Wheel of Time fans?
 

I usually stay on top of things like this better, but I just found out last night while poking around on Wikipedia that the new WoT book, The Gathering Storm, is out tomorrow. Apparently Brandon Sanderson (who took over the series after Robert Jordan passed two years ago) decided that Jordan's plan for one final book was going to be too much, so it's been split into 3 volumes (the others due in late 2010 and 2011). The last volume will bear Jordan's working title for the last book, A Memory of Light.
I got into this series about 10 years ago. My dad gave me most of his sci-fi/fantasy collection when he moved down to Florida, including the first few books of WoT. I usually reread the entire series when a new book comes out (to brush up on Jordan's countless subplots), so I guess I'd best get cracking. :r
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Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Yep, I pre-ordered the book and can't pick it up till Friday, yet it hits the shelves tomorrow for general consumption. :confused

:bh
:fl
:c

I am looking forward to the finish of this series. I've really enjoyed it all along, including the many, many, M A N Y subplots. :r

I hope it turns out well.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I was mostly enjoying the series but after a while I started to get really p1ssed off with it. Too many sub-plots, not enough happening to forward the main story and Jordan's writing style in the series kind of bugs me.

I think I will wait until the last of the books are out then try reading it again from the start.

Terry Goodkind's series was like that for me too. Gave up after several books and may go back to it when the series is complete.

Thanks for the update though. It's nice to know the series will be completed at some point. :tu

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Jordan had some issues, I think. Aes Sedai have to do their tests in the nude, and there seems to be an awful lot of spanking. :r
I think it's a given that Rand will defeat the Dark One, completing the cycle. The real question is, who killed Asmodean?
As for Sword of Truth, I enjoyed the first few books, but found a lot of similarities to WoT: Rand/ Richard, Aes Sedai/Sisters of the Light, Moiraine/Kahlan. I've also been watching Legend of the Seeker. Entertaining, but varies widely from Wizard's First Rule.
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Been faithfully reading this series since the very first book was written. I was living in Charleston, SC at the time, and I remember meeting RJ at a "signing." Except it wasn't much of a signing. He was pretty much sitting at a table by himself in the bookstore, waiting for people to come talk to him. :D

Fast forward through the years, and I'm glad to say that I had attended a number of signings that just seemed to grow and grow in size. I attribute a lot of his fan base to the growth of the Internet and various usergroups, forums, etc., that spawned to discuss these books.

Nothing like that first mano a mano signing, though!

I'll be getting my copy as soon as I can. Hopefuly Sanderson does it justice.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

It's really cool that you got to meet the guy before he really hit it huge. :tu And just think, you're one of the people that made it happen. :)

I too hope Sanderson does it justice. *crosses fingers*

I wonder if he can actually make Nynaeve likable... :r
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<--- sniffs and tugs braid at Kreth



:r :r :r

Keep that up and you'll earn yourself a trip to the Mistress of Novices. :r
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Yes please !!! :D :D

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Picked The Gathering Storm up tonight (40% off at Borders with a rewards card). Sweet did his usual craptacular job with the cover illustration. There's a nice forward by Sanderson. I think I might hit encyclopaedia-wot.org and read the synopses rather than wait to read through the entire series again.
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I picked mine up tonight too. Yeah, that dust jacket ain't exactly my favorite, that's for sure, but I haven't really liked any of them so far.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I swear the guy hasn't drawn Rand the same way twice. I'd almost rather have the Harlequin romance cover they did for A Crown of Swords (aka The Passion of the Dragon). :r
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I thought Jordan's wife was going to be the one finishing the series from his notes?

Anyway, I'll have to go out and pick this up, if only to see how it compares to the sprawling monstrosity that is the Wheel of Time so far... :tf

I know she was involved (along with the publisher) in selecting Sanderson to finish the series. I kinda feel bad for him. He's been a fan of the series since his teens, and now he has to finish it. Talk about a spoiler! :r
Hardcover weighs in at 783 pages, actually a little light compared to some recent books in the series.
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Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Hey, I would feel honored if I were him. Probably be very good for the sales of his other books as well, since I would guess a lot of the WoT fans will give him a real try if they like what he does with them. I would guess he is also splitting royalties at the very least on the WoT books.

