Greatest Work of American Literature (Novel)

[muy_thaiguy]

True. I took up the challenge and just read three pages of Eye of the World in the Amazon preview.

And that right there made the rest of your post null and void. You just admitted to knowing nothing, and continued to prove so, about the series as a whole.

[saxitoxin]

True. I took up the challenge and just read three pages of Eye of the World in the Amazon preview.

And that right there made the rest of your post null and void. You just admitted to knowing nothing, and continued to prove so, about the series as a whole.

Does the writing get better? Because the sample I saw was like reading the instructions to a piece of IKEA furniture.

There's a reason Robert Jordan's awards are presented in Holiday Inn ballrooms in Spokane by the president of the Sci-Fi Convention, not in an opera house in Stockholm by the King of Sweden. Just saying.

[rishaed]

Also it is massive with over 129 different characters and was also nominated for a Hugo Award.

You can't compare a Hugo Award to a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer Prize. It's like comparing the North Dakota AA football championship trophy to a Super Bowl ring.

Salinger wrote one short novel, decided that was good enough, and quit. Robert Jordan pooped-out a thousand-page coloring book about elves and magicians and penguins every few months that got slapped together on pulp paper and stuffed into grocery store book racks between stale Chips Ahoy cookies and the latest illustrated antics of Archie and Jughead. His books might be entertaining, I dunno, but they're not comparable to the masterworks of American literature.

Again, sorry to pull a Symmetry ... some things just can't be said gently.

Something tells me you've never bothered to look past the cover of one of the books.

True. I took up the challenge and just read three pages of Eye of the World in the Amazon preview. This is not world-class writing. It's probably a very entertaining tale of magic and dwarves but it's essentially a narrative of events occurring "This happened. Then this person said that. Then this person did this while saying that." This is not high-caliber literature.

It will never be on a school reading list, will never be the subject of dissertations, and will be entirely forgotten within a few decades by all except hard-core genre fans, just like all genre fiction; Conan the Barbarian, or whatever.

It's designed to be an entertaining distraction, not a deep commentary on the nature of existence or the human experience. It was picked-up by a publisher because it had the potential to sell paper in the largest volume possible, a piece of pulp people can grab at the supermarket and shove into their grocery bag next to the Cheez-Its and Windex, and to open opportunities for TV and video game adaptations. There will never be a video game adaptation of Catcher in the Rye or On Walden Pond.

You're trying to compare the latest 5 Seconds of Summer single to the 9th Symphony. I like 5 Seconds of Summer but I don't mention them in the same breath as Beethoven.

And yet you are completely ignorant of over 90% of what he has written. Reading 3 pages doesn't count as having anywhere near an accurate view of his works, not only that you throw in stereotypical "Oh its fantasy, all it talks about is fairies, elves, and princesses." Come back with an opinion on his works when you've read at least 3 of his books in order. Each of them are at least 800 pages long, and while some of them slow down (around 6-8) the amount of depth and character interactions are as a series fantastic. I've read many books, and the main reason why i liked WoT was because of the mass amount of depth in the story. Also if you read the first 3 pages, then all you are getting is practically the intro, the start of the scene setting. The series comes into its own as an epic. I have read many of the books at least between 3-5 times, so while i accept that my judgement is partially skewed, yours is more so.

[saxitoxin]

Also it is massive with over 129 different characters and was also nominated for a Hugo Award.

You can't compare a Hugo Award to a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer Prize. It's like comparing the North Dakota AA football championship trophy to a Super Bowl ring.

Salinger wrote one short novel, decided that was good enough, and quit. Robert Jordan pooped-out a thousand-page coloring book about elves and magicians and penguins every few months that got slapped together on pulp paper and stuffed into grocery store book racks between stale Chips Ahoy cookies and the latest illustrated antics of Archie and Jughead. His books might be entertaining, I dunno, but they're not comparable to the masterworks of American literature.

Again, sorry to pull a Symmetry ... some things just can't be said gently.

Something tells me you've never bothered to look past the cover of one of the books.

True. I took up the challenge and just read three pages of Eye of the World in the Amazon preview. This is not world-class writing. It's probably a very entertaining tale of magic and dwarves but it's essentially a narrative of events occurring "This happened. Then this person said that. Then this person did this while saying that." This is not high-caliber literature.

It will never be on a school reading list, will never be the subject of dissertations, and will be entirely forgotten within a few decades by all except hard-core genre fans, just like all genre fiction; Conan the Barbarian, or whatever.

