The Eye of the World
Jan. 11th, 2022 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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antishurtugal_rebornFinally, after all these years, and many recommendations. Both to read and very much not to read it. I have finished reading book one of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" and...
it is fine. No it isn't blessed with an abundance of imagination. The villain is named "satan" with an extra "h," "i," and an apostrophe shoved in there randomly. The world building seems to consist more of "I thought that sounded neat" than any sort of structure. And it the plot follows "The Lord of the Rings" so closely that it may as well be fanfiction. In fact it seems the only question it really seeks to answer is "what if Gandalf was a pretty young woman?" Which isn't the deepest of philosophical or intellectual of questions. Hardly enough to be worth writing over a dozen doorstoppers over.
I had been thinking about trying to spork these. That plan has been cancelled. Not merely for the sheer amount of content in these books. Mostly because I can't be bothered to care. It would be like sporking a standard airport novel. It's good enough to distract you when nothing else is going on. But, if you were to forget it on the far side of the world, it's not so good you would care.
In case I change my mind and come back to that later. There is no way I start at book one. So here's a quick rundown. It might or might not matter later.
Characters:
Rand Al'Thor: called Rand, probably after Ayn, doesn't use a hammer. Is a farm boy who doesn't know his family history, is "The Something" reborn or whatever. Such a bog standard fantasy protagonist I've already forgotten everything about him.
Mat: the sort who would consider lighting your dog on fire a fun prank, also picks up the books one ring knockoff. But, it's just an irrelevant bit of trivia. A side quest that didn't affect the plot or really matter at all.
Perrin: The big guy, doesn't matter at all in this book. Learns to talk to wolves in a desperate attempt to make the character interesting. Sadly, making characters interesting is not a thing powers can do.
Egwene: The school bully, and Rand's love interest. She doesn't seem to have any use in this book.
The Wisdom: A pretty young health mage. She has anger issues and little to no effect on the story. I can't think of anything she does that matters.
Lan: Aragorn with the serial numbers and relevance filed off, thankfully he doesn't get many lines. Oddly all his mysteries are resolved by the end, and his romance subplot both comes from and goes nowhere.
Moiraine: What if Gandalf was a young hot woman, also I am a feminist, as written by a man. She is the original Jive-talking wizard. It never seems like she has forgotten anything, or is worried that her guesses might be wrong. Instead she just waits to give out vital information until long after it is too late. I like to pretend that this means more drama queen than idiot.
Thom: was a court jester, is not used for comic relief.
Events:
Chapter 1 is a prologue and will bring to mind the idea that these books could be sporked. It starts in the aftermath of some sort of magical disaster. Except that is explained poorly and with far too many words. Then the villain starts spilling some tea at an old man who was heavily concussed or something during the magical disaster. So instead of reading as an epic confrontation between two ancient and powerful beings. It reads more like a rap battle between the banker in a kids show and an elderly dementia patient. Fortunately it is both short and irrelevant.
When the story starts it isn't bad at all. The bits in the doomed home town work out just fine. Right up until the doom happens. Then things start to drop off a little.
The trollocs, this books orcs, start as a threat that few men can face one on one. They stormtrooper hard, by the end of the book they need to outnumber men 20 to 1 and still need the help of hundreds of fades (ringwraiths) just to make it an even fight.
But, the book does explain clearly and properly where all the vast hordes of notorcs come from. Also it has "the children of the light" as villains who are so obviously devoted to darkness and evil that it is almost comical. However, it never becomes comical, instead they are painfully real and genuinely the best villains in the book.
Aside from that it's just travelling around a bog standard fantasy world. Think Earth with more mysterious ruins and small numbers of magical versions in addition to normal wildlife. There is a blighted area that has more interesting flora and fauna, this is not explored very well. And a portal network through a mysterious magical place, it's mostly just dark. But, the wind there is spooky.
This is a fair number of words. I should be more efficient.
The plot bits are dull and predictable. But, there are a number of asides, worldbuilding sections, and just life in general in the setting that aren't bad at all. Strong hints of things that might become problems in later books. When he starts to run low on interesting new things to talk about.
it is fine. No it isn't blessed with an abundance of imagination. The villain is named "satan" with an extra "h," "i," and an apostrophe shoved in there randomly. The world building seems to consist more of "I thought that sounded neat" than any sort of structure. And it the plot follows "The Lord of the Rings" so closely that it may as well be fanfiction. In fact it seems the only question it really seeks to answer is "what if Gandalf was a pretty young woman?" Which isn't the deepest of philosophical or intellectual of questions. Hardly enough to be worth writing over a dozen doorstoppers over.
