Have you stopped reading Wheel of Time?

[Brys]

Marco writes military/epic fantasy, and he has two series published, Tyrants and Kings, and Eyes of God. The first starts with the Jackal of Nar and the latter with the Eyes of God. I haven't read his books, but I've heard that they're not particularly derivative and are pretty good.

I read up to the same place (Crossroads of Twilight), but sadly I've given up any hope of this being any more if than mediocre (if the ending is one of the best in all fantasy) - I thought the early books were good light reading, derivative, poorly written, but entertaining and had the one more page factor to them. The latter books had none of the good parts. Thinking back on it, I really don't know why I didn't give up earlier.

 

[the_faery_queen]

i actually liked the writing style. i like the characters. i was interested in it. but it just got more and more nothing ish. the characters, esp the women, became more of a turn off, their continuing nakedness became irratating (along with hair pulling, clothing noticing) and rand just became a boring pain, they all did. even mat. and i find when i dont' care about the characters, i can't care about the book. and even if the ending is amazing, i dont' know if i care enough to read it! but saying that, i was fairly young when i started reading wheel of time, 15 or so (am 28 now) so part of this might be my tastes changing. but a lot of it really is the 6 books of nothing, whcih the long quest for the stupid weather bowl was a big part of. gods, how long did that quest take!

military/epic fnatasy sounds good. i may have to investigate that

 

[GOLLUM]

Marco writes military/epic fantasy, and he has two series published, Tyrants and Kings, and Eyes of God. The first starts with the Jackal of Nar and the latter with the Eyes of God. I haven't read his books, but I've heard that they're not particularly derivative and are pretty good.

Well just a warning to you all, I've read everything by John Marco but his original series Tyrants and Kings is his best. It's certain military fantasy and has a certain hardness to it but whilst I would describe it as an above average read I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as much as authors such as Martin, Erikson or Kearney. It's good but not brilliant.

The newer series Eyes of God whilst it grapples with certain moral issues and contains some grey characters it is written in a fairly simplisitc way and I thought it was and still is a pretty average read overall....

Personally in hindsight I'd stick with the original series only.

 

[the_faery_queen]

ok. thats true of a fair few authors, i find. taht their original stuff is their best. tad williams, and david gemmell for instance

 

[GOLLUM]

ok. thats true of a fair few authors, i find. taht their original stuff is their best. tad williams, and david gemmell for instance

Well I'd agree with Tad except his Otherland sereis was quite good but totally diffrent to anyhthing else he's written so a little hard to compare perhaps. Fortunately there are some execptions like Martin, Erikson, Gene Wolfe etc..

I'll PM you on some more EPIC stuff when I get the time....

 

[the_faery_queen]

cool nd yeah, there are a few. there always are a few exceptions

 

[GOLLUM]

cool nd yeah, there are a few. there always are a few exceptions

Yeh well I'll PM you some more suggestions, hopefully it might take the edge off those "unusual noises" you were reporting over in another threead...

 

[the_faery_queen]

hehe. i would like to hope so! but i doubt it. the couple downstairs are regular noise makers. one week they did it every day and three times on friday. and these are middle age people. its just very ew! and i don't think anything can take the edge of the thought of that bald fat man and his short loud gf practising baby making

 

[GOLLUM]

OK getting back to Jordan, assuming he completes the series in 12 books or max 13, would anyone then be keen to start reading any new series he starts up or are they likely to have been turned off from the current experience?

I realise the ending may end up being unbelivably good but do you think he's now turned off a lot of fans, who wil not be interested in looking at any new series he develops into the future? I know I've read somehwere he has a number of other projects in mind after WOT...

 

[the_faery_queen]

wouldnt touch them with a barge poll. except, perhaps to push them away and hit the person who offered them to me. i coudn't go through the long wait and hours spent reading drivel, which is what i fear he would put me through with a new series. i also dont' liek the way he writes women, and he seems to think he is GOOD at that (i read that in an article, that he listens in on female converstions to learn how to write them) and i don't think i could take any more fishwife type women going on.

so no. he's not that good a writer for me to care, and i have lost faith in his plot writing ability

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Depends entirely on what his new project would be, and how long it would go on.
I certainly would be hesitant to follow another magnum opus lasting 12+ novels. Barring Pratchett, I don't know of any author who's managed to pull this off without padding the story beyond the point of no return.

