New Wheel of Time Book — Chapter One Online, Released Oct 27 269
Tor Books has made the first chapter of the latest Wheel of Time book available to readers for free via their website. This is the first book to have work from Robert Jordan's replacement, Brandon Sanderson, since Jordan died in September of 2007. The Gathering Storm is complete and will be released on October 27th of this year. In addition, the prologue to this book will be available in e-book format on October 17th for $2.99. The whole of the Wheel of Time series will also be released as e-books with several of the books receiving new cover art as well.
Update: 09/07 23:42 GMT by KD : Reader Daniel Benamy points out that the correct release date for the prologue e-book is September 17.
Update: 09/07 23:42 GMT by KD : Reader Daniel Benamy points out that the correct release date for the prologue e-book is September 17.
There isn't enough bandwidth in the world (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There isn't enough bandwidth in the world (Score:5, Funny)
It compresses remarkably well, though.
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"The diaphenous mist hung deep upon the mountain side from which there thundered forth the voice of ten thousand angry locust gods whose pus had once made the rivers of the southern continent run yellow, when the da'cam did first venture forth from the underground cavern from which all which is evil once did rise, and a wind like the wind from Elon's third midwive's flatulent second husband wracked the pines"
But you would be wrong.
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Some of the middle-later books were awful.
Of course, if Jordan hadn't had his good prose, we would never have read the damn series in first place. The people making jokes are those who read the first books, loved them, and then went all the way to book 11 (12 if you include New Spring) and felt betrayed. Some of those descriptive moments were really too much, and you shouldn't need hundreds of pages to narrate a single (and often unimportant!) event. Besides, it was supposed to be a 7 or 9 book series origi
Spoiler Alert (Score:5, Funny)
No wait, that's not right...
Re:Spoiler Alert (Score:5, Funny)
Loial kills Rand al'Thor. But only after Rand flips out and kills Elayne Avhienda and Min in a rather grisly way.
Fearing reprisals, the Ogier declare war on the White Tower and lose. The entire Ogier race goes extinct.
A pack of wolves mistake Perrin's continued brooding for an illness and give him a mercy killing.
Nynaeve breaks her neck in a freak braid-pulling incident.
Mat wakes up and finds Bobby Ewing in his shower and realizes it was all a dream.
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Re:Spoiler Alert (Score:4, Funny)
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BRANDON SANDERSON! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:BRANDON SANDERSON! (Score:4, Interesting)
I concur with the parent. I recently purchased and read through all four of his most popular novels: Elantris and the Mistborn Trilogy. Sanderson's default writing style is actually shorter and less descriptive... but then for first books you don't always get the luxury of killing an entire forest to describe a bedroom.
That said I have read the annotations for most of his books, Brandon's blog posts regarding his writing (cruise to his website and read up if your remotely interested) and the entire WoT series again. I have decided that with the amount of information Jordan left behind (plot) a writer of Sanderson's talent can pull it off. Sanderson has a much shorter paragraph length on average and his stories had great potential plot wise, he just chose to keep the stories shorter, though he has the vision of the grand epic. The real challenge will be nailing the details and tying up all of the plot threads on a coherent manner. The writing style, I think, Sanderson probably fell into after a few months of writing. Since Sanderson has already managed reasonably complex plots and seems to be keeping it all together (based on his blog posts) I hold high hopes for the completion of this series.
This is a series I started reading in early high school and have treasured to this day. Some books are better than others, but this series is THE epic fantasy story of the last 20 years. It is more of a brute force presence in the fantasy fiction world than something someone did decades ago like Tolkien. Jordan has defined an entire decade of writers and readers that have had to come to terms with his stories when they contemplate the fantasy epic. When an author sits down and thinks of a plot and story for a fantasy epic it is, in my opinion, Tolkien and Jordan that you struggle with: how do you do something different? How do you spin threads of a story of epic length while making the same old good triumphs of evil (epicly!) enjoyable? There are a lot of other great writers in the epic fantasy space and I don't mean to reduce it to the two most well known.... but they are where they are for a reason.
