I just got through “Eye of the World.” Oh my word, what an awful, awful book. Overwritten, dreary, juvenile and about 400 pages too many for the amount of actual story it contains. Stuffed to the rafters with pompous witchy-women, steroid-case warriors, “gleemen” (travelling stand-up bards in patchy cloaks…ugh), twee pacifist “Tinkers” singing songs at unsuspecting passers-by, people who talk to wolves and a villain who’s about as scary as puffed rice coated in cheese. On a scale of 0 to 10 Tolkiens, with 0 being no Tolkien-ness and 10 being the horror that is LOTR, this rates at about 9.
Here’s the trouble. My brother gave me the book for Christmas a few years ago, with the inscription “I hope this brings you as much pleasure as it’s brought me.” Now, I know that a big chunk of why he’s hoping I like it is that the book is (shudder) the first of a series and he wants to score some easy presents for the next few birthdays and Christmases. But he asks me about it almost every time we talk and it was kind of starting to hurt his feelings that I hadn’t read it yet.
I need some help coming up with some things I can say that will give enough of an impression that I liked the book well enough that I don’t regret reading it (untrue; it was a total waste of precious precious life) but nothing so encouraging as to make him think that buying me any more of them is a good plan. The last time I tried this–regarding a dreadful print he gave me (I told him I liked the frame and he got angry)–it became obvious that I’m not that good at it.
So far the best thing I’ve come up with is “I was happy that there were no elves in it.” Surely someone can do better than that?
“He certainly knows lots of words!” usually works. Since there are now something like nine progressively thicker books, you have to salute that work ethic. And, um… Okay, I’m out of ideas. I give this extruded book-like product a zero out of ten Tolkiens (although I work from the assumption that Tolkienness is desireable trait).
Bah, I hate Robert Jordan. How about this: He sure can keep a story going.
What book is he at in that series now? 8 or 10? I can bet whatever the most current incarnation of it is that he won’t be anywhere near ending it any time soon.
Wow, I guess I’m the only here who likes Jordan at all… I do have a love-hate thing going though. I liked how initially the characters do not respond with a stereotypical movie-like machismo as they are put into situations far more dangerous than they ever experienced. There is some of that, but the reader can clearly see through it. They really do seem like small-town folk put in a big-league situation…
What I like as the series progresses is the sheer convolutedness of the plots; I like how everyone has their own agendas and they don’t blindly follow the good guys or bad guys. The various factions (esp. groups like the Children of the Light… I can just see my mom joining them…) add to the overall atmosphere and give the world more credibility. I guess you can’t really see too much of this just from Eye of the World, though…
So I’m essentially reading for the plot, and I have developed an increasing disgust at the overly verbose descriptions (which usually aren’t very interesting), and the repetitive characterizations (how many times do we have to read about Nynaeve pulling at her braids?!). And the dialogue seems mechanical and spiritless; the complexity of factions doesn’t seem to carry over into their style of speech.
Nice things about RJ:
As far as I know, he has not:
Been convicted of a felony
Been indicted for a felony
Oh wait, you want good things to say about his BOOKS
um…
In an emergency, this will provide twice the heat as the standard paperback
He keeps paper and ink companies in buisiness
“Of all the Extruded Fantasy Product I’ve ever read, Jordan’s books make the best doorstops. I’m sure he’s responsible for the deaths of many trees which could have fallen on people!”
A good thing about Robert Jordan: Robert Jordan writes slightly better than his legion of hellspawn imitators, such as Terry Goodkind, David B. Coe, and others too numerous to name. Other than that, there’s very little positive to say about him.
I have to say, I’ve enjoyed the first four books, but I can see where some people woudn’t like it. It does seem like after all those pages not a whole hell of a lot has really happened.
I have read some truly awful novels in my time, fantasy and otherwise, which makes RJ look like a literary god by comparison.
I just finished reading Eye of the World myself. I can’t make up my mind to read the next book or not. Sure, some parts are like reading the “S” volume of an encylopedia set, but there are a few parts that shine through. There’s too much drivel between these parts though. I think I could probably rip every other page out of this book and have something more enjoyable. Plus I’d have plenty to wipe with after an extended bathroom break.
Believe me, I’ve read a lot worse. But at least most of them were shorter.
Finally, a few people who’ve read Jordan and also think he is a long winded useless excuse for an author. Been a long time since I’ve inflicted his work on myself, but I recall endless “wooly headed” or something from the amazingly irritating females in the book, 5 page descriptions of clothing and entire chapters of literally nothing.
Curious, does the OP dislike LOTR and Tolkien? It read that way to me, if so, I think the problem might be with the genre, RJ isn’t even the same SPORT as Tolkien.
Yep, “wool-headed” is quite the popular phrase in Jordan’s world. So is “blood and bloody ashes!” and “Oh, Light!”.
At least it’s better than having random Aes Sedai saying “Damn straight!” or “Chan’ler in da hizzouuuuse!”
The thing that bothers me about many of the females (Nynaeve especially) is that they don’t ever seem to put their petty little status trip egos behind them, no matter what the circumstances. And Nynaeve constantly bitches and moans again and again redundantly and so forth forever and ever until the cows come home and fall asleep in the middle of the field from ear exhaustion. You would think she would rise above such pettiness after the umpteenth time of saving someone’s life or having her own skin saved. Nynaeve is supposedly a town “Wisdom”, but she’s the most wool-headed of them all…
Something tells me that Jordan’s experience with women hasn’t been very pleasant…
—So far the best thing I’ve come up with is “I was happy that there were no elves in it.”—
Unfortunately, there are, pretty much. Except they’re really fat and have furry ears.
I have to admit: I’ve read the whole series so far, and will finish it, mostly for the plot. There are so many frickin loose ends and mysteries, that the writing can’t quite turn me off from wanting to find out. But I definately find myself skipping through a lot of the redundancy and random subplots. Jordan seems to delight in adding hundreds of new characters with every book, and redescribing even the familiar characters every single time they are reintroduced into the story.
Oh, I made it through LOTR a couple of times. It’s not that I hate it, but it is over-written and long-winded and just not a good way for me to spend my time. The 0-10 Tolkiens thing is kind of a shorthand some IRL friends and I use. I’d use that “Circle of Light” series as a reference instead but I seem to be one of the few people who remember it.
I dodged this bullet again last night. I was going to call my parents but since Thursday is my weekly night out I took a nap, earlier than usual. Had I called I would have ended up talking to my brother who was visiting them. And I’m just not ready yet for that conversation!
