Wheel of Time - is it finished or is it finished?

[Grey_Wolf]

Since I've recently bought the tenth book an answer to the above question would be appreciated.

[Comic Book Guy]

I'm on the fifth book, awesome series. Some long passing chapters and characters ( all the women) are boring though.

[Daisy Baggins]

I'm also on the fifth book. I've read that there will be several more books. I can't remember exactly how many, but I think that it will be 13 in all. I've also read that he will be writing prequels which take place before book one.

[brownjenkins]

i'll try to avoid spoilers, but overall...

i was very dissapointed by the latest installment... the first seven were great, but the last three have started to feel like a long-running soap opera (lots of character, little plot)... in the latest many new characters are introduced... very little of any of the ongoing loose-ends are even touched upon, and frankly, the story goes practically nowhere... there are some interesting scenes for true fans and i still find Jordan enjoyable to read... but go into it with low expectations if you don't want to be disappointed

i've made a promise to myself that i won't buy another of his books till it's done (which is currently known to be at least two more)... though i probably won't live up to it ;)

[Lief Erikson]

You know, fans tend to disagree a lot upon where "The Wheel of Time" lost its flare, or even if it has. I guess it depends a lot on taste.

I'm just really looking forward to the major climaxes. They'll be coming somewhere in the future, and they will be awesome when they do. Robert Jordan always was a great writer of action scenes. There is a huge amount of potential.

If there are only two or three books left to the series, then I'm really looking forward to the future ones. They should contain quite a lot.

[brownjenkins]

i have to agree that i am still looking forward to the future of the series... it still ranks close to the top on my list of favorites

i just feel that in the last 3-4 books jordan could have shaved about 500 or so pages and not really effected the story or atmosphere much at all (eventhough there are also many excellent parts to the more recent books)... i don't feel the same about the first seven

i also loved the sense of mystery and intertwined possibilities earlier in the series... there seems to be less of that lately, and many longstanding enigmas have not even been touched upon in quite a long time... i have a fear that they either will never be really be answered, or they'll be quickly wrapped-up in some left-field sort of way (i.e. it was character X who you never met before that was behind it all)

hope i'm wrong :)

[Comic Book Guy]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
Robert Jordan always was a great writer of action scenes.

You really think so? From what I've read so far I've found myself rather irritated at his fighting scenes and battles. Rand's various sword fights are terrible, I appreciate that Jordan like anybody else may not have much knowledge on swordfighting and such, but creating lists of metaphors to which the reader has no idea of the meaning behind them is plain stupid.

[brownjenkins]

he's mixed on the fight scene thing too... don't know where you are so i won't give too much detail, but there is a series of chapters dealing with Perrin's defense of a town that i think is some of the best stuff he's written

on the other hand... there are times when he falls into the "okay let's talk about everthing that leads up to a battle, and then jump to the character reflecting on things after it's over" which has always bugged me... i've always been a fan of experiencing to whole thing as it unfolds

[Lief Erikson]

Originally posted by Comic Book Guy
You really think so? From what I've read so far I've found myself rather irritated at his fighting scenes and battles. Rand's various sword fights are terrible, I appreciate that Jordan like anybody else may not have much knowledge on swordfighting and such,
:D Very amusing it is, actually, that you should say that to me. I know how to swordfight :D.
Originally posted by Comic Book Guy
but creating lists of metaphors to which the reader has no idea of the meaning behind them is plain stupid.
(Shrugs) Well. I didn't mind the lists of metaphors at all. Robert Jordan does more than one kind of battle. There's One Power battles, sword to sword duels, among many types. I personally feel they've all been well written, so far.

Other aspects of Robert Jordan's writing I do have trouble with. The women for example, and even the men, to some extent.

Originally posted by brownjenkins
i just feel that in the last 3-4 books jordan could have shaved about 500 or so pages and not really effected the story or atmosphere much at all (eventhough there are also many excellent parts to the more recent books)... i don't feel the same about the first seven
(Sighs) You know what, I think I probably agree with you. Shaving off 500 pages wouldn't hurt at all. :(
Originally posted by brownjenkins
i also loved the sense of mystery and intertwined possibilities earlier in the series... there seems to be less of that lately, and many longstanding enigmas have not even been touched upon in quite a long time... i have a fear that they either will never be really be answered, or they'll be quickly wrapped-up in some left-field sort of way (i.e. it was character X who you never met before that was behind it all)
I doubt that it'll be character X that was behind it all. Quite a few of the Forsaken have been sort of in the background for quite a long time, now. I think we should learn a lot more new things about all of them, very soon. Otherwise they'll just stay as backdrop. For quite a while now, Forsaken have been being bumped off one after another at the ends of the books. We haven't seen much of quite a few of them, though.

