COT

[mandersen]

My biggest problem with CoT was just waiting for it so long, then nothing much happening, THEN realizing I would have to wait another long time for the next one. I really didn't think it would ever all get written at that point. That and the Egwene and Elayne arcs. I was so sick of Aes Sedai and Andoran politics by that point. Winy Perrin wasn't great, but still better than the otehr. KoD restored my faith in the series though.

[Sid]

TPoD was out in hardcover by the time I got to it, and I thought that was the last one when I started reading. It became apparent by the end of ACoS that it was not.

 

CoT was very disappointing when it came out, and my feelings were probably fueled by the general outcry of the online communities. On re-reads it's much better, a necessary part of the story with good writing, but not a good volume on its own. We get practically zero sense of moving forward in the plot. Mat was stuck somewhere in the last book, but he escaped from that earlier and now he's stuck with other people and didn't escape. Perrin's walking that seemingly infinite treadmill known as the rescue of Faile. Rand's hiding out. Egwene's in the same place she was at the end of TPoD until she gets captured. The Borderlanders are plodding along for who knows what reason at a snail's pace. Elayne and Andor in CoT nearly made me throw the book at the wall for lack of progress. Oh, and the BA hunt is slowly but surely grinding to a dead end again. Channelers are reacting to something exciting that happened 2 years ago (in our time), making us long for something similar to happen. But it just doesn't. My thoughts at the end of the book were not relating to whether Egwene was ok or what would happen to her, but rather that I'd waited years for so little, and that I'd have to wait more years for who knows what. Luckily KoD got things back on track, but let's just say I didn't do much WoT related stuff (internet or rereads) between those books.

[Mr Ares]

I started the series when KoD was the latest book out (lured in by promises of it being the penultimate book - that worked out well). CoT is not a brilliant book, by any stretch of the imagination, although there are far worse books out there. There's some good stuff, but it needed a bit more editing done. I'd say I enjoyed it - I recognise its flaws, but I'm not that bothered by them.

[UncleButcher1980]

Knife of Dreams was the current book when I started the series. Crossroads of Twilight? I enjoyed it. It was slow in places, but I like that. It's heavy in description but I like that too and it has awesome moments. I never dipped into any forums while I was first reading the series, or read any reviews, so it was until after that I found out how much negative hype Crossroads of Twilight gets and was surprised really. I can understand some of the criticism but a lot if it seems to be over the top.

[Kal11]

I started the series probably a year or so before TGS was released. My wife had read them all before and kept telling me how great it was and since they made concrete plans to complete the series I picked them up. It took me a little while to get into TEOTW but once I did I tore through them all including NS in 2 or 3 weeks, my wife did a re-read simultaneously and we both read like 12 hours a day. At first I kept putting it down and making jokes about wine merchants walking through the snow for 300 pages but once I got to the Trolloc attack I started to enjoy it, by the time they had made it to Baerlon and Shadar Logoth I was hooked.

 

I enjoyed CoT when I read it (although it was admittedly not as good as earlier books) but I also was not waiting for the next book to be released.

WoT as a whole made me love fantasy books again so I have a soft spot for it and enjoy every book. I used to really love the Dragonlance, Necroscope and Conan series among a few others when I was a kid but stopped reading fantasy/sci-fi (and most fiction altogether) when I turned 17 and joined the Army. It has added a lot of pleasureable reading time for me since I generally despise the crime/legal/etc. novels that tend to be best sellers, I just find them cliche as well as forced and unrealistic more often than not. Since reading WoT I have picked up authors such as BS, Brent Weeks and I am debating between starting either ASOIAF or Malazan next.

[TheBeerPatriot]

I started reading the series in late 1992, when The Shadow Rising had just come out. I hated CoT when it first came out, the bloated descriptions and lack of plot movement really grated on me in this book. I hate it less on re-reads, but it is by far the worst book in WoT. The Elayne chapters are absolutely terrible, full of staredowns, tea and morning sickness. The Shaido chapters are agonizing to get through. Egwene's chapters are ok in retrospect, and her viewpoint is the only one with any hint of plot movement.

[Kal11]

I started reading the series in late 1992, when The Shadow Rising had just come out. I hated CoT when it first came out, the bloated descriptions and lack of plot movement really grated on me in this book. I hate it less on re-reads, but it is by far the worst book in WoT. The Elayne chapters are absolutely terrible, full of staredowns, tea and morning sickness. The Shaido chapters are agonizing to get through. Egwene's chapters are ok in retrospect, and her viewpoint is the only one with any hint of plot movement.

 

The Elayne chapters were sheer punishment. I spent the whole time wishing every kind of awful thing to happen to her. The whole Perrin/Faile/Shaido storyline didn't bother me as much as many people, I actually started to like Faile during that period, but it did drag on longer than needed. My only major criticism is that it got too far away from Rand and the main storyline during that stretch of books.

[Southpaw89]

I think it comes down to when you started reading the series. If you had to wait for COT to come out for a few years then read it you probably wouldn't have as good of an opinion as I did. I read the series after TGS came out so when I finished WH, I started right up on COT then continued on after I finished that so it was a great book to me since I feel it was crucial for the series with what happens in it. I don't blame people though who say it was a little slow because it definitely had a lack of action

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

it didn't just have a lack of action. it had negative action. it literally moved the plot backwards. that's the kind of thing you do after you finish the story. anne mccaffrey did this with dragonriders (yes, i know, not as good as WOT, just an example), but she finished each story before going at the same story from different perspectives in different books. so noone tore his hair out over it when she wrote the harper hall books after she finished the lessa story.

 

'k, gotta work on that forgiveness a bit more now. sorry.

