XMan
Lifer
This ought to be a good thread for all of you SF fans. I'm in Denver training, so I hit the town last night and looked around. Finally ended up going to see a flick at the mall (Red Planet, which was pretty cool) but I also killed some time in Barnes and Noble.
I noticed that Robert Jordan's new book is finally out. What's it been, two years since "Crown of Swords"?
So I thought it might be cool to hear everybody's opinions on the two writers . . . here's mine.
Robert Jordan - I used to love the guy to death, but now he just annoys me. There are a few pretty consistent things which just tick me off. First, all of his female characters seem to have eternal PMS. I don't know if every woman in the guy's life has been a witch, but his female characters certainly are all cut from the same cloth. Which gets annoying because there are SO many damn characters in his book, and many of them are the same cookie-cutter punchouts. Another thing that bugs me - his books are huge, which I normally like, when SOMETHING HAPPENS. Usually the first 700 pages is nothing much but a bunch of the characters talking about doing something, then they do something in the last 100 pages. But, oh wait. It's not over. Gotta wait for the next book.
Now, Goodkind has got it figured out. His books are fairly long, but there is always some pretty good action sprinkled throughout the book to keep things interesting. His characters are all pretty unique and memorable, and there is generally a satisfactory resolution at the end of each story, even though you know there is more to come. I was a bit disheartened at the end of "Soul of the Fire" (won't say why, but those who've read the book will understand) but the most recent episode more than made up for it.
Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of things about Jordan's writing that I like, but I think I'll wait until he's done cutting down forests to produce his books before I pick up another one.
I noticed that Robert Jordan's new book is finally out. What's it been, two years since "Crown of Swords"?
So I thought it might be cool to hear everybody's opinions on the two writers . . . here's mine.
Robert Jordan - I used to love the guy to death, but now he just annoys me. There are a few pretty consistent things which just tick me off. First, all of his female characters seem to have eternal PMS. I don't know if every woman in the guy's life has been a witch, but his female characters certainly are all cut from the same cloth. Which gets annoying because there are SO many damn characters in his book, and many of them are the same cookie-cutter punchouts. Another thing that bugs me - his books are huge, which I normally like, when SOMETHING HAPPENS. Usually the first 700 pages is nothing much but a bunch of the characters talking about doing something, then they do something in the last 100 pages. But, oh wait. It's not over. Gotta wait for the next book.
Now, Goodkind has got it figured out. His books are fairly long, but there is always some pretty good action sprinkled throughout the book to keep things interesting. His characters are all pretty unique and memorable, and there is generally a satisfactory resolution at the end of each story, even though you know there is more to come. I was a bit disheartened at the end of "Soul of the Fire" (won't say why, but those who've read the book will understand) but the most recent episode more than made up for it.
Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of things about Jordan's writing that I like, but I think I'll wait until he's done cutting down forests to produce his books before I pick up another one.
