So, I skimmed through the synopsis for Knife of Dreams at encylopaedia-wot.org, and it's not squaring with my memory. I guess I'll need to read them all pretty thoroughly. Rand is the short guy with the ring, right? :-)
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Yep, he wears a giant black helmet, plays with dolls and uses "The Schwartz". :-)

:-) :-)
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I've got myself caught up, so I'll probably crack open TGS tonight. WoT is always compared to LoTR. I'll probably get crucified for saying this, but I think Jordan has surpassed Tolkien in terms of depth of the worlds they created.
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Nope.:-)

:-)
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There's no comparison. Tolkien made us live in his world. Jordan told us, in intricate detail, about his. The difference is, IMO, fundamental. Jordan told an ok story, when he actually got down to it. Tolkien was a master.
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I have the first book in the series and maybe read 100 pages of it before giving up.
The SOT series is finished. GO OUT AND READ THEM!! LOL.
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I wasn't talking about storytelling, although Tolkien wasn't exactly terse. I just feel like I know Jordan's world and characters better. In LoTR, there's virtually no backstory on Frodo, and he's the main protagonist.
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Agree with you there. But honestly, I don't think we need much more backstory on Frodo. The book was about the ring, and we have massive amounts of backstory on that. From the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and the whole LotR trilogy itself.

In any case, I will agree with you on that - Jordan was character focused, Tolkien was story focused. In both cases, there are flaws.
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hmmmm.... In that case, I'll have to figure what books I need to finish off the series. Thanks for the update.:-)
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Just had time to read the prologue last night. Without giving away any spoilers, I like Faile. :-)
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I said that same thing to my buddy yesterday when he asked me how I liked the book so far. :-)
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I always thought Faile was a cool character--I won't get my copy of the book for a little while, but I'm definitely looking forward to it now! Maybe I'll d/l the prologue
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I was a huge fan of this series in the beginning. I started reading around the release of the fourth book and I blew through them so quickly that I got frustrated waiting on #5. Then the waits got longer and longer, the stories got longer and longer, and I began getting frustrated. By book 35...ok, I exagerate...book 10, I was a little put off. Does anyone else not get annoyed with the realization that this was supposed to be a trilogy??? I still dig the story, but I recall one of the books which was likely at least 900 pgs covering events of roughly two days worth of time. Two days!! Jordan covered roughly two years worth of time in the first book. He just got too long winded for my tastes. I think he became impressed with his own success. I'll definitely get this book, cause I need to know how it ends.
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My buddy feels pretty much the same way about the series that you do, though he would have preferred a double-trilogy (book 6 be the end book). Since I like Jordan's style of writing and, for the most part, like the characters and I truly enjoy the depth and the many, many sub-plots he could have doubled the length of the series and I would have enjoyed it.

My only real gripe was the L O O O O N N N N N G G G G G wait between books!
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The prologue and the first chapter are both on the Tor website.
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Just under 300 pages in, and a couple of thoughts:
-Nynaeve seems much more likeable in this book. Dunno if it's Sanderson's writing style, or something Jordan had planned for the character...
-I believe this is the first time that we've seen a Cadsuane POV. IIRC, up until now we've only seen her through other POVs. It makes an interesting parallel to her theory on how to deal with Semirhage.
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Book is sitting on my shelf right now. Waiting to finish my current book - re-reading Shogun, one of my all-time favorites. That will be done on my train ride home today. Then I have to at least work through Knife of Dreams, since I've not looked at any of them in the four years since it's publication.
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Check out the synopses at encyclopaedia-wot.org, Pete. They cover the key plot points, and character/place/object names are all hotlinked, in case you've forgotten who the hell those 101 people are following Rand around. :-)
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I might have to do that. The prologue of Knife of Dreams is reminding me somewhat, but there are so many story lines, I can't keep them all straight, especially after more than 4 years.
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Same here. There are so many minor characters to keep track of, and you never know when one of them might feature prominently in the story. The FAQ there is only current up through Crossroads of Twilight. Dragonmount.com was supposed to update it in time for the release of TGS, but that didn't happen. Still, the entries at encyclopaedia-wot are very handy, as they give a brief description of the character, place, or object; as well as listing a brief summary of each time they've been mentioned in the books.
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