Anyhow... my rambling is done. I highly recommend Elantris and or the Mistborn trilogy. Though I suspect that most of us that have been eagerly waiting have already begun studying up on the man to finish up Jordan's legacy.
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Ditto. Sanderson is one of my favorite new authors. Elantris and Mistborn both rocked, and Warbreaker was pretty good as well.
Also, Tor published one of his short stories online for free, and it's quite good. Like Ender's Game, but in about 20 pages:
http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=10489 [tor.com]
News: Robert Jordan gets away with it (Score:4, Funny)
Rainforest destruction legend Robert Jordan has successfully evaded paying off the advance on what was originally a four-page satire of ridiculous fantasy cliches, The Wheel of Time.
The epic originated as a piece of semi-amusing cubemail circulating on a private mailing list for writers bored with their day jobs. "But I just kept adding and adding to it," Jordan confessed years later. "Then someone snuck it into an Eye Of Argon reading session. And the idio-- I mean, tasteful and discerning consumers of science fiction and fantasy loved it! They couldn't get enough of it! Certainly more than I could be bothered with, anyway. If only I could find the Caribbean island Elvis, Jimi, Janis and Kurt are hiding out on ..."
The process of writing was reflected in the work. "You get long, stringy drips of various elements. All recycled. Then you weave them together. We thought of using a wiki, but people kept putting Pokemons in. 'My Pokemans, let me show you them.' Idjits."
Plaudits came in from fellow fantasy writers around the globe. "I always found plot and characterisation overrated," said master fantasist J.R.R. Tolkein. "They only get in the way of exploring a really interesting constructed language. The more demanding sort of reader can be so very tiresome at times."
"Bugger," said David Eddings, frantically casting his eyes about for fresh sources.
"Who are you, and where did you get this number?" said Neil Gaiman.
Readers will be over the moon to learn that Kevin J. Anderson has contracted to finish the series in a suitable manner. "I figure there's another twenty, thirty books needed to finish it properly. Lotta unanswered questions, yeah. I should have 'em done by next week."
Woolheaded shepherds the world over fold their arms beneath their breasts, tug at their braids, smooth their skirts and bow their heads today, and remember Jordan's wise words:
Illustration: Robert Jordan silenced at last. [today.com]
Why all the dissin'? (Score:2, Informative)
I just wanted to point out, as a life long fan of this series, that there IS a reason every book the series has appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, and most of them have been #1 when they first come out. [dragonmount.com]
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Well, those people could respond too.
Like almost all the others posting here, I tried, I really did. I made it through the first 6 before I stopped.
Hell I even continued to buy them until the prequel came out just in case he ever finished them, but at some point nearly everyone I know who has tried to read them noticed that "nothing was happening", it looked like "nothing was ever going to happen", and when long-dead characters keep reappearing that meant "nothing had actually happened."
Re:Why all the dissin'? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? You really don't know? Okay...
Because the first three books were damn good. The problem was, what should have been by all rights a 5-6 book series has turned into, what...12? The remaining books sort of meandered around, filling in niggling details and sub-plots that every other author on the planet saves until the second series set in the same locale. Jordan, however, crammed it in the middle. He admitted he had only outlined it to about 5 or 6 books.
Hell, I'm sure there are four WHOLE BOOKS of material in there that can be summed up as repetitions of "the men and women in this series can't communicate with each other worth a damn, and have egos the size of elephants".
Jordan was verbose. He made Tolstoy look parsimonious. A word used a couple times in WoT novels, by the way. The man probably bought thesauruses by the case.
The remaining books hit the best seller list by fans hoping he would finish the damn story before he died. And yes, that was the joke going around YEARS before he was sick, much less actually dead.
