who in this bitch reads robert jordan? -- The Wheel of Time thread

One big fuckin' soap opera, though the first few books were good.

or maybe it was someone who looked like him.

1/ the whole premise of the story - the cataclysm that had happened in the very distant past, and all the repercussions at the time the story was set in was very convincing, and strange as well.

2/ the way that the way the people from the distant past lived and the nature of their society is revealed in this piecemeal manner was really very well done I thought. There was this bit where the protagonist gets a brief flash from the memories of all his ancestors, one after the other, going back to before the cataclysm. That was amazing!

3/er....other stuff as well. My memory has just stopped working properly.

However, someone I know saw what I was reading, and lent me this set of 4 books that he said was much better. er...(googles) "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. That was really outstanding, I thought. Has anyone read that one?

Like books 5 - 9, it also is frustratingly slow until about the 2/3 mark, and just when you're about to give up and say "screw it, I gotta get out!" it starts getting good, building momentum, and you read the last third in 1 or 2 nights.

I'd really like to discuss some of the things in this one, but I'm afraid of spoilin' it for y'all.

i have been reading these books since junior high and i am now 24 - that is really depressing to realize.

I'm now 30 (going on 31). Eek.

i still have faith that the ending will (almost) redeem the series.

That said, the last two books have been the best since the first three or four, for my money -- but I didn't start reading until just before Path of Daggers came out, so I don't have the years of "what the fuck, when will you END IT, CONANBOY!" that a lot of folks have, so I might cut him more slack than I would otherwise.

(Peanut Gallery chimes in with plot outline of books 4-8.)

Yeah, but how much actually happens? He kept adding more and more subplots instead of resolving -- and sometimes instead of even addressing -- old ones.

LOOK OUT, SHOES!

if there is another book in the series where the main character BARELY FIGURES AT ALL then i may give up

SO TRUE.

I loyally read this series cos I started 13 years ago, but it's beginning to try my patience.

i need to muster up the energy to order the last one actually.

The singing was a definite low point. Had we even met Thom before?? Maybe I just forgot about it?

Yup, back in the first season.

I had forgotten.

I have forgotten pretty much everything about S1

Well there's this wheel see and etc.

Nice bottle episode this time out; you could sense the rushed compression pretty easily by default to squeeze everything in, but still! Bring on the finale next week...

ned, what are your thoughts on the books?

Kinda the standard ones, I guess. Jordan got too lost in the weeds before he could wrap it up, the gender binary stuff gets even more wearying with time, etc., let's all tug our braids. And yet: I admire the ambition, figuring out a way to work with the then-expected Tolkien tropes by exploding and expanding things in all kinds of directions, a whole bunch of vivid characters, it's a crazy ride. (Also still some of the best opening two pages to a whole damn series out there -- like, you read that, you like it, you're in.) I still remember when the first book came out and looking with interest at the cover at the UCLA bookstore, since I knew his name, just, and recognized Darrell Sweet's art. Of course these days I also consider that image of Lan being twice the size of Moiraine and think "Yeahhhhh far better to have Rosamund and Daniel just be, you know, them," and for all that the show has to reduce/simplify/etc things and I get where dmac and others will rightly have issues, I'll take Judkins' aim for a queer-friendly revamp and casting for the whole thing as a core central part as good showrunner input over what those two goddamn dorks are doing over at The Rings of Power, though admittedly I'm more invested in Tolkien adaptations by default.

wonderful; thank you

I enjoyed this last episode; can't help but think the finale will feel anticlimactic, but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised.

creepy pyro kids were a highlight

on the other hand, more singing

alanna has hella hit points

That final episode packed in a hell of a lot! New spoiler-heavy Judkins interview.

RIP Moiraine's hat - or not?

Episode very much about rushing through the itinerary of required plot points...I found myself leaning heavily on book knowledge to fill in the gaps, to the point where I guess a non-book person saw a very different story. What is a Panarch's Palace other than an abandoned Indiana Jones set? There were...two clans at Alcair Dal?

Other gaps I'd need to have a lot of trust in the showrunners to sign off on...did Liandrin choke on killing Nynaeve or did she forget her instaheadshot weave? What was Moiraine doing while waiting for Lanfear to turn up - clearly not setting any useful defences...

Still fun of course! Hope we get another season.

There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But in that it takes them two years to make eight episodes everyone will long be dead before anyone gets near Shayol Ghul

lol at how sassy nynaeve is to moraine

“You’ll still need my herbs, Aes Sedai, unless you’ve suddenly gained some ability I don’t know about”.

Not sure when I’ll get around to the second book but Eye of the World is indeed a fun ride.

There are 2787 named characters in the series

Yes but how many braid tuggers?

I started re-reading the books a while back but stalled after book 5 - thanks to the Tar Valon or Bust close-reading podcast, I have been able to follow the plot through the final book and not have to read them. Good podcast.

Yeah Preeti's a good sort in general too!

Yes but how many braid tuggers?

Only the ones who aren't forehead knucklers.

series cancelled

FEH. But I wasn't getting the feeling it'd get the nod.

what? nooooooo

of course right as it's getting into a great groove and more people are picking up on it, dumb decision. but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Ridiculous!!!

sucks :(

You've axed the wrong fantasy show Amazon

moiraine + thom was absurd

the…. gleeman? wtaf

him pulling at her braid

we know RJ was into s/m

and then logain made [a red aes sedai] orgasm when he bonded her

and then the other sister logain bonded waxed poetic about how hot it was to be overpowered by him

tbf i'd (almost) take straight-up orgies over the whole thing in which aes sedai are supposed to be eternally composed and supremely unflappable yet vomit/blush/collapse in shame when faced with someone 'stern'

is absurd and just fucking endless. someone sniffed; someone's eyes were lowered; come on.

yes i'm reading it again

you cannot possibly shame me for it more than i shame myself (i was bored)

the whole thing in which aes sedai are supposed to be eternally composed and supremely unflappable yet vomit/blush/collapse in shame when faced with someone 'stern' is absurd and just fucking endless. someone sniffed; someone's eyes were lowered; come on

only started re-reading it because i was struggling with beginning other things

ffs

there are no beginnings

"The wheel turns, man."

cant spell beginnings without beg

it was *a* beginning

theres an extent to which the potential in my head of what this might have been somewhat crosses over emotionally with Tottenham in the same period and readers i just get sad and angry and beat when i think of the imagined optimism of a redcheeked 32 year old me told that special effects could make anything happen and the richest company in the world was going to adapt this in a long running season format at the same time that the great fallen general mourinho then the crazed warrior conte would lead my team in successive campaigns in a new shining structure designed to awe and dismay the world and lads the big bad world is an adventure but it also takes from us and the world of dreams isnt a mirror but it isnt a liar neither joail out

tottenham probably had better music

https://i.postimg.cc/8P19Pd0V/HAw-JTw-Va-AAQlqp-C.png

death is lighter than a feather iirc

Meantime:

https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/wheel-of-time-animated-series-movies-video-game-thomas-vu-1236693410/

mat's inbox:

https://i.postimg.cc/TPhcwDZK/rand-and-mats-mailbox.png

rand's:

https://i.postimg.cc/Kj7PVrMX/rand-and-mats-mailbox2.jpg

Hauntingly accurate.

can only imagine that perrin's would be like 15 iterations of

@neilhimself: @amandapalmer I am coming home to you.

plus other boring stuff because he sucks

It is wild how much I latched on to Perrin mostly due to his name

I don’t get why everyone else hates him he’s my avatar in book form perfectly fine