New Spring - Wheel of Time

Walter

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Well, I was at the bookstore looking for Vagabond (no luck...), and I saw Game of Thrones on sale for $3.99 so I got it. It'd better be worth my 4 bucks! :miura:
 
It's not the most action-packed (I think of it as a murder mystery) but it's quickly paced and the character development is great. In the second book, A Clash Of Kings, things really pick up.
 

Azn He-Man666

Was it you who killed my companions,one after one?
Alucalb said:
It's not the most action-packed (I think of it as a murder mystery) but it's quickly paced and the character development is great. In the second book, A Clash Of Kings, things really pick up.
Cool to see other George R. R. Martin fans, read A Storm of Swords yet?
 
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darkbane

Guest
Wah wah wah said:
Cool to see other George R. R. Martin fans, read A Storm of Swords yet?
Yeah, and been waiting for AFfC ever since. Going on sale next month or so, but it got split into two books and the other one is still in writing *whine, whine*. So we only get half the POV's.

In other news, the Sun Sword turned out to be rather stale (after two books), with lots of repetition of the same phrases over and over, major overdose of fragment sentences (like, 2/3 of all sentences in the books), and generally convoluted language that might as well be passive voice - it would be no more difficult to read than it is now. Not to mention dialogue that makes RJ look like a master linguist.
 
Aazealh said:
Dude, that picture of you with a Heineken on your site... Otherwise yeah, I've stopped reading the Wheel of Time years ago, it's just ridiculous. If it's ever finished I'll start reading it again.
Book 11 is coming out soon, and 12 is the last, so it`s going to be finished soon(relatively speaking). For those complaining that Jordan never resolves any plots, I`ve heard that 11 will solve many of those plot-lines, and I`ve also heard it`s going to have the same pace as the first books, and not as slow as the later books(personally I don`t understand this pace-stuff since I like all the books but to each his own, I guess)
 

Aazealh

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Khorne said:
I`ve heard that 11 will solve many of those plot-lines

It's going to be 2000 pages? Anyway, I'm not buying any of these books before someone reliable has read the last one and told me it's good.
 
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darkbane

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Aazealh said:
It's going to be 2000 pages? Anyway, I'm not buying any of these books before someone reliable has read the last one and told me it's good.

2000 pages won't be enough to resolve Perrin picking his nose, not to mention any plot lines ^_^.

Khorn the pace stuff is really simple and has nothing to do with liking the book or not. You could describe it for instance as how fast the action moves, or how much time passes. For me personally it's how often Rand appears lol. So the latest books (9 = very little rand, 10 = almost no rand) are slow! In the beginning we had one, then two parties, more or less. Now there's like six of them, so naturally the pace is slower. I still think book 1 is the slowest tho, I mean practically nothing happened for the first 100 pages.

Edit: yeah, if you wondered how pippin walked into this story, gomen
 

Walter

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darkbane said:
I still think book 1 is the slowest tho, I mean practically nothing happened for the first 100 pages.
The pace in the first book is justified.  Jordan was establishing characters that had to have a strong background to support the next 8000+ pages of "development."  Now, to me, there's no justification to why after there's already a strong background to work with, Jordan still manages to make his characters and situations boring.

And a progress update, I'm only on page 110 of Game of Thrones and it's already more enjoyable than Waste of Time.
 
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darkbane

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Walter said:
The pace in the first book is justified. Jordan was establishing characters that had to have a strong background to support the next 8000+ pages of "development." Now, to me, there's no justification to why after there's already a strong background to work with, Jordan still manages to make his characters and situations boring.

You mean that for the farmer-turned-savior plotline we need to see in detail just how much of a farmer he is? -_-; I guess it justifies Lan still calling him farmboy eight books down the road, after he has already shown that he can flatten armies. (I suppose benefit-of-the-doubt is in order, since one of my friends told me "Rand gets really strong later on" shortly before I got into WoT so I kept wondering when in hell "later on" would come about) Well, you said it before, Waste of Time sums it up nicely. But since I got nothing better to do anyway, and escapism being escapism, I wish Tor would hurry it up and release the damn thing already.
 

