Wheel of time, Time to give up?

Anton17

I just got crossroads of twilight, but im reluctant to start it. Its been years since i read the last book and i just know i'll be confused.
Should I just give up on this series, because re-reading the previous nine books is just not an option. If i do read the book i'll just be in the same situation for each of the sucessive books.
And who knows he might die before then.

Brerrabbit

Yeah I know what you mean, I gave up about 6 or 7 books in when he started to lose the plot (Pun intended ) My plan is to wait untill (if?) he finishes the series and going back and re-reading from book four or five (or right from the start if I'm feeling up to it) and if I don't make it to the end I'll just chuk the damn things. Such a shame; and they started so well.

If you made it to book 9 why not go back a book and use that to catch up on the story before starting crossroads, use book 9 to soak up the confusion ?

OfflerCrocGod

Same here I'll just wait till he is finished and re-read everything again.

DapperGent

Yeah same here. I'm not touching another until such time as he's done and I've been assured by the geek press that ensuing books aren't absolutely terrible.

The latest one I put down after less than a hundred woeful turgid pages. I will never ever in my life read books 7,8 or 9 again either. Each were worse than the previous effort and honestly 6 wasn't great either if I remember correctly, apart from the end. Actually I can't remember being gripped by a storyline since the defense of Emond's Field and that's a long time ago. Actually I can't even remember a coherent storyline since.

If it ever gets done I think I might just read synopsis or something. I don't think anyone could save the story now, there are simply too many useless pointless characters at this stage. If I was an editor I wouldn't know where to start with a rescue plan. But it's plain no editor has darkened his door for some time.

Iago

For me it started to die after book 5, I've read the rest of them but don't think I'll bother with the next instalment in this neverending story..

The only thing that might tempt me would be a prequel going back to before the source was tainted and the buildup to the battle that led to the tainting. Even then I would be reluctant based on the last few books what a waste of a fantastic story and plot..

Scruff

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Same here I'll just wait till he is finished and re-read everything again.

not a hope i'll do that. couldnt put myself through it again. if i remember correctly it was goos stuff up to 6-7 but turned into such muck after that that it made reading the first lot a waste of time. stopped myself about 9, i think.

OfflerCrocGod

Iago wrote:

The only thing that might tempt me would be a prequel going back to before the source was tainted and the buildup to the battle that led to the tainting. Even then I would be reluctant based on the last few books what a waste of a fantastic story and plot..

There is a prequel out it deals with the Aiel War - I read some of the beginning....it seems OK.

Scruff wrote:

not a hope i'll do that. couldnt put myself through it again. if i remember correctly it was goos stuff up to 6-7 but turned into such muck after that that it made reading the first lot a waste of time. stopped myself about 9, i think.

I felt like I had already read 9 when I first read it....NOTHING new happens in it at all. I'm hoping that 10 will be better. And 11 the end

nesf

I stopped around 8, and am quite bitter about it, the first 4 books are excellent and a fantastic start to a good yarn. But he just seemed to lose himself in overly complicated unnecessary characters after that.

It's a pity, I still occasionally reread the first 4, but stop myself from reading any more, it's just too damn painful.

garthv

Yeh after 7 he started to go downhill but I had to keep reading them as it would defeat the purpose of reading the first 7. Im looking forward to the new book but Im not expecting much.
Looking forward to George RR Martins latest offering though

nesf

GaRtH_V wrote:

Yeh after 7 he started to go downhill but I had to keep reading them as it would defeat the purpose of reading the first 7. Im looking forward to the new book but Im not expecting much.
Looking forward to George RR Martins latest offering though

When it arrives... I've been waiting a very very long time for him to finish it! From the sounds of things it'll be near 2 books long!

DapperGent

I find it encouraging that George is taking his time. Also the excerpts I've read are up to his usual excellence.

growler

Give up , he'll never ever ever finish it and if he does it will probably be as a prequel to the Wheel of Time 2 (History Repeating the Wheel Keeps Turning) which will be a 35 book series.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

wot really started to slide after book 5.. but I still read and enjoyed up until book 7. Books 8 and 9 were pretty poor, but ten... I got 100 pages in after two months of TRYING, really trying to read it .. then I gave it away to a friend of mine for about a year, got it back a while ago and haven't touched it since.

The wheel of time is dead to me.

Anton17

I think im going to go with the poplar consensus and wait untill he finishes the series before touching them again.
The worst thing is he's soured me against startingany other fantasy series.
I had intended starting George RR Martins stuff and some of the later Eddings books but I cant face them.

davej

I gave up on this series years ago, it's just too hard to remember all the little plot and characters stories. Plus it gets so damn repetitive.

But for those willing to continue, there is the handy option reading plot summaries on the web.

http://www.ece.umd.edu/~dilli/WOT/WOTindex/book.html

davej

Brerrabbit

I had intended starting George RR Martins stuff and some of the later Eddings books but I cant face them

Definitely give Martins stuff a whirl. A song of ice and fire is some of the best fantasy I've ever read (and I've ploughed through a lot of crap ).

garthv

yeh Martins stuff is brilliant,plot twists galore,a truly unputdownable book

LoLth

so far I've read the song of Ice and fire books (the first three) about 3 times each and I'm still finding new bits and clues. The whole series is just so well designed that unlike WoT foreshadowing actually works!

WoT was good at the start but got really really repetitive. Characters didnt develope, they jsut spouted the same lines and did the same gestures. The only character that was in any way likeable IMHO was Matt. Perrin would have been good but he sort of got forgotten until it became useful to have a new plot hook.

Anton17

Cool, i think i will give the song of ice and fire stuff a go, im just polishing off a Jay Mcinerney omnibus first.

OfflerCrocGod

This taken from a review on amazon.com about book ten ( Crossroads of Repetition ).....it's so true it's so funny

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Gripping! Some of the best writing yet!, January 29, 2005
Reviewer:P. Issa (TX USA) - See all my reviews
Not the book of course...but these reviews. The book was pure trash. These reviews are so much more entertaining! There are over 2000 reviews, and each one has more action than the book did. I think I even prefer the 4 or 5 star reviews to the book itself. I can't say NOTHING happened in the book, there were perhaps 4 or 5 pages that furthered the storyline. Of course, the next book will repeat those events over and over anyways, so there really wasn't much point in the 800+ pages. I've lost track of most of the characters...who is Black Ajah? who's on whose side? who's is naughty and who's nice? Wish Jordan would bloody well get to the point...make Elayne queen, make Egwene Amerlyn of the bloody white tower, make Perrin King of Menthol, make Mat emperor of the Seanchan, and make Rand emperor of the whole stinkin' lot!
And the worst frickin' thing is that I know I'll still buy the next book. I hate myself worse than Robert "Oh how I love to tug my braid" Jordan.


"I can't say NOTHING happened in the book, there were perhaps 4 or 5 pages that furthered the storyline" So true

bada_bing

jaysus is that book still going on spouting the same crap all over?? i remember me and my family were big fans of the books back then in 1995 and we read the first 5 books when i realised the author is just trying to cash in and prolong the series of the book for as long as possible so that he can milk it for all it's worth. Sad really when you consider that the first few books showed so much promise to come.