A bit longer than the last few. Knife of Dreams was 761, Crossroads of Twilight - 680, and Winter's Heart - 656. Not sure how page counts change between hard and soft cover, but those are the only three I have in hard. Honestly, I was little afraid when I heard that Jordan decided to do everything else in one massive book. I pictured this absurd 2500 page volume, and me trying to carry it on the train...

I'm sure it will help his career. As a fan, it's got to be a bit of a downer. "Here's how it ends, now go write it."
Fires of Heaven and Path of Daggers were the two I was thinking of. I have both in paperback. FoH is just under 1k, PoD is just over.
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I pre-ordered mine. Still waiting for it to show up. There are two more after this one, right?

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Just for comparison purposes, I have Shogun in both paperback and hardcover. The hardcover is 801, the paperback is 1152. Never actually read the hardcover...

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

That's what I've heard - final "book" to be split into 3 parts. I just got mine last night and haven't had much chance to read it. Tonight though I'll sit down with a pipe and dive in.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

So, I skimmed through the synopsis for Knife of Dreams at encylopaedia-wot.org, and it's not squaring with my memory. I guess I'll need to read them all pretty thoroughly. Rand is the short guy with the ring, right? :r
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Yep, he wears a giant black helmet, plays with dolls and uses "The Schwartz". ;)

:r :r

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I've got myself caught up, so I'll probably crack open TGS tonight. WoT is always compared to LoTR. I'll probably get crucified for saying this, but I think Jordan has surpassed Tolkien in terms of depth of the worlds they created.
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Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Nope.:td

:D

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

There's no comparison. Tolkien made us live in his world. Jordan told us, in intricate detail, about his. The difference is, IMO, fundamental. Jordan told an ok story, when he actually got down to it. Tolkien was a master.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I have the first book in the series and maybe read 100 pages of it before giving up.
The SOT series is finished. GO OUT AND READ THEM!! LOL.

I wasn't talking about storytelling, although Tolkien wasn't exactly terse. I just feel like I know Jordan's world and characters better. In LoTR, there's virtually no backstory on Frodo, and he's the main protagonist.
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Agree with you there. But honestly, I don't think we need much more backstory on Frodo. The book was about the ring, and we have massive amounts of backstory on that. From the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and the whole LotR trilogy itself.

In any case, I will agree with you on that - Jordan was character focused, Tolkien was story focused. In both cases, there are flaws.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

hmmmm.... In that case, I'll have to figure what books I need to finish off the series. Thanks for the update.:tu

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Just had time to read the prologue last night. Without giving away any spoilers, I like Faile. :tu
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I said that same thing to my buddy yesterday when he asked me how I liked the book so far. :)

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I always thought Faile was a cool character--I won't get my copy of the book for a little while, but I'm definitely looking forward to it now! Maybe I'll d/l the prologue

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I was a huge fan of this series in the beginning. I started reading around the release of the fourth book and I blew through them so quickly that I got frustrated waiting on #5. Then the waits got longer and longer, the stories got longer and longer, and I began getting frustrated. By book 35...ok, I exagerate...book 10, I was a little put off. Does anyone else not get annoyed with the realization that this was supposed to be a trilogy??? I still dig the story, but I recall one of the books which was likely at least 900 pgs covering events of roughly two days worth of time. Two days!! Jordan covered roughly two years worth of time in the first book. He just got too long winded for my tastes. I think he became impressed with his own success. I'll definitely get this book, cause I need to know how it ends.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

My buddy feels pretty much the same way about the series that you do, though he would have preferred a double-trilogy (book 6 be the end book). Since I like Jordan's style of writing and, for the most part, like the characters and I truly enjoy the depth and the many, many sub-plots he could have doubled the length of the series and I would have enjoyed it.

My only real gripe was the L O O O O N N N N N G G G G G wait between books!

The prologue and the first chapter are both on the Tor website.
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Just under 300 pages in, and a couple of thoughts:
-Nynaeve seems much more likeable in this book. Dunno if it's Sanderson's writing style, or something Jordan had planned for the character...
-I believe this is the first time that we've seen a Cadsuane POV. IIRC, up until now we've only seen her through other POVs. It makes an interesting parallel to her theory on how to deal with Semirhage.
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Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Book is sitting on my shelf right now. Waiting to finish my current book - re-reading Shogun, one of my all-time favorites. That will be done on my train ride home today. Then I have to at least work through Knife of Dreams, since I've not looked at any of them in the four years since it's publication.

