Quote:
Originally Posted by bbusybookworm
I can sympathise. I discovered the series when book 6 or 7 came out, a lost patience when book 10 came out. I refused to buy any more of the series untill it was completed as I was afraid that the series would remain unfinished  if he died. Unfortunately it looks like those fears were justified.
Will have to see how the final volume that his wife is going to help write turns out. |
His wife has "helped write" every one of the books. She was also his editor at Tor.
I passed on the series for a long time, as it got the sort of drooling fanboy raves that tend to put me off. But Tor issued the first half of the first book as a giveaway PB, I read it on a slow afternoon, and liked it enough to buy the full book to find out what happened next. these days, I buy them in hardcover when released.
A contact once said "All the ingredients are familiar, but it's a tasty stew". She was quite right. And while the series is dense and prolonged, Jordan had two attributes I found essential. First, he managed to give each character a unique "voice". You seldom encountered the common problem in stretches of dialog of keeping track of just who is talking. Second, he was adept at not taking the obvious path. Plot threads might point in certain directions, but you seldom wound up where you thought you might.
It was obvious in the last couple of books that Jordan was working toward wrapping up the series. There's a chess term called Zwischenzug, or "in-between move". It covers the situation where there's something you want to do, but must set up the conditions first. Jordan had been moving his pieces into position for the end game.
We'll see how good a job Brian Sanderson does at completing the last book. He's demonstrated he's a competant writer. Jordan's wife/editor chose him. and Jordan knew he might not live to complete the book, and left behind a comprehensive outline and notes as to what he intended to do.
I think the test will be, will the average reader be able to tell where Jordan left off and Sanderson took up the reins.
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Dennis