When I finally read Knife of Dreams my first thought was "Damn! He really is picking up the pace. I wonder what got into him?" I later learned it was cardiac amyloidosis [wikipedia.org] is what got into him. A year and a half later he was dead. My first thoughts being "Wow. He DIDN'T finish the story before dying. Who'd a thunk it?" followed by "There are gonna be a lot of people online who now feel like assholes for jokes from years past!"
Thus, the commentary here Slashdot. There was a lot of sentiment expressed that Jordan was milking the series for all it was worth. The George Lucas of epic fantasy novels, if you will. I'm not convinced he wasn't, which is why I didn't get Knife of Dreams right away. I waited for the reviews before I decided it probably wasn't yet another string-em-along filler book.
That being said, I'll probably buy the final three novels in ebook form and acquire the others -- which I currently have in hardback -- as ebooks.
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The whole series of thousand-page tomes has just been hit or miss for me. I quite frankly have grown to loathe most of the characters, and since no plot line seems to ever get resolv
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I normally don't, but you asked so I explained.
Tolkien told a story at his own pace. David Eddings did as well. Ditto for Terry Brooks. I have plenty of patience for a good story. Jordan just gives the feeling of milking it by inserting all the minutia in the middle. Or as a prequel, written in the middle of one story and sold as a separate book. Don't forget the prequel!
Enjoy away. As I said, I'll be buying the remaining books myself if for nothing else, closure. It'll be a bonus if they're more en
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People are still *buying* MS Windows and you think that because it is popular is a recommendation? Weird.
a really simple way to deal with the series... (Score:2)
is to realize it's a perfect textbook example why shortening a series can make it better, but seldom will lenghtening it will bring any good.
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at 800 pages a book... that's quite a metric...
I wonder how it translates to LOCs...
I guess that's why these went off Webscriptions (Score:2)
Just checked Baen.com and all the Tor books sold through Webscriptions seem to be listed as "not currently available". Guess Tor wants to cut out the middleman.
My braid (Score:4, Funny)
Jordan could have finished (Score:3, Funny)
I don't understand, if you skip all the text referring to someone "smoothing out her split riding skirt" you could have probably saved a couple of volumes.
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And I wish I could have been a coke dealer, with all that sniffing...
WoT Religion? (Score:2)
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You had possibilities until the phrase "...to finish the series." No true WoT acolyte would ever utter those words. I believe the only reason it was called "Wheel of Time" is because "The Neverending Story" was already taken.
Now, if you change the phrase to "...to continue the series" then you might be on to something.
Sanderson (Score:2)
A few months, maybe a year ago we were discussing Jordan and Sanderson, I mentioned that even if Jordan can't finish a series, he sure can finish a book! The guy writes epic endings, someone here mentioned that Sanderson is just as good, and being on the third book of the Mistborn series, I would definitely agree. I have full confidence that he can finish the series well.
Give Sanderson a chance! (Score:2)
I too, have been disappointed by Robert Jordan's later books. When he passed away I was really pissed off the series wasn't done yet while he could have finished it 6 books ago, and I had never heard of Brandon Sanderson.
However, I decided to check out Sanderson's works - and I was amazed. He is now one of my favorite fantasy authors. While the man himself seems to be a great fan of Jordan's series, I would personally say each of his books surpass the entire Wheel of Time series in both writing style and or
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It might even make sense, but Jordan was just about the shittiest successful author I ever read.
Re:Oooo ya (Score:5, Insightful)
I read the first 3 or 4 books thinking "This just has to start getting cool soon. It's got too much cool potential not to".
Silly me.
I think the only reason the later volumes even sold was because people didn't want to admit to themselves that they'd been persuaded to waste the time and money on the earlier ones.
Re:Oooo ya (Score:5, Insightful)
My experience was similar, but somewhat different. I actually really enjoyed the first three or four books, but after that it just started to drag. He'd introduce new character after new character and then spend hundreds of pages trying (and usually failing) to make me give a damn about them. Then, from that point on, you'd have yet another interruption to the main story line to deal with before you ever got back to it.
