Wheel of time - is it worth it?

Quiet Girl

I've just finished the first book in The Wheel of Time series, I did enjoy it although it took me literally months to get into, not like other books where I had no hesitations in finishing, this one just seemed to drag on.

I did however really enjoy the ending so that would make me want to pick up the second book. I am just afraid the rest of the books are like the first one and it will take me years to finish the whole series

Are they really worth a read?

ixoy

You thought the first book was a slog? Then the answer is No, it's not worth it. After the fifth book they become a much greater slog.

bucketybuck

Quiet Girl wrote: »

this one just seemed to drag on.

If this is the case then do yourself a favour and stop right there.

muff03

Yeah, up to 4th or so is where everyone is really enjoying the story. So if the first is a grind then I'd say go with the synopsis instead.

Sleepy

Honestly, no it's not worth the read. It was ground-breaking in terms of it's scale when it was released but Jordan wasn't a particularly good writer, the story is little more than an extended Hero's Journey, most of his female characters are dire and the more distance I've had from it, the more I regret spending the guts of a year slogging through the series.

Patser

Agreed. Over the first 4 books the scale and lore builds brilliantly - then you've 6/7 books where shag all happens but the landscape and clothes are described in intricate, boring detail.

Then Jordan dies, a new lad took over, pretty much kills off all the meandering pointless subplots and just has a big kick ass battle to settle everything. So read first 4, you'll get a good gist of where main characters are going to, then Google up rough idea of middle slog, then read last book.

astonaidan

Patser wrote: »

Agreed. Over the first 4 books the scale and lore builds brilliantly - then you've 6/7 books where shag all happens but the landscape and clothes are described in intricate, boring detail.

Then Jordan dies, a new lad took over, pretty much kills off all the meandering pointless subplots and just has a big kick ass battle to settle everything. So read first 4, you'll get a good gist of where main characters are going to, then Google up rough idea of middle slog, then read last book.

Well..........Yup pretty much what happened, Sanderson brought life back into it, Id recommend just reading one of his series

Nody

Quiet Girl wrote: »

I've just finished the first book in The Wheel of Time series, I did enjoy it although it took me literally months to get into, not like other books where I had no hesitations in finishing, this one just seemed to drag on.

I did however really enjoy the ending so that would make me want to pick up the second book. I am just afraid the rest of the books are like the first one and it will take me years to finish the whole series

Are they really worth a read?

Oh wait until you hit book 10 and 11 if you think 1 was slow; you'll be "pulling your braid", "Hmpf, Men!" and "adjust your dress" while "plotting behind the dark lords's back on becoming his disciple" and thinking "but <insert one of the three male characters> and <insert a second of the three male characters> always knew how to act around women <said by the third male character>".

In short Jordan got wrapped up with the idea of writing the longest series ever in what started out as a trilogy, then it was to be five, then seven, then longest series eva! And the story telling shows from it; it does not get better the deeper you go, the characters if anything become even more farcical and one sided and there is nothing "wow I did not see that coming!" ala Dune either.

Quiet Girl

I'm even finding excuses not to start the second book 😂😂😂 I know it will wreck my head that I've started something an not gonna finish but I'll just have to deal with that by the sounds of things it isn't worth finishing the whole series an wasting months if not years!

Patser

The problem is the 2nd book us good, and it gets better through 3 and 4, maybe even 5. Lures you in, you've now invested.... Then straight off a cliff, you hope it's a blip, you plod on... and on...and on... In a circus caravan doing shag all..with the world's least interesting civil war raging in the tower...an invasion of who cares that just creates a meaningless side track.

I mean it's end if days stuff, end of Mankind, evil and trollocs everywhere. And here's the Aiel arriving (cool) enough, and now the Seanchan (who, why, where), and the Aes Sedai have a tiff that takes forever, and the sea folk are here now (how many strands are we dealing with), but Perrin is off with his own army in a different mini civil war, unless he's in the Wolf dream, oh and there are all the seperate city states to attack. And Mat has to do something, something, something mostly involving women.

Jordan dies, Sanderson comes along and decides everyone against the Trollocs quickly now, priorities people!! Focus!!! , if you're off on a side quest you're dead. And we get a great finale.

Quiet Girl

Patser wrote:

The problem is the 2nd book us good, and it gets better through 3 and 4, maybe even 5. Lures you in, you've now invested.... Then straight off a cliff, you hope it's a blip, you plod on... and on...and on... In a circus caravan doing shag all..with the world's least interesting civil war raging in the tower...an invasion of who cares that just creates a meaningless side track.

Patser wrote:

I mean it's end if days stuff, end of Mankind, evil and trollocs everywhere. And here's the Aiel arriving (cool) enough, and now the Seanchan (who, why, where), and the Aes Sedai have a tiff that takes forever, and the sea folk are here now (how many strands are we dealing with), but Perrin is off with his own army in a different mini civil war, unless he's in the Wolf dream, oh and there are all the seperate city states to attack. And Mat has to do something, something, something mostly involving women.

