Please don't hate me for asking this, but questions on series

[Ingtar's Third Cousin]

Hello, I think some people will not like me asking this question, but I hope I get some answers. Here is my story. I started reading WoT back in early 2000's. I actually read the first 5 books in my native Russian, 1 in German (as I forgot my book in Russia and had to buy it from the German airport) and 3 in English after I moved to the states. That's how passionate I was!!

 

After a big hiatus after Winter's Heart, I got the next book and realized I didn't remember any of the plot lines and just gave up (I was in the middle of my college career and didn't have time to go back and re-read plot lines and wiki was not what it is now).

 

Recently, I decided to go back and re-read the books and started reading them on my Kindle in preparation for the final book. I remembered my old passion and was really into them, devouring the first two on frequent work related flights.

 

However, by the late 3rd book and mid tSR book, I found that I was skipping a ton of pages, even full chapters in which nothing happened! The repetitive inner monologues (I never get girls, woolheaded Lummox etc.) just started frustrating me (maybe because I od-ed on them, reading 4 books in less than a month).

 

Bottomline, I have kind of started to lose my interest. I actually went on Wikipedia and read all the plot summaries for the remaining books - something i had never done before!

 

So my questions are these:

 

1) Can I read the last book when it comes out and understand what's going on, or have there been too many characters introduced in between (tSR being the last one I recently read)?

2) If not, which book would you recommend to read in preparation for it?

3) Do you think I should stick with the books and persevere through the remaining 8?

4) Should I pick up the books after Winter's Heart?

 

Thanks a lo for the help!! I really hope you don't interpret this as an insult on the series - not my intention at all, as they have brought me much joy through the years.

[XoMeltdownoX]

Each to their own...Read it however you want to the enjoyment and understanding level that suits. Just realise that most people on this site (or any other fan site) read these books over and over in order to analyze the plot lines, foreshadowing, prophecies and to come up with pet theories. I would say read it all to get a full understanding, but that is just me.

[Kamin_Majere]

1) No not with out reading all of the books. ALOT happens post Winters Heart

 

2) Honestly I would recommend reading all of them. I have problems reading alot about the wonder girls as well, but enough happens that I think will make sense in the end that I still read every word. I tried the skipping method on one read through and so many little things just felt flat with out the lead up (but your miles may vary)

 

3) Yeah keep on reading, the series is only like 7 months away from being complete. I think you will do yourself a disservice by not at least giving the whole series a good in depth read through in the end.

 

4) Yes, Brandon may have missed some things, but over all he's done a fine job helping to get the series finished for us. I would have loved for Robert Jordan to be able to finish it, but even so I'm very happy for the series getting an end.

[Ingtar's Third Cousin]

Thanks a lot Kamin, very thoughtful.

[jsbrads]

I would say, if you want to skip some of the story, just be consistent, skip the girls from TSR to the end, you will get some shocks when they meet the boys, but that could wait for future read throughs. The only part that you kinda should read from the girls is the last two books, but only egwene's story line.

Perrin really has a seperate story from tDR to a small cameo in Carhien, then nothing substantial to do with the core story until the last book, but of course, if you skip his storyline as well, you will be surprised when he shows up in the last book.

I think the most complex book is Lord of Chaos... skipping material in there would actually simplify the book, we get too many glimpses of too many characters and not knowing about their activities really doesn't diminish from the core storyline.

[bsmnt23]

Way to go, Ingtar's 3rd, I was wondering how WoT translates into other languages; that's really cool that you have read them in 3 seperate languages.

 

I usualy start with Fires of Heaven and work my way up from there. At this point I can usualy tell which chapters I can skip (Perrin and Fail with the Aiel) and which are still juicy. I do recomend reading all the subsequent books in the series. They get a little frustrating in parts, but they do provide all the small puzzle pieces to the plot that RJ doles out so grudgingly. Even Winters Heart is important to the building climax.

[slatanic1]

Every time I re-read the series, I sometimes think of skipping certain parts that can sometimes seem boring. But I always seem to pick some nice little nuggets (foreshadowing, some detail I forgot or that is seldom mentioned, etc) from what may seem on the surface to be a dull inner monologue. Each time I'm glad that I didn't skip anything. This is such a huge and interesting story, that every word written is important, IMO. But like Meltdown said, to each his own.....

[damandred]

i agree with Mat. i'm a serial skipper, but usually find a few pieces of gold, which i've missed or forgotten when leafing through the books ( usually in between waiting for a new release). However with the last book not long from being released, i'd advise reading through 5 of the last 7 books. I think skipping books 8 and 10 would not damage your understanding of the plot too much when approaching the last book. ( though i enjoyed PoD I think it adds very little in terms of plot.)

[Didgya]

Shame on you for skipping! Just Kidding If I don't feel like re-reading then I audio book them. Now I have a silly rule of not listening to the audio book (non-fiction) unless I have already read them, but that is arbitrary and just a silly rule I came up with myself. I definetly would read or listen to earlier books before reading/listening to the last book or I doubt it will be a pleasent read without context. Welcome back!

[EmperorMayhem]

i think you should read them all at least once. i can see skipping chunks of boringness if you've read it already. but the above posters are right when they say that there is a LOT of information to go through... tons of supporting characters being introduced= tons of plotlines to follow, and if you skip you are dealing with not being on the same page with character development (such as... that's not how matt is supposed to act!) or timelines (theres a part where it goes back in time to catch you up on a characters storyline and it will confuse you).

[master]

what I would say is continue from where you stopped, even if you can't remember what happened. i stopped for about a yeat and was utterly confused, but after reading the series you should reread it in small chunks so you slowly gain understanding.

[Never]

I'd say you should read all of it at least once. I've read most parts 6-8 times, but most of the Elayne/Nynaeve parts from books 4 through 7 I've read only twice. I like to read the forums and find things I missed earlier, but I think that only works for some people. I would advice you to try it out.

A basic understanding of what has happened goes a long way though.

[Wolf505]

Honestly the only parts I've ever deliberately skipped in re-reads are the Morgase chapters. They just don't interest me to be honest and seem to be just filler. I suppose there may be some reason RJ didn't just have Rhavin kill Morgase, but I honestly don't know what it could be besides maybe making Gawyn look like a moron for believing the rumours that Rand had killed her. She really hasn't done a whole lot of significance since she lost her throne unless you count helping Faile escape from that collapsed building.

[SaBenBen]

I actually skipped book 8 on my first read-through as it wasn't available at my high school library (I've read the series twice). When I got to book nine, I thought that I would be clueless as to what had happened, but I just couldn't wait for book eight to be returned. I was amazed to realize that in the whole of book 8, almost nothing happens. If you're going to skip anything, make it books 7 and 8. They really do get VERY tedious. However, the writing really picks up in book 9, and RJ and BS really make the last few books a really good experience. Keep reading and you'll pull through!

 

[Ashaman Kovan]

Yeah, I would definitely not skip through that much. KoD and Cot are fairly dull, but you should still read all the books. Just m opinion though.

 

I figure If I can read the entire series 6 or 7 times you can read the rest of the series once. ; ]