I quit somewhere around book six. It just got to be too much. The fact that there has since been *five* more books and they're still not done, with these last three still on the ledger, convinces me I was right to do that. In fact, the fact that Sanderson couldn't even wrap up all these damn sub-characters' plots in one book is telling enough that Jordan never stopped that nonsense and got to the point.
Still, I dragged myself through at least one book or so before I just couldn't take it anymore, and you're right about the reason: When books weigh in at 700-1000 pages and you're already 4-5 deep, there's a powerful incentive to keep plodding along to the end.
On a semi-related note, Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy I found to be very good. They picked a good author to continue the work, and if not for all this Wheel of Time stuff I probably wouldn't have found him. So I guess some good came of it at least.
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See, I enjoyed that, it made the world feel "real". Everyone has their own motives and goals and some believe Tarmin Giadon(Spelling?) is coming and some don't. But all of their actions have affect on the world and getting it ready for the final battle.
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The fact that there has since been *five* more books and they're still not done, with these last three still on the ledger, convinces me I was right to do that.
So a series is automatically bad if it is unfinished at the end of book eleven? I must say, that notion seems quite ridiculous to me.
(Disclaimer: I've read the Wheel of Time series four times. I've read other almost-equally-lengthy series as well. IMO, length doesn't make a series bad, poor writing makes a series bad. RJ's writing style is not for everyone, but it works for me; apparently it doesn't work for you.)
On a semi-related note, Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy I found to be very good.
Agreed. I would also recommend Warbreaker (available online as a free PDF, or you can get
Suck suck suck (Score:2)
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Good thing not all books are made to fulfill your opinion of what is good, then.
I found the first 3 or 4 books very so-so and only the later volumes to become quite good.
Certainly, it's still not as awesome as A Song of Ice of Fire -- the best fantasy series in my opinion -- but it's still quite good.
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I think the only reason the later volumes even sold was because people didn't want to admit to themselves that they'd been persuaded to waste the time and money on the earlier ones.
Nearly. The only reason I bought the later ones was because the first four or so were so good (imho, ymmv, etc) that it *had* to pick up the pace again at some point. Sadly it wallowed out not into a river delta but into a turgid mud flat.
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And I like the descriptions I've heard of Elric of Melniboné, etc. But I tried reading a few of Moorcock's books and stopped because I just hated his writing style.
Different people have different tastes.
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Moorecock? On a scale of 1 to 10, he rates a negative 5. He's quite possibly the only author I've ever thrown out rather than giving to the local library, because noone should be subjected to that schlock. Jordan had major issues with his later books, but he's Shakespeare compared to Moorecock. And Black Company isn't much better- it rates a 2.
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Thanks for posting that, because I couldn't read the guy's stuff even though I'm a big fantasy, sword & sorcery 'n scifi fan. I'd rather reread ancient stuff like Zelazny, Moorecock or even, tier down stuff like 'The Black Company'. I tried a couple of times and just couldn't bear up under his prose.
I'm with you - and the parent, and the GP. I tried the first book years back and put it down unfinished. Still, it pains me to see even a bad author's work unceremoniously passed along to some hack who can't do original work. I feel the same way about Herbert, whom I never much liked, and Adams, whom I did. I fully expect to see Discworld books after Pratchett leaves us and the thought makes me cringe.
(Offtopic, but for the record, Zelazny is one a my favorite authors, and I'm forced to admit to never rea
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Realism?
Just kidding. Mostly.
Re:Oooo ya (Score:4, Funny)
Melvin [Jack Nicholson] from As Good As It Gets
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Not saying that Jordan is shitty, but quality is not a prerequisite for post-mortem whoring.
Ever read V.C. Andrews?
Re:Oooo ya (Score:4, Insightful)
I quite enjoyed James Rigney's writing style, and I thought his approach to Conan was well done. I have a lot of respect for him [nndb.com]. He is a genuine hero and deserves props for his service, with a distinguished service cross and a bronze star acquired during two tours in Vietnam.
