Is Wheel of Time worth it?

FullHouse

Guy's after reading all you contributions I've come to a conclusion. If we take the contributors as microcosm of the fantasy world readership, far too high a percentage of us found it hard going. We should not have to persevere to be rewarded by the book. For me the whole point of reading fantasy is that of escapism and that requires instant gratification. Give me David Gemmell any day.

VinLieger

FullHouse wrote: »

Guy's after reading all you contributions I've come to a conclusion. If we take the contributors as microcosm of the fantasy world readership, far too high a percentage of us found it hard going. We should not have to persevere to be rewarded by the book. For me the whole point of reading fantasy is that of escapism and that requires instant gratification. Give me David Gemmell any day.

Finished 5 last and just went out and bought number 6

Raedwald

Book twelve was brilliant mainly due in part to Sanderson tieing up loose ends and bringing a certain finality to a number of key issues.

Felt Jordan was too slow at reachinga number of conclusions and was leaving himself some job at the end to get what he needed to get done and have a satisfactory conclusion to the series.

Sanderson has alos brought pace and intensity back to the series, Books 6-10 really do drag along slowly.

MudSkipper

Never started and although I've wondered about wheel of time, after reading this thread don't think I ever will start it...

Oly once have I forced myself through a series of heavy crap volumes, thinking for it to get better again and it didn't. I'm looking at you stephen king and your dark tower, first three were brilliant, fourth was a slog with the whole memoir thing............ five was ok and the last two should not be mentioned

Sephiroth_dude

I could'nt finish book 1,found it really boring.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

dug out all 11 books from the attic in my parents house. I hadnt planned to, but I found eye of the world and flicked through it... bastard sucked me in again.

Raedwald

Have to say to me Book 1 is like The Fellowship of the Ring with new characters.

girvtheswerve

Personally I love the Wheel of Time.

Yes there were a few slow moving books in the middle of the series (to say the least) but its definitely back on track now and I have never regretted reading the series.

alois

simply skip the bad books and read summaries somewhere, the good books are worth it!

VinLieger

Just started book 8, Stuck reading about Elayne and Nynaeve arguing with a bunch of other women for the next 100 pages FML

lordgoat

VinLieger wrote: »

Just started book 8, Stuck reading about Elayne and Nynaeve arguing with a bunch of other women for the next 100 pages FML

Doesn't get any better for the next two books, i gave up then, wish i'd never started, story telling gets very very mundane after a while.

moonflower

Keep going! I find that the individual books start off good, get very slow and boring for the middle and then the last fifth of the book is brilliant, leaving you wanting to jump right into the next one.

I really like the new writer though, he manages to keep things interesting even though very little happens in the newest installment.

BarnhallBull

I know this thread's a tad old, but hey, hard to find anyone who's read the whole lot :P

Just finished book 4, started the series for the first time about 6 years ago when I was 13/14 and got as far as book 4, found it a bit heavy going and decided to read a couple of other books before going back to it, but by the time I picked it back up i'd forgotten just about everything. Tried at least 10 times to start from scratch again with The Eye of The World and could never get more than 60-odd pages in. Was quite ill a few months ago and decided there was no better time to force myself back into the series. Just finished book 4 again, vaguely remembered bits and pieces up to this point but it's new ground from here on in.

I like it, the repetetive phrasing does my head in (The wheel weaves as the wheel wills, does anyone else get tongue-tied even reading that in their head!?) along with constantly reminding us how stubborn Two Rivers folk are and how Aes Sedai can't lie but the truth you hear may not be the truth you think etc. All that aside, I really like the characters, the majority of storylines are interesting I find (thus far) and it's a well-crafted world I think. There is far too much emphasis on some of the minor details I feel and often whole chapters can feel like a real drag, but overall i'm still enjoying them and am looking forward to starting book 5.