I kind of hope they won't be wrapped up in a left-field way. There are some enemies that I'm not so worried that'll happen with. I'm quite sure we'll see a cool show down with the gholam, and with that other jerk that looks like Lan and was wandering around the Dream World.

But Robert Jordan has created quite a lot of enemies, most of whom haven't been dealt with. I really, really hope there are just three more books. Two seems like it would be too short to wrap up everything that quickly. Three books might work. So I'm really hoping he makes it three books, and cramps them with fascinating events. It's the events that I really care about, in terms of enjoying reading the books.

There are a lot of great things Robert Jordan has done, in his books. He's got a very good overall plot, a very imaginative world, incredible description and skill at developing different kinds of cultures. He has wonderful action scenes and very deep history for his world. The writing style is compelling.

The problems I have with the book are really all involving the characters.

The romances aren't romances at all. They're only lust and sex, no real love. The only thing possibly comparable to love that I've seen is between Faile and Perrin, but I think they'll both end up committing adultery, so they won't be showing true loyalty either.

The character development is definitely not nearly sufficient. Rand is the only character that really has held me throughout everything. He grabs my interest completely every time he's in the scene. Most of the others . . . well, suffice it to say that if half of them were killed off in the next book, I would not grieve at all. I would be very startled, but not sad about it having happened.

The plot threads right now have bogged down, but that's only a smaller thing to me. The main problems involve the characters.


However, despite the character problems, I really enjoy the book series :D. Again, I'm just really looking forward to the glorious conclusion! :)

[Katie of the Golden Wood]

Jordan said there were two more to go....but he also said, a long time ago, Wheel of Time would be a trilogy. :)

I think the best thing he could do would be to stick to that. If there are only two left, they'll have to be action packed, and maybe then will return to the original quality.

Katie

[Lief Erikson]

Originally posted by Katie of the Golden Wood
Jordan said there were two more to go....but he also said, a long time ago, Wheel of Time would be a trilogy. :)

I think the best thing he could do would be to stick to that. If there are only two left, they'll have to be action packed, and maybe then will return to the original quality.

Katie
:-/

I don't quite get how he made that mistake, if he had already finished Book 1. His having thought that at an earlier point seems quite conceivable to me, though. The book that I'm writing was just intended to be the prequel to a couple books I'd already written. I decided to skip out those two books later on because they didn't measure up to the prequel, and the prequel is approaching a thousand pages now.

[Raistlin]

that is cool could you send out a couple of books when/if you get published to vegas markets

[elendili]

New Spring comes out next year and is prequel to the series and take places around the time of the Dragon.

His last few books have contained lots of waffling but i have enjoyed the scenes with Matt and Tuon.

I'm wondering how on earth he's going to wrap up the series in 2 more books i think that's why he's jumped to the prequels.

I am wondering who the Forsaken are now as some have died and come back like Lanfear and some you don't know for sure which were killed in Crossroads of Twilight

Overall i think he's a very good writer and he's one of my fav authors at the moment

[Thorin II]

I enjoy the series, but RJ has definitely milked it for every penny. I wonder if he's afraid to end the series because he'll need to start over and create something new; WOT is a guaranteed paycheck every two years (plus supplemental income).

In general, it's tough to judge the series until it's done. RJ sure goes in a bunch of directions; it's hard to imagine how he'll be able to tie everything together. My hunch is that he won't. I hope I'm wrong, though. In any case, I'm hooked (in part because of a lack of good fantasy writing in the world), so he's got me on board for the rest of the ride.

[Forkbeard]

Wow, I'm impressed. I starting losing interest in the fourth book, made it through the fifth, but just couldn't continue. I'm impressed that some of you are up on the current (10th! YIKES!) installment!

Forkbeard

[IronParrot]

Has Jordan finished writing it? Nope.

Is the series finished anyway? Yep.

