OK, just out of curiosity, is there anyone who has tried/actually read this series? I only ask because it's on my 'List of things I would not like to be beaten with during torture' due to the fact that it is twelve books long with an average of 800 pages per book. I got up to book four then stopped for a while, then when I came back to it I had forgotten who everyone was and had to start again. Got up to book four that time too, then the same thing happened except this time I couldn't be bothered restarting it. So yeah. Let me know how far you've gone with this behemoth, and for anyone who has actually finished it I was wondering if it's worth actually reading all of them?
Read the series more than once. Yes, Jordan is about as long winded as they get (past tense, I suppose...RIP Mr. Jordan) but I really enjoyed the world he built. I'll say books 1-3 are very solid epic fantasy, as far as I'm concerned. After that...well, yes, it does drag. Considerably. Particular characters become downright annoying. But taken as a whole, I don't regret the time invested reading the series, and it does improve in the last couple of books. Furthermore, even if the plot began collapsing under its own weight, I can't think of another fantasy series (and I've read a very great many of them) where I felt I had a better understanding of the world the characters lived in. Kudos to Jordan for that if nothing else. I'll also add that the length of the series in no way detracted my enjoyment - in fact quite the opposite. I love a long series, assuming it's engaging enough to keep me reading. More for me to enjoy. Also keep in mind it ain't over yet. There will be another pair of novels in the series at the least, written by Brandon Sanderson of Elantris(didn't care for it) and Mistborn(enjoyed it thoroughly) fame. If you didn't enjoy the first 4 enough to slug through the rest, it's probably not for you. Too much good fantasy out there to waste your time with something you're just not having fun with.
I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy them; I did, immensely. It was just that something always came up when I got to the fourth book, so I would stop and then when I returned I was very confused. Also I noticed that all the books take on a similar overall plot narrative ie. they all build up to some climactic battle where Rand fights the Dark One in some other place, wounds him and then the Dark One screams vengefully 'I'll be back!!!!!' But yeah. I've got a lot of free time on my hands now, so I might get back into it. Thanks for the advice.
WoT is both the best and worst of fantasy. . . There's lotsa good stuff there, and you should read it. But you will get frustrated, especially if you read the later books multiple times, like I did. Try to take it all in one go.
I just wonder how Brandon Sanderson handles the rest of the series. Looks like we'll have to wait until October to find out.
Oh, the wheel of time. Ages come and pass as you read the series. Soon your memories become legend, and then fade to myth, but it is well worth reading. It actually is the best and worst of fantasy. Some of it is powerful and ingenious. Some of it is boring as hell. I think the first six books are masterworks.
Yeah, Sanderson took on a huge responsibility. This guy writes around 2 novels a year. It seems he has 4 books scheduled for releases in 2010-11. I just hope the quality doesn't suffer because his publisher is pushing him too hard.
I re-read the series every time a new book comes out, to refresh my memory. It's still cool even though by the latest book that's come out, Matt's the only character left that's worth reading about.
I cant stand Robert Jordan's female leads! I liked the second and third book though. I will probably take a class by by Brandon Sanderson either this next semester or in the summer. I think it will be a blast!
I'm actually going to read the last 3 books now because Sanderson is writing them, I enjoy his work a lot more than Jordan's.
I read all the books in 5 weeks and strangely dreamt about WOT stories just about every night for something like 2 weeks straight. A very odd experience, since I don't consider myself a huge fan of the books. I like them, but not that much. Except for one or perhaps two of the books I could never see myself rereading those enormous monstrosities, which were often filled with almost more filler than story at a certain point in the series.
I've yet to actually start this series (just got Eye of the World, and a couple weeks ago, all they had at the library was the fourth book), but I'm interested to see how this carries on.
The first few books aren't bad but as others have said the series really starts to drag later on. Out of sheer bloody mindedness I persisted until crossroads of twilight, which, while not quite as slow as all those one star reviews on Amazon would have you believe, gets pretty darn close.
Winter's Heart was when it picked up. Crossroads of Twilight was the one after, and it was garbage, so bad I haven't read Knife of Dreams, the most recent one, yet.
Knife of Dreams is okay. . . Not great, but okay. It picks up again, (a little) because Jordan finally decided (too late) that he'd actually like to finish the project some day. CoT is the worst book I've ever read, hands down. And worst of all. . . I read the entire thing--every word. A wiser man would skim. . . and a wise man wouldn't read it in the first place. I read the reviews before I read the book, (d'oh!) and couldn't believe it could be that bad. Still, I at least had the sense to borrow it. I have to agree with what you said about Sanderson. Until I heard that someone else would be finishing the series, I wasn't planning on reading any further. Now I'm looking forward to it.
I think the only thing that got me through CoT was remembering how much I liked the ending of Winter's Heart, and thinking it had to build on some of WH's developments at some point. I can barely remember what happened, except that it focused almost exclusively on the characters I don't care about. Unfortunately by that point in the series, far too many of them were in that category. CoT actually put me off reading fantasy for a while I disliked it so much, but then I found Sanderson and R. Scott Bakker and all was good.
If I were writing it I'd start killing off some of the main characters. The majority of them have no use to the plot anymore. Might as well sack them and cut some dead weight. All they seem to be good for is emotional attachment anyway. Maybe Sanderson, being not so close to the project, will see the light and make some interesting things happen. On another note, Knife of Dreams was pretty decent. I didn't feel like I was dragging myself through it which is good.
I don’t know how the books could’ve went downhill so much. I think his health must have influenced the lack of energy in the latter books.
