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The Wheel of Time (Amazon)

There used to be a jazzfanzer whose name was edgewriter iirc whose name in real life is trevor H Cooley and he writes in this genre. His Bowl Of Souls books are my favorite in this genre and is one of my favorite stories of all time.
I highly recommend all of you to give them a try. I think that there are about 11 or 12 books in the series out so far (I could be wrong though) and I have read them all. They are outstanding. Been waiting of the next book in the series (titles Halfbreeds) for a long time now. Hope it comes out soon as I really miss the characters in the story.
 
fishonjazz said:
There used to be a jazzfanzer whose name was edgewriter iirc whose name in real life is trevor H Cooley and he writes in this genre. His Bowl Of Souls books are my favorite in this genre and is one of my favorite stories of all time.
I highly recommend all of you to give them a try. I think that there are about 11 or 12 books in the series out so far (I could be wrong though) and I have read them all. They are outstanding. Been waiting of the next book in the series (titles Halfbreeds) for a long time now. Hope it comes out soon as I really miss the characters in the story.
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That's cool. I tried to get into those and just couldn't. Read the first one, part of the second then gave up. I'm glad he's seen so much success with it though. Getting over the hump with a first novel is incredibly hard. Happy for him.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Remember the Khaleesi.

Anything and everything can be ****ed up. Count on it being ****ed up and you won't be disappointed. GoT started so strong, then for 2 seasons just completely **** the bed.
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I don't really care if the adaptations suck. Original work will always be there to fall back on.

This could go the GOT way and I will still enjoy whatever good bit there is before it's completely ******.
 
Hekate said:
I don't really care if the adaptations suck. Original work will always be there to fall back on.

This could go the GOT way and I will still enjoy whatever good bit there is before it's completely ******.
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Plus when GOT was awesome, it was really really awesome. The crappy last few seasons dont mean that the amazing seasons didn't happen. I love the books and I also loved the HBO show looking at the whole total. Some of it sucked but much of it was simply amazing.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Agreed on the Kingkiller Chronicle. Rothfuss manages to make a tired genre and story fresh even while using almost all the cliches of the genre. But I've seen him involved in a lot of things other than finishing and there was an article a while back where he went all philosophical and esoteric talking about not finishing as the best ending he could provide because it leaves it open to the readers imagination or some such ********. Pretty sure he meant it tongue in cheek but so far he has made good on that promise.

He also once said he had like a dozen sub-plots he had to rework and that the would only publish when he had a perfect work to give to the readers. So often perfection is the enemy of excellence. That appears to be the case here too.

But I hope both of those get finished. But both authors have made it clear they don't really care about finishing them, if not in word then in action. That's just weird to me. But I can't do much about it.

But I did manage to get a Tak boardgame early on. It is a beautiful game.
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His publisher also came out a few months ago saying she hasn't seen one page yet from book 3, and said she didn't believe he had written anything. I don't think he ever responded. And yes, his pet charity seems to take all of his time, which appears to be an excuse from having to fight through writers block and finish the book (or start writing the damn thing?)

My brother gave me the first GOT books back around 2007, bringing me into a world of great books that never finish. I gifted him the first two Kingkiller Chronicles as payback. :) It has been so long since I read any of them, I don't really care if they every get finished to be honest. And both are fat, unhealthy people that will likely die (GRRM is 72, so he'll probably be gone within the next few years, so no way that gets finished). Rothfuss is 48 and has one book to write, so it may get finished within the next 25 years. I'll have to decided if I want to re-read the first two if the third is ever released. Supposedly he wrote the whole story when he was young in a rough form. Book two was said to be written when book 1 was released, yet it took forever for it to come out. GRRM had a similar thing with the last two book (written at the same time and took a decade to edit book 2, which is insane).

I didn't read the last GOT book, and don't plan to read anymore.

I like the writing philosophy of Sanderson much more, who plots out the whole series in an outline before he starts writing. He fills in gaps, but knows the larger story, so there are fewer plot holes to fill. GRRM figures it out while he goes (with a general idea of how it goes, but not fully plotted out). There are so many side pieces that it is daunting to try and put it all back together.

I have to think if I am an author (can't blame GRRM, he is 72 and a multimillionaire thanks to HBO) like pre-tv GRRM or Rothfuss, that I'd dedicate enough time to get books written in a reasonable period of time. Fantasy is ok, but is down the list of my regular reading preference, but some of this more recent authors have made decent books, but I don't have the memory or time to wait 10 years between books as I'd have to go back and re-read the original stories to remember what the hell was going on after 10 years.
 
fishonjazz said:
Plus when GOT was awesome, it was really really awesome. The crappy last few seasons dont mean that the amazing seasons didn't happen. I love the books and I also loved the HBO show looking at the whole total. Some of it sucked but much of it was simply amazing.
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True, but it does put a grey cloud over the 73 hours of your life you spent watching a show that completely failed at the end.

