I can totally see how that could get annoying, but for me I don't really mind all the dragging on . . . I do wish it were a bit faster paced, and Sanderson does seem to have greased the wheels a bit the last few books . . . of course I'm just beginning Gathering Storm so I have a lot of words ahead of me to see if that grease is working :P I dunno . . . if a book is great and I love it I don't want it to end, and I'm sad when it does end. For me the WOT series its just good enough that the good outweighs the length of it . . . so my enjoyment outweighs the impatience I guess . . .
I tried introducing WOT to my roommate and he had a hard time getting through the first through chapters of Eye of the World and he's a pretty big fantasy fan.
You know I wouldn't mind all the foot dragging and lack of brevity if only there were interesting characters I could care about. In all seriousness, I can't for the life of me remember any of the main players' names, or for that matter how many there are. I know there's the main kid who's the reincarnation of some ominously ambiguous historical figure, some other kid who was training to be a thief/minstrel/assassin/whatever with some old nobleman slumming it as a bard (who for some reason I visualised as Timothy Dalton in The Rocketeer), some non-human bloke with a thing for books and whinging as well as one or two female characters knocking around. I think one is a sort of warriror mage and another training to be one. I'm pretty sure there's one or two more young men (I vaguely recall something to do with wolves and an evil dagger) but again, I forget the details. I'm not trying to dump of the series, really, but you'd think it would have left a stronger impression than this, no?
That is another problem he had. I dunno. I just got right into it when I first read and was amazed at the characterization and the detail. Like you Reverend and my friend there are those who have had the opposite experience for whatever reason.
My biggest problem with the series is that Nynaeve is the most annoying character ever created in the history of the world. That said, I plan to re-read the series when they're all out. I stopped aroubd book 8, the first time.
she's like the annoying big sister :P she gets a little less annoying after she overcomes her block and gets married one of the biggest things that annoys me is when Jordan wrote about all the ladies embroidered dresses and bosoms and pouty lips . . . there have to be better ways to describe female characters then again, this isn't exactly fine literature my favorites are Egwene and Perrin. Egwene has definitely changed a lot over the course of the books . . . she climbed her way up the White Tower, essentially forced by events out of her control, but she proved that she wasn't a puppet and she deserves to lead. She's shown a determination and force of will that nearly everyone else has vastly underestimated. and Perrin I think is more interesting than Rand . . . Rand is the archetypal Chosen One. Once he accepted being the Dragon Reborn he got less interesting because the majority of his self discovery was complete. One thing that Jordan did well with Rand was giving him the wounds and the lasting effects of the taint on saidin . . . it removed most of the cliche of him being the most powerful channeler since the power comes with a price. But still . . . the whole 'Chosen One' thing has been done to death That's why I like Perrin. he's simple. one of my other favorites is Thom Merrilin. Most people I've heard picture him as Sam Elliot . . . Elliot certainly fits Thom's physical description, but no . . . I picture Keith David After watching him as Max Malini in The Cape it was a no brainer. Max Malini is Thom Merrilin.
Another problem I had was there were zero LGBT characters. You'd think with a cast of hundreds there'd be at least one.
I'd have to read the series again to find specific references, but I think it is strongly hinted at throughout the series that some Aes Sedai, Wise Ones, Windtalkers, and many of the Aiel Spear Maidens are lesbians, or at the very least bi-curious. Various Forsaken had diverse sexual appetites. And I am not sure what label would fit for Balthamel reborn as Aran'gar. So that covers the L, B and T I guess. As far as gay men, I'm almost certain there are male characters that are at the very least implied to by gay. It has been a few years since my last reread of the full series however.
Yup, Windtalkers and Black Ajah do have quite a few lesbians in their ranks. Who knows the Aiel, but its known that many Spear Maidens don't take male mates and often form close relationships with each other, regularly becoming near-sisters or even first-sisters. The men in WoT tend to fall into one of three categories. (A) soldiers, (B) Been driven mad by the taint, or (C) some mixture of solider AND madman. Yeah no idea how many are gays.
since I've been watching Being Human (US) I've mentally cast Sam Witwer as Rand and Sam Huntington as Mat :P Who do you guys cast in your head when you read?
Book 13 is sopposed to be released next year. I love jordan as much as: Terry goodkind Terry brooks George r.r. martin Robert e. Howard
The Memory of Light will be published on Jan 8th...as Brandon Sanderson and Tor announced on his blog a few weeks ago. Very excited about the finale, it's been a long time coming. I started reading WOT when I was 13 years old, and only the first three novels were released at that point!! Also sometime afterwards the Wheel of Time: Encyclopaedia will be released. Harriet is overseeing this apparently with no release date yet...my guess if it does come out it won't be until late 2013 or 2014. As for casting...I've no idea. This has always been a difficult thing for me to think about.
The latter's absolutely true for me. I read the first book when I was a teenager, and I immersed myself in the world that Jordan created. For some reason the chapters that deal with Rand and Mat's journey to Caemlyn are among my favourite ones. Classic story of two characters bonding over a shared experience. It's been years since I stopped reading (I think Path of Daggers was the last book I read), but I still intend to pick it all up again, probably when the final book is out.
Sanderson has done a really good job of getting things back and track and the plot has evolved since he took over. I know there was a time where I was disgruntled with WOT like most other fans, sometime around "Crown of Swords" I think is when the plot started stagnating. The last two books have been great and tons has happened.
I'm an LOTR, and SoIaF fan looking for some more fantasy along those lines. Would this be a good choice to get more of that kind of stuff?
I'd wait until the last book arrives. If it pulls off a solid satisfying ending the series is worth it.
Just a friendly reminder that A Memory of Light is released tomorrow. Tarmon Gai'Don has finally arrived after all of these years, and the Wheel turns one last time. I'll be picking it up in a couple of days. Anyone else going to be reading? I started reading WOT when I was 13 years old (I just turned 33) so this is the end of a era for me. Looking forward to it.
I have a copy being delivered sometime today. I'm not much of a Wheel of Time fan anymore, and have read the early spoilers and already know the general shape of the plot, but for nostalgia's sake I'm giving it a read.
I just finished listening to the audio books in preparation for this last one a couple of months ago. I will be picking this up today at some point.
My copy has arrived. Michael Whelan's cover art looks pretty nice on the book itself, which is good; in online images it looked remarkably bland, inferior to the incomplete cover Darrell Sweet was working on at the time of his death. I still think Sweet's cover is a better concept, but I imagine Whelan wanted to do his own thing, and I can respect that.