Have you stopped reading Wheel of Time?

[Switchback]

Wow, i find it strange that folks were picking book 6 to give up on. The last 150 pages of that book are insane, and some of the best fantasy I've ever read. I was hooked before then, but the end of book 6 kept me going through the next few until I got to Knife, which again brought the series back to what it was. And like Scutum says, book 10 is the only one I really struggle with after several re-reads....

 

[Moggle]

I didn't stop reading them but I can imagine why those who followed these books from the beginning might get frustrated considering the wait time, only to find the story progressed an inch since the last book. I only started reading them a month ago so I didn't have to wait until each volume was released.

 

[thepaladin]

Well you still have at least 3 years. By the way, I liked book 6...the fade hit in book7, and only got worse as it went along. By the way...the fact that finally, after 10 books the series finially moved along on a single plot point that should have been cleared up long before (he'd set it up well enough) didn't bring me back. I think the reason i'm so ruined on this series is because it was so good. I loved the first 6 books...figured the 7th was a fluke...and then saw the hand writing on the wall. I believe this would have been a classic to transend genre. But not now, it's a long fantasy, battle of the sexes soap opera. And that's sad. It could have been so great.

 

[ManTimeForgot]

I'd say its too bad for most of you who think Jordan's books are too long. A lot of books are high-hundred to over a thousand pages (Hubbard's early work before he got all religiousy was this way), and I happen to like long involved plot-lines that drag on at times with intermittent periods of intense excitement followed by a rising crescendo to an ultimate climax (human psychology says that all people like this pattern, but it varies how long each phase should be according to personality. I happen to be a very patient person).

As I said before, I don't think he ruined the series. I think he transformed it into something larger than the stereotypical quest for questing's sake trite fantasy non-sense that pervades the genre. Wheels within wheels is why I like the Dune books and the same reason why I like the WoT books. If you can tell me what X group is doing in response to Y due to Z environmental consideration, then I am almost certainly going to fall in love with your world (barring of course the book turning into a weather report...)

MTF

 

[thepaladin]

Part of me wants to play this for laughs...but i won't. There will always be people who enjoy "what others don't". I to love long involved plots, epic fantasy, when done well.

"To me" WoT is just not well done, it's repetive and often (again in my openion) pointless. You kill 800 or 1000 pages telling the same events from maybe 5 points of view, and advance the story not a lick. He turned what was a very fine fantasy epic into a soap opera. I know you don't agree with that (or maybe you do, some people like soap operas).

So, enjoy... In my case the reason I'm so disapointed is that I really liked the first 6 volumes.

 

[bunnypeaches]

I'm struggling my way through book 9 after a few months break. I'm still enjoying the basic story, but I must admit I agree that it is proceeding at an almost painfully slow pace. And I'm not enjoying the chapters about Cadsuane and the other kind of "irrelevant" seeming Aes Sedai. I'm sure they're purpose will be revealed later on, but at the moment, I'm just skimming those chapters.

And I'm disappointed to hear Perrin chases Faile for TWO books worth of time. Oh, and I do get a bit peeved with the men vs women undercurrent. Although I'm intrigued as to what's going on with Rand (nobody tell me if he manages to cleanse saidin, I don't want to know for sure yet!). The Sea Folk are annoying also, when they boss Nynavae and the others about, it's like they're bullying me too cause I feel so close to certain characters.

I think Robet Jordan just got carried away weaving new characters into it, which is interesting in its way, but I think I'd rather hear about the sort of dozen main characters.

Sorry if it was a bit of a rambling post, I've only just joined this forum, and I don't know anyone else who's read the Wheel of Time series, so this is the first time I've had to talk to people about it who know what I'm talking about!

 

[Clansman]

Hey, rambling posts are perfectly apt with regard to this series, which rambled on for four books before getting back on track.

 

[ratsy]

I made it too the start of book 5 then stopped. I am not sure why I did...something must have come up...there were a few years where I stopped reading. In the past couple years I have added them again to my TBR pile and have re-read the first 3, but I havent made it any further than that...although I am not one to give up on a series so I will eventually read them all

 

[bunnypeaches]

I've nearly finished Winter's Heart now! I feel a bit like I'm forcing myself to plough through the thing, but now that I've started reading it I've kind of got back into it. He does ramble on and on but I feel a bit like that about a lot of books. I hope the end will be worth struggling through all this nonsense about Cadsuane and the random Seanchan characters.

 

[ManTimeForgot]

Matt, Perrin, and the Aiel are like a million times more entertaining than Cadsuane and Perrin's wife in the Winter's Heart... Perrin's wife (I forget her name off the top of my head; I will reread the whole series again before the next book comes out) gets better as she loses her wooden, rebel nature in favor of a more noble one. But Cadsuane I've always found to be a kind of thunder stealer (she's the retired badass and old mentor, but just comes off wrong to me somehow...). And Matt's quest by Knife in Dreams becomes awesome. There is no question for me whose story arc is the most interesting (I've reread his story arc from winter's heart through knife in dreams just by itself probably 30 times; ignoring the rest of the books just because I liked it that much).

