I had almost decided to skip this week’s post because right now I am on a serious binge of reading the Wheel of Time. So not much else to talk about and several recent posts have already been about WOT. But then I finished Lord of Chaos (#6), started on A Crown of Swords (#7) and wanted to share a couple of thoughts about Robert Jordan’s writing style.
Before that, though, let me admit that going right into the next one of these books is unusual for me. They are so big I tend to want a break before starting the next. I didn’t this time because there is a major battle at the end of Lord of Chaos and something that I knew happened in the battle aftermath . . . well, didn’t. Which left me confused. Until I realized that most of the aftermath was actually in the beginning of the next book. So of course I had to keep reading.
I knew it happened because I’ve actually read at least the first seven or eight books before. As near as my son and I can figure out I definitely finished Lord of Chaos in that first attempt. Where my memory gets hazy is whether I actually finished the next one or not.
There is just so much in these books to remember!
And speaking of that, using Audible along with Kindle now is excellent at helping me tackle them. Not sure what it is exactly except that I think I can more easily find stopping places. Which in turns lets me work on them bite by bite as it were.
Now about Jordan’s style. One big thing I’ve realized is that I’m coming to truly hate Robert Jordan’s prologues and epilogues. Yes, hate. Actually, I was talking with my son right after I finished Lord of Chaos and made two different observations about this.
It’s very noticeable that Jordan puts a lot of his “psychotic bad guy” points of view in those beginning and ending sections of the books. They come up other places in the books but he really dumps them in those two spots for some weird reason. (Is this a fantasy thing?) I have always had a major aversion to being in a bad guys head for long stretches, especially serial killers. Books or video, doesn’t matter, I don’t like it. So having them all lumped together like that makes me twitch. And wish to simply get on with the story.
That last is the other part of what I noticed. Not only are most of the points of view in the prologues and epilogues the “bad guys” but they’re usually doing a lot of thinking. And villainous mustache level scheming. Now, to be fair, Jordan is known for his in-depth descriptions and internal narrations. Everywhere. But for some reason his prologues and epilogues just go completely overboard to me. In every way. They are also as long as some books in their own right. Honestly, I consider skipping them completely every time I start the next book.
But I haven’t. Yet. Sigh.
Ugh. Okay, vent over. Back to reading.