Slashdot Mirror
New Wheel of Time Author Chosen
kdean06 writes "Brandon Sanderson has been chosen by Tor Books to finish the best-selling Wheel of Time fantasy series by the late Robert Jordan. Harriet, Jordan's widow, chose him after reading his Mistborn series. An interview is also available via Dragonmount.com."
...that about seven years ago, friends of mine and I joked about abducting Jordan and holding him until he finished the series...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"Finish" his novels? Wouldn't it be more to Jordan's liking if Brandon Sanderson just kept writing book after book on the Wheel of Time until he dies, too?
As a reader of Sanderson's other novels, I can say that endings are his specialty. His fans refer to the endings of his books as the "Brandon Avalanche" because once he starts to build it up, it just snowballs to reach a level of excitement that leaves you blown away.
I can't think of a better author to finish this series.
He's not the author. But he is *an* author.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
I heard an ancient prophecy that said that when the Wheel of Time of was ended, so too was Time.
I'm sure that was poppycock... heh heh... right?
Head over to http://www.georgerrmartin.com/
You know what to do.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Harriet Popham Rigney, Jordan's beloved wife and editor, said of her decision to have Sanderson complete the last book in The Wheel of Time series: "I have chosen Brandon Sanderson to complete Robert Jordan's great work, and I am absolutely delighted that he accepted. I will of course be editing this book as I have all of the other books of The Wheel of Time."
Suddenly, the word "Edit" has lost all meaning.
Right, I think you should really step back and consider what you are saying.
Every author has a right to express situations to the point they see fit. If you want to pull a Hemingway and tell things how they are, go ahead. "The night was dark." But I'm going to paraphrase something I remember from the intro to Stephen King's unabridged version of The Stand:
You can tell the story of Hansel & Gretel in about three sentences. Hansel & Gretel got lost in the forest. They happened upon a house wtih an old witch who offered them candy. She really wanted to eat them and they figured it out and dumped her in the oven.
Ok, so that was quick, but you know, it also is interesting to mention that they weren't so much as 'lost' as their bitch of a mother threw them in the woods because she loved their father but not them. Or that they left breadcrumbs certain they could find their way back. And also they kind of faced with a bit of a moral dilemma when they were faced with killing the witch. Oh, and when I talk about the forest, if I put some details into it to make it a little darker and scarier, it works better. Before you know it, I'm painting a novel. Yes, it's going to be long. Oh but all these things make the plot long and loopy and without everything being answered! Yes, it's going to have an overload of details but that's how I want to tell it. If you don't like, either don't read it or buy the Cliff's notes and get back to me on it.
Jordan went to the Citadel. He spares no expense on details. He also is an expert at explaining battles. If you don't like it that he answers questions with more questions, don't read it. I'm sorry but you went through book seven and I implore to keep going, some of the later ones get much better. It's the same thing that drew me to the X-Files & even some newer books, I'm sorry that it discourages you but that's what I love about Jordan. Not your average run of the mill fantasy series!
My work here is dung.
Seriously, kill off a few of the 'main' characters.
That's always been the issue with these books is that Jordan created a handful of characters, then added a few side characters and said "Oh my these are interesting let's flesh them out!" and he did...over 10 f'n books worth of side characters!
G.Martin, Glenn Cooke, Dan Abnett, all are good sci-fi/fantasy writers that can handle multiple characters and wack them off at a whim and leave you feeling that you are sad to see them go but there's a reason they are gone and the story moves on. These hangers on from seachan whichs to aes sedai, to aielmen of the north to whatever in the later books all come and STAY. Noone leaves the main thread, hence why his books are 1k pages long and full of worthless fluff "She fluffs her green jade dress full of sparkling diamonds while pulling on her hair and frowning at "
I was able to carve the book down by 1/3 by simply ignoring most of the side plots and only reading stuff that concerned Rand,Matt,Perin. If it didn't involve them I didn't care, I moved along.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
I went through the whole series, and mostly they went fast. and I didn't skip anything. most books in the series I read at least 2 or 3 times. and the series does come to an end: book 12. in any case, book 11 is when despite all the action, the preparations for the last battle are completed.
