Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time continued by Brandon Sanderson, the vedict is....

[walkertexasdruid]

I got The Gathering Storm as a Christmas present at the end of last year, and I have to say that it was one of my favorite books that I have read in the last couple of years. Brandon Sanderson did a great job in picking up where Robert Jordan left off, and I believe that Jordan's widow picked the right author to conclude The Wheel of Time. Despite being nearly 800 pages long, I was able to finish it in three days. It reads fairly quickly, the reader gets reacquainted with the numerous characters pretty effectively, and a couple of important issues are resolved well by the end of the book. I do not want to get into specifics, but I give this book the walkertexasdruid seal of approval. I am really looking forward to the final two volumes in this memorable series.

I should also point out that Sanderson is a great writer in his own right. His Mistborn series is a must read for epic fantasy fans, at least in my own opinion.

[Magus]

Ah, about time. Well, it was a fine continuation and I'm looking forward to the next one. I know some people think some of this characterizations were off...Mat seemed slightly off in some way I can't really specify, though he had some hilarious dialogue involving the cover stories made up for Talmanes and the rest of them that end up not getting used, which may have been the part that was "off", but I'll forgive it.

In any case, it felt like a complete story, with the ending bringing an end to several ongoing story arcs, and it was also "badass", which is not always something that authors manage to do, so it was definitely worth reading. Hopefully Towers of Midnight can continue in this vein, though there is apparently so much to cover in these three books that I doubt we'll see another Crossroads of Twilight. Anything is better than that.

If you want to speculate on Towers of Midnight, I think I babbled some crazy things in some earlier thread several months ago:

REPOST

Towers of Midnight speculation:

The title refers to one or all of these:

1. The Tower of Ghenjei, with Mat rescuing Moiraine (just about guaranteed)
2. The split in the Black Tower finally breaking fully open, with half the men declaring for Rand and the other half for Mazrim Taim (is going to happen sooner or later, next book seems like a good time to have it come to fruition)
3. The White Tower in some shape or form (a final rooting out of the Black Ajah, maybe, such as trying to kill Mesaana
4. The actual Towers of Midnight in Imfarl, with someone talking to the impossibly 1000 years old channeler Deain, who originally constructed the a'dams before being imprisoned by them, and somehow or other she knows so much about stuff that she knows something important about sealing the Bore (unlikely scenario)
5. Merely an allusion to the Towers of Midnight as far as they have bearing upon Fortuona and the Seanchan and continuing tensions with them (much more likely)

Other things:
Avhienda finds something in the Wise One's rings that show her how to seal the Bore or find the Tu'athan's song or something

Mat finally loses his eye, probably while trying to rescue Moiraine.

We finally find out who the hell Demandred's identity is in the modern age.

We finally find out who the heck Mazrim Taim is.

The "three becoming one" prophecy is actually Rand merging with Lews Therin (already done) AND Moridin, via their mysterious connection.

Other speculations welcome.

[walkertexasdruid]

Wow those were a lot of good speculations! You have given me a lot to think about. The Towers of Midnight sounds like it will be another great book. I just hope that we do not get stuck with some of the slower books like Crossroads, or Winters Heart, or Fires of Heaven.

[Magus]

Fires of Heaven was great, I don't know what you are talking about. But yeah Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight moved at about the speed of a tortoise on depressants, and then with Crossroads of Twilight Jordan forgot to even have a climactic battle to make up for all the nothing that occurred prior to the ending.

[Jagos]

...

I'll be honest. R. Jordan pissed me off by the second book. He had a way of exploiting for money explaining things in such detail as to drown out anything close to characterization within the first book. I had a hard time liking any of the three boys because I remembered only the silk scarf of the captain of the ship after they had left it.

Is it worth trying to restart this series or am I better off trying to find a new one?

[Magus]

I'd restart it if I were you, and I would like to point out that it really took off and made itself into its own series with book 4, The Shadow Rising. Before that it was a little too derivative of LOTR, though in my opinion books 1-8 and 11 and 12 are eminently enjoyable.

I'd also like to point out that The Eye of the World was not only extremely derivative of LOTR it's also one of the longest ones. He became more concise to good effect fairly rapidly after the second book. I'd give it another chance if I were you. I'm really not sure what you mean about his being too descriptive, though, so maybe I'm missing the entire point. I just didn't really notice the descriptions being too heavy...I also fail to see how being too descriptive is exploiting for money as opposed to an honest flaw in his writing style.

If you want to see examples of his just trying to make money, I'd point to books 9 and 10, which were slogs, and 10 despite being one of the shortest books of the series felt like it was about twice as long. 11 was much better, though, and as we have been talking about, the newest book was actually pretty great.

Basically, the series has some flaws, but as a whole, it's 90% great. Or something like that. You know, I think writers should get what they want said said in seven books or call the whole thing off at this point. 14 books is simply too long to maintain the same quality for every volume. Basically, begin writing your series with the mission that it will take less than a decade to finish.

[Jagos]

I'd also like to point out that The Eye of the World was not only extremely derivative of LOTR it's also one of the longest ones. He became more concise to good effect fairly rapidly after the second book. I'd give it another chance if I were you. I'm really not sure what you mean about his being too descriptive, though, so maybe I'm missing the entire point. I just didn't really notice the descriptions being too heavy...I also fail to see how being too descriptive is exploiting for money as opposed to an honest flaw in his writing style.

It's a thing that writers do when they're paid by the word. The go on and on about small details that make no sense to moving the plot forward, rather than details about the people either trying to find the Trio or the Trio themselves! Sorry, I just found it frustrating in the first book when they've gotten off the boat, we have the women following Mat and Rand before their powers are manifest, we take an entire chapter to talk about the captain when his part was done. While I started the second book, I realized I hadn't kept much information from the first and put it as a slog.

Basically, begin writing your series with the mission that it will take less than a decade to finish.

Which is exactly what I'm planning to do with my own series. But I'll read Jordan's first.

[Magus]

Actually interesting thing about the captain (Bayle Domon) and Jordan in particular is pretty much any seemingly "minor" character who you think is only going to be in that one chapter in that one book ends up coming back and playing a much bigger role later. Bayle Domon shows up again and does a lot more than just that minor role in The Eye of the World.

Heck, I think that girl from that one minor scene shows up again way later in an entirely different situation in another novel.

Also, while people are paid by the word when they write short stories (I think it's 5 cents a word right now), I don't think they're paid the same way when it comes to novels, instead they receive a percentage of the gross. I don't think the length is important to how much you make, it's how well it sells. I think, I may be wrong on that.

But in any case, while it may seem like pointless detail about the captain, that character does come back, so it does end up having a purpose besides Jordan trying to get more words into his novel.

[NVash]

How many Wheel Of Time books are there now?

[Magus]

12, though they are finally guaranteed to end at book 14 (originally was only going to be three, then seven, then ten...) There is also a prequel called New Spring, which wasn't that great. Jordan was also going to write spin-offs and novels set after the main series ended, but whether enough notes existed for those to be written and whether Sanderson would be contracted to do so is unknown.