Final Wheel of time inc !!

[khoregate]

OK final book of the wheel of time series is out Jan 8th who is gonna get it or has it on pre order?

[Kitten Champion]

I suppose I will, although pre-ordering has always seemed like a stupid term. You're simply ordering.

How could I not, when I've read the series at least 3 times over by now?

[Aidan305]

I'll be picking it up, if only to fill in the last space on that shelf of my bookshelves.

I'll be reading it too, of course. There's too many questions left to answer to not do it.

[JoshL]

Preordered, can't wait! I've been reading this series for over half my life! Can't wait to see how it all ends...and then the grand start-to-finish re-read!

[lightningcat]

Of course I'll be getting it. The real question is am I going to do another marathon reread of the rest of the series before reading it.

[TheEmerged]

Once upon a time, I was warned to stay away from this series until the final book was out.

I guess that means it's time to start hunting for the first book

[Elder Tsofu]

Get the audio-books, the pages fly away when you're able to "read" them while washing/driving to work/shovelling snow. It might give you a different perspective on things too since you hear the words through an other person.

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Not pre-ordered the book, but eagerly waiting for it. Have only been at it the last 10 years so I can wait a little while longer.

[Emmerask]

Well most of the characters got almost near likeable the last two books ^^

Yep getting this one, hopefully it has a "good" (not in happy necessarily) ending because most fantasy series really have poor endings, I remember one series where it literally was "a god(des) shows up and makes everything right, the end".

Well lets hope this one will be awesome

Get the audio-books, the pages fly away when you're able to "read" them while washing/driving to work/shovelling snow. It might give you a different perspective on things too since you hear the words through an other person.

yep, while not as good as the harry potter audiobooks (quality wise) they are pretty good!

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Wheel of time = TL:DR. By the time I got to book 6 I was forgetting what HAD happened. I'm a pretty decent reader and the storyline and amount of characters got to be too much for me. And that's a shame.

[khoregate]

nearly finished my marathon re-read on the gathering storm now with 2 weeks to go to read towers of midnight ( gotta love a kindle lugging around the books would be a pain at work :) )

[Lord Seth]

I suppose I will, although pre-ordering has always seemed like a stupid term. You're simply ordering.

Pre-ordering specifies you are reserving a copy prior to its release. Regular ordering is ordering one after its release. How is that distinction "stupid"?

[Traab]

Wheel of time = TL:DR. By the time I got to book 6 I was forgetting what HAD happened. I'm a pretty decent reader and the storyline and amount of characters got to be too much for me. And that's a shame.

This. I bought book 7 and all, but past book 6 I am just lost. There are too many characters factions and plots to keep track of for me. Also, Iirc, at one point rand is in a position where he is basically doing it.

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He has brought a half dozen nations or so under his banner, he is setting things up. Then he almost goes through a reset. Its like everything fell apart. I think it happened after he cleansed the male half of the source

But its been so long I cant remember. That being said, books 4 5 and 6 are pretty damn awesome all the way around. Lots of cool stuff happens, some of my favorite scenes, and it represents the time frame where I had the most hope of the series coming to a suitably epic conclusion.

[Soras Teva Gee]

All I keep thinking reading this thread is: Pffpht! Pansies!

When I first discovered the series I put it EotW thru WH three times in as many months. Course truly appreciating the series only comes in on about the fifth time through.

But enough about Scotsmen and other things. I won't be marathoning the whole series (even I can't pack the series in that quick), well until after when I can go back to the early books and see how much was there waiting back then even.

[Helanna]

I'm nearly done with my re-read. I just gotta finish Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight, so I should be done juuust before the 8th. Whereupon I will drive 40 minutes out to the nearest major bookstore at 8 in the morning to be sure I get it as soon as possible. I took the next few days off of work as well (because I work in retail, and January is a really good time for a mini vacation anyway), so I'll probably end up locking myself in my room and reading it a couple of times.

