(Amy) Book six, now, in the Great Wheel Of Time Re-Read. So far there's been one pretty-good-but-a-little-wobbly book (Eye of the World) and four really solidly excellent books (The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, and The Fires of Heaven). This one is still pretty good, but it's starting to wobble just that little bit that makes it apparent upon this, my Nth reading through the series, that Very Soon Now the whole thing is going to come unstuck and flail about helplessly for, um, well, three to five books (depending on whether one counts Crown of Swords as part of the godawful phase or still just part of the lead-in, and also whether Knife of Dreams climbs back ouf of the hole, which others imply it does, but I was too fed up with the series when it came out to bother reading it).

Gee, really makes me look forward to carrying on with the re-read, no? But there's a new one due out in a few months, so I must perservere!
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... )

Finished book 6, slowly but surely. At this rate I'm not going to have caught up by the time the new one is out! See book 1 for longer review. ( )

The reread before the release of book 12.1 continues. That the Gathering Storm being the first of an ending trilogy of books did not bother at the time they announced this fact. But now as I continue to read and see how Jordan has had to throw in so many elements to stretch things to these books, it has made me unappreciative of so many books.

There was a good pace in the early books and the format we come to expect, hero that is reluctant to take on such an onerous task, gains the skills to handle it, then takes in on, seemed to be followed quite well. Time frame wise we now run into issues.

Jordan wants to move his people all over his map that originally took half a year to transverse. There were his ideas to circumvent this, first the Ways, then portal stones, and now he can just open up holes and take entire people thousands of miles in a blink. But those long distances served another good balance, it caused the timeline to slow. All these subplots could develop because weeks and months were passing.

That allowed the climax that is approaching to have more depth, to have more elements. Now we have in Lord of Chaos, again a book that the previous few could have led us to a conclusion of the story, so many elements that the story needs to be revaluated and since it was not planned from the beginning, we have problems.

The illuminator Alludra and her not recognizing Thom whom they had met when her life was about to be snuffed out, is now explained in an elegant way. Someone, probably thousands of someones let Jordan know he had muffed it. Somewhere along the line, Jordan began to get full time assistants to help with the story. My understanding is there were 2 at one time, and his wife, and the editors at TOR.

Jordan began to make things so complex with so many characters (something like 1800 now) that keeping track of it must have been difficult, but it seems clear now that we have gotten to another book where he could have brought us to an end, and instead holds us off, with so much that it is clear book 7 won't finish it either. Jordan has fallen into a pit. He is going to be writing and then have an inspiration, well if I were this character in book three, and all these things I have been writing about were happening in the world, then this thing that I had never thought of before must also be happening.

Here is what is wrong with that. We see good keep maneuvering, and doing things to get their houses in order for the big battle. But evil isn't really concerned. Oh a few lieutenants of the head number one bad guy (The Dark One) are carefully fighting each other, and fighting our heroes every so often. But why is there not a Saruman making Uruk Hai armies to spring on the millions of human troops that are being united.

Why are not the Trolloc and Myrdrall warriors skirmishing more and more to be ready for the fight, instead of just a few little attacks, that never succeed here and there. Why not use the opportunities that come the way of the lieutenants to snuff out Rand's friends, as Rand has killed several of the Forsaken when he could. Rand must be at the last battle, but the others need not, if you were evil, you would feel that.

So Jordan has opened up the door too wide. There are too many things that he wants to tell in a short time as if every day is a crescendo to the climax. It of course is still great when read all in context. But you have to think that if he had sat down to dissect the plot of his entire arc, he would have known that the world he set up, would not be turning out the way he was writing it. ( )

The reread before the release of book 12.1 continues. That the Gathering Storm being the first of an ending trilogy of books did not bother at the time they announced this fact. But now as I continue to read and see how Jordan has had to throw in so many elements to stretch things to these books, it has made me unappreciative of so many books.

There was a good pace in the early books and the format we come to expect, hero that is reluctant to take on such an onerous task, gains the skills to handle it, then takes in on, seemed to be followed quite well. Time frame wise we now run into issues.

Jordan wants to move his people all over his map that originally took half a year to transverse. There were his ideas to circumvent this, first the Ways, then portal stones, and now he can just open up holes and take entire people thousands of miles in a blink. But those long distances served another good balance, it caused the timeline to slow. All these subplots could develop because weeks and months were passing.

That allowed the climax that is approaching to have more depth, to have more elements. Now we have in Lord of Chaos, again a book that the previous few could have led us to a conclusion of the story, so many elements that the story needs to be revaluated and since it was not planned from the beginning, we have problems.

The illuminator Alludra and her not recognizing Thom whom they had met when her life was about to be snuffed out, is now explained in an elegant way. Someone, probably thousands of someones let Jordan know he had muffed it. Somewhere along the line, Jordan began to get full time assistants to help with the story. My understanding is there were 2 at one time, and his wife, and the editors at TOR.

Jordan began to make things so complex with so many characters (something like 1800 now) that keeping track of it must have been difficult, but it seems clear now that we have gotten to another book where he could have brought us to an end, and instead holds us off, with so much that it is clear book 7 won't finish it either. Jordan has fallen into a pit. He is going to be writing and then have an inspiration, well if I were this character in book three, and all these things I have been writing about were happening in the world, then this thing that I had never thought of before must also be happening.

Here is what is wrong with that. We see good keep maneuvering, and doing things to get their houses in order for the big battle. But evil isn't really concerned. Oh a few lieutenants of the head number one bad guy (The Dark One) are carefully fighting each other, and fighting our heroes every so often. But why is there not a Saruman making Uruk Hai armies to spring on the millions of human troops that are being united.

Why are not the Trolloc and Myrdrall warriors skirmishing more and more to be ready for the fight, instead of just a few little attacks, that never succeed here and there. Why not use the opportunities that come the way of the lieutenants to snuff out Rand's friends, as Rand has killed several of the Forsaken when he could. Rand must be at the last battle, but the others need not, if you were evil, you would feel that.

So Jordan has opened up the door too wide. There are too many things that he wants to tell in a short time as if every day is a crescendo to the climax. It of course is still great when read all in context. But you have to think that if he had sat down to dissect the plot of his entire arc, he would have known that the world he set up, would not be turning out the way he was writing it. ( )

This isn't my favourite book in the series, but it is still one of the best Ive read so far. There were a few surprises in it and some interesting character developments. Jordan's ability to create battle scenes is stunning to say the least. He does a great job at making an epic and powerful battle, without disrupting the characters traits or plot lines. Some of the characters grow in this book, other continue to annoy you. (When/if you read the series, you'll understand. Some character's have this relative traits that really bug the hell out of you, and it happens in almost every chapter that character is in). One thing tis series has is strong women, and women who have a lot of influence and power. Men of course do to, but the women seem to be able to have a role reversal in many instances in the book. The series does slow down in this book, and I hear that it slows down even more in the books to come. But Robert Jordan does a fantastic job at creating this world, including some character's you can't get enough of. (Perrin is definitely one of my favourites!)

Review on my blog as well: http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2008/0... ( )