this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
28 points (96.7% liked)
Fantasy books, stories, ＆c
2818 readers
1 users here now
Anything related to the fantasy genre
Related communities
- !literature@beehaw.org
- !cozyfantasy@wayfarershaven.eu
- !printsf@lemmy.world
- !fantasy@kbin.social
- !fantasy@sffa.community (also more niche communities)
FAQ
- What does "&c" mean? It's an old-fashioned abbreviation for et cetera.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Jordan's Wheel of Time. Inside that massive stack of dead trees I think there might be a pretty decent trilogy struggling to get out, but I wasn't willing to read the rest of the stuff in order to find it. Dropped it somewhere around book four or five and never looked back.
It took me two years to finish the series, including a 6 months break during the slog, but I'm glad that I did. It is one of the most epic fantasy stories of all time. An absolute accomplishment.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that. I don't consider "long" to be either necessary or sufficient for something to be "epic"—long is just, well, long. When a narrative with a single continuous plot gets longer than half a million words, I start to suspect it needs a better editor. When it passes a million, I know it does. There were rumours as early as the publication of the third book that Jordan was padding the thing out in order to keep his cash cow going.
(Expecting more downvotes from this, so don't be shy—I can take it.)
I think the wordiness of WoT is the foundation for many of its strengths. The series shines IMO on (1) character and plot progression being organic and large in scope, without having clearly demarcated points where everything jumps forward a huge amount, (2) depth of world building and extent of characters, with an especially large cast that are decently fleshed out and (3) foreshadowing being carefully placed throughout the series as a nice treat for anyone that liked it enough to re-read it.
The volume of words helps to make all of those possible. In particular (3), as details can be hidden in just the volume of text that already exists without it jumping out at the reader.
None of that is to say you're wrong for disliking it explicitly for that! Sometimes we dislike things for the same reason someone else likes it, or vice versa. I just wanted to chime in with some contrary thoughts to maybe put that wordiness under a different perspective.