Who has read the Wheel of Time Series

It can be done well, but it is tricky. Steven Erikson's 10-book Malazan series is quite good. They're thick tomes, but while there is an overarching story arc that spans the entire series, each individual novel in the series also presents a beginning, middle, and end of its own story.

 

I've never heard of that series. Is it worth a look? Again, I'm not put off by length of tome, especially now that I can put them on Kindle and not be tripping over them in the hallway. In fact, I like a big thick book, because I know that if I enjoy it there will be lots to enjoy. What puts me off is the notion that the author himself doesn't know where he's going.

I know if I were writing a series, I sure as hell wouldn't publish any of it till it was all finished. That way I could make sure it was all directed the right way, and that stuff that seemed good at the start but petered out later on could just be scrubbed altogether.

I'm not a fan of Harry Potter, but Rowling does seem to have kept a handle on her overall arc, and resolved it all to everybody's satisfaction. I understand she could have pared it down a bit, but at least she didn't lose control of it, like George RR Martin has done. FFS, now the scriptwriters have lapped him and are deciding what happens next. While he'll be a rich man, I can only imagine he must be feeling pretty shit about the whole thing right now. Either that or relief, because he doesn't actually have to finish it himself now.

 

@jannert

I like it. I find people tend to have a love/hate relationship with it. Erikson has great characters and dialogue. He doesn't hold hands - instead he throws you into the world and action and expect you to piece it together. Some of his characters are prone to philosophical asides, so a conversation might sidetrack into a discussion of the nature of art and criticism, or something. Erikson is an archaeologist and anthropologist, and I think the co-creator of his fictional world is as well. He tops anyone in the genre in terms of world-building. But his books aren't fast reads. Gardens of the Moon, the first one, is the easiest - I think because it was edited down for publication. To date, he has some of the most moving scenes I've come across in fantasy.

My view - try Gardens. If you like it, try Deadhouse Gates (the second book). You'll either be hooked or not.

Some people on Tor.com did a re-read of the entire series, but you don't want to read this without haven't read the books (due to spoilers), but if you do like the books, this kind of speculation, consideration, etc. is the sort of things Malazan fans end up doing: http://www.tor.com/series/malazan-reread-of-the-fallen/

 

@jannert

Here is the initial response of Amanda, on Tor.com, who was reading Gardens for the first time. This pretty much applies to the whole series:

"I’d been warned. Anyone who has read the Malazan books—and even the author himself—states that these books are a challenge. You have to pay attention. No skimming merrily over blocks of descriptive passage. No glossing over the dialogue between characters. Concentration is the name of the game here, people!

So I paid attention through the mere six pages of the prologue, and I’m a little stunned as to what was packed into so short a space."

 

I'm tempted, @Steerpike. However, I don't know that I want to take on such a project as reading this just now. I really do need to concentrate on my own writing, which has been sadly neglected recently due to things beyond my control and tangents I've been drawn into. However, I'm going to buy the first book in the series, and put it on my Kindle for when the mood strikes me. I read a few of the passages in the 'look inside' feature on Amazon, and I realise I'll need to be able to concentrate on it. However, while it introduces lots of characters with odd names, the writing itself seems straightforward enough. So I'll put it on the back burner for now. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

I've never heard of it before, but you make it sound so interesting I'm going to have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up. I won't be able to get to it soon though. I'm currently reading, Expiration Date by Tim Powers and I'm really struggling. The first book of the series (the Fault lines...?) was so good but this one just seems to drag. At least it has for the first 25% of the book.

 

One of my favorite series, I am drawn to long books in long series. I hate when a story ends... Brandon Sanderson is also a favorite writer of mine because of Elantris and Mistborn, so I was happy when he took over after Jordan's passing.

I don't think everyone who reads this series will love it, but they will at least like it. A good technique when reading Robert Jordan is skip the descriptive paragraphs. He likes to describe things and describe them and describe them. Then tell you something, so just skip a few paragraphs and the pace will pick up.

 

To all the negative posts, he has sold over 80 million copies, not bad for what most people seem to think is long, boring and badly written series.

I love it and have done since first reading it, and even now listen on audiobooks. Brandon Sanderson did an awesome job on finishing it, (i couldn't imagine the pain and responsibility of this task). I have gone on to really like Brandon Sanderson's "Way of Kings" another blossoming great series. (Although if the people here didn't like WoT, they won't like 'Way of Kings')

Bottom line, it tells a really good fun story, which i guess is all most people are looking for. Definitely not for everyone, especially because of the series length.

(not sure what is wrong with Nyneave pulling her braid. It's just a tell, nothing more. She is an angry character, which is why she pulls it so much. The whole point, she is trying to become Aes Sedai, emotionless, at least outwardly, and Nyneave struggles with this, her braid pulling and answering back being one of them.)

