I've decided to give The Wheel of Time a go. I've made it through chapter 1 of The Eye of the World and it is not what I would call a page turner. Of course, prior to chapter 1 was a prologue and before that there was a pre-prologue. I'm hoping the pacing picks up as, right now, it seems like it'll be a DNF for me.
After watching the first episode of Amazon's TV series of Wheel of Time, I'm interested enough to stop at the first hour and pick up the books instead. I had not taken the plunge before because of many reviews saying it was derivative and longwinded, and my tastes have changed a bit more towards grimdark lately. Having said that, I've always enjoyed epic fantasy and world building, so I'm hoping this will end up being something I'm going to enjoy. Then sometime in the future (after 14 books), I'll pick up the TV adaptation again with a sound base of how the author wanted the story told.
I finished the 14th book this week.
The time it took me to finish reading the series (~3 years) is a clue to my interest level. I very much enjoyed the world building, the magic structure and all the details that took you into the places. I appreciated the complexity of the plot...
transforming naive villagers to saviours of the world by way of twists, turns and happenstance that demonstrates the concept of ta'veren in the Wheel. I enjoyed Brandon Sanderson's contribution, and the Last Battle chapter in particular. It was so good, I felt a little let down by the actual ending.
What almost made me place this in the unfinished pile was books 8 and 9 (slog). And, the bigger problem of not having much emotional attachment to any of the main characters. The girls were whiny, and the boys were just unlikeable, none more so than Rand. Why he survived the finale, I don't know. I would have been fine with him dead.
I'm glad this is in my Read Pile, but I will not revisit it again. The depth of world building gives you a good sense of history, with different nations and customs. The magic system is complex and interesting. The plot is like a huge domino game, with players being set up and objects having to be in place. That part was interesting. It was the characters that let me down. I just couldn't rally behind any of them enough to really care.
Recommended for anyone who appreciates epic fantasy, and who has lots of time to give to 14 X 800+ page books.
@Wayne Mack Interested to know if you finished it. I did read it (in my early forties) around 2006 or 2007..... with a chip on my shoulder for various reasons. I would have enjoyed it if I'd read it in the early 1990's and probably would have read at least three books.
I made the effort to read the entire Wheel of Time last year. I had to be sure I read a decent chunk of pages just about every day; otherwise I suspect I would have lost my momentum and never finished the series. I have some thoughts. You don't have to read them.
1. I would have liked the series a lot more if it had been trimmed down to eight or (at most) ten novels. It's not that the pace of the novels was too slow, but novels 6 -10 had a pattern of slowly luxuriating in the world for 600 or more pages, then culminating in a frenetic final 100 or so pages once Jordan realized he was nearing his very generous word limit and needed to come to some sort of climax. Some of those climaxes were really interesting, but felt so sudden when compared to the rest of the novel. Not all the luxuriating was bad, but there was too much of it; if he had cut out the weakest third the remaining parts would've been that much stronger.
2. Some fantasy writers are notorious for their extensive descriptions of food; Robert Jordan doesn't have that problem because he's too busy excessively describing everyone's clothes. You could use it as a drinking game if you have Poison Control on speed dial. Eventually it got so bad that I treated it like a boon: if he started talking about people's clothes it meant that I got to skip to the end of the paragraph, confident I hadn't missed anything important.
Using wardrobe changes as short-hand for a character's mood in Tel'aran'rhiod was clever the first dozen times and tiring every time after.
3. Many of the point of view characters were weirdly caricaturized. Everyone from the Two Rivers was obsessed with "the difference between men and women." It was another thing that was clever the first couple dozen times (so the first half of book one) and exhausting thereafter. I also wasn't a fan of point-of-view characters being offended when another character did something that the point-of-view character has made a habit of doing. With Mat it might be clever, but since Jordan also does it to Nynaeve, Egwene, Rand, Elayne, etc. it's a tic. (I do think there were some really good characters in Wheel of Time. Moiraine, Lan, and Thom were all interesting, layered portraits of flawed individuals working to make the world better. A lot of the side characters were well-sketched, as well.)
4. The world in Wheel of Time was alternately interesting and boring. I liked the peeks into past ages
The "forward, and back" section in book 4 is probably my favorite sequence in the series; the glimpse of the future of the Aiel in book 13 was cool as well
, the Aiel and the Seanchan cultures were intriguing, and sometimes I could understand why the magic system worked beyond "because this is what I wrote happened." However, the main continent itself was despairingly bland. Specifically, the cities. In almost every city, no matter what country the characters were apparently in, you could be sure that they'd A) Go to an inn and B) It would be exactly like every other inn they'd been to before. No changes in furniture, layout, entertainment, food... It was ta'veren a tavern like every other.
5. I liked the Forsaken as a concept, however they became increasingly less interesting once I figured out that a lot of the books ended with Jordan spinning The Big Ol' Wheel of Forsaken to see which one of them Rand was going to teleport over to and kill in less than 30 pages. The rebirth idea was neat, but I got a little too confused about who was who (especially since it felt like Jordan assumed I would immediately know). And it's not that cool when the reveal is, "It's that guy, you remember, from six books ago? The one who showed up for maybe 25 pages total before Rand killed him? You know him."
6. About halfway through the fifth or sixth book I began referring to Valan Luca as "the Patron Saint of going nowhere" because nothing ever happened while he was involved with the story, or if it did it happened at a glacial pace.
7. Non-Forsaken villains (like Elaida) were not at all threatening. I found myself more annoyed than afraid, and maybe that was the point. But characters like her and Sevanna are the kinds of villains that you can't believe weren't chucked out on their a**es the first time they opened their mouths.
8. I never, in a million years, would have thought that Thom and Moiraine would become a couple. You could've made some serious money off of me on a bet. I also thought it sucked.
Book 4. I loved book 4. Perrin's Seven Samurai story especially, but also Rand's Aiel adventure. I just really liked Perrin as a character as well - the blacksmith section in book 3 was also one of my favorites. He didn't get the attention he deserved in the published version of Memory of Light - and I don't like that he was used by Lanfear to help her fake her death.
Min and Aviendha, before they were co-opted into Rand's harem, were really cool, in my opinion.
The Aiel Wise Ones, especially when they interacted with Aes Sedai, were awesome.
Of the Two Rivers Folk, Egwene had the most interesting journey as a character across the entire series. (Although that isn't saying much, because everyone else besides Perrin and Rand travels in circles)
Although the prose took a noticeable dip and Mat turned into someone else, I liked the Sanderson trio because they did a good job of moving things along and wrapping up the story in a mostly satisfying way. (I also didn't really understand why Rand survived)
@Wayne Mack Interested to know if you finished it. I did read it (in my early forties) around 2006 or 2007..... with a chip on my shoulder for various reasons. I would have enjoyed it if I'd read it in the early 1990's and probably would have read at least three books.
I did finish the first book, but I felt cheated at the end. The story seemed to be a journey arc, moving from point A to point B, but stopped short of the characters reaching their destination. Instead, there is a fight scene that pops up unconnected to anything before it. The book felt like a slog to finish and, given that it stretched on for umpteen more books, I gave up on the series.
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