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reading Wheel of Time for the first time

#21 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 09:46 AM

View PostHocknose, on 23 February 2012 - 09:20 AM, said:

I think my biggest concern is that I love authors such as Erikson (obviously), Bakker, GRRM, Abercrombie and they all write very deep adult fantasy. For some reason I've always got the impression that Jordan might be a bit "kiddie" to me after reading those other guys, so thats why I held off. And then to hear that Sanderson is finishing the books kind of made sense to me because I've read the mistborn trilogy and even though I thought it was good, it seemed aimed at the teenage audience.

WoT is in some ways only barely family-friendly. (There is a great deal of innuendo.) It's definitely the product of a different generation, and while RJ and GRRM were more or less contemporaries, RJ for many years saw himself as being on the highbrow edge of the generation, which makes for a more restrained style. That being said, it does come across as having a light-fare flavor during the early chapters (not the prologue, which honestly is the best foreshadowing of things to come I could offer as a contrast), which is why I cautioned that it's not what it seems on the surface. There are also Tolkien parallels in the beginning—very deliberate ones. They are fleeting, though you could say those parallels play out in very subtle ways throughout the series. It's all underlying a larger, very original structure.

I had the same feeling about Brandon's books when I read them, that they were kinda on the YA side—in content and in prose style—and as a hardcore WoT fan, it worried me. WoT does not have a YA feel at all in my opinion. The prose is polished and intricate, and despite the youthful mains and the occasional slapstick, the world is every bit as deep as Malazan, despite different approaches. It's a deceptively traditional fantasy storyline, but not even as YA as IT or Flowers in the Attic. Brandon was influenced a lot by RJ, but he was chosen mainly because he was the only skilled and successful author who was both a big fan of the series and not so successful that he wouldn't leap at the chance. Brandon himself has referred to Venn diagrams to illustrate the point. It's amazing that he even existed really. He's come a long way since Mistborn, particularly on the WoT books where the effort is more deliberate, but you can still see the difference in prose and characterization in his two books, which bothers some readers more than others.

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#22 User is offline   Brujah 

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Posted 27 August 2012 - 04:28 PM

WoT was my favorite series by far for many years. I measured all other series against it, and I always felt WoT was far and away more brilliant. That was until I found the malazan books, which are my favorite by light years. I still rank WoT as my second favorite series of all time. The first book is good, but I'd recommend reading ateast the first 4, as it takes time for the story to get really going, but once it does, It's amazing stuff.
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#23 User is offline   hadoken13 

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Posted 01 October 2012 - 08:07 PM

I never considered reading this series, but after reading opinions on this thread I have to say that I might have to pick up a copy. Would people on here recommend this series over A Song of Fire and Ice series (another one I've been meaning to read)?
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Posted 01 October 2012 - 08:30 PM

My suggestion would depend on a few things.

Do you mind if a series is complete or not? Come January, all the WoT books will be published. We don't know when the last SoIaF book will be released.

Do you prefer high magic fantasy (with a highly detailed and described magic system) or a less apparent magic system where you don't really get a view behind the magic system?

Both series are excellent. I think I prefer Martin's series, but not by much.
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Posted 02 October 2012 - 07:43 AM

I prefer WoT by miles. I liked ASoIaF the first time I read through it but I cannot read through a second time.
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#26 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 02 October 2012 - 07:48 AM

I think most Malazan fans would say they prefer ASOIAF, but you might get a biased opinion on this subforum. :p

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#27 User is offline   Starling 

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Posted 02 October 2012 - 10:02 AM

I've just started the 5th WoT book, and I have to say I'm already enjoying it so much more than the 5th ASoIaF book. Although that may simply be the same effect that the later WoT books suffered from, in that I don't think Dances with Dragons was at all worth the time we had to wait to get it.

I probably wouldn't re-read the series, but WoT is worth the read.
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#28 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 06 October 2012 - 09:53 PM

Ahh, but the rereading is what makes WoT unparalleled. The foreshadowing is subtle but incredibly rich, and the appreciation gets even deeper if you have familiarity with real-world myths and legends.

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#29 User is offline   Tehol the Only 

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Posted 16 December 2012 - 05:11 PM

I'm on my first read of WoT (currently halfway through the Dragon Reborn) and i must say i'm really liking it so far.
The pace is not nearly as terrible as some people will tell you and its traditonal approach isn't a fault at all.
Actually my only gripe with the series is about the female characters (seriously if all the women in RJ's life were like those depicted in the books, i feel sorry for the guy) and it's a minor one that gets completely outweighted by all the good stuff.
As for WoT vs Asoiaf ... atm i'm on the Wot side by far ... but really they're completely different series and you should probably read both and decide :)
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#30 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 19 December 2012 - 06:20 AM

I finished reading The Eye of the World again for the first time since I was twelve or thirteen (I stopped about 1/4 of the way through The Path of Daggers several years ago). It's been a good read, but not a great one; it certainly hasn't been a page-turner. Although it will probably get on my nerves later in the series, I enjoy Jordan's liberal use of description - his fantasy world was clearly realized in his head, and this makes the "walk on dirt road, sleep in wilderness, walk some more, sleep in inn, walk some more" essence of the plot not only bearable but enjoyable. While things progressed slowly, I found that I really enjoyed the atmosphere that he built. I could imagine myself coming into a town after a full day of walking to have some hot soup and sleep in a warm bed.
My largest problem with this book has been the characterization. Several of the main characters felt like cardboard cutouts (to be clear, I don't have a problem with character archetypes as long as they're well written). Moiraine is mysterious, Lan is supposed to be a hardass with some soft feelings tucked away, Perrin is a calm and gentle, Mat is a well-meaning trickster, and Rand is our fish out of water. These descriptions aren't necessarily a problem, but when things fail to go beyond this then I feel that problems begin to emerge. I'll draw the parallel to GRRM's characters - while I can use one or two adjectives to describe each of them, their personalities go far beyond those two words. In The Eye of the World, I really don't feel that things go beyond that. There were some characters that I felt went beyond this to have a little more substance - notably, Thom and Nynaeve. The latter made me laugh a little, as I recall that she becomes pretty unbearable later on.