Walter

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darkbane said:
You mean that for the farmer-turned-savior plotline we need to see in detail just how much of a farmer he is? -_-;
You'd rather Jordan jumped in guns a blazing with static characters in Book 1? Starting it off slow gives Jordan time to "develop" (which, in my opinion he hasnt capitalized on). Book 1's slow pace and elaboration on farming, to me, gives the culture shock of Lan and Moirane coming into town that much more oomph. Plus, it's just suspenseful to loom this big, adventerous world over our heads, while subjecting us to crop farming.

Anyway... it's pointless for me to try and defend it. I don't enjoy the series. But I will defend Book 1's initial slowness to the grave.
 
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darkbane

Guest
Walter said:
Anyway... it's pointless for me to try and defend it. I don't enjoy the series. But I will defend Book 1's initial slowness to the grave.

It's your prerogative to defend any opinion you want ^_^. I do see your point. I still don't agree, since that "culture shock" was more like "meh" imho. But we should stop here, since it really is a pointless thing to debate over.

I'm more interested in your opinion of Tyrion, since he's one of my favorite characters. You should've had at least one POV from him already, tho I guess there wasn't much development yet ^_^.
 

Walter

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Staff member
I like Tyrion so far. I hope he develops in the direction I'm forseeing (pragmatic, yet not 100% arbitrarily evil like his brother Jaime: "Ah the things I do for love *shove*.".

I'm most interested in Jon right now, which is likely a standard sentiment for new readers, as he's the underdog.
 
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darkbane

Guest
Walter said:
"Ah the things I do for love *shove*.".

*grin*

GRRM puts the standard notion of good vs evil upside down and then tilts it sideways 90 degrees, so I think you might want to hold off on passing judgement on that aspect too soon. Even tho I feel sorry for that kid too ^_^.
 
Im still a big fan of the Wheel of Time and will read the rest.

But The Songs of Fire and Ice blow everything away. Jon is also my favorite character. I like Arya too. I think she's going to be kick ass. Tyrion has found ways to survive that is beyond me.
 
In the middle of reading Clash of Kings. 400 or so.... Plots starting to unfold. I like how Arya and Jon are developing as characters. At least they haven't died yet! :isidro:
 
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darkbane

Guest
Trench said:
In the middle of reading Clash of Kings. 400 or so.... Plots starting to unfold. I like how Arya and Jon are developing as characters. At least they haven't died yet! :isidro:

SPOILER WARNING - don't read below unless you want to know a major details from the series. I hope this much warning is enough?


Both Arya and Jon are still alive at the end of ASoS, and there are allusions that Jon will in fact be one of the three dragon riders and support Daenerys, so there's a good chance that he won't die anytime soon.

Note from Aaz: Now people can't even read it accidentally. :SK:
 
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darkbane

Guest
So, to revive a dying topic with some random jumble half-related to it: (This is all spoiler-free, despite what it may look like)

I've finished Knife of Dreams today. (11th WOT novel). Yeah, sad, hardcover, I know. Anyway, this book delivers. Haven't had this much fun since Rand ripped up the Seanchan back in book 7. RJ's writing still sucks, big time. A simple "hello" is still followed by 5 pages about Andorian seating customs. But! A number of major plot lines are brought to conclusion or advance by leaps and bounds. People who have been doing practically nothing ever since before book 8 finally get off their lazy bums. Even more importantly, Rand finally makes an appearance for more than two pages. Gripping pace that overcomes stale writing style, coupled with some catchy dialogue, the prominent featuring of Rand and Mat, and a decrease of braid-tugging and skirt-smoothing (think only 5 braids were tugged in the whole book) is a major selling point of KoD. :beast: I was ready to give up, but after reading this one I think I'll be buying the next one, whenever that may be (and I still am not entirely convinced that the story can be wrapped up in the next book, even if it is more likely now than before).
 
Im at book 10 in WOT.

I just finished Storm of Swords (best book by far IMO. At least the 2nd half kicks ass!) by Martin so now theres nothing to read until his next release comes out next month here on Guam.

Gonna re-read book 10 of WOT and pick up book 11. Im gonna finish what I started! Thanks for the heads up!
 
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