So, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I've begun re-reading the Wheel of Time, I've caught up to where I'd previously read, and am now in new territory with book 8 (Path of Daggers).

I understand Jordan's been given a very short time to live by his doctors, but is certain he'll have book 12 out before he dies, which will finish off the main storyline even if it doesn't address every plot thread. (That'd require a few more books, appearantly)

Anyway, for anyone who's never read the stuff, this is one possibly the 'great fantasy epic' of our time, and its sheer scope (2.6 million words and counting, i think) contains the full gammut from dross to brilliance. He's often considered to have lost his touch somewhere around books 7-9, but opinions vary and some say they started to slip sooner or continued on later. A lot of the fault gets placed on the fact that the story/setting is just too damn big, and it's outgrown its ability to be condensable into a decent novel legnth segement anymore.

A counter opinion, based on the most recent book(s) suggests that Jordan's back on fine form and the lulls of the others was a necessary calm before a storm. As I haven't read that far yet, I can't comment at all.

Still, it's a richly detailed (a little TOO much, at times) setting, and Jordan's writing style is also richly detailed (a little too much, most of the time). I find that once you get into it, though, it moves at a good pace. There are laugh out loud hillarious moments, and frentic fast paced action, ranging from cliffhanger adventure to epic battles.

So, for those who HAVE read it and might like to discuss stuff, so long as we agree on where a spoiler line needs to be drawn, perhaps we could have a nice little discussion?

I know there's an awful lot I've missed in my readings, and all sorts of 'easter eggs' if you will, hidden throughout the text. Consider the Whitecloaks... I remember reading book 4 or 5 before I suddenly repictured their uniforms and had a perfect mental image of the Klu Klux Klan. not sure if that was deliberate (though I hardly think Jordan would have missed the connection) or if I was just a bit thick. Then again, something I only noticed when it was pointed out to me last week... the character of Egwene Al'Vere's name is a re-spelling of Guinevere.

anyway, just thought i'd get the ball rolling on this.

I've read the first seven books and I have book eight in th boot of the car, it's just sort of waiting there like an inevitability - a very big one.

P.S. I never made the KKK connection myself, I always just thought of them as crusading knights - thugs in armour as they're better known - or like a self-riteous army of paladins.

I dislike these books sometimes 'cause they are annoyingly intricate. But they're pretty good.

#muses#

But yeah, they are pretty good. If incredibly long.

finished book 8 today... moreso than ever i think the intracacy of the novel ruined the novel itself, if only because by the time we revisited a few characters towards the very end of the book, whom we'd last seen towards the very begining, i'd completely forgotten who they were!

To be honest someone told me ages ago that book 8 was a real drag, with not a lot happening compared to the rest. I don't know whether this is true or not, but it's one of the reasons I haven't read it yet.

i enjoyed it, but there definately isn't quite as much going on as in some of the other books. appearantly Jordan himself has commented on that, blaming it on trying to start all the separate plot threads on the same day...

the way the book is put together, it does tend to read slowly as you go back through the same brief time span in different geographical locations. still, i'm told that this is now seen as a necessary 'calm before the storm' and that things get great again by book 10 or 11. not even done with the prolouge to book 9 yet, so no opinions on it thus far.

i think book 8 didn't strike me as so disappointing as it might have merely because i've been reading them in one steady push, and its not like i had a two year wait followed by a let down.

i remember when i'd been reading these things back in the 90's and had to wait impatiently for A Crown of Swords to come out... it just didn't seem worth the wait, but it fitted just fine and was a very satisfying book when i re-read it recently.

[quote:4656f293bc="Garner"]So, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I've begun re-reading the Wheel of Time, I've caught up to where I'd previously read, and am now in new territory with book 8 (Path of Daggers).

