Wheel of Time discussion thread
 

New Spring is well worth reading. I liked it a lot.

Aww, I skimmed through a synopsis and too many things sound familiar, which means I have probably read it already. Shoot.

IMO it was just an attempt for RJ to drag out the series. Remember, he intended to finish it in 6 books. In fact, he was never going to write the other prequels after it came out due to fan reaction.

I remember once hearing that no one's favourite book in a series is number 17.

IMO it was just an attempt for RJ to drag out the series. Remember, he intended to finish it in 6 books. In fact, he was never going to write the other prequels after it came out due to fan reaction.

I remember once hearing that no one's favourite book in a series is number 17.

a question now is will a new video game be made? red eagles attempt to kickstart RTS game for mobile was a failure and thought to Gamebanshee to be the death of the one hinted at that Obsidian was producing. Red Eagle heard the ire of RJ just before he died for not paying their workings so I don't think his wife, Hilary, would approve if she had a say in it. Red Eagle may have the license locked up ala THQ and South Park.

What they don't have is the TV/Movie rights. Someone else owns that option. I would think after the success of Game of Thrones someone must be taking this very seriously. Maybe they could condense.

Finally, there may be one more book on the way - a proper encyclopedia - a sort of sequel to The Guide. RJ planned it and Hilary had mentioned before that there was no plans to shelve the project.

My least favorite of the bunch was actually book 1. Reminded me too much of the beginning of every other high fantasy saga I'd read before. But he really took off from there, IMHO. And I love the way magic is used and described in his world.

I'd say the good ones ended with about #3. I gave up after one where nothing of significance happened the entire book. The prolog and epilog would have been enough.

Someone needs to produce a 'Readers Digest' version!! :)

Wheel of Time discussion thread (OP)
 

There's been lot's of talk lately about the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan since the publishing of the 14th and last book in the series A Memory of Light. I've been guilty of changing the subject to it myself.

This is a thread, if you are interested, in discussing the events in the series especially that amazing, final book. Spoilers will abound.

Maybe we can get Arhu to buy it instead of waiting for the digital release in three months. I know I tried to talk down the Barnes and Noble clerk $5 by telling him it was $20 on their website. He wanted to know if I wanted him to order it.

Here's a topic - is it possible to skip books 6-13 and just read it in order: 1-5, 14?

odd - my post disappeared. oh well…

you didn't like #5? some were calling for an expansion on the Age of Legends. SciFi!

Most people would have told him that to his face! Book 8 (or was it 7) could have got by as a short story.

Probably not, but you could summarize those middle books into ONE (1) book without losing too much. Just think, if we deleted all references to braid tugging and tea parties we'd save one or two books with that alone!! :)

Yes you can. The plot became stretched thin. Hope Game of Thrones doesn't end up this way.

General complaints of the series are as follows-

There's more here but be warned there are spoliers.-http://abbygoldsmith.com/wot/been_nice.shtml

I consolidated some posts from other threads to this thread.

Nope, but thanks for trying. ;) I wouldn't even know what do with a single hardcover book. I'm a collector, packrat and completist at heart.

Btw, I'm probably the only one who liked reading about braid tugging, extensive descriptions of clothing, minor characters and whatnot. I became a fan party because of those things, because they helped me imagine everything better and more thoroughly. I didn't mind the dragging-out of the story, because I wanted to keep reading about the world.

That sentence doesn't make any sense. How could someone become a fan if they didn't like what they were reading?

Agreed. I dropped out halfway through #4, when a lot of new stuff was introduced for no apparent reason (other than prolonging the pai.. eh .. story), and of no significance.

pibbur who also finds Thomas Covenant and James Bond annoying.

Two and three were really good but I don't remember four. But stopping at #4 is a shame. #5 is like the Sgt Pepper's album and everything after that is like the White Album.

I agree with Arhu, the first book wasn't great - except for the discovery that Moraine's explanation for everything regarding the Wheel starts to fall apart. That was clever, showing she wasn't as in control or as wise as she wanted others to think she was.

Lord of Chaos is really a very impactful book, but like Heretics of Dune, as important as it is its just not a very good story.

I like the descriptions of clothing and such - this is where RJ was heavily influenced by Robert E Howard - a reference most people miss, in all his borrowing for mythology, history, and other peoples works. Hyboria was a world with a lot of cultures, and so was RJ's world.

