor series is another where the first novel was quite interesting and enjoyable, but which very swiftly went donwhill.

I just finished book six and I've come to the conclusion that he isn't bad at writing one *type* of female character, but he seems to be unable to conceive of one that isn't a short-sighted bully. That and the "everybody loves Rand" bit is tiresome.

As far as the series originally being four books, I'd say it really shows: the storyline changed quite radically after book four, where he started taking on the Forsaken and it was revealed that he wasn't really confronting the Dark One in the previous four books (or at least that is what I took from it -- I'm listening to it on audiobook so I may have missed something).

The length of the series does seem to be rather bloated, although I was warned about this before stating it (I wasn't planning on reading it until I found the audio version so I could listen to it while commuting to work -- time I wasn't really using anyway). Book six had some interesting bits (and a cool ending) but really could have been much shorter; I also understand the worst is yet to come in this regard. My question is whether that is to be blamed on Jordan, his editor or the publisher (trying to wring more revenue out of their cash cow?). Has anyone heard anything on the reason for the length of the series? I hear that Jordan actually issued an appology for book eight.

 

[Lazybones]

I think once the WoT is completed, someone (maybe even here) will publish a list of chapters from all 12 books that can be read to get the maximum experience from the series. Maybe with terse summaries of the chapters to be skipped. My memory from my last reading of books 7-10 is that there's only a few hundred pages of essential content in those four titles, and there are some sections in the earlier books that can likewise be skimmed over.

Certainly (IMO) the whole Perrin-chasing-Faile/Shaido sequence can go (or most of it, anyway), and big swaths of the Egwene-as-Amyrlin Seat, and Elayne-in-Caemlyn.

You're probably right about his female characters, but I don't understand women either, so I guess I don't notice it as much.

All Jordan needed was an editor who wasn't afraid to stand up to him when he started tending toward the bloat. WoT is still far better than Goodkind's Sword of Truth, in my opinion, and I only hope that GRR Martin's latest half-book isn't an indicator that he's falling into the same trap as Jordan did.