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Originally Posted by AnemicOak
Speaking of popular series. I got talked into reading the first book of Jordan's Wheel of Time series (because I like Martin, Erikson, Etc.) & it took me three different tries before I was able to stick it out to the end. Now I keep thinking I must have missed something because everyone seems to think they're some of the best Fantasy out there. Same thing with Eddings & Goodkind. Some of what I read of theirs I thought was OK, but nothing all that great.
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The Wheel of Time is one of those edge cases where you can debate whether it's fantasy or SF. There are hints in the series that our world exists in the age
before the legendary "Age of Miracles" that preceeds the age depicted in the books. (Other examples of edge cases are Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, and the late Randall Garret's "Lord Darcy" stories.)
I enjoy the WoT books, but they take a bit of getting into. I resisted them for a while, but Tor released the first half of the first book as a giveaway promo PB, I read it on a slow afternoon, and I liked it well enough to continue to find out what would happen next. The big problem is that they are bricks, and there were folks wondering if the series would ever actually finish.
I believe WoT was planned initially as a trilogy, but like like Tolkien's LoTR, which he described as "a tale that grew n the telling", Jordan discovered that the more he wrote, the more he had to write to tell the story he was trying to tell.
I haven't read Goodkind, but have read Eddings. I gave up on him after the Malloreon. He appears to have only one story to tell, with one cast of characters, and each new series is the same tale with the names changed and the serial numbers filed off.
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Dennis