I'm reading it for the first time. Perrin just met up with the wolf guy and Rand and Mat are learning how to juggle.
I'm about 40% of the way in, I guess.
Does it... get good? I'll finish the book, but if people tell me the rest of the series is like this, I doubt I'll get the second book.
I just wanted more Game of Thrones. Where is the god of wine, tits and good fantasy?
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
It never actually gets good.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
So it is twelve books of rolling dice for stat checks?
ugh
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
I'd give the second book a try. It's a better example of the overall character of the series.
It does get better, but if you don't like it by the end of the second book, you probably never will.
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
I enjoyed the first book. I tolerated the second. I endured the next ten. Once Brandon Sanderson took over, I went back to tolerating them. Don't ask me why I felt compelled to stick with them; I'm not sure myself.
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
You've made it further than I managed, Foust. I trust Tom on this one, though.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
I'm in the middle of a re-read of the series right now.
Stop now while you can.
Posted by Silent E (Member # 8840) on :
The first book is crap. The second and third are quite a bit better. The fourth is fantastic. Then it tapers off, first slowly, then quite precipitously. It reaches abysmal lows before recovering reasonably well at the end. You wouldn't reach the end, of course, unless you had become hooked enough (by book four) to really want to know how it ended.
Posted by happymann (Member # 9559) on :
In my experience, the only series that is like Game of Thrones is Game of Thrones (personally I appreciate that).
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
Yeah, sadly ASoIaF pretty much killed my interest in other fantasy series. Though I would suggest the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. It's technically "sci-fi" or "space opera", but has a bit of a fantasy feel to it. It's right up there with ASoIaF as my favorite series.
Sticking with pure fantasy, the Farseer trilogy from Robin Hobb is pretty good. Its not ASoIaF though, and you probably won't be blown away or anything like that. But I found them enjoyable even after having the genre spoiled by Martin.
--------------------------
I also gave up on the "Wheel of Time" books. I think I read the first nine of them, but after the fourth book (the only one I really enjoyed), there wasn't much that I even remember.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
The Hyperion series was a mixed bag, but the great outweighed the good, the good outweighed the bad, and the bad outweighed the insulting and stupid ret-conning.
So AsoIaF is a genre killer, then?
My experience with fantasy is limited, because I assumed it was just a bunch of LotR knock-offs. Is ASoIaF the only counter example?
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:Is ASoIaF the only counter example?
No. Limiting your options to recent books and completed series, you might also consider Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
Foust: it's a very different kind of fantasy (swords & sorcery in the tradition of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar, rather than epic fantasy in the tradition of Tolkien)... but you may want to try out Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora.
I very much feel that Lynch did for swords & sorcery what Martin did for epic fantasy.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
Tom, Dan, I shall look at both. Thanks!
Posted by Vasslia Cora (Member # 7981) on :
I enjoyed it but books 7, 8, and 9, are really the low point of the series. Personally, I just wanted more Mat for most of the series.
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
quote:Originally posted by Foust: Tom, Dan, I shall look at both. Thanks!
Oh, one thing: unlike Tom's recommendation, Lies of Locke Lamora is not a completed series.
But, as a good sword and sorcery tale, the first novel is pretty much self-contained. No huge cliffhangers or anything, it could totally stand alone with no sequels and be worth reading.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I liked WoT. The second and third books were MUCH better than the 1st, which I found to have interesting concept but very slow moving.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vasslia Cora: I enjoyed it but books 7, 8, and 9, are really the low point of the series. Personally, I just wanted more Mat for most of the series.
Mat? The guy who steals an obviously cursed knife from a cursed city and starts acting like Gollum, and it takes 2/3s of the damn book for someone to say "hey Mat, you stole a cursed knife from a cursed city and you're acting like gollum"?
Posted by Wingracer (Member # 12293) on :
quote:Originally posted by Foust:
quote:Originally posted by Vasslia Cora: I enjoyed it but books 7, 8, and 9, are really the low point of the series. Personally, I just wanted more Mat for most of the series.
Mat? The guy who steals an obviously cursed knife from a cursed city and starts acting like Gollum, and it takes 2/3s of the damn book for someone to say "hey Mat, you stole a cursed knife from a cursed city and you're acting like gollum"?
I hated Mat with a passion for the first couple books but by the end, yes it needed WAY more Mat. He was really the only fun character in the whole series.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
remember, the heros never had the benefit of reading LOTR....lol....
Posted by Obama (Member # 13004) on :
I was kind of disappointed in the Forsaken. Hyped up as the world's boogeymen, coming from a world with technology far beyond ours and magic far beyond Randland's.
They were the worst villains ever up until the last three or four books. Semirhage turned out pretty cool. (In an evil kind of way.) And...umm...Graendal's Great Captain trick was pretty clever. Am I missing anything?
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
i would appreciate if spoilers were avoided, or at least marked.
I just started the series.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
I hate myself, I can't stop. Just began Crossroads of Twilight.
Posted by NobleHunter (Member # 12043) on :
That's quite possibly the nadir of the series. The narrative just seems to stop to dwell on the previous book.
The last four books are way easier to read.
Posted by Wingracer (Member # 12293) on :
For me, it wasn't this book was good while that one was boring, it's more that some story lines I found to be quite excellent while others bored me to tears and I could find examples of both in every book.
Overall, I'm glad I read them. I probably never would have if I wasn't such a diehard Sanderson fan and his involvement got my interest. I found the series enjoyable but it won't be going on any all time favorites list for me.
Posted by Foust (Member # 3043) on :
I think I've been Stockhom syndromed into this series. I'm on Towers of Midnight, and... I'm actually invested.
And yes, Mat actually did become fun.
The Sanderson books are a marked improvement.
Posted by Aros (Member # 4873) on :
A part of me wishes that Sanderson would rewrite the whole series.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
Without having read the whole thread I just have to say I'm having the same problem with "Gravity's Rainbow." I'm about 200 pages in, but each time I start reading I fall asleep. It's not that it's boring, it's just so dense that it's exhausting.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I love the series, but some of the books we not plotted out well. The first one was slow, but The Great Hunt was outstanding IMO.
It was bloated, but still fun, and had some great storylines.