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Re: If it sucks as much as Towers of Midnight, I don't care. DomA Send a noteboard - 06/11/2010 04:02:48 AM
Anyone who defended RJ's pacing in books 7-11 should be ashamed at this point. He could have resolved a lot of those subplots with more depth and care, and done it earlier. There is no reason why he needed to drag it out the way he did. Particularly the Perrin subplot, but a lot of Seanchan stuff as well.


Hmmm... I think there's a bit of a contradiction in your comments. I think Perrin story is one of RJ's better one, for myself. It's simpler and doesn't suffer from the bloating other storylines did (Elayne's and so on). The real problem is that it got stretched out over too many books, because the other storylines were too long.

I think bringing Perrin's storyline to its climax right at the beginning of TG, and keeping the Seanchan resolution for the LB itself is just as it should be. The problem is more with Mat, Egwene and Elayne. Unless Sanderson sent overboard many story developments, or RJ failed to note down where he intended to go with this and Sanderson had to find ways to use everything and failed in part at that, then it appears Jordan went way too in depth with storylines such as the Andoran succession, the subplots of the WT conflict, and really disgressed too much with Mat's storyline, by including Elayne and Nynaeve, the Kin, the SeaFolk, Tylin and all in it, when all he really needed was to get Mat and Tuon to meet,... (I sort of disagree with you Jordan should have fleshed out their relationship more... I think his whole point is that they don't really have a relationship and were forced into an absurd wedding for the sake of the Pattern).

In short, I think the main problem is that Jordan got stalled around the time of the Cleansing, and ideally should have managed keep the other storylines more in line with Perrin's simpler one, and reached the end of KOD one, probably two books earlier than he did. Another problem is that he indulged himself way too much in ACOS, introducing many new elements in this book that he didn't really need and got stuck with after (like the Kin. The Windfinders and WO were already more than enough as "wilders", especially that RJ didn't even really needed the Seafolk. It sounds more and more like the whole Coramoor business is an early story idea he used, but realized later he didn't really need but was stuck with then). This delayed the resolution for Elayne by at least a book, this complicated for nothing Egwene's storyline when it really didn't need new elements to slow it down more (especially since the Merillile subplot seems to have gone by the wayside completely.... perhaps something Brandon overlooked, or an intentional but useless loose thread planned by Jordan).

But well.. simplify the Elayne/Egwene/Mat stuff so it's more at the same level as Perrin's arc, and you end up shortening Perrin's arc by all those slow and redundant "intro chapters" that barely did anything but re introduce everything and everyone at the beginning of each book until KOD. Without those, the whole arc for Perrin from Ghealdan to the end of KOD stands in a surprisingly short number of chapters - way less than it appears. It's the fact those few chapters got split over three books that makes it appear this storyline went on forever and was very slow paced. I tried once to read only those chapters, all back to back... It's actually somewhat fast paced, and far more economical than most of the other storylines. Mat's arc actually dragged a lot more than that, and was less eventful, but it didn't show as much as Mat is funny.

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Anyone else wonder how the hell everything will get wrapped up in 1 more book? - 05/11/2010 10:31:05 PM 1528 Views
I'm not worried about it as long as there's plenty o' Mo *NM* - 05/11/2010 10:51:02 PM 381 Views
Re: I'm not worried about it as long as there's plenty o' Mo - 05/11/2010 10:52:13 PM 768 Views
Re: I'm not worried about it as long as there's plenty o' Mo - 05/11/2010 11:05:49 PM 738 Views
I think Mo (and her new angreal) will the the third with Rand and Nyn *NM* - 06/11/2010 03:50:07 PM 382 Views
I'm 99%, plus... - 10/11/2010 03:44:48 AM 581 Views
The climax of ToM should have been mid-plot - 06/11/2010 12:06:14 AM 1098 Views
If it sucks as much as Towers of Midnight, I don't care. - 06/11/2010 12:07:38 AM 1444 Views
Agreed - 06/11/2010 02:12:41 AM 760 Views
Re: If it sucks as much as Towers of Midnight, I don't care. - 06/11/2010 04:02:48 AM 1457 Views
I tend to think a LOT more things stalled Jordan. - 06/11/2010 05:29:50 AM 875 Views
- 06/11/2010 06:04:52 PM 626 Views
Well... - 07/11/2010 06:03:31 PM 772 Views
Nice analysis. *NM* - 15/11/2010 01:45:10 AM 277 Views
It won't. - 06/11/2010 12:30:47 AM 704 Views
Re: It won't. - 06/11/2010 05:50:10 AM 639 Views
Re: It won't. - 23/11/2010 02:46:52 PM 619 Views
It would have taken Jordan 4 or 5 more..... - 06/11/2010 03:44:30 PM 685 Views

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