Best Books?

[niels]

Well obviously I am brand new to this website (1st post!) but I am not that new to WoT. Read through the series twice without ever really discussing the series with anybody (aside from my brother and only a little bit.) I just went on amazon to see what the books were rated and I want to know what the hard core fans think.

 

If you were forced to order the 14 books that are out (including new spring) what would that list look like?

 

Oh and i just finished new spring for the first time (I never even knew it existed!) and it was awesome. I think i would have been miserable reading it as a first book (before eye of the world) but i just loved reading about Moiraine + Siuan.

 

I saw a lot of hate for Crossroads, and while i admit it is slow, it is what makes the last 3 books so epic! Without the build up from these slow books (8,9,10) i don't know if 11,12,13 would be as awesome. I mean i really felt immersed in RJ world when i read those books, i saw dead flowers outside and just figured it was the dark one and the end of the world was approaching!

 

 

 

not going to bother with a full list, but my favorite include, EotW, and Gathering Storm.

[Leyrann]

My favorite is ToM. But that's because of Rand. I think Perrin had too much story time. And I'm one of the people who first read New Spring. But it's good that I did so, otherwise I woul've only read the first pages of TEotW, instead of the whole series. And it's difficult to explain.

[Clayden69]

Here's my ranking for WoT

 

1 TEOTW

= TGH

= TDR

= TSR

= TFH

= LOC

= ACOS

= TPOD

= WH

= COT

= KOD

= TGS

= TOM

 

 

Haven't read New Spring

[Leyrann]

So for you they are equals, Darren?

[Hybrid]

1. TSR

2. TFOH

3. LOC

4. TDR

5. KOD

6. ACOS

7. WH

8. POD

9. TEOTW

10. TOM

11. COT

12. TGH

13. TGS

 

1-5 are awesome. 5-10 are enjoyable. 11-13 are difficult to read through. I might revise my opinion of TGS and TOM after I reread them, but that's the way I remember it.

[Ranskey]

KOD

SR

LOC

FOH

TOM

EOTW

TDR

TGH

ACOS

TGS

POD

COT

WH

 

Can't really rate New Spring with the others.

[niels]

it is funny to see the variability on peoples preferences

[Aspar]

Hm, books 8-11 were less fun to read, but the rest are brilliant. AMOL will be absolutely stunning

[coolpool]

TFoH

TGH

LoC

TGS

ToM

EOTW

TCoS

TPoD

TSR

WH

KoD

TDR

CoT

 

NS

 

 

tbh i loved them all imencly, CoT is only at the bottom because i remeber that it had like two or three rand chapters.. or maybe none.. i can't remeber.. and a quarter of the way through the book know i went throught the chapters hoping for a rand PoV and being disapointed with the little rand poV there was..

[Joshua Hendrickson]

1. THE SHADOW RISING.

2. THE EYE OF THE WORLD.

3. THE GREAT HUNT.

4. THE DRAGON REBORN.

5. THE FIRES OF HEAVEN.

6. LORD OF CHAOS.

 

After that, they all become mixed bags. I would rank KNIFE OF DREAMS as number 7 and CROSSROADS OF TWILIGHT at the bottom. I haven't read THE GATHERING STORM or TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT yet. I read the short story version of NEW SPRING and don't really have any desire to read the book version.

[Clayden69]

So for you they are equals, Darren?

 

 

yeah, well sort of, couldn't be bothered to sit there and rank them earlier and I LOVE evry single book, even the slower ones, but thats probably coz the only book not released when I finished my frst read thru was ToM and only had to wait 2-3 weeks for it to b released when I got to it. The pacing didnt bother me too much as I could just pick the next 1 up. I can understand peoples frustration who had to wait in between the releases of 8-10 as nothing gets tied up, or very little gets tied up, in these books so the wait between them must have been terrible for people :P awww

 

I can name my top-3. Off the top of my head these are the only 1s that stand out for me, but not by far

 

1. The Great Hunt

2. Lord of Chaos

3. The Eye of the World

[KaptainKaos]

1) Eye of the World - Obviously the first book is epic should be close to the top of most people's list. I still remember first reading this book and happily knowing I had only just scratched the surface of a vast world yet to be revealed. I had the sense but couldn't have possibly known how truly alive that world would become.

 

2) The Gathering Storm - Had to be so many feelings for everyone leading into this book especially for Mr. Jordan's wife Harriet as well as the new author Brandon Sanderson. I can't imagine the difficulties that were overcome during the process of getting this book out to us. It was over 300,000 words, no one could make all that into exactly what Robert Jordan would have made it and Brandon Sanderson openly admitted this although I think he may have underestimated himself cause he did a great job. I remember feeling great satisfaction while reading the book that Mr. Jordan's work would be finished in an appropriate fashion.

 

3) Towers of Midnight - I do feel slightly like a traitor here since I am putting Mr. Sanderson's contributions close to the top of my list but again I was so pleased and proud of the Jordan team that the series was going to continue and be so well done I have to do it. Besides the content in this one made it one of the most positive for Rand and friends, we see a great potential being reached in all of the main characters and its one that forces everyone to have a real hope the Light could prevail.

 

4) Lord of Chaos - Come on Rand being captured and escaping plus a great battle using the One Power at Dumai's Wells ending with Aes Sedai swearing fealty, yeah that's right I said Aes Sedai swearing fealty to the Dragon Reborn!

