Don't get mad at me.....I just wrote the damn thing

[Great Lord of the Dark]

Have any of you ever felt at one point that the Wheel of Time is just like any other book series? That's how I feel right now.

 

Of course the Wheel of Time is a great series, but is it better than any of the others? Is it worth reading to your unborn child day after day?

 

I'm not trying to diss the series. Robert Jordan is in my opinion the greatest writer since God wrote the Bible. (or told the people to write it)

 

What I'm saying is, that the series is getting boring. It's over 20 years old and it still isn't finished. I've been patient, and even though each book is better than the last, it just doesn't come soon enough for me.

 

I'm just saying that the series is getting boring for me and that I am officially not posting or what-not on Dragonmount until after A Memory of Light is published.

 

Goodbye my non-friends

 

 

 

 

p.s. If you feel this is a complete waste of topic space, than go ---- yourself

[42Bonzo88]

      :( :( :(To Great Lord of the Dark, I don't think that this is a waste of space and even if I did, I don't think I would try your suggestion.

 

      The series has taken a long time, I will not deny that, some of the pages have been boring, I agree with everything you said, but I hope you will also take into account that RJ is human.  I have attempted to write a little myself and it is not at all an easy task. There has been a long time between books, but can you imagine how hard it must be with so many things going on in the books to keep track of it all? Writing a book of over 1000 pages, plus getting edited, published, and maybe having a life while your at it, I would think 2 years and we should be grateful for a new book. Not only a new book, but a great book. It's like you said, yourself, all of the books do get better, would you rather every 6 mos. to get a book that you say to yourself. "Well, that was a waste of my time, it wasn't as good as it could have been."

 

    Not to be a complete jerk, because I do agree with some of the things, but not coming back here won't get AMOL here any sooner. I hope you change your mind and come back. If you don't, ??

[Leopoled Boothe]

Well, aren't you aptly named.

 

Of course the Wheel of Time is a great series, but is it better than any of the others? Is it worth reading to your unborn child day after day?

 

I supose that's a matter of opinion.  For my part WOT is my favorite fantasy series, better even than J.K Rowling, better even than the great Tolkein.  None the less, I have often been frustrated by the long wait between books and with the overall legnth of the series, so I understand where you're comming from.  However, I think once its all said a done well be glad that the story was told in its entirity and that the individual volumes weren't rushed.  And keep in mind that while the wait between KoD and AMOL will be about twice as long as the wait between the other books that this was unavoidable given the extreme cirumstances.  Getting frustrate over it borders on disrespectfull.

 

And the series is not 20 years old.  TEotW was published in 1990 thus making the series only 18 years old (its old enough to vote).

 

Lastly, the whole "non-friends" thing was a bit harsh don't you think?  It is not the fault of anyone on this board that this is a particularly long series or that we have had to wait an average of 2 years between each book.  Taking your frustrations out on Dragonmount members will not get AMoL here any more quickly. I understand how you feel but you could have expressed this sentiment in a much more respectfull manner.

[bRANDan]

Have any of you ever felt at one point that the Wheel of Time is just like any other book series? That's how I feel right now.

 

Of course the Wheel of Time is a great series, but is it better than any of the others? Is it worth reading to your unborn child day after day?

 

I see his point of view. I've only been on Dragonmount for several months now and I don't have many questions regarding the books left and all except my loosest theories have been given voice. Also since reading books by George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Steven Erikson, and David Anthony Durham I have come to realize that WoT isn't so far above and beyond any other books or series. WoT is an amazing series, but there are many amazing series. Don't get me wrong, WoT is still my favorite, but only by a slim margin. If RJ would have cut the series down by two books, heck even just one book, I think this series would have been much better. A little more compact writing style in mundane areas, such as when Rand is walking through the Waste and recalling what occurred the previous week that passed off-screen, could have sped up the series with no loss. I think the first 6 books altogether could have been shortened only by a few hundred pages, as the pacing was good in these early books. In books 7-10 I think he could have lost or compacted at least an entire books worth of material, while book 11 seems to get back on track with the proper pacing. You all know it to be true, how many times have you decided to skip certain chapters during your rereads? The giveaway is that you can skip those chapters/passages without missing anything impertinent to the story. But besides the pacing, and the women being slightly more childish than they need to be, everything else is gold. Only two series have had scenes that have been able to invoke such powerful emotions in me , Acacia-David Anthony Durham, and WoT.

 

So I get what he's saying, and why he's temporarily leaving Dragonmount because of it. But as for myself, what would I do during lunch/breaks?

