Epic, but with problems (Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan in general)

Member Name: defiler

Product:	Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan in general
Date:	10/05/01 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Detailed, Interesting, You can keep reading for ages

Disadvantages: Very, very, very long, Delay between books, Some unrealistic portrals of certain characters, similarity of others

A while ago I constantly heard how great this series of books was, I'd seen it for sale in the bookshops quite a few times but never actually thought about buying them, based upon all the recommendations however I decided to order the first book. It arrived and I glanced at it but didn't feel like reading the start of such as long series at the time, a bit later I decided to start again and really got drawn into the story and the world.

--Storyline--
The storyline is too complicated to mention here alone and it is hard to really mention a storyline that doesn't ruin the series for someone who hasn't read the first book (and can resist the temptation to read opinions on future books). As such I will simply give details on the story of the first book as an introduction:

The story centres around 3 boys, all of whom are to play great importance in the future of the world and one of which is fated to become the dragon reborn, the worlds only hope of survival in a battle the world both fears and believes will never happen. The story shows how though many things such as the beastial Trollocs are talked about, no-one really believes that they exist and how no-one is really prepared for what is about to happen to the world. Each of the boys seems normal and lives a normal live and it is interesting to see how they adapt to completely changing situations and surroundings (in later books they just don't seem anything like they do early on). I really don't want to say much about the story as it is hard not to give things away that would ruin it but if interesting I would recommend you read the first book in the series (The Eye Of The World), even if you don't decide to continue to read any more of the books it really is worth a read and if you enjoy fantasy this is definetely worth considering.

--Depth of world--
There are so many sub-plots and so many characters described throughout the books that they really
do get the feeling that this is an epic series and the world appears very, very realistic. Everything is so well described from the cities to characters to the weather to just about everything else, while it doesn't go into detail about every little thing it doesn't seem to miss a lot of things and the depth of the world is something you can really get drawn into.

--Characters--
This is not really a problem as I believe many of the characters are described very well, but on the other hand many of the others can often be very annoying and just don't seem true to life. There are some characters that I will see mentioned at the beginning of a chapter and think "great" and want to find out what is happening to them, a few others I often groan and hope that it is only a quick mention. The characters themselves are well described and you can really get a feeling as to what each of them is like, the trouble is that often they will be constantly repeating how they are feeling to you throughout each book, different feelings would be fine but more often than not it will simply be the same feeling (love/hurt/anger/etc. in/of a specific situation) repeating over and over again and after hearing how much someone regrets something or how much they miss something or how much they love someone for the hundreth time you just sometimes wish they would shut up.

--Problems with the book--
While I really enjoy reading these books there is no denying there are some problems and even fans of the series usually believe at least one of the following problems.

-Absense of characters
I know it isn't possible to mention every single character in ever single book but when Jordan can write over a hundred pages on a journey in which nothing really happens you'd think he would be able to devote at least a chapter on one of the key characters in the book, as it is sometimes you can go over 1000 pages with one of the central cha
racters not being mentioned any more than in passing, it can be frustrating, especially if it happens to be one of the characters you enjoy reading about.

-It's very, very long
Not necessarily a bad thing, with many books I often wish the story could continue, but in this case the story seems to be dragging on much more than is necessary, I enjoy reading it but it starts to become so complex that I often find myself getting confused over who a character is, especially if they haven't appeared in a recent book. If you want to read all the books currently published there are around 7,300 pages you have to read to get to the end, that's an awful lot and longer than any other series I know that has a constant storyline.

-There are long gaps between each book
This hasn't affected me that much as I only got into the series just before the last book was published and am only just starting that now but with an average rate of 1 book per 2 years and more than likely still quite a few books left to be published it looks as though it could be quite a while before anyone reaches the end of the story (I always find myself just hoping that the author doesn't die in the meantime, I know it's probably not a nice thing to think (well, nicer than hoping they would die I guess) but it always worries me when I read a series this long).

-The characters are often similar sounding
This isn't always a problem but when 3 characters are taking part in a book, all with 2 or 3 letters different in a name that sounds very similar (yet no-one seems to have the same name strangely) it can get confusing, especially if it was a while between reading.

-The books have no reminders at the beggining on the plot
Given that for many people it could have been 1-2 years since they last read any of the books and given that re-reading the entire series is something that will take the average reader months a small reminder (simil
ar to those found in the Otherland books) as to the current plot and what has happened in each book would be nice, nothing major but maybe around 50 pages in each book just to make yourself familiar with the plot. I took a break of 1 month once between reading the books while I read something else and upon starting to read the books again got confused and constantly had to look up who people were.

-The glossary is often useless
It contains characters that everyone knows who they are and that no-one would need to look up and facts which are obvious but has no mention of many of the minor characters that I would have liked to be reminded of. I realise to mention every character would take a lot of space but if the book is going to contain a glossary it should at least make it useful.

-Perhaps too complicated in ways
I'm not certain about this as I really like the depth of the world but the books problem is that it has created so many mini-plots and characters that it struggles to fit them all within a single book, as such you can miss out something that in any other book would be vital to the story for at least a full book and when you are reminded of it again you often wonder how it could have been ignored.

---Conclusion---
If you are at all interested in this type of book give the first in the series a read, if you enjoy it consider continuing to read but be aware of exactly what you are letting yourself in for. I am a fairly slow reader and have been reading these books for ages, I find it easy to lose track of many of the characters and sometimes the books seem to progress very slowly. Even so and even if you are only interested in reading 1 or 2 of these books it is hard to deny the appeal of (at the least the first 5) of these books and if you like fantasy this is a book you should at least try, whether you'll enjoy it or not is another question.

-Note: Price below is per (paperback) book but will vary
a little (due to size of books and age of some which still have some old editions for sale cheaper, or second-hand).

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