Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged robert jordan
Book 26: Crown Of Swords
Oct 15th 2010
Title: Crown of Swords
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 896
Summary
The wheel of time turns leaving memories that fade to legend. Legend fades to myth, and eventually makes it’s way into this long winded series of book about Rand Al’Thor and his destiny to save the world from the Dark One’s impending assault.
Women adjust their shawls and smooth their skirts. Men wonder if they’ll ever understand women. Braids are tugged, arms are folded beneath breasts and chins are raised.
And oh yeah, some stuff happens at the very end of the book that moves the story along.
Notes
You may have guessed from the summary section that I wasn’t overly fond of this book. The last three books could have been condensed into one book and the story would have been better off for it. There is a reason why authors don’t tell every single minute of the story in full detail.
My same complaints are evident here. Jordan can’t write women, spends too much time describing the most pointless crap imaginable and the relationships between men and women are enough to make me want to break my kindle in half. Several times I’ve rolled my eyes and said “You’ve got to be kidding me”.
But the story is still there, even as compressed as it is to the end of the book. The last 100-200 pages or so actually moved the plot forward (while introducing about 30 brand new, totally useless characters might I add…all with names similar to other characters). I’m still going to slog ahead because I’ve read 7 books of this thing and I want to know how it ends.
Next Book
I’ve been a bit slow about posting, so I’ve already started and completed my next book which was Book 1 of The Dresden Files, Storm Front by Jim Butcher. Which I will write about in my next posting.
Book 22: Lord of Chaos
Aug 17th 2010
Title: Lord Of Chaos
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 720
Summary
The adventures of Rand and friends continues in the 6th volume of the Wheel of Time. Rand as the Dragon Reborn consolidates his strength while fighting of enemies from within and without, while the female leads of the series begin their search for a powerful object that will possibly fix the weather.
Notes
Yet again, my standard Wheel of Time complaints apply here, so if you want to hear about how he writes women, or his tendancy towards gross over-description of dresses, you can read one of my past wheel of time note sections.
This book is all about political wrangling. There’s very little real action until just at the end and what’s there isn’t a huge main plot point as it has been in the previous 5 books, but rather what seems like something that’s there just because the book needed a big action sequence climax.
The story is still interesting once you get to it. This is the part of most series where the pace slows down and the situation is set up for the big climax at the end, so it’s not surprising most of the book is political wrangling with very little progress forward in events. I expect it to be the same for the next several books as there’s a lot of setup that has to get done.
I should also note this is the last book of the wheel of time that I’ve read, so moving on from here I’ll be reading them fresh, for the first time.
Next Book
I’m taking another Wheel of time break, this time with The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, the first book in the Gentlemen Bastard’s series which was recommended to me by my friend Kris.
Book 16: The Fires of Heaven
Jun 1st 2010
Title: The Fires of Heaven
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 992
Summary
The adventures of Rand and friends continues in the fifth book of the wheel of time. Still, no spoilers so not really giving the story away.
Notes (Spoilers)
This is going to be a short notes section because pretty much everything I said about book four holds true here.
The story remains interesting, but it’s drown in a sea of Robert Jordan cliches. Women saying how wool-brained men are. Men saying how they don’t understand women. One particular character, Nynaeve, companing through the entire book that the dress she was wearing was way too revealing. ENOUGH ALREADY. WE GET IT!!!
At least she didn’t have a braid to tug in this one. Although this book also contains one of my favorite scenes where Nynaeve gets yelled at for basically acting like a stubborn ass all the time. It’s a dressing down that sorely has been needed for the past 4 books.
But as annoying as the characters are getting and the cliches running left and right, the story is still really good. You just have to wade through a lot of crap and over-description to actually get at it.
Next Book
I’m taking another break from the Wheel of Time with a book recommended by Wassy, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover. I’m about 100 pages in and I’ve been totally sucked in so far. After that I’ll be reading, as I mentioned before, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Book 14: The Shadow Rising
May 17th 2010
Title: The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time book 4)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 1008
Summary
The adventures of Rand al’Thor and friends continue as more prophecy unfolds. Again not going to spoil since it’s the middle of the series.
Notes
Ok…here’s where the wheels on the Wheel of Time bus start to fall off. By far the largest book of the series so far, the first half consists mostly of exposition. Explaining the backstory of the world and some of the characters that had not had their stories explained previously. Things get moving in the second half, but much like Rand keeps saying…things are moving too slow.
The pace of the series does slow down considerably from here on out as we transition from the introductory books to the middle of the story which sets up the ending (whatever that ending will be).
Jordan’s issues with writing female characters and dialog between men and women continues here. It feels more pronounced since it’s been the way things have gone for the past few books and one hoped that it’s something Jordan would have grown out of but it’s not so. Nearly everything bit of dialog from a female character (especially things that Nynaeve says) has something to do with how much of a wool-brained fool men are and a good amount of what the men say are how incomprehensible women are. The 40th time Perrin thinks “Light! I’ll never understand women!” you’ll want to find Robert Jordan (were he still alive) and throw the book at him.
BUT. writing cliches aside, the story is still interesting and the reader is left with a hunger for learning what’s going to happen next.
Next Book
I’m taking another little break from the Wheel of Time to dive into a literary classic. After Wassy and I had a conversation on the way back from our wine country trip this weekend which turned to books we read in high school English class, I’ve decided to read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I need to make a better effort to read some of the more widely held classics that I didn’t get a chance to read in high school. And maybe re-read some of the ones I did for a better appreciation. But not Dickens. Oh god…I’m NEVER reading any more Dickens again.
