"Wheel of Time" series... any good?

Remove all ads!

Just wondering.

TIA

 

I read the first book and then gave up, for two reasons:
1) the first book was not very interesting - innocent little village boy discovers hidden powers and has to stop a dark lord from covering the world with a never ending darkness - yawn.
2) the series threatened to be a neverending moneyspinner that I didn't want to get sucked into.

 

I don't agree about the first book, and the second book is pretty good as well. After that it goes downhill...

 

I agree with Chandos, the problem with it is that you start out and have some interesting characters but you just get fed up of them. The women complain about the men and try to order them around, the men complain about the women and ignore them. Not once do they actually communicate with one another which makes you wonder how they survived as long as they supposedly have.

 

Not to mention that he keeps adding more and more characters per book. I still have to get Knife of Dreams, but I've lost track of who's who already.

 

And the fact that books 04-11 could have been written in 3 volumes, instead of 8. Gah, the number of pointless side-plots he keeps developing is really annoying.

Especially when the main characters (Rand, Perrin & Mat) have to take a backseat to what should essentially be a small blurb. If anyone is interested, I'm referring to the Siege of Caemlyn and Elayne Trakand. This thing goes on for like 4 books!!! BAH!

 

The series is great if you read the whole thing front to back without any time between(no side books) If you can block out about 1/2 of what Nynaeve says then its tolerable. The first 5 books are good the rest of them are kinda of drawn out and cryptic but still good if your reading one book after the next.

 

Personally I would say that the first book is good but not great. Books two to five are getting into the great category but after that the series really falls into a downward spiral with each subsequent book being much worse than the one before it.

My bookmark is sitting halfway through Heart of Winter. Wow, now that I think about it I got, and started reading, that book for Christmas when it was originally released which means that it has been sitting there unfinished since January 2001. Yikes!

 

I agree with those above that the first several were pretty good, but the series does begin to decline after that. Too many unimportant sub-plots, too many cloned nagging women and too many descriptions of the Power sounding like they were copied and pasted from the previous books. Towards the late-middle there was a book or two which, when I finished, I simply thought 'Did anything actually happen in that?'

I've read all the released ones so far- partly because I've invested so many hours into the tale I want to finally see the conclusion. As LoS_DrIzZt4 said, it would be best if you can read all of them in one long read- leave too long a gap and you forget half of what is going on in between books.

 

Bah. Gave up in disgust around book eight-nine. Might pick it back up when it gets to a conclusion - in a generation or so.

 

Actually, I often get you two mixed up. I can never remember which one is the auditor and which one is reading Steven Erikson at the moment. You also have the same attitude to many issues (the one above being a classic example). Maybe you are the same person and I was right all along!

 

I used to be a serious WoT addict back in the day and I still think th series is among the better fantasy series out there. The best books in the series is imo the middle ones 3-6 or something then there are a few really bad ones but the most recent one took quite a turn for the better. Even if there is a lot of ntohing in WoT Jordan's nothing is better than most fantasy writers "something" in my opinion. The main problem is that Jordan is dying and I doubt he will finish the series.

 

Books 2 to 5 are quite good. 1 and 6 are decent. The rest... you can find a better use of your time. Even so, I think it worth reading the first 6 books. Maybe at some point the author (or somebody else) would take pity and release a condended version of books 7 to 10, to spare the fans the terrible boredom of having to slog through these in order to get to the end.

 

I enjoyed the beggining of the series (first 6 books) but things do get convoluted and I just couldn't keep reading it. Read 7 and 8 but they were slow going. So slow at times it was painful.

 

I am currently reading book 4, and so far I really like them. Yeah, it is pretty elaborate sometimes and a lot of text without much action in some passages, and A LOT of sideplots, but I agree with joacqin; Jordan's nothing is better than a lot of writers' something.

It would be very appreciated if you wouldn't post any spoilers without warning...

 

@Old Raven: Mate, its not a spoiler or anything...but you don't think they suck because you haven't gotten to the sucky bits yet!

If after reading all 11 ( ) books you still feel the same way..well, hats off!

 

@ Faraaz: I haven't read anything about a "Siege of Caemlyn" yet... Well, no harm done I guess.

So far, book 4 is my favourite (I am about halfway through), but I liked the other ones as well... I REALLY cross my fingers in hope of the series not getting sucky later on. And I was actually really glad when I found out the number of books in WoT, because... well, I like to read, and I hate when a book/series I like ends. I have set a read limit for myself, so this one won't end so quickly (!!), because if is was up to me, I would read 24 hours a day when I find a book I enjoy.

 

@Old Raven: I guess...but you know, its only good when all those books actually have something HAPPEN in them, instead of pointless posturing by all the characters with no plot advancement whatsoever.

Don't mind me though... I'm just annoyed because I've been reading this series since Lord of Chaos first came out and ever since then I've always been hoping the series gets better and better...only to be disappointed every time!! Except Book 11 though...that one was finally awesome. So I'd say you have a long dry spell between books 6 and 11...

Um...is that a spoiler? I'm not sure...

 

Given a choice I think I would now have been a happier, more well adjusted lad had I NOT read any of these.

I gave up after Path of Daggers and swore not to touch it again unless it was complete. If Joacqin is right about it never being finished I guess it means I will never touch them again.

The writing has gone from decent to bearable to sucky. I never did see the point of drawing this out so much other than money. That is NOT the way to write great books.

Rant mode -> Off.

The first few were good and I did enjoy them. Past 5 or 6 it just became painful. I was strong and walked away when I truly stopped caring if Rand ever made it through to the end.