Rgds

Mikey

 

I don't find it a really good fun story. I'm fine with an entertaining potboiler--in fact, that's where my tastes lean. I can deal with some writing flaws.

But the Wheel of Time series, up to the point where I gave up several books in (I kept going past the point where I lost interest because I was engaged in an ongoing roleplaying game based in the world) was too high-powered for me. A series where almost every prominent character is of world-level importance just can't maintain my interest.

I also found almost all of the women to be cold, ruthless, and near-inhuman, while the men were more often human beings. I found myself wondering if the author's mother, wife, or some other female figure in his life was perhaps a really dreadful woman who affected his view of women in general. I find myself thinking of Like Water for Chocolate--there's no other resemblance, but LWFC seems to reject men utterly, and WoT seems to reject women in a similar, though less extreme, way.

It's always possible that the women turned into human beings--I may read one of the books written by the second author to see if they "feel" different"--but that's how I saw them when I gave up.

 

They got better, unless they were around men in which case they often revert to form. I quite liked Nynaeve and Aveinda (?), that was about it. Sanderson tries his best to keep Jordan's general style and maintain the characters in the way Jordan created them. The good thing about Sanderson is he's a competent writer and he moved the series to a conclusion fairly quickly. Jordan's books weighed down on my from maybe book 7 until Sanderson took over. I used to travel a lot, and took to listening to them on CD because I couldn't sit down and read them anymore. In audio form, they still worked fairly well, but did the series ever drag....

 

I feel like we have read completely different books.

Main female leads in the books:

Egwene - Determined, purposeful
Nyneave - hot headed, cares too much
Min - loving
Morraine - cold (will give you that), set in her ways
Elaine - willful

They are all strong characters, but near-inhuman and ruthless?!? Egwene eventually turned ruthless, but then again so did a lot of the male characters, driven to it by their circumstance.

I honestly feel like i have read a different series to yourself.


Rgds

Mikey

 

Min was the only one that I regarded as human, after the first couple of books. (When did she turn up? I think it was after the others lost me.)

 

She first turned up, briefly, in the first book, at the first town they all go to. Then reappears in the second book in Tar Valon when Nyneave and Egwene first go to the tower for training.

One of my favourite characters. Resinged to knowing who she will fall in love with and having no choice....quite bizarre.

Rgds

Mikey

 

I didn't think it was so much as a problem with them not acting human. For me, it was an issue of extremes. Jordan would pick a character trait and then take it just a bit too far past reality for me. I still loved the books, Whenever I revisit the series, the only thing I skip is the sections in one of the later books where Perin's wife gets kidnapped. That entire storyline drove me nuts with Perin's neverending whining.

 

Yeah, i got fed up with his whining as well. Never seemed to stop lol.

Fair point, with Jordan taking traits a little too far. I apologise, it is hard not to be biased when you like a series so much!


Rgds

Mikey

 

Yeah I agree. The way it goes on and on and nothing much happens let me to believe that it was originally planed as a shorter story line that just got out of control.

 

Wow, way to insult someone who died of cancer.

His books were too long, therefore it becomes harder to make every chapter fit perfection. Impossible expectations result in unrealistic standards.

His books were good. There were parts that could have been worked on, but as a whole it's entertaining. His world building was decent and his characters, at least in the main sense, were well developed. I've read all but the last book, I'm not going to read it, since I'm fine with a CliffNotes version.

Any author that writes lengthy books and then hits a certain level of success is going to be expected to start meeting deadlines. Do you think that first book that took 1-10 years to write is going to be over similar quality to the book that you feel stressed to produce? Give a cancer guy a break.

My opinion? The book was a more than decent writer. His Aiel were a great culture and I've compared them to other "hardened" cultures in a plethora of other series. I'm pretty sure he got his inspiration from Dune, but still.

I liked some books more than others, but I like the characters. Not every chapter is going to surpass the next. If you can write a 100 chapters each being better than the other, I'll listen to your opinion a bit more.

 

Haven't read one of these books in a while. Last WoT book I read was The Great Hunt. Lately I've been trudging through A Dance with Dragons. Not sure I'm up for another 700+ page book after this, but perhaps after a couple of short books I should get back into WoT with A Dragon Reborn, since I've heard it's one of the better entries in the series. Other than that, I also have possession of The Shadow Rising and The Fires of Heaven, so perhaps I'll at least read as far as those. Not sure how motivated I am for reading the entire series though. It is just huge, and from what I've heard, some of the later books are not as good. I suppose that could be a few peoples entitled opinions though.