I just really hope this author sticks exactly to what Robert Jordan had planned. it's bad enough I'll have to cope with a different style of writing, the annoying power plays, and the weird morals. I really don't want to also deal with a world view that is inconsistent with rest of the series. I don't want it adopted to a different interpretation. I just want Robert Jordan.
May he rest in peace.
After he finishes reading the current 5 dozen grueling volumes of "The Wheel of Time", he'll run away, screaming and plucking his eyeballs out!
No matter where you go... there you are.
Jordan had no personal interest in monetary fortunes. His story was alive within him, and as all things that grow in nature, this story grew above and beyond his dreams and took its own course. George R R Martin is experiencing a similar pain with his series, as did Terry Goodkind. The stories and worlds simply become so vast, that in order to move one's characters to the end of the story, it takes more volumes than one expects.
After book 3 Jordan expected the series to be complete at 6 books. after book 5, he thought he was closer to the end than the beginning. He was on a good pace to do that until he experienced a major death in his family while writing book 8. That book got away from him, and in order to complete his works and tie off all of the ends of his story, we needed books 9 and 10 to put things back on track.
Jordan rarely used "filler prose" as you claim. His descriptions were allways vivid and captivating, and all of his writing for his more than 20 main characters was exceptional.
Maybe you're looking at it wrong. This is not a simple story about a few characters on a quest, AKA J R R Tolkein style. this is 3rd generation hard fantasy. This is a collection of stories about seperate individuals following seperate paths each intertwined in common fates inside of an expansive world. This is really no different than the Dragon Lance series, other than in this case, each individual story has the power to move others. If this is more than you can follow, (not to say too complex, but simply the sheer volume of information and time required to invest in it) or if the collection is simply longer than your attention span, then I can reccomend many other great authors to you, and I will caution you to avoid Tad Williams, Neil Stepheson, George Martin and many other emerging fantasy gods of writing who are also on paths to publishing stories that cross 7-10 1000 page novels.
I mean no disrespect, but maybe it's just not your style.
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
He'd already read the series and his sanity was (mostly) still intact...
Female character sniffed. "Wooly-headed men," she thought.
Male character sighed. "If only other male character were here," he thought. "He understands women."
how to invest, a novice's guide
Holy crap...you wrote my comment...except that I made it through nine (or maybe it was only six?) of these endless bastards. I kept buying the next one thinking, "Ok, something has actually GOT to happen THIS time." But no, NOTHING EVER ACTUALLY HAPPENS...EVER!
This series should be call "The Endless Waste of Time".
There was allways an end. If you read the books carefully enough, then you know what the end is. It was foreshadowed in the early pages of the first book, and reiterated in the 2nd volume several times. the fun is not in reading the ending, but in the twists, turns, and unexpected events that spin us towards the enevitable, that which is destined to repeat as the wheel turns and spins age anew.
Granted, having started reading the series with the release of the 4th book, the end has been a long time coming. 2-4 year between volumes is a loooonnnng time. I'm held in this same pattern by George Martin (Song of Ice and Fire saga), Neil Stepheson (he just announced a second trilogy to his current works), Tad Williams (otherland took forever to be completed, and each volume of his current fantasy series is eagerly awaited), i even went through this with Isaac Asimof and his 13 book saga of the Foundation (not including 2 others he went back in and added later!).
I fill the gaps with Mercades Lackey, Robin Hobb, Bob Salvatore, and a dozen others not to mention all these other fantasies I end up reading just to keep up with what's in the theatres. (notice i did not mention the potter books however).
