Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Beautiful world building and definitely requires patience to savour. This is not for tose looking for an action packed plot.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reviewing at the halfway point of the series (currently reading book 8 of 14). Surprisingly few spoilers though.
There are a lot of good moments in this series. Every single one of those good moments has come as a pleasant surprise, because The Wheel of Time is, overall, a meandering mediocrity. I'm basically listening to the audiobooks the same way I would listen to a D&D podcast: as background, and if I miss a couple sentences here and there because I got distracted, it's fine because it's so mid that I'm not invested enough to rewind.
Instead of a holistic review, here are my random, mostly snarky @Robert Jordan thoughts.
Good God, Where Is Your Editor, Man??
Robert Jordan writes truly terrible prose. He never uses a simple adjective when he can use a full sentence-long metaphor instead—instead of “she said coldly” it’s always “he thought she’d been cold before; now her tone made even the sweltering summer heat seem cold as midwinter”. EVERY TIME. These books could each have been 100 pages shorter (and less painful to read) if Jordan had just had a competent editor with a large supply of red pens.
He also gets absolutely STUCK on certain phrases and uses them over and over and over until I feel like I'm playing punch buggy in the VW-happy mid-2000s. If you make the phrase “folded her arms beneath her breasts” into a drinking game you’ll be absolutely hammered every time you sit down to read a WoT book. If you add in every time Nynaeve yanks on her braid (btw who tf does this as an angry tic?? what a weird visual???) you might end up hospitalized.
This Would Do Numbers on AO3
You know when a writer puts so much emphasis on something throughout their writing that you just know it’s sexual for them? Yeah, there’s quite a bit of that for this horny, repressed Morman man. Here are a few highlights (from what is probably a much longer list) of Robert Jordan's fetishes:
– Women’s clothing. Robert Jordan’s every sentence is criminally overwritten, and even knowing that, the number of words spent on describing, in great detail, what women are wearing—the fabric, the cut, and exactly how revealing it is and in what ways—in practically every single scene, is *ahem*…significant. Istg, every scene in Tel'aran'rhiod was just an elaborate fetish fantasy with tiny bits of plot sprinkled in.
– Scolding. Ooh boy does Robert Jordan love women who scold. Women scolding men. Women scolding women. He can’t get enough.
– Age gap relationships. Sigh. So many age gaps. So much emphasis on the age gap itself when discussing the characters’ attraction to each other. Robert Jordan’s least original fetish.
Polygamy But Make It Cute?
Hilariously I love the polyamory (technically polygamy) in this book. Robert Jordan wrote some surprisingly healthy and consensual poly dynamics, and, almost certainly by accident, it’s all super gay. Elayne and Aviendha? Gay. Elayne and Min? Gay. Aviendha and Min? Gay. Elayne binding Birgitte as her warder to save her life, when warders are “supposed” to be men, and creating an unbreakable magic bond between them? So so gay. The way various women express their love and devotion toward one another is so incredibly romantic. The only way to ignore the romantic aspects of these relationships is if you are someone who, like Robert Jordan (probably), presumes universal heterosexuality to the point where two characters being the same gender automatically negates any possibility of romance between them. I am confident Robert Jordan did not intend for any of his characters to be queer, but I chose to read them as queer and this significantly increased my enjoyment of the material (and with this series I need to wring out every bit of enjoyment I can get or I’ll never reach the end lol).
The Queerness Was RIGHT THERE, Bro!
Honestly, the whole time reading this series, I just keep thinking how absolutely amazing it would be if it were rewritten today with the Dragon Reborn being a transgender and/or nonbinary character. Like, hello??? Gendered magic, with the masculine side of magic being tainted—and WHO is the only one who can safely use both saidar and saidin, and thus find a way to unite and purify the True Source and remake the world??? Obviously someone who experiences gender outside of the binary! How much more interesting could this story have been with that approach, amirite????
