Hey, i’ve read the first 4 1/2 books of this series (i think). Has anyone read anymore, the book i’m in now is just so boring i cant get past it. I wanted to know if it was worth the effort to read the next 6 or so.
Oh my, this thread will get some responses.
Here, I’ll spoil it for you
Rand whines, Mat disappears, and much braid tugging ensues. That and we get to hear about all of the pretty dresses. Every. single. last. detail. I swear I expect the next dust jacket picture of Robert Jordan in drag!. Come on Robert. I know you want to, you know you want to, just do it for cripes sake. Fantasy novels are not a good outlet for your Vera Wang fetish.
I really liked the first 4 or so books. Then something happened. Either Jordan figured he could make more money if he stretched things out, or is suffering from some bizarre separation anxiety, and doesn’t want to say good by to his characters, but holy man has he become long winded. And I love long winded books. Books more than 3 inches thick make me near orgasmic.
I made it up to book six, firmly believing something big would happen. You know, resolve one or two of the big plots? Nope. A few of the smaller, less important one kind of petered out, but for every one that did, three or four more would be thrown in, just to confuse the reader. I figure the last three books, with use of a good editor, could be made into one, which would actually be enjoyable, compared to the current “Wheel of Dresses”, but as long as he makes the money, he pretty much has free reign.
Short Version: Stop now, lest you too become bitter as I have.
I defended The Wheel of Time doggedly up until the last book (so far), which finally pissed me off enough to quit standing up for it. It started downhill around book 4 or 5, and stayed very mediocre for several books. Then book 9 finally had stuff actually happen, which got me all excited for a while. Then book 10 came along with 500 pages of absolutely NOTHING happening! Literally! The entire book covered one afternoon. Bah!
Of course, I’ll probably still read the next one. I’ve got years of my life invested in this damn series - I started reading it when I was in high school. I’ve been out of college now for about three years.
I gave up in sheer indifference somewhere around the point you are now. I think the books could perhaps be good, if they were given to a very harsh editor who set him or herself the task of reducing each volume to no more than 250 pages.
The result would be something that actually moved the story forward once in a while. And by “moved the story forward” I mean something other than “Rand cries out against the harsh fate that has condemned him to madness, driving away those who care for him” again and again and again.
See, character development is when the characters actually develop. I’ve read geometry textbooks with more character development than the WoT series.
I read the first one when I was in 8th or 9th grade and I’ve been out of high school for 10 years. <sigh> I really enjoyed the first few book but after a while the story just grinds to a halt. I don’t mind long books but for Christ’s sake when you’re past the 5th book you damn well better advance the plot in every book. I can’t stand reading a 300+ page book where nothing of consequence happens.
Marc
I gave up about half-way through book six, Lord Of Chaos. I had read the fifth book as an advance reading copy, prior to the hardcover release. I didn’t get around to the sixth book until long after it was out in paperback. As a result, I had only a vague recollection of what the hell was going on.
Of course, after half a book, I realized that NOTHING was going on, and quit.
Now, for some strange reason, I’m trying again. I’ve just started book four, The Shadow Rising. So far, it’s good. I’ll see if I find the story more involving if I don’t take a more-than-two-year break between books.
(slight hijack… are you listening, George R.R. Martin? I know you want to make ‘Feast Of Crows’ into a marvelous masterpiece, but if you take much longer, I’m just going to completely forget you’re even writing anymore…)
thwartme
It’s still my favourite series. Just started my latest re-read yesterday.
[hijack]
I curse you to HIGH HEAVEN George R. R. Martin! I picked up your “Fire and Ice” series, thinking “Oh nice, I’ve heard good things about these, and lesseee, this first one was published in… 1996! Oh good, I can read the whole series at once.”
I read the first one. I love love love it! Got the second one here, blew through that as well. OK, I’m on the third, is it going to turn out to be another Jordin, or can Mr. R. R. Martin keep up the quality? OMG YES! I can’t wait to see what happens next! Let’s go buy the 4th one!
Um, what?
You say… the fourth one isn’t out yet?!?
