Lord Patrek

Just read and reviewed Jacqueline Carey's Starless. The Middle Eastern/Islamic setting was fascinating early on and this looked as though it would be the fantasy book of the year. But one of the main characters is thoroughly annoying, and the plot sags in the middle and peters out toward an ending that failed to live up to its potential. Could have been great, but is merely good in the end. A bit disappointing because of that.

Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs is 2.99$ on Kindle. Brian Staveley's The Emperor's Blades is 2.99$ on Kindle.

The former WoT fanboy in me finds it kind of neat that we are still discussing Demandred/Taim in 2018!

Just meant that it was not just about the Tower of Ghenji stuff. But Sanderson always had problem with shades of gray. All his characters are black and white, so there were a number of WoT protagonists we all knew he'd have a hard time getting right. . .

Mat sucks in all three books Sanderson wrote. How he could get that character so wrong, I'll never know. . .

Sanderson killed Mat. It's unforgivable how wrong his depiction turned out to be. . .

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Summer Tree is 2.99$ on Kindle (US only).

Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale is 1.99$ on Kindle (US only). Jim Butcher's Proven Guilty is also 1.99$ on Kindle (Canada and USA).

God help us, no! I don't want him to scrap another series!!!!

Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky is 5.99$ on Kindle. Not the best deal ever, but Kay's ebooks are rarely discounted. . .

Those loony theories thread on wotmania.com!!!

Hence his now infamous quote: I thought there were a million Stephen R. Donaldson fans. Turns out there are a million Thomas Covenant fan. Or something to that effect.

I guess that the bottom line for eac and anyone else considering starting WoT is just to get your hands on a copy of The Eye of the World and take it from there. The first one is more of a quest, so I'd wait till you're done with The Great Hunt before deciding to quit or go on. That way, you can make up your own mind. I feel kind of jealous for those who'll meet Rand, Mat, Perrin, Lan, Moiraine, Thom, and all the others for the first time. . .

Bradley Beaulieu's The Lays of Anuskaya: The Complete Trilogy is 2.99$ on Kindle. M. R. Carey's The Girl With All the Gifts is 2.99$ on Kindle.

I think the TV series changed that over the years. Back then, though ASOIAF had its female fans, the proportion was more skewed toward male readers. Becoming a mainstream phenomenon, given that women read more than men, I figure that more female readers than ever have become fans of the series. But back in the late 90s and early 2000s, I'm persuaded that RJ was the fantasy author that appealed the most to both genders. WoT had by far the most female charcaters with pivotal roles to play in the resolution of the saga, which I'm sure helped a great deal. In the end, one cannot achieve the sort of commercial success that Jordan, Martin, or Gaiman enjoyed without appealing equally to both male and female readers, methinks.