Why all the hate on the newer parts ?

[Amar Cerim]

Why do people say that each part the series gets worst ? I have heard "The first part was the best, the rest just get too long and boring" numerous times and it really bothers me. I only see the story getting more interesting. So is it due to me not having enough experience in fantasy or is it just people who can't do anything else but bash on a really good series ? 

That's all haha :) 

May you find water and shade friends :) 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

personal tastes vary.

 

and so does experience.

[Alaksuleiel]

I found a couple of books in the middle to be boring and they, in my opinion, could have been trimmed down and stuck into one book.

I didn't dislike the story, just the lack of things happening.

 

Also, what Cindy said.

[dawnflower8]

The only book I found boring was PoD. The other ones were all really great.

[Amar Cerim]

I do really hope I don't find any of the books boring, so far it is going that way :) 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

it probably helps that you have them all waiting for you instead of the other way around :)

[csarmi]

Books 1-11 are all equally good.

 

About 12-14: they were written by a different author.

[deep.rest]

I've heard several people comment on some parts of the books getting slow. I'm experienced that with LoC and now CoS. I get a bit tired of the same old man vs woman arguments and secrecy battles.

 

There's a lot of repetitive descriptions and explanations too. At times I find myself skipping a whole paragraph because of that.

 

And yeah, personal tastes vary. Have you ever tried to read the Thomas Covenant chronicals? It's considered to be one of the best fantasy series, but after struggling through the first three books it didn't seem to me fantasy so much as a very descriptive journey into one man's tortured psyche.

[SinisterDeath]

Why do people say that each part the series gets worst ? I have heard "The first part was the best, the rest just get too long and boring" numerous times and it really bothers me. I only see the story getting more interesting. So is it due to me not having enough experience in fantasy or is it just people who can't do anything else but bash on a really good series ? 

 

That's all haha :) 

 

May you find water and shade friends :) 

A huge part is those who started reading in 1990, had to wait twenty one years for it to finish. 

I started in 2002, so I only had to wait nine years.

That's.. also going to factor into why people like or dislike various  parts. Waiting Ten years, and getting 5 brutally slow books, will aggrivate any fan base.

Starting fresh? You can plow through 6 slow books until things speed up and get interesting again.

 

This is also true in other book series that drag at parts, or for several novels. Older versus newer generations, wait time, ect.

[nicholas.westmiles@gmail.com]

It's a long series.  Quality inevitably suffers occasionally in the occasional book.  I personally wasn't a huge fan of Crossroads of Twilight because I felt like the entire book was just setup, and it seemed to me pretty much like nothing substantive happened to advance the plot.  I really liked Knife of Dreams though.  Other people have different tastes, of course.  The important thing is that you are enjoying it.  Nobody else can tell you how you feel, and it doesn't matter if other people want to diss on it as long as you get enjoyment from reading the series.

 

It's certainly got cool weapons.  I'm planning to make a full WoT collection, including Tam's heron mark sword, Mat's ashandarei, the Shadar Logoth dagger, and Perrin's axe and hammer.  I already have a nice longbow, which I'm terrible with.  I might take a break and do Kvothe's Saicere.

 

There's just so many different things for different people to appreciate in the series.

[Suttree]

 I personally wasn't a huge fan of Crossroads of Twilight because I felt like the entire book was just setup, and it seemed to me pretty much like nothing substantive happened to advance the plot.  I really liked Knife of Dreams though. 

 

It's interesting to note that even RJ acknowledged CoT was a failed experiment.

 

Interview: Oct 2nd, 2005

Robert Jordan's Blog: ONE MORE TIME

Robert Jordan

For N.O. Scott, no development in any of the characters has ever caught me by surprise, though once or twice I have realized that I could use someone in a fashion I hadn't expected to. There have been a few things that I intended to do but didn't. Sometimes, choosing to take a character in a certain direction precludes other things. The only thing that I wish I hadn't done was use the structure that I did for Crossroads of Twilight, with major sections beginning on the same day. Mind, I still think the book works as it is, but I believe it would have been better had I taken a more linear approach. When you try something different, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

 

It certainly becomes a better read when one doesn't have to wait for KoD. You can almost treat them as two volumes of the same book.

[csarmi]

I loved CoT actually. But I had the advantage that longtime fans didn't: when I was done with it, I walked over to my bookshelf, took Knife of Dreams in my hands and started reading.

 

The BS books are different stuff. I'm among those who say that it'd have been better if they wasn't written.

[Drohana88]

I think The Gathering Storm had more character and plot development than the five books that preceded it, and at the time was the best book in since LoC. For my money, it's one of the top 3 or 4 books of the series. RJ had totally lost control of the series. Knife of Dreams started to right the ship (but still has major issues), and it took a fresh approach from BS to save the series.

[nicholas.westmiles@gmail.com]

That definitely could have something to do with it, and I'm glad it wasn't just me.  I was one who bought it in hardcover on the day it was released, and then waited for KoD.  And taken as a two-volume set, they're really quite good.  But then again, the wait made KoD pretty special to me, so I'm hesitant to complain too much.

 

Books can be like lovers.  The first time will always be special, and if it's a really good book, you'll want to come back over and over again for the comfort of losing yourself in their embrace.  But it will never be quite the same experience.

 

I really liked TGS, but the last two weren't really up to par for me, particularly the final book.

[csarmi]

TGS wasn't too bad.

 

But I wish I didn't read AMOL.

[dawnflower8]

I liked AMoL. I seem to be one of the few people here that did. The Last Battle was epic.

[Suttree]

 The Last Battle was epic.

 

Perhaps you could expand on this?

 

People frequently point to negatives such as the fairly inane battle strategies, botched channeler numbers, the redundant Perrin rematch with Slayer and video game style "battle porn" with endless waves of trolloc fodder being chopped down. Curious as to what you found epic in there.

[Red2111]

the whole death vortex part with androl was pretty epic.  one of the best battle imagerys in the entire series since the "man in the box" incident from LoC.

[csarmi]

Death vortex?

[Suttree]

One thing I thought Brandon did an amazing job with was the ogier charge into battle. Just a beautiful scene. As for "death vortex", I'm not sure what the refers to?

[csarmi]

I missed the ogier charging lol. Sleep through too many of the book apparently.

[Red2111]

the part where Androl opens up portals into nothing on the ground under the shadow goons and sends a bunch of them into Dragon Mount.

 

 

i called um Death Vortex's *shrug*

[InfinLuminous]

Brandon overall did a great job with the battle scenes across his three books. Maradon was especially fantastic. Except for Dumai's Wells, I thought Jordan was underwhelming when it came to large battle scenes. I was always worried about how Jordan was going to be able to handle the scale needed for The Last Battle.

[dawnflower8]

I thought that Jordan's battle scenes were great.

[InfinLuminous]

Doing another re-read and am almost through KoD. Jordan does small battles/conflict really well, but struggled with the large-scale conflicts. Jordan was big on telling rather than showing, but this approach would have led to major problems with the Last Battle. Jordan would have been out of his comfort zone, and I am not confident he could have pulled it off.