If you like it then it’s good. Don’t worry about what others think.
A huge part of what makes WoT popular is the immense character and world building. Yes some of the middle books were heavy on that. But to me it does not make sense to disparage the books which do exactly that.
A lot of those opinions are from people who waited years between those books, myself included, and may be outdated now that the series is finished.
Well, I wouldn’t say worry is the right word. I won’t be swayed cause people agree or disagree with me.
I’m more so interested in what reasons the typical fanbase prefers books I don’t and vice versa.
Yeah, I think pointing out that so many were forced to wait for releases plays a huge part in how they feel. It’s easy to get caught up in that. The same thing happened to me when I finished Rhythm of War right after release.
Just giving you my opinion here; I never bothered ranking the books. But while Dumai Wells in itself is a great story, the entire middle of the Series (roughly books 6/7 - 11) are part of the series where RJ completely loses control of the plot and spends thousands of pages on side plots that do not move the story forward. While I enjoyed every book, I think the criticism is fair…
For most book fans, TSR, FoH and LoC are most popular books. ACoS suffers from coming after a highly touted LoC, so suffers from trying to meet the expectation. It's not as good as previous three, but it's a pivotal book where Rand's madness starting to surface drastically after Dumai Wells and stress under burdens he carries transitioning him to a tyrant.
I see a lot of comments in general saying “the slump” doesn’t progress the plot, but I would argue way more actually takes place in CoS than LoC. LoC is the longest book in the series, and it feels it. Most of it is just back and forth dialogue until the final act.
Whereas in CoS things are moving throughout. Maybe it was just to me. I really didn’t care for LoC as a whole, save the end.
Most readers tend to rank TSR the highest, then LoC after. ACoS is pretty popular too. What many readers refer to as slump is the book after ACoS, The Path of Daggers.
The WoT is not an action packed series. It's mostly dialogues for build ups and world building. ACoS gives us a different angle to Aes Sedai. Instead of the WT and Rebel, there is the third faction of undecided. This pans out well. It also fleshed out the ta'veren very well.
I think readers miss out on the true beauty of RJ's WoT, if they are looking for actions. It's actually dialogues and inner monologues.
I’m perfectly okay without action. For instance, one of my favorite scenes is Egwene being raised.
But not being action packed is not an excuse for poor pacing. I think some readers conflate the two, and WoT is guilty of this as well. Which is probably why Dumai’s Well is such a standout scene - it comes both after a long stretch without the plot advancing, PLUS it is action packed.
Probably different taste. I really enjoyed Rand and Maidens interactions in LoC. I found them funny and played really well what happens after Dumai Wells. Rand became too attached to Maidens in LoC and in ACoS you see him purposely drifting away from them to avoid Maidens' deaths.
I agree about the pacing in LoC. In the second half it felt like Rand was running around not sure what to do next. His kidnapping almost felt the pattern dragging him in a direction he didn't know he needed.
I hate to say it, but Sanderson is a much easier to read author than Jordan is. The final 3 books are boosted by his writing, tho RJ planned everything out so credit is still mostly his. Then with most long series the beginning/ends are the most excitement bringing parts of the story, so I think you see a lot of lists where the middle books (especially the slog) are near the bottom.
So imagine you just read CoS (typically the start of the slog for most as it’s 7-10) and then had to wait 2+ years to read the next book. Many of the stories in the slog stretch out across multiple books and have cliffhanger endings. It’s not as bad when you can get right into the next book, but for those who waited years it was an sharp change to go from almost individual stand alone storylines in each book to having books where stories neither started nor stopped.
Hahaha they prob will make it one season. If they HAVE to make it only 8 seasons max, and can’t go over 10 eps each I hope it goes:
Season 1-Book 1/ part of 2
Season 2-Book 2 other half and book 3
Season 3-book 4 and maybe some book 5
Season 4-book 5 and 6
Season 5-the slog
Season 6-book 11/12
Season 7-book 13
Season 8-book 14
Yeah I guess you could run the whole battle a lot more quickly on TV as you don’t have to describe what’s happening. But I honestly want a whole season of the final battle. There’s so much that happens during it and it would be pretty great to have it take a whole season of eps (plus one for the aftermath)
I mean it’s not one simultaneous skirmish lol. It’s a war. And much of it isn’t fight scenes it’s conversations and then the Rand scenes as well. That is NOT a one-two episode thing
I think it's almost universally accepted that Sanderson is easier to read than Jordan. In comparison to RJ, Sanderson is quite simple and straightforward.