I'm just a little excited here. I've only been reading for about 8 years, definitely not nearly as long as some people, but WoT is basically single-handedly responsible for introducing me to the internet and it shaped a lot of my interests when I was in middle school.

As with every other WoT thread, I'm gonna plug Leigh Butler's re-read. It's absolutely excellent if you need a refresher for any (or all) of the books. I've also heard from a couple people who lost interest around books 7/8 that you can just read the summaries for those books and then jump back into the series where Brandon Sanderson took over (aka where things started happening again. I love this series like crazy but holy CRAP does the plot screech to a halt in those books).

[Kjata]

Wheel of time = TL:DR. By the time I got to book 6 I was forgetting what HAD happened. I'm a pretty decent reader and the storyline and amount of characters got to be too much for me. And that's a shame.

I read the first book years ago, and while it wasn't the best book ever, I was willing to continue. So I looked into the rest of the series. And upon finding a list of books in the series, promptly gave up to read something that came in trilogy form.

[Douglas]

I have a pair of vacation days reserved for this. I am uncertain whether the second one will be used to finish the book, or to recover from staying up ridiculously late to finish it earlier.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I read the first book years ago, and while it wasn't the best book ever, I was willing to continue. So I looked into the rest of the series. And upon finding a list of books in the series, promptly gave up to read something that came in trilogy form.

I felt the first book was a good stand alone. I'll even go on to say I loved the series until it kept churning and expanding.

However, your attitude about los of books turning you off as a reader terrifies me as a writer....

[Traab]

I felt the first book was a good stand alone. I'll even go on to say I loved the series until it kept churning and expanding.

However, your attitude about los of books turning you off as a reader terrifies me as a writer....

I read it not realizing it was the start of a series until it was too late. Then I groaned in rage as I learned the third book wasnt due to be released for a few months. Then I felt true despair as the centuries rolled by, and book after book after book came out, complicating the story further and further. Making it even harder to keep everything straight because I kept having to wait a year for the next book to find out what happened next. Perhaps, had I not learned of this series until say, last week, it would have gone differently for me. But its hard to stay interested in a series you have been reading in short spurts for a decade or so.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I read it not realizing it was the start of a series until it was too late. Then I groaned in rage as I learned the third book wasnt due to be released for a few months. Then I felt true despair as the centuries rolled by, and book after book after book came out, complicating the story further and further. Making it even harder to keep everything straight because I kept having to wait a year for the next book to find out what happened next. Perhaps, had I not learned of this series until say, last week, it would have gone differently for me. But its hard to stay interested in a series you have been reading in short spurts for a decade or so.

Granted, but it's also hard to do if say, you have a busy life and limited time to read in it. I don't have the time to commit to reading this series even though I have all the books save the last three. And its not because they're bad or good, but because they are so complex. Which in small doses is great! But why does it have to keep getting even MORE complex? Does he ever make the plot shrink again or is the 150+ characters now?

[JoshL]

Granted, but it's also hard to do if say, you have a busy life and limited time to read in it. I don't have the time to commit to reading this series even though I have all the books save the last three. And its not because they're bad or good, but because they are so complex. Which in small doses is great! But why does it have to keep getting even MORE complex? Does he ever make the plot shrink again or is the 150+ characters now?

Why? Because that's what some of us keep coming back for! Not for everyone, but the rich, complex and changing world is one of the things that appeal to me about this series. And almost everyone, up to and including the barely-developed maid gets a chance to be truely awesome!

The friend of mine who loaned me the books in the first place used to keep an outline. I personally never had much of a problem keeping the characters and stories straight over the years, but she was more organized than me in general. It really pays off on re-reads though. Little details setting up things that don't happen for five books. Lots of big twists that, in retrospect, were foreshadowed well enough that you really should have seen them coming.

It's definitely not for everyone (but then again, what is?) but hopefully now that it's ending more people will give it a shot/another shot.

[Traab]

Why? Because that's what some of us keep coming back for! Not for everyone, but the rich, complex and changing world is one of the things that appeal to me about this series. And almost everyone, up to and including the barely-developed maid gets a chance to be truely awesome!

