Anyone else likes Robert Jordan better than Tolkien?

[Celtavian]

Well, Tolkien wasn't your conventional, traditional fiction writers. A professor of language and literature does not make him a story writer. Perhaps it was luck and opportunity that allow him to go down in history as being the creator of modern fantasy genre, and the father of fantasy literature.

And a great passion for fairy tales and epics. Tolkien enjoyed what he wrote as much as fans enjoy reading it.

He was a very competent writer. I feel the boring parts of Lord of the Rings only lend greater verisimilitude to the overall story. Not every part can be slam bang action and intrigue. The hobbits were traveling about marveling at the world of Middle Earth as much a tourist as the reader and when Frodo and Sam were traveling, they weren't great heros capable of fighting hordes of orcs, they were weary, overburdened hobbits who fate favored from time to time. All in all, the boring, slow parts made the characters seem more believable and real in a way that most authors can't seem to manage, including Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin (whom I think is a great writer as well).

How many writers can take an utterly non-combat character like Frodo and Sam and make them interesting and capable? Even in Martin's stories, only Sansa and Catelyn were non-combat. Even Arya and Tyrion tore it up, and Bran had special powers through his wolf.

IMO, Tolkien had a wide range characters in his book. He doesn't get credit for very good use of fantasy archetypes, some of which he helped create.

The story is much more complex, interesting, and varied than most fantasy stories, and if you really studied it in depth you would see how it compares more closely to the "real" world than most of the other stories mentioned, even in characterization.

Anyhow, it would take a truly inspired author to usurp Tolkien's place in fantasy. Jordan I haven't read all that much of, and Martin is very good, but he's no Tolkien.

 

[Krieg]

RJ would be the better author if he had an editor who had the power to say "no".

...but then he would probably divorce her, and therein lies the problem.

 

[Squire James]

I've never seen an author have people with less power do more than Tolkien. Similarly, I've never seen an author have people with more power do less than Jordan.

Not that Jordan is necessarily bad, but I think he's overdoing the foibles of the main characters. I've read books (by Elizabeth Boyer, BTW) where the characters were willfully stupid, but at least these guys were SUPPOSED to be a bit dim!

 

[Hoodooman]

WoT coming to an end soon. Path of Daggers as the hurdle.

I think I read somewhere on the newsboards at EN that there are only going to be at most, two more WoT books. Then probably a prequel or two. Maybe about Rand's mother and father.

I liked books 1-7, and thought Crown of Swords was the best. Then I got Path of Daggers and have't been able to get pass the first chapter. So much for loyalty, eh?

I then read the jackets of the last book-Crossroads of Twilight and he says that the Madness for male channelers is gone. What the cheez? That was the whole limit on male channelers- the Madness. Don't know where he is going with this arc?!?

 

[Taelorn76]

I think I read somewhere on the newsboards at EN that there are only going to be at most, two more WoT books. Then probably a prequel or two. Maybe about Rand's mother and father.

My post above takes you to an interview with Robert Jordan where he says that he indeed wants to finish in 2 more books, but the prequels will be released first.

Book Eleven
2nd prequel - Rand's father
3rd prequel - Lan and Moiraine find Rand ( just before Eye of the World
Book Twelve

At least that is what I took it as. :\

 

[Taelorn76]

Double post

 

[Dragonblade]

I then read the jackets of the last book-Crossroads of Twilight and he says that the Madness for male channelers is gone. What the cheez? That was the whole limit on male channelers- the Madness. Don't know where he is going with this arc?!?

Highligh to read spoiler:

The taint is cleansed from Saidin in Book 9, Winter's Heart. Its very cool.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I really wish he'd finish the current story before he starts working on a new one. He's got a trilogy within his.... I-have-no-idea-ology!

It is his story. He's got author's rights, of course. But at the expense of the reader's?

I want to say I'm just going to skip the prequels, but I have this feeling I'll like them more than I like the current series.

 

[ASH]

Highligh to read spoiler:

The taint

Spoiler

is cleansed from Saidin in Book 9, Winter's Heart.

Its very cool.

I also thought that it was very cool..

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

My post above takes you to an interview with Robert Jordan where he says that he indeed wants to finish in 2 more books, but the prequels will be released first.

Well then, an AWFUL lot of stuff has to happen in the next two books. Personally, for all the other prequels, I was hoping he'd do the Trolloc Wars, Lews Therin and the original sealing away of the Dark One, and all that good jazz.