The better series

[Guest leebarr]

What is the better series The Wheel of Time, The Lord of the Rings, or Dune

[DragonSpawn]

We would have to divide that into what we view as best. Also remember Dune and Lotr were written very long ago, both preceding WoT by more then 20 years.

 

 

From a philosophical and complexity point I believe the Dune series is miles better then Lotr or Dune. Dune is a very complex and heavy book. It is very well thought out, and leaves one to wonder often.

 

From a detail point of view, I believe Tolkien beats Jordan. For simply taking a Ring on a roadtrip south, the book takes up about 1000 pages. Also it includes in the back explanations, bloodlines and other extra-details.

Imagine if Tolkien had written WoT and all its plotlines, trust me it would be at least 15-20x longer then it is now.

 

I think WoT is more an all around favorite. It has no field it stands out particularly in. Perhaps only in all of its PoV from its many characters. However it doesn't have the depth/complexity of Dune or the detail of Lotr, but has more a mix of the two. If this makes WoT the best of the three is debatable.

 

 

 

I personally view the Dune series as my favorite of the 3.

[Thor]

Well, if Tolkien lived long enough to write out the whole Simarilion, that would have been a blast for all of us.

[SBoydW]

Never read dune...

 

And I can't decide between WoT and LoTR. I love them both. LoTR is in my opinion the foundation of modern Fantasy, and WoT takes it to the next level.

[Safia al-Maaz]

I think WoT. I mean, I'm a LotR obsessive, but a lot of times those books can be agonizingly descriptive. Describing what they ate for breakfast, elevensies, lunch, snack, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, etc. It never ends. I almost died reading the beginning of tFotR. But as a whole I love the series. WoT is easy to read for me, so that's my vote ;)

[Light Warrior]

I love all three. I would say that LotR would be my least favorite, though. The Dune series is amazing and very thought provoking; I would heartily recommend it to any WoT fans.

 

If I could have more of any of the three after their completion, it would be Dune (the works of the Herbert's son and that other guy don't count). I am very happy at the prospect of the WoT 'outrigger' novels, though. :D

[O.o Jack K5 o.O]

unfortuneately i have not read dune, but have only heard good things about it. *shrug* i suppose that should be put on my list of things to read before aMol is released...its a long list.

 

WoT > LotR for one simple reason. Jordan stood on Tolkiens shoulders to create WoT. w/o LotR WoT would not exist. its sort of like how mathematics and science compounds on previous discoveries, to come up with more complex theories. the older stuff is necessary to get to the greater stuff.

 

they all must be equally important, and equally great in their own respective ways.

[Mercer]

^ True, but I can't compare the two. To me, Tolkien is a high fantasy adventure series...Elves, Dwarves, etc...what has become stock-standard fantasy fare (thanks to Tolkien). The reason I can get so into WoT is because of the lack of those...not just the original (or semi-original) races he has created, but most of the series revolves around humans. It keeps the plot grounded, not race-oriented with the now-classic cliches...hard to explain.

[O.o Jack K5 o.O]

without tolkein i wouldnt be able to cast magic missle at the darkness

[isleofjib]

i've never read dune either, but based on the comments here, i'm definitely intrigued. i love both LotR and WoT. but i think WoT is my fave. i actually think RJ includes a lot more detail in his novels than even tolkien. not necessarily the same kind of details, but more. you don't just read his novels, you see them in your head. i love that. and i think RJ does it just a bit better.

 

i agree too with mercer that part of what i like about WoT is that isn't the classic D&D style fantasy. i don't hold it against tolkien tho because he created it and was just copied to death. and his style is very different from the rest of the genre.

 

and there's no way RJ writes this series without tolkien paving the way.

[Kadere]

I've read all three, and loved all three. But my favorite is WoT. Is it the best written, probably not. Is it the most classical, not really. But I enjoy it more, I love all the characters, it's written in a way that appeals to me, it's the very definition of the word "epic", each time I read it I find new things and new connections, I'm obsessed with it, I've lost sleep over it, it's consumed my life.

 

So WoT get's my vote, but all 3 are excellent, and for everyone who hasn't read Dune, I advise you to pick it up. It's obvious RJ took a lot of his Aes Sedai and Aeil characteristics from it, and they're quite thought provoking. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone in yet in high school, they'll probably bore you a bit.

[SBoydW]

Welcome to the real world Kadere..

[DaShain]

I like WoT the best, simply because nearly every character is amazingly well fleshed out. Whereas, with LotR and the few Dune books I've read, the non-main characters are pretty stereotypical and uninteresting, and even the main characters seem to have a sense of detachment from the events going on around them. Maybe that's just me. Maybe I feel that way because I just dislike the Dune books' writing style; it's an awesome plotline, but it reads like Moby Dick to me (long and unfulfilling).

 

EDIT: And here we see one of the more annoying facets of the "bad word replacement" feature of certain forums. Moby Cheney indeed.

[SinisterDeath]

Well, Watch the new & old dune movies. If you like them, you know the books are 300x better.

Btw, the movies rocked.

[cannon]

Well' date=' Watch the new & old dune movies. If you like them, you know the books are 300x better.[/quote']

 

Oh my. Do NOT watch the 80s movie Dune. It is utter crap. Watch the much better Sci-fi movie they made a few years ago. THAT was a good Dune movie.

 

As to the question of which series is best, I really can't say. I don't know how WoT ends, and that makes a lot of difference for me. As it stands right now, I like:

 

1. LotR

2. WoT

3. Dune

 

LotR starts off unbearably slow in the first book, but out of the three of them, its the easiest for me to reread. With the other two, I find myself skipping ahead to parts I like instead of actually reading the whole book.

 

Yes, WoT was built on the backs of giants like Tolkien, so it certainly learns from the mistakes of the past. However, that doesn't make it the better series IMO. The detail and richness that Tolkien created cannot be overstated. He created at least 12 distinct languages, and most of his characters names came from translations of those languages. Stuff like that just hasn't been replicated, not even by WoT.