It's designed to be an entertaining distraction, not a deep commentary on the nature of existence or the human experience. It was picked-up by a publisher because it had the potential to sell paper in the largest volume possible, a piece of pulp people can grab at the supermarket and shove into their grocery bag next to the Cheez-Its and Windex, and to open opportunities for TV and video game adaptations. There will never be a video game adaptation of Catcher in the Rye or On Walden Pond.

You're trying to compare the latest 5 Seconds of Summer single to the 9th Symphony. I like 5 Seconds of Summer but I don't mention them in the same breath as Beethoven.

And yet you are completely ignorant of over 90% of what he has written. Reading 3 pages doesn't count as having anywhere near an accurate view of his works, not only that you throw in stereotypical "Oh its fantasy, all it talks about is fairies, elves, and princesses." Come back with an opinion on his works when you've read at least 3 of his books in order. Each of them are at least 800 pages long, and while some of them slow down (around 6-8) the amount of depth and character interactions are as a series fantastic. I've read many books, and the main reason why i liked WoT was because of the mass amount of depth in the story. Also if you read the first 3 pages, then all you are getting is practically the intro, the start of the scene setting. The series comes into its own as an epic. I have read many of the books at least between 3-5 times, so while i accept that my judgement is partially skewed, yours is more so.

if I had time to read 3,000 pages of some nerd's wet dream I'd read Metsfanmax's thesis

[Symmetry]

You've not missed much, it's a series that rips off Tolkien and Herbert, goes nowhere extremely slowly, and then the author dies before he tells you the ending.

I gave up on principle when I read the one in the series where the Bene Gesserit started deciding if they were going to cross a river, and eventually did so a few hundred pages later. That was pretty much all that happened.

[riskllama]

is it better than, say, dragonlance?

[Dukasaur]

More importantly, has it been lampooned in Mad Magasine?

[PLAYER57832]

More importantly, has it been lampooned in Mad Magasine?

Point.. but I am guessing a lot of folks here don't even remember MAD magazine.

[riskllama]

I do. Also, cracked.

[PLAYER57832]

is it better than, say, dragonlance?

I would say that is debatable. I like Lackey better (another protege of the Queen, her heir I believe).

I, however, also like Elizabeth Haydon (Dragon's Lair series in particular) not so much for its great writing, just because its a tad outside the usual "elves/fairies and dragons" bit.. though she does have a dragon or two inside. I think she may have painted herself into a corner in her last book in that series, though. (yet to see the sequel, she might manage quite well)

Maybe we need our own thread to discuss fantasy titles?

[PLAYER57832]

I do. Also, cracked.

Another good one. Never got the stature or popularity of MAD, but I liked it. I Think Jordan might post date both, though.

[notyou2]

Also it is massive with over 129 different characters and was also nominated for a Hugo Award.

You can't compare a Hugo Award to a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer Prize. It's like comparing the North Dakota AA football championship trophy to a Super Bowl ring.

Salinger wrote one short novel, decided that was good enough, and quit. Robert Jordan pooped-out a thousand-page coloring book about elves and magicians and penguins every few months that got slapped together on pulp paper and stuffed into grocery store book racks between stale Chips Ahoy cookies and the latest illustrated antics of Archie and Jughead. His books might be entertaining, I dunno, but they're not comparable to the masterworks of American literature.

Again, sorry to pull a Symmetry ... some things just can't be said gently.

Something tells me you've never bothered to look past the cover of one of the books.

True. I took up the challenge and just read three pages of Eye of the World in the Amazon preview. This is not world-class writing. It's probably a very entertaining tale of magic and dwarves but it's essentially a narrative of events occurring "This happened. Then this person said that. Then this person did this while saying that." This is not high-caliber literature.

It will never be on a school reading list, will never be the subject of dissertations, and will be entirely forgotten within a few decades by all except hard-core genre fans, just like all genre fiction; Conan the Barbarian, or whatever.

It's designed to be an entertaining distraction, not a deep commentary on the nature of existence or the human experience. It was picked-up by a publisher because it had the potential to sell paper in the largest volume possible, a piece of pulp people can grab at the supermarket and shove into their grocery bag next to the Cheez-Its and Windex, and to open opportunities for TV and video game adaptations. There will never be a video game adaptation of Catcher in the Rye or On Walden Pond.

You're trying to compare the latest 5 Seconds of Summer single to the 9th Symphony. I like 5 Seconds of Summer but I don't mention them in the same breath as Beethoven.

