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Matt

What Are You Reading?

By Matt, in Rentals, Television, and Readables

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decomposinglight

decomposinglight

Posted
Posted
So how do you like Robert Jordan? I really couldn't get into his style or the storyline.

I find them to be quite entertaining, if a little long-winded. RJ is a military man, so that may explain some of his style... Sometimes the descriptions of things get heavy and bogged down, but they offer a lot of foreshadowing in the minutia that saves you from having to reread them or go back and check things out (although rereading is pretty inevitable if you find you like them).

 

I think he's great at dialogue and characterization, showing emotion, etc. (sort of a feminist though, hah!). The story is pretty generic in the sense that one guy is prophesied to go up against the big baddie, but it's an immensely deep story when it comes down to it - there's science fiction elements when referencing previous ages (they have flying cars, shocklances, etc.), a pretty believable magic system, crazy connections and twists, and allusions to our current time:

 

"Among the stories told of this Age include those of the giants Mosk and Merk, who fought with spears of fire, and Elsbet, the Queen of the World and her sister Anla, known as the Wise Counselor."

"Other stories from the Age of of Legends include Lenn, who travelled to the moon in the belly of a fiery eagle, and his daughter Salya, said to have walked among the stars."

--"Mosk" would be Moscow, "Merk" would be America, "spears of fire" would be nuclear missiles, "Elsbet" would be [Queen] Elizabeth, "Anla" would be advice columnist Ann Landers, "Lenn" would be astronaut John Glenn, and "Salya" would be astronaut/teacher Sally Ride.

There's also a story of a dude sitting under a tree for a long time named Gatma or something, which I'm pretty sure is Siddhartha Gautama, among other things.

 

Pretty hard to keep track of all the balls if you know what I mean (lots of characters doing different things at the same time..), but at least the names aren't as hard as Tolkein. If you're pronouncing them correctly, on the other hand, it's troublesome as fuck (if you read any appendix to the series, it explains that pronunciations differ in the language of where the book is set). I'm about done with book 4 of 11, soon to be out of 12 -finished by Brandon Sanderson since RJ died of amyloidosis late last year. ;)

 

I'd definitely recommend it, but I can see where someone would think it's just TOO MUCH. I talk about it with my friends who read it, so that eases the intensity.

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mrs jesus

mrs jesus

Posted
Posted
I like Son of a Witch better than I like Wicked, and I like Wicked a lot. Maguire did a fabulous job of going back to his Oz and telling the story about what happened to Liir after Elphaba died.

 

Reading World War Z by Max Brooks

i finished son of a witch last night and i also liked it more than wicked.

 

ps everyone responds to posts that are months and months old, it is a cool thing to do.

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