All the falling in love business with everyone you meet I might be consistent with what's going on in the world. The dark one's touch has caused a slow decline in the population to the point where Andor can't even trouble itself to send a tax collector. However, if I know RJ he probably didn't think he needed a reason but he'd jump on that as his own were it ever suggested in his lifetime.

Of course, there are two female archetypes - the Morraine type and the Min type. Both of them are annoying and repeatedly cloned.

The Androl and Pervara characters , though minor, are a terrific story in book 14.

There is one serious hole in the entire storyline: Callondor. After Rand get's this sa'angreal RJ wrote himself into a corner and realized the story should start to finish here.

So instead of taking the most powerful item on the planet, locked away in a fortress for 3000 years and finally defeat the Dark One, he decides to fight some invaders, split up the rest of the ta'varen, and cleanse the taint? He couldn't fo that after?

Instead he has Rand just give it to a an Asha'man for safe keeping? How is that kind of power not going to tempt anyone? It was already established that once he acquires Callandor, anyone could use it. Later RJ saw its got flaws? And It needs an additional two women who can channel now? That's convenient. This is a nonsensical move more fitting in a comic book.

The ter'angreal that could be used as a conduit to the massive sa'angreal statue was way more powerful than Callandor, so Callandor was hardly the most powerful item in the world.

Also, how was he supposed to use it against the Dark One? He admited he was clueless through most of the books as to how he was to defeat the dark one. He simply had no idea what to do with the prison etc. He would've been killed without getting close.

Anyway, I actually like descriptions and what not. It's probably because I prefer my books meaty and thorough. I'm not a big fan of books I can read in an afternoon, nor am I fan of books where I don't have enough time to really get to know the main characters.

OK. Because you say so, I'll give it a try (some time).

pibbur who knows whom to sue if he doesn't like it

Silly lucky day. Everyone knows that the most powerful thing on the planet is a ring.

ash nazg durbatulûk ash nazg gimbatul ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!

pibbur who has been practicing blacskpeech for some time. And who wonders when we'll se a Sauron vs Predator movie. After mr J has finished the hobbit moviesssss?

EDIT: Nazgul vs Predator, most likely.

EDIT: In the really creative anything Any-monster-who-is-not-predator vs predator series.

DArtagnan vs Predator!

After leaving the Nine Rings do they go on a quest past the Mountains of Dhoom then?

I had a guy on my serve that always referred to them as Trollorcs. Pretty sure it was on purpose.

As I said: Any-monster-who-is-not-predator vs predator .

pibbur who isn't sure who would win in a fight between the musketeer and the predator. (You may take this as a compliment)

They should.
Of course it was on purpose.

pibbur who is jealous because he didn't think of it first.

I'd be naked, wearing only socks to muffle my footsteps, covered in mud to shield me from infravision - and then I'd aim for its private parts with a large handgun :)

I declare myself the victor!

Pfft. That doesn't work. The educational threads in OT on handguns teaches us that handguns are for fun and not really for harming others let alone a predator. Although the sight of you naked besides the socks, covered in mud, might just be scary enough for a predator to run away.

Just as long as I win - I'm satisfied ;)

GOOD IDEA. hahaha! :D

E-Book version finally came out yesterday. Gotta finish my current book and then I need to find a place I can lock myself in.

I'm through. What a ride. I'm both sad and happy that it's over. I'd name The Wheel of Time the best of epic — read: Tolkienesque — fantasy. It started out like any other high fantasy book but developed into so much more.

The first fantasy series I read was Shannara. Good fun. I advanced to Midkemia — Magician is still, in my mind, the best coming-of-age mage story ever. And lastly I graduated to WoT. Each series was a step up in my opinion. I kept reading various other works that were fun but didn't resonate as much with me, like Dragonlance (ok), some Drizz't books (meh), Aurian (ok), Lord of the Rings, Assassin books (ok), Sword of Truth (ok soap opera). The first series after those that gripped me like before was A Game of Thrones, but that's already very different; fantasy seems to branch of in different directions nowadays, which of course has its own merits.

What I liked most about the Wheel of Time was the sheer amount of detail in everything. Things that others apparently found "slow", I reveled in. The magic, cultures, factions, landscape and clothing descriptions. And the names — Robert Jordan's names for his characters and everything were so … flowing. Or I just read so much about them that they grew on me (although "Asha'man" always reminded me of Saiya-jin from Dragonball for some reason, hehe). I must say that Brandon Sanderson, albeit one of my favorite authors of modern times, doesn't quite have the same knack for names.