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
And the "epic" is precisely why I stopped reading at book 4. Up to that point, you had the very good story of a bunch of small-town kids caught up in something bigger than they were. It was gritty and it was real. When Rand defeats a swordmaster with a blue heron blade in book four, then takes out one of the lesser deities in the same book, I instantly thought ... gee, kinda tough to go UP from there, isn't it? He's only 20 or so.
I'm a fan of low fantasy, so the minute it spiraled up into "killing Gods" territory, which is what I call it, I instantly lost interest.
I'll tolerate anything
Well the real problem was that around the ending of Book 4, Tor came to Jordan and asked him to extend the series and stretch it out. I am most certain this is documented somewhere and came directly from RJ himself.
:)
Of course, RJ started out writing just one book, then during the process came up with more story and wanted a trilogy. If you read carefully, you can actually see how Book 3 really is a good ending to the saga, and it's evident how Book 4 does start on a new thread entirely. It's a very different series starting at Book 4 (similar to how Book 2 started).
But this is about when Tor came in and asked for more. So, he drew up some extended storyline of course for books 4-6 or so. Book 4 was stunning. just great!. Books 5-7 were *definitely* filler with mild forward-moving story. But then he got his act back together with Book 8 and THAT's when he did another 'reboot' of sorts and started putting story elements back together. The second half of Book 8, the whole of Book 9, and the interesting storytelling of Book 10 are all very tightly woven and they work very well.
Book 11 certainly was the house-cleaning book (heh, some "decisive action" taking place rather early made me smile) and sets the stage very smoothly for Book 12.
So yes, I agree it got slow and lazy in the middle. If we could have those books plus first half of Book 8 condensed and re-written to a 200 page novel, that'd be great
Anyway, I just wanted to toss that bit of insight up. I hope it helps 'cope' in some way with the whole thing. Once I found out about it, I felt better about it.
Seeya!
You geniuses realize that Jordan was writing the LAST BOOK RIGHT? There ARE NO MORE after this one. Jordan was going to start writing a shorter series based upon a totally different world and mythos. SO all this guy has to do is finish the book based upon Jordans notes and his widows directions, considering she was helping with the writing in the last days because he was so damn sick.
If you go to Brandon Sanderson's website, www.brandonsanderson.com you can read sample chapters from each of his novels. He also has a book Warbreaker, that he has released free under the Creative Commons License. It's a full book, that will be published by Tor and sold in 2009, but you can also download it, print it, send it to friends, etc free of charge.
If RJ didn't reveal who killed Asmodean somewhere in those volumes of notes and dictations, I might go postal.
Jordan was much/most of the way through the last book, #12 at the time of his passing, and I was told that he had shared the ending (the high points anyway)with several parties in case he didn't make it though. I have to assume that this guy will finish up book 12, and that will be that. I don't envision an unending series as many here claim will be.
This WILL finish the series. I've read the outline, and I am confident that I can do it in a single book. This won't go five more novels. It will end here.
Note that I'm not saying there won't be more Wheel of Time material released. That's not up to me. There were notes for prequels (Mr. Jordan wrote one of a planned three) and some notes on what happened to certain characters after the end of book 12. However, those are all intended as extra information and separate books outside the Wheel of Time main series.
Book 12 will deal with the final battle and give resolution to the story started in EYE OF THE WORLD. It will be one volume if it's within my power to make it so.
--Brandon Sanderson (Who really needs to sign up and get a Slashdot account sometime.)
Well, I am going to toss this out there even though it may be a little inflammatory: Jordan was stylistically awful. Beyond belief really. The writing devolved over the course of the series from adequate to extremely painful. Your claims:
- "rarely used filler prose". If you read books 5-9, you will find that increasingly, that is all they were. Phrases were repeated a painfully large number of times. Characters expressed the same emotions and reactions to various situations over and over and over again.
- "his writing for more than 20 main charcters was exceptional" Well, there was little if any character growth for the majority of characters since book 4. If anything, it is shockingly repetitive in that the character's changed in no significant way for so long. And female characters in particular tended to the caricaturish in their unidimensionality.
