I finished the Song of Ice and Fire series over summer and loved those books to death. My friend turned me on to Wheel of TIme, which he said was better (I'm inclined to disagree so far, but I've only just begun).

I went out and bought the first two books at the end of the summer but I never got around to reading them until relatively recently. I had trouble starting the Eye of the World, as the prologue shows it's a high fantasy world with magic and a very defined line of good and evil, which are all characteristics missing from GRRM's work, which I liked. Not the biggest fan of the cliche good vs evil story, and this one is literally "The Light" vs "The Shadow"

I let them sit for a while but I got the urge to start the series and was glad I did. Finally getting passed the intro, I got a very Fellowship of the Ring feel to the early/middle of the book. I lost a little interest when the group got split up, but I started reading again yesterday and picked up from Caemlyn to the end of the first book just now.

Looks to be a very good series, regarded as a classic. The scope of it (both the world and the amount I have left to read) is pretty intimidating, but it's great that I have a nice LOOOONG series to read. I'll be going out and purchasing books 3-13 soon enough, and hopefully when I finish them, the 14th and final book and/or Winds of WInter is out.

It's been a pretty long time since I read them, but from what I remember the first four or five were really good and the series became crap after that. I never finished the series because the last few books weren't out yet at the time. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but even the best books from the series weren't as good as ASOIAF. Dance of Dragons however does suffer to a lesser extent from the same syndrom that plagues almost all of Jordan's books, tons and tons and tons of text with practically nothing happening.

Tbh, I think the WoT series is MUCH better than ASOIAF. ASOIAF is just too uneventful and the for some reason I have to read them at a snails pace. I just cannot get interested in the series very much. ASOIAF seems bland so far. I really want to like ASOIAF(I have most of the books already because I thought for sure it would be good and I could tear through them in a few weeks) but idk, just cannot get into it. I have had the series for like 4 months and I am only on the beginning of the 3rd book. I usually tear through 600+ page books in one semi uneventful weekend. The only characters I even like so far is Jon Snow and Arya. Now that I think on it, I think it is just the pacing that bothers me. Too slow imo.

The Wheel of time is still great after the 6th books and beyond. You just need to be able to keep track of all that is going on. It is also full of more action and interesting events than ASOIAF. Also I find the world and its Lore much more interesting. Besides you do not get spoon fed the characters slowly. You could have 3 chapters with the same character or you could have half of one. Much better series from what I have read. That is just my opinion though.

I guess I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I read the first 3 WoT books and stopped halfway into the 4th. I realized I was just trying to get through them only because people have told me they are fantasy 'classics'. There wasn't a single character in the books that I cared about and the story was becoming more and more convoluted as it went on.

In my opinion A Song of Ice and Fire was a much more entertaining read. It has less cut and paste fantasy cliches, deeper characters and a more original world lore wise. Though I'm not sure where I stand with “A Dance with Dragons” yet, maybe it will grow on me after another read.

To each their own.

I've read the first 4, will probably start on 5 soon (I've also read the first 4 aSoIaF books, waiting to get 5).
I liked them well enough. I have heard there are some bumps (though no one can seem to agree on which book, but especially book 10), I've also heard that if you have them all lined up to read, it's easier to get through since it's one long, long story, so if you have the next book, you won't be as disappointed.

I can definitely see that people who had to wait 3 years and get no resolution were bitter. Supposedly Brandon Sanderson is doing a good job of wrapping the series up as well. I've read one of his and it was really good, especially for a first novel.

I started on these soon after the second was published. I think I got the first 2 in paperback I enjoyed the books, but soon got tired of waiting for the next one, and paying for hardcover. The cast is way too large, and the story way too involved, to be able to keep it all in your head for a year or three waiting for the next one.

I read the first 4 or 5, then continued to buy the next 2 or 3, figuring I'd start over and read the whole series when it was finished. It never finished.

If it does end, I'd say it's worth your time to read the whole thing straight through.

Like I said I'm only on 5, but I do read the website of the guy who is finishing it sometimes, and I noticed it was announced that the final book is coming out early 2013.

Good or not, it strikes me as really svcky that Jordan died before finishing what must certainly be considered his "life's work". I mean, he wrote some Conan novels and some historical series in the 80s, but this is by far his biggest/most popular thing.

(PS. Did you guys hear George RR Martin on fans who said he'd "pull a Jordan" and die before he finishes it? He said he'd never let someone finish his uncompleted work, though. If he dies, WE DON'T GET NO MO' DRAGONS.)

The only Conan stories are Howard's stories.

As for George Martin, I'm glad he said that. Completely understandable after the abomination that is Brian Herbert's Hunters of Dune. I still bear the scars of reading that, I wish I never had. I very much prefer no ending at all to that.

I never said "good Conan novels" or "canon stories" but surely you know how many authors have written Conan novels, or I guess pastiche.

Yeah I know, and I don't like any of them.

Makes sense. It seems like Howard was treated pretty poorly for a lot of years, with people adding their own crap all the time... luckily I managed to get some of those Del Rey books with the original text and no tinkering.

I posted on a forum saying how much I liked his Bran Mak Morn stories, and someone goes "oh, did you know (author here) wrote a Bran Mak Morn novel?!". I just can't really get interested in it, because it's not from the original creator. I dunno.

That is exactly how I feel about it. http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR99nvcj04nSWkjhTxYAl4Z6_EPF9cNh9MyUWe11xxCkz_TW3AHDBI6yzrQ

yeah, ive read them all and eagerly awaiting the final book. my favourite is the 3rd book, "The Dragon Reborn"

its a pretty epic series, it combines all the things i love; very long story, a campaign for global conquest. all really nice.

