Hello

[Aye said I]

Hi everyone

 

I've been lurking for a while, and am fairly new to the WoT world, not having yet made it through the whole series. I only discovered WoT by chance through a spurious link. I've since acquired paperbacks of 1-11 and the Audible downloads of everything so far. Thankfully, being in the UK, the Orbit Paperback covers are excellently understated, with the volume numbers on the spine. (no sickly Sweet covers for me ) In the main I prefer to listen rather than read, and to refer back to the books for clarification of spellings and things.

 

The first time I attempted the series a couple of years back, I only made it through tEotW and partway through tGH before losing momentum. My immediate criticism was that it seemed to be following too close to the first part of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and I felt that was so glaringly obvious that it was overshadowing the plot. I've since discovered that it was partly intentional, but still I feel that it was overtly distracting.

 

The second time, around a year ago, I managed to start again and got halfway through tFoH before once again losing momentum - I found less time to listen and lost track of the various plot elements. However the Tolkien plot influence seemed much less obvious in the early parts of tEotW the second time round, and I was able to find more subtle and intricate aspects of the plot. I was also glad to find out who this 'Asmodean' was at last, because up until then, all I was aware of was massive debates about the death of a character that hadn't even appeared in the story

 

I picked up again from the start of tEotW around 3 months ago and have just started tFoH for the second time, and am determined to get to the end of ToM in one run this time around. I've found that going for an evening walk for an hour whilst I listen is a good way to ensure that I do get to listen; previous attempts were marred by me listening in bed, falling asleep then listening to the same section the following night, repeatedly. Now that I'm back in employment I've at least got some time to listen on my way to and from work, as the inclement Scottish wintery weather will mean fewer evening walks over the coming months. Even if I don't manage to make it to the end this time round, I've enjoyed tEotW more each of the three times I've listened to it, so wouldn't mind having to start again. I particularly enjoyed the Perrin/Elias Chapters, for example.

 

Not least because of the sheer size and scope of WoT, I find that after every few chapters I refer to the encyclopaedia chapter summaries to recap and consolidate the events in my head to make sure I've not missed anything important; If I have one remaining criticism of the series it's, in my opinion, RJ's over reliance on the Forsaken 'deus ex machina', in particular Lanfear in the earlier books. I found it particularly hard to spot and comprehend what was going on.

 

I've mentioned my criticisms, so it's only fair that I redress the balance by mentioning what I DO like - the humourous internal monologues about not knowing how to talk to women, the sheer scale and depth of the story, are just two that spring to mind.

 

Oh dear, I seem to have written rather more than I intended...

[Lironah]

Hooray for Perrin fans! If you're going to get bogged down again, book 10 is the most likely to do it for you. 11 picks up again, and then 12 was like a whirlwind.

 

Welcome to DM. I don't post here much either, but my WoT hunger has sucked me into a couple of these forums now. And it's so hard to stay away from spoilers with only 2 days to go...