No matter what excuse you care to use, it is obvious that a much firmer editorial hand was required. The number of people that simply stopped reading (based on comments here, on Amazon, and other forums) is very large. It just went on. Not only were questions not answered, and plot details not resolved, but new, seemingly irrelevant questions were raised, and new plot threads started. You may want to defend the work as "3rd generation hard fantasy" but it reads a lot more like Edward Gibbon than anything that is remotely interesting or compelling as a work of fiction.
Finally, I would not that Jordan's work has nothing redeeming from a literary point of view either--there are no compelling themes explored in interesting or insightful ways; no compelling use of metaphor or allegory; no deep (or even shallow) discovery of human nature and growth through conflict; nothing tragic about the conflicts; nothing at all. So without plot and character, there is simply nothing at all of interest.
And for reference, I have worked through Martin's books without losing interest. And Erikson's (who has more happen in a chapter than WoT had in whole books) even though he is up to 7000+ pages. Glen Cooks. Gene Wolfe. Etc. But that doesn't mean that I am uncritical or read uncritically. Jordan lost the plot and jumped the shark a long time ago, and those problems are compounded by dreadful style, awful characterization, and the total absence of compelling plot developments. (I am also pretty critical of Goodkind for similar reasons--the prose is simply awful, as is the characterization.)
So you don't classify this a character development?
Sure, one may be tempted to state that such phrases were repeated regularly in the series, but c'mon, all this means is that each book could have been 30-50 pages shorter... also, it's a long series, authors must remind us of how their characters think from time to time or we begin to forget who they are and substitute our own thoughts for theirs. personally I appreciate this detail and I wish more authors used similar techniques.
We're not talking about parragraphs and pages of useless descriptions (though many were lenghty, its much of that poetic verse that makes the story worth reading, and I considder little of it useless or wasteful), and we're not talking about complete tangents from story that have no impacts on the characters or the story... besides, ether he used such prose or not would have made no impact on how many books he published. What it would have made an impact on is how many pages each book was published, saving the publisher money. In fact, considdering that, I counter that jordan was in fact not milking his publisher and the public for money, but in fact, he was milking them OF such money, as each hardcover, regardless of cost to produce, is sold for the same retail price...
Some authors do produce books in volume simply for money. Some of those authors are worth reading, others not so much. I gave up on Goodkind for this reason after his 4th book. Each additional story was not moving the characters forward, or expanding the world, it only prolonged the saga for profit. I'd argue that the original runelords series was quite good, but continuing that series with another (at least) trilogy is not worth my reading time (though if the second saga could stand on its own without first having to read the 4 books previous to it, it might be) the Dune Saga also has this weakness. If you truly love the world, you've got over 15 books of it to read now, but the original book alone stands on it's own. the first 3 sequals add to it, but reading beyond is unnecessary.
but of course, this is your opinion. I enjoy books with depth, complexity, and longevity. I avoid books and series that are simple or episodic. If it can be made into a 3 hour or less movie, it's not worth my time. Each book should take at least half of a full season of TV to conclude and a saga should take years of watching. LoTR produced 12 hours of feature movie, and from only a few hundred pages (about the total length of a single book from Jordan). Each potter book, some of which are 800+ pages) only translate into 2 hour movies. I read the first 5 books of the potter series in about 3 days time. Each book of Jordan's, Martin's, William's, or Stepheson's enthrawled me for more than a week. Anyuthing less can't hold my interest, is too predictable, or is simply episodic and I have no addiction to the series. Not everyone feels the same way, and i hold no ill will towards them. The only readers I wish stripped from the face of Terra are those who read romance novels...
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
Jordan was already planning to make this book the final one.
Actually, the last 2 books really picked up steam as he started moving toward the conclusion.
Books 6 through 9, however, were pretty tedious.
"I couldn't get past the first half of the first book. Jordan's writing was so amateurish, it reminded me more of a lot of the fanfiction out there. I found it dull and poorly written."