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

[PLAYER57832]

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

Agreed, if he had built on or even kept up with that, perhaps even more succinctly, I might have read past the 5th book. (actually think I eventually read 7, but not sure.. I read a lot, so I read a lot of junk)

[rishaed]

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

Agreed, if he had built on or even kept up with that, perhaps even more succinctly, I might have read past the 5th book. (actually think I eventually read 7, but not sure.. I read a lot, so I read a lot of junk)

EotW has some interesting properties that the rest of the books in the series don't. For one IMO it can be read as a standalone novel. I truly think what happened was that EotW was published as a solo novel, with the possibilities of opening up into a series. After the book sold, the writing became much less compressed, because it was planned out as a series and no longer as a stand alone book. I think that might have been a large factor in the succinctness of the writing style.

[PLAYER57832]

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

Agreed, if he had built on or even kept up with that, perhaps even more succinctly, I might have read past the 5th book. (actually think I eventually read 7, but not sure.. I read a lot, so I read a lot of junk)

EotW has some interesting properties that the rest of the books in the series don't. For one IMO it can be read as a standalone novel. I truly think what happened was that EotW was published as a solo novel, with the possibilities of opening up into a series. After the book sold, the writing became much less compressed, because it was planned out as a series and no longer as a stand alone book. I think that might have been a large factor in the succinctness of the writing style.

I once read a short story that was a prequel to EotW, but I have not been able to find it since. It might have been something of a fan-write (but a good one, in a publication of compiled short stories).

have your read any of the Darkover series? It is a bit old, now, but I remember really enjoying them. The best part is they were almost all "stand alone", though related, novels. (a couple of exceptions were more closely tied together, but still essentially stories of themselves)

[rishaed]

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

Agreed, if he had built on or even kept up with that, perhaps even more succinctly, I might have read past the 5th book. (actually think I eventually read 7, but not sure.. I read a lot, so I read a lot of junk)

EotW has some interesting properties that the rest of the books in the series don't. For one IMO it can be read as a standalone novel. I truly think what happened was that EotW was published as a solo novel, with the possibilities of opening up into a series. After the book sold, the writing became much less compressed, because it was planned out as a series and no longer as a stand alone book. I think that might have been a large factor in the succinctness of the writing style.

I once read a short story that was a prequel to EotW, but I have not been able to find it since. It might have been something of a fan-write (but a good one, in a publication of compiled short stories).

have your read any of the Darkover series? It is a bit old, now, but I remember really enjoying them. The best part is they were almost all "stand alone", though related, novels. (a couple of exceptions were more closely tied together, but still essentially stories of themselves)

R. Jordan wrote a prequel called New Spring... I feel that as a prequel it lacked something. Or needed another book to actually make it nice. I don't remember if i've read any of the darkover series though. Could you give the author?

[PLAYER57832]

To be fair, Eye of the World was probably the best novel in the entire series.

Agreed, if he had built on or even kept up with that, perhaps even more succinctly, I might have read past the 5th book. (actually think I eventually read 7, but not sure.. I read a lot, so I read a lot of junk)

EotW has some interesting properties that the rest of the books in the series don't. For one IMO it can be read as a standalone novel. I truly think what happened was that EotW was published as a solo novel, with the possibilities of opening up into a series. After the book sold, the writing became much less compressed, because it was planned out as a series and no longer as a stand alone book. I think that might have been a large factor in the succinctness of the writing style.

I once read a short story that was a prequel to EotW, but I have not been able to find it since. It might have been something of a fan-write (but a good one, in a publication of compiled short stories).

have your read any of the Darkover series? It is a bit old, now, but I remember really enjoying them. The best part is they were almost all "stand alone", though related, novels. (a couple of exceptions were more closely tied together, but still essentially stories of themselves)

R. Jordan wrote a prequel called New Spring... I feel that as a prequel it lacked something. Or needed another book to actually make it nice. I don't remember if i've read any of the darkover series though. Could you give the author?

Marion Zimmer Bradley.
http://www.mzbworks.com

[saxitoxin]

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (Mark Twain)
4
29%

Catcher in the Rye, The (J.D. Salinger)
1
7%

Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
2
14%

Grapes of Wrath, The (John Steinbeck)
2
14%

Great Gatsby, The (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
1
7%

Kill a Mockingbird, To (Harper Lee)
2
14%

Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
2
14%

[saxitoxin]

Everything with less than 2 votes has been eliminated. Vote again.

[jonesthecurl]

Just another poll by the American literary centrist elite snubbing the counter culture, Tom Wolfe and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests.

I refuse to participate Saxi due to your obvious bias.

That wasn't a novel. it was a documentary. You are obviously not on the bus.

[jonesthecurl]

I voted for Vonnegut. But given an unfettered choice, I would go for "The Cream of the Jest" by James Branch Cabell