He also deserves props for having graduated with a bachelors in Physics, a degree plan which is definitely not for the faint of heart.
As to his Wheel of Time series, I found it to be highly entertaining and involving. His characters have a depth to them, and he allows those characters to act according to their strengths and weaknesses, even if it having them act in a different manner would make it easier to advance the plot. If a character is scared to death of heights, he isn't going to cross over a tightrope, even if that were the smart thing for the character to do. The character freezes, and gets caught.
The world he created was immense, and one could write hundreds of books inside that world. The mechanics of the world are reasonably consistent, providing an even backdrop to the heroes and the villians.
His book was also only one of two books that have ever made me physically react while reading. Stephen King's IT actually made me jump in a chair while reading it, and Robert Jordan made me so mad at one of the characters I jumped up, screamed curses, and threw the book across the room.
While his writing style is not for everyone, those of us who find it enjoyable are overjoyed that Brandon Sanderson will, with the help of Jordan's widow and his notes, finish the series. James Rigney worked as hard as he could the last month or two of his life to get as much information down for the next author to continue his work and finish the series. I for one, can't wait for it.
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I just found the prose horribly ugly. The basic fantasy world was so derivative of Tolkien that I just wanted to barf, but if it had at least been well written, maybe I could have got past that, but it was trash. I'm a bit of a fantasy fan, particularly Tolkien and Moorcock, and Jordan was the toilet paper of fantasy fiction.
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I just found the prose horribly ugly. The basic fantasy world was so derivative of Tolkien that I just wanted to barf, but if it had at least been well written, maybe I could have got past that, but it was trash. I'm a bit of a fantasy fan, particularly Tolkien and Moorcock, and Jordan was the toilet paper of fantasy fiction.
Personally I liked the series. My worst objection to it is that while I was about 4 books into it, this thought kept occurring to me: "as a plot device, just how many times is he going to have main characters get captured while travelling?" It felt like anytime anyone was on the road to any village or any city, their capture and subsequent rescue was going to occupy the next several chapters. That got old. I never did finish the Wheel of Time series but otherwise I enjoyed the books I have read.
It's
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I also loved The Dark Tower, and coincidentally I'm currently re-reading it after several years (still at The Gunslinger). I don't like large cities either, and have never lived in one, but I think King's portrayal of New York from the eyes of someone completely foreign and removed from (almost everything in) our world and everything we think of as "normal" is interesting and engaging, if not as cool as the Wastelands and the tale of Roland's past :)
As for Wheel of Time, I can understand where the parent is
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The basic fantasy world was so derivative of Tolkien that I just wanted to barf
Having read both the Wheel of Time and the Lord of the Rings several times (as well as various LotR-related books like the Silmarillion), I'm not sure what you're getting at. I can think of only a few small similarities:
- Lan Mandragoran has a backstory similar (but not identical) to that of Aragorn, but the characters themselves are quite dissimilar.
- The Myrdraal bear a passing similarity to the Nazgul, but only because they wear black and cause fear; the Myrdraal are otherwise entirely different.
- The T
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That's really not the case here, he isn't Brian Herbert.
Sanderson's working entirely from very comprehensive notes, and entire portions of the book had already been written by Robert Jordan and just need to be glued together.
Re:Oooo ya (Score:5, Insightful)
Except that unlike Brian Herbert, the only actual story that Christopher Tolkien wrote was the chapter in the Silmarillion was The Fall of Doriath, because his father had only in fact written one version of that story, but in the earliest phase of the mythology, and it was entirely incompatible with the later variants. The entire History of Middle Earth series is JRRT's own writings, with Christopher Tolkien's essays and notes trying to clarify and relate various versions of his father's ever changing and rarely completed versions of the Silmarillion. CJRT apparently regretted his interference, though, after having read the History of Middle Earth series, the only alternative to rewriting the chapter was not to have released a published version of the Silmarillion.
