Why People Don't like WH, PoD, CoT ect.

[DPT24]

  I think I've figured out what the issue with these books, and specificly the Perrin, Mat, and Elayne storylines is that, at least for me, they felt like they could have been acomplished quicker.  They're generally less epic than many of the other storylines, think like the battle of Carehien, Duami Wells, Rand's attack on Illian and Andor, and some others.  And they are a little drawn out, especially if you had to wait a long time between them.  Since I started reading the books last August, and read through the series until Jaunuary, when I finished, I didnt' have that issue. 

 

But, I did feel like after all the main characters had accomplish, how could Perrin not get his wife back quicker?  Why didn't he get some more Aiel, who surely wanted to stop the Shiado, and some Ash'aman to join him and wipe out the Shaido, or bring the wolves or something, cause spending 3 books, actually, if you look at it 5, because faile was captured in Pod and the resolution was in GS, and allying with the Seanchan just seemed frusturating.  I mean, we have had a ton of epic battles, but Perrin really has a hard time getting the resources for his, and I just got annoyed that about not finding more Ashman/Aiel to help out. 

 

  For Elayne, I get why she couldn't use the power, I get why the Aiel and Legion of the Dragon and Borderman couldn't help her out, but still, the siege was so small scale, it just was frusterating.  BUT, I really enjoyed Bridgette, she was a lot of fun, and despite the dumbness of Elayne's trusting in Mins vision, the rescue secne was still pretty cool.  Again though, I just wished the Aiel or Legion would just end it for her, caus I mean she's carrying the Dragon's kids, and he's destroyed some of the greates armies in the world, and Elayne's getting held up by a small army of upset nobles.  Personally, I'd wish that The Band of the Red Hand would have gotten involved and saved the day.  \

sections, and hopefully it will all come together in the last two books.  Personally, i wasn't too bothered by the drawn out nature, occasionally frusterated, but it they were interesting insights into the characters, if nothing else, but I see where the issues were that some people had, and I think they boil down to the fact it feels like the problems could have been solved more easily. 

  I havent' read as many people being bothered with MAT'S issues, but that was a very long trip considering that that travelling has been rediscoverd. 

 

That said, there was a fair amount of worldbuilding/character building taking place during these

[DPT24]

Ugh, having issues typing right now...  anyways, these scenes do have a lot of worldbuilding/character development, and I didn't hate them, although I did sometimes wish for them to wrap up a little faster.  But I think the less epic feel of some of the events, and the fact that much bigger event's had happened is where the frustration comes from.  Hopefully ToM and AMOL wrap things up in a way that makes these event's feel worthwhile.  I did wish that Bridgette and Elayne got at least one scene in GS, I would hope to see them in ToM, at least....

 

[Dero]

I have a feeling i'm going to see way more Elayne than i would like in ToM.  I like WH and CoT pretty well, but i'm not a big fan of PoD.  I mean it has no Mat in it, it's pretty short, and it takes Elayne to Andor which in my opinion started a downward spiral of suck for her.

[Duskfire]

Like alot of people, I am generally not a fan of CoT. However, PoD and WH are great in their own ways. PoD has the battle against the Seanchan not to mention the Asha`man attack on Rand. In WH although it was kind of slow, I loved Mats plotline where he orchestrated the escape from the Seanchan and the kidnapping of Tuon at the end; it was the first time that Mat acted in a responsible manner and used the talents of his people. Not to mention releasing the Sea Folk was awesome. And then theres the Cleansing of course.

[Faolin]

I've never seemed to have these issues with anyone's story arc or character or any of the books. I have enjoyed all of them. Perhaps I just get too wrapped up in the story to think about the details!  ;D

[Dero]

I've never seemed to have these issues with anyone's story arc or character or any of the books. I have enjoyed all of them. Perhaps I just get too wrapped up in the story to think about the details!  ;D

I'll not believe that you like Gawyn and his story arc especially in the last book  :P

[TheDecline01]

Personally, during those books, and especially for the Perrin and Elayne stories, I had the paniful feeling that it could have been dealt way faster. Or more concise. I think RJ's aim was to show us that some "battles" are long, uneventful (in some way) and just take time. But that could have been reduced to a paragraph here of there, and some thoughts like "It's been a month since the last event etc..." and not some painful reading text. That would have make it faster and smoother to read I think. And we could still have had the feeling of those looooooooonngg battles being long. And maybe we would have had a book less, or more for the final unravellings.

[Fains nose]

Winters heart for me is on a par with knife of dreams, the far madding arc is one of my favourites in the second half of the series; the re-emergance of Fain, Rand killing the DF ashaman without the power,"i wasnt angry, they just needed killing", his interaction with Lan, Nynaeve, Min,Cadsuane, Alivia, WH is a great book

[jemron]

I think it has more to do with when you came to the Wheel of Time.  I came into the story just after aCoS came out, and I LOVED aCoS; but every book after that (until Knife of Dreams, which still doesn't compare to the first 7 to me) seemed very boring and drawn out and uneventful.  But I've heard people who came into the series after WH or KoD came out that say they never had a problem with any of the books.

 

It is true that less eventful stuff happened in those books, but for me, it was waiting 2-4 years for each book and THEN feeling like the storylines were unresolved.

 

It seriously felt to me like Faile was kidnapped by the Shaido for 6 years!  When in reality, it was probably only a month or two in WoT time.  When I do re-reads, I don't get the same sense of boredom or slowness that I had when I was waiting between books.

