is the wheel of time worth reading

[manukos he/him]

sooooo...  i just finished listening to the first book of the wheel of time and it was certainly not bad . and i  know that Sanderson has said how much it has influenced him and how honored he was that he got to write the final part . 

but it just didn't sweep me off my feet like many other books . it didn't keep me up all night , hooked , saying : just an other chapter

the characters were interchangeable until the end , the magic systems were underdeveloped and some things about the world havent been clearified yet and as a reasult seem counter intuitive .

i allready have the whole set , so i am definately going to read it (eventualy) .

but my question to you is this :  should i have higher hopes like everyone else? if not  is any of the books skipable?

[Eki]

There is a Wheel of Time subforum, that's probably a better place for this topic.

I definitely would recommend reading them, yeah. The magic system is very well developed. You can't really tell that from just the first book, because there are so few PoV magic users. (Also for other reasons, but those may count as spoilers...) There will be many more in later books. I really can't agree that the characters are interchangeable though...

None of the books are skippable (except New Spring, the prequel novella (it's pretty good though, so I wouldn't skip it regardless)). The books do get kind of slow in the later middle (many people would say the low point of the series is book 10), but then they pick up again.

I can't say if you should have higher hopes or not, that depends on what kind of books you usually enjoy. But I can say that all of the things you mentioned are developed much more later on, from the characters themselves, to the magic system, and the world as a whole.

Out of curiosity, which things about the world seemed counter intuitive?

[Ammanas]

I thought the first four were good. The 5th and 6th were as well, but cracks start to show, 7-10 are imo awful (I gave up partway througg the 10th and read summaries for the rest). I hear the Sanderson books (12-14) are better. A lot of people like them so I recommend reading them until you feel like its a chore (you might even finish it and love it). I eventually got to a point were I started hating some of the characters, and got frustrated the plot moved at the speed of a glacier. Its frustrating for me bc this series had so much potential, but it just fizzled out. 

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

My first reading of the WoT, I marathoned them. A full week and a half of late nights with books shoved in my face. I very much like them. I would describe the WoT as 3-4 Acts. I'm not going to explain what happens in each, but I'll tell you how I liked them.

Act 1: Good beginning, the first three books. Gets you interested for the rest.

Act 2: Books 4-7ish. This is a bit of rising action, where the characters expand and there are multiple plot lines going on at once. Warning: from this point on, there is romance. At times, it gets in the way of the plot.

Act 3: Books 6-11ish. Act 3 has a bit of overlap with Act 2, mainly because it's based off of events relating to certain characters. When I say certain characters, I mean the only characters you can actually stand reading about. The rest will make you want to punch them in the face.

Act 4: The conclusion and climax, books 12-14. These were done by Brandon, so they are awesome. Very enjoyable, and really brings together everything in the entire series. If it's a pain to get through Act 3, then Act 4 will give you relief. Act 4 is my favorite.

[Exalted]

The Eye of the World is very LotR-esque, which is actually what got me hooked in the first place, but Jordan deviates from that very quickly. I'd definitely say it's worth reading-- @Hemalurgic_Headshot has a great way of describing it. Act 4 was by far my favorite, then Acts 1 and 2. Act 3 was a struggle, particularly books 9 and 10, but the payoff for getting through them is amazing.

The magic system gets explained more in-depth and the characters start growing apart from each other relatively fast, so I wouldn't worry about that too much just yet. If you're still not into it around book 5 or 6, you probably won't make it through Act 3 before you start to hate it. But if you are, it's definitely worth reading the entire thing to get to the end.

[manukos he/him]

sure ill give it a shot 

also @Eki  maybe counter intuitive isn't the best term but why the children of the light hate aes sedai even though they opose the dark friends and some other whatnot like this .
i know that it propably gets explained but i think that the firs book didnt suceed in grabing me

[Jedal he/him]

@Manukos I'm gonna tag you so you see this.

