The Shrine

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/?p=90

The blood disease finally took him.

Won't load for me, but ok.

Did he ever finish the Wheel of Time? If not, that's hilarious, and I'm glad I stopped long before I tried to finish that series. Not to be too much of a dick - but I am! - but by the sixth book, he was *writing* like he had a blood disease.

I know I should be very sad and all and say nice things, but I still can't forgive that fucker for getting weird on me and "wrecking" (in my mind) the fantasy series that I had on track to be as good or better than the Lord of the Rings.

EDIT: That was really insensitive. I apologize, and am sorry for his passing.

No, he hadn't finished it. He was working on the final book when he died. Apparently, he had been having his thoughts and notes transcribed so that the plot lines and all that would meet his expectations. They plan on releasing the last book at some point.

I just read books 1-11 in the past year for the first time. His writing style wasn't the greatest I'd ever read, but it was pretty good and I liked his characters. With 11 books under my belt in there, I want to see how the story ends at least.

*Edit: Fixed that to read "wasn't the greatest" as I meant to be.

Man, that sucks.

I read to book 9, but I had to stop reading the series....it was so drawn out and hard to keep track of. I stopped caring about the characters.

I would like to pick it back up again at least to finish it out.

The series just felt like it stopped moving, for some reason, to me. I kind of judged the probable progress of the series by the numbers of Forsaken hanging around. When they started coming back from the dead, I put down the series in disgust as moving backwards in plot progression.

I'm with Seraphina. From about book 6 on, I was reading the books mostly to see how things ended, not because I actually enjoyed reading them. There were occasional glimpses of the greatness of the first 5 books, but not enough. It seemed like he was just feeding the golden goose, not trying to continue his streak of greatness.

Some people tend to get down on Jordan, but I've re-read the first 5 books a number of times, and they stand toe-to-toe with anything out there. Unfortunately the last several cast a pall over the first few. I now wonder how much his illness affected his writing.

Anyway, I appreciate the enjoyment he gave all of us. R.I.P.

Yeah, I'd agree that the later books weren't as good as the first few. I think he started spinning too many plot threads to keep them all going at a good speed. I blew through all the books in a year, so it was very noticeable. But since I had invested so much time with the characters, I want to see how it ends.

Ishamael wrote:Some people tend to get down on Jordan, but I've re-read the first 5 books a number of times, and they stand toe-to-toe with anything out there. Unfortunately the last several cast a pall over the first few. I now wonder how much his illness affected his writing.

De acuerdo. Book 6 was *really* bad, especially after the first five. I think I got the seventh one, decided it wasn't getting any better, and bounced on the series.

As has been said, the first book was good, the second book titled the Great Hunt was fantastic (a true work of literary art, which did remind me of Tolkien quite a bit), but I felt once the third book hit that the series had already taken a huge tumble downhill in quality. There was an interesting portion in one of the books where the lead character (forget his name) was viewing the past, but I am a sucker for history; from what I gathered from that scene is that the story takes place thousands of years in the future. I do feel that the story should had wrapped in 3 or 4 instead of 12. Sad to hear of his passing though, he had a lot of fans who will miss him.

The Seeker wrote:As has been said, the first book was good, the second book titled the Great Hunt was fantastic (a true work of literary art, which did remind me of Tolkien quite a bit), but I felt once the third book hit that the series had already taken a huge tumble downhill in quality. There was an interesting portion in one of the books where the lead character (forget his name) was viewing the past, but I am a sucker for history; from what I gathered from that scene is that the story takes place thousands of years in the future. I do feel that the story should had wrapped in 3 or 4 instead of 12. Sad to hear of his passing though, he had a lot of fans who will miss him.

I loved the first few books of the series. at that point in my life I thought they were the greatest thing ever. and I still do love certain aspects of the story. I have a lot of differences with people though. My favorite characters were Perrin and Faile. I loved when Mat was central too. But in the later books whenever rand was the star it was like reading a nep....it just got boooooooooooooooooring. the fact is that for me those first few books really grabbed me into the world of fantasy and geekyness. bt it also spread me out into other authors. in the same arena. I stll love what Robert Jordan did. I will always respct it. and I really can't wait for the ending

I had actually picked up the WoT series as a holdover waiting for the next book from A Song of Ice and Fire. That didn't work out too well as I blew through a WoT and it'll probably be another 2 years for A Dance with Dragons.

Though the last few books weren't as good as the others, I still really liked the Perrin-Faile storyline with her being captured and Perrin going nuts to get her back.

Lox wrote:I had actually picked up the WoT series as a holdover waiting for the next book from A Song of Ice and Fire. That didn't work out too well as I blew through a WoT and it'll probably be another 2 years for A Dance with Dragons.

Though the last few books weren't as good as the others, I still really liked the Perrin-Faile storyline with her being captured and Perrin going nuts to get her back.

woooo I'm not the only one.