I understand Jordan's been given a very short time to live by his doctors, but is certain he'll have book 12 out before he dies, which will finish off the main storyline even if it doesn't address every plot thread. (That'd require a few more books, appearantly)

Anyway, for anyone who's never read the stuff, this is one possibly the 'great fantasy epic' of our time, and its sheer scope (2.6 million words and counting, i think) contains the full gammut from dross to brilliance. He's often considered to have lost his touch somewhere around books 7-9, but opinions vary and some say they started to slip sooner or continued on later. A lot of the fault gets placed on the fact that the story/setting is just too damn big, and it's outgrown its ability to be condensable into a decent novel legnth segement anymore.

A counter opinion, based on the most recent book(s) suggests that Jordan's back on fine form and the lulls of the others was a necessary calm before a storm. As I haven't read that far yet, I can't comment at all.

Still, it's a richly detailed (a little TOO much, at times) setting, and Jordan's writing style is also richly detailed (a little too much, most of the time). I find that once you get into it, though, it moves at a good pace. There are laugh out loud hillarious moments, and frentic fast paced action, ranging from cliffhanger adventure to epic battles.

So, for those who HAVE read it and might like to discuss stuff, so long as we agree on where a spoiler line needs to be drawn, perhaps we could have a nice little discussion?

I know there's an awful lot I've missed in my readings, and all sorts of 'easter eggs' if you will, hidden throughout the text. Consider the Whitecloaks... I remember reading book 4 or 5 before I suddenly repictured their uniforms and had a perfect mental image of the Klu Klux Klan. not sure if that was deliberate (though I hardly think Jordan would have missed the connection) or if I was just a bit thick. Then again, something I only noticed when it was pointed out to me last week... the character of Egwene Al'Vere's name is a re-spelling of Guinevere.

anyway, just thought i'd get the ball rolling on this.[/quote:4656f293bc]

Have you ever read a song of ice and fire by george r.r. martin? I thinkk it's the best fantasy book so far...it even beats tolkien's ability to write something stupid in a way that it sound poetic...

I disliked the names and the names of the species in a wheel of time. Trolloc's and such just sound so fake and forced to me...he could leave them as trolls and it would have been good...what he did just sounds like he wanted to be original to me but he failed miserably...

Alrighty, last post on this thread was May 11th, so as usual I am running behind everyone...(I've always been a "late bloomer")

Garner had mentioned there were some real world parallels like Egwene being a re-spelling of Gwenivere. I found a few of those on here:
[color=red:8026ba88ef][size=12:8026ba88ef]Warning! There ARE Spoilers available with the below link!![/size:8026ba88ef][/color:8026ba88ef]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time (Tried to put a hyperlink instead but I couldnt get it to work. My apologies)

Personally, I love the imagry RJ uses with these books. I agree with Garner that sometimes its a little over the top, but a quick scan down the page can fix that problem. I dont think its nessasary to understand the story by knowing every detail of the tapestry's in any given place. Having said that, I do admire RJ's imagination to be able to come up with those descriptions. He can see these places in his head and tries to take us there too.
He could have spent a little more time with some of the names (or possibly a more in depth guide on how to [i:8026ba88ef]say[/i:8026ba88ef] certain names) but it doesnt take much away from the story. At least not in my little mind. I just finished The Fires of Heaven (book 5) on my way to reading Lord of Chaos (you guessed it, Book 6!) I plan on reading them all just to know how it ends. Even if 7 thru 11 drag (as I have heard, but decided that as usual I will form my own opinion) it would still be worth reading them to get more of the story.

Robert Jordan has a blog, if anyone is interested PM me and I'll send you the link. He does update with his progress on his recovery and updates with how the final book is going. Also there are rumors *dancing from one foot to the other* that a company named Red Eagle is working on a live action film based on The Eye of the World. Hmm. Source and discusion here: http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=278
Now, if they could pull it off LOTR style, then it might be groovy in my book, however knowing this book better than I knew any of the LOTR, I think I would be less inclined to allow them to take liberties. (Or I guess I would just be able spot them more easily.)
Is it possible to make a WoT movie and have it be worthy to the fans? Hmm. I certainly hope so..
Anyways thats my two cents... Discussion anyone?