 

P.S.- AMoL will, IMHO, be the best in the series

P.P.S.- I also am not fond of the way the books rehash what you learn in previous books, re-explaining the One Power and such, that was wasted space. Who starts a series at book 6? Why do we have to rehash things we've already learned in the beginning of every book? For the miniscule percentage that decide to read WoT from some improper place? Can you expect to be allowed to start the 400 metre dash 7/12's of the way through without consequence, then maybe later finish the first half? If RJ had had Brandon Sanderson's or David Anthony Durham's compact-yet-dense writing style I'm sure the series could have been finished in 9 books or less.

P.P.P.S.- Early on he did pump out the books at a decent pace, a book every 1-2 years, compare that to George R.R. Martins pace of a book evry 3-5 years, only later on did they begin to get spaced further apart. If that is your worry though, pick up Steven Erikson's A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, great series, prodigious writer, more than one book a year, all you need to know is this; the series starts on a continent not shown on the map, and the first 200 pages of the first book are the hardest to get through due to the sheer amount of new information contained therein.

[Jonn]

After reading this I think I've gotten a better grasp of people pushing the panic button on this series. I, myself, have been eager to see the end for a long time now, but I've never felt the need to criticize RJ as a result.

 

I've cherished every single page, every sentence. Sounds like a blind fanatic yes? No so much. I think we as fans will feel much the same once it's all over. We'll be wishing, hungry for more.

 

This kind of tantrum being thrown out at us publicly, this happens with just about any long running series in every medium. TV, movies, you name it.

 

Think of the Lord of the Rings movies. How many whiny complaints have we all heard about how long the ending is? Trust me, if Peter Jackson had left out any of those scenes and the word got out that he actually filmed them, people would be whining about why he didn't include those parts as well somehow. They'd claim he just wanted to keep it out to sell a collectors edition later. He still got those complaints when he released the extended versions on DVD.

 

People whined about the Sopranos series going on for too long and how long it took to get through the seasons, yet when the ending didn't really seem like an ending that was conclusive, people started groaning about it. They started rumors that the writer wanted to do more for a movie. So in essence, they were anticipating more.

 

Hey, I'm not immune to such sentiments. I went through watching the first season of both Lost and Heroes and ended up hating both series by episode one of the next season. Lost is so annoying because you sit there for hour after hour until the end of the season and you realize by the end that you haven't gone anywhere really. It's like Gilligan's Island except you don't know what the hell is going on. All you know is that these poor schmucks aren't going to get off this stinking island. Heroes built and built and built, tore it all down in the season finale and basically by the start of the next season, they told us: "SIKE! All of that build? Yeah, we didn't really mean it. It's literally like a comic book where nobody really dies, they just change their costumes.

 

I digress.

 

If you compare RJ to these examples, he's so special. He's made this world so intimate for us, so deep. If you read what Brandon Sanderson muses about the series in his blog, he makes a great point. Around the time when most people start complaining about RJ becoming "boring" is about the time when it seems like he's made the decision to write the books not as separate novels but he's made the assumption that the audience gets that he's writing one large book in 12 installments. The result is, pretty much that books 7 through 11 pretty much seem to meld together with certain events that stand out. If you're like me though, many of the major events of these novels, sometimes are hard to recall what book they happened in. For instance, I often can't remember in what book the Bowl of Winds was used. Same thing goes for what book Nynaeve breaks through her block. If I think about it long enough, it comes to me, but in general, I have to think about it. I do know the Cleansing happened in Winter's Heart because it is my favorite of the second half of the series. For the most part though, most of the events meld together.

 

Yeah, it sucks when you have to wait and wait for the series to finally end, but will it not be worth it? Sucks for RJ. He didn't make it to the end. He died trying to finish his tale for us and we have the audacity to pout about how long it takes?

 

Granted, I'm not the nicest person you could meet, but I'm certainly not THAT cold.

 

I can understand Great Lord of the Dark's frustration to some degree though. Not about the books. I guess, about the community of fans. It's hard to come to grips when you feel like an outsider amongst people you expect would feel similar feelings to your own. BIG wake up call for me over the last year or so hanging around here. Sure we argue and discuss points just like before, but over the past year or so I've been feeling pretty distant from the majority of the people who post in these particular forums. When I first started hanging around here, it was more carefree, more about us all being fans. Even heated arguments about things like Asmodean were more on the side of playful jousting. Everyone would get their shot in but in the end we'd all raise our visors in respect for one another, as a fan community.