 

I found the first four Wheel of Time books to be enjoyable. The beginning of the first book was a bore, but I found myself being drawn to the story by the time they started meeting more of the characters. However, I could barely get three chapters into the fifth book before giving up. It felt like Jordan was milking the story. All respect due to the writer, he crafted a world that many people have fallen in love with, including Sanderson. I personally could not see what was so great about him. In an effort to understand the incredibly convoluted story, I went to Wikipedia. I loved the world and the vision he had, but he REALLY failed in executing it. I feel the middle books could be mostly condensed into one book or they could have discarded the majority of the obtuse content. It saddens me to see how great the story could have been, because it failed at achieving its grand scope. I had trouble connecting with many of the characters, especially the female characters in particular. Every moment with the three main female leads was tiring, which is a feeling that I never felt in a book before. I have also heard many others (not on this forum) feel as though Rand became a particularly isolated character. Many people just didn't feel for him, and he became more of a force than a character. I really wanted to like WoT, but I couldn't. To this day it remains one of the only series I have not finished.

[+Extesian he/him]

I avoided WoT for years because of the length. Then I read all the Sanderson books in 2 months and realized the length is manageable. But i see it like a Test cricket match (for those who have heard of cricket ;)). It's long, there's stretches that are quite slowly paced, times where you don't know if the payiff is worth it, but has such a wonderful buildup, and such a magnificent, exciting close with everything coming together, that it makes the whole story amazing. It is not as well written as Sanderson, and it has a less defined magic system, and there are some characters that are not well written (especially some female characters), but watching the psychological development of the main character makes Frodo's journey seem like a walk in the park, and the Big Battle is just out of this world.

I thoroughly recommend it IF you hand plenty of time and have read all the Sanderson books and any other shorter series you want to cover. Read it in one hit, people complain a lot about the middle books but if you think of it as one 10000 page story the pacing is actually fine.

Read it with time, patience and an expectation that the overall story trumps the few thousand pages that seem like a mission!

[Avandar]

I concur, starts great, bogs down in middle, and then this unknown to me guy named Sanderson gets picked to finish it.  OH HAPPY DAY!!!!

[Pagerunner he/him]

If you like reading exciting scenes where a lot of stuff happens, read the books for the last 100 pages. No matter how slow the books get in the beginning and middle, I found there to be a fantastic payoff at the end of each and every one of them. You hear a lot of complaints

If you like experiencing an expansive world with a ton of characters, then this is the series for you. A lot of people are in a hurry to get to the end of a series. But this one is rewarding if you take your time through it. One thing I struggled with was the Aes Sedai politics, telling apart a bunch of different characters from different Ajahs as they do a ton of talking; I just didn't care much for it. But that was my brother's favorite part, and I think he knew every single one of them by name and Ajah. I liked the different countries and how the [spoilers redacted] showed how they all interact with each other, and how [spoilers redacted] goes from dealing with individuals to dealing with nations. I wish that Stormlight's different countries were as well-developed as they are in Wheel of Time (plenty of time for that to happen, I know). There's a ton of detail to enjoy if you take your time, take notes, and read through the glossaries.

[Jofwu he/him]

Heck yes.

It's not as... fun and energetic as Sanderson. But they tell an incredible story in a fascinating world. Well worth reading.

You absolutely can't judge the series based on book 1. The first three books are pretty much just set up. Read through book 4 before you start letting opinions set.

The books are a lot more developed than you seem to think. For example, the magic system is VERY extensive and interesting, the characters are all very unique and different, and the Whitecloaks have a very logical (if misguided) basis for their hate. Jordan was a master of limited point of view writing. At this point you've pretty much only seen through the eyes of one or two farmboys from the middle of nowhere who know nothing about the world. There's a lot that they're missing, and therefore you as the reader don't see it either. I've never known a series better for rereading, in fact, because a second read lets you see it all again through entirely new lenses.

[Felt he/him]

The Wheel of Time is an amazing peace of work that inspired many people and has a massive worldbuilding arc. The magic system is definitely going to expand for you in the next books, when it gets expanded for the characters themselves  

As many have pointed out, it does get to feel like a chore to get through books 7-10, but Jordan picked it up at book 11. Personally I think he just overstreched it, it should have been 10 books total.

Then comes in Brandon, books 12-14... - jaw gets dropped -

The magic system gets, obviously with Brandon, expanded even more  The story comes to a satisfying end which Brandon did great and Jordan would have been proud of.

My advise for the long boring stretches....

journey before destination  

[Felt he/him]

@Jedal I'm sorry to hear you didn't finish it.... But at least you could read Brandons part from book 12 onwards.... You will not be disappointed and still be able to finish it  

[Exalted]

3 minutes ago, Felt said:

As many have pointed out, it does get to feel like a chore to get through books 7-10, but Jordan picked it up at book 11. Personally I think he just overstreched it, it should have been 10 books total.

