[End of Disc One]

Mentalist, on 13 November 2015 - 06:34 PM, said:

I can see the merits (Salma's story was cool, and the infodump on Commonweal was pretty great).

Those aren't even the best parts of book 2. That would be the siege of Tark with its awesome imagery, followed by the big battle at the end. The book also introduced Drephos, who was easily the most entertaining character up to that point. I also enjoyed getting to see the Emperor for the first time, and his sister and Uctberi.

I'm not mad, but I've noticed this forum developing a hive mind lately when it comes to opinions on this series. 2 has become the universal least favorite, while I'm pretty sure the least favorite used to be 1 (or any of the first 3). This forum also collectively hates a certain character whom I enjoy, but I don't want to mention the name.

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 13 November 2015 - 08:07 PM

[Chance]

I'm actually suprised at the venom spewed on the first few books and I can usually summon loads of venom, contempt and other unpleasantness at litrature I don't like (might be that I expected something so bad that they actually where pretty good compared to my expectations). They aren't anything special but neither are they especially bad. They got good worldbuiding (even excellent now and then) but a mediocre cast most of the time for about two books after which it improves significantly in third-fourth and becomes as people say another author at fifth.

End of Disc One, on 13 November 2015 - 08:06 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure the least favorite used to be 1 (or any of the first 3).

This forum also collectively hates a certain character whom I enjoy, but I don't want to mention the name.

Your right book one is certainly the worst of the bunch so far (Im up to 5 and 1/3).

Im hoping that isn't Totho you find some value in, if so seek professional help . I myself can't really understand the problem most people have with Che even if she doesn't really come into her own until the fifth book she never approaches say the average WoT woman or earlier mentioned mhybe levels of frustration in the reader.

[Macros]

I don't think any other series has women as poorly characterised as the mega bitches that populate WoT

[Tarcanus]

I think the problem with Che is that as of Scarab Path, she enters the territory of super-cliched-young-person-learning-magic trope. And then she stays there until War Master's Gate - at which point she's still behind Seda's skill. There's only so many magical hallucinations, magical ailments, etc a reader can take before the character seems to only be pulled along by their companions and seem to have few redeeming qualities of their own.

After I finished Bk10 and reminisced, I realized I could definitely see where Che's role throughout the story was necessary, but I couldn't bring myself to think she was a well done character.

Thalric was great until he became nothing more than love interest/bodyguard and was done with character growth. Totho was getting better until he got pulled back into the black hole of Che's suckage. Tynisa just became a super bodyguard and Stenwold just complained too much. I feel like a lot of the actual movers of the last few books were the one-offs or side characters(I'm going to forget some names, here): Both of the woodlouse-kinden we see(Gvegevy and Gerethwy?), the ant-spider, the wasp 'traitor', Stenwold's spider love interest, mad scientist beetle, half-moth mystic - they were doing all of the heavy lifting in the last 4 books barring Taki's Air War(which just got boring after a while. There are only so many descriptions of aerial combat one can take.)

That said, the world-building is great and I wish more was done with the kinden and their various abilities. I would love to see a world map with home locations of all of the kinden spelled out. Or maybe a kinden encyclopedia! This world screams for having other authors write in it.

The story itself moved along and there is some awesome action - I just think the characters are what drag the books down.

[Tarcanus]

Haha, yeah, it may be a bit of blasphemy around here, but after the Wasp and Collegiate planes had been described and the reader learned their capabilities, it just got boring to continually read about plane maneuvers and such. At that point, all I really wanted to know was how it was affecting the rest of the war effort, but Tchaikovsky just kept describing Taki flying around and shooting Farsphex.