 

When Great Lord of the Dark says:

Goodbye my non-friends

 

...that kind of brought me to think about it all.

 

As a personal rule, I generally don't make "friends" on the internet. I've met people who I consider friends, but I don't come around looking for friends. Still, I remember that the whole vibe here on this site was a lot friendlier before.

 

Currently, I don't think that there's even one active personality here that I even feel friendly towards. I used to feel friendly towards pretty much everyone a couple of years ago. there were maybe one or two I could do without reading their posts, but...I don't know.

 

The fan scene more than the series has gone pretty stale for me. 

 

I go far afield again...The topic is about the books being like other series?

 

Naw...never. The books are the only thing really that keep me around here. News, however mundane interests me. Some things that people say are worth a look. And like the rest of you, I am waiting patiently, hopeful of the end of the series and when that ending comes, I'll be glad for every sniff of an Aes Sedai, every tug of Nynaeve's braid, every time someone's hackles go up....every single time the flame and void is explained. I'll be glad for it and wish there were more.

[Corbett]

BLAPHEMY!!!!!!! Yes i would read it to my unborn child. When i get attached to something i become a diehard, just ask my friends about my hockey issues.

[Lille]

I good book in my opinion is a book where the story is going forward, but you dont want it to end. Everytime i finish reading a series of books i get a little sad knowing there will be no storys about the characters i have come to like :'(

 

So reading AMoL will be a sad thing to me, just knowing it ends there :/

[Guest Dreadlord]

Of all the books I have read this series is my favorite. Not just because of the great storyline and the smart characters, but more because of how intricate a piece of work it is. It really is that; look at the amount of foreshadowing RJ put in there, all the small hints of events yet to come. RJ was the master. I have never read a book that makes me so eager for the next one. And I have never read a set of books where there are so many that follow on directly with no spin offs. The characters develop on such a big scale that it dwarfs anything else I have read in a book or seen in a film, and we know for a fact that some of the best bits-many, in fact-are yet to come. I am thinking of Moiraines return as the one I am looking forward to most.

 

I am an aspiring writer and I have learned a lot from Wheel of Time. RJ expands the story so that it isnt just about Rand, Mat and Perrin anymore; he begins to focus on a wider range of "main characters" to make it more like five or six main storylines all roped into one.

 

If I have learned one thing from Wheel of Time it is that you cannot have the protagonist do everything on his/her own. Sure, it is great to see Rand take out the Forsaken, to see him develop even further, to see exactly how hard he is. But if Rand took out each Forsaken on his own, or dealt with every problem by himself, the series would have lost 90% of its depth. Another thing that I admire about RJ is the way he set the limits with the One Power, and then had people begin to break those limits, without spoiling it. It is very hard to create a set of rules for magic/powers that seem realistic, and very easy to ruin that system when someone pushes the boundaries. Yet RJ did exactly that; Nynaeve being the earliest I can think of when she Healed Logain.

 

So yes, I do think the series is better than any I have read. I think if RJ is looking down on the world he should be proud of himself for what he left behind. Very proud indeed.

[benr]

At the risk of furthering my "non-friend" status (an opinion shared by many who actually know me, so how can I be offended?), I think GLOD was looking for reactions - maybe not quite so PO'd as it sounds.  Anyhoo - there are plenty of posters to go around.

[aevogt]

And here I thought it was supposed to be dificult to get rid of the great lord of the dark.  someone should tell sanderson that all you have to do is try his patience.

[Elgee]

*giggles*

 

Does anyone else now have an image in their head of the Dark One in diapers, throwing a tantrum and tossing all his toys out of his cot?

[xander]

I think I would have to agree with you, GLotD.  The series should have ended several books ago and I believe that RJ himself sort of stated that and basically admitted that when he realized that he was sitting on a cash cow, he intentionally drew things out.

Right now I am completely with you on craving the end.  Its long over due, just as Goodkind's ending to the Sword of Truth was long over due.  However, the worst of The Wheel is one hell of a lot better than the best of Goodkind.

My point is simply that 18 years is too long for a story line where the characters only age a few years.  What at first was an awesomely good read with new and inexperienced characters doing their best and inmaturly bumbling their way along has become annoying as 18 years later they have only aged a few years and are still inexperienced and inmature and still mostly bumbling their way along.  The original audience has outpaced the storyline. Now if I just now pickked up a copy and could speed through the series I would most likely think it grand.  But since I've been in it for the long haul I'm just ready for it too end.