The friend of mine who loaned me the books in the first place used to keep an outline. I personally never had much of a problem keeping the characters and stories straight over the years, but she was more organized than me in general. It really pays off on re-reads though. Little details setting up things that don't happen for five books. Lots of big twists that, in retrospect, were foreshadowed well enough that you really should have seen them coming.

It's definitely not for everyone (but then again, what is?) but hopefully now that it's ending more people will give it a shot/another shot.

I think my biggest issue was the lack of a sense of permanence to their actions. Its been awhile, but

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didnt several of the bad guys rand struggled so hard to kill early on end up coming back to life somehow? Also, the aforementioned disintegration of his nascent empire after he cleansed the male half of the source. It seemed to me that every time he started to get somewhere, jordan just walked it all back and redid it all.

That has always been a turnoff to me to read a story where the conclusion seems to be approaching only for the author to go "YOINK!" and add on another 3000 pages. Honestly, the story could have been wrapped up a half dozen books ago and still been an incredibly epic series.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Why? Because that's what some of us keep coming back for! Not for everyone, but the rich, complex and changing world is one of the things that appeal to me about this series. And almost everyone, up to and including the barely-developed maid gets a chance to be truely awesome!

The friend of mine who loaned me the books in the first place used to keep an outline. I personally never had much of a problem keeping the characters and stories straight over the years, but she was more organized than me in general. It really pays off on re-reads though. Little details setting up things that don't happen for five books. Lots of big twists that, in retrospect, were foreshadowed well enough that you really should have seen them coming.

It's definitely not for everyone (but then again, what is?) but hopefully now that it's ending more people will give it a shot/another shot.

But everyone AND the maid? Really? To me that just seems to be that Robert Jordan doesn't know how to keep a focus on the things...or rather it often felt like the story had taken off without his control...maybe I have an issue with that style, but a similar thing happens in song of ice and fire...and I have been reading these now...

Perhaps my tastes have changed and I shouldn't trust my younger self's views of it, but from what I remember at the time it was getting to the 6th book, and I was like....I have to read it all again because I don't remember who these people are at all. And that was 5 monumental books to slog through and I was...I couldn't bring myself to do it. It took me awhile just to get that far and to have to re-go-over all of that...Perhaps 8 years later will fix this...

For the record, I don't mean to rag on the series. I did enjoy the books I had read. I loved the clever sneak in of the Sword in the Stone (thought it creative and enthralling) and Perrin's wolf abilities were awesome...but I had serious doubts that everything would be resolved in the end due to the ever expanding storyline without ever having closure on ANY front, and that caused me to become exasperated.

[Douglas]

I think my biggest issue was the lack of a sense of permanence to their actions. Its been awhile, but

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didnt several of the bad guys rand struggled so hard to kill early on end up coming back to life somehow? Also, the aforementioned disintegration of his nascent empire after he cleansed the male half of the source. It seemed to me that every time he started to get somewhere, jordan just walked it all back and redid it all.

That has always been a turnoff to me to read a story where the conclusion seems to be approaching only for the author to go "YOINK!" and add on another 3000 pages. Honestly, the story could have been wrapped up a half dozen books ago and still been an incredibly epic series.

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A grand total of four Forsaken have been brought back to life by the Dark One. Of those, two have been killed again, one by a method that put him beyond the Dark One's reach and the other in disgrace such that the Dark One hasn't been willing to bring him back again. Of the other two, one is the head Forsaken and pretty much has to be around for the series climax, and the other was sent to an alien world and Rand should never have assumed she was dead in the first place - she didn't actually die until another Forsaken came and killed her because it was the most expedient way of getting her back out.

Six other Forsaken have been killed permanently.

As for Rand's empire, Tear, Illian, Mayene, and the Aiel are still loyal, he's gained Arad Doman and Ghealdan, the Borderlands have joined him, and Andor and Cairhien only split off because he was intentionally handing them over to Elayne. His empire hasn't gone anywhere.