Granted, this is the first book in a very lengthy series, and if my memory serves me correctly these characters do grow and evolve throughout the books. Erikson swept me in with his intriguing world, Martin with his wonderful characters, but I didn't find anything exceptional in The Eye of the World. That's not to say it was a bad book, and my problems with the characters didn't amount to anything major, but in the end I wasn't swept away in the manner that I was hoping.
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#31 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 05:54 AM

About 2/3 of the way through The Dragon Reborn now. The series has continued to improve with each book. The Great Hunt was leaps and bounds better than The Eye of the World; tighter plotting, better characterization, and a more satisfying finale had me really enjoying the book. I'll spoiler the rest of this post, in case anyone here hasn't gotten this far in the series:

Spoiler

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#32 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 06:06 AM

View PostDefiance, on 27 December 2012 - 05:54 AM, said:

About 2/3 of the way through The Dragon Reborn now. The series has continued to improve with each book. The Great Hunt was leaps and bounds better than The Eye of the World; tighter plotting, better characterization, and a more satisfying finale had me really enjoying the book.

It might help to know that RJ originally planned the first three books to be one book.

Spoiler

There are tons of little details like that, the vast majority of which aren't illuminated for the first-time reader by book titles. :( That's why WoT is always 10x better the second time through. Especially TEOTW, which helps you to realize how well he had the story planned from the beginning. It's packed with foreshadowing.

As for your HP comparison...it's kind of apt. The first three books of WoT are an intro of sorts. 4-6 are widely regarded as the best books in the series these days, aside from the resolution gratification we are getting from the final books. 4-6 are development gratification, which is also magnified on reread. (But still good stuff on first read.)

Edit: I see now you've made it to TPOD before. I'm guessing you don't remember much, though.

This post has been edited by Terez: 27 December 2012 - 06:08 AM

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#33 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 02:09 PM

Yeah, I have read them before but I don't remember a lot. I do remember a few details, such as:

Spoiler


But really not much more than that. For the most part, I'll recollect something right as I'm reading it, which is nice because it's more or less like I'm reading the series for the first time with a few things having been spoiled. I'm not sure how the hell I remember so little, other than I was probably too busy obsessing over girls and video games at the time that I originally read these books (junior high school). I also didn't read them back-to-back; each book took me about a month to read, and there were times where I didn't pick up the next in the series for a month or two, which resulted in me forgetting a hell of a lot and not connecting many dots.

Also, one detail I forgot to mention:

Spoiler

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#34 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 04:12 PM

Yeah, the black-and-white good/evil is distracting for a lot of people. The books don't really focus on that so much as they focus on the gray areas, particularly where Rand is concerned, but also with the other characters.

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#35 User is offline   Overactive Imagination 

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 06:16 AM

Which versions of the WoT books would you recommend I buy? The mass market TOR paperbacks that come in the box-set are horrible, and I've heard the hardcovers aren't great either....
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#36 User is offline   Tehol the Only 

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 08:09 AM

View PostOveractive Imagination, on 28 December 2012 - 06:16 AM, said:

Which versions of the WoT books would you recommend I buy? The mass market TOR paperbacks that come in the box-set are horrible, and I've heard the hardcovers aren't great either....



Go with orbit/little brown books! http://www.littlebro...n=9781857230765


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#37 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 28 December 2012 - 06:18 PM

I love the look of hardcovers on my bookshelf, but the Wheel of Time covers have some god awful artwork. I think Eye of the World is the only halfway decent one (still quite mediocre). I do like A Memory of Light's cover, but I do remember reading that it was illustrated by an entirely different author.

If you like trade paperbacks, there are some decent looking covers that have come out in the last year or so. Just go to Amazon and look at the first paperback listing.

Anyway, just finished The Dragon Reborn. Thoughts below.

Spoiler


Going to start The Shadow Rising a little later today. It's one hundred pages longer than The Dragon Reborn and has a lot more text on each page, so it'll be interesting to see whether the extra length goes toward more plot/detail or needless filler.

Update: 200+ pages in to The Shadow Rising. It's had a slow start, but there's been enough action and new elements introduced that everything has still been interesting. My favorite part so far:

Spoiler

This post has been edited by Defiance: 30 December 2012 - 06:19 AM

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#38 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 31 December 2012 - 05:24 AM

Holy shit. Nearly halfway through The Shadow Rising now. Pure awesomeness lately...

Spoiler


Edit: About 140 pages left...

Spoiler

This post has been edited by Defiance: 02 January 2013 - 06:56 AM

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#39 User is offline   Defiance 

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 06:47 AM

About 200 pages into The Fires of Heaven. While it's been enjoyable so far, the book has yet to really pull me in. Unfortunately I'm not reading as fast as I was; I recently discovered the awesomeness that is Breaking Bad, and classes start up again on Monday so that's sure to slow me down even more.

Spoiler

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#40 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 12:00 AM

Notes from my last reread of TFOH:

Spoiler


Not sure if that makes sense. But I was also annoyed by the girls in the beginning, or at least I felt there was an overload of their plotline.

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