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The Wheel of Time on Amazon (1 Viewer)

In.  Trailer looks iffy though.

I stopped reading the series after book 4 or 5, was a long time ago.  Is it worth picking back up?

 
OK - is this for the spoilery book geeks, or the non-readers?  

Are we going to need 8 threads like GOT, and are people going to get pissed about people talking about the books again?  

:popcorn:

 
I believe I started reading this when I was much younger but never finished. There’s like 14 books right? How long will this series go on for? Must be at least an 8-10 year project. 

 
OK - is this for the spoilery book geeks, or the non-readers?  

Are we going to need 8 threads like GOT, and are people going to get pissed about people talking about the books again?  

:popcorn:
 
I have no clue what this book/show is about but it would be cool to have another show as widely popular and interesting to talk about as GoT.

 
I have no clue what this book/show is about but it would be cool to have another show as widely popular and interesting to talk about as GoT.
I think there's very little chance this becomes nearly as popular as GOT. It's a much more traditional fantasy series, PG/PG-13, and doesn't come close to the political intrigue and character building GOT had IMO. There's some of it, but I don't think it'll be able to pull in the non-fantasy fans that flocked to GOT for the soap opera, sex, shock value etc. My wife could care less about magic and sword fights, but she was completely hooked on GOT. No way will she have any interest in Wheel of Time. 

That said, I'll be watching and hope they give Lan some great fight scenes. Trailer isn't great IMO, looks like a TV show where GOT looked like a movie to me from day one. Hopefully it'll be a pleasant surprise.

 
I believe I started reading this when I was much younger but never finished. There’s like 14 books right? How long will this series go on for? Must be at least an 8-10 year project. 
Well yeah. But there was that one book that spent 800 pages covering a single day so there’s plenty of fluff to cut out.

 
I think there's very little chance this becomes nearly as popular as GOT. It's a much more traditional fantasy series, PG/PG-13, and doesn't come close to the political intrigue and character building GOT had IMO. There's some of it, but I don't think it'll be able to pull in the non-fantasy fans that flocked to GOT for the soap opera, sex, shock value etc. My wife could care less about magic and sword fights, but she was completely hooked on GOT. No way will she have any interest in Wheel of Time. 

That said, I'll be watching and hope they give Lan some great fight scenes. Trailer isn't great IMO, looks like a TV show where GOT looked like a movie to me from day one. Hopefully it'll be a pleasant surprise.
I'm only about 1/2 way through the 2nd book, and I would say that this is mostly true.   

IMO it might be almost as popular overall, but I don't think the old guys in here are going to gravitate to this like they did for GOT for the reasons you post above.  0 sex/nudity, and there isn't the political core to it.      This is more in the Lord of the Rings realm, and while there are some violent and gross things, I get the feeling that they aren't going to lean on that.    From the books, I think WoT does a much better job with the history, world building, and having every little thing said and done seem to matter, so that really makes for good reading.   0 of those things will make for good TV though, so I am interested to see how they blend theses stories to keep the pace up.   

Long story short, I would be surprised if this has 1/2 the popularity that GOT did around these parts.  

 
I think there's very little chance this becomes nearly as popular as GOT. It's a much more traditional fantasy series, PG/PG-13, and doesn't come close to the political intrigue and character building GOT had IMO. There's some of it, but I don't think it'll be able to pull in the non-fantasy fans that flocked to GOT for the soap opera, sex, shock value etc. My wife could care less about magic and sword fights, but she was completely hooked on GOT. No way will she have any interest in Wheel of Time. 

That said, I'll be watching and hope they give Lan some great fight scenes. Trailer isn't great IMO, looks like a TV show where GOT looked like a movie to me from day one. Hopefully it'll be a pleasant surprise.
Gotcha, I guess the odds of any show reaching the audience GoT did is incredibly small no matter what the show is about. 

 
I'm only about 1/2 way through the 2nd book, and I would say that this is mostly true.   

IMO it might be almost as popular overall, but I don't think the old guys in here are going to gravitate to this like they did for GOT for the reasons you post above.  0 sex/nudity, and there isn't the political core to it.      This is more in the Lord of the Rings realm, and while there are some violent and gross things, I get the feeling that they aren't going to lean on that.    From the books, I think WoT does a much better job with the history, world building, and having every little thing said and done seem to matter, so that really makes for good reading.   0 of those things will make for good TV though, so I am interested to see how they blend theses stories to keep the pace up.   


Long


story short, I would be surprised if this has 1/2 the popularity that GOT did around these parts.  
I feel like Lord of the Rings was pretty popular though. It's just probably not nearly good enough. Hard to make something as good as Thrones or Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 
In.  Trailer looks iffy though.

I stopped reading the series after book 4 or 5, was a long time ago.  Is it worth picking back up?
I just binged all 15 (including New Spring) on audible and loved them.

Just started EotW again in the way to Vegas :bag:

 
I feel like Lord of the Rings was pretty popular though. It's just probably not nearly good enough. Hard to make something as good as Thrones or Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Around here, though? 

