For Good Or Ill... [Spoilers Obviously]
Moderators: Savor Dam, High Lord Tolkien, ussusimiel
I think we are all a bit of being victims of reading a series while it is being written, and thus inevitably and necessarily anticipating and speculating on how things are going to turn out, reading anything and everything that touches on the passion we have for this series. And the Watch is obviously a tremendous source for all that, with it's own great reward that outweighs (for me at least) what I may have given up by the experience of reading it all the way through in one shot (like we all did with the LOTR, for example).
An author has to write for posterity, not just for us modern day TC geeks, and so, imho, future generations of TC readers, much like me when I read LOTR, will be greatly moved by the tale taken in its entirety, read all the way through for it's great intermingling of story and character and meaning. I too was left a bit wanting in some areas, but perhaps this was primarily due to all the speculation and guess work between books. That won't be the case for future readers, but I still wouldn't trade my experience with having read the series in this way. It was great fun, and I learned much from all y'all.
An author has to write for posterity, not just for us modern day TC geeks, and so, imho, future generations of TC readers, much like me when I read LOTR, will be greatly moved by the tale taken in its entirety, read all the way through for it's great intermingling of story and character and meaning. I too was left a bit wanting in some areas, but perhaps this was primarily due to all the speculation and guess work between books. That won't be the case for future readers, but I still wouldn't trade my experience with having read the series in this way. It was great fun, and I learned much from all y'all.