The Wheel of Time

Several years ago Locus--a semi-pro magazine that's a sort of trade organ for the fantasy/science fiction world--had a question on their annual poll:

What fantasy/science fiction book are you most looking forward to reading.

A sizable percentage of people responded, "The last volume of the Wheel of Time

If you need an Official Scorecard to keep track of the players try:

http://dmt.customer.netspace.net.au/wot/

or:

http://www.ece.umd.edu/~dilli/WOT/WOTindex/

I understand at this point that a month or so before the deadline to submit the manuscript for the next book, Tor publishers confine Robert Jordan to a hotel room with a minder and a work processer so he can work without distraction.

M0j0- It depends on how you look at it. If you think it's interesting how he introduces more characters more characters and more subplots as the story loses it's initial direction more and more then you'll love the next few books. You might be disappointed if you want the book to move anywhere though.

It is a very good series but, oh lord, when will it end?

My thoughts exactly. I'm caught up right now... but there have to be at least 2 more books...

Cycloptichorn

I loved those books when i was growing up. I went crazy over the first four books, but after that they just went down hill so much, and you feel you have to keep reading them because you are curious about the characters.

It would have been nice if the characters had grown up a little bit somewhere along the line and stopped playing those stupid games. The only reason i read past the fourth book is because i identified with Perrin to some extent ( i don't know why, I just did) . However, he became (or always was, extremely boring, Mat became mildy interesting for 20 pages before he decided to get buried under some building but I couldn't be bothered wasting my time and money skimming through the 600 boring pages of each book in order to get to the three chapters which briefly mentioned a character that i liked. And the female characters GGGGRRRRRRRRR He doesn't have a very good grasp of how women interact, does he?

Wasn't that fun, kids?

Stop torturing yourself. Give it up and read Robin Hobb's novels instead. She doesn't milk it so badly and her writing is much, much better.

Sorry about this post. I know that i don't have anything relevant to add and it rambles quite badly, but it's one in the morning and i'm locked out of my apartment (sob). Be kind

I loved those books when i was growing up. I went crazy over the first four books, but after that they just went down hill so much, and you feel you have to keep reading them because you are curious about the characters.

It would have been nice if the characters had grown up a little bit somewhere along the line and stopped playing those stupid games. The only reason i read past the fourth book is because i identified with Perrin to some extent ( i don't know why, I just did) . However, he became (or always was, extremely boring, Mat became mildy interesting for 20 pages before he decided to get buried under some building but I couldn't be bothered wasting my time and money skimming through the 600 boring pages of each book in order to get to the three chapters which briefly mentioned a character that i liked. And the female characters GGGGRRRRRRRRR He doesn't have a very good grasp of how women interact, does he?

Wasn't that fun, kids?

Stop torturing yourself. Give it up and read Robin Hobb's novels instead. She doesn't milk it so badly and her writing is much, much better.

Sorry about this post. I know that i don't have anything relevant to add and it rambles quite badly, but it's one in the morning and i'm locked out of my apartment (sob). Be kind

Might any Wheel of Time fans know the answer to this? This is for a pal, and I quote him:

"I read a scene in one of the books where Rand gallavants off to an Inn and notices that there are soon-to-be White Tower novices which he recognizes are girls from the Two Rivers. They're more or less 'You couldn't really be the Dragon!' and he's like 'Grrr, I'll eat you!'. This is, of course, paraphrased. I think the entire affair occured in Caemlyn, but am not sure. Do you know which book this scene is in and, hopefully, which chapter?"

Any help is much appreciated.

Moon and stars--

Welcome to A2K.

I remember the scene, but don't have time to track it down. This site might be helpful:


http://www.ece.umd.edu/~dilli/WOT/WOTindex/

Happy hunting.

I gave up somewhere in the middle of Lord of Chaos. The characters just got so vapid for me. Having established the personality types of each character, Jordan seemed to turn them into jukeboxes of predictable, stylized dialogue; by Lord of Chaos, the characters seemed to me to be not so much people with quirks, but quirks that happened to be manifest into people. I got especially bored with Uno's vacuous swearing and that character who finished every statement with a fortune cookie ditty (I forget her name).

I've read a few reviews of the latest books and the consensus seems to be that Jordan's tactic for maintaining the epic proportions of the series is to spend lots of time describing clothing; apparently the characters are given several paragraphs' worth of physical description before they say anything.

Still, I might give The Whole Thing another stab some day to achieve "closure," as they say.

Thanks Noddy24 - very helpful!

I have read every book published in the series so far and I love them all. The only thing I sometimes do get bored with is the clothing descriptions. Also he does keep adding characters which does make it harder for him to give the story deirection.

however,

Non of that interferes with what I love about these stories. I like the heroism the chracters display in standing up to the shadow. I like that they have distinctive personalities too.

Perrin and Matt are cool because they have been given special abilities to fight the shadow. In other words in a world were the one power is so prevalent it would be easy to make the most powerful characters only those who could channel. I like how many of the characters are basically ordinary people or have powers that are not the one power that still make them dynamic and cool.

I also like the way jordan writes people into meaningful and interesting friendships and relationships.

Also I thought I read somewhere there was only ONE book left to be published. I think it will be hard for him to wrap it all up.

xguy--

Welcome to A2K.

Robert Jordan will have considerable trouble wrapping up The Wheel of Time.

http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Features/03JordanLetter.html

Quote:
I have been diagnosed with amyloidosis. That is a rare blood disease which affects only 8 people out of a million each year, and those 8 per million are divided among 22 distinct forms of amyloidosis. They are distinct enough that while some have no treatment at all, for the others, the treatment that works on one will have no effect whatsoever on any of the rest. An amyloid is a misshapen or misfolded protein that can be produced by various parts of the body and which may deposit in other parts of the body (nerves or organs) with varying effects. (As a small oddity, amyloids are associated with a wide list of diseases ranging from carpal tunnel syndrome to Alzheimer's. There's no current evidence of cause and effect, and none of these is considered any form of amyloidosis, but the amyloids are always there. So it is entirely possible that research on amyloids may one day lead to cures for Alzheimer's and the Lord knows what else. I've offered to be a literary poster boy for the Mayo Amyloidosis Program, and the May PR Department, at least, seems very interested. Plus, I've discovered a number of fans in various positions at the clinic, so maybe they'll help out.)


Without treatment his life expectancy is a year. With treatment the "average" life expectancy is four years.

He's hopeful

I wish him well. [/QUOTE]

That's just horrible.


What a terrible disease to have.