I agree about Fran above that he writes women like caricatures rather than realistic human beings, although not being a woman, this offends me less

Overall, I would be reluctant to read another Robert Jordan book unless the word of mouth (from sources I trust!) were very good. He's not quite gone all "Terry-Goodkind" yet, but he's not far off!

 

[the_faery_queen]

it doesn't offend me, particularly, just annoys me! the men annoy me just as much for being so weak willed and always being bossed about!

 

[scalem X]

I in fact have stopped reading after the first book. It was not because I disliked it. It was because when I finished the first part, I found myself travelling trough Southern Afrika with my parents. I then ofcourse frantically searched for a book shop. I found one in the city of Mbabane (the place I was born (capital of Swaziland)), but though they had a fantasy collection I was unable to locate 'the Wheel of Time'. Because I knew that I would be driving trough deserted area's I bought 'meditations on middle earth' by various great fantasy writers (including Jordan I think) and 'hero in the shadows' by David Gemmel. After my trip I never picked it up.

 

[Rosemary]

OK getting back to Jordan, assuming he completes the series in 12 books or max 13, would anyone then be keen to start reading any new series he starts up or are they likely to have been turned off from the current experience?

I realise the ending may end up being unbelivably good but do you think he's now turned off a lot of fans, who wil not be interested in looking at any new series he develops into the future? I know I've read somehwere he has a number of other projects in mind after WOT...

I shall definately finish this series...after reading it for this length of time, I am not going to give up know. Anyway, I still enjoy reading it.
I think reading another series of his would depend entirely on what the new series was about.

 

[Shoegaze99]

OK getting back to Jordan, assuming he completes the series in 12 books or max 13, would anyone then be keen to start reading any new series he starts up or are they likely to have been turned off from the current experience?

No chance I would ever read another Robert Jordan book, much less another series. No chance at all. As a reader, he left a very bad taste in my mouth. I'm not about to reward him with my dollars.

 

[ras'matroi]

I read the first 6 books of The Wheel of time and at some points it wasn't bad. But after some time in got to 'slow' and I couldn't keep up reading.
I don't think I would read another series by him. But if he would write a (single book?) I woul give it a try.

 

[Thadlerian]

I realise the ending may end up being unbelivably good but do you think he's now turned off a lot of fans, who wil not be interested in looking at any new series he develops into the future? I know I've read somehwere he has a number of other projects in mind after WOT...

Heh, if he manages to cram anything like a coherent storyline into less than 400 pages, nicely tying up the plot threads in the end, I might pick it up out of curiosity to what new sort of chauvinism he has devised this time.

In short: No.

 

[GOLLUM]

HMMM.. very strong and somewhat varied opinions so far execept it would appear he's done more harm than good from this small sample size.

I think if it was a standalone novel or say a duology, something like that I may consider it but otherwise probably not or else I'd get it from the library rather than pay for it directly.

 

[Trey Greyjoy]

I read the first 3 right as they came out, then stopped when I realized what sort of investment I was making! I decided to wait until more of the series was released.
Now Ive picked the 1st novel up again and am about halfway through. It is quite better than I remembered. Ill have to see how it progresses as I read them back to back through to the end!

 

[hedgeknight]

OK getting back to Jordan, assuming he completes the series in 12 books or max 13, would anyone then be keen to start reading any new series he starts up or are they likely to have been turned off from the current experience?
I realise the ending may end up being unbelivably good but do you think he's now turned off a lot of fans, who wil not be interested in looking at any new series he develops into the future? I know I've read somehwere he has a number of other projects in mind after WOT...

Nope - I'm done with Jordan. After doing such a great job in books 1-5, he began to dawdle in book 6, and totally ticked me off in book 7 by regurgitating most of book 6. So, I'm done. I'll wait for my buddies who are still hell-bent on finishing to tell me who dies in the end (if anybody!) and who survives the "final" battle.
Plus, even if he did write a short book, I wouldn't buy it. Bad taste in my mouth doesn't leave room for another nibble.
-g-