[TheSurvivor]

Short and sweet: does Rand ever get over his unwillingness to see a woman hurt or killed? I'm on the eighth book right now, around 520 pages in.

[HoosierDaddy]

Eventually. Emo!Rand is sad about the pretty ladies getting hurt.

[TheSurvivor]

If he eventually does then I suppose I can trudge on through but it's just so exasperating. Really I don't know why I continue with the series, I'm more often than not tempted to tear the pages out of which ever book I happen to be on. But in any case, thank you for the speedy reply.

[Terez]

TheSurvivor, on 07 December 2010 - 09:56 PM, said:

Short and sweet: does Rand ever get over his unwillingness to see a woman hurt or killed? I'm on the eighth book right now, around 520 pages in.

Yes, but we're not so sure it's a good thing. The inherently sexist aspect of it doesn't change because Rand still feels like women should be protected, but I don't find it to be all that disturbing. He's off his rocker, but there's a very good reason for it - he's trying to deny to himself that it was him who killed Ilyena (or her in particular), and while he has some success at denying that (hence the voice in his head, 'Lews Therin'), he can't get rid of the guilt issues. Eventually, he does confront those issues (after killing some women rather deliberately), but in some ways the situation is still rather tenuous from a philosophical standpoint as of book 13.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Rand just keeps white-knighting it up all over the place. Sure, his character would be better served with a less blunt description, but it really doesn't get much better.

[L'oric]

Every book after Lord of Chaos seemed to be like a writer without focus. Jordan's last book in the series was good to very good at finally bringing things together and Sanderson has done a masterful/amazing job in his two books of the series. Sanderson has managed to bring the series back from the depths to bring it on par with MBotF.

L'oric

[TheSurvivor]

I've heard the acclaim that Sanderson has been getting with his contribution and that in part has brought me to read the books more vigorously as i've finished two in the past week. Admittedly I was a few chapters into the first of the two. Now I'm sitting here wishing I had the ninth book in my hands. And the tenth...how I ended up with the eleventh I'm not sure. Sometimes I think it's criminal how Robert Jordan was able to create a series that so infuriates while providing just enough to keep me dedicated to knowing what happens next. Oddly enough though, I find my own writing resembling Jordan's more so than my preferred series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

[Stalker]

yeah, I just did a complete reread over about a month. Would read about two a week, kinda skimmed 7-10, but that's reasonable imo. Sanderson's two, which I hadn't read, were awesome. I really think he did a great job working with the notes and scenes that Jordan left.

[Terez]

TheSurvivor, on 08 December 2010 - 06:27 AM, said:

I've heard the acclaim that Sanderson has been getting with his contribution and that in part has brought me to read the books more vigorously as i've finished two in the past week. Admittedly I was a few chapters into the first of the two. Now I'm sitting here wishing I had the ninth book in my hands. And the tenth...how I ended up with the eleventh I'm not sure. Sometimes I think it's criminal how Robert Jordan was able to create a series that so infuriates while providing just enough to keep me dedicated to knowing what happens next. Oddly enough though, I find my own writing resembling Jordan's more so than my preferred series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

RJ's writing is about as good as it gets IMO. Most writers depend on melodramitic writing or prose tending toward purple as a means of being a 'good' writer, but RJ doesn't. Sanderson doesn't either, and that's why Harriet picked him, but Sanderson IMO tends toward the underdeveloped side of simple writing, while RJ does not.

The only purple writing in WoT is really the prologue of TEOTW, and it was appropriate because he was trying to put an ancient cast on the scene.

[Use Of Weapons]

Purple prose: http://en.wikipedia....ki/Purple_prose

[Terez]

Typically associated with massive amounts of adverbs and adjectives when one or two would have done.