A Wheel of Time

[Tears of Lys]

Beautiful artwork. Thanks for posting the link, QuickTidal.

[Isalie]

Now, if they would only give the texts themselves the same treatment ;)

Seriously though, there's great big parts of WoT that I love, but the ball dropping half way through the series bugs me every time I think about it.

Will probably not put down aMoL for anything less than a broken leg on any of the children though before I'm done with it.

[Tyler Snow]

I'm loving the series and pretty much powering through it. I started about a month ago and am already on the 4th book. Although, another member had a good suggestion in reading other books amidst the series, to keep it fresh, which I'm doing as well.

On a general scale from pure black/white high fantasy and gritty realism it would look something like this:

Lord of the Rings---------------------------------------------Wheel of Time--------------------------------------A Song of Ice and Fire

Jordan's righting isn't as devoid of the more basic human emotions and sexual identity as Tolkein and isn't nearly as black and white yet, if you are anticipating a no holds bar, very realistic, very gritty and very gray novel like Martin, you'll be dissapointed. I'd say WoT falls right in the middle but does have an excellent and interesting magic system and the characters, though extraordinarily stubborn (sometimes to the point of being unbelievable) Jordan does a decent job of them not falling into your typical archetypes and they have pretty consistent personalities in every situation and development.

I guess the only real knock I have on the series is that it is almost clear from early on in the novels what the conclusion/final battle will be so I wouldn't expect many twists at the end but the conclusions are epic and I enjoy the journey Jordan takes you on from the beginning to the end. It's a long series but I still recommend it whole-heartedly.

[Lightning Lord]

You're saying it's a long series and you're not even done with Book 4? Good luck, my friend. And I mean that.

[Tyler Snow]

Well, I mean, I realize its a long series but that didn't deter me from tackling it.

[Lightning Lord]

I'm not referring to the length in terms of number of books. I'm referring to the intense slow-down that come when you approach the double-digits.

[Switchback]

it surprises me that the "slow down" of a few of the later books (notably 8-10) is still such a big deal with this series. sure, it sucked when we were waiting for him to write the books, but now you just power through them in a couple weeks and get back to the action in 11-13. i'm doing a reread right now and not really sweating the middle books at all.

[Lightning Lord]

those books slow down the entire story, the entire plot. it has nothing to do with the time spent waiting for the books. re-reading recently, i am more convinced than ever that the series could have been a couple books shorter.

[paddington]

I pretty much just skipped large parts of 8-10 on my last read through. They bog down pretty heavily.

edit:- 11 is worth getting to however.

[Switchback]

they "slow down the plot" for only as long as it takes to read them though is my point. slowing down the plot when you can have the plot pick right back up in a few weeks, versus several years, seems like much less of a problem. i don't know, maybe not. and all readers will read it differently, just something that strikes me personally as odd whenever i still hear the complaints about it. complaints which are often loud and vitriolic. (not saying your complaint came off that way, just in general)

[Lightning Lord]

No worries, mate :)

I'm used to long waits. It's no big deal. Though I'll admit that, after waiting a long time, having my wait paid off with a (IMO) sub-par installment is disappointing, I think literally thousands of fairly useless pages can fairly constitute a waste of time and a substantial slow-down of the plot. I have better things to do with dozens of hours than slog through unnecessary political machinations or watching Perrin and Faile do whatever mindless drivel they were doing in those books.

While in the thread...

and having re-read the Sanderson installments...can anyone see anything behind the Rand-Elayne, Rand-Aviendha love storylines? The more I've read, the more I've decided that Rand-Min makes a sort of sense, but the other two not only don't make sense, they are totally unnecessary.

[Tyler Snow]

Ah I see. Yeah I've heard 8-10 are pretty tedious but, luckily it seems, I've picked up the series where I can just roll through them. Though I could see the frustration growing if I was waiting for the books come out and got a product that didn't advance the story very far. I'll be on the lookout for that.

[Lightning Lord]

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!! YOU MUST HATE THOSE BOOKS AS IF THEY'RE A PERSONAL OFFENSE!!

[Maithanet]

Ah I see. Yeah I've heard 8-10 are pretty tedious but, luckily it seems, I've picked up the series where I can just roll through them. Though I could see the frustration growing if I was waiting for the books come out and got a product that didn't advance the story very far. I'll be on the lookout for that.

If you're getting these from the library, don't be afraid to get a chapter summary online and use that as a guide for books 8-10. I am 100% serious. It will help you skip the unneccesary fluff chapters in those books, and when things actually start happening (intermittently in book 8, at the end of book 9 and never at all in book 10), you can read the actual chapters. I made this decision when I was unhappily slogging through book 8 and it was absolutely the right call.

If you're actually purchasing the books, then skipping large portions of them will probably be less appealing.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

If you're getting these from the library, don't be afraid to get a chapter summary online and use that as a guide for books 8-10. I am 100% serious. It will help you skip the unneccesary fluff chapters in those books, and when things actually start happening (intermittently in book 8, at the end of book 9 and never at all in book 10), you can read the actual chapters. I made this decision when I was unhappily slogging through book 8 and it was absolutely the right call.

If you're actually purchasing the books, then skipping large portions of them will probably be less appealing.

Okay, serious question here.

I stopped reading WoT sometime around book 8 or so. About a year ago, I picked up one of the more recent ones. Sadly, it didn't feel like it skipped a beat. Anyway, I think it ended with Nynaeve regaining control of Tar Valon. But for the life of me, I can't remember which book it was, so can anyone tell me which is the next numbered book after whichever one that was?

[Migey]

Edit your post and put it in spoiler brackets.

It was Egwene, not Nyneave. That book was The Gathering Storm, book 12, and the following is Towers of Midnight.

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Edit your post and put it in spoiler brackets.

It was Egwene, not Nyneave. That book was The Gathering Storm, book 12, and the following is Towers of Midnight.

Thanks. Is it worth it, or should I just skip to #14? ETA: Nevermind. Just read some reviews, and it appears to be worth the read. Thanks.

[Migey]

Thanks. Is it worth it, or should I just skip to #14? ETA: Nevermind. Just read some reviews, and it appears to be worth the read. Thanks.

Even if it wasn't, you'd have a hard time with 14 seeing as it isn't out until later this year. But 13 is very good!

[Maithanet]

Even if it wasn't, you'd have a hard time with 14 seeing as it isn't out until later this year. But 14 is very good!

TOM is all right, but somewhat underwhelming because the payoff from some big WOT events was poorly executed. It has pacing problems, spending lots of time on things I don't care much about and then rushing through some really big events in a chapter or two. But, without a doubt, important stuff happens, so skipping it would be a mistake. And since Memory of Light isn't out yet anyway, I think your options are limited.

[Shryke]

TOM is all right, but somewhat underwhelming because the payoff from some big WOT events was poorly executed. It has pacing problems, spending lots of time on things I don't care much about and then rushing through some really big events in a chapter or two. But, without a doubt, important stuff happens, so skipping it would be a mistake. And since Memory of Light isn't out yet anyway, I think your options are limited.

The whole series is like this. Dumai's fucking Well is like 1 chapter.

The new books are not really any slower then the older ones, they are just often shorter but came out at the same pace.

The structure of every book RJ wrote in the series (slow build, faster and faster pace until the end blazes by) is basically identical across the books.