Biscuit Hanmaa said that he thinks RJ crapped out towards the end of the series.

~MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW~

Hey, I don't disagree with you on the fact that he's seemed to crap out on the last ones, but you have to give him credit that books 1-5 were fan-fucking-tastic. Both times I read the series, I finished The Great Hunt in six days. I dunno what it is about that one in particular, but I could never put it down.

IMO, he just moved way the hell too quickly to meet his self-set quota of only having twelve books. If he took the pace that was set in books 1-5 and stuck with it, he'd probably be better than Tolkien when it came down to it, if you could get past his long-winded descriptions of things.


Yeah, it seems like he really lost steam after book five, it took for-fucking-ever to find the Bowl of Winds, and the whole Men... Women... play on things started to get REALLY annoying. Once you realize that Nyneave has developed from a dynamic character [i]into[/i] a one-sided feminazi who can do no wrong in her own mind, that's where a part of me dies.

Here's a character summary of how they went wrong.

Rand - He ha><ed the MUD after book six.

Perrin - Too much whining about Faile. "Faile! Oh Faile! *Whine* *Whine* We get it, he loves her, damn. He's WAY too repetitive. He coulda been a real badass with how he was turning out in book three, but nooo~.

Mat - Probably the only character who didn't seem to lose much. The only question I have is why the fuck did he not bring a staff with him in the first book?

Nyneave - See above.

Egwene - She was okay through most of the series until she became Amyrlin.

Aviendha - She just disappeared completely, didn't she?

Min - She was cool, I never had a problem with her.

Elayne - She gets really annoying right around book eight when she just won't stfu with Nyneave. And she gets REALLY annoying in book nine with the whole Caemlyn stuff.

Etc.



Anyway, Robert Jordan did an awesome job when his world was full of peril around every corner and you didn't know what was fucking what. Look at book four. We think Rand's secure; he's got Callandor and all of that good stuff, but he and everyone else around him almost gets wtfpwned by a Bubble of Eeeevil. That was good shit right there. You never knew what was coming up next. But in these later books, Rand is absolutely nothing like he was, his silence even to the reader (considering it's an omniscient viewpoint) is just ridiculous, and he takes out like, what? Five or more Forsaken in book nine? It's just retarded.


I am willing, however, to look past these (actually pretty minor things, I just exaggerate a lot) and say that he's a really good writer. If you looked only at his first five books (From the start to Rhuidean, the events kinda run together once you read the whole series, eheh.) you'd just be like, "Wow," am I right?

Yeah, usually when i hear the name Robert Jordan these days i just cringe inside with disgust. However, when i'm forced to it, i can admit that he was a god damn epic writer, especially with books 1 and 4. I still enjoy reading book 1 quite often, partially because his writing style is very fluid and readable (which he maintains throughout all the books) partially because of the great plotline he maintains, and partially because of the world that Jordan had presented to us, and the mysteries in the world, and wanting to find out what they all are.

(prefacing this by saying i haven't read book 11 yet...book 10 kinda killed my spirit)

Now, like i said earlier, i would refuse to let him have the title of a great american author, because his passion for his books just seemed to fizzle...or at least, he hasn't been able to bring any mystery or fire to the series recently. He made Rand into god waaaay too early in my opinion, where pretty much no-one can touch him. I mean, none (or nearly none) of the Forsaken have any angreals, and Rand is like...Hey guys, check it out, i have Callandor, ooh, now check it out, i now have the Choeden Kal. And the whole, am i going crazy, am i not going crazy thing REEEEALLLY got old.

So yeah, i agree with you to an extent, by saying IF he was able to keep up the mystery in his world and have an unrepetitive blitzkrieging timeline (like the one in the first five books) he could be one of the greats, but now i sadly just think of him as a miserly bastard who betrayed his readers trust in exchange for money -- (more books, more money).

I agree with your character feelings too, though...Min and Mat FTW (especially Mat and his Band of the Red Hand).

Oh yeah, and Nynaeve sucks sooooo much now, she was so cool in book one, and steadily got worse

Mat in Ebou Dar for EPIC FUCKING WIN! God, that whole thing was just too damn hilarious, what with the whole Tylin thing going down.

It's really sad too, because Nyneave was my favorite female character and then come book seven, she just... really got bad.

Also: Did you ever notice that since book seven, basically Every. Single. Frickin'. Woman. Is. "Plumply Pretty?" God, how I fricking hate that stupid phrase. It makes my blood boil. What the hell is plumply pretty anyway!? I could get it if it was a sparse adjective-type thingy, but he uses it ALL of the TIME until it becomes meaningless.

Also: Only two people in WoT are ugly. Gaidal Cain and that ugly boy, Olver.



EDIT (Spoiler Alert):

Oh yeah, the whole going crazy thing really had potential at the end of book nine when Lews Therin helped Rand out of that pit in Shadar Logoth.

Also: Robert Jordan didn't create more books for more money. He's gone on record and stuff saying that it was always his intention to make a 12 book WoT series. If anything, he created less books out of haste. Seriously, when you look at the Bowl of Winds setup compared to the "I'mma cleanse saidin!" setup and execution, it's really obscene.

probably not of any interest to anyone but you blank, but robert jordan died yesterday, that is, Sunday.

[quote="Biscuit Hammer"]probably not of any interest to anyone but you blank, but robert jordan died yesterday, that is, Sunday.[/quote]

Are you serious? It's sad in a way, but it's also terribly ironic and funny that I and many other people have effectively wasted months of our lives reading that damned series.

I still haven't read the eleventh book yet.


I'mma Google dis shiz.

He was in the middle writing the last book. :/

I stopped reading the series a while ago, but it still makes me sad.

[quote="terra"]He was in the middle writing the last book. :/

I stopped reading the series a while ago, but it still makes me sad.[/quote]


SPOILERS! THE SERIES IS NEVER COMPLETED

D;