The pace is not a major factor, although I'm pretty positive each one of these books could be about 200 pages shorter with all of the worthless braid-tugging omitted. Book 5 pissed me off because it undid everything it accomplished in 800-odd pages with a single chapter where Jordan putzed-out of the actual event by having the chapter's protagonist pass out and come-to with everything resolved.

Also, I hated what he'd done with Aviendha and Rand.

I will admit I'm growing tired of his inability to write female characters though. Literally every single one of them is "made a strong female" by being written stubborn as an ox, and it's difficult to tell any of them apart when you get down to personality.

But my interest has been renewed, and a great many of my friends claim I should trust them and persevere, so I will do so until the next thing makes me angry enough to drop it for a year or two.

It's been a while since I read those books, so would you mind refreshing my memory?

True, but I guess if I'm truly bothered by anything it's that he seems to have the men be put upon by the women as if you're supposed to root for the men to come out on top in the end as a victory for men everywhere. But in general Jordan seems to be clueless rather than seriously misogynistic, so I usually ignore it.

...Although others assure me there was a point. It was just poorly executed and the love triangle annoys me.

Yes, I would agree with you. His writing doesn't strike me as malicious in any way, just ignorant of the depth of dynamics among men and women, as well as between them. I would say that the majority of suspense is derived from situations in which men and women each have a piece of the puzzle, but refuse to share it with one another or misinterpret it when it is shared.

Nonetheless, I think he is quite good at creating a story and a history for it, though I might find the writing of his characters and his prose lacking.

I sort of chalk it up to him being a hopeless nerd. Male nerds are pretty clueless when it comes to women. Not me though of course.

I find his characters likable, even the women, even if they don't have any particular depth. I kind of love Moiraine though, if only because she was the only browbeating woman who never came across as annoying half the time. I genuinely rolled my eyes every time Rand ignored her.

But his real strength is his world building. Each and every city he introduces manages to have it's own personality and not just be a collection of streets with a palace/castle/mage tower in the middle. And the land in between even gets poured over, so it's almost like the entirety of the map ends up feeling familiar in a way I don't think I've ever seen in a series.

Lolomg a harem. Hahahahaha jesus.



It's definitely the most vividly I've been able to imagine a world and how all of the places within it connect to one another. In any other series, when a group of heroes sets out on a journey, in my mind's eye it's just people on a generic, directionless dirt road, but with Jordan, you can imagine the direction, what lies ahead, what sort of things they'll find in between, the terrain, etc. even if all he does is write that "they head east". And it doesn't stop there either; he's got incredibly detailed cultures written for the people at every point on his map, and complete histories for them as well. He had a hell of an imagination in that respect.

I'm currently reading the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin. I'm only on the first book, A Game of Thrones, and not even 50 pages in so far. I'm a bit overwhelmed by how many characters have already been introduced at this point. Seems like a bit to keep up with, and honestly, I'm having a little bit of a hard time. Was anyone else overwhelmed during the early stages of the series? I am enjoying Martin's style so far, just curious if I should be overwhelmed by the amount of the amount of characters being introduced so quickly, and is it vitally important to remember all of them?

Yes, I know, I'm late to the party on reading this. I've never been into sci-fi and fantasy. And I've never watched a single episode of the show, and most likely won't until once I'm done reading the series.

I never really liked Egwene until... damn, you're probably not there, but I definitely like her better now than I did. If I have a soft spot it would have to be for Graendal, because... well, I'm a dude and we're sort of hopeless.

And I'm not her biggest fan or anything, but the scene where Aviendha is brow beating Rand about something or other in the desert somewhere in... book 3 I think, and all of the Aiel around them are expressionless but obviously amused always makes me smile, so I have good feelings about her just for that. Something about Aiel humor always tickles me.

Lolgraendal. I did not much care for Egwene until she decided she had no interest in Rand, and after that she has gradually improved each book. I do know a spoiler about her future that I haven't yet read up to, but I'll not press for them. I think I know enough already, only having two definite spoilers.

I like Aviendha, I just don't like her relationship with Rand; I found it and I still haven't forgiven Jordan for it. And Aiel humour is just my kind of humour. What isn't to get, really.

I was probably too into the political scheming to bother being too disappointed with that. It does go overboard later on, along with the mindless describing of absolutely every detail of every scene (I don't know if Jordan was just trying to milk the series for money or he just really had no idea where to go, but it got pretty ridiculous), but the first few books after the third, while they slow down a lot, they make up for it with some seriously interesting political intrigues. If you're thirteen then I imagine it could be pretty boring, but I was in my early/mid-twenties when I did, so it was awesome.

Just got to the part where Very excited. So far she's being badass.