You’re taking a FIVE YEAR break between the third and fourth book?
Kill me now, just kill me now.
[/hijack]
What everyone else said.
I wish somehow we could go back in time and have Guy Gavriel Kay write the WOT books. Then they wouldn’t suck.
No good story takes nine books to tell.
Wheel of Dresses snicker Sad, but true.
I have a like/hate relationship with the series. I ask myself why I even like the characters, as much as Jordan likes to write about women’s clothes he can’t seem to write a woman who isn’t annoying, bitchy or full of herself (and no, we are not all like that). They never give a man credit for even a modicum of intelligence and they all think about what they can do to control or manipulate a man. Sorry, but this seems to be how some men think women think. This is not how women actually think. The men are not much better. They are unsure of themselves, have no concept of how to talk with women (and never learn from their mistakes in that area) and well, frankly they’re kind of dumb. The men that may have some intelligence and self-assurance we either don’t get much into their character or he has them do some dumb things just so they fit in with the other guys.
He keeps adding characters and then describing their dresses ad infinitum. Many of these characters have similar names and it gets difficult to remember who’s who and what ajah they belong to and whether they’re good or evil or an unknown factor. The politics of it all will make your head spin because frankly you don’t care about the politics and want it to just get over with. You just need to the story to end already. It’s like an addiction too, you’ve invested so much time reading these that it’s like “Well, I’ll just read one more to see if anything happened. I can quit any time I want.” And then another book comes out and Jordan has screwed you again.
This should have been a trilogy, or a double-trilogy at the most. He could have finished it at any point without all the extra little stories. Now there are so many plot points and things going on I don’t see it even ending in two more books. The fact that he has dragged it out so long … well, he just needs to be smacked around with a bag full of his books in hardcover form until he gets the idea that we want him to finish it already. The bastard will probably die on us before he finishes it.
this…series…needs…to…end…
I can’t believe how much I loved this series when it came out. Every 18+ month waiting period between books was a killer. I checked and checked and pestered store clerks for release dates.
For the last three books my interested has wained and my patience has been tested. The last book however had to be the most worthless do nothing book I’ve ever read though. I couldn’t name three scenes out of it if you put a gun to my head. And I read it twice! It was like I had to be sure it was as pointless as I thought it was.
My advice read books 1-4 then just read the last chapters of every book and skip the last book entirely.
oh and Terry Goodkind you’re next on my “End the damn series already” list.
OK, I’ll step up and try and defend WoT here. But mainly I’ll just explain why I keep coming back for more, cheerfully, and not why you should. If you are bored, by all means, STOP.
I like the endless description of things, including dresses, architecture, troop formations, banners and heraldry, character twitches, etc. It makes it feel like a real world to me. I can picture it more vividly unfolding in my mind. And later, when he says someone is Cairheinin, or Tairen, I can see their general look already without further explanation.
I like the liesurely pace. Yes, a book where nothing seems to happen can be frustrating (looking at you, Book 10*). But it’s not only the big climaxes (like the end of Book 9) that I enjoy reading. I like to see the slow unfolding of plots and schemes. Guessing at who’s working for whom. Setting the pieces in motion for the next climax. It’s not a story I’d like to see rushed. (*And even there, we had some small revelations, like
Mat finding himself trapped in the seanchan wedding custom.
Egwene’s betrayal and capture by the Tar Valon faction.
Elayne finding out she’s expecting twins. (or was that book 9?)
I even like the repititious nature of the characterizations. Nynaeve tugging her braid, or Perrin fingering his axe, or this one sniffing, or that one snorting. It’s a comforting reminder that feels familiar. Like Captain Picard tugging his shirt, or saying “Make it so.” Or Gollum’s “gollum, gollum.” Or Wolverine’s cigar.
Now it’s not nearly as perfect as I predicted 6 or 7 books ago, of course. I do get a bit ticked off every time A Forsaken gets ressurected, for example. But I’m hopelessly hooked, and enjoying it immensely. But given the mixed reaction it provokes, it’s the series I love that I’m the most wary of recommending to others.
