At a bookstore I saw the 10th book in the Wheel of Time series and I recall that when the series first started people said it was very good. I never got around to reading them but I went to Amazon and the average user rating for the 10th book was one-and-a-half stars, that's pretty bad. So is it worth reading the series at all? Should I start reading them but stop at a certain point because it goes downhill?

The series, as a whole, is good.

However, the big complaint about the last book is essentially that the whole book is essentially a massive build-up. There is no "money scene" like each of the other books have. Book ten stops _just_ short of what looks like will be several large-scale acts in book 11.

Basically, nothing of any real note happens in book ten. I suspect it was all setup for what'll "have to" happen in the last two books.

I thought the series started off very mixed. I didn't like the writing style, I didn't particularly care for the monsters (the names were a bit too cute), but I liked the story and what I could see of the back story. I think his writing got better very quickly, but I dropped out about book 5 or 6--it was taking too long to go anywhere, some of the characters were getting on my nerves, and I didn't have any great interest in watching the main character go insane.

I gave up after the first three volumes. I hated the main characters. Bland al Thor was too dull and insipid to sustain a multi-volume epic, and Nynaeve annoyed the hell out of me.

Jordan is too attached to his babies. I would have much preferred it if he had performed a cull on them now and again. (Have any of the main characters died yet?)

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- Learn a lot teaching others.

Gave up midway through vol. 3, it had taken me about 9 months to get that far into it. If I have nothing else to do, I can read a 600 page book in a day, so it's not that I am a slow reader.
And my opinion of the characters matches yours exactly.

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...and they even fly the flag from the food on cocktail-sticks.
There is nothing threatening about this nationalism. As a nation, the Danes have not been a threat to anyone for hundreds of years.
- Xenophobe's Guide to the Danes

same as above: i gave up too. managed to make it to part 6 and then i just stopped. totally bored.

i'd give the series a miss.

my personal favorite series is still the Magician series by Raymond E. Feist. the first series (Magician, Darkness at Sethanon and Silverthorn) are among my favorite books ever. i still reread them on a regular basis...

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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -- Groucho Marx

I like to reread the first WOT book occasionally. I like the sense of adventure. My all-time favorite fantasy series is the Theives' World books. I also enjoy the Paks books of Elizabeth Moon. And anything by deCamp.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Looks like I won't bother reading them, thanks everyone.

I really liked the series up to around book 5 or so. It then became overly apparent Jordon had sold out to the publisher to create as many books in the series as possible, regardless of the quality. A damn shame, as I would have loved to have it conclude at book 6.

A better series out now is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Excellent series so far (3 books out, 4th due out "shortly"). Only thing is, his 4th book is WAY overdue, leading to speculation that either he's running out of steam, or he's had to rewrite several times after selling out to the publishers ala Jordon.

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. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

I have no idea if this is the case or not, but will there be ultimately twelve books in the series (like there are twelve hours on a clock?).

I hope he doesn't pull a Jordan. I was really impressed with the first four books in the WoT series, but then RJ seemed to hit a wall and the series degraded rapidly after that. One of the things I thought Jordan did wrong was to have too many main and secondary characters. I got to the point where I couldn't be bothered to care what happened to many of them. Also after a point the vaguely Bondage/FemDom stuff got really tired. GRRM seems a more resiliant writer and he has admitted that he basically had to trash the first draft of his latest novel cause the five year gap in narrative he initially envisioned just wouldn't work. The samples he's posted at his website have been pretty good and I think "A Feast For Crows" will turn out to be worth the wait. It's interesting that both these series have the same basic concept. Which is how not even the final battle between good and evil will be exempt from human political machinations. I just feel that GRRM's version is more robust and true to how real people would act.

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Free speech is no problem
It's listening that costs

hmm... i already gave up halfway through book one of the GRRM series.

i've been waiting for a long time for a good new writer with the qualities of a Feist, an early Eddings (his latest work is not very good and rather childish), or a Gemmel... David Gemmel's latest series is interesting and promising and Feist seems to be back on the right track with his Silverhawk series.

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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -- Groucho Marx

What made you stop reading it Morrolan??? I can't imagine anyone who likes the fantasy genre' not liking this series!!! Were you perhaps distracted by something (or someone???).

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. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

I just started reading GRRM, finishing book 1 tonight. I like WOT too but I really wish he would end it already.

to be honest, i can't exactly remember. i bought the first book immediately when it came out a few years ago (hungry for something new), and i put it aside around halfway through. i had the same with the Goodkind books, although i managed that series to the beginning of book 3. aside from the fact that it was an obvious WOT clone in some points, the graphic descriptions of the torture of the main character (in book 2, i think) put me off. a bit too sadistic for my taste.

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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -- Groucho Marx

I think early Feist suffered from one-dimensional characters. He definitely improved, and really hit his stride with the Serpentwar series (though the final ending was really too abrupt).

agree with that. it was almost as if he got fed up with the whole thing. the last book (Shards of a Broken Crown, IIRC) was chaotic and the end was completely rushed. too bad.

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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -- Groucho Marx

R.E. Feist writes a good series; but, after a while, it seems to me that he gets repetitive.

Jordan's last book is boring. The precursor, A NEW SPRING was not to bad.

GRR Martin's series is very good! Can not wait for the fourth book.

If you want to read some very heavy duty fantasy read Steven Erikson. His A TALE OF THE MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN is truely in a league of its own: very dark, mature, and vaste in scope. Every novel is a 1000 pager. I have read the novels a couple of times and am waiting for the next with bated breath.

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I have grasped the bull by the tail and am lookin' 'im right in the eye.

thanks for the tip! i'll give that one a try...

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Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -- Groucho Marx

A friend of mine referrs to it as The Wheel of Books. Every time a new one comes out, he re-reads the whole thing. Where he gets the time for that, I don't know. I haven't read it myself.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

Interesting term, but I think it might apply even be