Trying to get into Wheel of Time

[beagel]

Im trying my best to get into the book everyone seems to like to no avail.The first book struck me as being so mediocre and derivative that I quit after a few chapters.I picked up the comic series and read it all and Im scratching my head on whats great about it.Not only is it freaking slow,its derivative farmboy turned hero-I mean Really.

Please tell me what book those this series get better,so I can skip to it instead.

That's what i think about LOTR...

[navybrandt]

Sometimes there's just a series that you can't get in to.  I love Sci-fi and fantasy books but for me, I just could never get into The Lord of the Rings.  It was just so boring.  I know they are great books and the #1 best sellers of all time and all that, but I just couldn't get into them.  I've seen the movies and even they didn't really peak my interest.  If you've read a couple hundred pages of Wheel of Time (Book 1, you can't skip around) and you're still bored with it, move on to another series.  Any of Brandon Sanderson's works are great, and if you don't like those either, maybe it's time to pick up another genre.

[Anarkitty]

Sometimes there's just a series that you can't get in to.  I love Sci-fi and fantasy books but for me, I just could never get into The Lord of the Rings.  It was just so boring. 

 

Same here.  I actually love the story itself, but I can't get past the historian writing style.

 

I love The Eye of the World, though. It may very well still be my favorite book in the series. Derivative? I can't say I really care. Shakespeare is derivative; I still read him, too. I care more about how well told the story is, and RJ was a master. I care about a few surprises along the way, which he always provided. The series is not without its issues, but I'll still use the word "brilliant" to describe it. 

 

I'm also not a fan of the more gritty, "realistic" books where everybody dies, usually in horrible, nightmare inducing ways. If I want to be depressed, I'll read a newspaper.

[mail-mi]

 I love Sci-fi and fantasy books but for me, I just could never get into The Lord of the Rings.  It was just so boring.  I know they are great books and the #1 best sellers of all time and all that, but I just couldn't get into them.  

So much yes. Why does everyone love this series so much???

[king of nowhere]

So much yes. Why does everyone love this series so much???

well, the  lord of the rings is basically what invented the genre. now we see it as clichè, but we must remember that those cliches didn't exist at the time, they were created by lotr. it seems clichè only because it was so incredibly succesful that a lot of people went apeing it, poorly.

I like to think of it like some piece of obsolete technology, say the telegraph.sure, now it seems useless cause we have broadband satellites communications, but when it was invented it was the only way to communicate at distance, and we'd never have invented the satellites if we hadn't started with it.

Same with the wheel of time: it marks the transition between that old fantasy and modern fantasy. If you don't like them, it's only because you are already experienced readers and have read a lot of similar stuff. Annd if sanderson can write better stuff, it's because he had those examples to set his path. Like galilei said, 'i'm standing on the shoulders of giants'.

 

That said, I liked the lord of the rings a lot when i first read it; it's one of the first fantasy books I've read, and the first one I deemed worth the time spent reading it. I've been rereding it regularly too, before i discovered wot. then i stopped reading lotr. Now I'd probably still appreciate it, even if I got used to harder magic systems and am quite frustrated with powerless protagonists caught up in a world they don't understand, just less than before. I've had that problem reading neil gaiman, and while I recognize that his books are great for a certain audience, I also see that I'm no part of it.

Anyway, once I had wot i started rereading wot regularly, and while i slowed down later to make room for sanderson's books (which are taking the greater share of my reading time nowadays) i intend to continue with it, i just started my fourth reread two days ago. I have absolutely no problem with wot being long and slow. I am a man of extreme tastes: if I like something, I like it a lot and can never get enough of it, otherwise I simply don't like it. So if I like a book I don't give a damnation how long it is, it's better cause it last longer, and if i don't like it then making it shorter won't fix the issue. I just like reading through it, even when the plot feels stagnating and the characters make me want to bash them with a baseball bat. I can't really pin what I'm liking more about wot. Still, while it has boring moments, i accept them as a necessary part of the story.

It's intersting to note that, aside from wot and sanderson, and partially lotr, I have never found any other piece of fantasy i really appreciated. certainly nothing worth reread, which is the hallmark that I actually liked something (remember, I have strongly polarized tastes. If i don't like to reread something, then i didn't really like to read it the first time). Well, except for pratchett, and the order of the stick, but those are parodies, not strictly fantasy. While like 90% of what i read nowadays is fantasy, I don't consider myself a fantasy addict, merely an addict to the work of two people. who luckily for me left me enough stuff to read.

[killersquirrel59]

Definitely don't just skip ahead. You will be hopelessly lost.

 

I completely understand the sentiment however. It took me 6 tries to get through the series. The final time I just skipped the last part of book 8 which was where I was getting hung up (it's 5 chapters of Rand describing a forest with a bit of battle put in the middle). 

