Have you stopped reading Wheel of Time?

[Enraged Toaster]

Thank guys.
Well, I'm glad the story gets better cause it is starting to drag a bit. And I was really worried that Sanderson would ruin Jordan's books, but apparently most people here think he bettered them, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Even if the books do drag on, I could never stop reading a series once I've started. And I don't know about you, but I love the characters too much to even think about it.
Especially Mat. He's the bomb!
And thanks about the username.

 

[Clansman]

Even if the books do drag on, I could never stop reading a series once I've started.

I used to think that, and then I starting reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth drivel. I then realized that life is too short to read bad books.

It is worth it to persevere with WoT, though.

 

[Palerider]

Hi,

My first post here.

I actually bought "The Eye of the World" back in 1990. I got, maybe, 250 pages in and thought it was excellent. Felt like I was on the road with Rand and company.

I didn't get any further though.

Didn't do much reading in the early '90's probably because my wife died in 1989. Never figured out why I'd start something, get part way through and then put it aside.

Fast forward to 2009. Picked up another copy of "The Eye of the World". Finished it and got the rest of the series. I'm half way through Book Five - "The Fires of Heaven" and enjoying every moment of the journey.

This time, I will finish the series. The characters mean a lot to me. Maybe not as much as Frodo and company, but right up there.

Re: Goodkind and "The Sword of Truth" Series. I picked up the first one in the early '90's and didn't get very far into it. AGAIN. Based on what I've heard, I'm not going to look into it in the near future. I did, however, pick up "The Law of Nines" yesterday based on the back cover blurb. Seemed interesting. Then I found out that it's connected to the "SoT" series and that bothered me. But it's readable, so I'll give it a shot since I may not live long enough to see "The Wise Man's Fear" -The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss. LOL.

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. See you at Tarmon Gai'don.

Joe

 

[xyz]

After reading the later books I am much less opposed to book burning in general.

 

[Talysia]

Hi,

My first post here.

I actually bought "The Eye of the World" back in 1990. I got, maybe, 250 pages in and thought it was excellent. Felt like I was on the road with Rand and company.

I didn't get any further though.

Didn't do much reading in the early '90's probably because my wife died in 1989. Never figured out why I'd start something, get part way through and then put it aside.

Fast forward to 2009. Picked up another copy of "The Eye of the World". Finished it and got the rest of the series. I'm half way through Book Five - "The Fires of Heaven" and enjoying every moment of the journey.

This time, I will finish the series. The characters mean a lot to me. Maybe not as much as Frodo and company, but right up there.

Re: Goodkind and "The Sword of Truth" Series. I picked up the first one in the early '90's and didn't get very far into it. AGAIN. Based on what I've heard, I'm not going to look into it in the near future. I did, however, pick up "The Law of Nines" yesterday based on the back cover blurb. Seemed interesting. Then I found out that it's connected to the "SoT" series and that bothered me. But it's readable, so I'll give it a shot since I may not live long enough to see "The Wise Man's Fear" -The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss. LOL.

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. See you at Tarmon Gai'don.

Joe

I'm a bit late, but welcome to the Chronicles, Palerider! You're about halfway through the series, and you'll soon reach the part where a lot of people lose interest with it. I used to feel that way myself, especially with books 8 to 10, but on reading the last couple of books my opinions have changed a bit.

With Brandon Sanderson taking over the helm to get the series finished, I feel as though the quality has risen again, and I'm glad I've stuck with it. The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight were excellent, and have rekindled my interest in the series.

 

[Virtuous]

I realize that criticizing Jordan is akin to saying the Beatles sucked, but I have to confess that I slogged my way through WoT and decided that it was time to call that adventure complete. It wasn't the length - I love long books that you can just lose yourself in - it was the efficiency: don't take 10 pages to say what can be said in 2. If Jordan had written in the 19th Century he'd have fit right in. I think that WoT could have been written in about 200 pages and been far superior - all the cool ideas and none of the slog. My Jordan-fan friends tell me that it gets really fast-paced by book 3 or so, but I just can't summon the endurance to find out.

 

[Palerider]

Talysia - Thanks for the welcome. More than I got from Dragonmount when I posted there last week. It is much appreciated. No way I can give up on the books now; I care too much about the characters to just turn away at this point. (And silly me - I'm hoping for a happy or, at least, meaningful ending to the series.)

Meaningful = If everyone has to die, but the world is healed, I'll be a happy man. But that's just me. I could say the same thing about our reality. That's another story.

Virtuous - Well, the Beatles did suck especially if you liked the Stones, the Yardbirds and the Animals like I did back then. Still, I liked some of their songs and grew to appreciate their contribution to human culture. At any rate, as I said to Talysia above, I care about the characters and want to find out how it all turns out.

Anyway, thanks for listening - AGAIN!

Joe

 

[woodsman]

I'll second the welcome to both. Check out the introductions thread and let everyone know you're here.

Yeah I used to frequent dragonmount - the word Tool springs to unbidden to my mind. They (some of them) do know their Jordan though. I have a feeling/memory that Taly was on there as well, I seem to remember talking about it it the distant past.

I'd say continue with the series, you may start to hate some characters but I think it's worth it.