Sorta like the Jazz in 97/98. It was an awesome ride, but the bitter ending leaves bad memories about the whole thing. Even though I love those teams.
 
TheGoldStandard said:
His publisher also came out a few months ago saying she hasn't seen one page yet from book 3, and said she didn't believe he had written anything. I don't think he ever responded. And yes, his pet charity seems to take all of his time, which appears to be an excuse from having to fight through writers block and finish the book (or start writing the damn thing?)

My brother gave me the first GOT books back around 2007, bringing me into a world of great books that never finish. I gifted him the first two Kingkiller Chronicles as payback. :) It has been so long since I read any of them, I don't really care if they every get finished to be honest. And both are fat, unhealthy people that will likely die (GRRM is 72, so he'll probably be gone within the next few years, so no way that gets finished). Rothfuss is 48 and has one book to write, so it may get finished within the next 25 years. I'll have to decided if I want to re-read the first two if the third is ever released. Supposedly he wrote the whole story when he was young in a rough form. Book two was said to be written when book 1 was released, yet it took forever for it to come out. GRRM had a similar thing with the last two book (written at the same time and took a decade to edit book 2, which is insane).

I didn't read the last GOT book, and don't plan to read anymore.

I like the writing philosophy of Sanderson much more, who plots out the whole series in an outline before he starts writing. He fills in gaps, but knows the larger story, so there are fewer plot holes to fill. GRRM figures it out while he goes (with a general idea of how it goes, but not fully plotted out). There are so many side pieces that it is daunting to try and put it all back together.

I have to think if I am an author (can't blame GRRM, he is 72 and a multimillionaire thanks to HBO) like pre-tv GRRM or Rothfuss, that I'd dedicate enough time to get books written in a reasonable period of time. Fantasy is ok, but is down the list of my regular reading preference, but some of this more recent authors have made decent books, but I don't have the memory or time to wait 10 years between books as I'd have to go back and re-read the original stories to remember what the hell was going on after 10 years.
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FWIW the Kingkiller Chronicle books hold up on re-reading.
 
LogGrad98 said:
FWIW the Kingkiller Chronicle books hold up on re-reading.
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I heard the audio books are good so I may do that if book 3 ever gets removed from the door of stone it is hiding behind. Not holding my breath (or binding the air in my lungs to simulate calling the wind. Heard thst makes Abenthy all sorts of angry).
 
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LogGrad98 said:
Are you saying they are adapting Asimov's Foundation series into a show? Absolutely no idea how they pull that off.
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It looks like they've punched it up, having things actually happen instead of just talking. I love the series, but I thought it was kind of unfilmable, but maybe they've come up with a way to do it? Anyway, they've perfectly cast Hari Seldon.

 
TheGoldStandard said:
I like the writing philosophy of Sanderson much more, who plots out the whole series in an outline before he starts writing. He fills in gaps, but knows the larger story, so there are fewer plot holes to fill. GRRM figures it out while he goes (with a general idea of how it goes, but not fully plotted out). There are so many side pieces that it is daunting to try and put it all back together.
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Completely agree. Sanderson is a special writer.

I suppose this is why for me the wheel of time ended up coming to an absolutely amazing conclusion. I think also that might be why Sanderson split the final book into three books… So that he could give all of the loose threads their due. The last three books are absolutely worth paying the price of reading the first 11.

And that last book, a memory of light… Nothing like it has ever been written before.
 
leftyjace said:
Completely agree. Sanderson is a special writer.

I suppose this is why for me the wheel of time ended up coming to an absolutely amazing conclusion. I think also that might be why Sanderson split the final book into three books… So that he could give all of the loose threads their due. The last three books are absolutely worth paying the price of reading the first 11.

And that last book, a memory of light… Nothing like it has ever been written before.
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I wouldn't go that far. Sanderson is a talented writer, and gets books published like a madman while still teaching at an insane rate, but the majority of his writing is a bit predictable (at least for me). I liked what he did to finish WOT, but I felt like RJ's writing was going downhill after book 4, and becoming a bit formalistic and somewhat unreadable. Also didn't love the ending, but not pinning that on Sanderson. It would be hard as hell to take someone else's vision and style to an extent and put it on paper.

It did get me to look at Sanderson's other work, and some of it is great, while others are just menial. The Way of Kings was great. The prologue sucks you in to the world, and was written really well, but slowly seeing the quality diminish as the series goes on. When you are publishing as much as he is, it is still impressive he can turn out decent stories.

