Comments on: Hats Off to Brandon Sanderson

By: kcarlile

kcarlile — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:15:07 +0000

Alan: Book 10 had an extraordinarily significant event, right near the end. I’m not going to mention what it was, just for those who haven’t gotten that far, but yes, stuff happened in that one.

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:52:42 +0000

Like several previous commenters, I’m completely unsurprised. Even when I heard the original announcement, my first reaction was disbelief that anyone could wrap up that sprawling plot in a single volume.

More power to Brian Sanderson!

By: AlanM

AlanM — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:32:24 +0000

I, like many others, got up to book ‘n+2′, where ‘n’ was the last book that I really enjoyed (I knew I was in trouble when I read one of the books, couldn’t remember it, and then read the plot synopsis and still couldn’t remember it. That, combined with the fact that I was going to mark for death the next character who “crossed her hands under her breasts” and/or “tugged her braid”, prompted me to give up). I guess I’m still surprised that it’s going to take that long to wrap it up because, IMHO, the problems with the later books was that not enough stuff actually happened (book 10 anyone? Did anything at all happen in that book?). My feeling is that the series could have been improved by some world class editing because no book that is part of a series needs to be 800 pages long. Ever. There just isn’t that much stuff to talk about and if there is you can cover it in the next book. Maybe Jordan was edit proof or maybe there wasn’t time or maybe we fantasy fans just lurve our phonebook sized books and so no-one cared.

I sort of feel the same way about the last GRRM book (please Scalzi, don’t hurt me!). He says that it was supposed to be one book and he split it into two. Okay. He’s the writer. So why did I get the feeling after reading it that there was a half book’s worth of material in it? That not enough actually happened to merit a full SoIaF book?

Scalzi, thanks for writing reasonable length fiction. OMW didn’t need to be 800 pages long and I’m glad it wasn’t. As it is, I’m going to be able to go back and read it whenever I like and not have to block out a week’s worth of time to do so.

By: naath

naath — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:03:38 +0000

I think I’ll get over the disappointment of having to wait a few more years for the end. Because, really, I want it to be done right more than I want it to be done. It would be awful to have a book 12 that basically read like a Twitter version of the News From Randland to cram in the info needed. Or worse still to leave out half the threads and just leave us all hanging.

Plus, the more there is the more time I get to spend immersed in one of the better pieces of world building I’ve read lately.

(I don’t actually recommend it to people, mostly because I don’t like to recommend works in progress like this, and moreover because you really have to be the sort of person who wants to read 14 800 page fantasy bricks full of world-building and a plot that moves at the speed of a sloth. It’s a niche market. And I love it. And love to grouse about how it isn’t gorram finished and how it’s slow and heavy and stuff, but that’s just grousing)

By: kcarlile

kcarlile — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:50:48 +0000

I think I’ve figured out why I like the series while others ’round these parts don’t: I love world building. Other people may prefer straight ahead plots (or even twisty plots) and character building. I like the world building, and that’s what Robert Jordan did. He took the time to fill out details of the world, as well as giving tantalizing hints about other parts of it.

Yes, I’ll admit that the bits in the Ways and the Aiel Waste do drag, but…

By: Carri

Carri — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:45:16 +0000

@24 – I recommend people give it 100 pages before they give up. A friend had given me a copy, I picked it up, read the first couple chapters, put it down, and didn’t think about it for a couple years. Then one day when I had nothing to read I powered through the first 100 and found myself ravenously hooked. You may still not like it after that, but I did have a similar experience to yours.

I agree that the series has its low points, but it’s definitely worth the read to me. I’m reading it out loud to my husband in the car and when we camp. It’s been a year and some odd months and we are almost done with book 4.

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:04:38 +0000

Pixelfish: I’m not saying Jordan is totally without merit, as he’s clearly not. But I think “big sprawling epic” can be done in a cleaner way, and works better. And that’s my criticism, it’s not like I’m the final arbiter of good or bad fiction.

Except when I am, which is not now :-)

By: Pixelfish

Pixelfish — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:10:23 +0000

Josh: I’m not arguing that that’s possibly too many threads. In fact, both GRRM and RJ had the same problem to my mind. I once read somewhere that writing is kind of like a sculpture of an elephant–you quarry a stone and then you chip away everything that isn’t an elephant–or in this case, story. RJ and GRRM both kept quarrying though, when perhaps they could have been chipping. (Could have. Not should have. Not my story, although I would have handled them differently. And as you note, GRRM does occasionally hack off major plotlines/characters and resolve them that way.)

The thing is….there are stories contained in all those seemingly extraneous bits. Maybe not the story you care about though. I think it’s a stylistic choice to figure out how you want to tell the story, and obviously there are going to be problems inherent if you choose the big sprawling epic style. You might lose readers, you might lose the main thread, various storylines may be tougher to resolve because you’ve got things running parallel.

By: JerolJ

JerolJ — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:23:58 +0000

I read a lot of fantasy but I have always put off reading Jordan just because the series seemed to be going on forever. I had started “Eye of the World” but the glacial pace made Tolkien seem like he was standing on the accelerator. I decided to wait until the series finished. And I’m still waiting.

Sanderson though is good. I read Elantris and was quite impressed. Plus Brandon has shown up on the Song of Ice and Fire forum to throw down, which always wins points with me.

Right now I am reading Richard K Morgan’s “The Steel Remains” which is a totally different animal for fantasy and that’s not even taking into account the buttsecks. Not for those seeking Tom Bombadil clones waltzing through the flowers.

By: Dave Robinson

Dave Robinson — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:56:15 +0000

I haven’t read all of WoT published to date. It started off strong but the story just went on too long for my tastes. I have been following along to a degree because I am interested, just not sufficiently so to wade through the entire series to get to the resolution.

However, even the books I have read have made it clear to me that it was very unlikely that it would have been wrapped up in just one more book whoever wrote it.