 

In general I love Robert Jordan's writing, but his descriptions go WAY too much. He is rather fond of using 5 pages when 5 sentences will do just fine. I'd suggest either trying the audiobooks (this worked better for me) or when he starts describing scenery just skipping to the next place you see someone talking, often several pages ahead.

 

In any case, it is well worth getting through the Jordan descriptive passages to get to Sanderson's books. The ending is more epic than I think any of us imagined it would be.

Edited September 27, 2014 by killersquirrel59

[The_Wanderer]

Eye of the World was intentionally derived from Lord of the Rings, which was more a business decision than anything.  After that though, Jordan starts to go his own way.  2 is better than 1, and one of the best books in the whole series.  4-6 are probably the strongest three book span in the whole series. 

[Iarwainiel I]

(I've posted similar thoughts elsewhere on the 17th Shard, so forgive my redundancy if you've read those.)

 

By WoT #3, I hated all the characters except Hopper. By #4, I wanted them all to die, especially the girls. By the end of #5, I felt like I wanted to kill them all myself, I disliked them so much. I can't remember ever reading books where all the main characters were so immature and unlikeable - and though the later books said that the characters "grew up," IMO they essentially acted the same, even to the very end of #14. There were way too many naked people hitting each other with sticks for no apparent reason, and the excessively florid descriptions were boring. I stopped forcing myself to read after #6 - after all, this was supposed to be a leisure time activity, life is short, & there are tons of truly good books out there! I used Leigh Butler's online synopses and the WoT Encyclopedia to follow the story from there till picking it up at Brandon's #12. Don't forget about this option!

 

LotR, in contrast, is (IMO) a masterpiece. One can read it again and again and always see something new (king of nowhere, I am 100% in agreement with you re: re-reads). I read it for the first time in 1977, before the fantasy genre got so crowded. Confession: I studied medieval history and literature in graduate school and was raised on the KJV, so the archaic language in LotR is, for me, a big part of what makes it beautiful. I can totally understand how others without that background would feel differently.

Edited January 12, 2015 by old aggie

[Turos]

I made the mistake of beginning my journey through the Wheel of Time with an audio book. I keep wanting to enjoy audio books, but I hate them all. Now that I have picked up again halfway through book two, I am actually enjoying it! I guess there is too much lost for me without the voices I come up with and control of the pacing. Some readers sound really annoying, too.

[AndrewStirlingMacDonald]

I'm on my 4th attempt to read through these, the first attempt I've made since Brandon took over the series (getting to his ending books is my motivation for trying again). I'm a little bit discouraged by what I'm reading here (consensus seems to be that 4-6 are the best), because I have never gotten all of the way through book 5 without getting so bored that I couldn't bring myself to pick it up and finish it. I'm partway through 4 now (they just got to Cold Rocks keep) and I am having such a hard time motivating myself to pick it up and read it every day, it just seems boring, like the story is going nowhere. In contrast, I really enjoyed books 1-3 every time I read them. Is there any way that I'm going to enjoy the rest of the series based on already feeling bored and frustrated by book 5? This is a series that I've always WANTED to love, but just couldn't manage to ever do it.

[Andarist]

I read WoT last year. Book 1 is silly. Its cliche. 2 and 3 are far better. 4-6 shows the scope and size of the world expanding dramatically. 7-10 is a slog. Except the end of 9. The last part of 9 is brilliant. Book 11 is excellent. And Brandon's 3 book ending is....well let me put it this way: I literally could not stop reading. These were almost 1000 page books, and over a period of 4-5 days I read all three, with a little sleep and food squeezed in. 

[Relytdragon]

the reason there ae so many "farmboyto hero" storys is because that is the basis of almost every story.  going from a state of weakness to a state of strength.  look at harry potter, everyone loves it, but it's just Hary going from being an orphan raised by abusive relative and living under the stairs, to him being able to defeat the dark lord. Star wars, Luke was just a moisture farmer, but ended up becoming a jedi, and defeating the emperor.  in SA kaladin goes from bridgman to Knight Radiant.  In batman the drak knight rises, he is a prisoner who isn't very good at fighting to batman.  every story is either from a state of weakness to strength, or a state of strength in one area to a state of strength n another area.  

[The Dragon Reborn]

I've found that in a lot of epic fantasy the first book is usually the slowest and dullest, but then it picks up momentum from there. If you can struggle through the first book, it just gets better and better from there.

[Cruxer]

Side note: Everyone hates Egwene. lol. 

[Left]

Side note: Everyone hates Egwene. lol. 

I didn't for a long time, but by the end, I was really ready for her to die. In a gruesome way. Multiple times.

[Shardmancer]

Yes,

 

If you would like to get into this series you will have to push through Book 1 - 2 and read 4 -5 as they are very integral to the plot as well, after that you read chapter summaries for the rest of the books leading up to Sanderson- it is worth it if you put in a little time. (if you have it)

[Nashan’Elin]

I didn't for a long time, but by the end, I was really ready for her to die. In a gruesome way. Multiple times.

