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Originally Posted by EatingPie
These books definitely walk a line. They are structured and have the "tropes" but they exist within a scientific explanation. (Not so much Pern as the other two.) Or are a mix of science fiction and fantasy spun together.
I think Wolfe's term "Urth" kind of captures this dichotomy (or mixture I guess). "Ur" meaning old. But it's Earth of the far, far future. So it's futuristic science fiction with the old-age fantasy elements. Or, as I've heard it described, "it's so far in the future, it looks like the past."
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I concur. You can have a lot of fun arguing about where to draw the dividing line between SF and fantasy, but to do that, you first have to define them, so you can specify where each centers.
I don't think you
can draw a hard and fast line. There are too many edge cases that straddle boundaries. I see both as subsets of fantastic literature, which overlap and blend in various areas.
I call the Urth of the New Sun SF, but I'm aware of the fantasy tropes.
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All I can say to this is... Publish it! That description/speculation was more interesting and exciting than anything I'd read in WoT in at least 1 and a half full books! 
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Thanks, I suppose.
Jordan has been pretty good about not going where you think he is with the series, and that's about as unexpected a conclusion as I can come up with.
Getting a bit more serious, WoT presents teleological issues, and I don't know if Jordan really planned to address them. In that sense, WoT and Urth share some characteristics. Urth is about sin and redemption, and before the powers out there will consent to kindle a new sun, man must atone for prior bad behavior. WoT has Morgaine piously proclaiming the Creator is good, yet the Creator made the Wheel of Time, and started it spinning and weaving the Pattern over endless cycles in which Shaitan attempts tp break out of his prison and the Dragon must face him and stuff him back, while millions ultimately suffer and die.
Christian theology calls this the problem of pain, and the answer to "How can a just and loving God permit this?" tends to be "We don't know, but we must believe in God and trust that He has a plan and all will be well in the end." WoT hasn't really addressed the question of what about all of this makes the Creator "good". We also get no real feel for Shaitan's motivations. If I were dropped into that world and could talk to one of the Forsaken, I'd ask two questions. First, "You know this has been happening for endless cycles. What makes you think that
this time Shaitan will succeed in breaking free and remaking creation to his liking?" Second, "You expect to live forever and rule the world as the Great Lord's viceroys. What makes you think creation as he'll redo it if he can will even have a world you can live in, let alone rule?"
If I really wanted to have fun, I'd suggest that Shaitan's motives are unhappiness over the way many millions have suffered and died, and a desire to end the cycles and break the Pattern, allowing humanity to forge its own destiny. Let's muddy the waters a bit and question just who the good guys are.
But then, I'm increasingly displeased with most fantasy, precisely because of questions of motivation. When you toss deities in the mix, the bad guys all tend to be spoiled cosmic children, throwing magical tantrums because they can't have their own way.
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Dennis