I think the above post was dead on- GOT has more to offer non-fantasy people. 

 
Around here, though? 

I think the above post was dead on- GOT has more to offer non-fantasy people. 
I guess I don't remember the discussions here 15-20 years ago and maybe a movie doesn't invite the same level of discussion as a weekly TV series but I would think most of the posters hare have seen the LOTR movies. 

 
I guess I don't remember the discussions here 15-20 years ago and maybe a movie doesn't invite the same level of discussion as a weekly TV series but I would think most of the posters hare have seen the LOTR movies. 


Fantastic point.  I guess maybe we will see when the LOTR series fires up next year. 

 
I’m starving for a good long series, so I’m in. I assume that the books finished, so at least we shouldn’t have that big GOT fall off when the show runners wanted the wrap things up and didn’t have source material to guide them. I can’t imagine it will be as good as the early GOT and I’m certainly not setting those expectations, just need something new since GOTs ended and The Walking Dead completely fell apart.

 
I’m starving for a good long series, so I’m in. I assume that the books finished, so at least we shouldn’t have that big GOT fall off when the show runners wanted the wrap things up and didn’t have source material to guide them. I can’t imagine it will be as good as the early GOT and I’m certainly not setting those expectations, just need something new since GOTs ended and The Walking Dead completely fell apart.
Few things are as good as S1-4 of GoT.   I just hope it's much better than late season GoT.  

 
I am guessing it's a bit different 2nd time through?  Noticing things you missed the first time? 
Yes, absolutely. The foreshadowing stands it way more of course, but I forgot how early some of these secondary characters got introduced. Really enjoying that part of it. 

 
I just binged all 15 (including New Spring) on audible and loved them.

Just started EotW again in the way to Vegas :bag:
Yeah, I listened to all of them on audiobook.  It's a ridiculous number of hours... I still think of the series when I mow the lawn since it was my soundtrack for so many years.

For those who asked, I though the ending was good - when Jordan died and Sanderson took over, he had an outline to follow, so he was constrained... but Sanderson is really good (much better than Jordan IMO) and did a good job of finishing things in the last 2 books.

 
I just binged all 15 (including New Spring) on audible and loved them.

Just started EotW again in the way to Vegas :bag:
Also, I have no idea how to spell any of the names.  And Kate Reading changed how she said Mogedien (sp?) multiple times over the books.

 
Yeah, I listened to all of them on audiobook.  It's a ridiculous number of hours... I still think of the series when I mow the lawn since it was my soundtrack for so many years.

For those who asked, I though the ending was good - when Jordan died and Sanderson took over, he had an outline to follow, so he was constrained... but Sanderson is really good (much better than Jordan IMO) and did a good job of finishing things in the last 2 books.
Re: Sanderson

 i thought he did great. It was always going to be tough to follow Jordan, but I liked it. The writing was simpler, but not dull. After 10 books of knowing the physical structure of every leaf, I liked the more streamlined Sanderson. 

 
Ilov80s said:
I guess I don't remember the discussions here 15-20 years ago and maybe a movie doesn't invite the same level of discussion as a weekly TV series but I would think most of the posters hare have seen the LOTR movies. 
I mean, we’re a bunch of guys that have been posting on a fantasy football forums for years and years. A good fantasy series definitely could gain traction.

May all come down to if there is a chance of it going through distance an ending with a decent ending.

 
Re: Sanderson

 i thought he did great. It was always going to be tough to follow Jordan, but I liked it. The writing was simpler, but not dull. After 10 books of knowing the physical structure of every leaf, I liked the more streamlined Sanderson. 
Agreed. It was a great 8-9 book series stretched out to 14. Sanderson’s stuff only suffers from the fact that he had so much to wrap up. Jordan and Martin both suffer from creating an expansive world without much of a notion of how to tidily wrap it up.

 
I just binged all 15 (including New Spring) on audible and loved them.

Just started EotW again in the way to Vegas :bag:
Was there like a 15 for $200 sale or something going?   :lmao:

I have the first three, but may have to spend my kid's college money to get the rest.

 
bentley said:
Jordan and Martin both suffer from creating an expansive world without much of a notion of how to tidily wrap it up.
Jordan has a good excuse for not wrapping things up.  Martin just lost interest in his world.  I figured there would be some work or progress as the TV series marched along, but he did squat during that time.  I doubt another book is ever forthcoming.

 
Was there like a 15 for $200 sale or something going?   :lmao:

I have the first three, but may have to spend my kid's college money to get the rest.
lol, I keep a lookout for deals on audible credits. That definitely helps

 
Jordan has a good excuse for not wrapping things up.  Martin just lost interest in his world.  I figured there would be some work or progress as the TV series marched along, but he did squat during that time.  I doubt another book is ever forthcoming.
Martin has claimed to be working hard on Winds of Winter for the last several years, though he admitted he wrote himself into a corner by killing off someone he shouldn't have and it looks like it slowed him down considerably (plus he has plenty of side projects). He's released a couple of chapters from it, one of which I thought was incredible and reminds me how much better Euron is in the book vs. the show. I hope he manages to finish the last two books, though I'd put the odds at less than 15% right now and he's said if he dies before finishing it no one will take over to complete the series, it'll just end. Bummer. 

