Wheel of Time coming November 2021 to Amazon!

Bren G said:
@hitmouse and @svalbard - am just curious as to why you didn't like the series?
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I read the first novel by chance when I found myself snowed in in a mountain cabin and there was no other diversion apart from eating my left leg. I spotted the book in the kindling basket.

I felt it was classic low-grade EFP: derivative, cliche-ridden, and really irritating, and when the road finally opened I hopped out and never had any urge to read subsequent volumes. If those are literary masterpieces then I am prepared to re-evaluate. Based on the book I read, I am curious how this series rose to prominence above the huge morass of disposable adolescent fantasy.
 
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hitmouse said:
I read the first novel by chance when I found myself snowed in in a mountain cabin and there was no other diversion apart from eating my left leg. I spotted the book in the kindling basket.

I felt it was classic low-grade EFP: derivative, cliche-ridden, and really irritating, and when the road finally opened I hopped out and never had any urge to read subsequent volumes. If those are literary masterpieces then I am prepared to re-evaluate. Based on the book I read, I am curious how this series rose to prominence above the huge morass of disposable adolescent fantasy.
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I went a bit further and read the first five books and found myself getting frustrated as each book went on. Maybe it was the fact that back in the 90s trilogies were the norm instead of multi volumed series. I can only think of the Belgariad as another long series and that was just as tiresome. Maybe as I grew older the actions of the characters made less and less sense. I do know my tastes in fantasy changed in the course of those years.

That said I can see the allure for other readers and there is no denying it's success. Each to their own. I will be watching the series and the I must say the trailer that just dropped looks good.
 
svalbard said:
I went a bit further and read the first five books and found myself getting frustrated as each book went on. Maybe it was the fact that back in the 90s trilogies were the norm instead of multi volumed series. I can only think of the Belgariad as another long series and that was just as tiresome. Maybe as I grew older the actions of the characters made less and less sense. I do know my tastes in fantasy changed in the course of those years.

That said I can see the allure for other readers and there is no denying it's success. Each to their own. I will be watching the series and the I must say the trailer that just dropped looks good.
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There is a Trailer for the seres , i saw it on the Dark Horizons Website.
 
@hitmouse and @svalbard - thanks for sharing. It's so very interesting how someone likes some art and others do not. I happen to be in the 'love it' camp, but to each his own, and that's a good thing. If we all loved the same art, it'd be a monochromatic world wouldn't it? I reread the EOTW every five years or so. I suspect I didn't find it derivative since I hadn't read Tolkien prior and most of my fantasy reading up till then was Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony. I loved them both of course but neither had the layers and complexities when compared to Jordan. So under these circumstances I found EOTW to be very original. Funny though, I had a similar reaction when I watched the Game of Thrones series as there are many obvious similarities to EOTW, and while I enjoyed GOT, it did feel quite derivative to me for this reason. Also, I found books 4+ of EOTW frustrating as well. It seemed to me like the story was being dragged out, well beyond what was necessary.
 
The official trailer looks like nonesense. Good looking, well produced nonesense, , but nonesense all the same.
 
I wasn't impressed at all by the trailer, either. But I read a good review of the series in the newspaper and I thought I might watch a few episodes and see if I like it. After all, it's free.

So this morning I watched episode one. It didn't impress me either, but it wasn't as bad as I feared from the trailer, so I may give it another episode or two to catch my interest. Since I never read the books, at least I won't be distracted by how faithful it is or isn't to the source.
 
Watched epi 1. It was OK, been a long long time since I read teh books but I will watch epi 2
 
Turns out the first three episodes were available. (Henceforth it will be one episode a week.)

In my opinion, it lacks a certain spark. I could see how the first episode had to be a little slow in order to introduce all the main characters. But the second and third have also been a bit plodding. It seems like somebody spent a lot of money on this series in order to produce a rather mediocre result.
 
I was tentatively interested then I read a couple of spoilers, in particular

Perrin now having a dead wife he killed in a rage - a wife we never see no less

And I'm just pretty much out. My strong preference is for faithful adaptations, but I get feeling the need to change things, particularly with a story this big - but to change them like that? No no no. I don't think I've ever lost faith in a creative vision so quickly.

For what it's worth I'm a fan of the book series, and doing a re-read now is turning me into more of one. There's a strong Tolkien resemblance in the beginning because that's what publishers pushed then, but if you look for the differences there's a huge amount, and I love the way it focuses on people under intense stress without getting edge *glares at the spoiler*
 
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