The Wheel of Time *spoilers*

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Just the other day i was in a book shop. I had just finished reading the Avatar series (forgotten relms) and wanted another book. The first book i picked up was called "The Eye of the World". Part one in a series called the wheel of time by Robert Jordan. The back didn't say much about the book at all.

As you can see it doesn't say much about the book. I'd never heard of the book or author before so i decided to buy it.

I was just wondering if anyone has read it before. Is it very good? Would you recomend it to other people?
Was it good enough to read the other 10 or so in the series?

[ June 03, 2003, 12:02: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

You will get very mixed responses on this most likely. Yes, WoT is a nice series, however, it has some drawbacks. After a couple of books, the plot doesn't seem to be moving at all, Jordan constantly falls back on frustrations between the genders, and nynaeve tugging her braid. He describes everything in almost overkill detail.

But still, I love the books, and am addicted to them

 

I'am currently reading the fourth book, and I have liked them so far. As Faragon said they have their drawbacks, but you'll get over them

 

You're at the best part of the series. I absolutely loved the first books ... but by 4-6 it got slow.

Enjoy the first three though. Really, don't let any negativity here stop you from reading those gems.

 

I just finished books 8 and 9 this week. I agree with others. The first couple of books introducing the main characters are by far the best. After that things happen and more things happen and more things happen. I honestly dont see how Jordan keeps up with all of the characters in the story. I have a hard enough time just keeping up with the main chars and secondary main characters. At the end of book 9 I wonder if Jordan used to write soap opera scripts. Many things happen in the story but the plot has slowed to a crawl with no end in sight. I cant stop reading now though because after reading over 5000 pages of story i feel vested. Ha!

 

Thanks a lot every one.
It sounds like I've got a good book

 

I have to recommend Jordan when I get the chance, though as the series progresses the quality really takes a hit. But I don't think anyone could write something so large without taking a similar hit. His books, quality wise, are all head and shoulders above anything published by TSR, IMHO.

 

I absolutely love the WoT books and ive read them some five odd times all the way through. Recommend them for any fantasy reader.

Warning...they take a shift akin to the DUNE series.

Books 1-3 of WoT are the comparitively weak characters going through act of desperation after act of desperation(not really...but it is more of an action novel anyways).

Books 4-5 carry the series into a transitional periond. Now that the characters have come into their own and have gained some considerable power, it shifts more to a political intrigue standpoint. But for these two books there is still some heavy action in there as well.

Books 6-10 are heavy in the political intrigue. You'd better like character development and politics/negotiations between the main character and a group of people that refuse to give in to him.

Note: Every book has an end of book climax that tends to catch you by surprise, and, if you didn't like the book that much...tends to justify it...even Path of Daggers.

And make sure you remember who the minor characters are....Jordan likes to have them come back and bite you on the ass, with you wondering "Who the hell is that?".

 

Sounds great Gaidin. I've always liked political intrigueing books. Well most of them atleast.

 

Five years ago I'd have recommended Wheel of Time as fantasy well worth reading but now I'd say you'd be better off with George R R Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire instead.

Wheel of Time started out quite good - characterisation wasn't very memorable and the storyline was just your standard run-of-the-mill fantasy storyline about saving the world from an evil dark lord - but it was reasonably well written and the setting was impressive.

Only problem is that once you get through to the later books you tend to find that nothing really happens: characters will stand around for 200 pages just discussing something that could be settled in 5 pages. At other times they'll rehash old discussions for no other reason than it adds a few pages onto the book and Jordan seems obsessed with not finishing a book until he's hit at least 650 pages. As such you tend to have about 50 pages of actual story and 600 pages of filler.

There are also some annoying lapses in logic in that around book 5 or 6, Rand (the main character) gets a weapon which pretty much allows him to win the entire war on his own. So does he do that? Hell no, he leaves the weapon where it is and spends several books in a row just making speeches while the world goes to hell around him. No real explanation for this is given but I suspect the heart of the reason is that Jordan didn't want to end the series there.