Check out the synopses at encyclopaedia-wot.org, Pete. They cover the key plot points, and character/place/object names are all hotlinked, in case you've forgotten who the hell those 101 people are following Rand around. :r
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I might have to do that. The prologue of Knife of Dreams is reminding me somewhat, but there are so many story lines, I can't keep them all straight, especially after more than 4 years.

Same here. There are so many minor characters to keep track of, and you never know when one of them might feature prominently in the story. The FAQ there is only current up through Crossroads of Twilight. Dragonmount.com was supposed to update it in time for the release of TGS, but that didn't happen. Still, the entries at encyclopaedia-wot are very handy, as they give a brief description of the character, place, or object; as well as listing a brief summary of each time they've been mentioned in the books.
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Wow that is a lot of reading to do if you are going to read all 30k pages or whatever. At this point I just read one of the online summaries before each new book because I just don't have the time to re-read the whole series again.

I got the first book of the WoT in 1993. I traded Jurassic Park for it on the ferry from Patras to Brindisi while traveling in Europe.

I'm not sure I can be considered a fan any more. Overall I like the series and the world in general but it just got out of control length and complexity wise with way to many random diversion and pointless plot lines. Several books felt like they had no overall plot to them and were just updates of where the characters are now. INMHO a couple of books can have been completely eliminated with a couple of key plot points rolled into other books.

I will finish the series considering how much time I have invested but I have been waiting for the series to end for like eight years. Hearing the news that the final book will be three books over another couple of years just makes me groan. I understand it though there are so many characters and plots to bring together I can't imagine how you could bring it together in one book.

Sorry about the rant. Thanks for posting because I am glad that the next one is coming out and I will pick it up in a few weeks when I have finished what I am currently reading.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I've enjoyed all the books and wasn't frustrated by the length, level of detail, or the breadth of the story.

I'm almost through the new installment. It's a great read and Sanderson did a great job. I wish that Jordan had been able to finish the story himself. He's one of my all-time favorite writers.

Good thing he left the notes necessary to complete the tale.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I'd skip Pillars of Creation and head right into Naked Empire.

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Working my way through Knife of Dreams, and it's really been a long time since I read this book. I remember some of the bits, but certainly not all of them. Major characters are starting to come back a bit.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Yeah, I re-read the series early this year. I should have timed it better, finished the last book just before the new book came out. Oh well, I'm just happy to be actually enjoying the new book. I felt a little trepidation while waiting on it and I'm glad he didn't bugger it up! :tu

I'm enjoying the story. You can certainly tell a difference between Jordan's style and Sanderson's style but it's not a bad thing in my opinion. Just a slightly different angle looking out the same window.

Although I must say, Mat is much better at cursing than Sanderson allows. :td However, if that's my only real complaint about the book so far then I don't have much to worry about. :D

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Overall, I like Sanderson's writing style. I do think his version of Mat reverted a bit to the old joker. Mat had matured quite a bit over the last few books.
Now, whether it's Sanderson's style, or a planned character arc by RJ, I no longer groan when I turn to a new chapter and see Nynaeve's name. She was easily my least favorite character in the last few books.
I've got about 100 pages to go, and one other minor quibble: couldn't we have seen what's going on with Lan? He's the only major character (well, aside from Moiraine, but that's a special case) we didn't see.
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Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

^^^ I'm at pretty much the same point in the book. :)

I think Sanderson did a good job. Didn't get the cursing right (from my POV) but I'm pretty happy with his work. His work doesn't sound the same or "feel" the same as RJ's but it's certainly not about style in this case, it's about the story and the characters. He's done well. It's like he and RJ were looking out the same window at the same scenery and just describing things from their own POV. Nice.

I was worried before; I'm happy now. :tu

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

I just picked up the 1st book and a little over 1/2 way though it. Hopefully, the last book will be written when I am done with the rest.

i much prefer George R. R. Martin (when is his next book coming out?), but am enjoying this read. I enjoyed the Sword of Truth series as well, but the books all seemed to follow the same pattern.

Re: Wheel of Time fans?
 

Keep going with the WOT series. :tu Books 3, 4 and 5 are the favorites of many people - they're certainly my favorites, not that I think the rest are bad.

First book written (Eye of the World) or first book chronologically (New Spring). I just started a friend off on WoT a few months ago, and I had him start with New Spring. I like the way it fills in some backstory before you jump into the "current" books.
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