Hello everyone! A slow version of a bookclub. I am familiar with Fiction/Fantasy/SF to a certain extent. On cracking my head a bit, I can only come up with this as a fantasy series with tonnes of things to discuss. I have read up to Book 10 only but havent had the heart yet to pick up Book 11. So some of the things I mentioned here might have been resolved but somehow I doubt it.

Please note that this thread will be full of spoilers, so stop here if you don't want to hear any!

Here goes:-
Other than being (in)famous for its length (big fat ones up to Book 11 now), it is actually quite easy to get into. The storyline started simple enough with a shepherd DESTINED FOR GREAT POWER and APOCALYPSE APPROACHING. The magic system is comprehensive and believable, the worldbuilding is great. To begin, along with 2 other childhood friends, Rand al'Thor stumbled upon the beginning of the end of times. Guided by Moiraine and Lan, he discovered that he could be the Chosen One destined to remake the world. Many feared he heralds the next Breaking of the World, which previously depopulates many parts of the world with scale of disasters never seen before. His appearance was greeted with mixed feelings by different groups, many jostle to grab power even as the end approaches. Fear mounts as it appears that the seals to the Dark One are breaking one by one as well. The odds are not made any better with so much lost knowledge, diminished magic and a fractured world.

As he tries to figure out what was he supposed to do what he was destined for, he slowly goes mad as the male half of the magic he accessed was tainted during the Breaking of the World.

The sypnosis of mine does not do justice to the books. The story weaving is fantastic and I really don't know how did he juggle so many characters in the books. The plots within the plots all ongoing at the same time hence the huge cast. In the later books, each of the leads could end up on different continents and encounter totally different cultures/clans (Seanchan, Aiel, Aes Sedai etc)

The hooks (those that I can remember):
a) what Tarmon Gaidon will be. So far RJ has not written military battles yet, so who knows...
b) I want to know what will happen (and who is the hidden ones) too all the Forsakens. So far not all of them had appeared.
c) Will the seals break?
d) Will Rand and the Ashman go mad before then? He is going mad already
f) Gad, the identities of all those mysterious people who kept popping out of the woodwork. Who are they? Like the man in brown who saved Rand in a highpitched battle at the end of one of the books.
g) The fate of Mat and the dice in his head and the mysterious spearhead.
h) Will Moiraine come back?
i) Is the leader of the Black Tower really on his side?

My gripes :
a) I lost track due to the length of time between each book. But on the other hand, I can emphatize with RJ for the amount of work he poured in, so no bellyaching about it.
b) Will there be more respect for the women? They seem to be stomping on all the men, sniffing with disdain, always rearranging skirts, patronising others, serene but lose temper for no good reason therefore being incomprehensible to the men who loved them? To think his wife is the editor. The women can abruptly turn around and act way out of their personalities.

Memorable scene:
For some reason, there is one scene at the end of one of the earlier books that got stuck in my mind. The memory is vague but the afterimage is strong. He saw small images of Mat and Perrin's outlined in flames floating above him.

The good,
1/ HUGE world building up the the most minute detail: culture, language, people, magic system. personally i think its the most detail ever.
2/ Well developed Characters and complex-tight plot, everything very well balance. with ralatively few weaknesses or loop holes.

The bad,
1/ Slow pace, comparable to soap opera.
2/ Why is it about saving the world again?
3/ too lengthy. a lot of peeps who follow WOT from teenage years propably dropped it. ......how many re-readings can fans go thru before they give up? Kinda like the TV show LOST, as the show drag on, viewers dwindled.

This post has been edited by tender: Oct 25 2009, 02:05 PM

Woohoo, Amazon just sent out my pre-order of Gathering Storm!

BTW, this is the best re-read of the series I've found so far

---

Added on November 6, 2009, 11:11 pmJust finished The Gathering Storm. Spoiler free mini review ahead.

It was good. Really, really, good. It's definitely a top tier WoT book, and more than even Knife of Dreams, shit gets done here. The plot & status quo is progressed more than even in Fires of Heaven.

While most of the book is still maintained in Jordan's tone, Sanderson does fall at a couple of junctures. There's some really strange & overly modern word usage, & some of the characters (mainly Mat & his swearing) sound off. But these are just minow quibbles

All in all, it bodes very well for the conclusion of this series.

This post has been edited by snowcrash: Nov 6 2009, 11:11 PM

Wow. Amazon is fast.

Sorry snowcrash. didnt realise you have posted a review here until you requoted yourself. Mat and swearing? eh, sounds weird just by the mere mention of it.

Dang. I will have to reread. After many years, when I read one chapter, I got lost in both plot and world. wail- i dont have time. I tried the rereads a bit (thanks for the link!) but somehow it's not holding my interest.

So we are close to the end.

Wow, there's a thread for this series? I think the last book I read was at Book 10 n that was a QUITE a years ago methinks?

Anyway, haven't been update since and probably forgotten 90% of what I have read, maybe its time to pick this up for the conclusion.

Been reading Drizzt since that Book10 (sick of waiting ).

It's kinda in tune with the newly released Bk 12. Not much action here though. Either most people are bleh about WoT or forumers are not bookclub type

I read up to Bk10 too, now got too many books in front of me to think of doing re-reads. snowcrash recommended a good reread, link as above. Give it a go!

My WoT are all so ....yellow. Spotted like a jaundiced Dalmatian.

Dritzz? Isnt that really old too? Or did RA put out new series.

Woah, its been so long since I read book 11 that I didnt notice book 12 is out. O_o Too bad the author died before finishing it

Do only thing I really want to read is about this part:
Lan makes a decision to ride to Shienar to fight. Nynaeve tricks him by making him pledge to take on any who wish to ride with him, and go to Fal Moran first. She then takes him to the coast of the Aryth Ocean at World's End in Saldaea, so he has to travel hundreds of miles to reach his destination. She then Travels ahead of him through the Borderlands to find the scattered remnants of Lan's Malkieri countrymen, asking them to join Lan on his ride to the Blight.

You dont simply ride to Mord... I mean Shienar

It's kinda more of Bk 12a.

This post has been edited by Persephone: Dec 26 2009, 05:51 PM

Yeah, book 12...IS THE LAST BOOK!

...split into three books...so it's not really the last book.

Since BK 9 i've heard about the next bk being the last.

Some news about the next book, Towers of Midnight:From here.