Perhaps you meant that a lot of the fan fiction out there reminds you of Jordan's writing? That's probably because a lot of fan fiction writers got their inspiration from him.
I'll concede that the writing itself was not the greatest, but the story is excellent. I'm sorry that you "couldn't" get past the writing and enjoy the story.
It's really sad that even when reading a fantasy series, people are so obsessed with getting to the point that they can't tolerate a single word not expressly intended for plot advancement. There's a reason old people are always telling young people to slow down.
Frag 'em all...
What about the "giant world-wide S&M sorority thing" going on. All the women were always threatening to spank, hit, whack, or otherwise "discipline" each other pretty much non-stop. BTW, when I first read the first book of the series I stuck it in my flight bag for a long trip and avgas back then was about $1.50/gallon. THAT was a long time ago!
I'm 99% positive that was an in-joke in the series, given that each of the three male "leads" uses that particular expression multiple times.
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
In the early books, even a few Trollocs or single Myrrdraal was an issue. By the middle books, they were being beaten up by farmwives with kitchen implements. By the late books, hundreds of them aren't really a big deal. A shame really, as when you lose respect for the foes, the series loses a lot of depth.
It's the ridiculously stupid characters that killed my interest in the series. How many times does someone have to do something without the slightest thought to the consequences before they get a sense of responsibility? Don't they realize that they're in the middle of an important battle between good and evil?
Woops, I re-joined this guy's severed powers, and I have no idea if he's the dragon or not.
Woops, I shot that unknown target with balefire.
Woops, I gave away an important secret by babbling stupidly (dozens of times).
Every single one of the main characters, and most of the secondary characters, were total idiots. I spent most of the time wondering if it could get worse, then marveling at how much worse it could get, then wishing they would all die.
Please, finish it, so that it goes away forever.
No kidding. Loved it at first. But it got repetative. So and so tugs on her braid. Yet again. Yawn.
If Sanderson is that good at wrapping things up, maybe George R.R. Martin can pass along his notes for A Song of Ice and Fire and then just move on to something else...
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
I've read them all several times now, but the first WoT book I ever read was Book 2. Had I started from Book 1 I doubt I would have ever gotten into the series.
I feel that in Book 1 he hadn't really found the series' "voice" yet, that the story and prose are amateurish as you say. Books 2-5 are both much better written and much more interesting as stories. You get the sense sometimes while reading them that he wishes he could undo some of the things that happened in Book 1, or that he wishes he made the 'rules' slightly differently in Book 1. Books 2-3 carry on the same themes as Book 1 did, but in a richer way.
In Books 6-9 the tone changes. The stories start becoming very complex, very mature. Many people don't like 6-9 as the plot lines tend to deal more with politics and character motivations, rather then personal growth and exploring exotic lands (the primary motifs of 1-5). The villains in particular become less cartoon-y. Ishamael, the howling, ranting, "join the darkside!" villain of 1-3, is replaced by Moridin a quiet, sinister figure whom manipulates all the characters from the background, and who's motives are completely unknowable. Lanfear of the early books, who's only function is to tempt the protagonists with sex and glory or to fly into jealous rages, is swept aside in favor of Mogedian, a much more three-dimensional villain. Jordan also develops characters such as Elida, Verin and Asmodean, characters who are acting in the moral grey areas, neither completely good or evil.
In Books 10-11 the series' tone changed one last time. Maybe responding to fans complaints, Jordan begins wrapping up plot lines rather then creating new ones. The storys become more personal: a love story, a war of succession, and a personal vendetta of revenge. There are more battles, and the hero Rand loses much of his near-invincibility he possessed in the previous books. There is a sense of impending catastrophe, lacking in previous volumes.
The series isn't perfect, but judging the series by the first half of first book is misleading.
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
Mod me -1 Troll if you will, but you guys who complain about the books all suck. No, hear me out.