Patser wrote:

The problem is the 2nd book us good, and it gets better through 3 and 4, maybe even 5. Lures you in, you've now invested.... Then straight off a cliff, you hope it's a blip, you plod on... and on...and on... In a circus caravan doing shag all..with the world's least interesting civil war raging in the tower...an invasion of who cares that just creates a meaningless side track.

Patser wrote:

The problem is the 2nd book us good, and it gets better through 3 and 4, maybe even 5. Lures you in, you've now invested.... Then straight off a cliff, you hope it's a blip, you plod on... and on...and on... In a circus caravan doing shag all..with the world's least interesting civil war raging in the tower...an invasion of who cares that just creates a meaningless side track.

Patser wrote:

I mean it's end if days stuff, end of Mankind, evil and trollocs everywhere. And here's the Aiel arriving (cool) enough, and now the Seanchan (who, why, where), and the Aes Sedai have a tiff that takes forever, and the sea folk are here now (how many strands are we dealing with), but Perrin is off with his own army in a different mini civil war, unless he's in the Wolf dream, oh and there are all the seperate city states to attack. And Mat has to do something, something, something mostly involving women.

Patser wrote:

Jordan dies, Sanderson comes along and decides everyone against the Trollocs quickly now, priorities people!! Focus!!! , if you're off on a side quest you're dead. And we get a great finale.

Thanks for the summary, prob don't need to read it now 😳 actually does sound quite interesting though

drake70

Nody wrote: »

Oh wait until you hit book 10 and 11 if you think 1 was slow; you'll be "pulling your braid", "Hmpf, Men!" and "adjust your dress" while "plotting behind the dark lords's back on becoming his disciple" and thinking "but <insert one of the three male characters> and <insert a second of the three male characters> always knew how to act around women <said by the third male character>". .

Ha ha, I had forgot about the numerous "cut & paste" bits in this series.

Almost finished book five on my second/current attempt (I only made it to book eight years ago as I just couldn't continue/lost all interest in a story going nowhere.)

As a big fan of Sanderson I thought it would be worth another attempt.

Not sure if I should continue after reading this thread

Quiet Girl

I guess I thought because it's such a long series that it would be epic fantasy! Apparently it's not haha

TG1

I loved it, but I'd agree with the previous posters. The books vary drastically in quality, so I'd keep read in until you notice you're losing interest, then not beat yourself up over not finishing it! The ending isn't a surprise, so you won't miss out on much!

I think a lot of my love for it comes from the fact that I discovered the series while in 6th year and it was a brilliant way of avoiding studying!

zl1whqvjs75cdy

I'd say no. I tried twice, getting as far as book 10 the last time. But by then I was so annoyed by the filler that I just didn't care about the main characters. There is a good story in there if only we could have not had all the useless rubbish around it.

Quiet Girl

I think the only reason I'd give it a chance now is to read Sandersons take on it, he is a great fantasy writer!

mjavi

Well, if you get past the braid tugging and the color of each blade of grass happens to be each time the Winds from the North passes through, etc it is a great Series.

Books 4 (Gathering Storm) - 6 (Lords of Chaos) builds to an awesome crescendo (Ashaman Kill!)
Books 7 (Crown of Thorns) - 8 (Path of Daggers) are ho hum but the ending of tPoD is essential to the plot
Books 9 (Winter's Heart) - 10 (Crossroads of Twilight) have their very very brilliant moments and chapters (Choedan Kal) but slow over all.
Books 11 (Knife of Dreams) - 13 (Towers of Midnight) are all amazing setup books to an epic 'A Memory of Light'

Much like most fantasy series, it will always have its slooow moments and it has to describe that world time and time again until it becomes second nature to you.

Sleepy

I wonder could Jordan's estate ever be convinced to allow an experienced editor near the series?

There's a good series in there if you cut it down to about 5 books and re-phrased a lot of the braid-tugging / skirt smoothing etc.

Lu Tze

Sleepy wrote: »

I wonder could Jordan's estate ever be convinced to allow an experienced editor near the series?

There's a good series in there if you cut it down to about 5 books and re-phrased a lot of the braid-tugging / skirt smoothing etc.

Hair pulling and dress straightening!

I started on book 6 and got completely hooked, and enjoyed the whole series

mjavi

Sleepy wrote: »

I wonder could Jordan's estate ever be convinced to allow an experienced editor near the series?

There's a good series in there if you cut it down to about 5 books and re-phrased a lot of the braid-tugging / skirt smoothing etc.

Nynaeve would definitely box your ears.

Nody

The thing is there are several potential strands of stories that would be great in a smaller trilogy to five set books.

• Mats war experience in previous life, romping around as a charming merc in general
• The mystical tower, origin, creation, races in there (don't want to spoil it) etc.
• Seanchan history (how did they become what they are)
• The Steading and it's inhabitants (Creation, history, expansion)
• Etc.