 

And criticism of Jordan's work isn't disrespectful.  His body of work will be both criticized and appreciatedlong after all of us are dead and gone as well.

[Majsju]

The series should have ended several books ago and I believe that RJ himself sort of stated that and basically admitted that when he realized that he was sitting on a cash cow, he intentionally drew things out.

 

He has never admitted any such thing, nor has he done any such thing.

[benr]

Unless proven otherwise, I'm inclined to go with Majsju here.  It always seemed to me that RJ simply developed so many characters that he cared about that it took way longer to tell their stories than he originally planned.  Characters that he originally planned as minor took on such a life of their own that they needed to be fleshed out.  The main folks grew and changed so much that a quick finish became impossible.  It was very difficult for him to say goodbye to them - as it will be for me.  Much of what passes for fantasy is puerile and/or stilted compared to WOT.  The stilted even applies to Tolkien (Lord of the Rings; not so much The Hobbit).  Donaldson preaches too much.  Puerile sometimes applies to Brooks.  The WOT stands alone as the best fantasy world ever created.  There is so much room for individual interpretation by each of us BECAUSE of the depth of the story, the charaters, and the world RJ created.  I'm jealous of everyone that has never read WOT and picks up The Eye of The World for the first time.  (My son read Ender's Shadow before Ender's Game, and I am forever jealous of his skewed perspective of the series - I can never duplicate it.)  I guess what I'm saying is I don't get the venom.

[Leopoled Boothe]

The series should have ended several books ago and I believe that RJ himself sort of stated that and basically admitted that when he realized that he was sitting on a cash cow, he intentionally drew things out.

 

I make it a point to read every interview, letter, dictation, news article, magazine blurb or grafitti on the bathroom wall if it is penned by or pertains to Robert Jordan, and I have never seen where he said anything of the sort.  In fact in the past few years it seems that he was feeling just the opposite, that he was anxious to wrap up the WOT main sequence and get on to his "Infinity of Heavens" series.  None the less, he refused to rush WOT to its conclusion.  The man stated that he had 30 years worth of ideas to turn into novels so there certainly was no reason that he should want to linger on WOT.  Lastly, authors who write for the sake of making money get themselves established and then crank out 300 page pieces of crap every six months, they don't take two years to perfect 700+ page masterpieces.

 

And I agree that  it is not disrespectfull to critisize Mr. Jordans work.  It is, however, disrespectfull to whine about the long wait between KoD and AMoL considering the circumstances that caused AMoL's delay. 

[Jonn]

OK, what is it about some people that they have to drag Goodkind into every discussion about RJ and whether he sold out?

 

First of all RJ didn't sell out. He poured every single ounce of himself into this series and it's a shame that people still doubt that or fail to realize that.

 

I have never read a Goodkind novel. I don't read  and haven't read much fantasy besides Wheel of Time, a few books by Sanderson of late, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion...

 

The Wheel of time series is enough fantasy for any one person frankly speaking. I am often astonished by how many people claim they despise Goodkind's work, but have not only read a good portion of it, they've made it a point to talk about him in an almost pathologically compulsive manner when it comes to topics like this. It's disturbing.

 

I must admit, I did enjoy the Harry Potter series. It was so casually entertaining, I just fell into it. Besides that series and the tolkien works, I really haven't read anything close to approaching the enjoyment I have gotten out of reading RJ's work. Sanderson's stuff is pretty good too, but sorry to say, the whole body of his work combined couldn't touch the third best installment of RJ's world. I think Sanderson will do well as he complete's RJ's epic, but it will still be RJ's. I think Sanderson has the chops and he will no doubt grow by leaps and bounds after completion of book 12.

 

I do grow quite tired of the obnoxious caveat some put on RJ's series, that he stretched it out for the money.

"Oh, I think it's the best series out there BUT..."

 

That so chicken****.  What do you think you're proving by being half a fan? You either like it and respect it, or you don't. You can't like the series but still have the nerve to disrespect it...I don't get that.

You can respect something but not like it, but not the other way around. You could, but it just seems so dishonorable. Why would you do that? It's chicken****.

 

If you like the series, respect it. Respect the man who brought you that joy.

 

Who gives a crap about Goodkind?

[Razor]

I think what GLOTD is saying is that

 

The big questions are either answered, or can't be answered.

 

Answered re who are the reborn forsaken, Olver is not Gaidal Can but a vehicle to introduce the Snakes and Foxes game to Matt and us. 

