All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Crossroads of Twilight

gav on 2004-02-29T00:04:12

I've just finished Robert Jordan's Crossroads of Twilight - the 10th novel in the Wheel of Time series.

This is the worst book in the series, it just doesn't push the story forwards. We get glimpses of great events on the horizon but Jordan just wanders in their general direction in a drunken meander. You think you're getting closer but this is just 822 pages of filler, it's a tedious journey where I want to say "ARE WE THERE YET?" every five miles. Jordan may be gifted but he needs a better editor, we've got another year to wait for the next book, lets hope he can pull it together.

obvious

jhi on 2004-02-29T16:46:05

> Jordan may be gifted but he needs a better editor

Muahaha. You have misunderstood the meaning of meandering fantasy epics: their purpose is not to tell a good story, their purpose is to fill their author's pockets. (In addition to Jordan, see the Eddingses.)

Don't get me wrong: I like meandering fantasy epics. I liked WoT series - up until the fourth book or so, then I in digust realised that I've been had, and sold away my WoT books in disgust. I could handle two of the first David Eddings series (pentalogies?), then I gave up.

I suggest trying out Robin Hobb, David Gemmell, and Raymond Feist, if you already haven't.

Re:obvious

gav on 2004-02-29T18:02:54

> I suggest trying out Robin Hobb, David Gemmell, and Raymond Feist, if you already haven't.

I think I'm tapped out on the whole genre; I've read more or less everything by Hobb, Gemmell, Feist, Modesitt, Brooks, and Goodkind.

I think I'm going to have to start on Dragonlance next or possibly start reading Gene Wolfe.

Re:obvious

jhi on 2004-02-29T18:28:05

> start on Dragonlance next

Oh, nooo! Anything but Dragonlance, I'm still scarred and it's been more than ten years. Next you'll start considering the Forgotten Realms "novels" :-)

> or possibly start reading Gene Wolfe

Wolfe is a fine choice.

How about Jack Vance, Guy Gavriel Kay?

Re:obvious

hex on 2004-03-02T15:53:45

God, is Jordan still writing those things?

> I liked WoT series - up until the fourth book or so

I had a friend in high school who was really into them. He lent me the first couple, which I read and then decided not to bother with because it looked like they'd go on forever. I have now mercifully completely forgotten them.

I actually just finished re-reading LoTR for the first time in over a decade. I'd forgotten Tolkien had such an and-lo-they-came-forth-unto-the-mountain sort of style. It got really tiring by the end of Return of the King, but it felt worth it - although I've used up my fantasy epic tolerance again, now, and need to spend a while reading science fiction novels about travelling to parallel universes through wormholes, or some crap like that.