Does anybody actually enjoy these books?

[elric01]

Or do you just use them as sleep aids? The first five books were okay then after that they suck beyond anything I have ever read. Nothing happens for thousands of pages. Why did his editors or agent not tell him to just get on with it and finish the D*&$ things!

[CaptainCatfish]

Originally Posted by elric01

Or do you just use them as sleep aids? The first five books were okay then after that they suck beyond anything I have ever read. Nothing happens for thousands of pages. Why did his editors or agent not tell him to just get on with it and finish the D*&$ things!

I am glad to see that I am not the only one that found the series on a crash course...of course, I still haven't been able to finish reading book 2! Yet there are so many...I figured I must be missing something.

[woodsman]

I liked em especially 1-3 and then onto 6, yeah they slow up a lot but I didn't mind too much, I mean it's not great but you battle on through.
Personally I thought crossroads of Twiglight was starting to pick up again and was really looking forward to some closure in A Meaning Of Light, however who knows now.

Whatever floats your boat I guess, the fact that there re several forums devoted solely to WoT indicates many people really do rate them. Take a look at dragonmount.com........

[murphy]

Yes, I do enjoy these books. As soon as the last one comes out (consider my fingers crossed tightly), I intend to do a reread of all 12 books. As woodsman said, whatever floats your boat. If you don't like them, there are a lot of books out there that you probably will like.

[Talysia]

I agree with Woody and Murphy - I do like the books, although I can see why people would lose faith, patience and whatnot with them.

[the_faery_queen]

no. i don't think i enjoyed them, not after book 4. i think i read them on principle but in the end i gave up (book 10)

[Sephiroth]

I enjoyed the first seven without qualification. The last four have been a bit disappointing, though, and especially the last two. I don't understand why they suddenly became shorter after book seven. The only one of the four that really felt 'finished' to me was book nine, and that's mainly because it has such a good ending.

I'll still finish the series, though, and I'll probably read all of them again before book twelve comes out; while I have some complaints, I still love the stories (and the characters) enough to forgive these flaws.

[NyneaveSedai]

Or do you just use them as sleep aids? The first five books were okay then after that they suck beyond anything I have ever read. Nothing happens for thousands of pages. Why did his editors or agent not tell him to just get on with it and finish the D*&$ things!

I can't understand why you can say that you didn't enjoy them, you read them all! Surely after you read one or two you didn't like you'd stop, to read them all and then say you didn't like them doesn't make sense. There must have been something about them that kept you turning the pages.

[elric01]

Originally Posted by NyneaveSedai

I can't understand why you can say that you didn't enjoy them, you read them all! Surely after you read one or two you didn't like you'd stop, to read them all and then say you didn't like them doesn't make sense. There must have been something about them that kept you turning the pages.

Someone gave me all 11 books and I liked the first 5 but then after that they really went down hill. By that time I had so much reading already invested I had to keep going because I kept hoping they would get better. If I could have just read a Cliff Note summary and found out what happened I would have preferred to do that but as far as I know there is no such thing. As has been stated before in this thread "whatever floats your boat". If others enjoy them then that is great for them. I personally prefer Raymond Feist, Michael Moorcock or Terry Brooks and if you have never read George Stewarts "Earth Abides" I suggest you read it. It is the book Stephen King read that inspired him to write The Stand. Good reading everybody!

[Werthead]

Books 1-7 are solid epic fantasy, although they probably make more of an impact if you read them when younger (I read those books when I was 17) or before other, superior writers (like Martin, Erikson, Kay and Bakker). Books 8 and 10 suck to high heaven. 9 is merely weak by comparison. 11 was okay, but is ridiculously overrated. Whilst he resolves a lot of plotlines he does is in a very contrvied and unconvincing manner.

[Giovanna Clairval]

I read them all, all the darped eleven. I was captivated by the first four, and then I kept reading for the following reasons:

1) wanted to know how the various stories would end;
2) the characters grew on me (although RJ didn’t understand much about the feminine psyche), and I liked the way RJ handled the POVs;
3) in spite of the manifest incompetence of the line-editor, the writing was lulling, with all those dresses, and details, and actions (for the first novels); it made for great evasion!
4) a few passages and swirls of imagination were remarkable indeed, not the whole, though. At some time, I thought RJ was just paying off his stables full of Arabian horses, or a mansion overhanging the ocean or whatnot.

Too, too long, but those great passages, and the characters, and the wealth of details… I did enjoy the read, while my rational mind snorted, and Rubescant, my kind sword, was wagging her hilt and wanted to slash a sentence here, a sentence there…

I hope they publish the last one. They must!

[Sephiroth]

Werthead, I feel the same way about many of the resolutions in book eleven, I was a bit surprised by the good reaction it received.

Giovanna, I agree with all of that.

[Green]

Originally Posted by elric01

If I could have just read a Cliff Note summary and found out what happened I would have preferred to do that but as far as I know there is no such thing.

Wiki has everything, ever.

[Rosemary]

I'm another WOT fan! I've enjoyed all of the books, although now and again I have felt as if Rand needed a good shaking, to get on with it...

[murphy]

Originally Posted by Rosemary

I'm another WOT fan! I've enjoyed all of the books, although now and again I have felt as if Rand needed a good shaking, to get on with it...

Maybe by the time Cadsuane (sp?) and his three wives get after him, he will.