The wheel of time series

Sephiroth_dude

Hi
I just wondering if anyone has read this series of books?are they good?easy to get into etc?

dogbert27

Hi,

I started reading them nearly 3 years ago. The first 4 books are good and they are easy to get in to as you're learning more and more about the characters.
By the time book 5 came along it was beginning to get dragged out and I've now been trying to finish book 6 for almost a year but finding it tough going.
I've read other reviews of the series and fans have said that the next 3-4 books become very laboured and tedious.
I got an even bigger surprise when I found out Robert Jordan had died and had not finished the last book!
It's now being completed by another writer based on Jordans notes but I read that he is seperating out the last book in three books to tie up all the loose ends!
If you enjoy these type of stories,i.e. David Eddings, Tolkien, Terry Goodkind, you'll like the Wheel of Time.
Just be prepared for a few years of reading though!:)

Sephiroth_dude

dogbert27 wrote: »

Hi,

I started reading them nearly 3 years ago. The first 4 books are good and they are easy to get in to as you're learning more and more about the characters.
By the time book 5 came along it was beginning to get dragged out and I've now been trying to finish book 6 for almost a year but finding it tough going.
I've read other reviews of the series and fans have said that the next 3-4 books become very laboured and tedious.
I got an even bigger surprise when I found out Robert Jordan had died and had not finished the last book!
It's now being completed by another writer based on Jordans notes but I read that he is seperating out the last book in three books to tie up all the loose ends!
If you enjoy these type of stories,i.e. David Eddings, Tolkien, Terry Goodkind, you'll like the Wheel of Time.
Just be prepared for a few years of reading though!:)

Well I'll be damned it turns out I have a wheel of time book."new spring" I remember buying it and trying to get into it but just could'nt,I might it again.

kathycork

I read the first four or five maybe, loved them but I saw one day ina bookshop that there was around six books to go, and counting, which was my limit, I realised the guy who wrote them was a bit mad and would never complete them. my nerdiness usually knows no bounds but this was too much. i knew he would stretch it out until death, and i was right!

maybe someday ill go back to them, but life is too short to have to go back and reread the ones i already read so i can follow the plot!!

Andy-Pandy

There great, they take a bit of time to get through but i've loved them and they have been some of the most enjoyable books i have ever read. The only way you will know if you like them is by starting the series. You may not like them, but then again you may love them.

Wheely

Started reading them years ago and loved them at the start but they got repetitive and moe difficult to read as time went on. TBH I can't really remember why I stopped reading them but I did and I think it was cos I thought they got crap.

However if you like fantasy, I can't recommend anything more highly than A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R Martin. Far superior to anything I've read in that genre or possibly any. Really really really good and I actually can't say a bad thing about them.

Zadkiel

About to show my age here....

Read The Eye Of the World thirteen years ago when I should have been studying for my leaving Cert!
They have pretty good pace up to Lord of Chaos, after that he tends to spend way too much time describing the women's dresses.:rolleyes:
Which is probably the most tedious part and only fault in the series that I can see.

That said the sheer amount of interesting characters is incredible and he never leaves out a detail.

I really hope Sanderson can pull the last book(s) together because I really don't want to be disappointed after waiting this long to see the end!:D

There are a LOT of loose ends that need tying up.

MikeC101

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Well I'll be damned it turns out I have a wheel of time book."new spring" I remember buying it and trying to get into it but just could'nt,I might it again.

If memory serves me correctly, New Spring is a prequel to the WoT series. Written by Jordan some time after...hmmm...book 7 maybe? I'm not sure, but basically when people were getting angry with how long and drawn out the series was getting to be, he decided to go and write a prequel.

I'd imagine it might suffer from all the problems of the later books, you might be better starting off with The Eye of the World.

Jumpy

Hes dead now. That slowed down the release of the series somewhat.

MikeC101

Jumpy wrote: »

Hes dead now. That slowed down the release of the series somewhat.

I know....

But he wrote New Spring a few years before he died

And, depending on when the remaining books come out, it might not have slowed down the release of the series much - they were coming out every 2 - 3 years at that point.

Edit: dunno if your post was directed at mine or not.

Sephiroth_dude

MikeC101 wrote: »

If memory serves me correctly, New Spring is a prequel to the WoT series. Written by Jordan some time after...hmmm...book 7 maybe? I'm not sure, but basically when people were getting angry with how long and drawn out the series was getting to be, he decided to go and write a prequel.