I picked up WoT very recently. I'm already on the third book and am absolutely loving it.

I've heard there's a 'bald spot' if you will, near the late-middle of the series. Hopefully the end is grand, making it worth it. That's what I'm hoping with Ice and Fire, that Martin's set up the 6th book to be as epic as the 3rd.

In terms of Jordan dying before finishing his life's work, I read that he never meant it to come to that, but when he started trying to wrap things up, he realized how much left he actually had to do. Martin will most likely die before the books are finished. He's taking a ridiculously long time between books, drawing out the popularity of the series since HBO got a hold of them, and trying to make as much money as possible. He hasn't even started. I'm not one of those guys who feels entitled that he's essentially my slave because I like his series, but it is a little annoying seeing him refuse to write because the team he bandwagoned won the Super Bowl (he's a Jets fan first, so he claims). I'd be surprised to see WoW until 2015 or 2016 at the earliest.

As for 'more happening' in WoT than IaF up until Storm of Swords... read on. Even if you don't like the pacing so far, you'll be begging for mercy come the end of Storm. Jordan just had the brilliant idea that he could just say "The main characters are ta'veren, so interesting, chapter-worthy things will happen to them every mile they walk, every other day they're in a city." Hell, you find out Rand is a ta'veren one chapter, and the very next chapter he falls into the palace and meets the royal family of a kingdom. It's not believable in a real sense because it's a very high fantasy world and Jordan rolls with it. Martin slows it down to make it more believable. The ENTIRE first book is leading up to a war, for example, when Jordan could have made that happen in 400 pages or less because Robb and Jaime are ta'veren.

WoT is awesome until the sixth book. Then, Jordan starts to waffle, and waffle, and waffle. I gave up after the filler bonanza that was book 7.

Jordan and Martin are both good writers, but they're quite different.

He's only 63, that's not bad. I think it's pretty cruel to say you think he's going to die before he finishes it.

Stephen King also wrote a 7 book series (what aSoIaF is supposed to be total) and he took longer than Martin is taking (Gunslinger in 1982 to Dark Tower in 2004). I guess Martin is pretty fat though, that's a problem. Still, I feel like he'll finish it. Only two more books!

And Stephen King nearly died before finishing his series. I don't imagine anyone else could have finished the gunslinger's story.

Do you think someone could finish Martin's? I guess his writing IS a bit less "distinctive" as King's but it's his thing and I doubt anyone could finish it nearly as well.

i read the first, maybe three or four, its been a while. i remember they were good reads, the only stopped reading them because the library was missing every other book, actually i might rebuy the series for my kindle if i get more time to read

I read the first 5 or 6, I believe until it seemed like they were getting repetitive or I would see like #7 but couldn't find six, etc. I think I read one out of order because I couldn't remember which one I had left off on and it seemed like I missed some stuff. I have most of the first 5 books or so, and even some of the later ones, but I originally wanted to collect and read the whole series and after he wrote like 10 of them, it started to get old. Some of those books are huge, too and they take up like the equivalent of half a full set of Encyclopedias of shelf space.

I kinda wish Robert Jordan had just wrapped everything up in about 5 or 6 novels and finished the series while he was still alive. I mean, dying is not something people usually think is going to happen to them "so soon", but he should have really wrapped that series up in less books and maybe started a spinoff series.

I loved his writing, and some of the characters like Rand Al'Thor were interesting, but I felt like it was dragging on and my suspension of disbelief of Rand getting and more more powerful and a little more eccentric, yet not going fully insane in every book "as he was destined to do" was starting to be a little questionable.

ElricWulf, the problem is he wanted to get to his magical in-world number 13. So he padded, and padded, and padded. It's really not worth getting anything past the sixth book. Everything before the seventh is great, though.

The next one is the last one, if it ever gets published. It keeps getting pushed back. Not that I blame Brandon Sanderson. He's done a fine job so far (in fact, I think he's done a better job than Robert Jordan did), but I don't envy him having to tie up so many threads in a single book, even if he does get a thousand pages to play with. He just needs to hurry up so we can find out .

aren't there currently 14? no, i disagree with that statement, i feel as though he was trying to properly portray a story of conquest with out any of the typical fantasy writer shenanigans such as finding some magical relic that allows the protagonist to solve all of the problems ( although he certainly could have with all the artifacts of power, terangel were they called? he entered in his stories.) and beat all the bad guys in the course of 1200 pages.

thats a problem i have with another series i started that is similar to wheel of time. its called the sword of truth, i got about half way through but literally every book the protagonist struggles with his magical powers only to accidentally trigger some spell that saves the day or finally learns how to control his powers but has to sacrafice that knowledge, etc.

its much better if the story has a logical progression rather than quick sophistication for the sake of being concise.

the only parts that seemed like filler to me in the wheel of time was the prologue, it got very boring for me reading those quick 1 chapter like perspectives of sub-sub characters, but if you look at the definition of Prologue you'll find that it is done to set the scene and setting. still, 90 pages of prologue is a bit much.

New Spring is a prequel. Doesn't count.


I don't mean the plot. I mean characterisation and exposition. Post-sixth book, he can go on for chapters just waffling, without anything at all happening. It's bad form.


SOT svcks. It's okay for 11-year-olds. That's the age at which I read it. Little did I know the writer was basically just cranking out copy-pasta of WOT. And when he does finally step away from Robert Jordan's works, Terry Goodkind shows just how poor a writer he is.