[David Selig]

I started reading the series in late 1992, when The Shadow Rising had just come out. I hated CoT when it first came out, the bloated descriptions and lack of plot movement really grated on me in this book. I hate it less on re-reads, but it is by far the worst book in WoT. The Elayne chapters are absolutely terrible, full of staredowns, tea and morning sickness. The Shaido chapters are agonizing to get through. Egwene's chapters are ok in retrospect, and her viewpoint is the only one with any hint of plot movement.

Channellers don't get morning sickness, how could you forget this crucial bit of info?

[Sid]

Channellers don't get morning sickness, how could you forget this crucial bit of info?

+1

[brolie]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series... I have talked to a lot of people who stopped reading at LoC and it took me a good year to finally finish it since I never felt like picking it up... CoT was a pointless book.. if I have to read about the power struggles of every single noble in Andor again, I will not be pleased... Hard to get through both of those, but worth it at the same time... but yeah... uhg CoT... And Faile's kidnap story line was WAY too much too.. arduous

 

oh and i started reading in 2002 but i've never had to wait for a book (even still, im still on KoD and by the time i finally make it through tom the last book will prolly be out.. uhg) i dont get much time to read

[Terez]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

[somathus]

I remember being very disappointed in COT after starting at POD. It was only the 2nd "new" book for me, and the story hardly moved forward at all. Rather, we got a lot of secondary characters reactions to the cleansing. On subsequent re-reads, my dislike waned a bit as the books began to blend together and I noticed more details.

[brolie]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

 

The thing that made LoC a good book was the very very end... when rand is captured by the aes sedai, i was like "woah!! something finally happened!" not that the plot wasn't important, but I think that the structure of the book and the style was different from the first five and didn't flow well at all. this is the first i have ever heard of anyone liking it especially as one of the best.. when i was still in book 2, i had a friend say "book 6 will be a chore, but if you make it through, you'll be happy you did" which is the only thing that did get me through.. like i said, not necessarily the story line, but the actual read itself

 

shadow rising is a great one though.. def agree with that

 

oh and sorry i use book numbers.. its easier for me to separate them and remember which one was which (just for me personally i guess)

[Terez]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

 

The thing that made LoC a good book was the very very end... when rand is captured by the aes sedai, i was like "woah!! something finally happened!"

You must have missed the bits where Egwene became Amyrlin and Nynaeve Healed severing...and that's just the endgame stuff. There was a lot of awesome in LOC.

[Suttree]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

 

The thing that made LoC a good book was the very very end... when rand is captured by the aes sedai, i was like "woah!! something finally happened!"

You must have missed the bits where Egwene became Amyrlin and Nynaeve Healed severing...and that's just the endgame stuff. There was a lot of awesome in LOC.

 

 

Agreed. Initially LoC was my favorite, it wasn't until a few rereads that TSR jumped into first. Aside from the finish, we had Logain getting healed, Taim's intorduction, Mat showing up in Salidar...all pretty cool. Can't believe someone would put this and CoT on the same level.

[Sid]

LoC takes longer for me to read than any other WoT book. There's so much to digest. The densities of LoC and CoT are so different, there is really no comparison.

[sandoz12]

I liked LoC but definitely thinks it gets rated higher than it should as a result of Dumai Well's. I actually think FoH is a great book (it's just that stupid circus sideshow that greatly detracts from it - without that I would have probably rated it as my favourite). TSR is my favourite, LoC is middle of the road right?

 

CoT is the worst book for me though I also found ACoS and TPoD trying.

 

Still I think overall they are still all good books with value to them.

[Zhipp]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

 

The thing that made LoC a good book was the very very end... when rand is captured by the aes sedai, i was like "woah!! something finally happened!"

You must have missed the bits where Egwene became Amyrlin and Nynaeve Healed severing...and that's just the endgame stuff. There was a lot of awesome in LOC.

Yeah, those things happened, but the book felt overly long. Like before Nyneave Healed Logain there were one or two chapters of, well, nothingness. Practically showed us Nyneave's whole day, with all the boring parts left in. Maybe you guys enjoy stuff like that, but I can't stand it. I think if he could have cut it down to 300,000 words the book would have been better, but as it is the pacing was too slow for me. I actually enjoyed book 7 more, if you don't include that abysmal ending.

 

Anyway, I started reading around the time COT was released, but only read the first four books, I read the rest of the series post-TOM. I've already said this before, haven't I? I thought CoT was pretty meh. I wouldn't say it was terrible, but it was by far the worst novel I've ever read.

[brolie]

Lord of Chaos and Crossroads of Twilight were probably the worst books of the series...

LOC is pretty generally agreed to be one of the best of the series, if not the best. It's second only to TSR in popularity usually, and sometimes TSR is second.

 

The thing that made LoC a good book was the very very end... when rand is captured by the aes sedai, i was like "woah!! something finally happened!"

You must have missed the bits where Egwene became Amyrlin and Nynaeve Healed severing...and that's just the endgame stuff. There was a lot of awesome in LOC.

 

like i said, it wasn't necessarily the big things in the plot that are important to the story, but it wasn't until rand gets kidnapped that the pace picks up and the books starts flowing better.. the persons post below is better at explaining this than i seem to be...

 

 

Yeah, those things happened, but the book felt overly long. Like before Nyneave Healed Logain there were one or two chapters of, well, nothingness. Practically showed us Nyneave's whole day, with all the boring parts left in. Maybe you guys enjoy stuff like that, but I can't stand it. I think if he could have cut it down to 300,000 words the book would have been better, but as it is the pacing was too slow for me. I actually enjoyed book 7 more, if you don't include that abysmal ending.

 

*nod* yes yes.