Quote:
Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj
You must have a good memory for names. I stopped reading Wheel of Time when I couldn't tell which character was which, and what it did last time I read about it.
|
Yeah, I hear that
The books were coming out about a year apart and each time one did, I'd reread from the beginning. At book 6 I started rereading the previous book only. But see, I didn't do it because I had to. I did it because I enjoyed them and found something new each time.
There is plenty of backstory (and all the characters involved) which isn't necessary to tell a tale, particularly books 4-7, but doesn't take away from it. It's a complex world though, 15 countries (heh in the present age, plenty others mentioned in historical context) with 15 sets of rulers on the continent, a world bad guy/henchmen organization, world good(?) guy/henchmen org, neutral parties, not 1 but 8 strong main characters (and you'd need them if you realized how long it would take Rand to visit all 15 of those countries hehehe.., a desert waste with it's ruling tribes.. and then as all this power struggle is taking place - they get invaded by these people from another continent... Multiple types of magic developed in different ages to be discovered,
Male and female power distinctly different. A few bits of romance, some humor.
Now that he's unexpectedly gone, I think there's a bunch of us fans that are happy to have all this "not absolutely necessary" prose. I can count on one finger the number of authors I think better at creating a new, believable, engaging fantasy world.