But none of that is explored or will be explored which I think is the biggest loss in the series; there were plenty of interesting areas to expand on which are all glossed over while we ride over somewhere else because we're trying to tell a story with 15 main characters and 200 side characters at the same time to do yet another charge against Trollocks (who are orcs who smell with different faces who has to be whipped into battle etc. etc. et al)

wyrn

Overall I loved the series but if I think too much about any one thing, I get really annoyed. The way the women were depicted, the stupid mannerism that kept getting mentioned, the repetition, the way some books feel like only a day has passed...

I did really like (some of the) characters, the back stories, the history, the different types of people, what was lost / gained after the war etc...

The one thing that really put me off the series (although there were so many close seconds) was the Aiel. I like them as a concept but I got SO frickin sick and annoyed with everything being explained as Ji'e'toh. At first it was grand but then, it was used as an excuse for so many stupid things.

The only other thing that really makes me angry was

where Rand survives and fecks off, leaving his three women and soon to be born kids. Yeah I can understand him wanting a break and getting used to his new body, but it really felt like he was a feckless father.

mjavi

Nody wrote: »

The thing is there are several potential strands of stories that would be great in a smaller trilogy to five set books.

• Mats war experience in previous life, romping around as a charming merc in general
• The mystical tower, origin, creation, races in there (don't want to spoil it) etc.
• Seanchan history (how did they become what they are)
• The Steading and it's inhabitants (Creation, history, expansion)
• Etc.

But none of that is explored or will be explored which I think is the biggest loss in the series; there were plenty of interesting areas to expand on which are all glossed over while we ride over somewhere else because we're trying to tell a story with 15 main characters and 200 side characters at the same time to do yet another charge against Trollocks (who are orcs who smell with different faces who has to be whipped into battle etc. etc. et al)

For the seanchan history & stedding information I think there's a separate book for that which explains everything (Wheel of Time Companion). I bought that a year ago but wasn't able to finish reading it.

Mat's memories are quite awesome, you are correct in that each time he remembers a specific tactic I would always re-read those pages, similar with Bashere's and Ituralde's. But in Mat's case it came from multiple Generals so that might be interesting indeed (what if he had memories from 2 opposing generals coming from the same battle?)

keane2097

Bad books. Even the good ones aren't terrific. Some marvellous battle scenes but most of the rest of the scenes are bad. A lot of the worst professional writing/storytelling I've ever read are in these.

keane2097

Spoilers, folks.

super_furry

Went back to them a few months back. Totally blazed through the first three then took a break when I found I started to lose interest, but I might go back to book four soon. I think if you try to go through them all in order without a break you're on a hiding to nothing but dipping in and out with a few months between them seems more doable.

Amadicia

Recently finished the series. It took a full 15 months though and there's an awful lot of filler, as mentioned many times. I would say it's worth a read, if only to see how Sanderson finishes it. He really did a great job of getting rid of the flab of the narrative.

lordgoat

Waste of Time

Trojan

I found the re-read from Leigh Butler to be worth a look. She explains a lot of the mysteries that I didn't care about when I was reading the series (who killed Asmodean? Where is Demandred?). But she also helps identify just why Jordan was such a great writer, and how he foreshadows events 5, 6, 7 books in advance. Some really good analyis, including criticism where it is due.

fizzypish

Just finished the series (Read till the second last book in my teens but too many gaps between books so twas hard to follow). Re started the whole thing last year. I think Sanderson did well. Verged on silly (not often) some of the humor inserted into Mat but I think it worked well. Enjoyed it immensely.

The cull of first and second tier characters in the last 20% of the book was necessary. We lost more in the last 20% of the final book than in the entire series. It was needed to keep the serious tone of the books IMO. Demandred flinging balefire during the last battle in my mind should have led to more problems with the ranks holding back the opposing forces. He was unopposed for far too long for it not to. All the other channelers seemed to be canceling each other. I suppose I could justify it by him not trying to inflict max damage but instead retaining his strength for his scrap with Rand and all attacks were just him goading.

I think it was tied up nicely and I didn't notice any plot pieces unanswered. Yes, the middle of the series lulled but nothings perfect. The last three books accelerated at a rate we wheel of time readers were not accustomed to. Guy I know started the series and my advice was that if you read the first 2 books (I think they could stand alone to some degree?

Grab the horn and chat to jordans (his version) Ent

) and find them good then you can push through the lull. If your Meh after the first 2 then just stop.

fizzypish

fizzypish wrote: »

I think it was tied up nicely

One little thing thats bugging me that I don't get though?

The cursed hindersnap people who matt used to attack the dam defenses in the last battle. There was 100 red arms with them and they resurrected on day 2 also.
Matt had only 10 or less soldiers with him when he first entered hindersnap. Only a couple died. Did he send them into hindersnap to die when he realized the plan so they could come back with the townspeople? During the first fight at the dam when they died, they weren't killed by hindersnap people or in hindersnap so they shouldn't come back.

This has been niggling at me since... Suggested theories welcome?