I wish Brian Herbert would have just released the notes that his father had written about the Dune backstory and the sequel to the final Dune books. Instead he released just awfully-written trash (Brian Herbert ain't no Frank Herbert).
Re:Oooo ya (Score:4, Insightful)
Robert Jordan pretty much up and died in the middle of finishing his last book In Memory of Light. Leaving his family, publisher, and fans pretty much hanging. The recently got Brandon Sanderson to finish up the work; a very good author btw (see Elantris and the Mistborn series) who pretty much churned out part 1 of 3 in a year off of Jordan's notes. He was originally contracted to do 1 book but found it impossible due to how many threads were left open. I for one, am happy to see a good author finishing up this series in the original author's spirit (and with his family's blessing). So, as a fan I have to say fuck you for trolling.
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But considering that the prologue is going to cost $2.99, the new book better be something like "Terminator 2" if it has to make the entire series popular.
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Thank you for that, agree 100%. Some people just seem intent on kicking Jordan when in fact his writing is pretty damn good. The story does drag a bit in the middle novels, but overall about 90% of the rest of fantasy writing is drivel compared to Jordan's stuff.
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Robert Jordan pretty much up and died in the middle of finishing his last book In Memory of Light.
Robert Jordan has been in "one book more" mode for half a dozen books right up until the part where he got sick and thought he might begin in the direction of moving the series towards a close. Even then, I think he was much too caught up in his own plot and writing style to have actually finished in one book or even three. Just judging by how few of the subplots that are closed that could have been closed, I don't think he was very good at keeping track himself. It wasn't a recurring case of going off on s
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How can people who never read it know that they don't like it?
It distresses me that fanboys like you are probably here on slashdot waving the flag of freedom of speech in almost every one of the several articles we get every week that deal with censorship, but whenever the subject of your fanboyism comes up you suddenly want to shut up everyone who disagrees with you ;)
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How can people who never read it know that it's garbage, either. How about you take a dose of your own medicine. If you don't like it, that's your perogotive, but don't start slamming anyone who calls out people who are basically talking shit about someone's books without actually having read them.
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Excuse me?? The parent wrote, and I quote,
you don't like his stuff don't read it.
I replied that if they don't read it, they can't know whether they like it or not.
In other words, you are agreeing with me, but implying that both I and the parent wrote the opposite of what we did, and that therefore you are agreeing with the parent.
don't start slamming anyone who calls out people who are basically talking shit about someone's books without actually having read them.
That's not what the parent did, what the parent did was try to dismiss the opinion of those who disliked the book after having read it. Otherwise he wouldn't have asked them not to read it.
When you are replying to somet
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While the OP's post may admittedly be flamebait and inappropriate, that is no reason to dismiss the opinions of the many OTHER people who are disappointed with the series and who chose to express that throughout this article's comments. The story is of interest to a lot of people; I don't remember slashdot stories being restricted to certain interest groups, and even if they were, it wouldn't be for you to decide who gets or doesn't get to post.
And an added comment about flamebaits:
fuck you for trolling.
Your mom
anal smartasses like yourself.
It's a very relative conc
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Sure. He said that - but I also recall that he added the caveat, "even if it means it's 2,000 pages +"
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Yes - because Jordan was probably sure that based on his condition, he wouldn't live to finish more than one book.
If you want to make the argument that he should have compressed books 7-10 into one or two books - I won't argue with that. I find it hard to believe though, that anyone who has actually read the whole series could believe the series could be conclude
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Sanderson is not the one who decided to split the book into three books; Jordan's wife is the one who made that call, and the one who is the editor and final decision maker on everything related to the final book(s). Get your facts straight.
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Having met Brandon Sanderson in person, and discussed the 3-books vs 1-book issue, I can tell you that it wasn't his idea. Tor decided they wanted something to publish this November. In order to meet that requirement while still delivering a coherent story, he had to tear what he had written apart (move some things ahead to the next book), and fill in the gaps with other stuff. Discussing the result with Tor and RJ's wife, Harriet (who is basically in charge of the Wheel of Time), it was decided to publi
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If after the third volume we can see that the three volumes were filled with needless fluff, then sure, we can say Brandon was making the books longer than necessary to get more money.