 

Ie who is Demandred or Messana and who killed Asmodean?  Who is black...will there be a big surprise like Verin or Perin's step father, as I drew a blank on the Generals name.  Are there 13 black sisters with the borderlanders and what are they up to?

 

Will there be a body swap or how will it end.

 

The most fun threads are things like favorite quotes, scenes, battles or what are you looking forward to, like Moraine returning and who will she meet and how will they react.  Rand meeting Moraine and Tam (and seeing his reaction to Rands harem, LOL), Berelain meeting Galad, Perin meeting Bornhold and Child Byar, the wonder Girls, his sister, and Rand finding out who Matt has become...great general (of course Rand already knows this) and Prince of the Ravens; Thom, Gawayn, Galad and Elayne meeting Morgase,  Galad learning Rand is his brother. 

 

All there topics have been lots of fun.  But the fights over pillow friends and the minor nuances of how this does or does not work are less interesting to me.

 

We are all anxious for the next bood, in part because we want to know/see the above, in part because we love the books and in part because we are anxious as to how true to Robert Jordans standards and style that BS will be.  Because of this we are on pins and needles.

 

So I can understnad and appreciate GLOTD's post.

[Graendals favourite]

I think what has made the series longer is that RJ has felt he wants to flesh everything out so you really experience what you read. I think he had a fairly good idea about the various plotlines when he put out tEotW, you may recall he spent some five or six years on that, if not the actual writing. The scope of the series is one aspect of what makes it so great, it is not a single volume work but a twelve + volume work. So you have a complete world, a good sense of history, different cultures and 100+ pov characters doing their best at whatever they are after. You have a sense of purpose to what they do.

 

I think perhaps the theories to be made were different when, in terms of plotlines and characters, the work was expanding, than now when things are being taken to a conclusion and a lot of the plotlines will meet. In a way there is much less room for the theories, because everything for the conclusion is laid out, and what happens happens with what we already know. Not that I don't expect there will be surprises, on the contrary I expect RJ to surprise everyone, but nevertheless the board is set. Making a theory feels more like speculating on the future in real life, perhaps in that regard it can be frustrating because you cannot do anything other than wait for it here.

 

On this last though, it has been the same for every book, then when you get the book you get anguish because the book is less than 1000 pages long, and while every page is a treasure, soon you will be back to waiting again. Though on the last book, I did somehow manage to leave it sitting on the table for a few days while I was still rereading CoT, a kind of expression of abstinence or reverence perhaps. These are not books to rush through, after all, and while I have only waited for six of them, the process has been a very good lesson in patience: You have to wait for the good things, and there are things that are special like that. Rubbish you can always experience, you only need to open television and it is force-fed on you. I do have books that, if they are sitting on a shelf unread, it is not because I dare not open them yet...

[BlackveiledTaraboner]

Slightly off topic, one of you mentioned the rehashing of definitions and explanations at the beginnings of each book...this..drives..me..nuts. And it isn't just WoT, Harry Potter had such an over abundance of this I wanted to scream...

 

By the second book, you know what saidar and saidin are, you know male channelers go mad, you know about the gleeman's cloak, and so on and so on....How many words could've been cut out with the removal of those bits? I just wanted to say I'm glad someone else shares this annoyance with me! ;D

[Jonn]

Slightly off topic, one of you mentioned the rehashing of definitions and explanations at the beginnings of each book...this..drives..me..nuts. And it isn't just WoT, Harry Potter had such an over abundance of this I wanted to scream...

 

By the second book, you know what saidar and saidin are, you know male channelers go mad, you know about the gleeman's cloak, and so on and so on....How many words could've been cut out with the removal of those bits? I just wanted to say I'm glad someone else shares this annoyance with me! ;D

 

I started reading this series with The Shadow Rising. I started reading it in class because the teacher had nothing for us to do that day except read quietly. I was bored so I picked out the fattest book intending to just pretend to read it on my way to spacing out. So I open in to about the middle and actually read the first paragraph on the page.

It explained about a young man named Perrin and a girl named Faile (which I though was pronounced "Fail" as in you failed this last quiz). They go into this inn and talk to some people and eventually the innkeeper informs him that his family was killed. All of them. The way he reacted just caught me. He was too calm, too dead about it. Then the girl started to push him and act all weird and this made him eventually let go and cry.

