My Problem with Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series
I have told several of you who read fantasy novels that I don't enjoy Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series anymore. I thought this would be a good time and place to discuss exactly why I have a problem with this series.
The first few books are excellent. But after the third or fourth book, Jordan takes a big turn and keeps going. (imagine that Tolkien writes another book and says "Well Sauron didn't really die at the end of 'Return of the King', that was just some Nazgul in disguise and now I will write 10-15 more books..... none of which getting any closer to actually ending the series.")
Over the course of 11 (and growing) books, Jordan has continually added new major characters, minor characters, countries, cities, wars, revolutions, family squabbles and whole dimensions of plot that make it so complicated now that is impossible to move the whole thing forward, even in a 1000 page book. I searched online for a complicated diagram to attempt to illustrate how complex the plot is but I couldn't find one. (And I enjoy complex books - but this series is so complex it collapses under its own weight. ) I checked out several of the major WoT web sites and found that "major characters" now includes 37 people (and by major character we mean someone who be the narrator/focus person for a chapter or more). And minor characters included several hundred names. Even the die hard fans need web sites full of chapter summaries and character lists to keep everything straight.
The bottom line is that Jordan created a really enjoyable series of books but went too far in adding characters/plot elements/places/factions and now I don't think he can successfully draw it to a close anytime soon. If you want to stop at the end of book 3 or 4 I can recommend it, otherwise don't start. I have read 8,560 pages in this series (since I haven't read the newest 783 page book - second smallest in the series!) so I feel I have earned the right to complain if I don't like the way it is going.
The first few books are excellent. But after the third or fourth book, Jordan takes a big turn and keeps going. (imagine that Tolkien writes another book and says "Well Sauron didn't really die at the end of 'Return of the King', that was just some Nazgul in disguise and now I will write 10-15 more books..... none of which getting any closer to actually ending the series.")
Over the course of 11 (and growing) books, Jordan has continually added new major characters, minor characters, countries, cities, wars, revolutions, family squabbles and whole dimensions of plot that make it so complicated now that is impossible to move the whole thing forward, even in a 1000 page book. I searched online for a complicated diagram to attempt to illustrate how complex the plot is but I couldn't find one. (And I enjoy complex books - but this series is so complex it collapses under its own weight. ) I checked out several of the major WoT web sites and found that "major characters" now includes 37 people (and by major character we mean someone who be the narrator/focus person for a chapter or more). And minor characters included several hundred names. Even the die hard fans need web sites full of chapter summaries and character lists to keep everything straight.
The bottom line is that Jordan created a really enjoyable series of books but went too far in adding characters/plot elements/places/factions and now I don't think he can successfully draw it to a close anytime soon. If you want to stop at the end of book 3 or 4 I can recommend it, otherwise don't start. I have read 8,560 pages in this series (since I haven't read the newest 783 page book - second smallest in the series!) so I feel I have earned the right to complain if I don't like the way it is going.
posted by John Ringer at
12:34 PM
2 Comments:
Would you say the same is true of George R. R. Martin's series?
For my own thoughts, see
this page.
Warning: Spoilers!
By
Van Allen Plexico, at 12:29 PM
Michael Dirda in the Washington Post contends that this is the problem with most fantasy series - the fantasy world just collapses under it's own weight. Turns out planning and execting a whole different universe is trickier than it looks. I'd say the exceptions are Tolkin with the Lord of Rings and possibly Martin (although the last book gave some indication that his world is starting to sag). Might be others?
By
Anonymous, at 3:50 PM
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