Lox wrote:Yeah, I'd agree that the later books weren't as good as the first few. I think he started spinning too many plot threads to keep them all going at a good speed. I blew through all the books in a year, so it was very noticeable. But since I had invested so much time with the characters, I want to see how it ends.

Agreed. Way too many plot threads being spun out...or at least he handled the ones he created clumsily. Many of them would be forgotten for several books and then advanced a minuscule distance before being forgotten about again.

Just pages of text where nothing happens.

I forget which book, but one novel covers like 3 weeks of material (over 500+ pages) for what ultimately was a minor plot point (I believe it was the Bowl of the Winds book).

*sigh* I guess you can only get this annoyed about something that had potential for greatness.

Yeah, it probably was the Bowl of the Winds stuff. That took forever. haha

I'd have to say that my favorite thing about the series is the way you are totally blown away by the Aes Sedai in the beginning and by the end they all come off as total biotches.

I gave up on the series, too, but it sucks that he passed away, i do still intend on finishing reading them eventually. I started the series when the first 6 or so had already been out. I like reading series this way, you can move from one to the other in rapid succession, remembering everything. Once i caught up and Jordan started taking forever to get them out, i couldnt keep up, couldnt remember, and threw in the towel.

Unfortunately, Martin is starting to do the same damn thing! I knew it was bullshit when he posted on his site that he finished A Feast for Crows and decided it was too long and split them up into two books. If he had REALLY finished both books and split them, it wouldnt take so long to simply clean up A Dance With Dragons and get it out 6 months or so after AFFC, like he said he would. Luckily, he isnt going to do a 12 books marathon, so there isnt too much to remember...

After I finished the WoT books that were out I started rereading ASoIaF. I'm halfway through A Storm of Swords but I got sidetracked playing Rune Factory.

The Bowl of Winds got me too lol

I started reading the Sword of Truth series. I'll have to also check out the series you guys are mentioning.

you want good fantasy seraph.....go check out the Malazan Books of the Fallen from Steven Erikson. the first is Gardens f the Moon. They will break you with amazing

She's reading Ringworld, one of my favorite series. Hopefully, she's getting into it.

SineSwiper wrote:She's reading Ringworld, one of my favorite series. Hopefully, she's getting into it.

she's got ringworm? That sucks. get better seraph :p

That's not even funny. It's a good series, actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld

And since you're a fan of Green Lantern, Larry Niven (author of Ringworld and the Known Space universe) apparently wrote a GL book.

You're not funny!

I'm up at 3:30AM and can't sleep! In a bad mood! For some reason I find everything - particularly dissing Sine - to be exceptionally funny right now.

Throw down, IT boy. Let's do this shit ugly!

SineSwiper wrote:She's reading Ringworld, one of my favorite series. Hopefully, she's getting into it.

I'm almost done with the book, and I'm still not quite into it.

Chris Hansbrough wrote:you want good fantasy seraph.....go check out the Malazan Books of the Fallen from Steven Erikson. the first is Gardens f the Moon. They will break you with amazing

Sounds good, I will.

Seraphina wrote:

Chris Hansbrough wrote:you want good fantasy seraph.....go check out the Malazan Books of the Fallen from Steven Erikson. the first is Gardens f the Moon. They will break you with amazing

Sounds good, I will.

yar they be amazing....the only books that literally left me with a feeling of dread for every character. When a book claims that "no one is safe" in a volume...usually they mean no one is safe outside of the main cast. in the malazan books......no one is safe at all. you get attached to characters and WHAM! they start dying left and right....it realy is amazing stuff. not to mention while there is a bad guy evil empire.....they aren't necesarily....well...evil.....so really you can chose and character on either side and you would be ok...

Sounds cool. I'll have to pick those up after I finish rereading ASoIaF. Those books give me a similar sense of dread for the characters. I wouldn't put it past Martin to kill anyone, even characters like Dany.

Chris Hansbrough wrote:

SineSwiper wrote:She's reading Ringworld, one of my favorite series. Hopefully, she's getting into it.

she's got ringworm? That sucks. get better seraph :p

My dog has ringworm...it does suck.........for him.

Lox wrote:Sounds cool. I'll have to pick those up after I finish rereading ASoIaF. Those books give me a similar sense of dread for the characters. I wouldn't put it past Martin to kill anyone, even characters like Dany.

Aye ye definitely should....it's a mature story too. everything bad that can happen pretty much does. I heard about it first from Arioc/Malhavoc/Grey and picked the first book up...he said it was the best fantasy he had ever read and one of the best books not just fantasy he had ever read......he wasn't lying it is fucking amazing. the best book I've ever read fantasy wise. And fr me whose really gotten into espionage books and stuff like that....I still consider them the best story I have ever read.