I had been thinking about trying to spork these. That plan has been cancelled. Not merely for the sheer amount of content in these books. Mostly because I can't be bothered to care. It would be like sporking a standard airport novel. It's good enough to distract you when nothing else is going on. But, if you were to forget it on the far side of the world, it's not so good you would care.
In case I change my mind and come back to that later. There is no way I start at book one. So here's a quick rundown. It might or might not matter later.
Characters:
Rand Al'Thor: called Rand, probably after Ayn, doesn't use a hammer. Is a farm boy who doesn't know his family history, is "The Something" reborn or whatever. Such a bog standard fantasy protagonist I've already forgotten everything about him.
Mat: the sort who would consider lighting your dog on fire a fun prank, also picks up the books one ring knockoff. But, it's just an irrelevant bit of trivia. A side quest that didn't affect the plot or really matter at all.
Perrin: The big guy, doesn't matter at all in this book. Learns to talk to wolves in a desperate attempt to make the character interesting. Sadly, making characters interesting is not a thing powers can do.
Egwene: The school bully, and Rand's love interest. She doesn't seem to have any use in this book.
The Wisdom: A pretty young health mage. She has anger issues and little to no effect on the story. I can't think of anything she does that matters.
Lan: Aragorn with the serial numbers and relevance filed off, thankfully he doesn't get many lines. Oddly all his mysteries are resolved by the end, and his romance subplot both comes from and goes nowhere.
Moiraine: What if Gandalf was a young hot woman, also I am a feminist, as written by a man. She is the original Jive-talking wizard. It never seems like she has forgotten anything, or is worried that her guesses might be wrong. Instead she just waits to give out vital information until long after it is too late. I like to pretend that this means more drama queen than idiot.
Thom: was a court jester, is not used for comic relief.
Events:
Chapter 1 is a prologue and will bring to mind the idea that these books could be sporked. It starts in the aftermath of some sort of magical disaster. Except that is explained poorly and with far too many words. Then the villain starts spilling some tea at an old man who was heavily concussed or something during the magical disaster. So instead of reading as an epic confrontation between two ancient and powerful beings. It reads more like a rap battle between the banker in a kids show and an elderly dementia patient. Fortunately it is both short and irrelevant.
When the story starts it isn't bad at all. The bits in the doomed home town work out just fine. Right up until the doom happens. Then things start to drop off a little.
The trollocs, this books orcs, start as a threat that few men can face one on one. They stormtrooper hard, by the end of the book they need to outnumber men 20 to 1 and still need the help of hundreds of fades (ringwraiths) just to make it an even fight.
But, the book does explain clearly and properly where all the vast hordes of notorcs come from. Also it has "the children of the light" as villains who are so obviously devoted to darkness and evil that it is almost comical. However, it never becomes comical, instead they are painfully real and genuinely the best villains in the book.
Aside from that it's just travelling around a bog standard fantasy world. Think Earth with more mysterious ruins and small numbers of magical versions in addition to normal wildlife. There is a blighted area that has more interesting flora and fauna, this is not explored very well. And a portal network through a mysterious magical place, it's mostly just dark. But, the wind there is spooky.
This is a fair number of words. I should be more efficient.
The plot bits are dull and predictable. But, there are a number of asides, worldbuilding sections, and just life in general in the setting that aren't bad at all. Strong hints of things that might become problems in later books. When he starts to run low on interesting new things to talk about.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 05:00 am (UTC)I've never read the Wheel of Time series, never plan to, and honestly I sometimes get Robert Jordan and Raymond Feist mixed up because they both wrote utterly generic way-too-long fantasy doorstopper series.
I'm not sure if there's really enough 'meat' to spork, just because of how bland it is. Unlike Dragon Cunnilingus (Sorry, I've forgotten what that series was actually called), or StarMan, or the Inheritance Cycle, there's just not enough awfulness to really sink your teeth into.
I think that was a big problem with sporking To Sleep In a Sea of Stars, too. There just wasn't enough content to really dig into, and what content we did get was mostly just boring and bland. Aside from a half-handful of memorably awful moments.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-14 05:55 am (UTC)Except, imagine if you tried to tie that back into some sort of plot thread.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-15 05:39 am (UTC)Which would be why this place steadily turned into more and more of a howling wasteland as more people lost interest and stopped commenting. Community wise that book really screwed us over, sigh.
Another reason to hope for Book 5. If it's more Inheritance style awfulness and stupidity, it could be just the thing we need to get our enthusiasm back. To Toss in a Bin of Garbage did a very good job of killing it stone dead. Along with several peoples' will to live, I suspect.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-16 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 04:09 am (UTC)AS Reborn have a Discord ?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 04:08 am (UTC)I'm sorry if I'm not around here lately. Stuffs happen, the fact I'm a lazy bastard, play videogames instead of writing and not very social-type of person. I tried to apply for a sponsorship program last fall for would-be writers to help write their first novel, and was rejected. Damn it. :(
I still come here. Not as much as I used to, but sometimes, I check it out and what you guys are sporking so far.
