Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
I thought Jordan lost control of the story around the third volume. (I remember reading a passage and it felt like nothing happened for a hundred pages - and then the same nothing happened for another hundred pages to the same characters later on.)
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I have mixed feelings. Jordan's WoT series is a lot like how Tolkien described "The Lord of the Rings": a "tale that grew in the telling". If I recall correctly, WoT was originally conceived and sold as a standard fantasy trilogy, but the more Jordan wrote, the more he discovered he had to write to tell the story he wanted to tell.
And as he discovered more he had to write, he got increasingly farther behind, to the point where his publisher put him up in a hotel at one point so he could write with no distractions and get the next book out the door.
I met him on a signing tour at one point, and he stated that he knew what the last scene in the last book would be, but was not certain exactly how he would get there. He was adamant, however, that the WoT series would
not be a twelve book series. After reading the book he had signed on that tour, I said "He's right. It won't be a twelve book series. Given how far this book
didn't advance the plot, it will take at least thirteen..."
The last couple of WoT books
did advance the plot. It felt like zwischenzug , the chess term for the intermediate moves you must make to set up conditions for the end game you want to play. Jordan was putting his pieces into place.
Ironically, the book Jordan died in the middle of writing and which is being completed by Brian Sanderson is number twelve (though I believe it's big enough that Tor is choosing to publish in three volumes.)
I've been reading the series steadily. I give Jordan credit for giving his characters distinctive voices -- you generally know who is speaking -- and managing to keep multiple plot lines and major characters straight without the sort of continuity glitches that can plague series books. I like the books, but I can understand why some folks have problems.
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Dennis