Wheel of Time series

I was looking for a epic fantasy series to start and decided to try WOT. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first book and it feels stale. I think I would like it if I haven't already read Malazan and asoiaf. It's black and white like LoTR, not as epic as Malazan, and the dialogue and characters are no where near as good as asoiaf.

I'll probably finish the first book at least and see if anything clicks. I probably would have loved it if I read it after LoTR when I was a teenager.

You'll get very mixed reviews in this community. Most people don't like it. Personally I loved the series. It is not Malazan or ASoIaF, and if you're waiting for that to happen you'll be disappointed. It's really it's own style. You get some good character developments for a lot of the characters, and some of those will regress as well. Books will start to slow down around book 8 but each one usually has a good payoff at some point. The Sanderson books flow nicer and the last book is awesome.

I personally found the first book refreshing coming from ASoIaF. I read Malazan after WoT and found it very, very difficult to read. Still a great series, though.

This series certainly has some major problems with it. It also has some of the best characters in fantasy and has some really great parts. It also has issues with lots of buildup and no payoff on a lot of things and the fact that 99 percent of the female characters are all basically the same. Also, while I am glad Sanderson finished off the series and he did a credible job of it, he butched Mat.

Julian the Apostate_sl said:

I was looking for a epic fantasy series to start and decided to try WOT. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first book and it feels stale. I think I would like it if I haven't already read Malazan and asoiaf. It's black and white like LoTR, not as epic as Malazan, and the dialogue and characters are no where near as good as asoiaf.

I'll probably finish the first book at least and see if anything clicks. I probably would have loved it if I read it after LoTR when I was a teenager.

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Overall I would have to say that WoT is a great series. The first three books just set up the series, with book 2 being the best of those three. Books 4 & 5 are pretty epic, and after that I think the story/plots become too big and spread out for most people. Sanderson does a very good job of writing the last books, so if you think you can handle reading the entire series...go for it. =)

Sanderson did a terrible job of writing Matt though.

ya his version of Matt...was not "right" did ok with it, but, just couldn't get Matt's "Style" correct

I didn't really get into the eye of the world until about a 3rd of the way through it, when they got to Shadar Logoth. After that it got pretty good.

I think he got a handle on Matt in the second two of the books he wrote, it's just so jarring because he does such a horrible job in the first (Gathering Storm?).

Chinaman889_sl said:

I agree. He seems to have been the only Forsaken close to being redeemed had he not hated the Dragon so much. I still haven't read that stand alone chapter from his POV where he finds Sarkonnen. Anyone who's read it care to comment about it?

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It's interesting - a great insight into Dem's worldview, which I would have loved more of from the Forsaken in general. I wouldn't grab the anthology just to read it, but there are copies floating around online.

Still think it would have been better if RJ had stuck to Taimandred instead of changing his mind when he realized how quickly people caught on, but that's just me.

I was looking for a epic fantasy series to start and decided to try WOT. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first book and it feels stale. I think I would like it if I haven't already read Malazan and asoiaf. It's black and white like LoTR, not as epic as Malazan, and the dialogue and characters are no where near as good as asoiaf.

I'll probably finish the first book at least and see if anything clicks. I probably would have loved it if I read it after LoTR when I was a teenager.

Click to expand...

Yeah a huge part of the draw for WOT for me is the nostalgia factor. It has a ton of faults, but it's also inextricably tied up with memories of certain parts of my life, so it's hard to judge the series objectively. I imagine if I hadn't started reading it when I was 11/12 and picked it up for the first time now, I'd probably struggle with it. But just to be safe, I'd say at least finish the first book and start the second - if you aren't liking it by the time the main plotline of the second kicks off, then it's probably not worth continuing.

Oh and to any WOT fans who haven't done so, definitely download a copy of the WOT FPS game they made around 2000ish. It's pretty dated, but they nail the atmosphere of the setting and the way they turn the magic system from the books into weapons is a load of fun.

Azrayne_sl said:

Still think it would have been better if RJ had stuck to Taimandred instead of changing his mind when he realized how quickly people caught on, but that's just me.

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Did he really change that? I always thought that was the only thing that made sense for Demandred; hell, he even made them look exactly the same.

Faltigoth_sl said:

Did he really change that? I always thought that was the only thing that made sense for Demandred; hell, he even made them look exactly the same.

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Yeah, the evidence that he originally intended Taim to be Dem is pretty conclusive - even the narrative structure of book 6 (mainly the events of the prologue and epilogue) only makes sense if Taim is Dem. But he changed his mind at some point, I guess either because he was annoyed at how quickly people picked up on it or because he thought the new idea was cooler, so he made them separate characters (I think the split is first confirmed in book 9) and had Dem off doing something else.

I got burned out on Malazon about 4 or 5 books in. Once that hard ass soldier goes back to a city all by himself and sits in a tavern a lot. It's been about 5 years, maybe it's time for a reread to push through it all.

Draegan_sl said:

I got burned out on Malazon about 4 or 5 books in. Once that hard ass soldier goes back to a city all by himself and sits in a tavern a lot. It's been about 5 years, maybe it's time for a reread to push through it all.

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It's worth it, but they're fuckingdensebooks. And he doesn't hold your hand at all trying to keep things sorted. But more than many epic fantasy series he keeps each book a pretty contained story to itself. So there's genuine payoff through the epic finish of each book. There's plenty of carryover from book to book, obviously, but in each book there's a set of characters you arereallyfollowing and they almost always get a proper ending every book. You're not left hanging until the next book trying to figure out if they're gonna make it.

I definitely found it easier to follow along when I'd read a few of the books back to back, but they can pile up on you and some folks find it better to take alighterbreak between them. I always suggest Discworld books in between for those people.

Hey nerds.
I got the EotW in hardcover, similar to this one, GoT, only in black.

Anyone know if there are more WoT hardbacks like it released?

Nope - actually I've never seen a hardcover copy of any of the WOT books, which is odd, since usually new releases by an author with this much popularity are done hardcover at first to jack up the price.

Here it is, from orbit books, 'limited edition' hardback.

Orbit releasing limited-edition copies of Eye of the World - Books and eBooks - News - Home - Dragonmount | Dragonmount | A Wheel of Time Community
I donno, was hoping to buy the series in hardback. Guess not.

I had several hardcovers when I was younger so they're definitely out there, or were.

Yeah I have hardcovers for all of them starting with book 3.