If after the third volume, we can see that the three were filled with needless fluff, then all we can say is that they're just like the previous six or seven books.
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What makes you think that? According to the article, the new author was selected by Robert Jordan's widow.
I think it is one of the most difficult jobs in the world to finish a bestseller series. You can almost never do it right. You are always "not the original author" and therefore second best or worse. I certainly hope that Mr Jordan left enough notes for the series to be finished in a consistent state. I think it takes a lot of courage to take up this task.
Oh. And I am grateful that I will know how the s
Re:Oooo ya (Score:4, Interesting)
I just look on the bright side - at least the new author will actually finish the series
You can say a lot about Jordan, both good and bad (my wife likes the series, I wouldn't have read it if it wasn't in the house already), but the man did not know how to finish a story. I suspect he would have died with the series unfinished, whether he died now or 50 years from now.
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I gave up -- terribly disappointed -- after the 4th or 5th book. Although I found his characters pretty misandric at times, I generally I thought Jordan did a great job of bringing characters to life in a world that held a lot of interest for me. The part that made me give up on him was the senseless addition of every cool character and plot twist he could come up with. (Did he ever tie up ANY of the loose ends he spun off with such abandon?) I came away thinking that he only cared about stringing his re
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Re:Oooo ya (Score:4, Insightful)
That's one take on it. The other is to give the faithful readers of the series a much needed conclusion to a story. When Wheel was introduced, it was touted as book 1 of a 9 part series. The first few books were fantastic. Then Jordan decided to stretch out the series so as not to kill his money maker. Book 13 came and went with no conclusion to the story in sight, and Jordan seemed to be milking descriptions of everything in his world for all they were worth in order to extend the series. Unfortunately, he then became ill and died. It's a tragedy for his family. But it's also a loss to millions of fans of his who are left with a story they have invested a lot of time and money in, with no conclusion or closure. I, as a reader, would welcome a competent author, going by Jordan's writing and notes, completing the series.
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Well, yes. I discovered the Wheel of Time just before high school, and hoped that the series would be over when I got to high school. No luck.
I got to high school, I finished high school, I went to college, to grad school, got my first job (and subsequent jobs), met the woman of my dreams, started grad school the second time around - and in all this while, the man still hadn't finished the series.
And then he died. While I do feel bad for his family, I certainly wasn't pleased as a reader. I had spent countl
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So you read books to reach the conclusion?
Reading must be quite disappointing for you then, since conclusions are hardly ever exciting.
The conclusion of The Wheel of Time appears quite deductible anyway, from all the elements and prophecies that were given throughout the books.
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This is just wrong.
They've said that the series was originally intended to be a trilogy. There have been only 11 books so far. This book will be the twelfth.
I don't know Jordan's reasons for extending the series. You are probably right that they were not honorable and everything after the 5th book was garbage, with the exception of Winter's Heart and Knife of Dreams, which were still only shadows of the first few books.
Overall, I wish I hadn't started the series, but now that I have, I'm kind of looking for
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At one time Jordan said it would be a trilogy. Then 6 books. When wheel was actually introduced in the stores, as I said, it was touted as 1 of 9. I still have the free book (just part of the first whole book) given out at the time. 1 of 9.
Yes, I typo'd on the came and went number. 11 came and went. 13 is the one that's being written at the moment, but won't finish it. Hopefully 14 will.
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You realize the first few books were standard cliche childish random-guy-gets-taught-he's-special-and-how-to-use-his-powers-to-save-the-world-against-the-reviving-evil-lord?
If you think *that* is fantastic, you must have a very shallow knowledge of fantasy.