At the moment I'm trying to get through book 9 without much success. The storyline has slowed to a crawl and while the later books are every bit as large as the earlier ones, before they were large because they had lots of storyline packed into them where now they're large because Jordan drags everything out for chapter after chapter instead of just resolving it in a page or two.

I get the impression he's realised he's onto a good thing here and is determined not to let it go until the last possible minute, hence the fact that you can read 500 pages and find not a single thing has changed. At this rate he could be writing the Wheel of Time for the next fifty years without ever finishing it off. Which is kind of what he intends to do I think.

 

wow....am i the only only one who sees a drama in the last few books?

I guess this is what comes from actually enjoying(or at least not wanting to burn thte book when done) books like Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Sister Carrie, The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, and The Red Badge of Courage.

Not to mention the fact that I enjoyed writing the report on Jack London....

I guess it gives me a more sensitive eye for these things...hehehe..

btw dshadow....book nine is the kicker....

 

OK, I can't resist any longer. I too have enjoyed slow moving books with deep plots but I really came to resent the Wheel of Time books. The plots towards the end are (very) slow but they are not deep. Most of it is just recylced themes from the earlier books. And the character development has just died - I seem to remember Jorden even describing Rand as becoming hard as stone then a few books later Jorden describes his development by letting us know Rand has now become as hard as Iron.

Yep sadly Jorden has seen a money spinner and is determined to spin it out as long as people are foolish enough to keep buying it instead of trying something else with a proper story. Consequently the plot development relies on introducing some illogical random type event to spin things out a bit longer. The only real danger to Rand and his buddies is falling sales figures.

To be fair though, and repeat what Mat said earlier, the first 3 are worth reading. After you've done so, you must then do something to break the habit and don't give into temptation to read the rest. The series does become addictive but like most addictions, it stops being enjoyable.

To see how my disillusionment grew through the series, take a look here:
Oy, Jordan, no

They have also been several debates on this site about the book and it appears to me that most who praise the books have only read the early stuff. I can only think of two that have read the whole series and still rate it. Anyway, do a search for Jordan in this forum for a wider debate about the pros and cons.

 

You know, I'd have a much easier time reading the "slow plot" books if he didn't spend so much dang time describing what everyone is wearing.

I swear he wants to be a fashion designer. After pages and pages Elaine's dresses, Min's trousers, Rand's vests, Mat's hat and scarf combo ARGH! Robert just come out of the closet! We'll still love and accept you!

 

actually...the point of the stone/iron thing is that Cadsuane and Sorelia were actually making headway on getting rid of Rand's disillusionment that he has to be that way.

At the end of book nine....that was all destroyed....

And on the note of the fashion designer thing....if you can sit through God-Emperor of Dune....this is a cakewalk....

Herbert dragged that book out to all hell....

 

Personally, I've read all but the latest in the series, still haven't been able to get my hands on it, and I've loved them all. Does the plot slow? Yes, but in a way it is because what does happen is bigger, more serious. I do rather wish that Jordan would speed things up a bit, but, that said, I still love them. And the political intrigue is great.

 

@ Darkshadow
He gets the sword, but doesn't use it. Why, because it was faulty. Cadsuane says that it has a crack in it that lets a whole lot of the taint through. As Rand didn't want to go nuts, he didn't use it. I must say that book 10 was abit slow, but it was important.

The reason why he wants to drag it out is because the whole theme of the book is that time is eternal, and this has all happened before. Plus, it gets interesting the more detail there is.

 

rand didnt know about the fault in the sword....im not suer a helluva lot of people did...and if Lanfear knew...she didnt care....

The only reason he never used it was because of it's use as binding Tear to him.

He locked the Choedan Kal up because he was afraid of what they were capable of. Two teamed together could oust the creator as Lanfear said.

 

Rather good serie, I own every book of it, but in the latest releases (9 and 10) I got a feeling that R.Jordan has lost the strings of the plot. The only significant part I can remember is when the protagonist and... you know which 3... agree something very amusing . Hopefully these two books have been just "preparation" to the part #11...

 

Ehm... i haven't actually read the books, mostly because there are so many!! Should i read them??
Could someone maybe describe them a little so i know what i'm getting myself into??