You know there's a serious problem when even the hardcore WoT fans lose faith in him and drop Crossroads of Twilight (Book 10) to one-and-a-half stars on Amazon.com. I dropped the series after A Crown of Swords (despite having bought both Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart) and have seen no reason to go back since. Time better spent reading real literature.

I did enjoy some things about it at the outset, but the series has become increasingly ridiculous. Mind you, I got far enough in it that I have every right to make fun of it as much as I want. :p

Robert Jordan is a good plot designer - I especially like how he weaves political intrigue - but he doesn't write, he rambles.

[ArwenEvenstar]

He does ramble quite a bit. Something that really annoyed me was when i got to the last 100 or so pages of book 5, I decided that it was getting annoying so i returned it to the library. Several months later I decided that I would read book 6, I got to page 95 and I had no clue at all what was happening, so today I paid a trip to the library:)

[Grey_Wolf]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by IronParrot
Has Jordan finished writing it? Nope.

Is the series finished anyway? Yep.

So one doesn't have to worry about there being any books 11,12 and so on then.

[IronParrot]

So one doesn't have to worry about there being any books 11,12 and so on then.
Oh, there will be, but the readership is definitely beginning to drop off piece by piece. I meant that the series is "finished" in terms of any sense of momentum.

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally posted by IronParrot
Oh, there will be, but the readership is definitely beginning to drop off piece by piece. I meant that the series is "finished" in terms of any sense of momentum.

Well, I am saving the series for a really long read later on. So if there's only two more books to go, I could begin soon.

[brownjenkins]

i'll read them all but may wait for the rest of the installments first (which is about one every two years)

[Anglorfin]

THere were obviously some down points in the boooks. Personally I still have faith in him largely because of book 9, Winter's Heart. I thought that book captured a lot of the energy and intrigue that the earlier ones in the series had. But it is still a longshot to assume that all the other books to be scheduled (and those that haven't been yet) will measure up to the beginning of the series.

Personally, I'd put 4 and 5 at the top of my favorite books in the series. It was when the whole world really started to change and come to life as a result of many historic discoveries and 'character revelations'.

But yeah, I am not going to read now until I know the series is 100% finished. The anticipation isn't worth it anymore because I fly through the books so I'm putting it on the back burner for a while.

[Mark of Cenla]

I am relieved to see that others agree with me about how the plot has bogged down in details that really do not advance the story. I thought it was just me. I became hooked on the story, and I want to see how it turns out. I am reading the 10th book now, and I am really not enjoying it much. I suppose I will buy the new ones when they come back, read the whole thing from start to finish, and be done with it. Peace.

[Eoca]

That's too bad about you not enjoying Crossraods of Twilight!! I've been delaying starting since I got the paperback at Christmas (there were more 'gaurenteed' reads), but I was really hoping that it would bring plotlines back together. How did it turn out?

I was really surprized with book nine's lack of intricacy, although I probably shouldn't have been! I really enjoyed it (I think, it's been a while...), but even though amazing monumental things hapened, they happened really really slowly, with lots of empty stuff between them.

I don't really have a problem with the women characters as a group, but reading about your less favourite characters can be a pain. Like chapters narrated by somone who you aren't that keen on when all you want is to hear from Mat to come back, light blast him!

In terms of the series being 'done', I hope not, since I enjoyed the first bunch of books so much. But people are dishartened. (For instance, my Grandma has stoped hoping he 'hurries himeslf up, some of us won't be around forever you know' since she doen't care much about the characters anymore, the way the books have been recently!)

[brownjenkins]

i actually put down crossroads of twilight about one third of the way in the first time because i was so sick of it... then returned to it a few months later... as i said earlier, there are good parts... just a bit too few and far between for my tastes

[Dwarven Sen]

I've read all but the new prequel that's out, because i borrowed the others off my friend, who's in a different country from me. and if i buy the prequel to read, i'll have to buy all the others. I've even read one of the short stories about Lan.

i love Shienar, that's my place.

[Katie of the Golden Wood]

This is going to sound horrible and sexist, but for the record, I'm female.

There isn't one female character in Wheel of Time I like, and I think thats where its gone wrong recently. I loved sections on Mat, Perrin, and Rand...they all hae depth and personality. The snotty women walk around and bog the men down. Crossroads of Twilight concentrated on the women, and those were the chapters I would up skimming. I wish some of the characters act like real women do. Personally, not many of my friends walk around with their noses in the air sniffing at men. If Jordan brings the series back the the three ta'veren, where it should be, the last two books should be great.

