Problem with The Wheel of Time

[Mark of Cenla]

The other Wheel of Time thread is very long, so I decided to put this issue in a new one.

I have been an avid reader for over thirty years. I have read all the Lord of the Rings many times, all the Shannara books, all the Eddings books (some of them twice), and the first three Thomas Covenant books. So I began reading the Wheel of Time series. I am now reading The Lord of Chaos (book six).


THERE ARE TOO MANY FRIGGIN CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!

I found a site that has all the characters listed with short bios up through book four. The are 484 of them!


I am a pretty smart guy, but I simply cannot remember who all of these characters are. The indexes in the books themselves are a joke. So sometimes I just keep reading, having no idea what is going on.

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

The site with the character lists is http://www.themenagerie.net

[Mark of Cenla]

I have a very hard time believing that I am the only one with an opinion with this issue.

Agree or disagree?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

More characters is more realistic. :p

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Seriously, as I don't read those books, I don't really have much of an opinion.

[IronParrot]

I made it all the way to the end of The Crown of Swords about a year ago, before I decided to quit - or rather, postpone reading the series.

The deal with loads and loads of characters wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for a few simple problems:

- The less important characters - "named extras", I'll call them - have so little personality that they are difficult to distinguish.

- Jordan's naming system is not particularly systematic, and names tend to be similar here and there, and difficult to remember due to the fact that they are neither Anglicized or placed into some sort of consistent model.

This is why authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and William Horwood succeeded in weaving stories with ridiculously large casts, while Jordan seems to overstep the limits of the reader's tolerance.

Mind you, I admire Jordan's handling of all the different political relations between all the territories and such, and weaving a really grand story overall - but I have less praise for his actual mastery of English prose.

[Mark of Cenla]

Thanks for the reponses; keep 'em coming!