I'd imagine it might suffer from all the problems of the later books, you might be better starting off with The Eye of the World.

ah so thats maybe why I could'nt get into,I did'nt know it was a prequel.

Jumpy

MikeC101 wrote: »

I know....

But he wrote New Spring a few years before he died

And, depending on when the remaining books come out, it might not have slowed down the release of the series much - they were coming out every 2 - 3 years at that point.

Edit: dunno if your post was directed at mine or not.

No aim, just overall annoyance . How dare he die and leave it unfinished.

MikeC101

Jumpy wrote: »

No aim, just overall annoyance . How dare he die and leave it unfinished.

I don't know if you followed it much online, but even a good few years before he died, people were wondering about the possibility of it happening (him dying and the series being unfinished). Jordan himself even stated if he died he had instructions left to destroy all his notes and outlines, so it couldn't be finished!

Guess he changed his mind.

dazzday

The new book is to be released at the end of Oct, and reportably the 3 parts should be released within 18months of each other.

Having read the series myself, I agree with most here. The first 1-5ish books are great, Jorden creates a wonderfully unique fantasy world with three very engaging main characters.

However books 6ish-9 are very slow going and it can be hard to keep an interest. The final books pick up again, particularly as you see the Forsaken get more and more involve and you see Rands powers manifest, although it was sickening to leave the series at a climax.

I reccommend them if you have the time and access to the books cheaply (buying 12 books at €7-12 each isnt cheap!), as overall they are a great read.

ixoy

Again, I enjoyed the first six books. After that? Not so much. Every now and then the more recent books seem about to increase the pace but then it's back to the stilted Aes Sedai conversations, descriptions of dresses, tiring fish metaphors, and a host of inter-changeable non-descript minor characters.

Jordan got far too bogged down in trying to keep track of every character's plot line that the overall arc slowed to a crawl - an entire 600-700 page volume could be set over the course of a couple of days.

My advice is not to bother but instead pick up one of the many other fantasy series out there - the Assassin trilogy by Robin Hobb, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (warning though: not finished and being released really slowly) or Steven Erikson's "A Song of Ice and Fire" (Book 9 just out and never slackened in pace IMO).

Sephiroth_dude

Is there any bit of humour in the first few books?or is it all serious,I like a bit of humour in my fantasy books not to much mind you.

ixoy

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Is there any bit of humour in the first few books?or is it all serious,I like a bit of humour in my fantasy books not to much mind you.

Not really - I found the humour clunky and forced. It didn't make me laugh.

If you're looking for a dash of very black humour, try Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" series. Nice and violent it is too - no time for farmboys on a quest.

I'd also strongly recommend "The Lies of Locke Lamorra" - a sort of "Ocean's 11" (as in long-con) in a fantasy world. It's an excellent debut novel and very witty as well.

dubhdara3

For some Reason, I have always found the first book labourious to read through, even after I read through the others, but from book 2 - 8 they are great, with only the occasional slow patches, mostly dealing with Nyneave.

Books 9 and 10 are a bit of a joke since they don't really move the story forward much, but I'm looking forward to Book 12 (in all 3 parts) to finally see how the threads are all gonna be pull back together.

Sephiroth_dude

ixoy wrote: »

I'd also strongly recommend "The Lies of Locke Lamorra" - a sort of "Ocean's 11" (as in long-con) in a fantasy world. It's an excellent debut novel and very witty as well.

That book sounds very familiar.

pretty*monster

I started reading the Wheel of Time over 10 years ago so I'm pretty heavily invested in the series.
I'd tend to agree with other posters that the series started to decline as is went on. I gave up in disgust after book 9 and decided to get a life. But after I heard about Jordan's death I was moved to give it another shot and I really enjoyed the latest book and thought it was something of a return to form.

Also, while books 7 - 10 were reallydissappointing if you'd been waiting eagerly for them to be published since the last one came out they only to find that the story didn't advance very much over 700 or so pages they actually stand up a lot better on re-reads when you can just relax and enjoy Jordan's glacial build up happy in the knowledge that something will happen eventually.

I've gotten very excited about the 12th book since a the following glowing advanced review came out
http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=585

All in all though it's a pretty heavy time investment to set yourself up for.