What made the series good is the different simultaneous point of views and the interacting actions of each character and entity in the world (which simply weren't there in the first books, where Rand was the main protago
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If you think *that* is fantastic, you must have a very shallow knowledge of fantasy.
Gosh, gee-wilikers, I wish I had such an in-depth knowledge of fantasy as you. Piss off. If you have a different taste in books that's fine. If I happen to like something you don't, that's fine too.
since when is expanding a world to make it have more content and be more vivid a bad thing?
The goal is not to close up the series as quickly as possible, but to make it an interesting read.
When did I EVER say expanding a world
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When Wheel was introduced, it was touted as book 1 of a 9 part series.
Actually when the first Wheel of Time book was published, it was supposed to be the first in a trilogy ;)
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Uh... I've never heard of a book author who gets paid by the word. (Or do you have reason to believe Jordan was getting paid by the word?) Authors get paid based on how well their book sells. Sure, established authors might get advances, or larger advances, but either way it's based on the volume of book sales, not based on how much ink was used to print the book.
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Why have I not heard of him? Maybe I'll go torrent a couple of his books, and see if he can even write. The fact that some marketing agency is promoting this book is no indication that the author is even literate.
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I'd suggest you grab Warbreaker online for free, it's Brandon Sanderson's most recently published book; it was also available as a PDF through Brandon's website during the whole course of its writing.
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/drafts/warbreaker/Warbreaker_hardcover_1st_ed.pdf [brandonsanderson.com]
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She was also the editor of all of Jordan's books. Google is a fucking wonder, eh?
This is not whoredom, this is blessed relief (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not whoredom, this is blessed relief. I gave up on the series when I realized that the book I'd just read took 700 pages to get through... 45 minutes of real time? Or maybe it was a day, it's all lost in haze.
But anyone who's stuck to the series through however godawful books there are /needs/ an ending. They deserve an ending. I can't fault Tor here at all, they've done what they could.
I also don't envy Brandon Sanderson, having to slog through all of Jordan's books and notes and trying to make sense of it all and knowing it's probably a thankless job and the fans are going to hate you anyhow. The irony here is that Sanderson may be able to pull off something that Jordan himself would never have been able to pull off - actually ending the thing. You could see the Wheel of Time books as Zeno's Paradox in action. If with each book you only go half as far because you're cramming in twice as much detail, you will never reach the end. And I'm not sure Jordan ever would have been able to.
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Sanderson's said it's going to be three volumes, because Tor didn't want to print it in one large volume, and there was already an agreement to publish by the end of this year, and he hadn't finished it all anyway.
Neither. try 3... (Score:4, Interesting)
T
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Not really. Quite a few of the books in the series approached that number.
Of course, one of Jordan's greatest faults was his inability to break his stories down into manageable chunks. If Sanderson's able to do this, while preserving the spirit of the originals, I'd definitely approve of it.
Damn. Now I have to pick up where I left off with the series, and probably re-read the first bits given just how %*##&ing complex it is.
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T
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If you think Sanderson is not getting a full share of the royalties, you're deluding yourself.
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He's getting paid separately for each book (he told me so in person), but it wasn't his idea to split the story into three volumes. Tor wanted to publish something this year (in November), but the story wasn't finished, so they asked him if there was a convenient place to split it; he's just doing what his publisher and editor want him to do.
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No, you're actually about right. The WoT books are typically around 800 pages (only one that I can remember broke 1000, and a few were in the 600s). Sanderson's conclusion was going to be over 1200 (but not by a huge amount, IIRC) and wouldn't have been finished by the end of this year (when it was promised). He would ahve split it into two books about the length of the rest of the series, but there was no good splitting point near the middle. So he split it into three books, each substantially shorter than
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Re:2 books or one book? (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite. (Score:2)
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RJ actually wrote some stuff himself; it wasn't all just notes and scribbling. He wrote a fair bit of the book(s) himself in different sections, and Brandon Sanderson is filling in the gaps. So the chapter you're praising for being better than RJ's writing may actually, you know, be RJ's writing.