Book 12: The Dragon Reborn
May 4th 2010
Title: The Dragon Reborn
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 624
Summary
In the third book of the Wheel of Time series, the adventures of Rand Al’Thor and his friends continue, with more emphasis on his friends than Rand himself.
Notes
Well, not much to say about this book except that it’s probably one of the better books in the series. It focuses more on the female lead characters than Rand and his activities, which continues to push him into the background even though one would assume he’s the actual main character.
Jordan’s ability to write females is what limits this book from being a classic. But it’s still very good
Next Book
After reading this book I decided to take a small Wheel of Time Break and do something completely different.
So, to that end, I picked up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Book 11: The Great Hunt
Apr 28th 2010
Title: The Great Hunt
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 705
Summary
Not going to say much here because it’s spoilery. But This book continues the story begun in The Eye Of The World, detailing the travelings of Rand and his friends as they search for an ancient artifact.
Notes
Ok, I really enjoy this book, first off. It’s an excellent followup to Eye Of The World, but here’s where things start getting a little more…cliche ridden with the characters.
Especially the braid tugging. Oh, the braid tugging.
But the story remains great and the characters are interesting enough (especially the new additions to the cast) to make things fun.
Just a note for Amazon Kindle users though. The eBook version of this is AWFUL. Misspellings abound, random page breaks, and other strange formatting. It caused me to go back to reading the paper book for this one.
Ugh. Thankfully it cleared up for book 3.
Up Next
Next, I moved onwards to The Dragon Reborn, book 3 of the wheel of time series. Yet again, by Robert Jordan.
Book 10: The Eye Of The World
Apr 28th 2010
Title: The Eye Of The World
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 832
Summary
Rand Al’Thor is a farmer from a small, relatively unknown remote village, Emond’s Field. Nothing interesting ever happens there until two strangers appear on the eve of their spring festival. Then everything changes and Rand and his friends are swept up into a series of events foretold by ancient Prophecies which foretel the breaking of the world.
Notes
This is not the first time I’ve attempted to read through this series. I got all the way through book 5 the first time before I lost interest and gave up, but I am determined to go through with it this time (at least as far and as fast as they release the books for the Kindle.
Robert Jordan is an author I have a love/hate relationship with. At times he’s brilliant. Other times, he resorts back to a series of cliches. All of the characters look sharpely at one another, or continually raise their brows. Braid tugging is common and very detailed descriptions of seemingly random things (I do not care what the pattern of lace on a dress of one of the female characters is).
He’s also absolutely horrible at writing women. Or man/woman interactions. Every time Rand, Mat or Perrin encounter a woman they’re interested in, they inevitably say something to the effect of “Oh, I wish <blah blah> was here…he knew how to deal with women” There’s even situations where one chapter Rand says something like “Oh, I wish Mat were here, he always knows what to say to women” and the next Mat says “Oh I wish Rand were here, he always knows what to say to women”.
I do realize it sounds like I hate the books, far from it. It’s a testament to the richness of the world and the interest of the story that I put up with Robert Jordan’s favorite cliches. He’s not all bad. When he gets away from the braid tugging and when he’s not trying to write female characters, he’s got some really well written stuff in here. Well, at least in the early books. But we’ll get to that when I get there.
This first book is probably the best written one (that I’ve read). It stays away from a lot of the cliches (that I think creep in as Robert Jordan tries to establish separate personalities for his characters and can only really fall back on several iconic actions for each.) and, though it’s long, the story moves along at a good pace.
Next Book
After this book, I continued onwards with the second book in the series, The Great Hunt, also unsurprisingly enough, written by Robert Jordan.
QotD: Today’s Top 5
Oct 26th 2006
Books, movies, music; what’s in your top 5 right now?
- Porcupine Tree – Stupid Dream I just bought the remastered version of this off of amazon. The one with the DVD-A of the album included. Really nice, but kinda weird in that Porcupine Tree way. If you’re into progressive type stuff and haven’t checked them out, you should.
Steven Wilson does some of the best audio mixes out there. Everything he touches ends up being great it seems.
- The Dragon Reborn by Robert JordanBook 3 in the Wheel of Time series. I’m really digging this book so far. Like I’ve mentioned on previous occasions, I’m not sure why I didn’t read these before I did, but now I’m making up for lost time. From what I hear the series is best in the beginning and then kinda drags out a bit, but we’ll see…
- Walk The Line (DVD)I watched this last night after renting it from Netflix. Johnny Cash was an amazing man, and this movie lived up to his reputation. I had no idea about what he went through in his life and it made me respect him a lot more after watching it. The movie was incredibly well done, great script, awesome actors. I highly recommend it.
- Final Fantasy IV AdvanceOne of the classic RPGs of all time remade for the Gameboy Advance (and by definition, my DS as well) I think I’m almost done with it. It’s been a fun, classic-like ride so far
I can’t think of a number 5 right now though, maybe I’ll come up with something later
The Wheel Of Time
Sep 6th 2006
Robert Jordan - The Eye Of The World
Wow, I really cant’ believe that I had trouble getting into this book. I just finished reading The Eye of The World by Robert Jordan, the first book in the Wheel of Time series and once I got past the 70 page barrier that I was never able to get past before, this book was great.
I wonder why it took me so long to actually start reading this series? I’ve been a big fan of Fantasy type novels for a good long while and have always had my eye on it. I just never got around to reading it I guess.
I’m currently fighting temptation to run to the store and pick up book 2. I knew I should have grabbed it while I was there on Saturday on my failed cooking book expedition.
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