VERY first impressions of WoT

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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That's hilarious :laugh:
 

Teavin Calayna

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My first impression beginning WoT was trepidation because 14 books plus the prequel is a lot and they're all big chunky books which I'm no stranger to but with so many it does feel a bit like a mountain. I did find Eye of the World to be on the slower side and it took my quite a while to get through it but I don't think that's a bad thing since it's setting up the story and characters so taking my time was probably a better idea. When I began book 2 I flew right through it, could not put it down at all and it was the same with book 3. Now starting book 4 I'm taking a slower approach again because I don't want to just blaze through them all as I have a tendency to do with books. I read a little too fast sometimes and with a story and universe as big as this I don't think that's wise. I want to get the companion book but I know it's full of spoilers so I'll wait until I'm finished with the books and just try to dodge my way around spoilers
 

Viktara Fen

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Huh, I thought I had posted here already. It seems not!

Well, in the fall of 1995, I was a freshman in high school, and I had just spent all summer ignoring the English class summer reading list I'd been given and instead glutting my brain on a steady diet of Raymond E. Feist books, which I had gotten into after exhausting what of Michael Moorcock's stuff I could get my hands on at that time. If memory serves, I had just finished Shadow of a Dark Queen and was frustrated that the next book would be some months coming out. (Rise of a Merchant Prince dropped that November, IIRC, but I didn't get to it till late 1996 or early 1997, as we shall see).

So anyway, I told a friend of mine with whom I often swapped book recommendations that I was looking for something new, and she put me onto the Wheel of Time. At the time, Lord of Chaos was the most recent book, with A Crown of Swords almost a year away, and supposedly, the rumors went, we were getting only eight or nine books, tops. Or maybe the seventh would be the last one. But surely not any more than nine, and those ought to be all done by the time I finished high school.

:rofl

Ahh, the ignorance of youth.

But I digress. My friend recommended it very highly and gave me a basic rundown of the concept behind the series, though she did her best not to spoil anything. I went out to look at buying a copy, and for whatever reason what sold me on it was that very striking image of Lan against the moon. I liked just about anything to do with samurai at the time, and Lan looked like a samurai. Plus the story sounded rad. So I was in, at least for a couple of books, I decided.

Before even halfway through The Eye of the World, I was hopelessly hooked. A Crown of Swords ended up being the first book I ever preordered. It was only in the couple years of lull between it and The Path of Daggers that I made time again for Ray Feist, or for Anne McCaffrey, or Robert E. Howard, or any of the other countless authors I read back then.
 

Toral Delvar

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I can't remember. I know books 5 and 6 weren't out, because I got book 5 when it came out in paperback and from Lord of Chaos onwards, when it came out in hardback (around the same day)
But something about it grabbed me. I remember reading it and at the end, felt that I had to know what came next (apparently some people had thought it might be a stand alone, but I never understood that, there were so many plots set up, and glimpses of what was to come, that this never felt like a possibility)
 

Bricta Durlynne

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Funnily enough, it took me 3 tries to get through the first book. My very first attempt at reading I didn't make it past the first few chapters. I remember thinking it was comparable to the LOTR series with the amount of walking and running away from shadows that was happening.

Second attempt still didn't click. The characters were annoying and one-dimensional and everyone just hated men and the men didn't know how to talk to women, or communicate at all for that matter.

Third time was the charm. I made it through 3.5 books and really enjoyed the story. I don't remember why I put it down. In all likelihood, I probably got distracted by Brandon Sanderson and the Stormlight Archives or something silly like that.

But now it's been long enough that I have had to start over in order to hopefully get through the entire series. And with the fourth attempt, I find myself viewing the characters in EotW with an entirely different perspective. Don't get me wrong-- they are still somewhat annoying and often completely obtuse. But I feel more cognizant of the fact that they are all relatively young, naive, and have lived very sheltered lives. I think I can forgive the fact that their frontal lobes may not be fully developed. :p
 

Aduiavas Ida

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Well, Bricta, if you manage to get to the end this time, I can say that they do get better. A little. Most of them :look:
 
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I actually first read New Spring(by mistake). I managed to understand what was going on in the series and why, so when I read the Eye of the world it was better than it would have been. I can't say that at the time I thought of either one as very interesting, but I got to know and love some of the characters in New Spring.
 
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I can't remember. I know books 5 and 6 weren't out, because I got book 5 when it came out in paperback and from Lord of Chaos onwards, when it came out in hardback (around the same day)
But something about it grabbed me. I remember reading it and at the end, felt that I had to know what came next (apparently some people had thought it might be a stand alone, but I never understood that, there were so many plots set up, and glimpses of what was to come, that this never felt like a possibility)
"something about it grabbed me" - really same. I think the world more than anything else - the texture of it, the names and language, the expansiveness & especially the whole Wheel/Pattern/Light/Power system. It's kind of rough around the edges like a lot of other media we end up becoming attached to - Les Miserables [aka extensive essays on parisian sewers and napoleon], Hamlet, The Maze Runner... and therefore it has Potential

The characters were annoying and one-dimensional and everyone just hated men and the men didn't know how to talk to women, or communicate at all for that matter
oh my god. <i>my thoughts exactly</i> {except moiraine, have always loved and admired her & don't understand why characters are so suspicious and hating toward her - clearly her intentions were always good} {also lan is cool ig} {he has a vibe} and Mat. because he actually likes the girls he flirts with. love him 😘

but.. good night in the morning, the Gender Dynamics. UNREADABLE at points. it's the main thing that has slowed down our slog thru the books. i mean the vitriol! the heteronormativity in a series that
includes like, polyamoury[/ISPOILER]! don't even get me s t a r t e d on egwene, nynaeve, elayne, birgitte dynamic.
this is why certain aspects of the show please me s o m u c h :pleased-1:
 

Aran Cherubim

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don't understand why characters are so suspicious and hating toward her - clearly her intentions were always good
This makes Moiraine somewhat of an outlier, as many of the other Aes Sedai we meet in the books are less... benevolent. That sorta explains their suspiciousness towards her, plus of course the surrounding culture distrusts Aes Sedai in general (and not for entirely bad reasons.)

EDIT: Just to be clear, I love Moiraine as a character.
 
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This makes Moiraine somewhat of an outlier, as many of the other Aes Sedai we meet in the books are less... benevolent. That sorta explains their suspiciousness towards her, plus of course the surrounding culture distrusts Aes Sedai in general (and not for entirely bad reasons.)
Trueee, true.. the other aes sedai are pretty nasty
it's just frustrating to read/watch cuz it's like no.. my girl.. 🥺 you are beautiful and powerful i would trust you instantly
{tbf if i recall correctly, in the first season Egwene is more open toward her, curious about channeling, etc. and that was a more relatable attitude for me
 
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