It seems to me that your problem is some combination of confusing different locations with each other, assuming too readily that the occasional venture into "Rand-with-strike-force" scale action meant the empire was gone rather than temporarily out of focus, and mis-assessing the scale in the first place. The series has never really gone backwards on progress (unless you count a certain plot by Elaida in book 4 or thereabouts), it's just that there's so much and the world map is so large that there keeps being an additional area that hasn't been dealt with yet - but those areas have always been there either on the world map or in foreshadowing and prophecy.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I figure I'll finally go out, read the summaries of the books (as I haven't read them in forever), and then read Sanderson's books. I loved The Way of Kings, so I can't wait to see what he does with WoT. I think he's capable of righting Jordan's more grievous flaws.

[danzibr]

I think the tl;dr people just lack tenacity. They really are great books.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I think the tl;dr people just lack tenacity. They really are great books.

What about "did read; too long"?

[Douglas]

For the record, I don't mean to rag on the series. I did enjoy the books I had read. I loved the clever sneak in of the Sword in the Stone (thought it creative and enthralling) and Perrin's wolf abilities were awesome...but I had serious doubts that everything would be resolved in the end due to the ever expanding storyline without ever having closure on ANY front, and that caused me to become exasperated.

That's just the tip of the iceberg with regard to references to various elements of mythology. For example, there's (minor Gathering Storm spoiler, Norse reference):

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Odin Mat riding into Valhalla Hinderstap.

Heh, speaking of the Sword in the Stone, it just occurred to me that Moiraine's name is moderately similar to "Merlin".

Anyway, there's been lots and lots of closure in the last two books, plus a lesser amount before that, and the upcoming book is definitively the final one. For anyone who needs a refresher on things but doesn't want to read the whole series again, I second Helanna's recommendation of Leigh Butler's Wheel of Time Reread. She did a great job of summarizing everything, and pointing out and commenting on anything worth special note. Just don't get sucked into reading the comments too; you'd lose all the time you would have saved.

[JoshL]

What about "did read; too long"?

Short attention spans?

The maid comment is exactly what I mean. It's not a story of One Guy or even A Couple People. It's a full world, where everyone is active, not just sitting there when the camera is off. But I can totally understand how that might seem unfocused, especially if that's not your cup of tea.

Oh, and Verin is one of my favorite characters in fantasy literature!

[Traab]

I think the tl;dr people just lack tenacity. They really are great books.

I do agree, they are great books. Its just, you can only make a story last so long before it starts to feel like its just being dragged forward and padded. When a single story is reaching the point where it takes over one and a half entire bookshelves, I think that is just too damn long. I have authors like Mckiernan, or mercedes lackey who can manage to fill the same space, but they do it with a large number of separate stories all set in the same world. They all tie together, they all have callbacks and foreshadowing from other works, but you dont have to read the timeline in order to enjoy it, or feel you have to read the next series to find out what happens next. By making the wheel of time a single story it just feels bogged down to me.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I do agree, they are great books. Its just, you can only make a story last so long before it starts to feel like its just being dragged forward and padded.

I did a re-read looking for padding once, and found remarkably little.

The point of course is a rather deconstructive look at how "saving the world" would have to actually be. That your army doesn't come from thin air, and how having one is only the start of your problems. And how beating the Dark One won't mean a thing if everyone dies anyways from a land fighting itself just as much as anything.

And a look at how complex a world would actually be, how it isn't all just the chosen few heroes but a look into the secondary, tertiary, and pentiary roles that make a world actually work.

Put simply the WoT is complex and long, because it needs to be. Because it takes fewer shortcuts and everything doesn't work out just right. The Tower Aes Sedai stories are a good case of this. They AREN'T going nowhere, they are there to fold into Egwene's plot. And some things even get aborted because things change, like the Ajah heads, and the the point is that the plan came to nothing because sometimes the world moves on past you and your efforts mean little.

tl:dr... the WoT isn't too long, everything else is just too short! If its your classic epic that is.