The Shannara books were the same thing. They used to be long, well-written epics. Eventually either the publisher or Brooks let the series drop tremendously. Partially because each story turned into 3 short books, and partially because the story quality diminished. The tv series was abysmal, and thankfully I only wasted enough time to watch half an episode.

So while I complain about GRRM and Rothfuss, I love the quality of the writing.
 
TheGoldStandard said:
I wouldn't go that far. Sanderson is a talented writer, and gets books published like a madman while still teaching at an insane rate, but the majority of his writing is a bit predictable (at least for me). I liked what he did to finish WOT, but I felt like RJ's writing was going downhill after book 4, and becoming a bit formalistic and somewhat unreadable. Also didn't love the ending, but not pinning that on Sanderson. It would be hard as hell to take someone else's vision and style to an extent and put it on paper.

It did get me to look at Sanderson's other work, and some of it is great, while others are just menial. The Way of Kings was great. The prologue sucks you in to the world, and was written really well, but slowly seeing the quality diminish as the series goes on. When you are publishing as much as he is, it is still impressive he can turn out decent stories.

The Shannara books were the same thing. They used to be long, well-written epics. Eventually either the publisher or Brooks let the series drop tremendously. Partially because each story turned into 3 short books, and partially because the story quality diminished. The tv series was abysmal, and thankfully I only wasted enough time to watch half an episode.

So while I complain about GRRM and Rothfuss, I love the quality of the writing.
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Would you rather Rothfuss never finish it, or finish it in a lackluster fashion?
 
TheGoldStandard said:
I wouldn't go that far. Sanderson is a talented writer, and gets books published like a madman while still teaching at an insane rate, but the majority of his writing is a bit predictable (at least for me). I liked what he did to finish WOT, but I felt like RJ's writing was going downhill after book 4, and becoming a bit formalistic and somewhat unreadable. Also didn't love the ending, but not pinning that on Sanderson. It would be hard as hell to take someone else's vision and style to an extent and put it on paper.

It did get me to look at Sanderson's other work, and some of it is great, while others are just menial. The Way of Kings was great. The prologue sucks you in to the world, and was written really well, but slowly seeing the quality diminish as the series goes on. When you are publishing as much as he is, it is still impressive he can turn out decent stories.

The Shannara books were the same thing. They used to be long, well-written epics. Eventually either the publisher or Brooks let the series drop tremendously. Partially because each story turned into 3 short books, and partially because the story quality diminished. The tv series was abysmal, and thankfully I only wasted enough time to watch half an episode.

So while I complain about GRRM and Rothfuss, I love the quality of the writing.
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Wow. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.
As far as the ending, Sanderson got the last battle pretty much in final form. Given that, he did great.
I think the Stormlight Archive has only improved tremendously as it’s gone along, so we are in strong disagreement there.
Agreed on Shannara. Sword and Wishsong were solid - the rest were not. TV series was YA trash.
 
leftyjace said:
Wow. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.
As far as the ending, Sanderson got the last battle pretty much in final form. Given that, he did great.
I think the Stormlight Archive has only improved tremendously as it’s gone along, so we are in strong disagreement there.
Agreed on Shannara. Sword and Wishsong were solid - the rest were not. TV series was YA trash.
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Rhythm was good, but the time disconnect between book 3 and start of book four could have been introduced better, and the first of the book was slow and tedious. The last half was great, but the first have drops the quality compared to the first 3, which I had a hard time putting down, and book 4 which I had a hard time picking up well until half-way through.

Also, his foreshadowing in basically all his books is mindnumbingly obvious, and his character development is average. He does create great reader friendly worlds, and obviously if he took extra time to flush out additional pieces his books would be better, and as I said before, his publication rate is impressive.
 
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TheGoldStandard said:
Rhythm was good, but the time disconnect between book 3 and start of book four could have been introduced better, and the first of the book was slow and tedious. The last half was great, but the first have drops the quality compared to the first 3, which I had a hard time putting down, and book 4 which I had a hard time picking up well until half-way through.

Also, his foreshadowing in basically all his books is mindnumbingly obvious, and his character development is average. He does create great reader friendly worlds, and obviously if he took extra time to flush out additional pieces his books would be better, and as I said before, his publication rate is impressive.
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Like I said…
You can keep repeating your opinions all you want, but we will just have to agree to disagree.
 
leftyjace said:
Like I said…
You can keep repeating your opinions all you want, but we will just have to agree to disagree.
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Fair enough, but many critics largely have the same opinion.

Also, a very close-minded response. Basically you are saying I can make any argument, but your mind is set. That attitude is responsible for many of this worlds problems, but you do you.
 
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