And yeah, To Sleep In a Sea of Stars was a massive disappointment. I knew it was bad, but man it was dull and lack of intruiging ...
... Because of this abomination, somehow revigorates me for my personal writings, since the end of the sporkings. Although I struggle real hard to make my plots/characters more ... interesting to the readers.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 04:30 pm (UTC)Not a lot of help if you want to make something more interesting.
Have you tried looking up RPG character depth guides? Some of those are excellent at fleshing out the bits that you might otherwise forget. Which can help add dimensions to the character. Usually if readers are complaining that things aren't interesting it's because something in the story feels shallow. If readers are angry that often stems from emotional manipulation tactics in the text.
Such as the Eragon books constant gaslighting the reader in the narration.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-18 12:17 am (UTC)No. I'm willing to give it a shot, though. I'll look through the web for guide on PDF. Thank you for the suggestion.
That's what I fear the most when people are gonna read my stuff. I do not know, for sure, if my stuff is interesting. I know I might ask the impossible, but I have to ask : how to avoid the story being shallow and dull like, let's say, TSiaSoS ?
For example, my first novel is about a french soldier retelling his experiences of a military expedition gone bad against an unknown First Nation tribe, set in New France in 1665. The more the story is told, the more it goes dire. I know how it ends (not write it down, though. Still in my head). I'm planning to add fantasy elements to this work, and I've read lots of folklore and mythology during that time (like skin runners, for example) and historical parts of the region the story is set (for example, there were military expeditions led by french troops during that period of time. Look towards the Carignan-Salière Regiment for more info).
I like the idea I brought for my novel, but I do not know if the public would even care or bother. I do not have an audience ; I simply write for myself. Maybe it sounds like egoistic, but that's how I roll when I'm writing. Someday I'd love to publish my works, but I have to work real hard to get there.
Maybe the Discord page could be a great place to talk about writings. Don't you think ?
no subject
Date: 2022-01-19 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-18 04:43 am (UTC)Which would be why this place steadily turned into more and more of a howling wasteland as more people lost interest and stopped commenting. Community wise that book really screwed us over, sigh.
Sorry I'm not around lately. School started again. Unrelatedly, for a while I wasn't feeling the best.
Another reason to hope for Book 5. If it's more Inheritance style awfulness and stupidity, it could be just the thing we need to get our enthusiasm back. To Toss in a Bin of Garbage did a very good job of killing it stone dead.
Yeah. I need something to do.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-18 11:40 am (UTC)Not your fault, and quite frankly I've been suffering from burnout myself.
Me too.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-18 01:30 pm (UTC)Not your fault, and quite frankly I've been suffering from burnout myself.
Thanks, I hope you're okay.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-19 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-20 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-22 08:06 pm (UTC)I've heard of him. Mostly from Mythcreants and the Queen of Swords review. Sounds fun to spork.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-19 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-19 03:12 pm (UTC)I'm starting to wonder if capitalism is one of the "great filters" the SETI people are always talking about.
We should probably do a quick mental health check for our community here come to think of it.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-20 06:20 am (UTC)Yeah, no kidding sigh.
Good idea.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-22 08:02 pm (UTC)I'm in the U.S., but at least in a highly vaccinated state. Omnicron came here though, and I got my booster shot (High risk, so not taking any chances), which hurt. Unfortunately, there are still people hesitant to get the vaccine, and of course they are overcrowding the hospitals.
There's just been so much going on over the last couple of years what with the pandemic and half my country burning down...
Sorry about the fires. That sounds terrifying. I hope you're okay.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-23 12:06 am (UTC)It's a couple of years ago by now, but it happened right before the pandemic started. So we went from hiding indoors from a suffocating cloud of smoke so severe it reached all the way to goddamn New Zealand to hiding indoors from the virus. So for me it marks the moment when everything went straight to hell, and where it's remained ever since.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-26 02:04 am (UTC)People have been posting alarmist anti-vaxx propaganda around town, though. I keep tearing it down again. Idiots.
Good on you. As someone who is high risk, and has a nurse practitioner for a mother, fuck all anti-vaxxers.
So we went from hiding indoors from a suffocating cloud of smoke so severe it reached all the way to goddamn New Zealand to hiding indoors from the virus. So for me it marks the moment when everything went straight to hell, and where it's remained ever since.
Wow. I can't even imagine. I hope things get better.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-15 05:33 am (UTC)Which as toryll says is a major reason why it's not worth sporking. There's just not enough substance to make it worth the effort.