Is this book worth reading? It is at the same level of Tolkien ?

>>8444547

Haven't read, but heard it's far worse.

>>8444547
Got halfway through the first book and got bored with it. Maybe when it was written the fantasy was cool, but for me it was generic sword stuff.

Tolkein's a landmark author, but he's not quite the gold standard he's spun as.

Big name syndrome.

>>8444603
>implying that Tolkien is a bad writer

>>8444610
There are better high fantasy books than the tolkien ones?

>>8444612

I didn't imply anything of the sort. I said that wheel of time, I've heard from friends who read fantasy more than I do, is worse.

But Return of the King was really just poorly written, anglo-Saxon fetishism.

>>8444615
Subjectively, yeah.

Popular =/= Best

And there is such a wealth of fantasy besides Tolkein that if you read enough you're statistically unlikely to never find anything you like better than Tolkein.

Personally I'm more of a sword and sorcery sort of dork though.

I like Ursula K. Leguin's earlier Earthsea books a lot though.

>>8444638
Leguin is disgusting as fuck

>>8444547

no

>>8444547
The books that Sanderson wrote were worth slogging through Jordan's.

The series is a time sink. An enjoyable time sink, but you're probably not going to be getting much out of it. It's for entertainment.

>>8444547
>>>/sffg/

>>8444690
As every other fiction book?

Hard question to answer, OP.

I love the books, including all their glaring flaws, but have also spoken to people who really hate them. And from what I've seen everyone who reads them falls into one of those two categories. I've never met anyone who has read some or all of the series and thought the books were "okay". It's love or hate and no middle ground.

There are a few things to keep in mind about the books that might help you out if you start reading them though:

1. They are a product of their time. Yes, it's farmboy hero vs the formless dark lord, but that's what was popular at the time. Moreover, I never found that it detracted from the books.

2. In the context of the story, men and women have the opposite relationship of power to what you'd find in our world. In WoT, the men fucked things up. Although the truth of that has been obscured by the passage of time, it was women who put the world back together and it's the women who hold most of the power. So, while Jordan's female characters suck in some ways, most of the problems people dump at their feet actually stem from the fact that they are (intentionally) unlike real-world women.

3. The books are long. Really long. I have only managed to read the whole series from start to finish twice, though I've tried several other times. Jordan's original plan for 3 books became 6 books became an indeterminate number of books and once you hit that middle point they start to flag and get bogged down in secondary and tertiary plot lines that would undoubtedly be entirely removed from a modern book/tv show/movie. But, at the same time, the length of the series is one of its great strengths. There is a great deal of small information and flavour that can be a bit tedious while you're actually reading, but still turns out to be what makes the books so great. The world is in them is very real and very fleshed out.

I'd say yes, give them a go. Probably don't judge the series by the first book if you can help it, because it's mostly about setting up the story and has a relatively small impact on the story as a whole. If you finish the third book and don't like the series then don't continue. Books 4, 5, and 6 are among the strongest in the series, and the ending is certainly worth reading if you make it to the half way point and are still going.

>>8444711
I like being imersed in the story, so long book are perfect for me.

>>8444701
Meh. With most fiction I feel like I take something away from it. A good text raises questions that need to be answered, forces you to confront things, colours your perception of the world and other literature, that kind of stuff.

The Wheel of Time is just a plot-driven melodrama. There's not a lot to talk about. It's fun, it's good, the world is neat, and some of the characters are interesting. The series itself, though, isn't super valuable beyond entertainment.

>>8444736
The only halfway interesting questions it raises pertain to the role of men and women; but it generally takes the stance that men and women are fundamentally different, and that through their cooperation society is improved. That's not a new or even terribly interesting idea, so it falls a little flat.