To ShadowDrgn and Risen, I have a questions about Sanderson's writing style in his own books. Is it a lot like the way he's finishing Wheel of Time? Or is it different? I wholeheartedly agree with people that the last two books have been totally badass awesome, and I hear a lot of people are saying that they really like the new books, but I can't tell if it's just that the story has reached it's peak and anyone who didn't totally screw it up would write something awesome. There's a couple points where I didn't really like Sanderson's style:
When Perrin has Galad ride his horse and Perrin sticks by him to make sure he stays safe, Galad says he doesn't need to bother, and Perrin tells Galad that he's just fond of the horse.
I didn't read through the thread so apologize if this has already been linked, but Blind Guardian is awesome: Wheel of Time - Blind Guardian
A friend of mine has informed me that the song is based off the book(s). The song is terrific and if any of you are into power metal then you'll be hooked 8)
So I hear that this series is finally actually going to be finished, and I started re-reading Eye of the World and will re-read the rest of the series (stopped reading in the winter's heart first time around as no end in sight). I am so excited to see what happens with my friends Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve! The first book (especially the second half) is so good! I can't wait to finish tonight and then start book 2. I am hoping to get all caught up in time for the final book to come out. Anyways I just wanted to say hi to all the WoT readers out there!
Hi! I agree, the first was definitely one of the best. Probably my other favourite is Lord of Chaos, also, the two books that Sanderson has written are pretty good. I wish I could get caught up, but all my books are like 5000km away (probably a good thing, considering how much time it would take away from studies lol) I guess it's good I've read through the series multiple times :p
On December 31 2010 09:03 lac29 wrote: I'd like to hear more comparisons to A Song of Ice and Fire. I've only read the first book of SIF and none of Wheel of Time.
ASoIaF is a very mature and gritty fantasy with little traditional 'high fantasy' themes like magic, elves...etc. If you've read Game of Thrones, i'm sure you got that feel. It is more like a historical drama with fantasy elements that spans many continents in multiple plotlines and POVs.
Wheel of Time is not dissimilar in its scale but with more of the traditional fantasy aspects like magic, 'the chosen hero's journey of growing and fulfilling destiny' and all that good jazz. Also, the style of writing of Jordan is very tolkien-esque with heavy description on landscapes, sceneries and the like. I've only read up to the 6th novel so i don't what it's like afterwards but the series was becoming very tedious without any real progression in the story. However the first 4~5 novels are a treat to read and i would definitely recommend them.
Telcontar, a lot of people say that book 6-8 are kinda dry, focusing on the side characters a lot, but they say once you hit book 9, the story picks up a LOT.
Apparently Sanderson also did a good job on the later books so far.
On December 31 2010 09:03 lac29 wrote: I'd like to hear more comparisons to A Song of Ice and Fire. I've only read the first book of SIF and none of Wheel of Time.
WOT is a lot more slow-paced, there are huge books where very little happens, the good guys are always going to win, and later books are kind of boring. I read WOT first and I enjoyed it, but ASOIAF is a far better fantasy series imo.
On December 31 2010 10:10 Fa1nT wrote: Telcontar, a lot of people say that book 6-8 are kinda dry, focusing on the side characters a lot, but they say once you hit book 9, the story picks up a LOT.
Apparently Sanderson also did a good job on the later books so far.
I disagree - the books were good up through 8. 9 (Winter's Heart) was bad and 10 (Crossroads of Twilight) was downright godawful. However 11 (Knife of Dreams), the last book written by Jordan, was good, and 12 was good. I just started 13 today.
Definately approve of Sanderson, the Towers of Midnight didn't have a single boring chapter in it for me, in addition they arn't like some of Jordan's chapter which are like 150 pages sometimes, they're all relatively short in the 20-30ish page region which is very nice.
On December 31 2010 18:08 DarthXX wrote: Definately approve of Sanderson, the Towers of Midnight didn't have a single boring chapter in it for me, in addition they arn't like some of Jordan's chapter which are like 150 pages sometimes, they're all relatively short in the 20-30ish page region which is very nice.
I really like the last two books, but certain parts seemed kinda cheap. The whole Tower of Ghenji episode was kinda like lolwut?, and the interaction between Galad and Berelain was terrible. I just got the feeling that he was resolving things for the sake of resolving them, and not doing it in a natural way. Maybe it's just me questioning if it wouldn't have been written better if Jordan were still around, but I really felt that Sanderson pulled out some deus ex machina. Where as Jordan really seemed to always build plausible scenarios for everything, which is a lot more boring at times, but more wholesome in the end I think. The book read a lot more like a Sword of Truth novel in my opinion.
Possibly controversial, but I thought Sanderson's writingfor WoT was better than Jordan.
IMO Jordan had a good imagination & a good story to tell, but he couldn't tell it very well, and he dragged it out for so long that it was like reading the script for a dragon ball Z episode.
