The Wheel Of Time

[Shuai]

Has anyone read the series by Robert Jordan? It is my personal opinion that this series is better than LOTR.

[Admin]

Not a chance.

Robert Jordan writes entertaining pulp fiction, thats it. He isn't very original and his stories are not very inspiring. He seems to often write himself into a corner and then he invents something new about the world that was never mentioned before. How many times do the characters think they're trapped when someone pipes up "Well there are the xxx." Oh jolly gee, an easy way out of danger. Good job Robert!

He is also completely unoriginal in his creation of people and culture. All he does is he takes physical characteristics from some real group, and the cultural characteristics from another real group, and then he combines them. Sometimes they're even from different time periods. For instance he'll take Elizabethan clothing and put it on people who look Japanese. Or He'll take Japan's ancient Samurai Culture and stick it on people who look Mexican. (just example, I don't remember the specifics of every culture).

I'm not saying the books are bad, I've read all 9 and plan on reading the 10th. Robert Jordan is just not a very original writer and he is definitely not better than Tolkein.

Just in case you think that no one comes up with original people and worlds anymore check out the works of David Duncan, specifically the Seventh Sword series (the first book in the trilogy is "The Reluctant Swordsman."

[Shuai]

Hey, come on. You're going to far. I don't know where you get that stuff about samuri and Mexicans, unless you're talking about the Seanchan helmets. And you've got to give credit to how lividly he writes about the emotions his chracters go through. Tolkien's descriptions about the emotions of his characters are almost cut from stone and some of his passages sound like history text instead of a novel. Altough, I've got to admit that part about the dark hounds is pretty cheesy. Otherwise, Jordan can whoop Tolkien's *** any day of the week except fot Tuesday, cause' that's when he actually writes.

[vTd]

[quote="Shuai"]and some of his passages sound like history text instead of a novel. [quote]

That was the point. He was writing it as if it was mythology, not a novel.

[Shuai]

I have to disagree. Tolkien adds drama to certain parts of it, while other parts are rigid. His style is really inconsistant.

[Who Moved My Cheese]

I believe there is a fine line between history text and mythology. However, the in depth description of middle earth in some parts of the book was an effective method of emersing the reader further into the story line. Seriously, without those little tidbits of information on what happened a kajillion years ago to some guy completely unrelated to the current characters, the story would be incomplete... just like the movie.

[Who Moved My Cheese]

Just in case you think that no one comes up with original people and worlds anymore check out the works of David Duncan..."

Also check out Jack Whyte's Uther, and the Dream of Eagles series. They're great.