Umm, I have a n00b question. I’m posting it here because I’m praying that one of you has read these books and can give me some information that i am too lazy to scourge the net for. plus, I’d like some “real-people” input to ease any doubts or insecurities I have about buying this series for my boyfriend, whose birthday is coming up in a month. He wants WoT HARDCOVER books and since I have never laid eyes on said books before, I have many questions.
-How long is the series?
-Where can I find a full, easy-to-read list of how many books are in the series?
-Is the series complete, or still being written?
-How many hardcover versions are there?
-How much would YOU pay for the hardcover? I think at the ones I looked at, they were about 32 bucks, at the bookstore.
Anything else that you want to say that may help me, please tell me. I don’t want to get ripped off and get the wrong books or buy them out of order (which I may have to, but I at least want the first book of the series).
There’s at least 10 or 11 books, and they’re still being written to my knowledge. I have no idea which are or aren’t available in hardcover, though, you’d be better off asking someone at said bookstore about their availability.
In all honesty, from what I’ve heard the series totally jumps the shark after the fifth book. I’ve only read the first book myself, and it was a decent read, but from what I understand it just goes on and on and on…
But if your BF wants em all in hardcover, be prepared to fork over a pretty penny, giant hardcovers like that ain’t cheap. $30 or so sounds about right, unless you come across a clearance sale.
Ah, yeah availability…that’s the thing, I don’t want to buy three books in hardcover from one version and then be forced to buy another book in a different hardcover version. I never thought of that. But you would think that they print every book in the same format.
I was looking at some sites and some of those hardcover books go up over 100 bucks! Daaaaymn.
I actually got a set of the first three about a month ago. My mom has a friend that works at a book store and we get free books and stuff. Anyway-
-How long is the series? At least ten. And that’s the list on the inside cover.
-Where can I find a full, easy-to-read list of how many books are in the series?
List inside the cover:
The Eye of the World
The Freat Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rises
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter’s Heat
Crossroads of Twilight
-Is the series complete, or still being written? No clue
-How many hardcover versions are there? Most books come out in hardcover before paperback, so I’m guessing at least up to #6
-How much would YOU pay for the hardcover? I think at the ones I looked at, they were about 32 bucks, at the bookstore. $30 is a good price. Anythin over 40 and your being scammed.
Very true…I gave up after the fifth book. The characters just stop acting in a believable manner…I’m not exactly the most emotional person or anything, but these characters might as well just become robots. Jordan twists their personality around any way that he sees fit to advance his barely believable plot line that becomes more convoluted and ridiculous with each book that passes. My reccomendation is to avoid this series, or at the very least borrow the first few books from a friend and try them out. And not just the first one or two, because after the first two books you will probably think you’re addicted, but it starts to go downhill around #5, like spoony said. There are a lot of better (and shorter) fantasy series out there. But I guess your bf will want what he wants after all. I’d reccomend buying the hardcovers used from amazon.com sellers.
ninja edit: Jordan also can’t write female characters worth shit, and my friends and I like to think that Jordan probably had some horrible relationship with a woman that totally broke his heart. There definitely seems to be a streak of irrational mysogyny in these books. The female characters are…something else, to say the least. It’s really quite hard to explain, but there is just an undercurrent of loathing for the female characters in this series.
oh they’re not for me; I know they say never to judge a book by its cover, but WoT just doesn’t really catch my eye, nor am I going to bend over backwards to get a copy. Just seems like another generic fantasy storyline to me. But with these kind of replies, I’ll stay away from it altogether, for my own good
I was going to say exactly the same thing! See, here’s the scary thing - he’s said at signings that all of the female characters are based in some way on his wife.
…
The books only have one style for the hardcovers (it’s the paperbacks that go funky and lose their covers), and they’re all currently available. Buy them used, as they really aren’t hard to find either way.
edit - I’m still reading the series, just to finish it. I invested this much time already.
Try the first book. It’s more or less self-contained, so if you don’t like it, there won’t be a huge number of unfinished plot lines. I am a fan of the books, and I do enjoy the latest ones, though I’ll admit they are not as good as the others. He uses a lot of details, which is something that I like, but it does make the books rather long. I beleive each one is about 1000 pages.
He’s not done yet, but I think he may finally be winding down.
All of the books are available in hardcover and paperback, though you might not be able to find them all at the book store.
Don’t read the books out of order. You’ll confuse yourself to no end.
You may find it useful to write down the characters, and their relations to everybody. These books have a ton of characters, and sometimes they drop out of a couple books, only to come back later. It can get confusing sometimes.
After you’ve read him, you may also want to try David Eddings. The first book of his first series is the Pawn of Prophecy. I liked his style of fantasy slightly better than Jordan’s, though now that I think about it, there are a number of similarities.
