Kevin's Watch

I've been reading the WoT since they came out and I have to say that the first few books rocked.

But as the series has gone on, perhaps a lot longer than it should have, I think Robert Jordan has lost his way. The books drag on and on and nothing happens of any importance at all for chapter upon chapter, and sometimes in an entire book!

The other problem I have with Jordans WoT series is that the main characters don't grow. If you read the first book and then the 10th book you'll see that the main characters are still saying the same things they said in the first book and still behaving the same too.

Plus there's no true sense of time passing. I couldn't even begin to speculate on how many years have passed since the events in the first book to the events in the last book!

At the end of book 9 the biggest thing in the world happens, something we, the readers, have been dying for since the first book, its huge, monumental in fact.

I waited with baited breath for book 10, it finally came out and I expected it to pick up where book 9 left off, no such luck. While I haven't read book 10 yet (I wasn't able to get past the long boring prologue) I have talked with several friends who have and it appears as if this great calamitous event in book 9 is barely mentioned in book 10. Good grief.

I had high hopes for this series but have been let down by it.

But please, those of you who love WoT don't take offense at my words, I mean no disrespect.

Matthew

I know it probably isn't that important, but only two years have passed in the series - the timescales shows the slowing of the plotline, with books 1-2 spring-winter of the first year, 3-5 spring-autumn of the second, 6-7 autumn-winter, and 8-10 winter. Gets slower and slower all the time.

Not only time is getting slower ( if it keeps slowing down, we'll start having a book for each week of each month!!!!! ), but Fateke, you're right... I read book 10 a few weeks ago, and it's just what you say.
The end of book 9 was probably what had made every fan hope RJ was getting back on track and schedule, but then most of book 10 is about events that happened elsewhere in the days immediately before the great event ( at the end of each of which, someone says, "oh, there's lots of One Power channeled somewhere... must be Rand, no problem." )... It's horrible that one has to read through 5-600 pages to find 10-20 pages worth of story! And the fragmentation of storylines - separating all characters from each other, so that RJ must devolve each chapter to a different character and storyline - doesn't help, either... you lose track of what happens way too often that way.

bump for chain link

I'm one of those people who just can't leave a story unfinished. I got sucked into these things when The Eye of The World came out, and I've read them all, except for the last one. But the streeeeeeeeeeeeeetching out of a story that should have been at least 5 books shorter has made me decide that I'm going to wait until the last one comes out in paperback, (no more spending $25 on a new hardback copy for this irritated reader) and then read the whole thing again, so I can hopefully remember WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE, and have done with the blasted thing.

"I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er."

Yeah, I'm suckered in until he finishes, but I will never buy another one of his books. Library card.

Library card.... LOL, Caer!

birdandbear I can't agree with you more.

When I picked up book 10 and started reading, I kept scratching my head saying, "Now who the hell is this!", of course the introduction was almost all characters we hadn't met before, because LORD KNOWS we don't have ENOUGH characters in this story already. But even beyond that when we get to characters that should be familiar I can't remember anything about them.

I'm really disapointed in this series. I think it should have ended at 6 books. A nice 2 trilogy set like our own beloved TCTC.

But I will finish the series someday. I have to. I started the series and honestly I have a crush on Matt. LOL

Take care,
Matthew

ehh??







i just started book 5 today...gets boring at times, but so far i like the series

Five's the last of the good stuff (though some will say six). It goes downhill from there, with a good rise at nine.

Agree completely, Syl - The series peaks at 4 and 5, thengoes down from there. Now I think about it, the one thing that makes it up for me is some of the character interaction (Rand&Min, Mat&Tylin, Mat&Tuon...). If that hadn't been in the books, I don't think I'd have been able to keep going past book 7.

I would have to say that it peaked at Book 6, simply because of the awesome battle scene at the end at that gappy place (sorry, it's been a while, heh). The rest have been just downhill. But I remember 6 was very good.-jay

Lord of Chaos was good, nice action in it, but Perrin came back halfway through, and I had to endure Mat, Egwene, Elayne and Nyneave chapters in Salidar (That place is cursed - any PoV character that spends time there becomes mind-numbingly dull until they leave).

tFoH just had enough emotion in it to be the better one, although some of the best moments in the series are in tSR...

Yeah, I know what you mean. Egwene and Elyane are just becoming WAY to annoying. I just cringe when I have to read a scene from their POV. I mean, it's just getting so bad. Why does Jordan torture us so? Just give us scenes with Mat, Perrin and Rand, the people with actually INTERESTING plot lines. I don't care about what the hell Elyane is doing in her stupid kingdom and I don't care what Egwene is doing to become queen of the Aes Sadai. They're both just way too snobby and annoying.

Oh, and if Jordan is cool, he'll have Perrin fight Elyane to have the Two Rivers to become independant from Camlyn. That would be awesome.-jay

nooo, your ruinking it for me!!!

Dunno how old this news is, but Jordan has said, about the next book, Knife of Dreams:

Something that has previously happened in the series is going to be revealed to have a terrible cost.... When you read it your reaction will be, "Gasp. How horrible!"

Much like my reaction to the last book, then.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

You know, I never got around to reading the last one. I was warned by a fellow Watcher that nothing really happened in it, so I avoided it as to also avoid further frustration.

WARNING!!!!
don't click the following link unless your sense of humor is as sick as mine!

www.geocities.com/brokenwheeloftime/prologue.html

Sorry folks, I haven't bothered to read the rest of this thread, but I will say that I enjoy the books, and am looking forward to the next one, although partly just because I'm curious to see what happens.

I agree that the first few, up to about six, were easier to read, and that the ever-increasing complexity of the plot becomes a bit daunting at times, but I love anything that's truly epic in scope.

One of the reasons I enjoyed the Chrons so much was the rich history that was built into it, same as LotR. The WoT is the same.

Although I must say that the predictability of the plot devices is becoming tiring. Every few books we are introduced to a new "people" that have been very mysterious, then the next couple of books slowly reveal the mysterious nature of them. Then, just as we're understanding the Aiel, or the Sea Folk, along comes another bunch that must be revealed all over again.

That said, I still look forward to finding out about them.

Later
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