On December 31 2010 05:53 pugowar wrote: So I hear that this series is finally actually going to be finished, and I started re-reading Eye of the World and will re-read the rest of the series (stopped reading in the winter's heart first time around as no end in sight). I am so excited to see what happens with my friends Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve! The first book (especially the second half) is so good! I can't wait to finish tonight and then start book 2. I am hoping to get all caught up in time for the final book to come out. Anyways I just wanted to say hi to all the WoT readers out there!
Exactly the same experience as I had. Really enjoyed the first books, but it started to get a bit annoying later on. So many people to keep track on. I didnt make it through Winters heart either, and I am a bit bummed out about that. For about a year I have been meaning to pick it up again, but since its so long ago I read the previous books I gotta start over at the beginning. I havent been keeping a too close eye on the progress of the final book though, so not sure how long time I got in hands. Hopefully enough to, like you, catch up. Despite the dry period of no reading after failing Winters Heart, I really love the series and I am excited to read the end of it all.
ASoFaI are a fantastic series of books, and I love the WoT too, but they are different, if similar in scale. The sheer size of WoT is amazing, and the detail and thought that went into each and every character is great, as is the character development. 10 was pretty bad, but Jordan admitted that himself when he said he was trying something new and it didn't really work out. The only problem with WoT, imo, is something which affects almost all fantasy - there's good guys and bad guys. The good guys are likely to win, although I wonder how this will work out for the WoT (I have suspicions it won't be as clear cut as good guys win woot). I'm really looking forward to finally finishing one of the greatest fantasy series ever written.
ASoFaI is in it's own class when it comes to fantasy writing - unclear motives, fully developed characters and plots with muddied notions of what is good and bad. Is Tyrion a good guy? He does plenty of evil things. Is Jon Snow? How about Catelyn Stark..? Or Jaime, for that matter? When I read these, as much as I like Gemmell and Eddings it just didn't seem to be a fair comparison.
As a side note I finally forced myself to finish Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - the first two books were good, but he just got bogged down in spouting his self-righteous worldview, with main characters who had so little to recommend them. And seriously, taking twenty pages of dialogue and getting bogged down in his own magic system to explain something that could have taken a page to do, or the repeated deus ex going on? Yeah. Martin and Jordan (with Sanderson's help, he's doing a pretty decent job so far) are so much better. Want action fantasy? Read Gemmell's Legend, or Barclay's Chronicles of the Raven, or Cook"s Black Company series.
On January 01 2011 01:31 KevinIX wrote: The audiobooks for Wheel of Time are superb. It makes getting through the books so much easier.
This is what I do, so I can listen while driving to and from places, or stranded somewhere with nothing to do for a few hours. The problem with audiobooks is that they take like 5 times longer to get through than just reading the book yourself.
Question about the ending of Towers of Midnight: + Show Spoiler +
What was up with Lanfear being trapped somewhere and ending up in Rand's warded dreams? Isn't she still running around as Cydane somewhere? Any chance she'll betray the shadow in the final book?
On January 01 2011 01:56 Sanctimonius wrote: *snip*
As a side note I finally forced myself to finish Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - the first two books were good, but he just got bogged down in spouting his self-righteous worldview, with main characters who had so little to recommend them. And seriously, taking twenty pages of dialogue and getting bogged down in his own magic system to explain something that could have taken a page to do, or the repeated deus ex going on? Yeah. Martin and Jordan (with Sanderson's help, he's doing a pretty decent job so far) are so much better. Want action fantasy? Read Gemmell's Legend, or Barclay's Chronicles of the Raven, or Cook"s Black Company series.
I totally agree about Goodkind. The long drawn-out arguments between Jagang and Nicci for example... this power-mad sociopath patiently hacks out a two page monologue to which Nicci replies with her own two page speech. Who the hell talks like that in private conversation, especially those characters? And by the end of the series (excepting the very ending) Richard was still just about as skilled with magic as Rand was with the power at the beginning of The Great Hunt. Suspension of disbelief was just impossible in so many ways and I slogged through the last few books out of an obligation to finish what I started.
I've read the entire WoT series and aSoIaF, and you can't really compare them, but if you like surprises I strongly recommend aSoIaF and on the plus side there is also a tv series coming from HBO which is co-written with GRRM or something. WoT is more of a classic fantasy where you just watch the whole thing play out.
I've also read Sword of Truth first book, and I found it completely void of character development except for+ Show Spoiler +
the part where the main character is the torturouss sex slave
Sanderson is definitely doing a great job finishing the WoT. I don't read a wide variety of books so I'm more complacent to some things other people find upsetting with the book (Mainly the 'longness' of books ~4-11, I liked reading, i wasn't so worried about knowing the conclusion RIGHT NOW). Some of the scenes with Mat in them actually have me laugh out loud + Show Spoiler +
Talmanes line to Mat before visiting Elayne "You sure you dont wan't to roll around in the mud a little before we leave?"
But the one part of the book that REALLY disappointed me was + Show Spoiler +
Aviendha seeing the world after the last battle. did anyone else see this as a huge spoiler and kinda ruin the anticipation?