Brooks vs Jordan

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Is it just me or is Terry Brooks a lot more... basic when compared to Robert Jordan?

 

No it isn't just you.

Terry Brooks will normally have a small number of main characters and the story will focus almost completely on those characters. His stories tend to be very standard tales of the hero who must find the means to beat villain X or protect person Y from villain X.

Robert Jordan on the other hand is fond of huge casts of characters, multiple factions, multiple plots - large and small that meander all over the map, foreshadowing that pays off books later in the series etc.

 

Even his writing style...he just glosses over certain things, so it feels like your reading a synopsis of a story, instead of the story itself! Weird stuff.

Jordan rules though.

 

I've read quite a lot of Brooks' stuff, but it's pretty shallow. OK for some light reading, though. But I find he has a tendancy to repeat over and over again whatever internal struggle the main character is going through, without really doing anything to resolve that struggle until the very end. Gets a bit tedious after awhile.

I've never read Jordan, so I can't do a comparison.

 

Brooks have written some good stuff, like the Knight of the word books or what they were called. Otherwise I find Brooks to be a bit too simplistic and fantasy stereotypical. Jordan on the other hand was my well, I might as well admit it, god for several years. It wasnt really until I started really reading Hobb and Martin that I finally saw Jordan's three last installments for the crap they are. I still have hope that he will salvage the series but it is waning. Up until "The Lord of Chaos" though so was the Wheel of time fantastic. The decline started with "Path of daggers" which was rather bad, continued with "Winter's Heart" which ending really promised a lot but "Crossroads of twilight" was the worst WoT book by far. I had to read it twice in a row just to truly grasp how god awful it was. It isnt the writing which is bad or even the story, it is just that nothing happens. The entire book could be condensed down into one or two chapters.

 

Yes - books by Terry Brooks tend to be a bit shallow but make great reading for kids. The Landover series is mildy entertaining, but the Shannara books are too formulaic for me. On the other hand, Jordan is far too ponderous and plodding for me. I have long since given up on that never-ending Wheel of Time series.

 

Terry Brooks' best work was definitely the Knight of the Word series - I was actually quite surprised at how well it was written compared to Brooks other novels. The rest tends to be decent to mediocre quick reading material.

I think just about everyone will agree that Jordan has just plain lost it with the Wheel of Time. The first five or six books were great but he has just been spinning his wheels ever since. Jordan either (a) just wants to drag things out for as long as possible to milk every last penny possible out of his fans, (b) does not have a clue as to where to go from here/how to finish the story or (c) both of the above.

I remember that people used to fret about something happening to Jordan before he finished the Wheel of Time series - I haven't heard any discussions of that nature in years now and quite frankly I really don't think all that many people would really care anymore.

As an avid reader, and lover of fantasy, all I can say is what a shame that a series with such a good beginning has fallen into such a terrible state.

 

Bloody hell, I thought this was a poll between two British celebs!

 

Morsmordre, we all know you'd choose Kelly, so we thought we'd talk about novels instead.

Didn't Terry Brooks write a Star Wars book as well at some point?

 

Yes, he wrote the novelization of Episode 1 - it was of slightly better quality than the average movie novelization but certainly nothing for Brooks to brag about. Of course given the source material and the restrictions that Lucas placed upon him, I hardly think it is fair to blame Brooks for that one.

 

So true!

 

Yes, Jordan is better, by and large, than Brooks.

Yes, Jordan has botched the last few WoT novels.

However, The New Spring was actually a lot better than the previous few books had been, though still not up to books 1-6. Maybe, just maybe, Jordan has gotten his "groove" back.

Fingers crossed.

 

Well...Jordan's announced his 11th Novel, which will be the penultimate book in the series. I agree with the people who've said that he is writing the books with not much incident happening. That is true...but I disagree that his quality of writing has gone down.

He's just trying to flesh out the threads before wrapping them up apparently.

He's been quoted on Dragonmount.com as having said...

Which IS cool...

Meh...I admit it, I'm a huge fanboy...but still, the series looks to be wrapping up, and as someone mentioned earlier, New Spring was awesome. So its not just that his writing has degenerated, he just had to get the boring stuff out of the way before getting to the good bits.

Anyway...as far as the topic goes...its settled then. Jordan >>>> Brooks.

 

I dont think he needed to get the boring stuff out of the, if stuff is boring there is no place for it. What I think is the deal is that Jordan has a huge writers block and he dont know how to proceed and instead of not writing he writes pages and pages of nothing. For instance, in Crossroads of Twilight, the stuff that actually did happen was pretty good but that could be fitted as I have said in one or two chapters. Are you sure that the next one will be the last one? I am highly doubtful of that, if it will be the last one it needs to shoch full of everything and it will be as bad as there not being anything at all. I was once a serious Jordan fanboy but the man kept letting me down.

 

@Joacqin: Where did I say the next one is the last one?

On Dragonmount.com (excellent site BTW), he has mentioned that there are going to be 12 books in the series. For sure. And that in book 11, he is going to be wrapping up all the side stories, so that the last book is left to concentrate on Tarmon Gaidon...which is going to be sooo awesome to read.

I agree with you that he could have avoided all the fluff, and was just a cheap way to make more money. But hey...I think he's getting his act together, and I for one can't wait for the next two books.

 

Er, Brooks books are helluva lot thinner as well. Less complex charachters than Jordan's - one reason i gave up on his series - and its a tad longwinded....

 

@MithrilSilverAus: As Bon Jovi would say..."Keep the faith..."

Seriously, from the teasers Jordan's given out so far Book 11 is looking to turn out great.

BTW, exactly WHAT is wrong with having thick books, with complex characters? Isn't it more...'bang for the buck' ??

 

I love thick books and a writing style which gives time for fleshing out everything and paying attention to every detail but even so the story has to move forward. In the last three Jordan books there have really only been one major event while in the earlier books there was 2-3 major events per book. My current favourite writers Hobb, Martin and Erikson writes books which tend to be thicker than Jordan's but where things move forward.

Are there teasers? If so could you link me in some way?

 

Hobb writes thicker books than Jordan does?

Farseer trilogy was thinner, but had more stuff happen

 

Atleast the Liveship trilogy and parts of the Tawny man consisted of books who were thicker than the average Jordan book. I saw one of the Liveship books in hardcover in the library and the book was frigging huge.