MTF

 

[bunnypeaches]

Definitely, I love Mat's story line, I have to re-read the bit where he got his spear if I can find which book that was in. And I liked Perrin's story a lot too, being able to talk to wolves would be awesome, it's just gone off track a bit now with his wifey.
I think I'd like Cadsuane a lot better if she didn't think she was so much better than everyone else. No need to be a bitch about it, you know? Generally I find some of the characters in those books are really well written and you really care about what happens to them, and others you just can't feel anything for at all.

 

[markus]

I suffered this series for eight and a halft books before I finally hopped book nine off the wall. Long winded, boring with too long a wait for a bit of good action, which usually happened in the last couple of chapters and was a let down when it finally did. Nice long slowely dragged out descriptions of scenery or sub characher dialog, if you're into that sort of thing. Just too much effort for too little pay off at the end for me. Give me Gemmel or Eddings any day over this. A story should be resonable fast pased and above all entertaining. Not enough of either in the wheel of time for me. Is it too late to get my money back?

 

[X'Nedra]

I've put it on hold for a while. I'm at book 6, and even though I want to know what happens I just can't summon the strength to keep reading. I'm sure I'll get there!

 

[Beamer]

I have read all of the books except the last one which was coauthored due to his death. I was not wild about the choice of coauthor and then when I picked up what I had thought was supposed to be the final book and read the blurb on the dust jacket that stated it was the first of three novels I figured what was the point in reading it till the others were finished. In the past I was always eagerly awaiting each new novel and when they were due to be released I would reread the whole set in preparation. Now though with a new author I seem to have lost some of the interest. I will pick the others up when they are published and reread the whole set, but I hope I don't end up being disappointed.

 

[Clansman]

Beamer, you are making a mistake. Sanderson has breathed new life into what had become a moribund series. I have all of the books in first print (except The Great Hunt, alas), and have been reading the series since it started in 1990. After the excitement of the first 6 books, the crawl of the story in books 7 to 10 was hard to take, and my interest waned then. Book 11 was a recovery for Jordan, and he got the story moving. Sanderson took up the torch, and he has held it high. Very high. He got rid of a bunch of annoying side stories with flair and sensitivity, and focussed on the main character Rand for a change, and develops that character for the first time since his first foray into the Aiel Waste. Rand as the "brittle warrior" was getting, well, brittle. The Aes Sedai split story had been going on for about 7 or 8 books, it is now resolved.

The only thing I did not like was Sanderson's treatment of Mat, but he has received enough complaints on that point, so he is likely to deal with it before the next book is out.

The last book has not really been split in three. Jordan would never have been able to finish it in one book, as the amount of material that he left behind was massive. Because Jordan let the story wander so badly for five books, there is simply too much work to wrap it up in a single volume. Sanderson actually blogged on this and made a lot of sense. It will take another two books to finish it.

There is also no cliffhanger ending, but rather a good resting point.

You won't be disappointed, and this is coming from one of Jordan's first readers on this series. Go get the book now. The next,Towers of Midnight, is due in November of this year, and the final, A Memory of Light, is due in November 2011.

 

[CadleyX]

Agreed, Knife of Dreams and The Gathering Storm have kicked the series back into gear, its now head-first/full-throttle to the Last Battle instead of meandering, lets swing by Tesco on the way attitude of the previous few books.

That said, I've enjoyed all of them bar Crossroads of Twilight, and I'd advise anyone in the latter stages of the series to read one, then have a break and read a few other things, then go back and read the next week. Reading them all in a chunk can be overload.

 

[Hassan I Sahba]

I was on about book 5 or 6 when Jordan died, and I stopped then. I lost all of them somehow, but ever since then whenever I'm in a bookshop (quite regularly) I think about buying the first one again and getting back into it. What put me off was having to spend a considerable amount of money on books I had already read. Today, however, I got the first 9 (and a Moorcock book) for £4 at a car boot sale (as well as 4 batman videos for 10p each)! Looking forward to getting back into it - been reading far too much non-fiction and science fiction lately, need to get my fantasy quota back up!

From skimming this thread it looks like there's a reason the man at the car boot sale only had up to number 9, but I'm just going to read them leisurely and keep everything else I'm reading on the go as well.

 

[Enraged Toaster]

Hey everyone. I'm new here, but just thought I'd drop my opinion of the Wheel of Time since I am currently reading the eighth book and lovin it.

Personally, I myself will never stop reading the Wheel of Time. Until I'm finished of course. And maybe after that I'll do a reread of the first few books.
The first few are definitely the best, ad even if after that the story does drag on a bit, I get attached to the characters.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Hahaha I love your username. Welcome to the Chron!

 

[Clansman]

Enraged Toaster, welcome to the Chrons. A great username indeed! And the story gets better again at book 11. Book 12, the one done by Sanderson, really speeds up the story.