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/lit/ - Literature

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1594519 No.1594519 [Reply] [Original]

Not a regular here, just dropping in for a question that I hope isn't asked all the time. My apologies if it is.

I recently found my first four "Wheel of Time" books which I read several years ago. From what I understand the series went south from that point on and I was wondering, in your opinion, is it worth suffering through? Also, in particular, what caused the quality to nose dive: poor writing? jumping the shark? convoluted plot?

>> No.1594536

Yes, it's worth it. Of course, you'll get a dozen opinions on it going either way, so the only real way you'll know is to go for it yourself.

The problem was that Jordan tried to juggle too many storylines. It slowed the overall plot.

>> No.1595505
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1595505

Like the poster above, I think it's worth reading the rest of the series. Many people say the books start to get boring or convoluted after book 5 or 6 but I only started to get bored around books 10 and 11.
After that Sandersson took over and it got a little better imo.

>> No.1595519

1-6, 9, 12 and 13 are good. It's worth slogging through 7, 8, 10 and 11 if you like 1-4.

Actually... maybe skip 10. That book is a huge waste of time.

>> No.1595542

It's worth reading through it for Mat's side of the story alone. Most of the complaints stem from the 9th book since it is extremely slow and there is a lot of description of the setting and clothes. I read Tolkien so reading about people's clothes doesn't bother me much.

>> No.1595544

>>1595542
Or maybe it's 10 that's the really bad book, w/e

>> No.1595553

>>1595544

10's the one that only covers a single day. It manages to check in on pretty much every character long enough for them to do absolutely nothing. I forgive 9 for being mostly boring because of the end.

>> No.1597099
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1597099

yeah those middle books are only good on the second read thru (then it's really good with all the foreshadowing you catch).

after Crossroads of Twilight (nothing happens in this one) it starts gettin crazy good and you'll be glad those other books were there to set the stage

>> No.1597117

I fucking love WoT and I would say it's definitely worth suffering through. The thing is that most of the books are only bad by the standard of, like, 3 and 4. 5 and 6 are still really good and entertaining, nine is decent. 8 and 10 are the only ones that I would say are out-and-out mediocre or even bad, and they still have a lot of really entertaining moments. I would say keep on keepin on so you can join us in freaking out when it ends.

In terms of what happened, a combination of things. First, the writing went downhill - I love Jordan as a writer but he kind of got caught up in some stylistic tics that made reading it annoying. Second, the plot slowed - the pace of it, I mean, and a lot of times you felt like there wasn't anything important happening. Third, a lot of the later books get into plotlines that the fandom really doesn't like (sometimes for good reason) - Mat in Ebou Dar and especially Perrin and the Shaido which people didn't like both because they seemed like they would drag on forever and because they were just kind of annoying. Oh, also Elayne Succession.

I think that you're in a much better position as a late reader, though, because you can just push through the stuff that drags. A lot of the anger came from the fact that there was so long between books - it's a lot more annoying that Crossroads of Twilight doesn't advance the plot when you've waited 3 years for it and no one knows when the next one is.

>> No.1598452

If you liked the first four, you will likely like the rest.
Personally, I read the Eye of the World when it first came out, so the wait times have been frustrating, and the death of Robert Jordan, even more so.

I consider the books to be on the order of a decent television show, where I don't have to think.

George RR Martin is even more frustrating, though I consider his writing to be better... particularly the diversity of his characters. Of course, his last book took 5 years to publish, and the one we have been waiting on is going on 6 years. Best not to start A Game of Thrones for another 10 years, so you can read them all in a row.

>> No.1598463

>>1598452
Man, I was born just after Eye of the World came out (about a month after, in fact). I've literally been reading these books for half of my life