Conquer Club

Just wondering how many out there in CC land are readers of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy masterpiece.


With less than 3 weeks remaining until the release of book 12 I'm waiting with baited breath.


I just sincerely hope that Brandon Sanderson can do justice to Mr. Jordan's work. How very sad it was that he perished before he could finish this magnificent series, you could tell by the time and effort he put into these novels that this was truly a labor of love.


Have any readers of this series also read any of Brandon Sanderson's work? Just wondering if their work is comparable.

Haven't read any of Brandon Sanderson's works, yet anyways. I do look forward to this new novel. And if I remember correctly, it is going to come out in two parts (that was how big it had gotten to be) this time around. I have been waiting for this book since the last one came out (what, 2-3 years ago?).

These are some of the most terrible books ever written.

I keep reading them because I can't stand to leave a story unfinished - but never have I read a series and so many times had the thought "please, someone stab them in the throat so they can die and this can end." (Except for Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series, which is equally mind-numbing.)

Foxglove wrote:These are some of the most terrible books ever written.

I keep reading them because I can't stand to leave a story unfinished - but never have I read a series and so many times had the thought "please, someone stab them in the throat so they can die and this can end." (Except for Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series, which is equally mind-numbing.)

I guess it is like beer, an acquired taste, except for novels. Admitedly, the middle part of the series was rather drawn out, but it did pick up in the last couple of books.

muy_thaiguy wrote:Haven't read any of Brandon Sanderson's works, yet anyways. I do look forward to this new novel. And if I remember correctly, it is going to come out in two parts (that was how big it had gotten to be) this time around. I have been waiting for this book since the last one came out (what, 2-3 years ago?).

Actually it's coming out in 3 parts, they said it was going to be over 750,000 words long so they broke it down into 3 parts.

This site gives lots of good info:

http://www.dragonmount.com/

Read the review of it. I am pumped now.

neanderpaul14 wrote:Just wondering how many out there in CC land are readers of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy masterpiece.

I read it up through the third book. It was ok up to that point...different, at least. But at that point, it just got frankly stupid. I think maybe he got "Piers Anthony Disease".

I read the first 6 books about 4 years ago.

I enjoyed them but had enough after 7,000 pages!

Those books were terribly written, yet strangely pretty gripping. I got to book ten before I stopped. They're pretty good at first, but nothing really new happens in any of the books. After about 10,000 pages of the same stuff over and over again it gets kind of old. Plus there were a few dozen too many sex scenes for my taste. It's like a chick book for men.

Yeah and I know somebody's going to come along and say we didn't like them because they were too sophisticated for us, it's happened to me before. They're not too sophisticated, I've read Lord of the Rings, etc and loved it, these are just poorly written.

Rant over.

Read them up until, I think Lord of Chaos. By then it was just too drawn out. Have read the Terry G. series, but it is shorter (as of now, anyway).

A side note, did you know that Jordan was one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's proteges? Try reading her Darkover series. Its not a "series" in the sense of those others. She thought it a tad arrogant to assume people would have read other books one wrote. (and she was before the big extended "trilogy" thing hit).

Simon Viavant wrote:Those books were terribly written, yet strangely pretty gripping. I got to book ten before I stopped. They're pretty good at first, but nothing really new happens in any of the books. After about 10,000 pages of the same stuff over and over again it gets kind of old. Plus there were a few dozen too many sex scenes for my taste. It's like a chick book for men.

Yeah and I know somebody's going to come along and say we didn't like them because they were too sophisticated for us, it's happened to me before. They're not too sophisticated, I've read Lord of the Rings, etc and loved it, these are just poorly written.

Rant over.

Book 11 gets better though and gets back to the main plot with action.

I've read the first two. One of my IRL CC friends has read the series at least 5 times.

john9blue wrote:I've read the first two. One of my IRL CC friends has read the series at least 5 times.

About the same here.

I've read them all, but the bastid died before he finished them, unless the final one is out now.

Foxglove wrote:These are some of the most terrible books ever written.

I keep reading them because I can't stand to leave a story unfinished - but never have I read a series and so many times had the thought "please, someone stab them in the throat so they can die and this can end." (Except for Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series, which is equally mind-numbing.)

Fox, I agree with you somewhat here, I too am reading them because I hate not to finish a series. I really enjoyed the first book, but they seemed to get worse from there. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the Sword of Truth series.

What really pisses me off is that I started this series in like 1990 when the first one came out, and I still haven't finished it.....20 years.

I will probably reread them all at some point so I get more out of it.....yeah, I'm weird.

notyou2 wrote:I've read them all, but the bastid died before he finished them, unless the final one is out now.

The final one is being made into 3 books. And the next one comes out in about 3 weeks.