It is and it isn’t. The way the story line is layed out is just your average, no big deal fantasy story. However, his use of creative new monsters and the type of world it is placed in makes it interesting. I’d personally give it an 8 out of 10.
Buts that just from the first book and partailly through the second, but from what I hearing from you peole, it’s going downhill in a couple of books.
I only read the first 3 or so, and got bored with the fourth. It was looking pretty good, but for some reason he just lost me completely. I know a few people who are absolutly obsessed with the books - but I really just dont see it. Then again, I’m really not much on fantasy.
Give up. They had a bunch of those in the library when I was in school. I read about say… five of them and then got really, REALLY bored. The plot sucks, the character’s personalities are nonexistant, and his women… uh… well… yeah. cough Vicki and zeppelin said it the best.
In the meantime, get your hands on the Myth series. Learn about Pervects and such.
Myth is sweet. It’s a good, entertaining story with out of the ordinary things happening regularly.
As for Wheel of Time, I stopped reading after book five. It got too convoluted.
As far as fantasy goes, I recommend(even though it’s a bit light hearted, and the main characters are animals) Salamandastron by Brian Jacques. It’s certainly more interesting than WoT.
If your bf wants WoT just get him the books to make him happy.
WoT’s biggest problem is repetitiveness. He gives long-winded descriptions of many things in the series, but the problem is he gives those same descriptions in prettymuch every single book. Hearing about how cold and intimidating Aes Sedai are is fine in the first book, and necessary to establish the atmosphere the characters are living in, but you’d think in by the seventh book Jordan would think his readers had gotten the point. It’s not as if someone’s going to start the series on the seventh book, and have missed what was in the first.
Many authors, when they write a series of novels, include descriptions form past books of the novel. It annoys me when they do that too. There’s a reason i can’t get past the first two chapters of “The Power That Preserves” of the Covenant novels.
There’s also a book called “New Spring” that is supposed to be about the war with the Aiel before the EotW. I never read it, but i will when it comes out on paper back. Another book self titled, “the Wheel of Time” which is basically a picture and synopsis book is in Hardback too.
I’ve seen them priced between $20.00 and $30.00. You mich check E-bay.
Other interesting fantasy is a book called “The Runelords” by David Farland. It’s a series itsself, but the first book is good enough to get the idea of how that world works.
The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King is one of my favorites too. I can identify with Roland on so many levels, it just opens the world up for that much smoother. I only got to book 4 though, stupid Wal-Mart took “The Wolves of Cala” off the shelf before i had the money to buy it…
Ah, the modern Fantasy. 'Tis a won’drous thing. Didn’t prevent me from dropping WoT at around the fifth book, though.
I’m sometimes annoyed by the propensity of fantasy authors to throw up their hands when it comes to language. It generally raises my hackles when characters choose phrases that come within a hair’s breadth of being modern colloquial speech. Am I expected to read this and not blink? As my creative writing teacher was fond of using as an example (from poetry), “Forsooth, on yonder bitchin’ crag lies a fair chick…” You get the idea. Maybe it’s just because linguistics interests me, though.
I think magic is a bit misused in recent fantasy (I include works in many media to this, it’s not just literary). Magic in most engaging fantasy has some other meaning than the literal; it’s thematic, symbolic, and you usually get some inkling as to how it works. It can be about the power of words (Tolkien, in most instances), The power of God (Lewis, as I see it), the intrinsic qualities of people and how they face their problems (LeGuin), or responsibility (LeGuin, particularly in Garth Ennis’ comic series <i>Hellblazer</i> as well).
I think I might get attacked for this, but the Deryni novels tend to use magic in what I’d call exactly the wrong way, just shy of becoming DBZ-like. I didn’t catch anywhere in the original trilogy any reference or explanation as to the limits of the Deryni’s powers. Frank Herbert came close to this in <i>Dune</i> as well, but that’s a stand-up peice of science-fiction so I’m going to condescend to forgive him for it.
J.K. Rowling I suppose is a minor offender; I sometimes suspect she makes the magic up as she goes along. I don’t think it detracts from the <i>Harry Potter</i> series though, as it doesn’t clash with the rest of her world.
But for a reading list? Hmm.
<ul>
<li><i>Roadmarks</i> by Roger Zelazny
<li>Tolkien in general
<li>Lewis in general
<li><i>The Once and Future King</i> by T.H. White
</ul>
I’ve read the Narnia series when I was little, and I really enjoyed- surprise surprise- LWW, whereas the others were simply okay. Still, I’d choose his books over Tolkien anyday. LotR books are bloody awful in my opinion. I absolutely cannot pick those books up.
i love The Once and Future King !! Allthough, it looks like White did his homework when it came to ancient rites and practices. I always liked it when magic is “believeable”. Frank Herbert’s magic wasnt really “magic” but “technique”, like a martial art. At least, in the first 3 books anyways… Paul even almost died when he turned the water to wine.