Katie

[brownjenkins]

i agree with you on that katie... it's one thing to have some of the women act that way... quite another to have them all that way... there was a bit more variety in the beginning, but even characters like min are slowly moving towards the female stereotype he likes to portray

[Forkbeard]

Originally posted by brownjenkins
i agree with you on that katie... it's one thing to have some of the women act that way... quite another to have them all that way... there was a bit more variety in the beginning, but even characters like min are slowly moving towards the female stereotype he likes to portray

Has anyone noticed that the women are always crossing their arms under their breasts and are consistently upset at the men?

And the "men" don't talk to each other? How much shorter would these books have been if the men said: Hey, I had this weird dream last night.....You too!!??!! Wow, you think that...." or if the women would talk to the men instead of crossing their arms under their breasts. Most of the problems in the books would be resolved and we'd have a trilogy instead of 12 books.

[Katie of the Golden Wood]

It has been horribly drawn out. Earlier in the series, I could have defended it, saying it was hard for them to communicate because of distance, but Traveling solved all that! Rand can pop open a gateway and check up on Mat and Perrin every once and a while, and then maybe he's realize he's got a solution to the Seanchan problem with Tuon right there

Oh well. And the women just need someone to slap them. The only good one left is Birgette.

Katie

[Mrs Maggot]

I've only just finished reading the very 1st book as I had it recommended to me, and I have to say that while I thought it was interesting and had a lot of potential, i also found it way too long. Usually I like really long books, but in this case i thought that Jordan could have cut out so much waffle and I found a lot of the characters were pointless or the scenes were repetitive. Can someone tell me if it gets any better?

[brownjenkins]

sorry... it gets worse... the first four or five books are around 80% great / 20% waffle... after that it gets closer to 50/50... the last one about 20/80 :(

[elendili]

I agree with the general feeling that the sparks gone out of the series and that the female characters are quite weak.

There are some good points like MAt and Tuon and i like Min and Cadsuane she's my fav character at the moment esp when shes tellinh rand off

I think the series will get better when Moiraine is freed from the Aefflin she could hold her own quite well

Hopefully the prequel will inject some interest back into the series esp. if its the time of the dragon so you can see mierin aka lanfear and the other forsaken before they turned to the dark side so to speak

[brownjenkins]

i hope it improves when that happens too... the current prequel is a reworking of a shorter story published in a collection of short stories... it covers morraine and lan's adventures before finding rand... i have not read it, but i believe cadsuane plays a somewhat major role in it too

[Falagar]

I've currently just started book 7, and I agree with most about the women. Except from Min and, for some reason, Berelain.

[Grey_Wolf]

It ain't finished.

NEXT BOOK: Book 11.

KNIFE OF DREAMS

Reported to be coming in 2005.

[old scholar]

there are rumours that say that there are only two remainig books in th series and that the author has promised to finish the series before finishing the prequels

[Daisy Baggins]

I've read on a Wheel of Time message board that he started out planning something like a 3-5 books. As he wrote, 3-5 became more and more. I've heard that he's supposed to finish by book thirteen, but he has so many characters and loose ends that I doubt that he can wrap it up so quickly.

I'm on book nine. I have to agree that Jordan puts in all sorts of details that bog the story down. I'll read and read and wonder when something is going to happen. I know I can't skip over parts because out of nowhere he'll put in something that's really important or interesting. He seems to just like to natter on about inconsequential things like how everyone is dressed or mention twenty characters that have no point in the story. And I don't think that he'll change. At times, I get frustrated and think that I won't finish the books, but I eventually go back to them.

[Beren3000]

I've recently watched an interview with Robert Jordan where he talked about the prequels and the rest of the series.

Of course the first prequel is about Lan and Moiraine.
He said the second prequel is about:
How Tam joined the Illianer army and earned his heron-marked sword and eventually found Rand and adopted him
And the third would be about:
How Lan and Moiraine came to the Two Rivers just in time before the Trolloc attack on Winternight
He also said, IIRC, that he wants to finish the prequels before the main sequence books (he's actually working on both the prequels and the books but he says he'd like everyone to have read the prequels before finishing the books). As to how many books they're gonna be, he said he wanted them to be 12 but finds it difficult so most probably it'll be 13 books.

For the full interview, click here (http://www.tor.com/jordan/newspring.html)