Haha, I got this feeling too. I'd heard of the so-called "Ewgene bashing" and I didn't get it, but in the end I was screaming at the book about how, well, stuck-up and biased she got.

[Cruxer]

I didn't for a long time, but by the end, I was really ready for her to die. In a gruesome way. Multiple times.

pretty much. lol

[Smokestone]

Bahaha, my favorite moment of the whole series was when Perrin totally owns Egwene in Tel-aran-riod or however it's spelled. Wipe that smug condescension off her face.

[Smokestone]

That said, people have brought this up in the discussion before me, but I'd like to hear: what are the specific ways you think Robert Jordan pioneered the future of epic fantasy? Here are a few, in my opinion:

 

-Mixing laws of modern physics with laws of magic

-Types of magic with "hard" rule sets: the reader knows exactly what tools a magic-wielding character can or can't access (rather than the Gandalf-type magic, where we really have no idea what he is and isn't capable of, it's all shrouded in mystery)

-"Strong female leads" (I put this in quotes because I don't really like the way Jordan executed this concept, but it was clearly his intent) as well as exploration of gender roles and politics

-the role of fate and prophecy: while the future initially appears to be set in stone, it may be affected by human choice

 

Any others that stick out to you?

[Alfa]

-Mixing laws of modern physics with laws of magic

-Types of magic with "hard" rule sets: the reader knows exactly what tools a magic-wielding character can or can't access (rather than the Gandalf-type magic, where we really have no idea what he is and isn't capable of, it's all shrouded in mystery)

-"Strong female leads" (I put this in quotes because I don't really like the way Jordan executed this concept, but it was clearly his intent) as well as exploration of gender roles and politics

-the role of fate and prophecy: while the future initially appears to be set in stone, it may be affected by human choice

 

The magic system was still a bit too soft for me (Balefire! Deathgates! Anti-gentling! Anti-stilling! The where-does-it-come-from-true-power! The Flame of Tar digeridoing Valon!)

Also, am I the only one who has his problems with prophecies, especially if they are person-tied?

[timsgood]

I'm trying to get through the wheel of time too (i'm on book 8) my suggestion would to be to start with new spring (the prequel) helps you understand the series what the goals of the different factions are and get a general idea how things work (magic wise, people wise)

[frozndevl]

So Ive finished Book 4 and 5.Book 4 was pretty sweet with Rand becoming the Carcann and Matts Transformation,Perrin was actually quite awesome in this book.Lanfear was also interesting.

Book 5 was a problem.The plot plods on and on and on.

Also I have to say the Forsaken are disppointing so far with the obvious exception of Lanfear and Ishmaeal.

I dint care for the Aes Sadai and now I dont care for the Wise ones.

 

Rands romance is very eyeroll inducing.I howver really like Rands character development.Matt annoys me with his selfishness at times but hes cool

 

So whats my view on the series so far?Well it started off very cliche but its gotten very interesting mythos wise.If a tv series was adapted they would do well to reinvent the beginning so as not to bore viewers straight off.That is reinvent the Book 1 and 2 plot to not be so cliche  and plodding-book 1 especially

 

I also noticed that GOT seems very inpired by WOT.Wargs=Wolfbrother,Dragon(Rand/Dany)leading a Middleeastern warrior tribe(Dothraki/Aiel)etc

I'm doing some catchup on forums and I wondered what youd think about Fires of Heaven. I was not disappointed.

[frozndevl]

Bahaha, my favorite moment of the whole series was when Perrin totally owns Egwene in Tel-aran-riod or however it's spelled. Wipe that smug condescension off her face.

Yeah, that was a great moment of comeuppance. 

 

Edit: sorry for double.

Edited February 24, 2016 by frozndevl

[DSC01]

I'm trying to get through the wheel of time too (i'm on book 8) my suggestion would to be to start with new spring (the prequel) helps you understand the series what the goals of the different factions are and get a general idea how things work (magic wise, people wise)

 

I would recommend not doing that. It gives too much away. I think it would be a much better idea to read it when things are more established and you know more about what is going on but not so late in the progression that it is totally boring because events in the main series are much cooler.

 

I read it after reading the whole series, and I didn't like it much at all. I had a friend who read the series after me, and I told her to read it after book 4, and she enjoyed it. I think that's probably the best time to read it, myself.

 

Recommending reading the prequel first is basically telling someone that you think they'll get into the series quicker if they read some spoilers first. Actually, that may be true (there was a study recently that found that people they spoiled a movie for gave it better reviews than those who went in blind), but that's still basically what reading New Spring first is.

 

Some people just aren't going to get into it, I guess. I started reading after it was all complete, and I loved it. Finished the whole thing in 40 days and reread it before 6 months was out. The friend I referenced above took about a year to read it. She wasn't as into it as me, but she still enjoyed it, despite some frustrations with it.