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

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.

I caved in and started re-reading a few days ago. Already halfway through The Great Hunt. There's so much shit that I didn't even remember happening. It's better than TV at least.

(P.S. his Conan books suck in comparison to the Howard originals.)

does it bother anyone else when the characters speak without contractions? fuck, dude... his dialogue is v. unrealistic/wooden at times.

I NEVER GIVE UP ON BOOKS

Very true actually. I remember at the time this seemed really bold to me, (this was before I had read much at all admittedly), but it was also really emotionally affecting and vaguely tragic as well - kinda like a literal embodiment of post-colonial emphasis on lived experience, a "history" that is particular to the viewpoint of a certain group of people passed down through generations and cannot be translated. the slow abandonment of certain values being revealed in reverse was also super-effective, the dramatic irony of hearing Aiel say "we'll never give up the true way" (or whatever it was) when you've already read the scene where they give it up. The whole thing was immensely thoughtful.

There was lots of interesting alternate reality stuff like this in the earlier novels (like any time anyone stepped through a door/ring/touched a stone etc.) that is missing in the later stuff, and everything has increasingly been flattened out into an endless present tense that is almost suffocating.

I am almost done with book nine. :(

moral: never read a series that isn't finished!

oooh new book knife of dreams is out late 2005

...and I will wait quite a while it seems.

he's dead:

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/?p=90

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