Back to WOT...

 
  Martin just lost interest in his world.   
I disagree. His problem, to me, was that he fell too much in love with his world instead of his plot. He seemed to want to explore every little bit of that world instead of carrying on the through-story. That's his right, of course - he doesn't owe us anything. But I'll never start another mega-series with a standalone story. 

I read the 1st Wheel Of Time book whenever it came out and wasn't impressed enough to continue. I'll give the show a shot, but life's too short to stick with it if I'm not interested.

Of course, hypocrite that I am, I'll give the new Tolkien series every last chance.

 
lol, I keep a lookout for deals on audible credits. That definitely helps
I'm a credit whore, so I'm there with you.  But, man, 14 books is a ton of credits (and none of them show up on the $5 sales, that's for sure!).

 
I read the whole series, kinda regretted the time spent. It got a bit repetitive in some ways, and the characters were pretty shallow. I think I eventually started skimming quite a bit just to get through the important plot points. Somewhere around the 16437th time someone pulled on their braid I realized parts of the content weren't really integral to the reading experience. Detrimental even.

Hope the show can streamline the source material significantly.

 
I read the whole series, kinda regretted the time spent. It got a bit repetitive in some ways, and the characters were pretty shallow. I think I eventually started skimming quite a bit just to get through the important plot points. Somewhere around the 16437th time someone pulled on their braid I realized parts of the content weren't really integral to the reading experience. Detrimental even.

Hope the show can streamline the source material significantly.
My wife dropped off around book 8, and the braid pulling was also her shorthand for why she quit.

 
nysfl2 said:
She sounds like a real woolhead . . .

The actual writing got a lot better when Sanderson picked it up
I agree that Sanderson's books were a vast improvement over books 4-12 or whatever it was.  I got started on the series when the bookstore had free copies of the first few chapters of the first book, and that first book was really just magical. I hope the show moves at that pace of the first few books and doesn't get slogged down in all that Aes Sedai political crap.    

 
Was there like a 15 for $200 sale or something going?   :lmao:

I have the first three, but may have to spend my kid's college money to get the rest.
I use my local library, it’s completely free and usually available.

 
This is my favorite fantasy book series, I've read the entire series at least 3 times, and many of the earlier books many more times than that (caught up to Jordan at around book 9 or 10, so never really needed to wait for the "slog" books. I would re-read the series each time a new book released). Needless to say, pretty excited about this series being brought to the screen, but at the same time, unlike many series, with this one I know it so well I've actually been seeking out spoilers and insider information.

As to finishing the books for those that started them, 1-4/5 are great, 6-9 are kinda considered "the slog" although I maintain that is mostly because of a combination of an explosion of plot threads in those books and having to wait for them originally. Not nearly as bad when you can move directly from one book to the next, IMO, and there are some really significant events in those 4 books. Winter's Heart (10) was ... by far the weakest book in the entire series, and I often skim through that one pretty quick. 11 is great again, Jordan really started to figure out where things were going and on par with the first couple books. Sanderson took over for books 12 - 14, and while some people quibble that his style is different than Jordan's (it is), he's also one of my favorite authors now and did a fantastic job (IMO) finishing Jordan's story, with the help of a lot of notes and outline and Jordan's wife and editor.

I am biased, but I do think this series, despite it's length, is worth reading and has one of the better payoffs and finishes of any fantasy series I've read. The last book just literally does not stop, it's so hard to put down.

So as for the TV series, I'm well aware (and ok with) the fact there will be a LOT of changes to adapt it to screen. Probably 1-2 books per season, the pace will be pretty fast, but there is a lot of stuff that can be cut. I can hope, but as others have said, I'm not sure this will have the same cross-over appeal as GoT, for the same reasons already mentioned. But I think (and hope) it does well enough to be able to make it through to the end, to anchor Amazon's fantasy offerings for at least 6 or 7 seasons (minimum it'd take to do it justice, I think). From what I've seen, it really seems like they are doing what they can to do the show justice, and the show runner is a pretty huge fan of the series.

 
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Agreed. It was a great 8-9 book series stretched out to 14. Sanderson’s stuff only suffers from the fact that he had so much to wrap up. Jordan and Martin both suffer from creating an expansive world without much of a notion of how to tidily wrap it up.
Wheel of Time was a good series, but the best thing about it was that it introduced me to Sanderson.

 
I'm expecting it to be closer to the Shanara Chronicles than to GOT.  I'll watch it and enjoy it, but with the cast, I wouldn't be surprised if it feels more like it should be airing on the CW.

 
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