The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson

[DrP]

I have just finished reading the final book in this series.  I read the rest several years back and just got the final book although it came out a year ago.

Anyone else read this or even heard of it?  It is The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter rolled into one total epic. It is full of fantasy troupes and clichés... but done so very, very well.

The character developments are superb, the top main 4 or 5 characters getting more words on the page throughout the series regarding the character development than the whole of the Harry Potter, TLOTRs and A song of Ice and Fire entire novels put together.

IMO - the first book did go on a little bit... but it is worth ploughing through as from book 2, when the girls get to Tar Valon...  well - it's very good from then on for sure.

 

If you have read it  -  what do you think?   If you haven't   -  I can't recommend it enough if you like fantasy fiction... if you can get through the first book.

 

I'd love to talk about it but don't want to give away spoilers...  I would love to discuss it with someone who read it and liked it. x  

 

 

 

[CharonY]

On 1/7/2019 at 8:11 AM, DrP said:

I have just finished reading the final book in this series.  I read the rest several years back and just got the final book although it came out a year ago.

Anyone else read this or even heard of it?  It is The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter rolled into one total epic. It is full of fantasy troupes and clichés... but done so very, very well.

The character developments are superb, the top main 4 or 5 characters getting more words on the page throughout the series regarding the character development than the whole of the Harry Potter, TLOTRs and A song of Ice and Fire entire novels put together.

IMO - the first book did go on a little bit... but it is worth ploughing through as from book 2, when the girls get to Tar Valon...  well - it's very good from then on for sure.

 

If you have read it  -  what do you think?   If you haven't   -  I can't recommend it enough if you like fantasy fiction... if you can get through the first book.

 

I'd love to talk about it but don't want to give away spoilers...  I would love to discuss it with someone who read it and liked it. x  

 

 

 

I started reading it years ago and in hindsight it felt a bit like a pulp novel. Somewhere more complex than, say D&D novels, but not as interesting as Tolkien or having the more imaginative prose of Le Guin. Or perhaps the outrageous imagination of Mieville (though the latter probably is more urban fantasy rather than high fantasy).

I do have to admit that I realized at some point that I am partial to British authors, especially when it comes to Fantasy. The use of language by most American authors tends to rather purely descriptive, which fits well into crime novels or certain Sci Fi types, but feel a bit flavourless in fantasy.

The characters were archetypes and fairly cliched as you mentioned . In  a way the it was kind of clever to set up the protagonists and their troupe as exceptional beings due to the supposedly cyclical nature of the world (a bit like Moorcock's eternal hero meta-narrative). Its downfall for me at least is that it did not have enough elements that were new or unique and it was more about being comfortable with the characters (who underwent the usual hero's journey type of development). 

That,  in turn meant that any break between reading those books makes the effect weaker (a bit like not watching a TV series for a while and lose track of the characters) as the story did not captivate on its own (in that regard, the comparison with Harry Potter is also quite fitting). I think the Winter's Heart (or something like that) was the last book I bought but ultimately did not even start reading as my enthusiasm cooled off quite a bit by then. It is, as fantasy goes, certainly not bad. But thinking back there was little that I found exceptional and captivating (for me). On top, the prose was rather flat and incredibly repetitive. Things that still remain in my head are how similar many characters (and especially the women) were presented so flat, that during speeding through the text I sometimes had trouble figuring out which of the characters was actually talking. One of the phrases that I still remember involve pretty all of them at various points: smooth their skirts, tugging something, fold arms beneath their breasts. While not critical per se (again, the story is enjoyable in a pulp fiction soft of way), but usually this small gestures are used to flesh out a character. All doing these things without a purpose just flattens them (as you unconsciously expect something based on what the author describes to you).  I think there was a bit of the same issue with the male characters (I think something with their hair) but I cannot quite recall what it was anymore. 

Hmm, overall it seems that I probably should not have answered in the first place. I enjoyed it enough to buy a couple of books of the series, at least until I had to wait until the next book came out and found that I was not invested enough to continue reading. Also I now wished that I had more time for leisure reading.

 

 

 

[fiveworlds]

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If you have read it  -  what do you think?   If you haven't   -  I can't recommend it enough if you like fantasy fiction... if you can get through the first book.

I liked the books written by Robert Jordan but thought that Brandon Sanderson's continuation was hard to follow. I can't help thinking what Jordan would have written.

 

[DrP]

12 hours ago, CharonY said:

overall it seems that I probably should not have answered in the first place

Your opinion is welcome to me. I get what are saying. I actually liked the main female characters in the book  -  although I think I am not as well read around the rest of the genre as you are, which is maybe why I liked this series so much (My experience of sci fi is pretty much Tolkien and Black Library Warhammer books when it comes to reading - I usually prefer to watch a film or box set).   I see why you stopped at book 9 though...  there are 3 or 4 book (7 to 10?) that do drag and don't seem to progress the story very well. It get frustrating that he leaves sub plots unresolved for one or even two books before picking them up again.

10 hours ago, fiveworlds said:

I liked the books written by Robert Jordan but thought that Brandon Sanderson's continuation was hard to follow. I can't help thinking what Jordan would have written.

 

Maybe I found the first one of his a little clumsy... but I think he started to own it by the last one. I thought the last book was done really well. Looking into it he tried to follow Jordan's writing plans as closely as he could and some of it had already been drafted.   When I posted the OP I'd just finished the last book and was excited about it and possibly over rated it in my enthusiasm... although I know people that are WAY more into it than I.  Did you read the last book - A Memory of Light?  I think Sanderson done a brilliant job of finishing the series in that last book.

12 hours ago, CharonY said:

One of the phrases that I still remember involve pretty all of them at various points: smooth their skirts, tugging something, fold arms beneath their breasts

It's a wonder that Nynaeve has any hair left at all after the first few books. lol.  Reading around some fan pages of it she is one of the least liked characters...  she was one of my fav's.   

Being honest I only read it because my ex wife used to gush over it so much  -  my marriage would have been even shorter had I not read it I think. ;-)  Whatever people think about it I take joy seeing someone else so enthralled in something - she was almost obsessed with it and read it over and over...  she must be on her 5th run through of it at least. :-/  It was sweet to hear her getting so excited about each new book that came out.  

 

[fiveworlds]

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Did you read the last book - A Memory of Light? 

Yeah I did. My dad had all the books at home. 

[CharonY]

On 4/25/2019 at 2:55 AM, DrP said:

Being honest I only read it because my ex wife used to gush over it so much  -  my marriage would have been even shorter had I not read it I think. ;-) 

Honestly, I think that is the best reason to like a book. Not specifically this case, but more in general, the place the book has in your life. A good book is not necessarily one with the most intricate plot or best prose. A good book is the one that is right for you at a given time in your life. You grow out of certain books, you grow into certain books. And sometimes, magically, a book grows with you.