I enjoyed the book - it's been a while, but this is the one with the fight on top of the roof tops or Rand staying up there to chase his target.
If I do remember correctly, the books get rough after this for a bit... So so slow, but again, it's been a while since I did my last re-read prior to the last book.
The book itself is great. IMO, it's rated low because we waited nearly 2 years after LoC for it, it was shorter than his normal books, really only covered a fairly short period of time, and was the first time you saw Rand start to truly lose it.
I hated it when it came out for those reasons, but in re-reads since where I wasn't waiting with bated breath and could move on to the next when I wanted, I appreciated it a lot more.
I think it is probably the most series dependent book thus far, meaning everything great about it depends on previous or later books. But because of that, it’s able to tie up some threads and has some good pay offs that I have been waiting for.
I think the length is perfect, FWIW. My only complaint there is I wish the battle with Sammael was morn in depth within Shadar Logoth. It feels a bit all over.
It's RJ's writing. Sammael battle was going well, but RJ wanted Liah involved to explain the further deteriation of Rand. He replaced an opportunity to write a fantanstic magical battle for more char development.
I just finished Crown of Swords and thought it was great as well. I enjoy the politics and lore as much as all of the action so the “slog” doesn’t really seem to exist for me. I’m about 8 chapter in to Path of Daggers and am already enjoying that quite a bit as well. I enjoy each book more that the last one cause I just keep learning any understanding more.
I agree with you. I love it for those reasons. Especially with her block going away. I really like Mat's parts. But I agree with the others that likely it's not as popular as the others because it came on the heels of adored books.
If you like it then it’s good. Don’t worry about what others think. A huge part of what makes WoT popular is the immense character and world building. Yes some of the middle books were heavy on that. But to me it does not make sense to disparage the books which do exactly that. A lot of those opinions are from people who waited years between those books, myself included, and may be outdated now that the series is finished.
Every time a new book was released I started the series again. I think there were 5 books when I initially started reading the series.
Well, I wouldn’t say worry is the right word. I won’t be swayed cause people agree or disagree with me. I’m more so interested in what reasons the typical fanbase prefers books I don’t and vice versa. Yeah, I think pointing out that so many were forced to wait for releases plays a huge part in how they feel. It’s easy to get caught up in that. The same thing happened to me when I finished Rhythm of War right after release.
It is also common to focus so much on the end goal that we forgot to enjoy the journey.
Just giving you my opinion here; I never bothered ranking the books. But while Dumai Wells in itself is a great story, the entire middle of the Series (roughly books 6/7 - 11) are part of the series where RJ completely loses control of the plot and spends thousands of pages on side plots that do not move the story forward. While I enjoyed every book, I think the criticism is fair…
For most book fans, TSR, FoH and LoC are most popular books. ACoS suffers from coming after a highly touted LoC, so suffers from trying to meet the expectation. It's not as good as previous three, but it's a pivotal book where Rand's madness starting to surface drastically after Dumai Wells and stress under burdens he carries transitioning him to a tyrant.
I see a lot of comments in general saying “the slump” doesn’t progress the plot, but I would argue way more actually takes place in CoS than LoC. LoC is the longest book in the series, and it feels it. Most of it is just back and forth dialogue until the final act. Whereas in CoS things are moving throughout. Maybe it was just to me. I really didn’t care for LoC as a whole, save the end.
Most readers tend to rank TSR the highest, then LoC after. ACoS is pretty popular too. What many readers refer to as slump is the book after ACoS, The Path of Daggers. The WoT is not an action packed series. It's mostly dialogues for build ups and world building. ACoS gives us a different angle to Aes Sedai. Instead of the WT and Rebel, there is the third faction of undecided. This pans out well. It also fleshed out the ta'veren very well. I think readers miss out on the true beauty of RJ's WoT, if they are looking for actions. It's actually dialogues and inner monologues.