Sorry for the essay, just trying to avoid studying for a bit! Wish me luck with the rest

moncai

Man i cant believe you had trouble getting into the eye of the world!
From page 68 onwards that book is probably one of my favourite story's.
As soon as the first trolloc breaks down the door the whole thing seems to unreavel like a movie playing in my head, i dont think it's because the writing is particularly moving, more so because it seems Jordan has carefully amalgamated different characters and legends from various cultures across the world to come up with a rainbow type tale that seems to push all my buttons. The Wotmania website theory board section has covered the relationships lots of characters in the book have to real world legends such as Rand playing the Jesus Christ superstar role but taking a darker path than fish and loaves, Mat is most often likened to Loki the Norse god of mischief, Perrin as the Prodigal son of the Two Rivers, the Tuatha'an as the Gypsy folk from Ireland to Romania.... the list goes on and on, but it's been a couple of years since i was really into it so i cant remember all the allusions found in the series.
When you think of it, it sure is a very formulaic way of creating a best selling fantasy series... just pick your fav or the most influential cultural stories and piece them together with a bit of a twist.
I love it though. As i said before, re reading a book of the WoT series is the best hangover cure i can think of

BarnhallBull

I loved it from that point onwards, and I could remember loving the book the first time around but I just couldn't get past the first couple of chapters for ages!.

Glad I did now, a couple of chapters into book 5, it's started slowly (shockingly!) but i'm looking forward to getting a good run at the series over the summer

VinLieger

Just started book 10, enjoying it but finding things are going way too slowly, and the time difference in storytelling between book 8 and 10 is just annoying

Nody

moncai wrote: »

I love the Terry Goodkind slur too, the sword of truth series has to be the most repetitive stuff around.

TG went bat**** insane after 9/11, at least if you read his books (and the not so subtle rl references). I finished it because I really liked his first books but it was painful to get through the last once...

And yes, he's not trying to write "only" fantasy, he's trying to write in US vs. the world of ebil terrorists and it is so heavy handed you think he's had a Sovjet political officer editing it...

As for the OP, I gave up on book 9 or 10 (which ever it was were literally every single damn chapter was for a new character plot development, Rand spent two weeks marching and that was it in the whole beeping book). Now I'm going through them again as audiobooks because there is no way I'd be able to try to read through them again.

ChristopherUno

I personally loved these books. Immediately after reading LotR for the first time (at about 10 or so) I wanted another fix of fantasy and decided on these ones simply for the cover (the old ones with a scene from the book rather than the Aes Sedai symbol), got the first three books at once. Since then I've read as far as the tenth and feel like I've grown up with the characters. EotW probably ranks as my favourite fantasy book of all time. Just waiting to get back to Ireland to get my hands on the last few books and throw myself back into things!

On the Terry Goodkind side of the thread, ditto on the hate. Read the first one, found it ok but a bit uninteresting, the imaginary world never captured me quite like LotR, WoT, Deathgate etc. and the characters were a little annoying. Started the second book and thought "WTF, did they put a new cover on the first one?" Never ventured back since.

FullHouse

Just to update mu own thread, started back into book 4 again and am struggling. The fact that there is a new author commissioned to finish off the series has renewed my interest. Let's just hope I can make it far enough to see if he's any good.

Lu Tze

FullHouse wrote: »

Just to update mu own thread, started back into book 4 again and am struggling. The fact that there is a new author commissioned to finish off the series has renewed my interest. Let's just hope I can make it far enough to see if he's any good.

He is, or at least it picked up the pace and the story is now hurtling towards a grand conclusion

ixoy

Books 1-6 very good.
Books 7-11 - quality really really drops. Pace goes slower than a snail and the plots get lost up in Jordan's obsession for detail. Very difficult at times to get through.
Book 12 - Massive leap in quality as Brendan Sanderson takes over and re-vitalises the franchise, finally moving events along. It's like being back in the good old days and made me interested in the franchise again! I care once more.
Book 13 - Well will be starting this tomorrow, but I'm actually looking forward to a new instalment for the first time in a decade. That's a good thing.