The original plan was 12, which feels like it was on purpose--12 books = 12 hours on a clock, a "wheel of time". Just like I don't think it's a coincidence that Stormlight is ten books long. They're nothing more than cool Easter eggs, but I appreciate the fact that Jordan tried to do something like that.

[Jedal he/him]

1 minute ago, Felt said:

@Jedal I'm sorry to hear you didn't finish it.... But at least you could read Brandons part from book 12 onwards.... You will not be disappointed and still be able to finish it  

My only issue is that with such an expansive world as this, I will have missed so much, and it will be worse for me. I sorta know what happens already with 

Spoiler

God-Rand and reality warping

but I don't want to spoil it in case I ever pick it back up.

[Felt he/him]

1 minute ago, Exalted Dungeon Master said:

The original plan was 12, which feels like it was on purpose--12 books = 12 hours on a clock, a "wheel of time". Just like I don't think it's a coincidence that Stormlight is ten books long. They're nothing more than cool Easter eggs, but I appreciate the fact that Jordan tried to do something like that.

12 would have been great but Jordan was stretching it farther, he kept delaying the end and stretching. Even Brandon needed three massive books to bring it to a good conclusion, who knows how long Jordan would have kept going

[Exalted]

18 minutes ago, Felt said:

12 would have been great but Jordan was stretching it farther, he kept delaying the end and stretching. Even Brandon needed three massive books to bring it to a good conclusion, who knows how long Jordan would have kept going

I was under the impression that Jordan had A Memory of Light all set out as book 12, and then Sanderson came on and was like, "there's no way I can fit this in one book; I'm gonna need three," so he split the story at the section breaks and expanded on each of them. Jordan was planning on 12 until the end.

[Felt he/him]

@Exalted Dungeon Master do you think Jordan would have come to a satisfying end with just one more book?

[Farnsworth]

The world-building is way sub-Brandon, but there are other things than world building in a book. Hemalurgic Headshot is right in that there is romance that gets in the way of the plot, but otherwise it is quite good. And the end two chapters are always fantastic! 

[Exalted]

3 hours ago, Felt said:

@Exalted Dungeon Master do you think Jordan would have come to a satisfying end with just one more book?

Satisfying? Maybe. We definitely wouldn't have gotten so many plotlines resolved in as much detail as they did, 

Spoiler

Rand's Hero's Journey would have been shorter, we wouldn't have seen Androl/Pevara, and some side characters may have been left out.

But I think it could have been done. As awesome as Sanderson's 3-book ending was, though? Definitely not.

[Pagerunner he/him]

12 hours ago, Exalted Dungeon Master said:

The original plan was 12, which feels like it was on purpose--12 books = 12 hours on a clock, a "wheel of time". Just like I don't think it's a coincidence that Stormlight is ten books long. They're nothing more than cool Easter eggs, but I appreciate the fact that Jordan tried to do something like that.

The original Original Plan was 3 books, the original contract was for 6 books (because the publisher knew Jordan liked to run long), and it eventually jumped up to 12 books. That series had a ton of scope creep.

[WildSpeculation he/him]

I think the only thing that could be added to this conversation was Jordon's use of foreshadowing. In fact, Brandon has stated that he learned a lot about foreshadowing and subtlety from Mr. Jordan's work. I know that there were prophecies, visions and dreams from book one (that you thought you knew what they meant, or were you thought were already fulfilled) that were still being fulfilled in books 9 - 11 and even 14 in ways that you never even thought about!

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=618 #8

 

(unsure if I linked the theoryland quote correctly, if not I might try to edit it. )

Edited January 12, 2017 by WildSpeculation
grammar

[Exalted]

9 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

The original Original Plan was 3 books, the original contract was for 6 books (because the publisher knew Jordan liked to run long), and it eventually jumped up to 12 books. That series had a ton of scope creep.

Whoa, I never knew that. Do you know how early/late into the series it got changed to 12?

[Ammanas]

2 hours ago, Exalted Dungeon Master said:

Whoa, I never knew that. Do you know how early/late into the series it got changed to 12?

It was originally six (as mentioned earlier). Here is a link with a early history of "the original" wheel of time. It may be of interest to someone...

http://www.dragonmount.com/index.php/News/book-news/a-look-at-robert-jordans-notes-r751

Edited January 13, 2017 by Ammanas