 

Before I knew it, class was over and I had read about Perrin and his companions, one was an "Ogier" named Loial, and an Aiel named Gaul and two "Maidens of the Spear"...I had no idea what that all meant. Later on they met some "Aes Sedai", didn't know what that was either. I convinced my teacher to let me keep the book for a while. I never gave it back, she told me to keep it, it was mine. So, I started from the beginning to see if I could figure out this main character Perrin and his quest to save his village...I started the book and I was confused about all of this stuff about a Dragon and The Stone, and Warders and Forsaken. I was thikning, I thought this was about Perrin.

I saw that there was a glossary and I read the whole thing, but still was having a hard time getting what all of it meant, so I said screw it. I just read the whole thing. Being a dumb kid at the time, it took me a while to realize that it was one book in a series of books and I had started right in the middle. The Fires of Heaven would be released that summer.

 

I guess my point is, I had to read the book and get all of the explanations of how things work while in the flow of the narrative. I had no idea what anything was, I had not started at the beginning, but by the time I was done with the book, I felt I understood all of the magic systems and I could follow most of the plot, even though I had not read the first three volumes.

 

This was the value of the exposition to me. I fell in love with that world in the middle of its unfolding. It was made that much easier by RJ making the effort to immerse me into the world as if the first look I've had into it was that random page in the middle of the book, which was the fourth one in the series.

 

Who knows, perhaps some 8th grader is bored in class right now and there's a stack of paperbacks in the back of the class on a shelf, one of them being Knife of Dreams. She opens up the volume in the middle not expecting much and she reads the first paragraph about this "Ogier" guy named Loial, and his girlfriend and his mom are bothering him about leaving the "Stedding". They have weird ears like elves that flicker like a horse's and they're obsessed with facial hair...Later there's this huge battle with monsters and all this weird stuff about death gates and Saldeans and Ashamans and Aes Sedai. There's this lady named Nynaeve and she's married to this prince or soldier or warder guy and she sends him off...People are crying and laughing and...

[BlackveiledTaraboner]

I guess you missed that bit on the front "sequel to...."  :P

I have to (grudgingly! lol j/k) admit I feel where you are coming from. It gets old after the 300th time you go through something similar though ya know? Ah if only the book could look at you and go "ok this guy knows a bit...i can ditch chapters 7 and 22...shorten this pov a biiit...there, ready to read..."

[bRANDan]

I just think it would be really nice if you could special order the WoT series as a set that read straight through continuously, as an unbroken story. Usually for the first two chapters of each POV I feel like I'm reading scenes that are meant more to familiarize the reader with the character rather than to progress the story. To create a continuous set wouldn't be that hard either, I'm sure Harriet could do it within a years time by herself. Not trying to pressure Harriet or anything, just saying it wouldn't be an enormous undertaking, she'd do a fantastic job, and I know some fans would greatly appreciate it.

[Jonn]

I just think it would be really nice if you could special order the WoT series as a set that read straight through continuously, as an unbroken story. Usually for the first two chapters of each POV I feel like I'm reading scenes that are meant more to familiarize the reader with the character rather than to progress the story. To create a continuous set wouldn't be that hard either, I'm sure Harriet could do it within a years time by herself. Not trying to pressure Harriet or anything, just saying it wouldn't be an enormous undertaking, she'd do a fantastic job, and I know some fans would greatly appreciate it.

 

Now that is an interesting idea.

 

I think real fans would recognize it for what it is. A repackaged series without the extra exposition, re-edited into an abridged version...You do wonder how much that would change. Honestly it would probably only reduce each book by a matter of a dozen pages or so. That's not a scientific figure, it's just a guess on my part.

If you think about it, most of the "reminders" are only about a sentence or two long and they only happen once or twice in each book, then the reader is supposed to understand after that. Sometimes it's so subtle, it pretty much just seems like elaboration and normal descriptive narrative.

 

I do think we as long time fans of the series notice it a lot more than most do anyway.

[42Bonzo88]

    I agree with wanting to "shorten" the books sometimes, it does get old having the difference between slate roofs and thatched roofs being told every story, BUT I have usually had problems with abridged books. When you start to take out things from the story, do you know where to stop before you end up taking something important that 99 of 100 people would still have picked up, but now you have left the one out. So, when AMOL comes out and the part about the slate roofs or differences between a dress in Tear compared to a dress in Ebou Dar comes up, I will happily roll up my pants a couple inches and wade right through until the good parts come again.

 

[benr]

Yes, yes, yes...BUT - every time I find myself gliding over some passage in a re-read, I worry I might miss some great clue about Asmo's killer, or who the heck IS Mesaana - and I go back and re-read it.  Darn you, RJ! :D