I dunno, fellas. I really enjoyed the 1st three, but like someone said earlier, the author just drags the damn story on. And although it's not the best written material out there, it's very addictive or attention getting. But after bulldozing through so much repetive information, I stopped reading at book 5 or 6--can't remember, it became a haze. Yeah, so Rand kills this guy, then 500 pages later, he finally kills the other big tough buy, then 3000 pages later--BUt WAIT let's go back to those damn fools in the desert trying to talk to the "Arab" guys about doing this and that.... YAHHH!!!! As for the repitition, I can understand why he felt that he had to remind you of who or what he was talking about but after the 5th explanation in the 5th or 6th book of the god-damn Maidens of the Spear or Spears (OH NO! WHICH ONE IS IT??), I tried beating my forehead repeatedly until I forgot who the Maidens of the Spear(s) were, so that I could then enjoy the book. Usually didn't work though.

The man was trying to squeezing out as much money as he could; so I gave the books back to my friend (YES for free stuff). Also, I wanted more violence! This Rand kid and his thoughts about how sickening it was to do this and that when using the 'power' or 'force' or whatever it was called was weak. I wanted more violence, I felt cheated at the high suspense parts of certain battles or deuls; it was like the author didn't know how to really explain or give much detail on any of that because he's never taken any sword fighting classes and hasn't really much imagination with portraying battle scenes or portraying the "ultraviolent." I'm probably going a bit far, but must of this just stems from the feeling of great disappointment. Lemme shed a few tears That's better. The series seemed too childish, but then again that's probably because I started the books at a young age, and as I grew the books really didn't. Strange how time affects such things.

Maybe in a year or two or ten, I'll just use the internet, read the summaries for an hour, and go, "Oh, that's what happened? Great, the suspense is off now."



My favorite fantasy novel series was Robert Jordan's The Elenium because of the main characters who pretty much just fuched around but got things done--I like this, I can laugh more while being highly entertained. That and the storyline seemed to have a bit more of a dark or violent feel or enviroment to it, yet filled with humor. Good stuff. Reminds me of laughing with this Vietnam War veteran about my flight to Taiwan overflying the North Korean airspace for whatever reason and getting shot down, but the worst part would be surviving the missile strike and falling/freezing to one's death. Funny stuff!

I've read maybe seven of these books. I got really sick of the plot not moving forward appreciably. It seems as if Mr. Jordan was writing like a soap opera writer... "let's see how I can drag this on longer."

That being said, I did enjoy the first few books and the main characters (with the exception of Rand) are somewhat compelling.

That being said, nothing compares to George RR Martin's series. It's far and away the best "fantasy" series I've ever read. And despite Martin's current writer's block on the last few books, I still remain waiting with bated breath.

notyou2 wrote:What really pisses me off is that I started this series in like 1990 when the first one came out, and I still haven't finished it.....20 years.

I will probably reread them all at some point so I get more out of it.....yeah, I'm weird.

If you are wierd, I certainly am. I have an excellent memory, but I still find that its nice to reread earlier books when its been a few years between my reading and a new book in the series.

As I said before, the plot and action pick back up in the 9th, 10, and 11th books. I'll admit, the middle books did drag out, but they do lead somewhere.

BigBallinStalin wrote:My favorite fantasy novel series was Robert Jordan's The Elenium because of the main characters who pretty much just fuched around but got things done--I like this, I can laugh more while being highly entertained. That and the storyline seemed to have a bit more of a dark or violent feel or enviroment to it, yet filled with humor. Good stuff. Reminds me of laughing with this Vietnam War veteran about my flight to Taiwan overflying the North Korean airspace for whatever reason and getting shot down, but the worst part would be surviving the missile strike and falling/freezing to one's death. Funny stuff!

You mean David Eddings, not Robert Jordan...and I agree with you. His writing is FAR more entertaining...though occasionally the characters' glibness overdose got on my nerves.

Word,
Read seven books in college, and put it down.
Picked them up again about six months ago, and finishing Knife of dreams (about 1/2 through).
Perfect timing for the finale.
BTW, didn't read the whole thread, but I saw a link on the TOR books site to read the first chapter...

I must agree with those that said the middle few books dragged on a bit, however the most recent ones did pick the pace back up. Also I always enjoy the battle scenes in these books, and sometimes find myself reading these parts over and over.

PLAYER57832 wrote:

notyou2 wrote:What really pisses me off is that I started this series in like 1990 when the first one came out, and I still haven't finished it.....20 years.

I will probably reread them all at some point so I get more out of it.....yeah, I'm weird.

If you are wierd, I certainly am. I have an excellent memory, but I still find that its nice to reread earlier books when its been a few years between my reading and a new book in the series.

wanna be weird in stereo?...that'd be reading two of the books outloud to each other at the same time