;P
I won't say you're wrong (though personally I think you are) because it's largely a matter of opinion - but to claim that everyone else is wasting their time is just plain rude. If it's too long for you, move on - don't tell everyone else they're stupid for reading the series. I happen to love long books and long series with deep characters and plots - even if it's frustrating sometimes.
It reminds me of the thread about Robert Jordan's death. Those of you who made comments to the effect of "Good Riddance" are just plain horrible people. That's very insensitive. Have some respect, seriously. Those comments made me bitter towards the general slashdot populace for several weeks (and I'm not a bitter person). I guess some of that is still lingering.
Don't ruin the mood of those of us who are looking forward to the last book, or I'll send you spam email with a picture of a cat saying "IM IN UR HEAD HAXING UR PASSWORD"
Except with his love of numerology, I'm sure Book 13 was planned to be the grand finale. Then again, I had suspicions early on that regardless of what he wanted to cover, the series would go to one of the numbers he loves so much (3, 7, 12, 13). I own them all in Hardback, started reading them back in high school (out of college w/ a real job now), and I'd love to see an ending. I'm sure he's laid out the core of what happens (in notes or rough drafts), hell most of it is spelled out in foreshadowing and prophecy. Let's just see a conclusion so I know whether or to sell the Hardback copies or keep them!
- Kal`Goblez
What are you talking about? There are two beings that could be called deities in the books - The Creator and The Dark One. Rand definitely did not kill either one of them in any of the books.
I don't think Rand even killed any of the Forsaken in The Shadow Rising (although he captured Asmodean), and I don't think there where any blademasters in that book either. The closest thing I can think of is in book 2, The Great Hunt, when Rand defeats a blademaster in Falme and then defeats Ishamael, who is going by the name Ba'alzamon (and at that time he was thought to be The Dark One). But even Ishy hardly deserves to be called a "minor deity".
Anyway, why would you be surprised by Rand defeating major enemies? By the end of The Great Hunt (and even before) it is clear that he is a "foretold hero", and The Dragon Reborn. Heck, at the end of the first book, he kills a (minor) Forsaken and singlehandedly changes the outcome of a battle, so it is clear he is an extremely powerful character.
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
Rather choppily, I'm afraid. The last two movies were rushed Cliff Notes versions of the books, showing the high points without any sort of through line. As visuals to go with the books, they were okay, but as stand-alone movies, they would have benefited from an extra 30-60 minutes to follow through on elements and connect them, instead of just presenting them staccato. Whether the target audience would have been willing to sit still for 3 hours is another question.
... and Stories come and pass, leaving books that become sequels. sequels that fade to prequels, and even prequels are long since read when the Author that give it birth has died and been replaced. In one book, called the 12th book by some...
they have big fighgt! Thers a HUGE SWARD and esplosions! RAND R0XX0RS THE BL0XX0RS, and he kills all the b4d guys! teh bene gesserit I MEAN AES SEDAI (d0h!) help some, but so do some Fremen I MEAN AIEL and they spend the hole time arguing wether dudes or chicks r00le m0r3 (LOL).
At teh end all the bad guys are dead -- EXCEPT 1 of THER BODIES IS GONE LIKE HE SNUCK OFF OR SOMTHN!! AND RAND IS FATALLY INJURD! *SOB* But doont wory he gets reencarnated 'cause the wheel in the sky keeps on turnin!
(GOTO BOOK 1)
-- "Oh. This guy again."
Oh please, he takes out an entire fucking chapter to discuss fields. FIELDS. Since one can assume his major clientele are not amateur agronomists, this is obviously filler, and extremely poor filler at that. This is, of course, the most abusive example in the first 3 books(as far as I actually got), but there is plenty more.
I don't the dislike and ranting against this series most other slashdotters do I guess. Yeah it's too many books and could have been shortened. I read them all and liked them. I'm happy to find out they will finish it and the end is in sight. Wish Jordan could have finished it himself. RIP.
