# What I don't like about the Wheel of Time



## Scarecrow (Jul 30, 2006)

I started university this year, and I now have four hours of public transport time per day. That means I need something hefty to read, and the Wheel of Time series fits the bill perfectly, so I've been going through about one each month.

They're good. Not great. I'm about 200 pages into The Shadow Rising at the moment, and there are some things that irk me and I need to rant about.

1. Jordan uses certain phrases far too often. Particularly, "walking on a razor edge", "wish your mother never kissed your father", "folded her arms beneath her breasts" (uh, where else would she fold them), etc. For a man with an imagination that can create this incredibly detailed world, I can't believe he's so repetitive with his figures of speech.

2. Everyone is tall, and everyone is beautiful.

3. Every chapter written from a woman's point of view (Nynaeve's especially) can be summed up as "MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER LOL".

4. Likewise, the female characters are unbelievable. The "I just know we're all going to be wonderful friends!" talk in The Great Hunt had me cringing.

5. There are far too many characters. I don't mind that - it is, after all, an epic - but the fact that Jordan expects you to remember each and every last one of them is a bit demanding.

I'm going to keep reading the series, but I doubt I would if it wasn't for the incredible bitch of a commute I face, and my lack of iPod.


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## Talia_Brie (Jul 30, 2006)

Nynaeve isn't tall.

But, apart from that, yes, there are an enormous number of frustrating elements to these books. Your sanity may be better served by investing an in ipod, or _Gardens of the Moon_, by Steven Erikson, which is a freakin' brilliant fantasy epic.


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## Stewart (Jul 31, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> I now have four hours of public transport time per day. That means I need something hefty to read, and the Wheel of Time series fits the bill perfectly, so I've been going through about one each month.


 
I have a daily circular of four hours too. I've never found that it meant I needed something 'hefty' to read. In fact, since it's a writing forum (which implies you have an interest in writing)  then you are probably better to get out of the mindset that thick books are better time fillers. The more books you can get through by sampling more authors' styles, the better the experience.


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## Samy :] (Jul 31, 2006)

Stay away.
Stop reading right now.
I loved the books until i reached the 7th.
That was when it drove me mad.
Please, if you fear to be driven insane by Jordan's pointless sentences and
unneeded paragraphs, you should throw the book out the nearest window.
And no, I'm not exagerrating.


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## Talia_Brie (Jul 31, 2006)

7, 8 and 9 were crap, bu the last one was good. It's almnost like he's getting back on track.


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## Scarecrow (Aug 1, 2006)

Stewart said:
			
		

> I have a daily circular of four hours too. I've never found that it meant I needed something 'hefty' to read. In fact, since it's a writing forum (which implies you have an interest in writing) then you are probably better to get out of the mindset that thick books are better time fillers. The more books you can get through by sampling more authors' styles, the better the experience.


 
It's not about quality - I just find that with hefty books you get a lot of bang for your buck. 1000 pages for just twenty dollars can last quite a while.


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## Samy :] (Aug 9, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> It's not about quality - I just find that with hefty books you get a lot of bang for your buck. 1000 pages for just twenty dollars can last quite a while.


Bloody Hell. No wonder his chapters are about 200 million pages long.


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## Mishka (Aug 9, 2006)

I really liked the books to begin with, but I stopped at book 8 (or was it 9? A couple of books ago anyhow :???: ) and I'm waiting until he finishes the series before I carry on.

It just gets very frustrating to re-read the first however many books, only to realise that you're no closer to the end of the whole thing and you're going to have to re-read them all over again in 18 months!

Ahem.  Sorry.  I'll step off my soap box now  

xx


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## Scarecrow (Aug 13, 2006)

Everyone says the books get boring and tedious around 7 or 8. I really don't like that idea, because I'm up to 4 at the moment and I'm finding it tedious enough as it is.


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## Greyrost (Aug 25, 2006)

Talia_Brie said:
			
		

> Your sanity may be better served by investing an in ipod, or _Gardens of the Moon_, by Steven Erikson, which is a freakin' brilliant fantasy epic.



Well, I disagree. However, If you're into insane amounts of magic, then ok.



			
				Scarecrow said:
			
		

> Everyone says the books get boring and tedious around 7 or 8. I really don't like that idea, because I'm up to 4 at the moment and I'm finding it tedious enough as it is.



Right, they're not very good at all. I managed to read 80 pages of the 8th book, only because I was young and hadn't read much else at the time.


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## Sephiroth (Sep 15, 2006)

Book 10 may as well not have existed as absolutely nothing happened in it, until the last paragraph.

However, book 11 was a vast improvement, and I really hope that the final book will be the best book in the series


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## Augur (Sep 15, 2006)

I checked out the first Wheel of Time book at the library a few weeks ago, in my search for a good piece of fantasy. I hated it, and only finished the prologue before abandoning it. I probably should've given it more time, but when your first bite of a sandwich is a big glob of mayonnaise, it's hard to take another. 

Then again, I also checked out Mario Puzo's _The Family_ during the same trip, and the black miasma from that festering failure might have tainted my goodness receptors entirely.


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## Spherical Time (Sep 16, 2006)

They need to end soon.

Especially since he has cancer (or is it lukemia?) and if he doesn't finish it soon, he won't be around to finish it.

I'm always an Egwene fan.


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## Scarecrow (Sep 17, 2006)

Almost halfway through the Fires of Heaven. At this point I've invested so much in the series (both money and time) that I'm tempted to continue reading all the way to the last book even if it kills me.

A bad sign, though: it used to be that when I was on the bus, I was so bored I could read anything. That was how I managed to stand the books. But now I tnoice that my eyes drift, look out the window for a few minutes, and I have to remind myself to keep reading...


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## Usukae Atsuri (Sep 25, 2006)

I started with the second book in the series, it was the only one I could find, and understood everything just fine. When I got to #5, I had completly and utterly given up on ever finishing the series. The books were too long for me, not the page length, but with all the extreme details it was overwhelming. I read Stephen King and thought the 5th book was too long. :book: 
Don't get me wrong; I loved 2-4, but I couldn't bring myself to finish the 5th. If you can read more than 4 of Robert Jordan's books, I salut you!   :salut:


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## Farror (Oct 1, 2006)

Read every book out so far, all the way through. Still one of my favourite fantasy series, and I'll generally have bought the book on the day of release.


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## JLrep (Oct 11, 2006)

Scarecrow said:
			
		

> It's not about quality - I just find that with hefty books you get a lot of bang for your buck. 1000 pages for just twenty dollars can last quite a while.



Hell, go to a used bookstore and clean out their supply decent fantasy, not to mention Bradbury or Asimov or Wells or other writers by whom have been filled large collections of stories. I got to book 4 of WoT (that's about where the female characters start to get more interesting and the male characters start to get less interesting), and I know what you're talking about. I remember spending hours thinking, _For heaven's sake man, call it a glaive or call it a naginata, but don't call it 'strange spear with a long blade on the end' every time you refer to it. _(in regard to the weapon Matt has for a while)

I'm not very well-read as far as fantasy goes, which is why those names I mentioned up there are actually sci-fi. But it certainly wouldn't be hard to root around for some well-regarded names in the genre.


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