R.I.P. Robert Jordan.
Thanks for finishing, Brandon Sanderson.

I completely agree. I love the level of detail. I recently re-read "New Spring", which is a great book, and it reminded me just how much we lost when Jordan died. If he had been able to complete the main series, he could have expanded the Wheel of Time universe through novels like New Spring.

I doubt they will allow anyone else to do that. At least not for quite some time. Rather similar to Middle-Earth where there's a ton of untapped potential.

I stopped reading after volume 6 or so, for the time being. Level of detail is sure great, but it just seemed the story does not really want to go anywhere. And more than half still to go! And of course there was so much braid-tugging and other endlessly repeating mannerisms that I was getting ready to scream.
Still, occasionally I find myself wanting to continue the series, it does have a certain pull after all. Guess one day I will.

I'm on book 5 right now of this series, and I swear 90% of the book seems to be characters sighing and whining at or about each other. I might, might give book 6 a chance, but if it doesn't improve I'll be done with this series. It seems there's maybe 50 pages of real stuff that happens in each book, then a lot of drivel.



-Carn

I found it actually got better towards the end. Arhu, have you read any LEM, especially the Recluse series? I'd also strongly recommend his Imager series.

When you say LEM, I think Stanislaw Lem. ;)

>>> Warning: some spoilers! <<<

I really loved the Wheel of Time books! The main problem, though, and I think a big reason why it seems like nothing is happening, is that it tries to do way too many parallel plots. The first books stuck with just three or four but they started to go to 6+ plots per book! When you divide between 6 plots, even 1000 pages aren't enough to advance any one plot very much.

The Wheel of Time Encyclopedia is really handy for me. There's no way I could possibly remember who's who in these books without that website.

Starting with Lord of Chaos and going through to the end of Jordan's books did get trying. There were some good plots in there (Fayle escaping the Aiel was real good) but the cultures got less interesting to me and they had pretty much discovered all the interesting stuff about the world by this point.

Sanderson's books helped out a lot. The resolution of the White Tower rebellion was particularly good. (Actually, Egwene's story is my favorite of the whole series.) And the final book was really great, though having a 1000 page book be a page-turner plays havoc with sleep patterns.

I can't imagine how Red Eagle could ever make movies out of these books. Sure, you can turn 1000 words into one picture but this monster? Nah. Maybe they could just do "New Spring" and leave it at that.

Yes, started with Recluse but so far only made it to book 2. Liked it well enough so far to want to continue reading, but other books also crave for attention.

Movies? No way… they should make series like A Game of Thrones. Anything less would probably not do the world justice.

It might even be too massive for that.

I'm still waiting for a serious RPG set in the WoT setting, something along the lines of Dragon Age: Origins, where you get to choose your background (Warder/Aes Sedai in Tar Valon, Whitecloak in the south, Aiel in the east etc) and take it from there. Each with their own story affecting the overall plot. Either that, or you start as a blank slate (Elder Scrolls style) and choose a class by choosing a "camp", similar to Gothic 1 and 2. Of course, it should not follow the plot of the books.

Ambitious, but man it would be fantastic.

Well, maybe they will: https://www.tor.com/2018/10/02/wheel…s-on-moiraine/

So, who here is young enough to have a shot at surviving to see The Last Battle? ;)

A first season focus on Moiraine could work. They are all still together in the beginning, after that it gets more complicated in preventing it from becoming a mess.

Agreed. I stopped halfway through #4, when I felt that a lot of new elements were introduced with no apparent purpose and without adding anything significant to the story.

pibbur whose memory of it may be a bit rusty after all those years.

And who just realized the thread is 5 years old, and he already said the same thing back in 2013.

So another GOT type series that will take years to finish, It might be good but lets just say I'm skeptical after the two season failure of Shannara Chronicles on Spike.

Just make that rumored open world Wheel of Time ROG already and I'll be fine.

I finished all the books and long winded as they were at times, I enjoyed them. He really stretched the story here and there I feel. I think it would have been an even better series of books totaling half of the volumes. Equally, a six season series could tell the story as well.

I've been at my chair waiting for you opinion of book 4!

No Morraine for season one - let's just get straight to the boys and girls and take some liberty to speed things up and


We can hope that Amazon will streamline this series to something like the 6 books but with GOT the way its going, we know that's not going to happen if this is successful.

Well, I'm definitely going to re-read the series soon after I retire. Being able to read them straight through should help a good bit.