Sword Of Truth

[C Of K]

Not sure how much of an influence Paul Atreides was on Rand as a character. They are both pretty typical Messianic figureheads, and neither was the originator of that type of role.

The Freeman and the Aiel do seem a lot alike though.

At any rate, I'd say Star Wars ripped Dune off more than the WoT did. Now the parallels between the two desert worlds, the Messianic fathers and their twin sons and daughters is most interesting. Even Padme and Chani are paralleled in many ways.

[DeepThought]

Originally Posted by C Of K

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The Freeman and the Aiel do seem a lot alike though.

At any rate, I'd say Star Wars ripped Dune off more than the WoT did. Now the parallels between the two desert worlds, the Messianic fathers and their twin sons and daughters is most interesting. Even Padme and Chani are paralleled in many ways.

Fully agree and lets not forget the the fact that George Lucas 'borrowed' heavily from Asimov's classic Foundation series of novels. But then again almost everything that comes out of the genre will be in someway influence by by what went before, though Starwars is stretching this concept to its elastic limit . but I admit to liking the original three movies (not the recent prequel crap).

Cheers, DeepThought

[Orian]

I think there are a lot of times we can look at different novels and series and see similarities, this reminds me so much of this, and wait, isn't that race similar to that one from this novel?

A lot of the time when I read novels lately, I read them for the way the story's told, for the development of a character, regardless of what I find similar. If the story's good, I don't overly mind if something reminds me of something else.

To specifically answer this thread though, I have seen some similarities, but in no more than I've seen "Farmboy with a lot of imagination and no real reason to go anywhere gets forced to go somewhere, gains awesome powers and becomes an accomplished leader." I've seen that in so many different novels, but enjoyed them all for different reasons.

[C Of K]

Ah, but Terry Goodkind does seem to mind if people find similarities with his writing and Robert Jordan's writings. I'm uncertain if the original poster realized that.

Terry Goodkind would have us believe that there are very few, very minor, similarities between the two of them. In actuality the similarities can be described as major, and are plain as day.

Many people enjoy both stories, and I enjoyed parts of both of them. It is interesting to see how similar stories will develop apart from each other, but I can not discount the obvious when an author tries to refute it.

[Stronty]

I read the Sword of Truth books first,not all of them yet.When i started the Wheel of Time the similarities had me checking the covers of the books as i read them to see what series i was actually reading

I did find that from book 5 or 6 Jordan would spend too much time with the Aes Sedai and not really progress the plot until the last 50 or so pages .
To quote a friend "When do these bloody women stop arguing in the book this time?"

Overall its difficult to say what series i have enjoyed most but i guess i'd better start both over again as its been years since i read some of them....thank god for the extra daylight this time of year