Kevin's Watch

I have to say upfront that I am a fan of RJ, and the WOT. And I'm mermber of Dragonmount--are you one too, Murrin? (Not that I spend much time there anymore, but that is beside the point.)

Anyhow, I have to say I have mixed feelings about the entire series. I'm trained in English literature, from a critical standpoint there are problems aplenty with Jordan's novels--especially around the 6 book, and leading up to the penulitmate one. He developed a problem with pacing, and spent far too much time on individual side plots. I think he became too wrapped up in his characters. Many authors say that they listen to the characters, and write what they hear. I think that he merely gave too much credence to that method. Now I also view Jordan as a storyteller. As a storyteller he is among the best I have ever read. This is the other side of the pacing coin. I think he became lost in his vision of the story, and really became overambitious in his attempt to paint the entire picture before him. Now the diehard WOT fan will continue reading--no matter how the books would have stretched on. I believe that is because the diehard fans are those who are dedicated--even addicted--to the story itself. Now, back to the books. The media itself hindered the expression of the vision RJ had, but equally RJ's vision hindered his very own writing. It is as though the story became a hydra--two new subplots coming out of every finished one, and each character leading to two more. It simply became unwieldy.

At any rate, I will stay tuned to see how the storyteller finishes his yarn.

If any feels that a graph would enhance the above anaylsis, please let me know and I will try to oblige you.

Wyldewode, nice analysis. I agree.

I think the concern with having another author picking up when one has passed away can be a very valid one. I've never read any Sanderson, so I wouldn't know what to expect. But I'd imagine it's a hard job to write with your own voice, but not be too different from the original author's. And this can be a problem regardless of how much information is left over from the original author. Probably the two polar opposites of this are Christopher Tolkien's handling of his father's posthumous legacy and what Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson have done with Frank Herbert's Dune series. C. Tolkien limited himself pretty much to arranging and editing left over pieces, whereas BH/KJA created novels that were (allegedly) based on notes left behind. Tolkien's effort seems (to me) to work quite well, whereas Herbert/Anderson's has less positive results.

Now I wouldn't put WOT in the same category as either Middle-earth or Dune, but the issues are still there. I think it is reassuring that Sanderson states he is going to use as much of the work RJ left behind as possible (and that sounds like a substantial ammount). I'll be very interested to see the end result.

Mortice Root wrote:Wyldewode, nice analysis. I agree.

Thanks!

Apparently the manuscript for A Memory of Light is likely to clock in at 800,000 words, so they're splitting it and releasing a trilogy.

Here's what Sanderson had to say about how this came about.

(It actually sounds a lot like what George Martin was going through with AFfC back when, though I think he's having more trouble with the work than Brandon sounds to be.)

It really annoyed me when Tad Williams did this with his novel To Green Angel Tower being the final volume in his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. It was published in paper back in two volumes, The Storm and the Siege.

I think I said most of my say on this over at the Hangar, but wanted to add that Lyr's post sounded good to me. Guy sorta forgot the series had to end at some point. That whole two new sub-plots from every conclusion is how reality works.

Anyway, I'll be reading the damn things regardless...too much invested in his universe to quit now, although I cursed through most of bk 7, and all of book 10. 8 & 9 weren't much better.

But I thought he started to come to his senses in bk 11. In fact, he went so fast in it that it seemed like he was trying to make up for the last few...too fast almost, which is an unusual criticism of him.

(And I've just seen how old the rest of this thread is. Jay, Bk 11 is a huge improvement over 10.)

--A

I loved the first 5 books in this series, but I ran out of steam trying to get through the 6th... and from what I hear the next few are like the 6th. I am going to have to re-read the series since it's been so long since I read the first 5. Guess I'll just have to slog through to the end

I think Brandon Sanderson will do a good job. I'm reading his Mistborn trilogy now and it's quite good. If anyone can bring the WoT home to a satisfactory conclusion, he should be able to.