 

[Talysia]

Oh yes, there are definitely some characters you may start to hate. I could make quite a big list although, oddly enough, with Towers of Midnight, my views on a couple of them have changed: Faile, for example.

And yes, I was on Dragonmount. I still am, to an extent, although I no longer post in their WoT discussions now (I just post in one of the smallest social groups there now, but nowhere else). The place has changed, quite a bit, and for any WoT discussions, even though there aren't many of us who do it, I much prefer Chronicles. Much more friendly.

 

[Null_Zone]

I stopped reading at about book 7, I was only skimming it to miss out scenes of braid pulling and sniffing. Add in the long delays between books and trying to remember what happened each time and I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

But the new books are getting some good reviews and seem to be produced on schedule so I've started reading again. I'd forgotton/not realised how clumsy the writting was all those years ago. Not quite destroying fond memories levels but it's not great.

Can't stop reading them though.

 

[dyffeg]

Hi there,
I started reading WOT years and years and years ago. Totally adored the first ?5 books, and then persevered plodding through reading the others. Some were very very tough to get through - I must admit to skimming a lot of pages in a few of them and reading them in the forelorn hope that things would move along a little bit!

BUT!!!!! I have just finished reading the Gathering Storm and LOVED it! Plots were being progressed to my complete enjoyment and satisfaction, charactors were now fresh and more "real" and I actually couldn't wait to see what happened (esp in regards to the White Tower sections). Totally brilliant. I was really excited to be reading this book.

Today I went out and bought the Towers of Midnight as I couldn't bear to finish one book and not find out what happened!
Dyffeg

 

[chopper]

actually, i'm going to echo everything said above in the last few posts. i got so tired of WoT that i gave the whole lot to oxfam a few years back. but i got Gathering Storm from the library the other day and sat up till half two last night reading the Tar Valon chapters. movement! progression! characters - dying! Sanderson sets his stall out early on with a prologue that actually does something, and i have to say i rather like it.

 

[X'Nedra]

I've picked the books up again since ToM came out, and I'm now onto #10. I enjoyed Winter's Heart, but found the climax a little confusing...

I'm halfway through Crossroads of Twilight and am enjoying Mat's story, but a bit impatient with Perrin's - I am an impatient reader though (which is probably why I stopped reading them in the first place).

 

[C Of K]

Welcome, Dyffeg. I envy you. I wish I could go back and read Towers of Midnight for the first time again. Like Chopper said, Sanderson is doing a great job moving the story along, and making it well worth the read.

I'm halfway through Crossroads of Twilight and am enjoying Mat's story, but a bit impatient with Perrin's - I am an impatient reader though (which is probably why I stopped reading them in the first place).

Keep going, X'Nedra. Perrin actually becomes important in the Sanderson books, as do all the plots that were dragging along in earlier books like Crossroads of Twilight.

 

[Red 13]

I started reading WOT (about three years ago) because i wanted something that wouldn't finish after 3 or 4 books and leave me craving for more. Sadly it kind of back fired because about half way through the 4th book i felt that the story was dragging on a bit and i lost interest. I honestly think that if i had started reading the series when the first book came out (or at least the first three) and had to wait a year or two for the next one to come out, i would still be reading them today. The fact that i was getting tired of it by the forth book in a row put me off going on to read another 9 books.
Its a shame because now Sanderson has taken over and he is one of my fav authors. Who knows, i might try reading them all, but i'll have to take my time.

 

[C Of K]

This may sound extremely sacrilegious, Red13, but there are probably a few books that can be skipped entirely. Don't quote me on that now, but if you were tired by book four, well nothing happens between books 8 - 10. Well, almost nothing, there are a few important moments.

 

[Clansman]

You sure could skim-read books 7 through 10, and you can quote me on that. Especially book 10: Crossroads of Twilight is a great title, but unfortunately the title is the best part of the book. Fortunately, Jordan got back in the game for 11, and Sanderson rescued the series with 12: The Gathering Storm.

 

[Selaryn]

Hi,

I actually started reading the series a few years ago, and I really loved the first five books, but I found the next ones really boring and I quit the series. I wondered about restarting it again, but after reading this thread, I see that most people have the opinion that books 6 to 9 are really not worth reading...

 

[Clansman]

yes, but you need to read them to get to the good ones: Knife of Dreams (Jordan got back on track), and then the three that Sanderson is doing to finish the series.

You could skim the books, and ignore almost entirely the story of Perrin and Faile from books 6 through 10. From the point where Faile is kidnapped by the Shaido, just skip their story until the Shaido issue "resolves". It is a useless side story, and does not add to WoT at all well. Also, Mat's endless journey from Fal Dara to Cairhien could be skimmed, along with the Aes Sedai war story (skim that too, as there is a lot of needless filler). Jordan got seriously lost in these books, but there is some good stuff, and some plot points that you have to know to enjoy the last four books (the last book of the series will be released autumn 2011). Read all of the last four books.

 

[dlsevern]

I've found that reading three of the books in a row and then giving about 2 or 3 months to read other stuff and then going back to the WoT makes it easier to keep going, I love the series but can't stand to read any series for too long.