Robert Jordan vs. Terry Brooks

[Klorox]

The "Scions of Shanarra" books are great, but you need to read the three books before them to get to that point.

[el_kalkylus]

I've only read Robert Jordan's books. I read about 3 or 4 books when I was younger and got tired of it, but thought it was excellent in the beginning. A few years later I started reading through it again because I have forgot pretty much everything, and think it is better this time. I'm at book 7 or 8 now and still want more. But it does get annoying sometimes when some characters are in the middle of something, then suddenly there is nothing about them for several chapters.

[ 02-03-2006, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: el_kalkylus ]

[Morgeruat]

Or books

[Black Baron]

I do not agree with the statements about TWOT books.

The last book of robert jordan is good (knife of dreams). True some of his books in the middle are boring (Winters heart is a disaster), but now it seems that he managed to catch himself before he fell into the pit of writer's oblivion.

Brooks however...
In truth i do not remember much of his books, but what i do remember of them is "Munchkinism". Not like salvatore, true, but enough anyway.

Besides you can read other books between the books of robert jordan.

[pritchke]

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#009999">Well I am really enjoying the first book in the Wheel of Time series. I am almost half way through, it is really well written thus far.</font>

[Marathon]

I'm near the end of the first book of The Wheel of Time and am enjoying it. It took a while to get into, but I think that may have been an aftereffect from wishing that there were more GRRM books to read instead of starting a new series. He certainly hasn't given a lot away as of yet - I'm interested in finding out more about the history of the Ajah.

[ 02-07-2006, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Marathon ]

[Luvian]

You will learn plenty about the Ajah. If you're like me you may start losing interest in the more traditional adventure of some characters and become more interested in Ajah intrigue and such.

[aleph_null1]

I'm the same way, Luvian; except for my personal affection for Mat, I couldn't care less about the "main" characters and their save-the-world plot.

I like White Tower intrigue, the Caemlyn succession juggling act, and anything having to do with Cairhien and the Cairhienin and Daes Dae'mar.

Strangely enough, Black Baron, I think Winter's Heart was my favorite WoT book in recent memory, to include Knife of Dreams.

[Luvian]

So I was thinking about writing the other day, and this particular problem in general.

I think the series is really multiple series and I think I understand how it happens.

When characters grow (And good characters always get a life of themselves and secretly grow outside of their author's control) they surpass the reason they came together at first and all have their own agendas. What do you do then? Do you write different stories for each?

If you do, your line is broken and you end up with something simillar to the Forgotten Realms, or maybe Dragonlance, with it's main story in the core books and then some other novels for their personnal adventures.

There is a limitation with splitting your stories. Characters and stories can't mix too well. You can't expect your readers to have read all your alternate books, so your plots have to be independants from each others. How do you include those other adventures with the core books? A character can't just run off for a while, and then come back and say something like "Sorry I was gone for a year, I'm queen now, how are things going?"

But then there is also a big advantage to splitting your stories. All your stories have a good flow and feel complete.

Maybe Jordan should have splitted his books, I don't know. If he did, I'd be a fan of those novels made from the subplots. I'm a big Elayne and Egwene fan, I'd keep reading books about them.

[ 02-09-2006, 12:26 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[DrowArchmage]

I read some Terry Brooks books and i liked them.I really liked the series called "Of the Word and the Void" it was three book series.

Running With the Demon
A Knight of the Word
Angel Fire East