I think a friend summed it up when he told me he bought book six, read it all the way through and didn’t realize until after he’d already lent it to his mother, and had her read it all the way through that they’d already read it before.
Yeah, everything after book 5 or so is unbearably samey. RJ is treading water. By book 10…nothing happens. Literally. Nothing at all. If the series ever ends you will be able to skip that book and not miss anything. I don’t believe any of the characters even travel.
Having said that, New Spring wasn’t that bad.
i would like to thank you all for your input, i have thouroughly enjoyed the series till right at the middle of this book. It is well written, and i do enjoy the infinite description - to a point. However; if there really is no noticable plot advancement, then i believe that i must seek out another long winded series that i can really get involved with the characters and the great anticipation between books.
Does anyone above by chance have a suggestion of a story? Not nescecarrily fantasy, but a good series that could be enjoyable, i’m tired of my damned addiction to the television and my computer.
I don’t mind the descriptions but I won’t excuse him for not moving the story along. I don’t want him to rush through it but I don’t like him standing still either.
Marc
Fucking A right!
Everyone would harsh on the later books (particularly seven, eight, and nine), but I didn’t find them TOO bad. I even, on occasion, defended them.
Book ten had absolutely nothing happen! Not only did nothing happen, but a bunch of NEW unimportant characters got introduced.
The goddamned Prologue was, what, 150 paqes of a 600 page book? It’s called a “Prologue”, not “First Quarter”!
[Spoiler warning, I guess]
I mean it! Spoilers! Stop now!
Ooh! Another legendary general shows up! Wow! Yay! Whoopie shit! Cuz we’ve only got like a dozen of them so far. Better add in another one!
Better yet, let’s have our characters do completely idiotic things! Sure, a channelling event that every channeler on the PLANET could detect just happened. Let’s spend probably a hundred pages showing various groups speculating what happened. They do this when almost every group had someone there, and all those people could Travel! Why not just have someone jump in a gateway and say to Egwene, “You know that planetbusting level of channelling you felt? That’s just Rand cleansing the source. We think he was successful. Go back to what you were doing.”
Instead, no, we get a hundred pages of Egwene and her followers wondering what happened.
The Dark Hunt is on the loose! And what does it do? It circles Perrin’s camp and then leaves. Ooooh! Scary! And this nonevent even gets a mention on the dust jacket!
There’s three sieges going on, Tar Valon, Tear, and Caemlyn. All three sieges are totally ineffective, the first two due to rivers, the last because of Travelling. Caemlyn is excusable because, well, the siegers don’t know that their siege is totally ineffective. However, in the other two cases the guys on the outside KNOW their siege is totally ineffective, and yet they continue!
Perrin winnowing the grain was fascinating. Really. Mat spending the whole time jerking off followed by the incredible climax of him shooting a woman in the back with a crossbow…wow.
Rand, of course, goes ahead and makes a treaty with the Seanchan. These Seanchan are the same people his armies and his Black Coats have been kicking the shit out of for the last couple books, right?
So, what did our three main characters do? Mat argues with his future wife and shoots one of her Sul’dam in the back. Perrin agonizes over Faile, cuts a guy’s hand off, and buys some grain. Rand, our main character, is present for about a page and a half.
As other posters have mentioned, not a thing happens in the book!
-Joe, not pissed off! Really! Can’t you tell!?!?
The same thing happened to me! I was about 200 pages in when I read a line I was SURE I had seen before. I read a bit further and realized I had already read the book, and had purchased a second copy for myself. :smack:
Definitely find another series. If this one ever actually gets finished, I might reconsider it, depending on how the fans react.
Well, from my user name you know what I think about the series. But I’m more patient than most. Honestly, if you have bogged down where you are I would drop them because you are in the part (the first six) that most people consider the best.
Merijeek, I’m glad you posted, 'cause even though I read that last book less than 2 years ago, I’d be damned if I said I could remember a single thing. Now that I remember the key points, I suppose I can pick up again when the next book comes out. Whenever that is. If I still care. Which I do… stupid almost 10 year investment… if only I had put that much time into my studies.