I have the Wheel of Time and have tried to start reading it twice, everytime I start I get into about 5 or 6 pages and just can't read it anymore. A friend of mine recently came over saw the book and was like "Oh wow, you read Robert Jordan?" I said "Nahhh..can't really get into it" and he proceeded to explain to me how it's very like tolkien, in that there is a lot of monolouge and setting of the scene, and it takes a while to get going, but once it does, it really rocks. So I had decided to give it a shot. Now that I've read this thread, I'm definately going to give it one more try.

We've just started reading the first book together. I found the prologue unbelievably melodramatic and full of purple prose, but Garner assured me I'd get used to it. And Chapter 1 is definitely better than the Prologue.

Garner's right, I think a lot of people think the same as you have. It seems a bit too thickly layed on at first, I mean [i:23e2bee7ea]trollocks[/i:23e2bee7ea] come on! But you do get used to it pretty quickly.

trollocks don't even show up until chapter two, i think. seriously, the prolouge is way too over the top. if you can wade through it long enough, chapter 1 is much more sensible.

and, as i've said, by the time you get to the end of the book you're turning pages so fast that you can barely follow the climactic moment on the first go.

I enjoy the Wheel of Time series very much, but since my local library has only the last five books (i think) I started on about book 7 and, needless to say, I was very, very confused. I'm pretty good at picking up stuff in the middle though, so now i have to say that it might have been a good decision. I wouldn't want to go back and read the rest. But I have a real appreciation for the series, and the thing I like most is that there is no real good/bad guy. Certain characters are more identifiable to a reader and some you just don't like. And the series is really innovative, you have to give him that.

Another thing I really like about this series is that, of all the great fantasy sagas, this one is the least sexist. That is something that bothers me, and its surprising in most fantasy books. People just can't seem to let go of the old knights vs ladies mentality.

But I do like George R. R. Martin's books better. There's nothing like total shockers every time you turn the page (the end of the last one! like whoa!) haha but the only thing I didn't like was the way he did the last book and the next book coming up, two different books running at consecutive times...I don't like it when I already know whats going to happen, but by the time the next one comes out I'll probably have forgotten what happened in the last book.

Dunno if its the place for it, but Terry Goodkind's saga must be mentioned too...the highest for pure entertainment value I'd say.

er... there's pretty clearly some 'bad' guys in Wheel of Time. it's only slightly less dualistic than Zorastrianism.

as for sexism, that's something i was going to raise later on, and will want to confer with grace once she's read a bit more...

Edit: I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible. But beware...you've been warned.

[quote:c19b8edce3="Garner"]er... there's pretty clearly some 'bad' guys in Wheel of Time. it's only slightly less dualistic than Zorastrianism.

as for sexism, that's something i was going to raise later on, and will want to confer with grace once she's read a bit more...[/quote:c19b8edce3]

Zoroastrianism is something I know next to nothing about, so I attempted to read the Wikipedia article and I'm not sure what your getting at. But yay for big words.

There is a lot of ambivalence between the characters...even if we assume Rand is the main protagonist and the trollocs are the main antogonist, there's also the Forsaken, which are mostly bad. ish. Some of them appear to be good people reincarnated, or bad people reincarnated. Then there are Aes Sedai, with whom we are supposed to side with Egwene. Ok, Egwene good, Elaida bad, but there are some sisters who are spying on one for the other, some are on the fence, some are just nasty, etc. And the Seanchan? well obviously their bad, but now Matt (good) is...involved, and Perrins made some treaties and Tuon is...good? bad? Whatever the Seanchans faults, they seem to want to help Rand. What with all the signs and all. And then the Shaido/Aiel...some are good, some are bad, some are quite clearly insane. And what's with Rand and his nine wives? You can't help but have a favorite and hate the others (I'm a Min fan myself. And that means me and Elayne have some fights. But sorry, she's good). For all of the ten million plotlines affect the same characters and throw them into a different light until you like everybody or don't like anyone. And maybe good/evil is not such a good word as protagonistic/antagonistic.

I like it. It adds a sense of gray to the black and white of most works like this.