Comments on: Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Series Coming to the Big Screen

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:34:42 +0000

Sorry, but the WoT is a travesty, an insult to the fantasy genre. It is the Days of Our Lives of fantasy. Overblown, dreadful characters, self-indulgent writing.

I have read four of the books and then stopped. Why? I could not bear to read any more descriptions of buildings and women’s clothing, nor did I care for any of the 96 minor character POVs that often carried the narrative. I have a life, and there are too many wonderful books in the world to read the craftless crap Jordan was spewing out.

Someone at the beginning of the comments mentioned Guy Gavriel Kay – now there is a fantasy writer. Read him if you want to know how good fantasy can be without waiting decades to know the ending.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:55:13 +0000

To those of you who have contemplated reading The Wheel of Time series and have been discouraged by the negative comments made both here and elsewhere,I say this:

Yes,the characters are annoyingly predictable at times, consistently being themselves as people always do.

The story line slows almost to a halt at times, like waiting to board a plane. Then at other times it moves so quickly that it feels like the take off of said plane – a rush of emotion and sensation so intense that most of us tune some of it out.

As for retelling the same period in the story line over and over again, well its true and it is sometimes fairly aggravating. Its like hearing varying accounts of the same incident from different observers or being told of other events that happened at that same time from folk who were elsewhere at that time. Some of the accounts are boring once you have the basic time line in mind, but hearing them may be the price paid for getting the information they convey.

True to life as these and other bits of business may be, they are none the less truly irksome when you are reading the books. I considered jumping ahead on more than one occasion. I never did, but I considered it. There is one whole book that hardly advanced the plots at all and it drove me to distraction. Only on reading subsequent volumes did the part played by that book of doldrums become clear… and appreciated.

All that said and done, I impatiently awaited the publishing of each new book with great expectation.

By: James

James — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:16:01 +0000

I’ve read the series through 2 or 3 times, the problem is always going to be the fact that, in order to realistically portray all the sub plots and how they all weave into the bigger picture, the movie would need to be a day long or more, they always cut out pieces they see as unessential to furthering the main storyline and in this case, as it was in LOTR you lose the better part of the book, story tellers like Robert Jordan don’t just provide you with a main plot, but several, and to ‘cut’ his work to a 3 hour movie a book is a disservice to him. it’d probably do better as a series of 1 hour installments on TV that way you get more hours to play with in order to fully tell the story

By: Kev

Kev — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:25:35 +0000

as a long term fan of WoT i am both extremely excited at the prospect of a movie, but also very fearful of it. I do not think the essence of the series will be captured on film. maybe the best bet would be 2 films to each book and possibly in the same kind of style as 300. then maybe, just maybe there would be hope.(though it would mean making 30 movies without the actors aging too much. cgi???

By: Max

Max — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:13:51 +0000

ok all i got to say is that i have read all the books in the series to come out so far and i think they are AMAZING! yes they can be slow at some times but the end result is always worth it! im looking forward to this movie very much and like everyone else just hope they don’t screw it up too badly. truthfully even if they do leave stuff out, which im sure they will due to the volume of info the books contain, i think as long as its not horrible acting and cheesy effects i know i will enjoy them no matter what! oh and the last book “A Memory of Light” is going to be split up into 3 books so with the prequel to the first book that will make 15!
The author that is now finishing the series is Brandon Sanderson and i have read his three book series “Mistborn” and enjoyed them very much! it has the same “chosen one” theme but i think that is what makes me like them. i love that premise for a book. i think he will do a good job on completing the series and all i have to say is GOOD LUCK Universal Studios! a lot of lifetime fans are counting on you!

By: Arctor

Arctor — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:31:57 +0000

It’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” not Fire and Ice.

By: Discontent

Discontent — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:37:06 +0000

I was somewhat turned off after the first WoT book. I suppose it was my most unrealistic expectations of this book, that were generated after reading LoTR as well as His Dark Materials, that contributed to this disinterest. Though I’ve not read the rest, I know indubitably that the entire WoT storyline or scope is “epic”. However, I can’t stand the way people claim astoundedly, “woah, twelve books and THAT many pages!” In essence, I find it rather draggy. I feel that its almost huumdrum in a sense. Everything moves at such a slow pace, its almost as if he’s retelling the story again and again in a perpetual wheel (pun intended). According to many others, the overwhelming impression of the first book was “Amazing! Must read the rest!” I can’t seem to find that vigour to do so..

By: Art

Art — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:33:57 +0000

I can’t get my hopes up. I was extremely excited when the lord of the rings came to the big screen. It was a huge disappointment. Recently Terry Goodkinds Sword of truth came to the small screen – awful. Anytime a Fantasy Epic is turned into a Movie they fail to capture the essence of the books. Case in point Harry Potter

By: Yann

Yann — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:02:06 +0000

I am now reading the series (I am at book 8 now).it is a good series and i think that the tv drama will be interesting.BUT PLS , Peter jackson ruined lotr by making a mcdonald tasteless movie.He really killed the book. Hes ok for bigscreen hit, but lets not give him another Classic to destroy. I could not support the idea of Rand al thor on my mecdonald cup.pls not this time.thanx for reading me

By: Q.S. Chapman

Q.S. Chapman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:01:48 +0000

This was great series. Eventhough Rand Al’Thor is kind of predictable and annoying as the hero. Matt will be the next Han Solo. I just don’t see how they can keep the same actors for 12 movies and if they try to cram too many books in one movie it will be wacked. I loved the Sword of Truth series but the TV Show is F@*%&G Corny…. I think Ice and fIRE ON h.b.o. WILL TURN OUT TO BE THE BEST fANTASY ADAPTION SINCE lORD OF THE rINGS…

By: Johno

Johno — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:16:20 +0000

…I’ve grown up around the classics and been addicted to both fantasy and mythology for most of my life, and I have to say this is probably one of the best series i’ve ever read. There are other good fantasy writers out there, but Jordan brought about the ability to implement EVERYTHING into his series… which is why it will be next to impossible to pull this off without completely ruining the books! Not impossible, but next to it.
I agree that Peter Jackson would be the best candidate for director, that is as long as he doesn’t fuck over the story lines as he did in LOTR…
I hope i’m not the only person who realized how many, not scenes, chapters he took out of each book?

…haha were fucked.

By: David

David — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:03:32 +0000

All I have to say is; Finally, took long enough