[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

So, against my better judgement, I started reading WoT. I'm about 100 pages in, and it's making me sad that there are many people who think this is the best fantasy series ever. A farmer boy who finds out he is really much, much more? Let me guess, he's the chosen one of some sort, here to save the world, blah blah blah. This isn't starting well.

I keep thinking there must be something special about this series that will pop up eventually. After al, why else would it be so popular? I'mnot holding my breath. The bad thing is, if I read this book, I'll feel obligated to read the whole series. Damn.

[Flawed]

I have a soft spot for WOT. It was the first Fantasy series i read and the books that got me into reading in the first place.

Compared to Wu it is average, but it is entertaining in places and by the end of it all as im sure you can sympathise with the Wu books, you feel like you know the characters inside out.

Matt is my favourite and although the plot seems a little obvious, its the horror and lack of willing behind such cliche transformations that make the book. Duty , relationships, battle and evolution. Its all there and has nearly as many " What if's " and " perhaps that will happen " as Malaz.

The last book isn't out until 2008 i think and he has left a lot to happen in that last book but by then if you can make it that far you will be well involved and at the same time miffed that its coming to an end.

If a little glad for it too.

You'll get what i mean.

From a Virgin thats well...... Flawed

[Falco]

WoT starts out pretty cliched but Jordan does start doing politics and lots of cultures etc. pretty quickly. Remember this was groundbreaking stuff when he did it, before Martin and the like.

[QuickTidal]

I made it through all of book one before realizing it was utter and complete trash.

Yet my old roomate swore by them. To each their own I suppose.

[Dolorous Menhir]

It's starts poorly in book 1, but things get better fast. Jordan retcons this now by claiming he was providing an "easy introduction" for LotR fans before ramping it up, but I'm not convinced by that.

I think the first four books are genuinely classic fantasy, with question marks over 5 & 6, then it goes rapidly downhill. There's no doubt that Jordan is a talented writer, but about halfway through the series he loses his storytelling discipline and goes into serious decline.

[tarotgaladriel]

I felt the same as you Ray........
I have just finished book one myself, and this was after putting it down 138 pages in.
At first I gave up as I couldn't take the name Trollocs seriously, combined with some of Rand's repetitive inner monologue.......but I too felt there must be something here for so many to like it, so a week later I went back to it.

This time I loved it, it really didn't get going till a few hundred pages in, by the end I adored it and really felt very attached to the characters.....

So, keep going, give it a chance, read till the end then see what you think. I gave up early on, went back and have now ended up being hooked and bought some more.

[Falco]

I'm just amazed that there hasn't been a joke about WOT, virgins and the ludicrously unrealistic sexual behaviour in the books yet...

[Dr Trouble]

Falco>> If only I were clever enough .... What do you call a man having sex with three women? The Dragon Reborn!

... Shut up, its 11:30 pm here and I am not good at making jokes up! Or telling jokes ... or understanding jokes ...

I liked the first 6 books myself, the first half of book 1 was a bit dull, but after that things started getting interesting. As others have said though, he loses focus after book 7, and then forgets where he parked his imagination in book 10.

I had the good fortune though to read his series before Erikson and Bakker and other such great authors, so it still holds nice in my mind.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Falco;198558 said:

I'm just amazed that there hasn't been a joke about WOT, virgins and the ludicrously unrealistic sexual behaviour in the books yet...

Men! Hmph! *tugs braid and stalks off*

[Illuyankas]

You didn't sniff. Or get captured.

[Dolorous Menhir]

stamps foot, smooths skirts

[paladin]

changes shift, washes face

oh and I think the series blows ass.. The books I like are the books people don't like, because theres no fluff in the books I like and lots of plot movement. Most books have very little plot movement and an assload of fluff. I think starting with book 7 you actually get some plot movement all the way to 9, which is where I stopped.. Nine had a lot of plot resolution and I heard that 10 was slow as hell again so I stopped reading at that point. Most people hate 7-9, I guess because they like reading about people walking around places and changing their shifts all the time. Actually though, the best book wasn't a book, it was a short story prequel about Lan. Small and tightly written, it has very little fluff and moves quickly.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I'm a little bit farther in now, and my overall feelings haven't changed. It's not so much the quality of the writing, it's just that I have read all fo this in other books before. If this was the first fantasy i had ever read, I bet I would have loved it. I'm keepng it by the door, and only reading it when I go out to smoke. Or when on the can. This way, I'll give it a shot, but won't waste any time I could be using for soemthing else on it. Hopefully I get more into it.

[Dr Trouble]

You probably read it all before when everybody started copying Jordan

[Falco]

Yep RLY, you're spot on. Jordan was a breakthrough writer but others who have followed him over the same ground have considerably more polish and skill...so I'm not surprised you feel the way you do...

[Malaclypse]

I used to love this series, back when the dinosaurs walked the earth, but the slow-down after book 6 or thereabouts coupled with the emergence of far more compelling fantasy authors caused me to abandon it completely for a few years. I picked up a paperback copy of Crossroads of Twilight and literally could not get past one of the scenes with Mat and the travelling circus. I've since read New Spring which I thought was decent and it revitalized my interest somewhat so I've skipped Crossroads (which takes place over a period of 22 days or summat? Jordan at his worst) and gone straight to Knife of Dreams (post-shower air dry reading or bedtime sedative reading mind you) and it's not terrible...ok, maybe it's terrible, but it's kinda comfortable and I have invested a lot of time in the series so I'm now newly determined to see the end of it

[Morgoth]

Malaclypse;198663 said:

I used to love this series, back when the dinosaurs walked the earth, but the slow-down after book 6 or thereabouts coupled with the emergence of far more compelling fantasy authors caused me to abandon it completely for a few years. I picked up a paperback copy of Crossroads of Twilight and literally could not get past one of the scenes with Mat and the travelling circus. I've since read New Spring which I thought was decent and it revitalized my interest somewhat so I've skipped Crossroads (which takes place over a period of 22 days or summat? Jordan at his worst) and gone straight to Knife of Dreams (post-shower air dry reading or bedtime sedative reading mind you) and it's not terrible...ok, maybe it's terrible, but it's kinda comfortable and I have invested a lot of time in the series so I'm now newly determined to see the end of it

I thought you were dead

[Obdigore]

Honestly, after SE... good luck.

When I picked up Jordan, I had read LoTR and... thats about it for the true epic fantasy stuff. So it was very good.

Then you have SE, and Gene Wolfe (Who I don't really even like) and people like that, Jordan really has no chance.

[dktorode]

Yea thats why i am glad i read up to about book 6 of WOT before i moved on to "newer" authors like Erikson. Would've sucked the other way round.

[stone monkey]

I'm old enough to remeber a time when Jordan was considered to be a breath of fresh air to the subgenre of High Fantasy (much like I can remember a time before Cyberpunk or New Space Opera).

IMO Jordan just got complacent and lost his narrative drive - the early WoT books do simply barrel along. And his writing was never the strongest in the first place.

And if we're talking WoT tropes, how could anyone go on without mentioning the girl-on-girl spanking action?