Definitely finishing this series because, well, it was foundational for so many fantasy writers/creators of today, and what can I say, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.
There are a lot of good moments in this series. Every single one of those good moments has come as a pleasant surprise, because The Wheel of Time is, overall, a meandering mediocrity. I'm basically listening to the audiobooks the same way I would listen to a D&D podcast: as background, and if I miss a couple sentences here and there because I got distracted, it's fine because it's so mid that I'm not invested enough to rewind.
Instead of a holistic review, here are my random, mostly snarky @Robert Jordan thoughts.
Good God, Where Is Your Editor, Man??
Robert Jordan writes truly terrible prose. He never uses a simple adjective when he can use a full sentence-long metaphor instead—instead of “she said coldly” it’s always “he thought she’d been cold before; now her tone made even the sweltering summer heat seem cold as midwinter”. EVERY TIME. These books could each have been 100 pages shorter (and less painful to read) if Jordan had just had a competent editor with a large supply of red pens.
He also gets absolutely STUCK on certain phrases and uses them over and over and over until I feel like I'm playing punch buggy in the VW-happy mid-2000s. If you make the phrase “folded her arms beneath her breasts” into a drinking game you’ll be absolutely hammered every time you sit down to read a WoT book. If you add in every time Nynaeve yanks on her braid (btw who tf does this as an angry tic?? what a weird visual???) you might end up hospitalized.
This Would Do Numbers on AO3
You know when a writer puts so much emphasis on something throughout their writing that you just know it’s sexual for them? Yeah, there’s quite a bit of that for this horny, repressed Morman man. Here are a few highlights (from what is probably a much longer list) of Robert Jordan's fetishes:
– Women’s clothing. Robert Jordan’s every sentence is criminally overwritten, and even knowing that, the number of words spent on describing, in great detail, what women are wearing—the fabric, the cut, and exactly how revealing it is and in what ways—in practically every single scene, is *ahem*…significant. Istg, every scene in Tel'aran'rhiod was just an elaborate fetish fantasy with tiny bits of plot sprinkled in.
– Scolding. Ooh boy does Robert Jordan love women who scold. Women scolding men. Women scolding women. He can’t get enough.
– Age gap relationships. Sigh. So many age gaps. So much emphasis on the age gap itself when discussing the characters’ attraction to each other. Robert Jordan’s least original fetish.
Hilariously I love the polyamory (technically polygamy) in this book. Robert Jordan wrote some surprisingly healthy and consensual poly dynamics, and, almost certainly by accident, it’s all super gay. Elayne and Aviendha? Gay. Elayne and Min? Gay. Aviendha and Min? Gay. Elayne binding Birgitte as her warder to save her life, when warders are “supposed” to be men, and creating an unbreakable magic bond between them? So so gay. The way various women express their love and devotion toward one another is so incredibly romantic. The only way to ignore the romantic aspects of these relationships is if you are someone who, like Robert Jordan (probably), presumes universal heterosexuality to the point where two characters being the same gender automatically negates any possibility of romance between them. I am confident Robert Jordan did not intend for any of his characters to be queer, but I chose to read them as queer and this significantly increased my enjoyment of the material (and with this series I need to wring out every bit of enjoyment I can get or I’ll never reach the end lol).
The Queerness Was RIGHT THERE, Bro!
Honestly, the whole time reading this series, I just keep thinking how absolutely amazing it would be if it were rewritten today with the Dragon Reborn being a transgender and/or nonbinary character. Like, hello??? Gendered magic, with the masculine side of magic being tainted—and WHO is the only one who can safely use both saidar and saidin, and thus find a way to unite and purify the True Source and remake the world??? Obviously someone who experiences gender outside of the binary! How much more interesting could this story have been with that approach, amirite????
Definitely finishing this series because, well, it was foundational for so many fantasy writers/creators of today, and what can I say, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Okay so this book is very very slow. The story however has potential and that is why I will continue the series...for now
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No