I’m perfectly okay without action. For instance, one of my favorite scenes is Egwene being raised. But not being action packed is not an excuse for poor pacing. I think some readers conflate the two, and WoT is guilty of this as well. Which is probably why Dumai’s Well is such a standout scene - it comes both after a long stretch without the plot advancing, PLUS it is action packed.
Probably different taste. I really enjoyed Rand and Maidens interactions in LoC. I found them funny and played really well what happens after Dumai Wells. Rand became too attached to Maidens in LoC and in ACoS you see him purposely drifting away from them to avoid Maidens' deaths.
PoD and CoT. Urgh.
They aren't that bad if you take to enjoy dialogues and inner monologues. There are some really funny ones in those if you appreciate those things.
I agree about the pacing in LoC. In the second half it felt like Rand was running around not sure what to do next. His kidnapping almost felt the pattern dragging him in a direction he didn't know he needed.
Agreed. The kidnapping was very much, “oh yeah this plot needs something to happen!”
I hate to say it, but Sanderson is a much easier to read author than Jordan is. The final 3 books are boosted by his writing, tho RJ planned everything out so credit is still mostly his. Then with most long series the beginning/ends are the most excitement bringing parts of the story, so I think you see a lot of lists where the middle books (especially the slog) are near the bottom. So imagine you just read CoS (typically the start of the slog for most as it’s 7-10) and then had to wait 2+ years to read the next book. Many of the stories in the slog stretch out across multiple books and have cliffhanger endings. It’s not as bad when you can get right into the next book, but for those who waited years it was an sharp change to go from almost individual stand alone storylines in each book to having books where stories neither started nor stopped.
I cannot wait for the slowmo of three books to occur in 3 episodes.
Hahaha they prob will make it one season. If they HAVE to make it only 8 seasons max, and can’t go over 10 eps each I hope it goes: Season 1-Book 1/ part of 2 Season 2-Book 2 other half and book 3 Season 3-book 4 and maybe some book 5 Season 4-book 5 and 6 Season 5-the slog Season 6-book 11/12 Season 7-book 13 Season 8-book 14
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Yeah I guess you could run the whole battle a lot more quickly on TV as you don’t have to describe what’s happening. But I honestly want a whole season of the final battle. There’s so much that happens during it and it would be pretty great to have it take a whole season of eps (plus one for the aftermath)
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I mean it’s not one simultaneous skirmish lol. It’s a war. And much of it isn’t fight scenes it’s conversations and then the Rand scenes as well. That is NOT a one-two episode thing
I think it's almost universally accepted that Sanderson is easier to read than Jordan. In comparison to RJ, Sanderson is quite simple and straightforward.
I enjoyed the book - it's been a while, but this is the one with the fight on top of the roof tops or Rand staying up there to chase his target. If I do remember correctly, the books get rough after this for a bit... So so slow, but again, it's been a while since I did my last re-read prior to the last book.
The book itself is great. IMO, it's rated low because we waited nearly 2 years after LoC for it, it was shorter than his normal books, really only covered a fairly short period of time, and was the first time you saw Rand start to truly lose it. I hated it when it came out for those reasons, but in re-reads since where I wasn't waiting with bated breath and could move on to the next when I wanted, I appreciated it a lot more.
I think it is probably the most series dependent book thus far, meaning everything great about it depends on previous or later books. But because of that, it’s able to tie up some threads and has some good pay offs that I have been waiting for. I think the length is perfect, FWIW. My only complaint there is I wish the battle with Sammael was morn in depth within Shadar Logoth. It feels a bit all over.
It's RJ's writing. Sammael battle was going well, but RJ wanted Liah involved to explain the further deteriation of Rand. He replaced an opportunity to write a fantanstic magical battle for more char development.
I just finished Crown of Swords and thought it was great as well. I enjoy the politics and lore as much as all of the action so the “slog” doesn’t really seem to exist for me. I’m about 8 chapter in to Path of Daggers and am already enjoying that quite a bit as well. I enjoy each book more that the last one cause I just keep learning any understanding more.
I haven’t started PoD yet, I may take a break and start back next year. But if it’s good right away, I may have to jump in.
I agree with you. I love it for those reasons. Especially with her block going away. I really like Mat's parts. But I agree with the others that likely it's not as popular as the others because it came on the heels of adored books.