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03-14-2003, 10:21 PM | #1 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: central Louisiana
Posts: 105
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Problem with The Wheel of Time
The other Wheel of Time thread is very long, so I decided to put this issue in a new one.
I have been an avid reader for over thirty years. I have read all the Lord of the Rings many times, all the Shannara books, all the Eddings books (some of them twice), and the first three Thomas Covenant books. So I began reading the Wheel of Time series. I am now reading The Lord of Chaos (book six). THERE ARE TOO MANY FRIGGIN CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!! I found a site that has all the characters listed with short bios up through book four. The are 484 of them! I am a pretty smart guy, but I simply cannot remember who all of these characters are. The indexes in the books themselves are a joke. So sometimes I just keep reading, having no idea what is going on. Does anyone else have a problem with this? The site with the character lists is http://www.themenagerie.net
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Mark Wellman ><> |
03-19-2003, 07:27 PM | #2 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: central Louisiana
Posts: 105
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I have a very hard time believing that I am the only one with an opinion with this issue.
Agree or disagree?
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Mark Wellman ><> |
03-19-2003, 07:43 PM | #3 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA
Posts: 10,820
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More characters is more realistic.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
03-19-2003, 07:44 PM | #4 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA
Posts: 10,820
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Seriously, as I don't read those books, I don't really have much of an opinion.
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Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
03-20-2003, 06:46 PM | #5 |
Fowl Administrator
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Calgary or Edmonton, Canada
Posts: 53,420
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I made it all the way to the end of The Crown of Swords about a year ago, before I decided to quit - or rather, postpone reading the series.
The deal with loads and loads of characters wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for a few simple problems: - The less important characters - "named extras", I'll call them - have so little personality that they are difficult to distinguish. - Jordan's naming system is not particularly systematic, and names tend to be similar here and there, and difficult to remember due to the fact that they are neither Anglicized or placed into some sort of consistent model. This is why authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and William Horwood succeeded in weaving stories with ridiculously large casts, while Jordan seems to overstep the limits of the reader's tolerance. Mind you, I admire Jordan's handling of all the different political relations between all the territories and such, and weaving a really grand story overall - but I have less praise for his actual mastery of English prose.
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03-20-2003, 07:26 PM | #6 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: central Louisiana
Posts: 105
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Thanks for the reponses; keep 'em coming!
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Mark Wellman ><> |
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