 

5) Winter's Heart - The Dragon cleanses saidin of the Dark One's taint, a bunch of cool little battles involving the Forsaken including Demandred who we have barely seen in this series and I really enjoy getting to see him whine about having to actually do something. Also we get to see Rand get bonded by the three women he loves and then a quick encounter with Fain in Far Madding followed by Rand showing his best side when he risks himself (the savior of humanity the Dragon Reborn) to not let go of Lan hanging off of the roof (well he would have had to let him go if the sun turned green but that never came to be )

 

6) The Great Hunt - Classic with Lanfear/Selene and the portal stones, just Rand defeating the Seanchan High Lord Turak and the Heroes of the Horn being present should make it at least number six on anyone's list.

 

7) The Shadow Rising - We get our first real introduction to the Aiel and the Three-fold Land with Rand unknowingly interacting with a couple of his old Forsaken friends plus we find out Nynaeve can match a female Forsaken (Moghedien) in the One Power in terms of pure strength.

 

Well there's my top seven, after this I continually second guess myself so I might as well just say they are all equal after this. Although I am already second guessing myself on how I rated my first seven so I am just gonna stop now before I have to rewrite this entire post. Ha, they are all amazing.

[GB]

1. ToM

2. LoC + TGS

3. TDR

4. TSR

5. KoD

 

My top five well top six

[Luckers]

Mine...

 

1. KoD

2. LoC

3. tFoH

4. tSR

5. WH

6. aCoS

7. tEotW

8. tDR

9. CoT

10. tPoD

11. tGH

12. TofM

13. tGS

 

It's funny, after tGS and TofM first came out, I would have placed them higher, but as time passes they go lower. I don't find they have the same quality of re-readability.

[Southpaw89]

this really isn't official because I love them all but if I had to choose an order for now....

 

1. TSR

2. TFoH

3. TGH

4. LOC

5. TOM

6. TGS

7. TDR

8. KOD

9. TPOD

10. WH

11. ACOS

12. TEOTW

13. COT

[dwn]

TEotW, TGH and TDR are good, but I don't think they hold up so well over time. They kind of suffer by being individual books first, part of an epic series second.

 

TSR, TFoH, LoC and ACoS (maybe) are probably the best overall. They keep the speed and structure of the early books while letting the wider story breathe. ACoS is the weakest of the batch and could have been greatly improved by including the first few Elayne/Nynaeve chapters from TPoD.

 

TPoD and WH should have really been one book. The same goes for CoT and KoD. It's here we see the epic story and multiple plot lines start to overwhelm the structure of individual books. That being said, I find these hold up better than the first three books.

 

TGS and ToM are tricky to judge given the changes in pacing and writing style. Objectively, I'd say they're as good as TSR - ACoS; subjectively the difference in tone makes me want to place them lower.

 

New Spring is fun to read... but... Seeing Moiraine, Siuan, Myrelle, Tarna, Sheriam, Katarine, etc. as novices/accepted always brings to mind the Muppet Babies theme song.

 

All that aside, I don't really have favorite books so much as I have favourite plot lines. I like the Egwene, White Tower and Black Ajah plots in the later books, Mat's chapters in general, and the sporadic scenes where Rand keeps from whining and brooding too much. The arcs I dislike most are the Rand/Mat/Perrin chapters from TGH (not really sure why), and Rand's military campaign in TPoD.

 

It'd be interesting to see a "director's cut" of the books, particularly the later ones, where chapters are re-arranged to fix pacing and timeline problems without having to adhere to publishing limitations.

 

-- dwn

[NitroS]

1.TGS

2.LOC

3.WH

4.TOM

5.KOD

6.FOH

7.TSR

8.EOTW

9.TGH

10.TDR

11.POD

12.COT

13.COS

[daveq65]

1. tEotW

2. tSR

3. FoH

4. LoC

5. tDR

6. tGH

7. tGS

8. KoD

9. WH

10. ToM

11. aCoS

12. tPoD

13. CoT

 

For me, personally, tEoTW stands out. Yes it's not as in depth as some of the others. But the breakneck pace of it grabs you and pulls you into the world and the characters. You start to glimpse tiny glimmers of their future.

I used to read it while walking to work, and often got told by people "oh, I saw you this morning with your head in a book"

[Kadere]

1. ToM

2. TGS

3. KoD

4. CoT

5. WH

6. TPoD

7. ACoS

8. LoC

9. TFoH

10. TSR

11. TDR

12. TGH

13. TEotW

 

I love whatever book I'm currently on more then the ones that came before it. I prefer the bigger, grander story of the mid and later books to the smaller scope of the first few. For me the story gets more and more interesting as I go along. Plus rereading how the One Power and T'A'R work for the 8th or 9th time really bores me and seems to be all TGH-TFoH want to talk about.

[ironisles]

My view of the books is pretty simple. They are in the order they came out, since CoT was the last one I read.

CoT might not be as bad as it was when it was the last book to read, but it will still be on the bottom of the list when I finally finish the series.

[True Source Creator]

So far:

 

1. Fires of Heaven

2. Lord of Chaos

3. The Shadow Rising

4. The Great Hunt

5. The Dragon Reborn

6. The Gathering Storm

7. Knife of Dreams

8. The Eye of the World

9. A Crown of Swords

10. Winter's Heart

11. The Path of Daggers

12. Crossroads of Twilight

 

Haven't finished ToM yet, but I'd probably put it above ACoS and perhaps below TEotW. I love them all so much, though, even parts of CoT.

[trench]

my list

 

1. tSR

2. tGH

3. tDR

4. tFoH

5. tGS

6. tEotW

7. LoC

8. KoD

9. ToM

10. aCoS

11. WH

12. tPoD

13. CoT

 

 

NS