You mean the 1,000 repetition at the end of book 3? I almost pulled my braid I was so frustrated.
LoTR produced 12 hours of feature movie, and from only a few hundred pages (about the total length of a single book from Jordan)
"a few hundred pages" ? Seriously?
The various reprints are typeset the same, and Amazon lists the 50th anniversary edition as 1184 pages. That includes about 80 pages of appendices and maps, but you're well over a thousand pages of text.
Where did you get "a few hundred pages" from? The Hobbit?
but of course, this is your opinion. I enjoy books with depth, complexity, and longevity. I avoid books and series that are simple or episodic.
You mean you enjoy books that you think have depth, complexity and longevity, and avoid books that you judge to be simple or episodic. I find some of the authors you list tedious, dull, uninspired and repetitive in the extreme. You find their books full of depth and complexity. That's all down to personal taste, or lack thereof. You mention personal opinion and then go on to ignore it in the very next sentence.
If it can be made into a 3 hour or less movie, it's not worth my time.
When you say that the book has to equate to at least a three hour movie, how do you judge that before you read the book? Heavy books make longer movies? Do you imagine a particular director's or screenwriter's version? After all, one director would make Lord of the Rings into a two hour movie, another made it into a nine hour movie. I reckon it's possible to successfully tell the entire story in two hours (the movies had a few hours of battle scenes that weren't described in the books for more than a few pages).
How can you look at a book in the store, read a few pages and say "Well, this'd be a 2 hour film so it's not for me!" or "Ooh, looks like a five hour movie's in here! Where's my wallet?" I ask because I find this behaviour astonishing.
(and it's "enthralled" not "enthrawled")
Related to that, there's a point around book 5 where the nature of the enemy (or at least the enemy cannon fodder) changes. For the first few books, it's mostly Trollocs and Myrrdraal -- literally faceless and bestial. But then the various Aiel factions rise to prominence, and the Seanchan, and nations are going around making alliances and conquering each other with armies. Suddenly the enemies have a face, and are all too human. It changes the dynamic considerably.
While I would not QUITE so harshly condemn the WoT as you have... The first 3 books were really quite amazing, and I was very prepared for a really great finale in book 4... which never happened. I had always previously presumed that Jordan had planned a 3,4 or 5 book series and then his publishers saw the prospect of buckets of money and convinced him to continue.
Now, I'm not so sure... I think his illness may have played into the picture in a couple different ways.
Note: this is COMPLETE SPECULATION
1. The Heinlein Effect - As Heinlein grew more and more ill, he began to pump out books at a crazy rate both as sort of a way to postpone his passing (notice EVERYBODY is alive in the last books), and
2. to provide for his wife. When contemplating ones mortality you want to take care of you loved ones - providing more books provides more financial stability for your loved ones.
One other comment you made stuck out- your comment that "it is obvious that a much firmer editorial hand was required."
In reading the announcement it appears that his wife was his primary editor. That might work in some cases, but I don't think this was one of them. I think it would be really hard for a person to be firmly critical of beloved spouse's artistic work - especially when they are ill as well.
I'm glad the series will reach a conclusion. I hope the final work redeems the wandering that occured from about book 5 on - perhaps it will really benefit from a new voice working on it... And maybe an abridged edition will eventually be put out that, like say Stranger in a Strange land, is better than the unabridged version.
The Outline:
1. Rand prepares for the Last Battle.
2. Rand sets off.
3. Rand starts to feel a little dizzy as he approaches Dragonmount and falls over dead of undiagnosed cardiac amyloidosis.
--Brandon Sanderson (Who plans rename "Rand" to the obviously superior "Brand.")
well, we like it. I guess it wasn't written for you.
I don't read it for the setting. I don't mind conflicts in the story.
I just want to read something entertaining, and understand the authors world. it's interesting to try to understand other peoples thinking. plus if it has any ideas it's trying to communicate, that gives it a big plus on value and enjoyment.
besides, it's well written.