 

 

[Axon]

Came into the series at TSR. You just can't compare that book to the Path of Daggers.

 

I just didn't like the slower books.  They could have been one or two entries rather than 5!

[Hunter]

Key:

1 - Should be Balefired out of existence

2 - Toilet Paper

3 - Terrible

4 - Mediocre

5 - Average

6 - Decent

7 - Good

8 - Great

9 - Stupendous

10 - Mind Blowingly Superawesomeness EXTREME MAX

 

Based on the rating scale above, here's how I'd rate the books:

 

 

 

New Spring - 7

The Eye of the World - 9

The Great Hunt - 9

The Dragon Reborn - 8

The Shadow Rising - 9

The Fires of Heaven - 9

Lord of Chaos - 9

A Crown of Swords - 8

The Path of Daggers - 7

Winters Heart - 8

Crossroads of Twighlight - 6

Knife of Dreams - 7

The Gathering Storm - 8

[darth_hel]

I thoroughly enjoyed all the books, but like you said it might be when I started reading. A friend got me reading them after KoD came out. I do like all the storylines, including Gawyn's. Gawyn has some hard choices to make, he dedicated his whole life up till this point protecting his sister but the person he loved was captured and if Elaida changed her mind at any point could be executed. He believes Rand murdered his mother which seemed like a pretty decent stance if you lack the fact that she appeared in Amador after the fall of Caemlyn. While I do believe he has been wrong pretty consistantly, I think his choices have been understandable.

[MikeRiley]

It's a timing issue that messed with Perrin's plot, I think. There was a lot more going on at the time with the other characters and Robert Jordan thought it was important for us to know what Perrin was doing during that time - so nothing much was going to change with him. I felt that the Shaido chase was where Perrin first fell into real politics and grew up, so to speak, never had a problem with his rescue Faile plot. Of course, I also like Gawyn's plot and character, so..

 

The middle books were less action and more politics. That's probably mostly why not everybody likes them. When you start reading the series at Eye of the World, you're likely more into the battle scenes and action that just isn't present in the later books. They're almost different genres.

[DPT24]

I enjoyed the middle books, except PoD, I'm just pointing out my theory on why so many people don't.  And yes, the Faile rescue, even from my point of view, where I got to read through the series through TGS without having to wait on a book, it does feel like YEARS are spent trying to find her.  I enjoyed the Andor succession, and I liked The Faile Rescue, even if I felt it didn't need to take that much time.

[Morsker]

I think it's the lack of story arcs resolved in a single book: retrieve the Horn of Valere, fulfill the Callandor prophecy, become the Aiel messiah. If finding and using the Bowl, or Perrin rescuing Faile, or [whatever all that stuff with Ajah heads and too-young Sitters was] had each been resolved in a single book, there'd be less complaint.

 

Of course I realize how that wasn't possible given the circumstances.

 

[Sid]

Faile was captured in Oct 1998.  She was finally rescued in Oct 2005.  It took seven years for Perrin to get her back, so yeah it seemed like a pretty long and drawn out affair.

 

But now instead of four new books in 8-9 years, we get three new books in 3-4 years.  This is like [FFW>>] for a WoT fan.

[water_seeker]

The only part I didn't enjoy in my last reread (which I finished a week before tGS came out) was when Nyn, Elayne, the Kin, and the WFers were heading to the Farm and everyone complained to Elayne...that whole scene was TERRIBLE.

 

I liked everything else.

[Faolin]

I've never seemed to have these issues with anyone's story arc or character or any of the books. I have enjoyed all of them. Perhaps I just get too wrapped up in the story to think about the details!  ;D

I'll not believe that you like Gawyn and his story arc especially in the last book  :P

 

Its not that I particularly like Gawyn at all it just doesnt seem to bother me as much as others. My thoughts are more along the line of - its a book so I'm sure its like this for a reason and I will find out why in time.

 

 

[JakeBarnes]

1.  How can anyone complain about Winter's Heart?  It has Far Madding, The girls bonding Rand, Fain, The Cleansing.

 

2.  The only viable complaint I have seen regarding TPOD is that it doesn't have any Mat.  But look at what it does have:  Adeleas and Ispan are murdered, Rand is getting crazier, the Bowl of the Winds, AM attack in Cairhein, 'A Cup of Sleep', The Seanchan Battle, The Black Ajah Hunters.

 

3.  If you bash on TPOD for not having any Mat, then you should be very excited about COT, because it is full of..... (Huh?  Oh, it only has 5 chapters of Mat?  And only 2 of Rand?)  Nevermind.  

 

For some reason though, I always enjoy reading COT.  Maybe because it came out during 10th grade, and I was just so happy because it was the first one I didn't have to wait for.

[Fains nose]

I really hate it when the girls get to salidar and the Aes Sedai there act like they are superior, even though Elayne and Nynaeve had repeatedly defeated black aes sedai and a forsaken and generaly achieved more than any full aes sedai in the third age; we all have scenes/arcs/characters/books we dislike, but we all like the series as a whole, and no ones doing them selves any favours by constantly complaining about parts we dont like, were just reducing our enjoyment of this series. I myself on a recent re-read, just couldnt be bothered with CoT, due largely to the negative coments about that book on this forum and others, i was almost dreading reading it as i came up to it, which is disappointing since i read these books purely for fun. In the future i will stop being negative about whole arcs or books, becaus it severs my fun, although i wil continue hating on characters like cadsuane because i love to hate her.